Endless Paradigm

I'm almost finished Inganock...

i got sidetracked from it for a while.. but i think i will finish it later on today.

Ok, now I'll post these mini-review things here instead of inside Zinga's anime review thread.


Kamidori Alchemy Meister

This game is mostly about exploring dungeons and crafting items, powered by series of small quests.  People play this for the gameplay and interaction with characters mainly, not really for story as the game doesn't really have a strong over-arching story doesn't really have an over-arching story at all.  Overall it's pretty fun and a good way to burn time I guess.

To me, it feels like this game is way too happy happy, to an unrealistic degree.  You become an alchemist because you want to help everyone, you take on non-profitable jobs that noone else would do, you win battles and let the enemy go, conflicts always end with both sides resolving their differences and live happily after, blah blah blah.  Yuela's route is like peace activist: the game, and I heard Serawi's route is like, green activist: the game.  So yeah, some people may prefer it this way, but I like my wars to be filled with blood, fire and pain.

People who can read Japanese complained that the writing in this game is rather low level and not very good.  However, for people like me reading a translation, even the highest level of writing using the largest vocabulary and employing the best writing style will become "not very good" after the translation process, so meh whatever.  The writing in a translation is only as good as the writing skill of the translator, and eroge translators aren't exactly literary experts.


Length - Extremely fucking long.  50+hrs for one route.
Completion - Yuela's route.  Not going to bother with others since it'll take way too long.  Don't loose much anyway since this game is for gameplay not story, and gameplay will be the same.

Story = 5/10.  Doesn't really have a main story per se.  The game is mainly made up of sequences of small quests as you go along.
Gameplay = 8.5/10.
Art = 8/10.
Music = 7/10.  Nothing really stood out for me, so pretty ordinary.
Ero = 3/10.  Ok, at least they aren't as horribly placed as lets say Tears to Tiara.
Overall = 7.5/10.  Pretty fun to play, but not going to blow your mind or anything.



Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o

I played this because it seemed popular (for a short doujin title at least).  Sonohana is like half way between a moege (moe focused eroge) and a nukige (sex focused eroge), and in my opinion is not good at either.  It has zero plot, and is pretty much just a whole load of super sugary stuff and h-scenes.  Decent slice of life shows (eg. Aria) are generally also mood lifting and heart warming, this is neither, only overly sugary talk.  And in terms of the h-scenes (which this has a lot of), they're the kind of stuff you see in plot VNs and are not at the level of proper nukiges.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention, it's 100% yuri (which I don't have any positive or negative bias against).

Length - Very short.  5hrs or something.

Story = 2/10.  The main complication in this story is that one of the girls said the other one was "a pervert" (in a half joking way), so the other girl had a huge fucking sulk, and decided to like, not talk to her for a couple of days (OMFG, shocking isn't it!!!)  And then they made up.  Yeah.
Art = 6/10
Ero = 4/10
Sound = dunno lol, don't even remember so probably not very good.
Overall = 3.5/10



Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO

Made back then in 1996 (enjoy your 8bit color) and one of the top rated eroges.  It's more of an adventure game than a VN, you play detective and slowly unravel mysteries surrounding the story with a game system that lets you jump around in time.  The story here is extremely complicated and extremely ambitious.  It's complexity will make Steins;Gate seem like child play, and the scope of the story potentially covers everything from the beginning to the end of time.  Too bad the ending sort of lacked impact, and how stuff works out is sometimes a bit too coincidental.  Is it good? yes.  Timeless masterpiece?  no, not for me at least.

One more thing I have to mention that I completely hate Takuya (the protag).  He's the type of person who acts on emotion and doesn't think much about consequences, and worst of all, doesn't learn from his mistakes.  So there's one route where some dude tries to NTR your girl, now I don't really care about the girl, but the way how Takuya get his donkey owned in exactly the same way like 5 times made me rage more than I ever have in any VN.  It's like, lets lick a heater, oh shit it burns, lets do it again, oh shit it burns, lets do it again... fuck, stop it already you retarded piece of shit.

Length - Very long.  50+hrs.
Completion - 100%.

There won't be any categorical scores, because this game is really retro and hard to compare with modern stuff in a fair way.  8-bit graphics and sound.\
Overall = 8/10.

I'm thinking of trying out



Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-
(星空のメモリア-Wish upon a shooting star-)

Quote:Description

The story begins with the protagonist, Kogasaka You, moving back to his hometown, which he left behind several years ago. Upon arriving, he stumbles into an abandoned, sealed observatory, whereupon he encounters a mysterious girl who looks exactly like his childhood friend did years ago. She introduces herself as Mare, a shinigami who reaps nightmares.

Meanwhile, back at school, You ends up joining the astronomy club, which is desperate need of new members. At night, he continues to visit Mare at the observatory, all the while trying to remember a certain someone's name...

Quote:Length
Long (30 - 50 hours)

Quote:Developer

Favorite

Quote:Publishers
Favorite
CK-GAL
Staircase Subs

anyone here have played it yet?

Going for Re: Alistair as recommended. Go or no?

Nyu~ Wrote: [ -> ]I'm thinking of trying out



Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-
(星空のメモリア-Wish upon a shooting star-)

anyone here have played it yet?

Translation was only out like 3 days ago, pretty safe to say noone finished it yet, even if they tried.  Heard good things about this, so go ahead.

The translation patch is sort of like a troll patch filled with memes everywhere and will replace certain CGs with dolphins.

Here's how you install it properly.

1. Install the game, the 1.1 update.
2. Install the English 1.0 patch, the English 1.1 patch.
3. Replace "MemoriaEN.exe" with this which I altered to which remove the dolphins.  http://www.sendspace.com/file/roie1m.
4. Delete "graph_vis" (may also need to delete from virtual store folder as per this post link if you're not running as admin and windows decides to do it's visualization stuff)
5. Profit.

UPDATE: Use the update patch version 1.2, it removes the dolphins.  Memes are still there though.

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]Going for Re: Alistair as recommended. Go or no?

No idea.  But it doesn't look very good to me :\.

Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]

Nyu~ Wrote: [ -> ]I'm thinking of trying out



Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-
(星空のメモリア-Wish upon a shooting star-)

anyone here have played it yet?

Translation was only out like 3 days ago, pretty safe to say noone finished it yet, even if they tried yet.  Heard good things about this, so go ahead.

The translation patch is sort of like a troll patch and will replace certain CGs with dolphins or some shit.  Here's how you supposedly remove the dolphins  http://vndb.org/t1072/2#43

ohhh ok thanks for the tip (lol @ those dolphins)

Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]

Nyu~ Wrote: [ -> ]I'm thinking of trying out



Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-
(星空のメモリア-Wish upon a shooting star-)

anyone here have played it yet?

Translation was only out like 3 days ago, pretty safe to say noone finished it yet, even if they tried.  Heard good things about this, so go ahead.

The translation patch is sort of like a troll patch and will replace certain CGs with dolphins or some shit.  Here's how you supposedly remove the dolphins  http://vndb.org/t1072/2#43

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]Going for Re: Alistair as recommended. Go or no?

No idea.  But it doesn't look very good to me :\.

I see. Dropping this one instead. (Though this decision might get me into le trouble. =3=)

Still looking for VN that has a story like KS. Ideas?

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]I see. Dropping this one instead. (Though this decision might get me into le trouble. =3=)

Get you into trouble?  Just play it then, not like it's going to be really long.

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]Still looking for VN that has a story like KS. Ideas?

I still haven't finished KS yet.

Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]I see. Dropping this one instead. (Though this decision might get me into le trouble. =3=)

Get you into trouble?  Just play it then, not like it's going to be really long.

TatsuyaXD Wrote: [ -> ]Still looking for VN that has a story like KS. Ideas?

I still haven't finished KS yet.

I guess not much, but she recommended me the girl counterpart of this. Looks like I'll ask her to make sandwich for me if all else fails. XD

I see, any good ones though that could be at par with KS?

time to indulge myself in Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-