The writing in this game was very well-done. But Natsuki had the charm. I, apparently, a glutton for punishment, and go for the hard-to-get's. Yuri was too tall for my tastes. Loved the purple hair though. Sayori was very easily relatable for me. That was basically me in my high school years. I did feel bad for Monika, I literally had almost thirty save files, trying different combinations of poems, and answers and stuff to find out how to spend the weekend with her instead of the other girls.
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quotes wrote:
squinty_eyes: Alt, you have fantastic logic. And zero political prowess. CKY: Through a convoluted series of events involving three tons of garden gnomes and a pickup truck, Henderson’s Magikarp defeats the Deoxys terrorizing the city.
Monika reminded me a lot of Nico from one-shot who is one of the characters i have grown the most emotionally attached to, but that probably worked against her rather than for her in this instance because my standards for that kind of character are higher than they otherwise would be.
I shelved the dragon VN for now and now i am playing umineko
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"That winter, the fireplace was never without a crackling blaze in its belly. The boiled wine we drank was undoubtedly middling and cheap, but she said, with a smile, "I've never had wine this good before." And though I didn't say anything, I felt the same way."
squinty_eyes: Alt, you have fantastic logic. And zero political prowess. CKY: Through a convoluted series of events involving three tons of garden gnomes and a pickup truck, Henderson’s Magikarp defeats the Deoxys terrorizing the city.
"That winter, the fireplace was never without a crackling blaze in its belly. The boiled wine we drank was undoubtedly middling and cheap, but she said, with a smile, "I've never had wine this good before." And though I didn't say anything, I felt the same way."
After going through the game once, I went back and am now getting the first part of each girls route. Apparently, if you get all the scenes, you get a special ending. The sheer normalcy of that first part and the fluffy, yet troubled atmosphere made me nostalgic for Katawa Shoujo. Might have to play the Shizune route once I'm done with DDLC.
Spoiler
Of the pre-mind break girls, I like Yuri the most. She's the one who is most like me, what with introversion, self-doubt, a love of books, among other things. Not to mention her character design is almost targeted directly at me. Sayori is nice, but I've never been fond of the genki, ditzy archetype. The bottles poem simultaneously made me pity her and like her more as a character. When she died, I considered loading the save and choosing "I love you" instead, but it wasn't the honest reaction I had to the situation, so I was glad the game chose that moment to get weird. Natsuki is nice, a little bit of a textbook short tsundere, but nothing bad to say about her character as a whole. Monika... At first I intended to avoid her, because the setup as "most popular girl in school" and the way the narration had the main character regard her made it feel like a hopeless, embarrassing crush. Once Sayori got deleted, I found myself a little amused at the glitching. I still went after Yuri, until it became clear that that would be a death flag. When Yuri stabbed herself, I was oddly at peace with it. She died the way she wanted, more or less. And so when Monika deleted everything, I was completely okay with it. Especially when she described her experience of the game closing, I felt sorry for her, and considered leaving the game open for a while. After about 20 minutes though, her callousness started rubbing me the wrong way, and I ended up going on to finding the end of the game. I still have some lingering fondness for her, though.
Natsuki had my heat after her first poem, not gonna lie. I laughed far too hard at that poem.
My Deep and Well-Thought Analysis:
I honestly wish they just had one more normal day. If they had one more normal day scene, I would've been at peace. Story-wise I understand why that didn't happen, but it was something I would've looked forward to.
As for the girls: Natsuki reminded me of what I would've done going into that kind of club. Like I said, her first poem was hilarious and very relatable. She had the same interests that I do, and so I didn't deviate after day one. Yuri was the person that, once you start talking to her, she's fine, but it's difficult to start talking to her. The shallow person in me also said that she was too tall. Yuri was difficult for me, because I am similar socially. I have difficulty with meeting people, and saying goodbye to people, but I'm great with middles. But because of that, I wouldn't have approached Yuri, which again put me onto Natsuki. Sayori I honestly always saw as a friend. Bit of a prankster, bit of a flirt, but nothing more. I was kinda disappointed that we couldn't get with Monika, especially the one time we had a choice to go with Monika. I wish we could've had at least one scene with Monika. As a person, I didn't find myself head over heels for her, but she always like my poems, and she did always feel like the genuine type that no one tries to go for, because everyone thinks she is out of their league. That said, I did feel bad for her at the end. Basically, I would pick Natsuki, if not her then Sayori, if not her then Monika, if not her then Yuri.
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quotes wrote:
squinty_eyes: Alt, you have fantastic logic. And zero political prowess. CKY: Through a convoluted series of events involving three tons of garden gnomes and a pickup truck, Henderson’s Magikarp defeats the Deoxys terrorizing the city.
I find that observation subjectively insulting. ... I'll see myself out now.
On an alternate, but slightly related note, I recently played through Katawa Shoujo, was wondering if any else around here did too as well. It's also a freebie however it does have adult content for any who shy away from that.
I really liked it. In my opinion it was much better than most paid for games these days.
I said related, because in this game I liked Hanako, who came across like Yuri.
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quotes wrote:
squinty_eyes: Alt, you have fantastic logic. And zero political prowess. CKY: Through a convoluted series of events involving three tons of garden gnomes and a pickup truck, Henderson’s Magikarp defeats the Deoxys terrorizing the city.
afaik there's a setting in the option menu that removes the sex scenes in katawa.
I played katawa and rin left a pretty big impression on me. In general i found that the characters somehow felt really real to me and I had an easy time empathizing/relating to them.
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"That winter, the fireplace was never without a crackling blaze in its belly. The boiled wine we drank was undoubtedly middling and cheap, but she said, with a smile, "I've never had wine this good before." And though I didn't say anything, I felt the same way."
afaik there's a setting in the option menu that removes the sex scenes in katawa.
I played katawa and rin left a pretty big impression on me. In general i found that the characters somehow felt really real to me and I had an easy time empathizing/relating to them.
Yes and no. While the scenes themselves were replaced with images of fruit, some character sprites are still unaffected.
And same. The story did a phenomenal job helping the player relate to the characters. My only complaint with the game would be that I wish it was slightly easier to get into any characters arc.
gameplay spoiler/pseudo story spoiler:
Currently it's set so that by the end of act one you are following one character. I think it would've been better for act one to end with you following a pair, and act two would end with you following one person from that pair. Then have acts three and four be just that person. They have it set up so you think you can, but after 100%ing it, they choices are a bit moot.
There were two occasions in particular where I was aiming for one character, and ended up with a different character.
Oh, that and that Hanako ends up better in Lilly's storyline, than in her own.
I liked Rin better as a side character, but as I say that, I will acknowledge that she was easily the most memorable character as both a main and a side character (IMO). I think I'm biased simply because I finished Rin's story last. So I only knew her as a side character and she was full of wit. As a main character you see a comply different side of her.
For kicks and giggles: In foresight, the order I wanted to complete the game in: Hanako, Rin, Lilly, Emi, Shizune The order I actually completed the game in: Emi, Hanako, Shizune, Lilly, Rin In hindsight, in order, I liked the stories of: Lilly, Emi, Rin, Hanako, and Shizune
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quotes wrote:
squinty_eyes: Alt, you have fantastic logic. And zero political prowess. CKY: Through a convoluted series of events involving three tons of garden gnomes and a pickup truck, Henderson’s Magikarp defeats the Deoxys terrorizing the city.
I agree that the routes are too easy to get sidetracked onto. I think in the first act, it only takes one decision to get into Emi's route. I ended up using a spoilerfree walkthrough to get the routes and endings I wanted.
From best to worst (IMO) Shizune=Lilly>Hanako>Rin>Emi>Misha I didn't particularly like Rin's route, due to the sense that we weren't communicating clearly, and thus it felt like taking advantage of each other, while clumsily guessing what the other wanted. Shizune's route is my favorite, perhaps because it is the most down to earth route that has a minimum of trauma and dramatics.
Joined: Sep 25, 2013 Posts: 14139 Location: Kamloops, BC
Identity: Male
My VN experience is limited to Long Live The Queen, an early build of The Weight of a Soul and realizing that even though Fate/Stay Night has launched a multimillion dollar franchise, you need an unofficial fan patch to play it in English, and even though it was published in the 90's, the game costs $200 because you can only find at auctions.
*"To YMTC it up" means to design cards that have value mostly from a design perspective. i.e. you would put them in a case under glass in your living room and visitors could remark upon the wonderful design principles, with nobody ever worring if the cards are annoying/pointless/confusing in actual play
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