Harlequin

Haha, as far as remembering what scenes the VN had or didn't have, I'm also quite lost at this point. I mean that scene with Rin destroying those bone familiars for example... did that happen in the VN? I don't remember it at least. Especially not anything about a big bone familiar. Whatever, it was excellent as usual. It feels like I'm actually getting everything that's necessary with this adaptation. Pure bliss, basically. You can just watch one of these episodes without having to worry that it's going to fail horribly somehow.

http://i.imgur.com/3WhqzKU.png

Alrighty, I finished the demo. Good job guys, you've got something interesting going on here, well done. I'm gonna write down what I thought was good and bad with my own experience with your VN demo. Gonna try to be honest. I assume that's what you want, so. The Good: * The mood and the atmosphere. I like it a lot, especially once the map system was introduced. Don't know how to explain it exactly... but it felt melancholy and somewhat mysterious. That's cool. Certainly helps that the music compliments it all. * The music. Not much to say other than that it was very nice. Good piano songs. And even though it might not be super important, the songs used in the creepy scenes (ex. night at the school)? Yea, DAMN, well done. * The setting and the story overall. Once I properly got into it, it was interesting and I wanted to learn more. I do want to know what happened to the main character, and possibly whatever circumstances that surround the other characters as well. Plus, Mindstorm. I kinda understand what it is, but not fully. There's definitely more to it than what has been shown so far. * "Effects" and systems. Things like the phone, the notes/other items, and the map system. They add to the experience, even though some of them might seem like minor details. * The visuals. Backgrounds like this are always welcome... I'm pretty used to them by now actually. Character art is nice and very distinct too, though I don't like all the expressions personally (most of them are fine). Speaking of expressions, Rin's face in the phone is hilarious, nice one. * Characters. This is sort of a mixed bag for me personally, but it's all very subjective anyway. People like and dislike certain kinds of characters, that's just how it is. Anyway, I like Rin. She's got potential. Her interactions with the protag are great. Kanade and Akane are pretty good too, but nothing too special for me at least. The teacher seemed like a fun character even though her appearance was extremely brief - definitely want to see more of her. Then there's two other characters that hasn't been introduced yet in the game... I get this feeling that they might be favourites for me honestly, just based on what they look like and what their personalities seems to be like (you made a post with them included a few pages back). Whether they have interesting stories attached to them or not, that's a different matter of course. The Bad: killerinsidee already brought up some points that I thought of as well. Not all of it is a big deal to me, but some of it is. * The intro. This is probably the biggest issue I had with the demo. Basically, I couldn't really connect with what was being told to me in the first few scenes. The Mindstorm was brought up, but... it didn't mean much to me at that point. And it was brought up in a kind of hard to understand and lengthy way. I probably would've liked it better if the protag's inner monologue was shorter in the beginning (less "flowery language"), and maybe if the Mindstorm stuff came up later on instead of right at the start. The world that this story takes place in seems to be normal - so the story could start out perfectly normal, but slowly introduce this foreign and interesting concept called Mindstorm. * Textbox size that changes depending on the amount of lines. Not a huge deal, but a little bit distracting for me. Isn't it a safe bet to just make it one size? * The transition from that "eruption blue light scene" to the rain scene (what killer said). Honestly not a big deal either for me, but it's definitely noticeable. It's a quick transition... too quick. It doesn't feel right. I think there are some more transitions like this in the game too, but because of the intensity of the blue light scene (sound+visuals), it felt extra abrupt when it switched over to the rain one. * Aoki... well, I have mixed feelings about him. It's not just bad or whatever. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't. However it's quite often hard for me to put myself in his shoes. Is he supposed to be really smart in general or something? He sure loves to utilize fancy words. But sure, I guess that might suit him. That could just be part of his personality. I'd probably get more and more used to him when going through the story. It's not easy in the the beginning though, for me. Aaaand that's most of it I think. Do I want to read the rest of it? Oh yes, definitely. I want to learn more about everything now that I've somewhat settled in with the story and some of the characters. [spoiler=Violet Hills demo]Plus, you know... the obvious mysteries. What's up with that tape recorder and the note it had? Who put it there? Is it just me, or didn't it seem like the contents of the note was meant for Aoki? But if so, who put it there and how could they possibly know that he would pick it up? Maybe I just missed the point though and it's not all that important. Aoki himself disregarded it I think. This was awesome and weird/unsettling: http://i.imgur.com/Mx9TdFG.jpg http://i.imgur.com/mdz8bsz.jpg Oh, and when you make a choice in the Mindstorm map, a somewhat disturbing and scary little sound plays... also intentional? Well done anyway. Everything about the Mindstorm (map) and all the places in it were great. Such creepy music that plays in The Fringe and in the school at nighttime... didn't expect that, and I love it. One more thing: The text displayed when you want to save and load a game was a nice touch. "Forever remember..." "Pick your memory...". It almost makes me think that saving and loading is directly connected with the story. Probably not though. But it does kinda fit in with Aoki's condition, right?

So this is a thing now: https://twitter.com/nekopara_pr/status/528142784490782720/photo/1 Japanese, English and Chinese language choices right from the get-go. VNDB: Neko Para Website: ?????NEKO WORKs It will have some animation thanks to the "E-mote" system. Example of what it will look like: Cute art style to say the least. I've seen these characters in some doujins before actually.

There's only one ending that comes to mind that could be called "normal", but it's easier to just call the endings by their given icons on the main menu. Anyway, don't have a save with just one ending completed myself unfortunately. Might be hard to find to be honest.

Epic shit. But I didn't expect less anyway. I did like that new scene with Rin and Illya. It was a good addition. Makes it feel a bit more connected, which isn't really a bad thing. It's not like it took away from anything else super important, as far as I know. We just get more stuff basically.

[video=youtube;xjbgj2V6-o0] I love this one. Gettin' all fired up to solve a mystery.

Super Danganronpa 2. My thoughts on it are based on everything except hands-on experience with the gameplay elements, since I watched a let's play of it and didn't actually play it myself. Let's just get this out of the way: DR2 did pretty much everything better than Danganronpa 1, in my opinion. Everything was turned up a notch. Yet I thought the first game was a ton of fun too... so... yea. This was damn awesome basically. The mysteries were great and most of the time very "advanced"... not sure if that's the right word for it, but let's just say that there were a lot of twists and turns around every corner of these mysteries. Much more so than in the first game. I like that stuff. The characters were also better for the most part I think. There were more of them that I actually cared about compared to DR1. What else... well, the main story = Fucking Crazy. But that's to be expected right? It's Danganronpa. Of course it's going to be fucking crazy... but also interesting at the same time. The characters are like that too. That's probably the biggest reason why I love these games (besides the murder mysteries). It's over the top madness and fun, but it also has those special moments that... well... gets to you and makes you think a lot. The music was, as expected, really good. Some songs from DR1 made a return, but there were plenty of new ones as well. [spoiler=Danganronpa 2 (all of it)] Oh yea, there were quite a lot more sad and memorable moments for me in this game compared to DR1. The majority of the trials ended up like that. The ending of the third trial wasn't exactly sad because, you know, crazy despair-filled Mikan. Or was it supposed to be sad? Sad because of Ibuki's death, sure, but the ending of the trial? Well whatever. I actually like Mikan even more now after she showed that side of herself at the end - probably because my favourite character in Danganronpa is Junko. Speaking of characters, Gundham was fucking awesome. His dialogue was always fun to see, and you know... he was simply a good comrade who valued life, though that side of him was often hidden within his crazy chuunbiyou talk. But that just made it even better. It makes perfect sense now that he was the Ultimate Breeder, doesn't it? His death hit me the hardest along with Chiaki's in Chapter 5. BUT! There is one thing I don't understand... or perhaps I don't even want to understand it. Well, near the end of the fourth trial, they made it sound as if Gundham and Nekomaru (or just Gundham? whatever) sacrificed themselves so that the others could escape and regain their willpower to live. I can accept that. In fact, I like it that way. I want to believe that that's exactly how it is. Because that's the kind of image I had of both those characters. But in that case... why did Gundham try so hard to conceal the crime? He did admit to it rather quickly when he knew it was all over, but what about before that? He fought pretty hard before that you know. Was he seriously wanting to sacrifice the others so that he alone could escape and live? That... is hard to believe. I seriously never thought that Gundham would be able to do something like that, which is why I was baffled and sad when it was becoming clear that he was the culprit in Chapter 4. I kept thinking; "Why Gundham? Would you really do that? Really?". But then they proposed the idea that he sacrificed (at least) himself for the sake of the rest, and then it started to make sense for me and I could accept it. So... ... yea... I'm just gonna keep believing that. That makes it a more memorable ending for him, right? Sonia had some good scenes related to Gundham by the way. Nice to see. She actually got a bit better and more fun as a character after the first half of the game or so I think. Ah, right, chapter 5-6. Holy shit. What to say really? Trippy and crazy as hell, especially with the Neo World Program stuff. It sure explained a lot of things happening earlier. Somewhat of a small twist, but - The fat Byakuya NOT being the real Byakuya? Didn't expect that to be honest. "Ultimate Imposter", very clever. Seeing the real Makoto, Kyouko and Byakuya was sweeeeeet of course. Nagito... even after everything is said and done, I don't like the guy. He was clever, yes. He was good at figuring things out in the trials. And maybe some of what he said about 'hope' was sensible(?). But even then, he was often annoying and tedious, probably because he was with you through so much of the game. Junko Enoshima. She's the best, and you better believe that her appearance in DR2 made me real happy. She's a great "final boss character" and I love her design. Too bad her English VA isn't nearly as good as her Japanese VA. Oh yea, by the way, those Ultimate Despairs? "Some even tried to have children with Junko's dead body." .......................... okey dokey. Hajime turning super saiyan was pretty epic and cheesy at the same time. But hey that's just the kind of thing Danganronpa would pull off. Never forget Chiaki.

Well, that was pretty straightforward. Not much to say. It's... how it happens in the VN. It's remarkable isn't it? How often do you get shows where they take exactly as much time as necessary? But yes, there's a difference in how certain scenes end up looking and sounding compared to the VN. Like this one. [spoiler=F/SN]And personally I really liked the lit up scenery with that slightly ominous Church on the Hill playing in the background. So if I had to choose one of the two then I'd go with the VN style in this case. But whatever, this is fine too. And I didn't expect that kind of music tune to play when they zoomed in on Illya and Berserker. A bit surprising, but it was cool and appropriate I think. "Big Bad Berserker, you should be worried"

Danganronpa 2. I'm not literally playing it since I don't even have a Vita to begin with, so no it doesn't quite count for this thread. But I'm watching a let's play of it that I think is good. And I wanted to comment on the game. I just "finished" case 2 in it. Holy fuck. The murder mysteries are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than they were in Danganronpa 1. At least these first two are. So much more mysterious and intriguing. The first case in DR2 compared to the first case in DR1? ... ... ... yea, no, there's no fucking competition. Way more interesting stuff. Same with the second case, in my opinion. But yes it is the sequel, so it's not that surprising. Overall it's better than DR1 so far.

[spoiler=F/SN VN] Yea I'm pretty sure it's more clear here than in the VN. Now there's been several hints in just two episodes. I mean the pendant scene is really damn obvious to be honest. It's just easier to notice it all when it's animated and when there's less details to take in overall... and it does get more focus than in the VN, yea. Either that or I'm just remembering wrong. Either way, I'm pretty sure I would've noticed it here in the anime even if I was completely new to the series. "Shirou picks up the pendant Rin left there... ... but... wait... Archer is the one who gave back the pendant to her in the prologue - an empty pendant at that..." HOWEVER, would someone normally come to the conclusion that Archer is somehow the future Emiya Shirou, etc. etc. from that? Maybe not. It's probably too early in the story in general for someone to come to that wild of a conclusion. It's not like they would be able to explain it properly in any way. It's simply too weird. Well, whatever. I don't mind. Depends entirely on just how long they take with each episode. One day? Okay, I can wait for that I think. Two days?........... maybe. Three days? Nope.

"Now then, with all these negative comments, you might be asking, “But GundamAce, if you don’t really like this game, then why are you translating it?” Well, how I started translating it is a rather long story that I won’t get into to avoid going on a tangent. But as for why I finished it? Well, because while I like the remake version of this (Secret Game: Killer Queen) better, I think this version still does several aspects better and has some differences worth seeing. For example, the plot twists are revealed much better and have more of an impact, a few characters are vastly different between versions, and the plot also unfolds in different ways. There’s also some in-jokes in SG:KQ that won’t make sense to people who haven’t played this version. So I translated it mainly for people who are interested in playing the whole series being able to see how things went in different ways and to see some of the content exclusive to this version. I do think the good moments are worth seeing. You just have to slog through a lot of dull moments to get to them. That said, if you don’t want to play the game just for that, I totally understand, and I don’t mind if you want to skip this title. I mostly recommend it for those who want to play SG:KQ but want to see the differences between the original and the remake and learn most of the plot twists in better told ways. If you’re not, well then, I’d say feel free to skip this one, or if you still want to play it, then set your expectations very low. I wouldn’t blame you." - Killer Queen Review |

Soooooooooooooooooooo much anime that one could watch. I agree with that F/SN though.

[spoiler=Ep01] http://i.imgur.com/gaVoBVQ.jpg

(Ep01) Did not disappoint. Again, staying on point with the VN (is that the right way to put it? whatever). I mean, how much even needs to be said? It was great. Exactly as it should be, in my opinion. The early "calm" parts are pretty much exactly what you get in the VN. Same with the later parts really... same kind of pacing. I bet SOME unimportant scenes were skipped, but that's to be expected. To be honest I think I like seeng these slice of life scenes animated more than I did reading them. Specifically the ones that take place at Emiya's house. Hmm... yea, maybe ... well it was good whatever the case. The Gae Bolg noble phantasm looked beautiful and awesome animated. Great fight in general. Oh yea, actually got the OP and ED this time. They were both nice. Some sweet, sweet teasers in the OP of things to come. [spoiler=F/SN]As short as it may have been, Illya's first appearance here was amazing. I love that "slightly" sinister nature of her. I believe the next episode will have both her and Berserker, so I'm looking forward to that. Now to wait another week for episode 2. Fuck me............................

http://i.imgur.com/7GZTMxn.jpg

This is a reply to the below post. Yes. Oh yea, you're right, I forgot. Seen some 9xxx yen priced games before at least. Not sure I've seen a 12800 yen one before though, like that http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=724555 ... unless I forgot. Well whatever

Yea, pretty fucking cheap to get all three visual novels for a price like that. Especially when you take into consideration the overall length of them. Most lengthy VNs tend to cost 8800 yen from what I've seen. Seems to be the standard price kinda? 8800 yen is 81.62 dollars (thanks coinmill). 81.62 dollars is 585 SEK (Swedish crowns). In Sweden, that is almost exactly the price of a big triple A console game (ex. Battlefield 4). That's very expensive when compared to what you can get on Steam for the same amount of money... mostly anyway... especially since Steam has things like Daily Sales and Flash Sales and whatnot. And I guess I still think it's fairly expensive to get a VN like Muv-Luv Alternative or Grisaia on PC for that price, even if you take into account the quality and length of those titles. But we're getting three such VNs for something close to that price. Pretty crazy. If they actually get on Steam and go on sale, then, even cheaper...

Good luck to them. It seems like a good setup.

Probably no one else gives a shit about this, but still: They've improved the sprites. Rena's hat got a bit bigger, which is good because the first version definitely had a small one compared to the original sprite. I like it. Now it makes more sense. And secondly, Mion's chest area... I don't even need to explain that one. http://i.imgur.com/RT1Vo2b.jpg (This is the first version of Mion's sprite, in case you were wondering what that looked like. Rena's as well.) http://i.imgur.com/LCd30YC.png http://i.imgur.com/Ym1yEBW.png There'll be more improvements for the rest of the characters as well later on, so that's good. If I had to guess: Less visible muscles on Tomitake, a more flat dress for Chie, probably some stuff on Takano, etc.

You don't have to worry about that because HF is (almost) certainly getting more than just one movie. I mean it doesn't make sense that it would only get one anyway. Why would ufotable make a clearly solid adaptation for UBW but then decide to get one movie for HF, which wouldn't be enough?`No they wouldn't I don't think. They're already familiar with the several movie-style format thanks to KnK too, so it wouldn't be something new to them. At the moment on MAL it says that HF is 1 movie, but that's because ufotable hasn't said anything about how many movies there'll be yet. But yes we'll have to wait quite a long time until HF comes out. I want to see that the most but what can you do.

Yep. And that's pretty much the only negative that could be said for the first episode (assuming you didn't watch the pre-screening). But it won't even be that once the BD releases and everyone ends up watching that instead. Don't see a reason why they would only show that scene in the pre-screening and nowhere else, so it gotta be in the BD at least. It's actually a pretty good and informative scene if I remember correctly from the VN... but the kind of information that scene tells you shows up elsewhere in future scenes as well I think, so it should be fine. I don't think scenes will be omitted in the later episodes since those will at least be of standard episode length. And no pre-screening involved with them either.