Visual Novel Cafe

[kzel]

ps. Btw, I really enjoyed your reviews!

Thank you so much for this wonderful early Christmas present! I mostly write here to collect my thoughts and have something to refer to when I'm trying to remember what I felt about a game, but it's always very nice to hear that someone enjoyed reading my rants.

Without further ado, Amakano 2 trial impressions!... I'll start by saying I had some unexpected guests this week-end and didn't have the time to read as carefully as I would have liked, but even then the lasting impression the demo left on me after about three hours was : "Thank god, at last it's over". I'm afraid my initial worries about the heroines' setup was pretty spot-on. The game makes a big deal out of finding out the proper 距離感 (I guess you could say "distance"), but it starts all wrong.

[SPOILER="Heroines are terrible" rant]The biggest offender is by far the big sister. She is extremely clingy and very often annoying, and the whole "it's normal between siblings" excuse doesn't make one bit of sense since... they're not! And even if they were, it wouldn't be appropriate either, at least in Japan. She pets him constantly, feeds him in front of others without a care, fixes his hair or his clothing in public, cue obligatory ear cleaning sequence... and to boot she pouts when he hesitates to respond to her overwhelming attention. I'll be honest, I hate this kind of character, and the more I saw her, the more I wished she would just go away. Alas, only three heroines in this game, so that's unlikely, especially considering how close she and the protagonist are.

Next we have the robot-like cousin who seems to have never shared space with another human being before. She feels absolutely nothing sleeping in the same room (yes room, not house) as the protagonist, has no hesitations stripping in front of him, and is generally such an oddball that it's hard to take her seriously considering the previous Amakano heroines all were somewhat anchored in reality. I don't mind strange characters but this is pushing it a bit much, although I'll admit it was a bit nice to see her warm up to the protagonist... and his sister. And therein lies the problem, her views on 距離感 get completely twisted by what she sees happen between the protagonist and "big sis", which makes her visions of human rapports even more twisted than before. Before long she settles on a "little sister" position that she has no place in. I'm so tired of characters "becoming" siblings, it's not something you can decide overnight. But of course the protagonist is all too happy to be a nice little oniichan, encouraged by his beloved oneechan, and this just make me worry so much about the further developments in the relationship. We already did the little sister stuff with Kanade in ~second season~, and she was enough.

Finally we have third oddball character in the form of transfer student. ~second season~ had Honami that started the game hating the protagonist and slowly warmed up to him, she is the reverse : she starts the game pretty friendly to the protagonist but gets progressively colder, ending with what is essentially a rejection (not that he confessed mind you), claiming that she has no interest in romance with anyone. She tends to keep a lot of secret, skips classes without reasons. Her reactions to pretty common things and her overall top-class academics make me wonder if she's not a ojou-sama neglected by her parents (quite similar to Honami in that...), or if her partner is already arranged by her family and thus no interest in love and all that. The demo forces us to choose her during the map selection but I can't say I grew fond of her very much, which was clearly intentional but still.[/SPOILER]
So, heroines are a complete mess so far, and I can't find a single one I'm actually looking forward to. This can change depending on the further developments, but so far as the game progresses the further away my interest goes for them. Art-wise, Piromizu really forced the chest-size up compared to the previous entries, it's pretty unnatural especially for a certain big sis but it can be said for all three of them. Ryu Gakuru's text is as usual easy to read but with no interest in the heroines the temptation to skip climbs really, really fast. All in all, I'm not really looking forward to the game anymore, which is sad.

EDIT: I'm gonna temper what I wrote by mentioning that I generally don't play demos specifically because I tend to dislike the common route in games. I'm sure once we get into the "1 on 1" relationship it'll get much better, less of the "big sis" would be a huge relief already. This is something that was also true of the first two games, especially the second. Also, anger and frustration may or may not be related to having seen a particular movie franchise's last entry Saturday night.

 

[amaimono]

Have a hard time sleeping, so I played a bit of Amakano 2 trial. I echo kzel's sentiment regarding the story and the heroines. So far, it feels awkward and unwelcoming. The awkwardness is summed up by when they write that the bullet train our MC is on is rather full, then shows empty seats right across. The unwelcoming part is due to the heroines who are well drawn but charmless and/or cold. They need to cut down the amount of heroine's POV as they appear too frequently but generally pointless.

Graphically, I see what the developer meant with having a problem with widescreen. Widescreen introduces a lot of gaps. Whoever responsible for the graphic attempts to fill the screen with close ups, huge standing CGs, and way too detailed backgrounds. Stuff on screen are often suffocatingly dense. Some of the background also looks unpolished, though this could be down to them being unfinished. Your room is no longer a fancy inn room, but a drab, standard eroge MC's room. This takes away a lot of the magic as a significant portion of the story takes place in your room. I'm also not a fan of the frequent use of letterboxes. The bottom letterbox cut right onto the message box, forcing you to set the message box opacity to minimum for more comfortable reading.

TL;DR: While it's early, Amakano 2 requires a lot of fixes to live up to the prequels. The April release date looks too soon if the trial is an accurate reflection of how things currently are.

 

[kzel]

Let's go for one more quick review, this time of Azarashi Soft (+1)'s single heroine title Aikotoba. It was okay but I can't say the playthrough was particularly enjoyable given the author's vision of what makes a true man. If you fully embrace the mentality that holding back on your desires and overthinking situations, in spite of everything including deeply hurting those around you, is something pure and commendable, then it's probably a good read. Otherwise it ends up being frustrating for most of the run.

Spoiler: Aikotoba endings spoilers

What I've already written about the demo of the game remains mostly true, in that it's a fairly standard brother/sister romance story in which the brother tries his best to hold back while the heroine escalates the approaches more and more. Of course, through choices it's entirely possible to fail to resist to her temptations but slipping up just one time leads to a rather awkward ending. In it, the couple keeps pretending not to be family, all the while the protagonist gives up on his career to move closer to her town, and she gives up on university to always stay near him. On the other hand, if he does hold back and resist all the way to the end (in which she practically begs him to fuck her... to which you have to say no), then she'll eventually come chasing after the protagonist as he keeps his dream-job, all grown up as a woman "worthy" of him, graduating school and pursuing her studies, parents are happy, it's happy end for all. The game did promise different routes depending on whether the protagonist views his sister as just family or a love interest, but I would have liked for it to be more balanced in its judgement, here it's pretty obvious which way is the "right" way in the writer's eye. I'm not sure I agree with it, and as a player it's pretty frustrating to play the stubborn brother who keeps rejecting his sister's advances all the time. Probably intentional, to make us feel what the brother is to some extent, but not fun in any way. This pattern extends even after they already confessed to their feelings for each other, and each and every time it feels bad for the poor sister. The protagonist's chosen method of rejection is also somewhat questionable, since for the most part he runs away (literally or by joking), avoiding facing the issue directly, and very rarely does he take a step towards her. Good for him that his sister loves him so much that she just won't give up on him no matter what, otherwise he would have been dumped more than a few times.

EDIT: Spellcheck

 

[amaimono]

Continuing on Amakano 2 trial, turns out I was about 15 minutes from the trial's end when I went to bed. It takes a long time, but things did pick up at the very end. After the lame jokes disappear and the writer remembers that this is supposed to be a love story, suddenly it's a much better read. Still can't get used to the letterboxes though. They either need to enlarge the bottom letterbox so it covers the entire message box or use only blurs.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Wow you guys read fast.
But it really helps to get some feedback, I'm debating myself if I should give a try to the demo orr wait for the full release.

 

[kzel]

Wow you guys read fast.
But it really helps to get some feedback, I'm debating myself if I should give a try to the demo orr wait for the full release.

If you haven't completed Amakano and ~second season~ yet then I suggest to stick with that for the time being. If you have time to squeeze in a route or two of the + fandisks then I would also go from there before exploring the new game's demo (I recommend Koharu and Yuzuka).

Otherwise, the demo isn't that long, it took me about three hours, there was some skimming but I was also distracted so it should take that much longer to parse normally. As amaimono wrote though, it starts really rough and only slightly turns the right direction by its end (Rei warming up, transfer girl making the protagonist think about love). I'd say wait for the full game, it'll probably leave a better afterstate than this demo can ever do.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Hm? Just noticed this but what's wrong with letterboxes?

And thank you dear [MENTION=118176]kzel[/MENTION]; I really mean it, you help me out and I really appreciate that. :redface:

Hmm...guess I'll clear the first game at least and then move on to the next one which would make more sense...since starting a new gameplay without finishing one would kind of make me stressed so I rather play one at a time. ^^

ps: Also, dear Kzel, I look forward to see more of your reviews, they are so fun to read and I enjoy them a lot!

 

[amaimono]

@Amakano 2 letterbox:

As you can see, the black bar at the bottom extends to only about half of the first line of the text. When combined with the standing CGs and the detailed background, it makes reading the text more difficult.

 

[kzel]

ps: Also, dear Kzel, I look forward to see more of your reviews, they are so fun to read and I enjoy them a lot!

Oh my, thank you very much. I just hope you won't regret these words when I inevitably start bashing on games you really like. I have tried numerous times to be more positive but I always seem to come back to my habit of focusing on the regrets/bad points.

@Amakano 2 letterbox:
As you can see, the black bar at the bottom extends to only about half of the first line of the text. When combined with the standing CGs and the detailed background, it makes reading the text more difficult.

Strangely enough it didn't bother me too much. This black bar effect isn't used all the time either, mostly during private conversations? If I had one complaint about the UI, it's that music note icon that stands out like a sore thumb and the menu on the right that you can't hide. I also wouldn't mind a bigger font.

I've managed to sneak a few hours of Kanna's route in Cafe Stella. As expected it's less about the Cafe and more about relationships/Shinigamis, but the Deus Ex Machina is pretty heavy-handed in the route. Kanna herself is adorable though, so all is forgiven so far.

 

[amaimono]

Strangely enough it didn't bother me too much. This black bar effect isn't used all the time either, mostly during private conversations? If I had one complaint about the UI, it's that music note icon that stands out like a sore thumb and the menu on the right that you can't hide. I also wouldn't mind a bigger font.

Well, I couldn't have given worse examples. The text is especially hard to read when the background, not blurred, contains foliage or is converted from 3D.

Though, after giving it some more thought, the real problem probably lies with the color of the text outline. If it was black, like the outline for names, it would have been much easier to read.

 

[Veshurik]

Amakano guys, hello!

Well, thanks, I already read many reviews from you, that was wonderful, now I can just not to play ^_^

Also, no one try crossover of all traps from ensemble (Shiny Sisters)?
I saw reviews on Twitter that many people are sad that there aren't 18+ scenes...
ensemble audience really want BL or what? That's pretty interesting.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Good evening. :)

Oh my, thank you very much. I just hope you won't regret these words when I inevitably start bashing on games you really like. I have tried numerous times to be more positive but I always seem to come back to my habit of focusing on the regrets/bad points.

It's okay! That's understandable, I too sometimes can be very focused on bad parts of things but that doesn't mean that it's completely bad, even if a game is really bad there still should be at least few good points.

@Amakano 2 letterbox:
View attachment 23619 View attachment 23620
As you can see, the black bar at the bottom extends to only about half of the first line of the text. When combined with the standing CGs and the detailed background, it makes reading the text more difficult.

Like kzel said it doesn't bother me too, though hmm...it does look a bit off but not that bad imo.

Amakano guys, hello!

Well, thanks, I already read many reviews from you, that was wonderful, now I can just not to play ^_^

Also, no one try crossover of all traps from ensemble (Shiny Sisters)?
I saw reviews on Twitter that many people are sad that there aren't 18+ scenes...
ensemble audience really want BL or what? That's pretty interesting.

Hello! What's your favorite Amakano game? and your last comment made me laugh. :D

 

[amaimono]

Amakano guys, hello!

Well, thanks, I already read many reviews from you, that was wonderful, now I can just not to play ^_^

Wise choice. The trial only gives you a tiny carrot. Better wait for the full version.

Also, no one try crossover of all traps from ensemble (Shiny Sisters)?
I saw reviews on Twitter that many people are sad that there aren't 18+ scenes...
ensemble audience really want BL or what? That's pretty interesting.

Maybe there are many girls who play ensemble titles? Otoko no ko is a thing after all.

Like kzel said it doesn't bother me too, though hmm...it does look a bit off but not that bad imo.

Alright. Just me then.

 

[kzel]

Quick impressions further in 喫茶ステラと死神の蝶, after playing through both Kanna and Mei's routes. While I appreciated Suzune's route for the way the relationship between the heroine and the protagonist develops at a moderate pace, there are problems in both Kanna's and Mei's routes that prevented me from enjoying them fully. I think I'm going to put the game on pause for the time being, maybe I'll come back to it, maybe I won't.

Spoiler: Kanna route spoilers

I had hoped Kanna's route would involve Shinigami stuff more intensively, but a large part was spent deepening the bond between the two first. Her nature does make a shocking comeback when she refuses his confession due to her condition (a condition that makes no appearance in other routes...). But the protagonist refuses to give up on her and keeps pursuing her, I liked that. Things aren't as easy and there's a bit of drama reminescent of Nanairo Reincarnation, rather well handled. But wait, thanks to the protagonist undying love selfishness everything is solved and happy again. The Deus Ex Machina is very forceful, and not very pleasant as it feels like it's the protagonist's whining, rather than his actions or feelings, that won the day. At this point Kanna's route was essentially over, and the game switched to what is essentially the protagonist's route with Kanna as a side role at best. Of course she stays to encourage him along the way, but that's about it. I've said it before, I don't really like the protagonist, and having the story focus on him rather than Kanna was quite the letdown, especially as it lets go of most of the Shinigami stuff along the way to shift to "what is family" themes. It's not bad, just not what I was wanting to read.

Spoiler: Mei route spoilers

Mei's route I can't say I enjoyed very much. The heroine herself is cute, but her surroundings in this route all have very questionable actions. First off, we have the cafe staff that basically pressured her into confessing to him even though she wasn't sure of her feelings. I really hate when other people meddle into the love affairs of others, and they went way too far. It doesn't stop there as once they've starting dating, they put additional pressure so she feels the need to offer her body to him earlier than she feels ready to, using veiled threats like "poor protagonist, how long do you want to make him hold back?" even though they've been dating for like... a day. I really don't appreciate when actions of characters in one route make me reconsider my opinion of them, especially negatively. Next off in the list of surroundings that put me off, is the protagonist himself. He's especially hetare in this one, and contrary to Suzune and Kanna's route, doesn't actually do much to chase his love, being more in a passive waiting whiny stance. Once they start dating though, he turns into a creepy horny pervert almost instantly, forcing himself on the girl at every opportunity, that was appalling. He does redeem himself a bit by helping her solve her problem later on (as a morale support rather than by actions) but that was too late for me, I had already given up on him. And then we have her drama, involving "friends" that turned on the girl as soon as she didn't act the way they wanted, not even considering for a minute how hurt she was by the whole thing. Overall, I've only enjoyed a tiny bit of the start of the route, and then it grew more and more uncomfortable which for a moege is unacceptable.

All of this made me starving for an actual shinigami story, so I'll probably play the old 死神の接吻は別離の味 that I've had on my radar for a while next. It's written by Orgel that I've had positive experience with, anyone read it?

 

[Veshurik]

Thank you always for your reviews!
About Amakano series, I didn't play any of it, but my heart was melted by all Duca songs in that series.
So, better I will wait official English localization of Amakano.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Wow kzel finished two routes already, wish I could read them but they're not spoiler free...still, thank you for writing! :)

As for Amakano goes I ended up

Spoiler

choosing confessing, the CG where they held hands and seeing Koha blush was so cute

 

[Frankincense]

Key announces Summer Pockets: Reflection Blue, which adds more routes, a new heroine, and a bunch of other stuff to the vanilla release.

Tinkle Position will cease development of new games until further notice. Not a fan of lolige anyway.

Azarashi Soft and Smee release their joint project, Azasumi. It's available on DMM for 100 yen. Maybe it doesn't hurt to try.

 

[kzel]

Wow kzel finished two routes already, wish I could read them but they're not spoiler free...still, thank you for writing! :)

Hmm, sometimes I wonder if I'm not reading too fast these days. Maybe taking the games more slowly would lead to a better appreciation of them?

Azarashi Soft and Smee release their joint project, Azasumi. It's available on DMM for 100 yen. Maybe it doesn't hurt to try.

I'd buy it but 110 yen (that's the price DMM is giving me) is rather awkward since I can only charge by 500 yen minimum. I don't really have any plans to buy anything else and the stupid system that makes your credits go away after a month is still a thing. However, there's currently a campaign going on DMM, I should get some free points but not before January's end at the earliest, I'll buy it if it hasn't been shared until then.

---

In other news, after nearly two years of complete absence, hibiki-works is back in the realms of the living with a new game announced. Even better, it's a new entry in the xCation series : ReCation. Christmas miracles do occur, I seriously thought the company was dead after the fiasco of Niiduma's copy protection related bugs and Yuuwaku's complete nukige shift. Well, I wouldn't hope for too much given the scenario was handed to Minase Takumi who didn't do a great job with Natural Vacation previously. We'll get more details in late January, will this be the come-back of one my favorite series and studios? I would feel more at ease if they were completely detached from Akabeisoft2 but I'll keep an eye on it.

---

Madosoft also announced their next game : ハミダシクリエイティブ. The setup looks extremely similar to Wagamama High Spec, with yet another 陰キャ as the protagonist. What is up with all these introverted and depressed characters as protagonists lately? This time the poor boy is thrust into the role of school council president after a lucky (or unlucky) draw of the lottery. All the heroines are famous content creators in various fields (voice acting, writing, youtuber, illustrator), something also very reminiscent of Wagamama's cast. I guess the Raspberry Cube experiment didn't work out too well if they're trying to call back to their previous success game that ostensibly.

---

So I've played through 死神の接吻は別離の味, and my general impression is that... charage writers should stick to their genre because it's a very flawed story. As a romance novel, having all the female cast (including sub-characters) in love with the depressed and zombie-like protagonist is a little much and doesn't make for good relationship development. A majority of the game is all about the protagonist stopping his endless whining and brooding, and realizing that everyone around him loves him so very much. That continues well into the heroines routes, as he keeps still desperately longing for his childhood love to come back to him even after fucking another girl for a day. There's not much to go on the mystery side, the game's big reveal is completely spoiled by giving two characters the same voice actress, and the connection is far too easy to make even very early on.

Finally, as a tear jerking drama about life and death, the setting is far too loose to really get involved in the characters plight. I can't count how many time a character said "It's impossible... but maybe not if you're willing to do X". The game is an endless series of retcons of its own established rules, which makes for a "anything goes" feeling that completely nullifies any effort or hard decision the characters have to make. Not that there's anything really hard going on in the end though, it started kinda dark but went back to wholesome pretty quickly. The final message may be hopeful and beautiful, the way it is delivered is awkward at best. But the characters are cute, I liked the rebellious little sister's unrelenting verbal attacks, and the shinigami's curiosity towards everything human and general attitude. Even the cat comic-relief could be funny at times. As a simple charage, I would have enjoyed the game more if only for the characters but I had forgotten Orgel can be such a sadist in his ecchi scenes, not really my jam.

So there you have it, a nice set of characters (protagonist excluded...), mixed up in a story that doesn't really allow them to shine as much as they could.

---

Nothing really planned next, so that's it for the reviews for a while. I'd welcome any suggestion for a moving drama with a likeable protagonist. So tired of all these 陰キャ.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Hmm, sometimes I wonder if I'm not reading too fast these days. Maybe taking the games more slowly would lead to a better appreciation of them?

To me and as a very slow reader it does make the experience way more...enjoyable? since I tend to forget things unless I write reviews (which I usually don't) so reading too fast makes it worse in my case if you ask me. But I don't think there is anything wrong with that, though I am curious about two things, do you like to skip or you just don't listen to every line which makes it faster to proceed.

I'd welcome any suggestion for a moving drama with a likeable protagonist. So tired of all these 陰キャ.

One of the reasons I play Eroge is because I had enough of obnoxious heroine's when it comes to Otoge and I'd like experience something different than the casual female point of view...I'm also seriously sick and tired of 'clueless & weak willed' types...here's three Otoge that comes into my mind when I think of a strong leading heroine;

1st; [English/Japanese] Collar x Malice (for Vita, soon NS port):
Heroine:星野 市香
Curious but not "stupid" amount curious, seems weak at first but she is actually really really tough, quite clever.
It's a mystery/crime VN with some good comedy elements..I think I rated it 8 out of 10.

2nd; [English/Japanese] 百花百狼 戦国忍法帖 (Available for PC, Vita and NS):
Heroine:上野 槐
Lots of drama but the characters are very well written and with the unexpected plot twists it gets you hooked into the story pretty quickly, and I love the MC here, she starts a bit bland but her character development is pretty good, I enjoyed her personality build up each passing chapter compared to other Otoge heroine's like 小森ユイ who accepts every insult, other crap and denies being relatable. Anyways, If I'm correct I rated this one 9.2 out of 10.

3rd; [English/Japanese] 灰鷹のサイケデリカ (for Vita and PC):
Heroine:ジェド
Stands her ground, strong, speaks her mind and truth, brave and kind. Haven't finished my gameplay yet so I haven't rated it but I totally recommend it because the story is decent and fun.

 

[kzel]

To me and as a very slow reader it does make the experience way more...enjoyable? since I tend to forget things unless I write reviews (which I usually don't) so reading too fast makes it worse in my case if you ask me. But I don't think there is anything wrong with that, though I am curious about two things, do you like to skip or you just don't listen to every line which makes it faster to proceed.

I usually don't skip at all, even when I'm not engaged in a game. If I do start skipping I find that my engagement never comes back anyway and the playthrough is basically over. The exception would be ecchi scenes in 18+ games, especially in scenario games in which they tend to not provide anything useful to the story (I'd still read the first one to judge whether worth it or not), so that I can get back to the plot without losing out on too much.

What I tend to do though, is what I call skimming. When I start a game, the first options I always change is to set the text display to instantaneous and disable voice-cut on click. Then, if I start to grow impatient or the story takes a turn I don't like, I will start read reading a few words at the beginning and end of each sentence, then quickly decide if it's worth reading the sentence entirely for any significant change or info. Spoken lines are still played out during this, so unless it's a very back and forth exchange I can usually scan the descriptions/silent protagonist response/internal monologue by the time a spoken line is finished and it's time for another one.

I'm not especially good at it and I realize I miss out a lot. However, as soon as I feel a big enough discrepancy between how the story actually goes and how I expected it to go, I'll open the backlog and read the previous lines more carefully to catch where I lost track. If the story is full of unpredictable events and twists, I can't keep skimming for very long and it doesn't help much. But the more predictable the story is, the easier it is to keep going and drastically lower the time it takes to read, while still keeping up with the overall plot. I'm still missing out on a lot of jokes, references and descriptions but if I lost patience to begin with, I'll assume they weren't worth investing too much effort into deciphering anyway. The more disconnected from a game I get, the faster I'll go, until I start doing this with voiced lines too, and rely more and more on visual cues (character expressions/CG display) to judge how "important" certain scenes are and if things get back where I want them to be. On the other hand, if I find I need to open the backlog often I'll slow down to normal reading speed.

One of the reason I really like investigative mysteries (Danganronpa, Zero Escape) and games with lots of choices (Key) is because I just can't do that and need to read all the text to provide enough context to make informed decisions. Somehow it makes the text feel more worthwhile to read, even if paradoxically it's mostly the same jokes anyway.

One of the reasons I play Eroge is because I had enough of obnoxious heroine's when it comes to Otoge and I'd like experience something different than the casual female point of view...I'm also seriously sick and tired of 'clueless & weak willed' types...here's three Otoge that comes into my mind when I think of a strong leading heroine;

Thank you very much for the recommendations! Strange how the Vita seems to have so many otome games in its catalog, I know I noticed a lot when I used to browse the Play Store but there are a lot of exclusive titles. Of course the Japanese Play Store is still selling them for full price even years after release, and since my Vita is updated to the latest firmware I don't really have a lot of options (that I know of?). Still, it would probably be nice to find a Vita cartridge since I carry the console to play one version or another of Hatsune Miku almost daily anyway. I'll see if I can get something reasonably priced off ebay. Of the three Collar x Malice seems the more my type, being an investigation and all, but I'll keep a lookout for the other two as well. Beware the review if I do manage to find them though!

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Ohhh I didn't expect a detailed reply but thanks for explaning because I was really curious. :P

And you're most welcome. :) I'm sure that you'll enjoy CxM, as a person who loves crime I can always recommend this game although it took me 2 months to finish lol.

The more disconnected from a game I get, the faster I'll go,

Hmm that makes sense, strange but it's the total opposite in my case. I tend to read slower if I can't click with the story as if I'm not slow enough.

Btw another question, do you also have this weird thing when you start a game you always feel the need to finish all routes before you move on but at the same time you play more than one title? I end up playing multiple games all the time and it makes it impossible for me to finish my main gameplay.

 

[kzel]

Hmm that makes sense, strange but it's the total opposite in my case. I tend to read slower if I can't click with the story as if I'm not slow enough.

I think I read faster the less I like a game from a combination of unwillingness to spend too much time on parts I dislike, mixed with some hope that things will get back on track. It's also simply because I don't like to leave a game hanging on a bad note, because it makes justifying a come-back that much harder. So I'll sorta force myself through at least the current route's end to get a small sense of closure and have no regrets moving on. This is a bad habit that led me to many lost hours of sleep over not so good games. To the contrary I tend to play games I really like very slowly and meticulously, taking frequent breaks and trying to not do too much at once.

Btw another question, do you also have this weird thing when you start a game you always feel the need to finish all routes before you move on but at the same time you play more than one title?

I used to feel like you do, giving all the routes a chance even for characters I don't particularly like from the start or by the end of the common route. In fact I would sometimes intentionally start with my least favorite character and work my way up, to finish on the most positive note possible. Now, I'll usually do the opposite : start with my favorite character, and if the route is good enough maybe try another one afterwards, if not then I'll just move on. This is why I tend to dislike games that lock content behind finishing one (or worse, all) routes. For instance, I could never get into サクラノ詩 because the only two routes offered at the beginning just made me lose all interest, even though the game is supposedly extremely good in its later parts. I try not to keep too many active games in parallel because I'm not a great multitasker, at most 2 or 3. I do have a few games on long hiatus I eventually want to go back to (Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai and Gin'Iro Haruka I never finished), but the motivation is somehow hard to find.

 

[Veshurik]

Fullprice titles is so difficult to finish, because they take a lot of time from you.
And if you don't have a motivation, and just don't see something intriguing for you, better to drop, I think?
Better spend you time on more interesting things for you.

But on the other side, I can't even rate a game if I didn't complete it fully. It's just not fair, so... If I want to fill my VNDB list, I need to complete the game fully...

P.S. It's always better to judge when you're, well, not paying for games, unlike Japanese users.
They only can buy the game, and of course, they can be really disappointing, if they don't like the game overall, but payed for it 8800 yen... Refund isn't possible, as I can see.

 

[amaimono]

@|♚|KK|♚|: Thanks for the recommendations. Genuine question here: do girls really like the pompous, almost rapist type of heroes?

@Finishing all the routes: I'm past the point where I feel obliged to do that, regardless if I paid for it or not. There's only so many hours I can spare for reading, so I go straight to the route whose heroine I like the most. If I don't enjoy her route, there's even less chance I'd enjoy the other routes. At that point, I usually move on to other titles.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

No problem! if you mean the sadistic ones yeah there is quite who likes them but rape? who knows.. I mean I like netori, as a female it is a bit weird but I enjoy the idea of it for some reason because to me it's quite the different concept so rather than just enjoying seeing someone else steal your woman or the other way where you make them do it or whatever fetish it is I'd prefer myself to be the one who wins whatever relationship it is. But anyways, back to the question; so rape ...I think there might me some who enjoy such taboo content. Like, you know that there is hentai anime for women right? those have bunch of rape elements in most of them, and I guess the idea of the taboo does excite some of us (including me when it's netori) so if it's only fiction then I think some girls might enjoy it.

ps. I know your question wasn't about rape but almost rapist heroes and I got a bit sidetracked..though if it's guys like Rance you mean then yeah, we hate those.