IllyrioM

I had many troubles with the music as well, but i ended up using this 'trick' i read somewhere; that when the game starts to get laggy you click on the X to close the window/game and then cancel it, the music then loads fine for a while... i played with my mouse cursor just on the X and when a change of scene came (and therefore and obvious change in the BGM track) i applied the above trick. It's a bit more troublesome when the change in track happens in the middle of scene (coinciding with a change of mood in the particular scene, like a normal conversation having a turn to the comedic or romantic) but it's still 'workable'. Not an ideal solution, of course, but i found it better than to play with no music.

To each his/her own of course, but that little part there about 'different than the norm' is incorrect: the typical tropes used to create 'sad endings' are quite common and quite old as well. Plenty of them used on VN's and all sorts of media. Here's an old, super commonly used/done one; creating an emotional connection between the audience and a prominent character throughout the story and have that character killed, mostly in a dramatic fashion, at the last scene nearing the end (at the height of conflict resolution or 'climax'), therefore creating greater impact and furthering the sense of 'loss' the audience member experiences at the conclusion of the piece.

Hmm, seems nice. *listed*

Life's are overrated.

Heh, was planning to make a review of this myself since i played it recently but you've beat me to it. No matter though, as your review is quite good and i agree with pretty much everything. The only thing i would add/say is that the game can be quite the stubborn bastard when it comes to the music, not it's quality mind you, on that i agree with your assessment, but to the getting it to play properly part.

It's a bit of a complex story, sure, but it's not really a complicated read (and i'm not saying this out of some dumb smugness or anything), it's just perhaps the absolute need to follow a walkthrough (or two) for the first half of the game. Pretty long though... and i dare say it should've been even longer in some parts, especially at the extra 'new game+' endings, feels a bit incomplete there, like certain 'finale' implications are not taken into account properly, but i guess that should have required some other extra stuff put in the initial routes, and i guess the makers run out of money or time or something for it... now, the proper realising of those implications + what i read somewhere that they originally intended to make the second half play like the first one, and the resulting sheer scope and vastness of what they had intended with it is just mind boggling. Heh. The art is actually pretty nice for it's age, lots of very good CG's and the sprites aren't half bad at all considering the limited palette and resources they had to work with.

So none of you guys have played YU-NO? i was kinda hoping for a little discusion about it (to see if i can excise it out of my head). Heh.

Just finished YU-NO and wow.... just wow. Although it made me raaage! a few times, especially on the 'epilogue' part, game really likes to kick you in the balls some times... BUT talk about an epic story! wow... (did i mentioned that already?) Personally, a little unfulfilled thingy for me: Everyone should play this. 'nuff said.

I'm fine with sticking to 7 (which is supported, will continue to be for some time, and doesn't have 8's retarded stuff) so why would it be a problem for me?

Stopped reading there. (srlsy, what the hell would you do that for)

lol (forum needs a lol emoticon) nah too much hassle in turn to be googling shit deadlock it seems

Some of you guys are just too knowledgeable about this stuff; would it kill you to name the source of the character instead of just the name? (for those who either don't know or don't remember specific names)?

Ok, since interactivity is paramount to me, in addition to the generally used/accepted criteria of story, characters, art, etc, i'll be considering Interactivity/Replayability as well, as one of the main (if not the main) criteria used to evaluate, or more honestly perhaps, give my opinion, about certain eroge/vn i've played, starting with this one for the moment and perhaps some others later on. So, Critical Point: Interactivity/replayability: 25 different endings... need i say more? Ok, i'll expand a little bit: the game's a 'pure' VN type, meaning there's no gameplay, and no point and click or roaming around adventure style, the choices are all in-dialog and text choices, but the fact there's such a variety of outcomes more than makes up for interaction and replayability. While the outcomes of a series of choices may turn out unexpectedly, the branching choices presented make sense and the ease by which the player may backtrack or re-play to take a different path and obtain a different outcome is made so by providing a large number of available save slots, quick skip, and more importantly, a relatively short path to each outcome. Most outcomes/endings are of the bad-ending types of course since the game doesn't have game over screens instead offering short, nice (well, probably not so nice, ouch!) result of your poor/unfortunate choices, but the good endings, while still rather short, are of a proper length and pace (to the game's general pace and feel) and give a nice sense of closure to that particular story path, especially the 'True Ending' one. (Though i have to admit one little detail bothered me a lot about that True Ending, but i suppose it's really a matter of taste): One last thing, when i mentioned above 'particular story path', what i meant is that the story actually changes depending on the path of choices you take, the 'ultimate bad guy' could be a different person, or it's motivations could be different, or it's methods... and while there's an obvious main plot that has the greater amount of presence and outcomes, these 'alternate' ones are also pretty sensible and well plotted. So, in conclusion, there's a very good variety of paths, endings and even plots to experience here. Characters: while there's not a whole lot of character development to be seen here (which makes sense since the story takes place in a very short period of time), there is indeed some to be encountered in the 2 major characters of the true ending. Not so much among the rest; the characters mostly have established personalities and react accordingly to the actions taking place. Some can be very minor and have little impact, like Maretta, and others yet have very 'bad luck' all around, like the reporter Monica (damn...) Story: a sci-fi story, nothing really elaborate but a rather simple yet nice 'adventure' story, and in the 'truer' paths with some good and straight 'ghost in the machine' reflexions. Music/Art: while the music is apropiate to the moods and circumstances, it is not really something to write about. As for the Art; a somewhat colorful style, very nice to look at despite it's age, though perhaps not as overly detailed/dramatic, it gives a nice personality to the game and blends in with the themes, stories and characters very well. Ero stuff: there's a good amount of it, which may appear even greater considering the relative shortness of each ending paths. The majority of it is justifiable given the setting and actually a part of the plot (both the true and alternate ones), though how much that particular plot device may appear unnecessary to some is a matter of opinion/taste i suppose. In my opinion, it does not come as redundant or extraneous but rather well put, then again, i like ero in my eroge/vn, and the scenes in this one i find rather apropiate and nice. While tastes and preferences may vary from person to person, this game had all the right ingredients and in the right measure for me: it had a nice sci-fi story (with shorter alternate/changed versions at that!), a lot of interactivity/replayability, convincing and entertaining (yet not overly dramatic) situations that derive from the action taking place, some 'tensely' good action scenes and relatively nice art for it's age. Overall, a very entertaining and good one that i'd recommend to anyone regardless of their preferences but especially to those that look for similar criteria in their eroge/vn's.

lol ok 6/10 then

Implying that what i wrote isn't true. Also, 1/10 Stop posturing.

Having read the latest discussion in this thread i must point out a couple of things: - Implying that sadder, 'darker' and/or melodramatic equals better 'depth' (deeper stuff!!... which i suppose equates to better quality) is ridiculous. - Implying that people who don't like forced melodrama and depressing stuff are somewhat superficial and/or incapable of understanding such is especially ridiculous. - Implying (or rather, outright claiming) that VN's (translated, and so far) are not easy to read and understand, that is, very simple writing, is entirely dependant upon one's own reading level, literary knowledge and capabilities. As simple as that. To put it in D&D terms; when you're low to mid level you might think Charm, Stinking Cloud or Fireball to be superb spells, but when you've reached high levels and cast things like Chain Contingencies, Time Stops and Summon Planetars... not so much. - When it comes to things that don't have gameplay elements and are just what the name says 'visual novels' there cannot be any 'casual', 'skilled' or 'hardcore' categories discussion outside the fact that it just relates to the enjoyment levels of the genre, that is, how much do you like it and how much time do you spend on it. Basically it's just: "i like it more than you for i have tried them more than you (including the better written ones) so i'm a 'hardcore' vn reader while you are a 'casual' one". - Now, when it comes to things that do have gameplay mechanics, yes, i agree on the usage of the aforementioned categories as they relate to the effort involved in both dominating and understanding such gameplay elements to a high degree of competency or mastery... But, as this seems like quite the niche, i don't see much in the way of mainstreaming 'streamlining' dumbing down seen in other gaming genres happening here.

Agreed, especially for rpg and strategy games. I'm not gonna pretend to have good knowledge of DirectX stuff, but i do know that having some newer/latest DirectX versions installed does not necesarily mean you have all the old versions required for some games to run installed. I've seen people have this problem for a game like Fallout/Fallout2.

Really? that's a strange thing for a windows OS given their tendency to continually drop more and more support and backwards compatibility features with each new OS release. Probably something to do with the version you used (perhaps one of them 'bare bones' versions) or a lack of something else (probably some old DX versions but they can be found on the net). Ive installed various oldie games from 96, 98, etc in W7 Ultimate without any or very little problems.

So Holiday photos eh? hehe... Thanks.

Tsk tsk

Here's Mediafire's excuses; For the first file: The file you attempted to download is an archive that is part of a set of archives. MediaFire does not support unlimited downloads of split archives and the limit for this file has been reached. MediaFire understands the need for users to transfer very large or split archives, up to 10GB per file, and we offer this service starting at $1.50 per month. For the second and third files: The file you attempted to download is an archive that is damaged or possibly encrypted. MediaFire does not support unlimited downloads of broken or encrypted archives and the limit for this file has been reached. This file may only be distributed from a premium account. Only the 4th file and the savegame are accesible. I would appreciate it (hopefully mediafire doesn't come up with any new bs, like having a download size limit for free or nonresgistered users or something like that) As for the 100% savegame though, there's no need for that, as i clarified above, the last two links are still available (although since you said you already starting uploading i guess this is moot).

Links can't be accessed anymore.

I'll give it a try... (i have the browser set to private browsing and this is the only place that i get this auto log out).

So i can log back in quicker? sure, but what about the auto-log out?

Ok, so i start writing a post, take a few minutes at it only to realize when finished that i've been automatically logged out. It's not really a big deal since i can just copy the post, but having to log in again is a nuisance. Can this be set somewhere in the profile settings or something or is it an unavoidable 'feature'? Thanks.