Wow, I’m surprised to see that this thread was dead for 7 months and then revived again only recently.
@BotanRugbyBall What is Steins;Gate 0’s relation to the original game? Is it recommended to play the original before 0, or vice versa?
Very definitely play the original before Zero. Playing Zero first would give massive spoilers and ruin the original - and the story of Zero will be very hard to understand with the context of the original.
1 Like
Thanks!
I’m replaying the original Steins;Gate and I just found a cool reference that I missed the first time ( before I played Clannad):
Itaru -…Remember there are good lies and bad lies: bad lies hurt people, good lies save them!
Okabe - What eroge did you get that from?
Itaru: CLADDAN…and it’s not an eroge it’s a visual novel that teaches you the meaning of life, so shut up!
5 Likes
Hi everyone, i have a question about the gameplay of a visual novel.
Should i play a visual novel with a walkthrough or without it?
Does playing a visual novel with a walkthrough affects the gameplay?
In general you’ll want to use no walkthrough as you feel more satisfaction once you enter a route. It feels as if you really made the choices and you really reached the route. Even bad endings feel good when you play by yourself without a guide.
However, there are some very difficult routes to get cough Kotomi cough, so using a guide isn’t something that bad. Overall, using a guide helps you get to those routes, but you miss part of the experience IMO. I normally do my first playthrough without guide to see where my choices get me, then, if I feel that the choices have been easy to make, I go on without guide but, if I find it difficult to get to some route I won’t doubt and I’ll use a walkthrough.
However, different people will give you different opinions about this, so you’ll just have to find your own style.
3 Likes
That’s what I do as a first option too, so I will recommend this advice! A VN like Steins;Gate for example it’s barely obvious when you have critical choices and it would be very time-consuming to try and get all the endings by trial and error. And for me “messing up” first time with choices that give a bad end is part of the experience as you can see where wrongly thought out decisions led you astray, why and the consequences.
If you want to get through it as quickly as you can, use a guide. If you’re fine with messing up and missing/revisiting stuff, don’t use a guide. Same as with all games.
Ok then i will play saving in all choice moments without a guide for better experience, thanks for you help 
So a while ago I was playing da capo, there is this part that has key references. The scene is talking about chance encounters. Two of them obviously stood out, Case 2 = Kanon Case 3 = Air. However case 1 had me scratching my head, is that some reference of a fringe key vn that happened before kanon? or maybe just a reference to itself? it sounds awfully generic compared to the rest so I think it is not a reference to anything after all…
I can’t remember any other non key vns that had key references in them. Has anyone else seen key references in other vns? Surely there are a lot?
2 Likes
Hmm, I could see Case 1 as being a reference to One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~, which is technically Key, though they weren’t called that yet (they were still under the Tactics name) I don’t remember if the protagonist considered her beautiful though.
Yeah, beautiful is too nice a word. I don’t think Case 1 is anything Key. I can imagine it being an old concept for CLANNAD since that was in the works back then, but I doubt it.
Isn’t case 1 simply too vague because isn’t that literally just a trope? The other two are pretty unique but just a beautiful transfer student is probably the plot of half of the VNs ever
Yeah it is awfully vague, when I first read the line without context, I just though, “oh that is just a generic thing that happens in vns.” But then when I saw the two key references I though maybe it was another “key” reference that flew over my head, like a one reference. But it seems it was probably just a generic comment. I am assuming this cliche/trope has been around since ancient times.
I see the first of the Higurashi Answer Arc will be available on Steam on the 29th April. I guess another couple of years before the remainder comes out to complete the Q & A sets.
As far as I heard the plan was to get the rest of them out this year.
So I finally finished reading Subarashiki Hibi. I can’t help but feel this was really overrated, but part of the reason is probably because Sakura no Uta was so much better. That said, it was still really good. Probably around an 8.5/10 if Sakura no Uta is a perfect 10. The tricks it used were pretty well done and I loved the way the writing misled you at certain parts. The second chapter was very reminiscent of Umineko where you completely lose the ability to tell what is real and what is fantasy. The way the hints were dropped to lead you to the correct answer was great, especially with how simple lines in retrospect carry great meaning. Still, I can’t help but feel some of the explanations were very lackluster. Especially the Tsui no Sora 2 ending which is very open ended in a philosophical kind of way but it honestly left me feeling a bit cheated. Again, I think back to Sakura no Uta where everything is connected perfectly and then I look at this where several parts are either left open ended (because yay philosophy) or have unsatisfying explanations. I almost want to say Sca-Ji wrote himself into a corner with some of mystery but the internet will crucify me if I say something like that. (It wasn’t bad enough to be inconsistent or anything, but I do take issue with how things played out)
If we’re talking about the philosophical aspects, which seems to be its biggest point of praise, I can see it. There’re a lot of interesting things going on that you don’t find in other VNs, and I appreciate some of the things it has to say. But I really feel lots of people are glossing over the weaknesses when they praise this. BTW, there is a lot of super disturbing content. I get why it’s there, and some of it is definitely necessary thematically, but wow I had to stop reading several times because I could not handle it. This is not for the faint of heart. So as far as my personal opinion goes: anyone who is hyped for this game should just transfer that hype to Sakura no Uta, which is even better. Subarashiki Hibi is good, great even, but it definitely has its flaws.
3 Likes
There’s a running joke that by the time something is translated into English, it has fallen from grace and another VN has one-upped it. Pretty funny considering Subarashiki Hibi has been slated for English release this year.
5 years will do that, especially in a work loved for being unique… though I’m pretty sure the common consensus is that these respective VNs are equally good. I remember seeing a chart a year or two ago comparing the ratings, and while Subahibi was more popular (ridiculously so) it had an almost identical scoring distribution to Sakura no Uta. I imagine the reason Subarashiki Hibi is lauded so much in comparison to Sakura no Uta is simply because more people know of it.
Also, isn’t Subahibi more Horror/Mystery than Philosophical? I don’t think it’s supposed to be a world changer.
Well, a lot of the horror/mystery is used to drive the philosophical topics Sca-Ji wanted to talk about. They’re intertwined very well but it’s also because of this that I didn’t like how some parts of the mystery played out. I can see it being a world changer if you resonate very strongly with some of the things that happen in the story, but it didn’t cause me to think that much.
The thing with Sakura no Uta is pretty much everyone hated the ending in one way or another. But it’s also thematically perfect and makes the meaning of the story that much more powerful. I suspect that depending on how people rated it was largely dependent on how much they appreciated the ending for driving home the message of the story versus how upset they were that it ended the way it did. I recall Sca-Ji saying something like a sequel would ruin the theme but the ending paves the way for more, and I’m inclined to agree. Who knows how Sakura no Toki will turn out.
Contrast that to Subahibi where I can see people criticizing it for different things: the pacing, the mystery, some of the more cop out answers, and some parts that were just really painful to read - intentionally so, but consequently hurting enjoyment. I don’t get the feeling that there’s a majority consensus on where it lost points, but I could be wrong, especially since people seem to only focus on its good points. shrugs Like you said, it’s been over 5 years, so that alone changes my perspective compared to its initial release.
I am still fairly new to reading Visual Novels in general, but at the moment I am juggling a bunch of them at the same time (which was kinda a mistake in hindsight).
Has/is anyone heard of a VN (it’s on Steam) called If My Heart Had Wings? I am currently playing through it (haven’t actually finished a route yet though) and I kinda love it so far. It has some great artwork (though some may be turned off by a few parts that have CGI in it), fantastic soundtrack, heartfelt and beautiful story (pun intended) and some unique/great characterization. Just curious if anyone has played it what they thought about it.
Edit: For anyone who is thinking about getting it, I also recommend getting the restoration patch for the game on Steam (not just for Eroge content but also fixes a lot of the translation errors that the MoeNovel version has).
