So I’m in post Muv-Luv Alternative depression… so I’m taking a break from visual novels or else I’m always gonna be comparing everything to MLA XD
But in all seriousness, I can pretty much say this is the greatest visual novel novel ever written, even if it’s not my absolute favorite (it’s behind Clannad and Umineko for me).
Let’s talk Muv-Luv!
Please mark important Alternative details with proper spoiler tags.
Hey hey! I’m reading MLA right now! I’m not very far, though, but it’s super impressive so from what I’ve seen. Totally worth slogging through the original Muv-Luv. I’ll probably post more of my thoughts here as I go along (I’ve actually been keeping an in-depth log of them as I’ve been playing), so please look forward to their official debut~
Good luck! 
sigh…
I had a feeling this VN would be brought up on here eventually. Muv-Luv has been hyped well beyond the point that makes it unplayable for me; If I were to start playing it, I would just end up ripping it to shreds critically and I would never be able to enjoy it (assuming that I would even enjoy it otherwise). Despite the fact that some of my most trusted friends have told me to read it, I still hold absolutely no plans to do so.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:1, topic:449”]
so I’m taking a break from visual novels or else I’m always gonna be comparing everything to MLA
[/quote]or you could learn to…ya know… not compare things as you’re reading them. its not impossible.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:1, topic:449”]
I can pretty much say this is the greatest visual novel novel ever written
[/quote]Pardon me for sharing my opinions, but I’m inclined to disagree. This is like saying that someone went to the Olympics and got a gold medal in every single event. Not even a whole country of athletes could do that; it’s just not possible.
[quote=“LinkThinks, post:2, topic:449”]
I’ve actually been keeping an in-depth log of them as I’ve been playing
[/quote]It’s a rare case when I do this, but I think it can be really fun every once in a while.
Anyways, sorry for being so toxic (especially to new-ish members) but I honestly * censored * hate it when people bring up MLA.
I mean I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t do the same thing… all the time… but I don’t think it’s fair to critique something like that without giving it a go. And my feelings are genuine, for me this is the thing I woild compare all other VNs by. It’s not really damning for other games, but everything else might seem underwhelming for a while (the build of hype from ML to MLA is staggering)
I can understand that seeing this here would be annoying, that’s sort of how I feel about Attack on Titan honestly
EDIT: And I still do think that this could be the best VN, I don’t think your analogy holds in this case because it doesn’t need to be the best in all metrics in order to be the best overall. But I still like CLANNAD more, because that resonated with me more overall.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:5, topic:449”]
I don’t think it’s fair to critique something like that without giving it a go.
[/quote]I don’t consider myself to have started critiquing it yet; I’m mainly just trying to note that I know that I will not enjoy it and that the massive hype it gets is not helping the situation.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:5, topic:449”]
this is the thing I woild compare all other VNs by
[/quote]I was trying to point out that that you don’t even have to compare VNs to each other; its not like you go around reading books and thinking “oh, this isn’t like Shakespeare, therefore it’s terrible.” so you don’t have to do it for VNs either.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:5, topic:449”]
I don’t think your analogy holds in this case because it doesn’t need to be the best in all metrics in order to be the best overall.
[/quote]My idea was to point out that a single best cannot exist. Using my example, if an athlete wins at every competition except snowboarding, that means that someone had to beat him in that area, i.e. someone is better than him at snowboarding. This is where the problem lies, how can he be the best if someone is better than him? The first athlete may be better at every single other thing he does, but the existence of the second athlete who is better at snowboarding means that he cannot, in principle, be the best.
For me at least, it’s more of a subconscious bias. I’m just trying to prevent a situation where I would enjoy something less than I could. I’ll get over it eventually
What I was driving at was, to continue the analogy, is that the US “wins” the Olympics if it has the most medals by the end (even if not all of them are gold). Yeah, Umineko has the best VN soundtrack, LitBus has the best characters, Ever17 has the best plot twist, but MLA has amazing effects (due to a great engine), a great soundtrack, a compelling plot, wonderful sci-fi elements, and is a deconstruction of the harem genre of visual novels. The sum of these elements, to me, would be like a country getting the most medals.
I’m really looking forward to LinkThinks’ comments, I encourage you to post when you reach a certain part
EDIT: What you said earlier AngelofDeath720, reminds me of how I ruined Steins;Gate for my friend by hyping it a lot. I gushed a lot about the visual novel, and the anime was pretty underwhelming for him 
It’s hard to really like something and not be able to talk about it with your friends, but yeah it totally can ruin something for you if you try to get them interested
Being the victor =/= being the best. “best” is a lot like infinity; we can learn a lot from it and how things tend to it, but in the end it is an unattainable value.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:7, topic:449”]
Ever17
[/quote]completely off topic, but I felt like E17 treated its readers like neanderthals and I couldn’t stand it. Did you (or anyone else looking on) feel something like that or was it just me? To this day it’s still the only VN I’ve ever started and not completed, but I can at least agree that it would have been pretty good game if not for that detail.
[quote=“DaBackpack, post:7, topic:449”]
it totally can ruin something for you if you try to get them interested
[/quote] Not only was I not interested in the series to begin with; I knew before I even started that I would not like it, but it seems like everyone tells me that I have to like it because I read VNs. Which is probably why I’m so salty when it comes to the subject.
Never read Muv-Luv before. Guess I shouldn’t be here, but could you make some spoiler restrictions in the opening post?
Okay so I’ve just finished Muv-Luv Extra.
Well that kinda happened. I wish I could call it good, but it was pretty forgettable. Sumika was the only character I really liked, and all the others besides Meiya I don’t really care for at all.
Oh well, I won’t dwell on it, I’ll just move on to Unlimited.
(I’m only in this topic on the blind faith that there REALLY aren’t any spoilers for Alternative in this topic, as @LinkThinks told me, but I’m still too scared to actually read the other posts X.x … I absolutely do not want to have Alternative spoiled for me in any way.)
Yeah your opinions on Extra are pretty standard. There’s not a whole lot to say, really, since it’s just there to set Unlimited and Alternative up.
Also, pretty much none of this thread has anything to do with Muv-Luv itself (yet). It’s mostly just an argument that probably doesn’t even belong in this thread to begin with. But, uh, yeah there’s been no real discussion on Muv-Luv yet. You’re not missing anything by not reading up, though, so don’t worry about it.
So you read all the routes, right? I heard that everyone not named Sumika and Meiya had an especially bad route (not like theirs were outstanding). So, what can you say about the others?
For the most part the problem with the other routes was that they just went on and ended without much of note occuring, like, ever. I mean I guess there’s some drama but it’s so uninvolving and weak. A common problem in all of them is that the romance is hard to believe. I really can’t see Takeru actually getting romantically interested in anyone besides Meiya and Sumika.
Miki’s route was probably the worst offender. Nothing interesting ever happens in her route, and that is not even an exaggeration.
Chizuru’s was similar. Stuff happened but I got invested in absolutely none of it.
Ayamine’s was more enjoyable than the other two, at least having some interesting moments, but the drama was pretty badly executed. Because OF COURSE she’s gonna pick Takeru, so any potential suspense or drama is lost from the beginning. If she hadn’t picked Takeru I would be praising this route for defying my low expectations, but no. It also had another problem of me simply not buying that Ayamine fell for him. They just feel like friends at most, not like a romantic couple.
No comment on Marimo’s Bad End. The less said about that, the better.
Lmao Marimo ending
She was by far my favorite character and that still disturbed me
I didn’t see it.
That’s a good thing, then?
But yeah the only extra Extra route you needed was Ayamine’s I think
Overall one of the best visual novels I’ve read, but not without it’s flaws. Often I hear about people complaining about Extra and Unlimited, but my biggest problem with it was with Alternative. I couldn’t help but feel like the ending was rushed. A final, conclusive strike at the main hive was quite anti-climatic after such a well played out penultimate battle when the Beta attacked the headquarters. As soon as the main characters head underground, it seemed fairly obvious how the rest of the scenario would play out. Each of Takeru’s comrades dropping one by one (in order of importance?). After so much repeated self-sacrifice throughout the VN, at that point, I was immune and unphased by such actions and became quite unsympathetic to the passing of the main heroines who have been one the same journey since Extra.
I must praise this VN for it’s ability to really immerse the audience in it’s Sci-fi elements. Perhaps I can credit a lot of this to Unlimited, as it was able to build up such an extensive premise. Not seeing the Beta until half way through Alternative, the ever mysterious brain room & Yashiro. My favourite thing about Muv-Luv was it’s constant addition of quantum/classical mechanics. The references to Laplace’s Demon, Chaos theory & the butterfly effect, had my curiosity piqued through-out and after the read, spending hours reading articles on the subjects.
Overall a great VN, although, perhaps not quite deserving of it’s rating. I’m sure my thoughts of it now, looking back, would be very different from those when I finished reading it for the first time. I too, as with most people, suffered quite the withdrawal from this VN.
Spent a good day reading and now I’m quite a ways into Unlimited. I’m somewhere mid Chapter 8 now IIRC.
Interesting setup. It wasn’t quite what I expected when I read the description. Specifically I didn’t expect the whole “you’re in a different world” thing. Was quite surprised at Yuuko not knowing Takeru, and just generally having that setup of nobody knowing who he is.
Spoilers for just about all of Unlimited from here on. I miss Sumika. Ever since the encounter with Tsukuyomi I’m pretty certain that Takeru existed in this world before Extra-Takeru was somehow transported to it; removing all doubts from my mind that Sumika exists here. I wonder where though. She better not be that brain thingy.
It was a bit frustrating how useless Takeru was for most of the time. I guess it was inevitable to have him be the super-great pilot though. Also, what the hell is up with those suits (the female variant). Like, seriously.
I won’t judge it yet. I haven’t finished even one route yet, after all.
I thought the exact same things as you while reading Unlimited @Karifean.
Did I mention that ML is, among all VNs I’ve ever played, the game that breaks immersion THE MOST, and in the most disgusting way, with its misplaced fanservice and H-scenes? Yes, even more so than Grisaia and F/SN. It’s brutal, really. It started way back in Extra and it still happens in Alternative.
Despite all that, ML is still in my Top 5…
Why has no one told me about this thread?
Besides MuvLuv being one of my favorite VNs, the TSFs are also probably my favorite depiction of giant robots.
anyone have a personal favorite model? Probably mine would be the EF-2000 Typhoon.
Phew, finished Unlimited. It really is pretty redundant to go for all of its endings since they are literally the same except for the fact that Takeru’s partner is different.
I loved the part where one of the girls gets addicted to the Game Guy xD. That was so funny. The exam was a bit over the top, as well as Tama’s finest moment. Class Rep and Kei’s chapter was quite nice though, and the main story actually got pretty good towards the end IMO. The volcano mission especially I enjoyed a lot - and the talk with the CO. Of course the ending feels like a huge cliffhanger, but well, it’s all setup so it’s fine. Mainly, I now can hardly wait to move on to Alternative… although I do have a pesky university getting in the way of that.
…I really don’t have any more to say about Unlimited or Extra. I don’t regret having spent my time reading it, and I would be saying that even without Alternative existing. But I still wouldn’t ever recommend it on its own. It’s just… well it exists, it happened, what more can I say. Nothing.
I managed to push my Ending counter up to 14 since it counts if you just exit when the final monologue of Unlimited starts, but I’m still stuck with only 3 endings from Extra. Oh well, I don’t even know if getting 100% unlocks anything at all anyways.
