Dandelion VS Nameless. Which Cheritz visual novel did you like better?

[malloryknox]

Both are high-quality otome visual novels developed by Cheritz, but which one did you like better? What did you like or dislike about each game? Did you prefer the stat-raising in Dandelion over the traditional choice based gameplay in Nameless, or vice versa? What routes/characters were your favorite?

I'll start. I played Dandelion first, Nameless second. Overall, I enjoyed Dandelion, but the stat-raising did get tedious, especially since I wasn't that interested in some of the guys (namely, Jieun and Jiyeon) and was annoyed I couldn't just skip a lot of stuff to finish the game and collect CGs. When I heard Nameless had no stat-raising, I was a little relieved and expected to like it more based on the art style and the perceived mood of the game. Granted, I didn't know much about the premise of the story in Nameless, except for the fact that the characters were dolls owned by the protagonist which turn human. An hour into the game, I was already irritated by the forced high school setting and the guy whose route I first started (Yuri) turned out to be unlikable, with his story playing out like that of a cheap Korean drama. Overall, I struggled making sense of some character interactions in Nameless as well as the naivety of some storylines. I wouldn't say it's a bad game (it's not), but I think I expected it to be better, which is why I'm a little harsh on it.

When it comes to Dandelion, I don't have much to criticize, except for the stat-raising, it can get really tiring. I loved the protagonist, she was relatable and sweet, but not a pushover. One of the most interesting parts of the game for me was to see her growth and how she would overcome obstacles and cin doing what she loves. I liked Jisoo's route the most and he was by far my favorite guy out of both Dandelion and Nameless.

So yeah, I preferred Dandelion. I'm interested to hear other opinions so please share them if you'd like!

 

[Aines445]

I have, just yesterday, done every route in Nameless, and I have already done the same with Dandelion a while ago. With that said, I think I can now properly reply to this thread.

Since I want to start on a positive note, I'll talk about Dandelion first: it was a mediocre or okay game, to be honest. Aesthetically, it looks really nice, especially its character art. I also liked the opening and some of its BGM, and the voice acting was not bad to listen to, despite the fact that it would sometimes drown with the volume of the BGM (which I unfortunately had to turn down a notch); I would like to highlight the fact that Heejung, the protagonist, had a voice actress, which was something I really liked. I liked that Heejung had her own internal conflict (which made me understand her actions well), but she was also really emo about it, so much in fact that my brother got amazingly annoyed and didn't play further (I tried to make him play this, but it didn't really work out): I mean, she sometimes says the most amazingly depressingly hilarious things, like, "(...) If I don't, I think I might not remember what the purpose of living is anymore," I just couldn't help but laugh at that. Heejung is also extraordinarily dense, and has to always get a clear explanation of the situation which is pretty annoying. Overall, I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her either: she had both her good moments and bad ones, in my opinion, so I only dislike her (hate is such a strong word).

The guys in Dandelion were meh to me, but if I had to organize them by who I liked the most, it would go something along the lines of this: Jihae>Jieun>Jiyeon>>Jiwoo>>>>>Jisoo (Jisoo was kind of an asshole...). Despite that, my enjoyment of the routes in themselves was pretty different from that order: Jiwoo>>>>Brick Wall>>>>Jihae=Jieun>Jiyeon>>Jisoo. Putting Heejung being dense to the side, Jisoo, Jiwoo and Jiyeon being meany faces and some pretty awkward or simply bad scenes to the side, the routes were okay, and despite the fact that each one followed a similar template, said template was not so bad to see, and I would usually be satisfied with the endings. I found it strange that I ended up liking certain characters instead of others, since I had heard things about them that made me think that wouldn’t be the case: I’ve heard that Jiyeon was an awful character or route, but he wasn’t even that bad; he was actually a bit predictable… I’ve also heard that Jieun was really nice, but he was only okay.

The biggest problem I had with this game was its writing: who proofread the English translation? Because that person did a poor job at it: sure, it’s a Korean game and translation is hard but come on, it’s a commercial game, you’d expect better from that kind of quality! Well, thanks to that, I was able to have a lot of fun screencapping the stupidest typos and showing them to my brother and, in a way, the awful writing might’ve been the one thing that made me bear through the whole game (to give examples of some gems: “he would still talked and behaved the same (…),” “You want to out to eat?”); I think the amazing typos were one of the main reasons I greatly enjoyed Jiwoo’s route. To be honest, I would get eventually bored without typos to screencap throughout the routes I’d go through… Story-wise, the reason behind the main plot, when you find out what it is (if you get to the secret chapter), is full of holes: this was obviously because the writers wanted an excuse for a man-harem while accomplishing the developments they wanted in the secret chapter, but it just didn’t work well and ended awkwardly so the true ending left me disappointed, despite the fact that the game was mediocre to begin with. The stat grinding part was okay, but it also felt really useless: after getting to a certain level, you barely have to try hard in order to meet the requirements, and there wasn’t even a need for said requirements in the first place; weren’t they supposed to go after me instead of me after them?

Now to talk about Nameless: simply put, that game was terrible. I mean, I wouldn’t put it next to the worst otome games I’ve played, but it was really bad. I remember having complained about the soundtrack in the “What are you currently playing” thread, so I’ll at least retract that complaint now (and in that post as well): the soundtrack wasn’t that bad, and its more lighthearted tracks were somewhat fitting. Whatever the case, this game really likes making shout-outs to Dandelion, but one of them is canonically impossible since you later find out that this game is occurring in the middle of Dandelion (lol why was one of Heejung’s drawings hung on Eri’s house). The writing in Nameless is as terrible as it was in Dandelion, with no signs of improvement: unfortunately, since I couldn’t have it in windowed mode, I couldn’t screencap the amazing gems I’d find in the game (like, for example: “Tei’s Diary 1 has discovered”, “(…), you’ll always be by me side.”). I considered changing the language to Japanese but in the end, I stuck to English just so I might have the chance of at least laughing at something.

As for the writing scenario-wise, it’s also really bad, at least for me: a lot of the jokes or funny moments were either stupid or just not funny, so I’d get unbelievably bored most of the time; sometimes, I felt like the game was saying, “Hey, aren’t I so clever?” when it really wasn’t, though it did have a moment or two of such things (“So you were going on a date with an angsty jerk all this time”). The guys were fairly okay in Nameless (except Tei; I don’t like him at all), and to its credit, Red is actually my favorite character out of both games (my favorite route is still Jiwoo's though). Before I talk about how bad the routes were though, I’ll go ahead and order the characters by how much I liked them: Red>>Yuri>Lance=Yeonho>>>???>>>>Tei. Now, just so you can see the difference, I’ll order the routes by how much I liked them: Red>>>>>>>>Very thick titanium wall>>>>>>>Yuri>Yeonho>>>>>>Lance>>>>Sturdy brick wall>>>Tei. Just what happened here…? A lot of the routes were painful to go through, mostly due to dull scenes, predictability, awkward conflicts and equally awkward resolutions to them, strange pacing, bad romance, fangirls, good and/or useful scenes getting constantly interrupted so the game can drag itself further and remain vague with backstories and conflicts and last but definitely not least, the heroine being stupid and/or clueless.

I found that many of the problems I had with the routes usually originated from Eri, the protagonist: personality-wise, she’s okay, but her actions and thoughts were sometimes amazingly stupid, and she would make some scenes very awkward for me; she also had no voice acting, much to my disappointment. Seriously, Eri made me regret having not liked Heejung in some instances of Dandelion: at least Heejung had some good moments despite her flaws, while Eri did not. In the end, I could not like Eri, no matter how much I tried. Despite that, I ended up liking the supporting characters a lot instead: while Heejae from Dandelion (basically the only supporting character in the game) was kind of pitiable, Soi and Shinbi were great friends, Zion was a nice guy, and Mr. Yujin would make the game less dull whenever he was around because his interactions with Eri (since he doesn’t really like anyone beside his skeletons, he does not at all care about her) were enjoyable to watch; this is one of the few things Nameless did better than Dandelion, to be honest.

Speaking of Nameless mostly being inferior to Dandelion, its art is very inconsistent in terms of its quality: while most sprites look decent or even good (except for the Wizard, what have they done to the poor Wizard in Nameless?!), all of the CGS with the exceptions of the common route and most of Lance’s look really bad for the quality they seemed to want to put out. The quality of the CGs amazed me to the point where I didn’t know whether I wanted to see them or not, since they would make the scene more awkward instead of intense. The CG choice in the game is also poor in comparison to Dandelion: while Dandelion would usually have CGs where you’d want them, Nameless would have many instances of useless CGs and scenes where a CG would’ve been appreciated (or not, since the quality was pretty bad). Seriously, Eri had her head on the lap of a certain dude once but you’d rather have a CG of him surrounded with like, 4 fangirls?!

The story or plot of Nameless is terrible: the Wizard is re-utilized as a plot device as if the writers had run out of ideas, and the plan conceived by him to help out the secret character (which was basically the premise of the game) doesn’t make much sense; it also has some holes… The secret endings, much like the secret chapter in Dandelion, were made to tie the loose ends and serve as the true endings, but the secret endings still left me with questions and were also pretty awkward and stupid: at least the secret chapter in Dandelion, while full of holes, was pretty serviceable as character development for the Wizard (to be fair, the secret chapter in Dandelion also had an awkward ending). Sometimes, while playing Nameless, I’d find myself unable to advance the text for a short amount of time until it would finally advance (this wasn’t lag, I’m sure of it), and Eri’s name would become %s in the name box: I guess the one thing the game must recall is Eri’s name… *ba dum tss*. I also came across freaky glitches when pressing enter very fast, glitches that made my game crash (the pictures in the saves were replaced with question marks that, if loaded, would crash my game): needless to say that from the point on, I made sure not to forcefully skip through the game again, no matter the circumstances… unless I’d like to see the principal being covered by a random school uniform arm except his face again (*shivers*).

All in all, the best Cheritz game is definitely Dandelion, which was quite disappointing since I’d expect improvement in their second game. I honestly surprised myself for having done all routes in both games, especially Nameless… I would’ve gone into more detail about a lot of the statements and claims I made, but I don’t want to spoil anything and it would get even longer than it already is, so… I guess I’ll hope for a discussion thread of both games in the future.

 

[malloryknox]

First of all, thank you for the cohesive and well-thought-out reply!

It might be because I haven't played that many otome games, much less commercial ones, that I tend to forgiving of flaws if I like a game overall. That was the case for me with Dandelion. I will say that the biggest reason I liked it so much was probably because I could really relate to the main character's story. Like Heejung, I'm also at a point in my life where I have to decide whether to change colleges to do something I really enjoy in life or keep pushing what my parents chose for me. It's not a sob story or anything, but because of my circumstances I was very interested in seeing how Heejung could overcome her own problems in the game (one of the reasons why Jisoo's route was my favorite was the fact I found his good ending to be very impactful in terms of closure for Heejung - she holds her first art exibition). I found all of the guys charming in their own ways (I really liked HeeJae as well, it amused me to see him pine for Heejung), but I'll admit I didn't care much for their personal stories and was more interested in seeing their interactions with the main characters. I agree that the overall story ending concerning the Wizard lacked payoff, but because I wasn't that invested in it in the first place, I didn't mind it at all. As I've said, I was more interested in seeing Heejung take on life's challenges with the guys at her side.

About Nameless, I agree with literally every word you wrote. I was apprehensive about going on a rant in my original post, but I don't see a reason to hold back now. I expected so much of it and got so little. Seeing the art for the first time and reading a few sentences of introduction to the game, I got excited thinking I was in for a darker, mature, even gothic, visual novel. What I got was a poor attempt at storytelling, unlikable characters, storylines that made no sense and overall, a VN that came off as uninspiring and lacking in creativity and depth. I guess the last criticism could be made about most otome visual novels, however, owing to the rave reviews I've read of Nameless, I feel a judgement on the lack of creativity and depth was justifiable. Be that as it may, I could get over the bad CGs (that was a spot-on criticism you've made), the pushover heroine, the guys whoese personalities range from flat to obnoxious, even the poorly conceived Wizard plotline, if the game wasn't so BORING. Honestly, two hours into my first playthrough I was already simultaneously browsing the web while checking the game every 15 minutes to advance the plot. When I wasn't rolling my eyes at all the nonsense in the story, I was casually clicking through the game to get to the romance and the CGs (both of which were disappointing). I felt like the high school setting was a crowd-pleasing move and I was particularly annoyed by the fact the game seemed to ignore the fact that the guys were actually dolls. It's a little hard to explain, but for example, in Yuri's route, the romance plot read to me like a typical ''young, innocent girl falls for the hot new teacher'' scenario. All of these are just criticisms off the top of my head, it would take a while if I were to nitpick the things I thought didn't make sense in the story. I don't know... I really wanted to love this game, but there were just so many things about it I didn't like (some I outright hated). Looking back on it, I'm glad Cheritz put the stat-raising in Dandelion, otherwise it would have probably been the same mess.

Lastly, Aines445, would you mind recommending some good otome games? I'd appreciate it.

 

[Aines445]

First of all, thank you for the cohesive and well-thought-out reply!

It might be because I haven't played that many otome games, much less commercial ones, that I tend to forgiving of flaws if I like a game overall. That was the case for me with Dandelion. I will say that the biggest reason I liked it so much was probably because I could really relate to the main character's story. Like Heejung, I'm also at a point in my life where I have to decide whether to change colleges to do something I really enjoy in life or keep pushing what my parents chose for me. It's not a sob story or anything, but because of my circumstances I was very interested in seeing how Heejung could overcome her own problems in the game (one of the reasons why Jisoo's route was my favorite was the fact I found his good ending to be very impactful in terms of closure for Heejung - she holds her first art exibition). I found all of the guys charming in their own ways (I really liked HeeJae as well, it amused me to see him pine for Heejung), but I'll admit I didn't care much for their personal stories and was more interested in seeing their interactions with the main characters. I agree that the overall story ending concerning the Wizard lacked payoff, but because I wasn't that invested in it in the first place, I didn't mind it at all. As I've said, I was more interested in seeing Heejung take on life's challenges with the guys at her side.

You're welcome: to be honest, I've wanted to talk about these games for a while now, so I would like to thank you for this thread instead ^^

That's understandable: even if something has flaws, certain other things can make up for them; in otome games, at least for me, I tend to be more forgiving of the story, provided the characters or routes themselves are enjoyable enough. I liked Heejung's story, since it made her more of a character than just "the protagonist", as she would act according to said backstory and personality, and I would want to see her get over it as well: even so, her personality isn't exactly one that I'm fond of, but it's at least better than a blank slate that'd be just as dense as her. I can definitely see why you like Jisoo's route the most because it really does focus more on Heejung's problems (and overcoming said problems) than any other, which is the only really nice thing in it for me: I just didn't like Jisoo in general, especially after how bad he was at the start of his route; Jiyeon's probably would've been the worst route for me if I didn't like him better than Jisoo. I thought the guys were okay simply because my liking for them was more or less the same (so I actually had a bit of trouble ordering them by who I liked most), so none of them particularly stood out to me as especially good: instead, Jiwoo and Jisoo stood out to me as characters I didn't particularly like.

I have to admit, I was very invested in knowing what the Wizard's deal was with the game and all that: I mean, I had already assumed what his master plan was, but it sounded so stupid that I couldn't believe that it was truly what I thought it would be, so I felt a need to know what it was and the reasons for conceiving it; that was what made me want to complete the game or I wouldn't have done it, since I'm not that much of a completionist. Unfortunately, it was exactly what I assumed it to be, so it was pretty disappointing, especially with the amount of holes it had. With that in mind, since you weren't as interested in this as I was, I can also understand why you'd have enjoyed the game better (though I did enjoy it a lot, it was for the wrong reasons, AKA screencapping typos and watching guys liking to be given straws and leaves as presents).

About Nameless, I agree with literally every word you wrote. I was apprehensive about going on a rant in my original post, but I don't see a reason to hold back now. I expected so much of it and got so little. Seeing the art for the first time and reading a few sentences of introduction to the game, I got excited thinking I was in for a darker, mature, even gothic, visual novel. What I got was a poor attempt at storytelling, unlikable characters, storylines that made no sense and overall, a VN that came off as uninspiring and lacking in creativity and depth. I guess the last criticism could be made about most otome visual novels, however, owing to the rave reviews I've read of Nameless, I feel a judgement on the lack of creativity and depth was justifiable. Be that as it may, I could get over the bad CGs (that was a spot-on criticism you've made), the pushover heroine, the guys whoese personalities range from flat to obnoxious, even the poorly conceived Wizard plotline, if the game wasn't so BORING. Honestly, two hours into my first playthrough I was already simultaneously browsing the web while checking the game every 15 minutes to advance the plot. When I wasn't rolling my eyes at all the nonsense in the story, I was casually clicking through the game to get to the romance and the CGs (both of which were disappointing). I felt like the high school setting was a crowd-pleasing move and I was particularly annoyed by the fact the game seemed to ignore the fact that the guys were actually dolls. It's a little hard to explain, but for example, in Yuri's route, the romance plot read to me like a typical ''young, innocent girl falls for the hot new teacher'' scenario. All of these are just criticisms off the top of my head, it would take a while if I were to nitpick the things I thought didn't make sense in the story. I don't know... I really wanted to love this game, but there were just so many things about it I didn't like (some I outright hated). Looking back on it, I'm glad Cheritz put the stat-raising in Dandelion, otherwise it would have probably been the same mess.

Wow, I honestly thought I'd have people not agree with me that it was terrible, so that's a relief ^^' But, I know, right? I had higher expectations since, well, it's Cheritz's second game, so you'd think they'd make improvements from the last one. Besides, it did sound like it was going to be a darker and more mature story (I dunno, dolls are creepier to me so I just got that feeling), so I was getting ready for that too. Unfortunately, that really wasn't what I got: I mean, dark elements were there, but the story was just so bad that they weren't really worth it; besides, it would get really immature sometimes, those times being the jokes I wouldn't be laughing at (instead, I'd be glaring at the screen). To be honest, I wouldn't be as forgiving as you with all those flaws, but I would've forgiven the game for its bad CGs and maybe even some of its bad story if the guys were good or enjoyable (since that, in turn, would make the game more enjoyable): unfortunately, that wasn't the case and damn, just as you said with very well-deserved capital letters, the game was amazingly boring.

I struggled with just getting to the opening song (which I still think is lackluster) because it was that boring, but I couldn't do other things as I'd play it because I had to play it in fullscreen since it's too big in windowed mode (I end up not seeing part of its window due to this): I couldn't laugh at its supposed funny moments and a lot of scenes were just really dull since I didn't care about anything the game was putting forth. To give an example of this, the scene where Eri sees the dolls turned into humans for the first time could've been written better, but it was such an awkward scene instead, at least for me: this was because, how should I say this, it lacked impact, a lot of it, so I didn't get much for a first impression of the dolls which made me not care about them as much as I should've from then on. The bad CGs (and that awful Wizard sprite!) were only very marking to me because it was a commercial game and also the fact that the CGs in the Common route and Lance's route (probably because the people behind it knew he'd come off as the introductory route) weren't as bad: this was obviously because there was a need to make the players think that the art would consistently have that quality, which it doesn't at all. I really feel like pulling a Lance CG and then pulling a random CG with Lance in it (or really, any CG from Tei or Yuri's routes) to compare the quality because it's simply amazing.

Oh, I can understand what you're saying about it forgetting that they're actually dolls: that was more prominent in Yuri's route since it had the feeling of him being "the adult" and lol, he's a doll so he's technically not even older than Eri so that felt kind of pointless. Even so, they'd always remind you that, "Oh, they're your dolls and you're their owner, isn't that so romantic?" when no, it... wasn't. Despite that, I don't think Yuri was the worst route out of them: it did have some of the worst, most awkward CGs and a some pretty bad scenes or moments, but it doesn't come very close to like, Lance or Tei in terms of awfulness (in my standards for this game). I'd also have an even longer post than my last one if I were to talk about my thoughts about every route, the respective characters and the story, but it's pretty amazing how that criticism's all from the top of your head: I take hours to reply to these kinds of post... literally.

Lastly, Aines445, would you mind recommending some good otome games? I'd appreciate it.

Hmmm, well, if you can't play in Japanese (or in other words, if you don't know Japanese), then I literally have nothing to recommend to you. I'm also not very confident of my recommendations, since I don't actually put a lot of value into the story as long as I have a lot of fun with the game (bonus points if it's entertaining, lighthearted or heartwarming) or if I really like the characters: honestly, I think I'd do a better job at telling you which games to avoid...

 

[malloryknox]

Wow, I honestly thought I'd have people not agree with me that it was terrible, so that's a relief ^^' But, I know, right? I had higher expectations since, well, it's Cheritz's second game, so you'd think they'd make improvements from the last one. Besides, it did sound like it was going to be a darker and more mature story (I dunno, dolls are creepier to me so I just got that feeling), so I was getting ready for that too. Unfortunately, that really wasn't what I got: I mean, dark elements were there, but the story was just so bad that they weren't really worth it; besides, it would get really immature sometimes, those times being the jokes I wouldn't be laughing at (instead, I'd be glaring at the screen). To be honest, I wouldn't be as forgiving as you with all those flaws, but I would've forgiven the game for its bad CGs and maybe even some of its bad story if the guys were good or enjoyable (since that, in turn, would make the game more enjoyable): unfortunately, that wasn't the case and damn, just as you said with very well-deserved capital letters, the game was amazingly boring.

I struggled with just getting to the opening song (which I still think is lackluster) because it was that boring, but I couldn't do other things as I'd play it because I had to play it in fullscreen since it's too big in windowed mode (I end up not seeing part of its window due to this): I couldn't laugh at its supposed funny moments and a lot of scenes were just really dull since I didn't care about anything the game was putting forth. To give an example of this, the scene where Eri sees the dolls turned into humans for the first time could've been written better, but it was such an awkward scene instead, at least for me: this was because, how should I say this, it lacked impact, a lot of it, so I didn't get much for a first impression of the dolls which made me not care about them as much as I should've from then on. The bad CGs (and that awful Wizard sprite!) were only very marking to me because it was a commercial game and also the fact that the CGs in the Common route and Lance's route (probably because the people behind it knew he'd come off as the introductory route) weren't as bad: this was obviously because there was a need to make the players think that the art would consistently have that quality, which it doesn't at all. I really feel like pulling a Lance CG and then pulling a random CG with Lance in it (or really, any CG from Tei or Yuri's routes) to compare the quality because it's simply amazing.

Oh, I can understand what you're saying about it forgetting that they're actually dolls: that was more prominent in Yuri's route since it had the feeling of him being "the adult" and lol, he's a doll so he's technically not even older than Eri so that felt kind of pointless. Even so, they'd always remind you that, "Oh, they're your dolls and you're their owner, isn't that so romantic?" when no, it... wasn't. Despite that, I don't think Yuri was the worst route out of them: it did have some of the worst, most awkward CGs and a some pretty bad scenes or moments, but it doesn't come very close to like, Lance or Tei in terms of awfulness (in my standards for this game). I'd also have an even longer post than my last one if I were to talk about my thoughts about every route, the respective characters and the story, but it's pretty amazing how that criticism's all from the top of your head: I take hours to reply to these kinds of post... literally.

I honestly wouldn't have been so harsh on Nameless if it weren't for all the reviews touting it as ''wonderful", ''absolutely amazing'' and a ''must-play if you're interested in the otome genre''. There were certainly a lot of missed opportunities where I felt the game could've been great, but then it lost me completely. The scene you've mentioned where Eri sees the dolls as humans for the first time is one of those - it absolutely fell flat for me. Another example would be the early mention of how the guys can ''feel it'' if their doll bodies are touched (They pricked Red's doll with a needle and he felt pain as a human) that I thought was going to be a sort of ''Chekhov's gun'' of the story, but it was never played upon in any of the routes. You've mentioned how the supporting characters were more interesting and I agree, I was urging for them to get more involved in hopes of adding drama to the story. For example, in Yuri's route (I mention that one I remember most of), when Mr. Yujin gave Eri that hairpin I was like ''Alright, things are looking up, yeah he's a teacher but the game doesn't make much sense anyway so give me the showdown between Yuri and Yujin'', but it turned out Yuri gave Yujin the hairpin to give it to Eri and that was just... lame. Not to mention, the game literally bored me to sleep - I'd go to bed, put it on autoplay and in 20 minutes or so, I'd fall asleep. I could go on and on but I'll wait for a discussion thread (or I'll make it myself in a week or two).

Oh and the fact that the game wouldn't allow you to resize the window mode pissed me off like hell. I spent a whole afternoon looking for ways to resize it, downloaded ResizeEnable and it would work for a while and then suddenly the text would move from the box to the upper left corner and the game would turn back to its original size.

About the recommendations, I don't know Japanese (I'm in my second year of learining Korean though!) so I understand. But I'm interested in hearing which games to avoid so please tell!

 

[Aines445]

I honestly wouldn't have been so harsh on Nameless if it weren't for all the reviews touting it as ''wonderful", ''absolutely amazing'' and a ''must-play if you're interested in the otome genre''. There were certainly a lot of missed opportunities where I felt the game could've been great, but then it lost me completely. The scene you've mentioned where Eri sees the dolls as humans for the first time is one of those - it absolutely fell flat for me. Another example would be the early mention of how the guys can ''feel it'' if their doll bodies are touched (They pricked Red's doll with a needle and he felt pain as a human) that I thought was going to be a sort of ''Chekhov's gun'' of the story, but it was never played upon in any of the routes. You've mentioned how the supporting characters were more interesting and I agree, I was urging for them to get more involved in hopes of adding drama to the story. For example, in Yuri's route (I mention that one I remember most of), when Mr. Yujin gave Eri that hairpin I was like ''Alright, things are looking up, yeah he's a teacher but the game doesn't make much sense anyway so give me the showdown between Yuri and Yujin'', but it turned out Yuri gave Yujin the hairpin to give it to Eri and that was just... lame. Not to mention, the game literally bored me to sleep - I'd go to bed, put it on autoplay and in 20 minutes or so, I'd fall asleep. I could go on and on but I'll wait for a discussion thread (or I'll make it myself in a week or two).

I hadn't even seen reviews of the game before playing, so I only had the idea that there'd be people adoring it, and a few others that would share the same opinion as me: hopefully we're not the only ones? Damn, I totally forgot about the fact that they'd feel pain in their human bodies if their doll bodies were hurt: at the time, I also thought that would matter for at least a few routes, but I eventually had that completely out of my mind since it never happened and was never mentioned again... Wait, actually, I think it did matter in the secret ending (the first one) but it wasn't even applied to the 5 main dolls.

I wonder why Yuri's route is the most memorable to you ^^' Though yeah, whenever I thought something interesting was going to happen, it would get either interrupted or nothing of importance would happen at all, making me feel amazingly frustrated (this applies to all routes, just to clarify). Despite the fact that the supporting characters are more interesting, I'd also be pretty bored whenever Eri was talking with Soi and Shinbi: I mean, yeah, they're high school students so of course they'd talk about the exams or the festival or how math sucks but that doesn't mean I'll be interested in that; besides, they'd also talk about how the dolls had fangirls everywhere and god damn, I was getting sick of hearing of them (and Soi talking about guys wasn't that interesting too). Well, even then, Soi and Shinbi were still really nice characters, and Eri talking with Yujin did make for some of the few times where I wasn't completely bored, frustrated or laughing for the wrong reasons: I don't know, I just liked how unsociable and rude he was, but how he'd still listen to her stuff anyway, albeit not in the most interested of ways.

I could also go on and on about the game, but I'll expectantly (yet patiently?) wait for the discussion thread, when/if it'll be made: I would really like to discuss the games individually in more detail ^^

Oh and the fact that the game wouldn't allow you to resize the window mode pissed me off like hell. I spent a whole afternoon looking for ways to resize it, downloaded ResizeEnable and it would work for a while and then suddenly the text would move from the box to the upper left corner and the game would turn back to its original size.

Ah, I thought I was alone here! It pissed me off so much too since I wasn't able to see part of the game in window mode just because it wouldn't resize! I mean, this problem isn't that bad for people who usually play games in fullscreen but since my computer doesn't heat up as much if the games are in window mode, I try not to have game in fullscreen but I had no choice with Nameless; Dandelion didn't have this problem...

About the recommendations, I don't know Japanese (I'm in my second year of learining Korean though!) so I understand. But I'm interested in hearing which games to avoid so please tell!

Ah, I see. Seeing as you're in your second year of learning Korean (that's so cool, my Japanese was self-taught), does that mean you could play Nameless or Dandelion in Korean instead of English or that you could at least pick up on some things? That's also really cool but if you couldn't, that's fine; I got to learn about 3 Korean words from playing Dandelion and Nameless (and I'm not at all confident that I know what they mean), and I'm pretty sure I'll forget them soon ^^' I could've actually played Nameless in Japanese, but opted not to since I wanted to show my brother some typos (and my brother doesn't know Japanese, so...).

The games that I'm able to advise you to stay away from are also in Japanese so I guess that wouldn't be really worth it, huh? To be honest, I haven't played that many otome games in English (and they're not that common, as far as I know): well, I guess I did play Princess of Ruin a while ago (I completed 3 routes out of 6, and I'm intending on continuing... maybe) and, in my opinion, it wasn't very good (but, to be fair, it wasn't terrible either; I wouldn't put it next to Nameless in terms of badness).

 

[malloryknox]

I wonder why Yuri's route is the most memorable to you ^^' Though yeah, whenever I thought something interesting was going to happen, it would get either interrupted or nothing of importance would happen at all, making me feel amazingly frustrated (this applies to all routes, just to clarify). Despite the fact that the supporting characters are more interesting, I'd also be pretty bored whenever Eri was talking with Soi and Shinbi: I mean, yeah, they're high school students so of course they'd talk about the exams or the festival or how math sucks but that doesn't mean I'll be interested in that; besides, they'd also talk about how the dolls had fangirls everywhere and god damn, I was getting sick of hearing of them (and Soi talking about guys wasn't that interesting too). Well, even then, Soi and Shinbi were still really nice characters, and Eri talking with Yujin did make for some of the few times where I wasn't completely bored, frustrated or laughing for the wrong reasons: I don't know, I just liked how unsociable and rude he was, but how he'd still listen to her stuff anyway, albeit not in the most interested of ways.

Yuri's the most memorable to me probably since his route was the one I played first and I was really concentrated and payed attention to every little detail (like the diaries and phone messages) to get a full experience of the game. After finishing his route, disappointment set in and I just couldn't bother as much with the other guys. It was a hassle to even start other routes honestly. It did occur to me after finishing Yuri that maybe his route was a fluke and others would be better, but midway through my second playthrough (Lance route), I was sure that wasn't going to be so. I'll talk more about the other routes when/if a discussion thread gets made. We really berated Nameless in this thread, so I'm uncertain if any other users who also played the game (and liked it) will chime in with their own reviews.

Ah, I see. Seeing as you're in your second year of learning Korean (that's so cool, my Japanese was self-taught), does that mean you could play Nameless or Dandelion in Korean instead of English or that you could at least pick up on some things? That's also really cool but if you couldn't, that's fine; I got to learn about 3 Korean words from playing Dandelion and Nameless (and I'm not at all confident that I know what they mean), and I'm pretty sure I'll forget them soon ^^' I could've actually played Nameless in Japanese, but opted not to since I wanted to show my brother some typos (and my brother doesn't know Japanese, so...).

The games that I'm able to advise you to stay away from are also in Japanese so I guess that wouldn't be really worth it, huh? To be honest, I haven't played that many otome games in English (and they're not that common, as far as I know): well, I guess I did play Princess of Ruin a while ago (I completed 3 routes out of 6, and I'm intending on continuing... maybe) and, in my opinion, it wasn't very good (but, to be fair, it wasn't terrible either; I wouldn't put it next to Nameless in terms of badness).

I played Dandelion and Nameless in English, I'm really not on a level yet where I could read through it as I would in English (English is also not my first language), but I did have a lot of fun, especially listening to the way the characters pronounced words. I find myself going back to Dandelion's Memories section and re-playing Jisoo's parts just to hear him talk.

I actually played Princess of Ruin some time ago and could only finish two routes (Xallaun and that guy with the red hair, I can't remember the name, they all had weird names). It was boring, dragged on in many parts (especially whenever the characters would get sent to that space realm) and the characters were creepy or obnoxious. I could see the effort in the game, but I think the writers got ahead of themselves and made a convoluted plot which overall didn't make much sense. As a matter of fact, I preferred Nameless, if only for the higher quality of art.

 

[Aines445]

Yuri's the most memorable to me probably since his route was the one I played first and I was really concentrated and payed attention to every little detail (like the diaries and phone messages) to get a full experience of the game. After finishing his route, disappointment set in and I just couldn't bother as much with the other guys. It was a hassle to even start other routes honestly. It did occur to me after finishing Yuri that maybe his route was a fluke and others would be better, but midway through my second playthrough (Lance route), I was sure that wasn't going to be so. I'll talk more about the other routes when/if a discussion thread gets made. We really berated Nameless in this thread, so I'm uncertain if any other users who also played the game (and liked it) will chime in with their own reviews.

Oh, alright, I guess that’s understandable: even so, my first route was Lance and I don’t remember it as vividly as some other routes of Nameless. Maybe I don’t remember it as much because I was already fairly bored to begin with? I did get my expectations slightly up when I got to his route (which might be why I remember the first things that happened in his route, which completely crushed said expectations), but I wasn’t as focused; I read the diary like, once and stopped doing it. What, would you actually be able to see smudged pages or something? Because if that’s the case then that would’ve been a cool detail that I totally missed. Speaking of that, even if I didn't check the diary, I actually checked the cellphone a lot, so it was pretty sad when it was sometimes really ignored for a while since I'd be checking on it in vain; to be fair, it was still pretty neat. There was also another button in the menu that said, "status" but instead of what I expected, which was, you know, a screen that would tell me how much the guys currently like Eri (that's usually what it means in the otome games I play), it was a description of all characters: it really had no use beyond making you know some trivia beforehand so that was disappointing.

Hahaha, yeah, I do hope we haven’t scared other members that have played the game: sharing and discussing opinions is a really fun experience for me (which is why I like discussion threads a lot), so having more people in on such things would be nice. I’ll be looking forward to the discussion thread ^^

I played Dandelion and Nameless in English, I'm really not on a level yet where I could read through it as I would in English (English is also not my first language), but I did have a lot of fun, especially listening to the way the characters pronounced words. I find myself going back to Dandelion's Memories section and re-playing Jisoo's parts just to hear him talk.

It’s nice to see that the games made for an at least somewhat recreational experience ^^ I always have the voices turned on so I heard them speak too: I can’t properly judge how well the voice actors did, but I at least got the impression that the voice acting was really nice. It was also fun because I don’t usually listen to Korean (as in, I never listen to Korean), and I find it interesting to listen to different languages; besides, some Korean words with certain meanings were similar to their Japanese equivalents, so that it was also interesting to spot those.

I actually played Princess of Ruin some time ago and could only finish two routes (Xallaun and that guy with the red hair, I can't remember the name, they all had weird names). It was boring, dragged on in many parts (especially whenever the characters would get sent to that space realm) and the characters were creepy or obnoxious. I could see the effort in the game, but I think the writers got ahead of themselves and made a convoluted plot which overall didn't make much sense. As a matter of fact, I preferred Nameless, if only for the higher quality of art.

Oh, wow, you also played it, and you seem to have the same opinions as me in terms of criticism too (I agreed with everything): even so, I somehow can't seem to place Nameless and Princess of Ruin at the same level. I liked that Princess of Ruin tried to have unique routes, but writing-wise, it's really lacking and the storyline, which hasn't been completely unraveled for me (I'm guessing I'd need to complete the game, but I don't think that's ever going to happen), doesn't seem to be that much better either; there were some nice things about it, but others made no sense. The routes were decent, but the romance-related things were really cheesy and I'd get kind of sick of seeing the same kind of endings; not only that, but I didn't like how it would cut off its own climax in certain routes (among other things), since that simply made for a very awkward ending. Even so, I didn’t get very bored (though the game did drag a lot) since it was really easy to make fun of its flaws as I played it, so I guess I enjoyed myself for the wrong reasons. Now that I actually let out my thoughts of that game, I guess it does kind of reach Nameless’ level, though Nameless was far duller to me: maybe it’s because I had way lower expectations for Princess of Ruin in comparison to Nameless?

… Well, I guess shouldn’t get more off-topic than this so I’ll keep to one simple paragraph that summarizes my opinions on this little thing that just happened to be mentioned. So yeah, we totally didn’t sidetrack, hahaha…

 

[Juliet]

I didn't play both games fully yet, still I got some kind of impression of those games already. First off
I waited a long time for these games being posted so that I could download them. Both of them have a fairly high price to be honest. Especially Dandelion caught my attention, since it was the first game released by Cheritz and the opening was quite nice. The plot of Dandelion reminded me of the anime Fruits Basket, which I really liked. Anyways when I played Dandelion it got a little bit boring after some time. Due to the immense stat-raising to get good endings, for me somehow the romance faded into the background. All I thought about was saving the game, so that I could go back, if I did something wrong like going to the wrong place where my favored guy wasn't or getting my stress too high up so that I would get a bad ending. Surely there were some short scenes where the romance would take an important role, but the stat-raising took like 70% of the whole gameplay. Furthermore the cutscenes with the mother and
the cracking glass irritated me a little bit, because I honestly think the cracking glass is a little bit too abstract to express her despair. I always thought: Lol how many pieces of glass are going to be destroyed in this game?!
I finished off Jisoo routes off first, and the ending was bittersweet and made me nearly cry, since I really wanted them being together. It left me a little bit unsatisfied not getting the stereotypical happy ending.
About Nameless, I was also very relieved hearing that it would'nt include any stat-raising. So far I liked the gameplay quite a bit. The Arts are great and Cheritz chose great voice -actors once again. Although I didn't have had the time to
finish Nameless, I would say it was my favorite, since the stat-raising in Dandelion pretty much spoiled everything for me.

 

[malloryknox]

Oh, alright, I guess that’s understandable: even so, my first route was Lance and I don’t remember it as vividly as some other routes of Nameless. Maybe I don’t remember it as much because I was already fairly bored to begin with? I did get my expectations slightly up when I got to his route (which might be why I remember the first things that happened in his route, which completely crushed said expectations), but I wasn’t as focused; I read the diary like, once and stopped doing it. What, would you actually be able to see smudged pages or something? Because if that’s the case then that would’ve been a cool detail that I totally missed. Speaking of that, even if I didn't check the diary, I actually checked the cellphone a lot, so it was pretty sad when it was sometimes really ignored for a while since I'd be checking on it in vain; to be fair, it was still pretty neat. There was also another button in the menu that said, "status" but instead of what I expected, which was, you know, a screen that would tell me how much the guys currently like Eri (that's usually what it means in the otome games I play), it was a description of all characters: it really had no use beyond making you know some trivia beforehand so that was disappointing.

About the diary, do you mean you couldn't properly read what it said because the letters were smudged? If so, that wasn't the case for me, the letters were small but legible. Still, the diary didn't have much of a purpose, but I did enjoy it, if only for the fact it was made to provide us with more content. Likewise, I loved the smartphone, some of the messages exchanged even made me chuckle a few times so it was a welcome addition to the game.

Hahaha, yeah, I do hope we haven’t scared other members that have played the game: sharing and discussing opinions is a really fun experience for me (which is why I like discussion threads a lot), so having more people in on such things would be nice. I’ll be looking forward to the discussion thread ^^

I was dying to rant to someone about Dandelion/Nameless and was quite happy when I first saw a reply to the thread, not to mention your criticisms (especially about Nameless) were on point. I agree, I hope we didn't discourage other users who liked Nameless, or have different opinions, from discussing them. I'm always interested in hearing about others' impressions, whether in this thread or another. In the same way, I'll be looking forward to making a full review on Nameless in an actual discussion thread since I'm now amused by all this trash-talk, not that it wasn't well deserved.

 

[malloryknox]

I didn't play both games fully yet, still I got some kind of impression of those games already. First off
I waited a long time for these games being posted so that I could download them. Both of them have a fairly high price to be honest. Especially Dandelion caught my attention, since it was the first game released by Cheritz and the opening was quite nice. The plot of Dandelion reminded me of the anime Fruits Basket, which I really liked. Anyways when I played Dandelion it got a little bit boring after some time. Due to the immense stat-raising to get good endings, for me somehow the romance faded into the background. All I thought about was saving the game, so that I could go back, if I did something wrong like going to the wrong place where my favored guy wasn't or getting my stress too high up so that I would get a bad ending. Surely there were some short scenes where the romance would take an important role, but the stat-raising took like 70% of the whole gameplay. Furthermore the cutscenes with the mother and
the cracking glass irritated me a little bit, because I honestly think the cracking glass is a little bit too abstract to express her despair. I always thought: Lol how many pieces of glass are going to be destroyed in this game?!
I finished off Jisoo routes off first, and the ending was bittersweet and made me nearly cry, since I really wanted them being together. It left me a little bit unsatisfied not getting the stereotypical happy ending.
About Nameless, I was also very relieved hearing that it would'nt include any stat-raising. So far I liked the gameplay quite a bit. The Arts are great and Cheritz chose great voice -actors once again. Although I didn't have had the time to
finish Nameless, I would say it was my favorite, since the stat-raising in Dandelion pretty much spoiled everything for me.

I've known about Dandelion for quite some time as well and was so excited when I finally got the chance to play it. I've only heard about Nameless after seeing forum users ask about it in the Dandelion download thread. I agree that the stat-raising would get tiring after a while, but I wasn't as bothered by it as much as you, maybe because I checked the requirements for the guys and read the tips on how to avoid maxing out stress and pressure, so I didn't have a problem getting the good endings. Then again, maybe you did that too and still found it bothersome? Either way, I'm the type that usually doesn't mind stat-raising and even enjoys it, depending on how easy it is to keep the stats under control. Now that I've finished both Dandelion and Nameless, I almost feel like Nameless suffered because it didn't have stat-raising, since I didn't find the plot entertaining enough to keep me hooked. However, I agree that the art (except the CGs whose quality threw me off when compared to the rest of the game) and the voice-acting in Nameless was good.

 

[Aines445]

About the diary, do you mean you couldn't properly read what it said because the letters were smudged? If so, that wasn't the case for me, the letters were small but legible. Still, the diary didn't have much of a purpose, but I did enjoy it, if only for the fact it was made to provide us with more content. Likewise, I loved the smartphone, some of the messages exchanged even made me chuckle a few times so it was a welcome addition to the game.

Oh no, that's not what I meant: remember that in the game, Eri would eventually find some of her diary entries to be mysteriously smudged? With that in mind, I was wondering if the diary feature would actually imitate that, but since you got confused, I assume not? That's a bit of a shame: it would've been a nice detail to see...

I was dying to rant to someone about Dandelion/Nameless and was quite happy when I first saw a reply to the thread, not to mention your criticisms (especially about Nameless) were on point. I agree, I hope we didn't discourage other users who liked Nameless, or have different opinions, from discussing them. I'm always interested in hearing about others' impressions, whether in this thread or another. In the same way, I'll be looking forward to making a full review on Nameless in an actual discussion thread since I'm now am used by all this trash-talk, not that it wasn't well deserved.

So was I, really, which made me pretty happy when this thread showed up: by that time, I hadn't completed Nameless yet and, since I assumed you had done so (you have, right? ^^'), I set out to complete it so I could properly compare it to Dandelion; you could say this thread is what motivated me, but it would also be a lie to say that I wasn't curious about what was actually going on in Nameless plot-wise.

Well then, I guess I'll also look forward to said full review of Nameless in the hopefully soon to come discussion thread: I'm also planning on fully expressing my thoughts there, so I might go over 2000 words ^^'

 

[zujibaby]

I like Nameless better because Dandelion stats leveling distracts from the romance of the game and is ... really unnecessary. That said I really like Jisoo route (I like my man possessive lol). Nameless concept is interesting. For one my best friend is an avid bjd collector and I can understand the love the owners put in all their dolls. Its a really expensive hobby but the dolls are gorgeous. So its rather fun to see them come alive.

My favorite would be Yuri route as well. He's just funny and adorable. He started out as shallow but just so much chemistry with the main character. Also I can see a believable romance with Yuri. Overall I think its worth playing BUT it does help if you have an insight sort of to the ball joint doll community.

 

[Vivi]

I'm glad I found this thread. I was also interested in how others saw those two games and compared them. My thoughts aren't really well-arranged, so you'll find a mix of pros and cons everywhere.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS(?) AHEAD]

Not having played all the routes in Dandelion, I can't really judge yet, but, back when I'd gone through a couple of routes, I remember being disappointed at the endings, and how a lot of questions/plot holes where left unanswered. Some things just made no sense to me. I've only played Jihae, Jiwoo, and Jiyeun's routes (routes I enjoyed: Jiwoo>Jihae) , but the gameplay just took too long because of the stat-raising.

On the other hand, the protagonist wasn't so bad, and she was even voiced, which I really appreciated. I guess I didn't really have much of a problem with the protagonist since, having played a good amount of otome games where protagonists are just downright annoying/with zero personality/doormats, I found Dandelion's protagonist to be a bit different. I also liked that they took the time to show us her personal struggles throughout the story, unlike in Nameless, where I felt that Eri's character/issues kind of got a bit washed out with the progress of the story.(?) The characters were also amusingly different and I enjoyed their interactions with each other.(I guess I could also say that about Nameless.)

Premise-wise, I personally preferred Nameless because I like doll-related themes/ doll x human stuff. I was also able to go through the whole game much faster than Dandelion, which I haven't even finished because I'm too lazy(scared!) to get back to that stat-raising routine. I wasn't particularly interested in anyone, so I kind of rushed through the guys' routes so I could finally get to the final, secret route, which I relatively liked(for no apparent reason). I liked certain parts in each character though. For example, I was touched by Red's actions at the second part of his route, I liked the very last part of Yuri's ending, I found Lance to be cute overall(and I liked that he was the first ball-jointed doll she bought), Yeonho was, well, lovable, and I liked absolutely nothing about Tei. :D (His route was also very disappointing since I'd expected a much deeper, reasonable(or maybe even relatable) explanation for his issues...)

+ As mentioned before, Soi, Shinbi, and Yujin were a great addition to the story, and they made it much more fun.
- The CG issue was also mentioned before, so I won't rage about it here. (Note: I care A LOT about art.)

+I think the voice actors(in both games) are also worth mentioning since they did a very good job. I especially liked those of Soi, Lance, Jieun and Jiwoo. (There were also others whom I liked but it's been a really long time since I played Dandelion so I don't really remember.)

Anyway, I can't really say which one is better, but I can say that art-wise(sprites&CGs): Dandelion is way, way better, and story-wise(or at least concept/premise-wise): I personally liked Nameless a bit more. It had a darker theme overall and I liked that.(Regardless of Eri's personality/the parts that felt like "WTH?" :S)

 

[malloryknox]

I'm glad I found this thread. I was also interested in how others saw those two games and compared them. My thoughts aren't really well-arranged, so you'll find a mix of pros and cons everywhere.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS(?) AHEAD]

Not having played all the routes in Dandelion, I can't really judge yet, but, back when I'd gone through a couple of routes, I remember being disappointed at the endings, and how a lot of questions/plot holes where left unanswered. Some things just made no sense to me. I've only played Jihae, Jiwoo, and Jiyeun's routes (routes I enjoyed: Jiwoo>Jihae) , but the gameplay just took too long because of the stat-raising.

On the other hand, the protagonist wasn't so bad, and she was even voiced, which I really appreciated. I guess I didn't really have much of a problem with the protagonist since, having played a good amount of otome games where protagonists are just downright annoying/with zero personality/doormats, I found Dandelion's protagonist to be a bit different. I also liked that they took the time to show us her personal struggles throughout the story, unlike in Nameless, where I felt that Eri's character/issues kind of got a bit washed out with the progress of the story.(?) The characters were also amusingly different and I enjoyed their interactions with each other.(I guess I could also say that about Nameless.)

Premise-wise, I personally preferred Nameless because I like doll-related themes/ doll x human stuff. I was also able to go through the whole game much faster than Dandelion, which I haven't even finished because I'm too lazy(scared!) to get back to that stat-raising routine. I wasn't particularly interested in anyone, so I kind of rushed through the guys' routes so I could finally get to the final, secret route, which I relatively liked(for no apparent reason). I liked certain parts in each character though. For example, I was touched by Red's actions at the second part of his route, I liked the very last part of Yuri's ending, I found Lance to be cute overall(and I liked that he was the first ball-jointed doll she bought), Yeonho was, well, lovable, and I liked absolutely nothing about Tei. :D (His route was also very disappointing since I'd expected a much deeper, reasonable(or maybe even relatable) explanation for his issues...)

+ As mentioned before, Soi, Shinbi, and Yujin were a great addition to the story, and they made it much more fun.
- The CG issue was also mentioned before, so I won't rage about it here. (Note: I care A LOT about art.)

+I think the voice actors(in both games) are also worth mentioning since they did a very good job. I especially liked those of Soi, Lance, Jieun and Jiwoo. (There were also others whom I liked but it's been a really long time since I played Dandelion so I don't really remember.)

Anyway, I can't really say which one is better, but I can say that art-wise(sprites&CGs): Dandelion is way, way better, and story-wise(or at least concept/premise-wise): I personally liked Nameless a bit more. It had a darker theme overall and I liked that.(Regardless of Eri's personality/the parts that felt like "WTH?" :S)

Thank you for sharing! It's been a while now since I've played both games and my memory's a little rusty, but I wanted to respond appropriately since you took the time to post in this thread I made.

So, Dandelion first. I felt the same way as you about the endings at first. The stat-raising to so much time that by the ending I was expecting a bigger payoff, maybe even a full blown wedding type scenario. The endings felt bittersweet, especially Jisoo's, which you haven't finished yet so I won't get into it. However, they did left me feeling a certain longing for the characters, like the memories Heejung made with them were my own. In that aspect I think the game was very successful in forming a bond between the characters and the player him/herself. Looking back on the whole game, I realized I wouldn't change the endings at all, mainly Jisoo's, who I felt most disappointed with at first, but is now my favorite. I do agree with you that the game should have offered more plausible explanations for parts of the plot (I personally thought the Wizard's motivation could have been expanded on). Since I can't understand Japanese, I've only played translated or English language games, which are few and mostly terrible, at least in terms of plot, which is why Dandelion felt like such a reward to me overall. If Dandelion is as good as it gets for those of us who lack Japanese language skills, then I'm happy with it (can't say the same about Nameless though).

Just a question for you since you've mentioned you've enjoyed Jiwoo's route the most, I basically want to ask what's so appealing about it? His route is the second most popular from what I've heard and many fans like him as a character. I know, personal preferences and all, but I felt like he was mostly whiny and annoying. I went into his route hoping his behavior towards Heejung would improve and he would have sort of a redemption thing going on, but overall I found that any improvement he showcased was too little for me.

About Nameless, I don't have much to add, since you've read through this thread you already know my opinion on it. I just wanted to reinstate that I expected to love it based on the premise, art and an overall ''dark'' concept for a visual novel, but I couldn't find many redeeming qualities about it. You mentioned how ''Eri's character/issues kind of got a bit washed out with the progress of the story'' and I think that's what actually bothered me the most about it. Her character's progress in every route made absolutely no sense to me and to let you know exactly what I mean, I found some of my notes on Nameless i made while playing, which I kept because I wanted to make a Nameless discussion thread. The notes contain everything I found annoying about the game, so here are a few of the stuff Eri did which I found annoying:

eri obssessing over what soi and shinbi would think of her doll collecting hobby

eri being dense and acting like she doesn't like the guys. example lance route:
lance-i'll stick by your side so don't shoo me away
eri-hahahaha...alright. do whatever you want.

eri acts confused around the guys then all of a sudden we get like one line about her heart racing for the guy and we're supposed to believe she's been in love this whole time

eri finds soi all of a sudden irritating and annoying, doesn't seem like she likes her (tei route)

I could go on, but the point has been made. Additionally, I absolutely agree with you about not liking anything about Tei, how the game writers thought it was appropriate to make a borderline sociopath character into a love interest that would appeal to young otome fans is beyond me.

To conclude, thank you for replying to the thread, and if you have the time to read this post, feel free to reply and add any other thoughts you'd like!

 

[Vivi]

However, they did left me feeling a certain longing for the characters, like the memories Heejung made with them were my own. In that aspect I think the game was very successful in forming a bond between the characters and the player him/herself. Looking back on the whole game, I realized I wouldn't change the endings at all, mainly Jisoo's, who I felt most disappointed with at first, but is now my favorite. I do agree with you that the game should have offered more plausible explanations for parts of the plot (I personally thought the Wizard's motivation could have been expanded on).

Thank you for "responding appropriately". :3 ;D

You know, now that I think about it, I do feel that bond you're talking about. I'd still change the endings if I could, though. Although I'd normally accept "bittersweet" endings, I just couldn't see those endings as "bittersweet". They just felt bitter, as if they had to force an unfulfilling ending just for the sake of it when it didn't even make much sense(at least to me). I hope I can reach that peace of mind you have right now. ;D

Just a question for you since you've mentioned you've enjoyed Jiwoo's route the most, I basically want to ask what's so appealing about it? His route is the second most popular from what I've heard and many fans like him as a character. I know, personal preferences and all, but I felt like he was mostly whiny and annoying. I went into his route hoping his behavior towards Heejung would improve and he would have sort of a redemption thing going on, but overall I found that any improvement he showcased was too little for me.

Hm... I don't really remember right now, ;D but I do remember that he had some character development/growth (despite him being a bit childish), which I personally liked. Also, he's a tsundere, so he was always fun to tease or simply talk to. I guess I enjoyed his route the most because he was cute and fun, I felt that the protagonist was an equal to him(I like it more when they're more like equals/friends than the whole "protector - protectee" kind of relationship), and the fact that his ending didn't feel as bad as the other ones did (to me). Of course, when I say "enjoyed the most", I mean relatively, when compared to the other routes I've played. Maybe because his route was less drama-heavy?

eri obssessing over what soi and shinbi would think of her doll collecting hobby[/I]

eri being dense and acting like she doesn't like the guys. example lance route:
lance-i'll stick by your side so don't shoo me away
eri-hahahaha...alright. do whatever you want.

eri acts confused around the guys then all of a sudden we get like one line about her heart racing for the guy and we're supposed to believe she's been in love this whole time

eri finds soi all of a sudden irritating and annoying, doesn't seem like she likes her (tei route)

:D The "being dense" thing... No matter how much I see it, it always irritates me...
Oh! I saw stuff like that in a lot of games. The girl stays almost dead for a really long time and then we suddenly get a passionate kiss CG with her and some guy she never even mentioned she liked. :/

I could go on, but the point has been made. Additionally, I absolutely agree with you about not liking anything about Tei, how the game writers thought it was appropriate to make a borderline sociopath character into a love interest that would appeal to young otome fans is beyond me.

xD I guess you could say it's a popular trend these days[Diabolik Lovers,etc.]. It's not him being a wacko I'm so mad about, it's that there was no convincing reason/logic to it after all that...

 

[G-Panda]

Dandelion is by far the better one. I haven't even finished Nameless yet... :(

Presshearttocontinue is currently doing a let's play of Dandelion with cryaotic, it's hilarious. They love Jiwoo so much.

 

[pandachuu19]

I quite liked nameless but the art was a bit different to dandelion...so I'll have to go with dandelion :D

 

[Yuuhi_Hime]

Both games are great but I like Nameless better. ^^
I don't usually like flirty characters but I can't hate anyone from Nameless.
The story is awesome and thanks to Nameless, I even started to write dairy.
Hopefully no one will rip it. Haha.... O__O;

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Nameless was amazing,both voice acting+the story+art..it was really great,I played dandelion too but didnt liked as much as nameless.

 

[hiei]

Well, I haven't played Dandelion yet (just tried its demo), but I think Nameless is quite okay.
Even though the storytelling is quite dragging, but at least, it makes me feel engaged with the story on most of parts compared to other games (Sheherazade & Autumn's Journey.. quite meh~)

I see that people preferred Yuri, but, I think his story is quite lacking here & there & I couldn't feel the romance *doki *doki moments.. I think Lance made me *doki *doki on certain parts :3 (his CGs are beautifully drawn compared to other dolls especially his... pinning down the MC's CG XD )

But, Red's story path is certainly the best one, even though my heart already belongs to Lance.. sigh~~~

Nevertheless, I got the highest expectation on Tei's story, they should make the storyline about MC x Tei's relationship in secrecy from the public. MC met Tei at the roof on certain time, stealing glances from public eyes or making unnoticeable skinship/contact, discussing his insecurities while making the scenario agreeable & delved into rabu❤ rabu❤ episodes. That might make plot a lot interesting & kinda sweet (Just my imagination, though ;P). Even Yeonho's story is quite platonic in a way.. hmmm..

Anyway, in conclusion, Nameless is all right especially it is fully-voiced (yes, I know not for all conversations) & the voice actors especially for Lance, Tei & Yuri, they are doing great jobs..