wtf 10 hours? That’s hella long… I finished it in 3. Anyways, I forgot to talk about this when I read it. I read it about a week before LB!EE release so I just needed something to fill in the time. I was reading this right after seeing my friend play Doki Doki so seeing how pure Lucy was just warmed my heart 3x more than it would have under normal circumstances. It doesn’t match up to my love for Key kinetic novels but it was great fun. My only problem with it was that it didn’t have auto mode. Wtf kind of vn doesn’t have auto mode? I also bought it when it was on sale for 50% off so it was more worth it than normally.
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If i can ask what visual novels you would recomend me to play?I don’t have any preferences.
@cjlim2007 Ah well I didn’t get the true end the first time playing “blind”, so I went back right to the start and replayed following a walkthrough, that and the extra scene although it’s short and getting an achievement I missed. Yes <5 hours I would say would be more typical, but you could extend the time by going through it with both Korean and Japanese VA to compare 
You’ve already picked some really great ones there, to help out with recommendations do you prefer only official translations or are you happy to play with a fan translation patch? You didn’t list Clannad so that’s an obvious one to look at. Fata Morgana is quite popular with folks on Kaza.
I still have a few VNs to play that I picked up on sales before such as Symphonic Rain, G-senjou no Maou, Higurashi and Umeniko - all of which I bought because of good comments about them here at Kaza.
Oh and ‘If My Heart Had Wings’ too.
Oh it’s funny that i playing If my Heart Had Wings haha.I should play G-Senjou no Maou is realy interesting i don’t mind fan translation.I will just read the novels a bit later since i got too many novels to read right now.Forgot to add to my in progress list of reading a Sharin no Kuni as well.
Just completed Doki Doki Literature Club, thought it was pretty good especially for a free game ( though I showed support by buying the fan pack), not really exceptional but some good exploitation of the way VN game designers manipulate the reader/player.
I found the warnings a bit OTT but I guess it depends on your state of mind how you react and I guess a certain scene or two could be quite shocking. I liked the way the VN uses the actual software it was created on to mess with you through interaction, even though it does break the fourth wall, and the art is very good. Can’t say much else without spoilers, but I think it more or less lived up to its intentions as explained in the fan pack’s design booklet by the developer.
Googling around at theories, it looks like this may well be something of an “appetiser” for their next VN which may well link back to this story in a (small?) way.
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Yeah i read a few reviews when it came out, was gonna read it but the warning right as it started got me to look a bit more into it, i basically spoiled myself to the whole story and after that i was like “hmmmmm no, this sounds a little too rough for lil ol’ me”, though from what i’ve read it does what it sets out to do in a very innovative and clever way.
So…moving swiftly on to another VN I bought ages ago in a Steam sale and sitting in my library, just started Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning which seems quite promising after about 90 mins. Love the voice of the main female character, look up to find out the name of the voice actress and guess who? It’s Kurugaya Yuiko from LB & Tomoyo from Tomoyo After - no wonder I like the voice so much 
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning / Ourai no Gahkthun
Firstly - this is the first Steam VN I have read that appears to be completely uncensored, with the ‘H’ content said to be included for being critical to the story. The warning for sexual content and in one chapter sexual violence is merited as the latter may be a bit disturbing to any who has suffered a trauma I imagine, but it’s up to the individual whether it’s gratuitous ( I didn’t really feel so although the last H scene went on a bit).
This is the first of the Steampunk games I have read through but it is independent of previous ones.
It has some of the most beautiful female characters I’ve yet seen in a VN although most of them have ridiculously and unfeasibly oversized boobs - but the characters (both male and female) are generally well written and complex - although not in the same way that you’d find in a Key VN. The characters, some of which are named after but only extremely loosely based on real life people from history are more of university rather than High School age and are thus a little more mature.
We see for the most part through a female protaganist, and I have to say I really love Neon Scalar Smilja ( in a perfect world she woiuld exist in my life! ) but she is more of an observer through whom we see and judge the male protagonist (Nikola Tesla). There are choices to be made at times but the story is strictly linear and the right choice for the most part just gives some bonus scenes.
The story is kind of Fate Series meets an Adult Steampunk Doctor Who in an Alt turn of the 20th Century earth with some Baltic myth and a reference to Cthulu mythos as well. Basically a series of episodes resulting in a battle with more information being revealed about the nature of the world and the “enemies” as you progress.
The high quality art makes this very atmospheric and immersive but the apex of the VN is really the best Voice Acting I have yet experienced in any VN. As a non Japanese speaker, the I have to rely on the combination of the VA for the nuances and the subtitles for the understanding and it sounds and reads almost like poetry at times. The relationship between Neon and Tesla is very nicely played between touching and awkward, for once we do not have a harem or any optional romantic routes to distract from the story.
On the downside the pacing is all over the place with some chapters feeling drawn out and other a bit rushed. The soundtrack is also high quality but with only a dozen tracks or so until near the end it can get a bit repetitive especially if you don’t like baroque or accordion music.
A little expensive although I took a very leisurely 36 hours to complete it, it could be done in 10 - 15 hours if you speed through, best to wait for a Steam Sale. Recommended if you’re looking for something a bit different.
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Okay, so I wrote up this spoiler-free review thingamabob for G-Senjou no Maou which I just recently finished. I’m thinking I might make it a thing, I’m interested in doing one for Umineko, and another one comparing Da Capo and Dal Segno (would have to finish Da Capo first though), but for now, here’s this.
And, of course, being the post-modernistic stuck-up that I am, I feel the need to reassert the obvious in that it’s all my opinion and that anything I try to claim has an implied “in my opinion” following it.
G-Senjou no Maou – A True 10/10 Piece, or Extremely Overrated?
Overrated.
Has anyone here read Hound of the Baskervilles? No worries if you haven’t, what I’m about to talk about happens on the very first page, so no spoilers. Sherlock and Watson are discussing a walking stick left behind by a visitor. Watson notes a number of details to the reader, and draws perfectly fair conclusions from them. So far so good. Then comes along Sherlock, who describes details not originally presented to the reader by Watson, and surmises that Watson’s conclusions were erroneous, and himself works out the true nature of the owner. I can see this as nothing more than a cheap trick to puff up how “intelligent” Sherlock is supposed to be. Given the information Watson presents, any reader would naturally agree with the logical conclusions he comes to. Sherlock proves these wrong not by superior reasoning, but by working with clues not presented to the reader. All this shows in Sherlock is attention to detail greater than Watson’s. This tricks the reader into thinking that Sherlock is simply “more intelligent” than Watson, and therefore more intelligent than the reader, as the reader had been led on to agree with Watson’s completely reasonable conclusions. Now, a detective should be more attentive than your average bear. In fact, it’s probably the most important asset for a detective to have, period. However, the presentation within the story deliberately leads the reader to the conclusion that Sherlock is smarter than Watson because of this, as he successfully disproves Watson’s reasoning.
Not okay with that example? Okay, let’s look at a character that can speak a million different languages, can compute complex equations instantly in their head, and has an eidetic memory. I’m sure you all can think of at least one. When writing a story, you could apply this to any – or all – of your characters. All the writer has to do is say that’s the way it is, and that’s the way it is. By doing this and nothing more, you actually fail to demonstrate any intelligence in that character. Or rather, the character isn’t where you’ve failed to display intelligence, the place where you’ve displayed a lack of intelligence is in your writing. And this is coming from Mr. “No Definition of Intelligence” himself.
Put these two together and you get the writing of G-Senjou no Maou. Haru Usami is Sherlock to a T. To be perfectly honest, the cheap tricks of Yamato Naoe from the Majikoi series, or the random trivia of Kazuki Kazami from The Fruit of Grisaia, are much better displays of the intelligence of a character than the misdirection used in G-Senjou no Maou to make completely obvious solutions seem difficult to work out. The ability of the character to organise the information and work out the solution in her head on the spot is supposed to be impressive, but this is where my second example of how to poorly write “intelligent” characters rears its ugly head. Of course, this doesn’t only apply to Haru, but to all the characters they try to parade around as “intelligent.”
And that’s my biggest problem with G-Senjou no Maou. What is so obviously presented as a “battle of wits” … is just that, now that I think about it. Between completely witless characters that is. Or maybe the true battle of wits is between the writers and the readers they’re trying so hard to trick into thinking that their work is intelligently written.
The writers also seem to have this idea that it’s okay to write things poorly as long as they have the main character look back at it immediately and think “man that was stupid” or something. If you’re looking for something that makes fun of itself for how bad it is just by existing, go read Sakura Spirit or something, not something that attempts to tell a proper story.
In much the same way I consider Hound of the Baskervilles a failure as a mystery but a great success as a story, I consider G-Senjou no Maou to have failed to display intelligent writing, but to have succeeded at providing a story as pure entertainment. As long as you just accept the story as it unfolds in front of you, it can be a decent Visual Novel.
Am I missing the point? Perhaps. The characterisation and atmosphere – which I’ll come back to - are probably supposed to be the main selling points. However, I can’t just ignore how much they’re trying to shove in our faces “look how clever these characters are!” without actually displaying it in any way.
I’ll give the soundtrack a pass. As someone who considers Classical music among his favourite genres, I’m a little biased, and to be frank, none of the tracks were particularly excellent, but the soundtrack is pretty good overall. However… has anyone here heard the Dye Mixture arrange of the Rewrite track Remembrance, for example? When arranging/covering/remixing/whatever-ing a piece, you don’t need to bind yourself to the piece, you can go above and beyond. This does make it harder to make a faithful arrange of the original with good quality, but doing it well can lead to truly amazing results. As I mentioned before, the G-Senjou no Maou soundtrack isn’t bad, but I would call it uninspired. But, well, you can’t have everything.
As for the art… yeah, I’ll give both the character art and the background art a pass. The CGs, however, are inconsistent at best. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling anything, but if you’ve played it before, try going back and looking at some of the CGs of Haru and Gonzou.
Wasted potential is an omnipresent problem in G-Senjou no Maou. There was a certain character who shall not be named who could have easily had her own route, and really should have. It would have been a great opportunity to write a route where the heroine isn’t just neatly presented in front of the main character in a bundle of Deus Ex Machina.
Most of the proclaimed “plot twists” were either completely obvious or just lazy writing, or, in a few cases, the characters doing dumbass shit for no apparent reason. It felt like they were trying (and in my case at least, failing) to just throw you around in as many different directions as possible. And the big reveal is lazily handled between routes, if at all.
However, the characters were well done. And I don’t mean this as “I liked all the characters”, in fact, I didn’t particularly like any of them (except for Gonzou). What I mean is, it successfully made me hate a character that I was supposed to hate (anyone who’s read it will know who I’m talking about), and sympathise with the characters I was supposed to sympathise with. It’s definitely one of G-Senjou no Maou’s stronger points.
Overall, the execution of G-Senjou no Maou just isn’t very good. The parts where it cuts the crap and presents a straightforward story without any wilful deception being played by the story itself (it’s fine when the villain does it on purpose – obviously), or any such nonsense, were honestly pretty good. To name a few without spoiling anything, Kanon’s route and the post-credits are the first two that come to mind. Still, the VN could have been more than it was, but it wasn’t.
I’ve probably been harsher here than I’ve intended to be. The good traits of the VN, particularly characterisation and atmosphere, underline all the faults that I’ve asserted so far. I’d give G-Senjou no Maou 7.9/10, something like that. It feels a little harsh to give it less than 8, or possibly even higher, but when I consider whether I’d rather give it a 9 or a 7 if forced to choose between the two, I would give it a 7, and therefore end up with the rating you see.
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Aka every dating VN ever?
I think G-Senjou is well known to be a poor quality Visual Novel. It’s basically regarded as an outright worse version of Sharin no Kuni. It is also however such an enjoyable core experience that people generally prefer it to Sharin no Kuni despite being worse in every category.
Personally, though I think G-Senjou is a bad Visual Novel, I’d consider it greater than almost any other VN I have read. One of those strange cases where the problems are blatant and many, but a bunch of random factors miraculously blend together well enough to compensate for the many faults. The highs of it resonate with me, and the lows are so unimportant to me that I can just disregard them.
A somewhat decent comparison for anime is Guilty Crown. Is it trying to be a masterpiece of storytelling? Obviously not. Is it trying to be an eclectic mashup of everything the creators find entertaining? Most definitely. It recognises that the stuff it wants to do has already been done really well by other well known VNs, so instead G-Senjou is an entertainment piece.
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I mean, it’s not like I can’t understand this - or relate to it for that matter - but I guess I just disagree in this case. It’s actually pretty useful how our two contrasting opinions - despite being in agreement in most areas - can create a good scaffold of recommendation, be it good or bad, for those who haven’t read it yet.
I definitely agree that G-Senjou works far better as an entertainment piece than as anything else, and it was probably supposed to be that way, but they really should’ve worked that into their presentation more clearly. Or rather, more bluntly.
As for this part, I’m more so interested in writing reviews like this to challenge some rather common opinions I’ve heard of the works that have honestly baffled me. In the case of these two, it shocks me how many people I’ve found who say that ***** is better than ***** (not gonna talk about my own opinion yet.) As someone with more free time than he knows what to do with, I tend to think of anything that’s helped me kill a few hours as worth considering. I’m pretty much just writing them for my own sake and throwing them up here for anyone with enough free time and/or a proclivity for masochism to read.
And although I don’t think you interpreted it this way, your comment made me realise that I should clear something up. I actually have no intention of reading any Da Capo past the first one. It’s taking me long enough just to finish the two I’ve mentioned (and yes, I realise that it’s contradictory to the statement that I’m trying to kill time, but I’m sure there are better ways to do it.) And to be honest, I think I would rather jump off a bridge than listen to X hours more of Kotori’s terrible voice acting (yes, I have turned her voice off in the settings, that was just satire.) And now that I’ve said that, I have to shit-talk Dal Segno real quick to keep it even up until I actually write the damn thing: Although I liked Himari’s Theme at first, it started grating on my ears after about two minutes.
That, kids, is how you spend an entire post answering questions about yourself that no one asked. Take notes.
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That’s a shame. The second one kills off all the bad characters and replaces them with slightly better versions… And adds some extras. I do like Da Capo, it’s like the cornerstone of that genre. Never even heard of Dal Segno, but it looks like a standard work.
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Hmm, if you’re gonna say that then maybe I will give them a try. It won’t be for at least a year though, since I want to finish all the ones I have backed up first, and then there’s Summer Pockets coming and maybe even Rewrite+ depending on how long I take.
And I don’t wanna say too much right now but
This is so much Dal Segno’s greatest vice. It’s so generic at a glance. Even Da Capo, which, though weirdly specific in a number of ways, is pretty generic, doesn’t seem half as generic as Dal Segno at a glance.
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I’ve read Da Capo 1, 2 and I am currently reading 3. I bought 1 and 2 at the same time. Tbh when I finished 1 I was worried I wasn’t going to like 2 at all. Da Capo 1 just felt quite filled with flaws to me. But to my surprise I enjoyed da capo 2 quite a bit. As far as Da Capo 3 goes (I’ve finished Ricca and Sara routes working on Himeno) You should give da capo 2 a try for sure.
As for Dal Segno I think I will read it someday, but for how little I have read I am sure there are better choices. As you both said it just seems somewhat generic. Although I might play it just to keep the Circus train going, since I’ve pretty much read all the Da capos back to back.
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Yeah, 2 had some really strong moments. Been a long long time since I read it, but from what I remember, the slice of life stuff was so much better, helped by the stronger core group dynamic. Some of the routes were quite Key-like too.
Obviously it’s still Da Capo, so it’s still very hit-or-miss. Sometimes it does great and sometimes it’s outright boring, but I still think it’s enjoyable. It never really reaches the depth you’d want it to, especially when it touches on some of the more meaningful topics, but DC2 is such a staple VN I find it hard to dismiss. It’s a safe VN to choose if you just want some fun.
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Looks like I actually (probably) will finish Da Capo by next weekend (my self-imposed deadline.)
And yes, I’m thinking I’m gonna make these posts a weekly thing.
As for this week, I did Umineko as planned.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When the Seagulls Cry - A Literary Masterpiece, or Not Worth Reading?
A literary masterpiece.
If I believed in such an absurd concept, I would probably say that Umineko is objectively the greatest piece of literature ever written. Now, I’m basically “Mr. Subjectivity” himself, so you can throw that idea out the window, but you can also take it as proof of how highly I value Umineko. It’s not even my personal favourite, it’s third behind Rewrite(1st) and Little Busters(2nd), but the practically non-existent part of me that still clings to objectivity is constantly trying to tell me that Umineko is better.
I feel like there’s too much to say about Umineko within a few thousand words. First, I may as well get this out of the way: If you have no interest in the mystery genre, and just want stories that you’re able to just blindly accept, don’t read Umineko. It was just never meant to be. I’m not so boorish as to recommend something to people who obviously won’t appreciate it – no disrespect intended of course, enjoy your fiction however you want. It seems that a large number of the titles I’ll be reviewing in coming weeks will be purely entertainment pieces with no real substance, but if you’re interested in something that requires thought, Umineko is my first recommendation. That’s of course not to say that you need to dive into Umineko with sharpened fangs ready to tear it to shreds, however. I myself actually started Umineko with no particular intention of trying to solve it.
And that’s the beauty of Umineko. Even if it’s nothing else, it’s still an amazing story that welcomes interpretation. It’s such a beautifully woven tale that… I honestly can’t think of a comparison. The answer itself is more than just an answer, it’s an entire new side of Umineko, an entirely new tale. It’s almost as if you unlock a whole other half of the story that you’ve already read. Ironically, part of Umineko’s beauty is lost on me, since I can’t force myself to reread something, I have to naturally want to reread it, and as such, I’ve never even done a full reread. But I doubt a story even exists that gains as much from a reread as Umineko does.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that Umineko is fraudulent as a mystery, but this is honestly an outright lie. The most I can say without spoiling anything is: All the clues necessary to solve Umineko are presented within the story. Umineko is solvable. It’s unconventional, sure, but that’s part of its wonder.
To quickly talk about one of its flaws: It starts slow. I think most 07th Expansion fans would agree that all of Ryukishi07’s works get off to a slow start. It’s a problem with the writer, even I have to admit that. But it’s not as if you have to force through it until you reach where it picks up. Even the early parts are engaging enough to provide a smooth reading experience. I tend to think that anyone who reads a lot of regular books would have no problem at all with the slow start.
As with all other 07th Expansion works, Umineko doesn’t have voice acting. However, a patch does exist that gives full voice acting to the entire series. I don’t have it myself, since voice acting doesn’t personally bother me too much, but I’ve heard that it’s pretty high-quality too. So if that’s something that bothers you, don’t worry about it.
I’ve always maintained that Umineko gains something from having read Higurashi (which I may do a review on soon) first. It’s not as if there’s any concrete connection between the two, but I think there are some things in Umineko you can appreciate more if you’ve already read Higurashi. So yes, if you have a lot of time to kill and want to read some quality fiction, you should definitely read Higurashi followed by Umineko.
To quickly talk about the art, depending on what version you get, it can either be decent or good. It never quite reaches the level of amazing or anything like that, but either version is more than good enough to accompany the story.
As for the soundtrack, it’s probably my favourite of all time, barring Rewrite. There’s really nothing else to say about it.
As a person I tend to need to wait off the hype after finishing a story before I can analyse it properly. This happened with my last review, and even though I said that it felt harsh to give G-Senjou such a low score, now, having had more time to think about it, I feel like I might’ve been too lenient, if anything (I’m thinking I’d give it a 7.7 or a 7.6 out of 10 by now.) As for Umineko, this waiting period is long past. No matter how much time passes, Umineko never seems any the worse for it. In fact, I’ve kind of come to appreciate it even more as time’s gone by. I give Umineko a 9.7/10. And I honestly think that it’d be easy for other people to appreciate it even more than I do.
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Anyone ever play Brass Restoration?
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I’ve played it. I think I finished two routes and then gave up on it. I’ll probably finish it someday, I usually do, but I wasn’t impressed by it.
Why do you ask?
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Curiosity.
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I’ll take it that means you haven’t played it yourself yet and wanted to know if it was worth trying?
I honestly wouldn’t bother. If you’re looking for something with the same kind of atmosphere, I would recommend Katawa Shoujo. They’re similar in a number of ways, except Katawa Shoujo is actually good.
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