Haika

whew, Just finished DEARDROPS. And I must say I'm quite pleased. Awesome Music. Awesome Storyline. Overall the visuals were great. H-scenes and ero content was a bit lacking but I think the other parts really make up for it. I highly recommend it to others, and I think it's a prime candidate for an anime somewhere down the line(or so at least I'm hoping). Now I just need to focus and finish up G-Senjou no Maou before I start something new.

Well that was awesome. I'm glad I chose these routes to play in the order I did. As much as I liked the end to the Riho route, the Kanade one seemed to fit at least as much, if not better(Especially for Shoichi imo). The scene where she was singing in the hospital was spine-tingling. And Magic Mirror is an awesome tune. It might even be my favorite of the actual singing tracks. (Though Stardust with the violin comes very close.) My only regret at this point(besides the still wanting a video of a concert) is that she never joins DEARDROPS. The opening listing her as vocals for the band, and showing them all there with Shoichi on the violin seemed like the perfect version of the band to me. It bums me out a bit that they never reached that point, though the stories all worked out nicely in their own ways. Until the very end I think I expected Kanade to fail, and have the band pick her up. It's nice to be surprised sometimes.

I've never been fond of the violence and random beating type tsundere. It falls into that gender stereotyping that gives many more freedoms to females than to males. More of a cultural acceptance I suppose. A girl being standoffish and hitting a guy, sometimes repeatedly, is just accepted and the guy is supposed to just be fine with it. Yeah... No. A guy trying that with a girl would end up in jail. The description from wherever about Tsundere says, 'to turn away in disgust'; I find that far more acceptable than the idea of a girl bringing violence into the picture. Less so because the guy needs to be protected I suppose, than the fact he isn't allowed to stand up for himself in typical society culture(Not that the men in these situations in our media usually bother to even want to stand up for themselves), and that pisses me off. I think at the point of anime like Zero no Tsukaima it's more about S&M than a proper Tsundere. The way the main character interacts with the so-called 'tsundere' there really pushed me away after a few episodes. I thought the concept for the show held great potential and I still do, but it just irritates me to try and watch it. I get the same sort of creepy vibe from many S&M elements in anime, manga, and even some VN's. Shows like Dears really give me a headache sometimes. I suppose it's because part of me can see myself liking that type of thing, yet other parts of me yell very loudly that it's wrong and I end up being tossed in the middle like a salad. Either way, that's a bit of a tangent. But I think it all ties in with people not really understanding Tsundere, and blurring the lines between it, other character personalities, and sexual fetishes. In the end it's just a Label, and people really should try and focus more on each individual character than some vague personality concept.

I think the issue here is that many people don't understand the attraction to what we call 'loli' I think far too many people assume it means child porn and there's such a huge moral issue with that it becomes something hidden and shunned. Personally, I can see the view of those who enjoy it. While I'm not a huge Loli fan myself, I have run into decently good experiences from VN's. Koihime Musou comes to mind with having a couple very good Loli characters. With the trouble of telling people in real life about VN's and your own fetishes being the root of this issue, I think it comes back to that question once again. It's not something that I'd bring up in casual conversation, it would need to be someone I trusted and was getting to know better than a common acquaintance. And even then, what we call Loli freely on the net is vastly extreme and taboo to most people(usually due to that lack of understanding), so a full reveal of that might be even harder to come by.

Money is easy for me. Fill the shop with multiple weapons when I have materials, set everyone with decent service skills to selling, then I wait a month, and bam. I'm rolling in it. That along with selling treasure items at the church have made my money issues non-existant since like chapter 3 of my first run, when I realized I could just pass time instead of going to another dungeon to make stuff sell. As of right now, chapter 4 in my first NG+ I have around 300k sitting around. Mostly saving to enhance Yuela's clothes this time around, since I did spend quite a bit on Serawi's in the first playthrough to get those H-Scenes.

hmm, I actually stopped reading this about 275 chapters in. So it's news to me that it ended. I do agree however about it turning into a typical shounen drivel. The latter stuff just didn't seem to work as well and felt a bit stretched. So I think it actually coming to an end is a good thing. Here's to hoping we can get a good anime reboot that follows the manga this time instead of all the crappy off-shoot things we've been seeing.

Directly from the Fakku tag description: Tsundere (ツンデレ) is a Japanese character development process which describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time. The word is derived from the terms tsun tsun (ツンツン), meaning to turn away in disgust, and dere dere (デレデレ) meaning to show affection. That mix of aloofness and standoffishness, sometimes with even violence that eventually crumbles away into love and care. That's how I see the trait we call Tsundere.

Oh god, Rimu route in Deardrops... she just said 'Forget it! Should I hit your head until you forget?' And all I can think about is that scene with Kohakuren in Kamidori, heh. Those two reminding me of each other never would have happened in my wildest dreams, but that's how it is...

Hmm, saying stuff from 2010 onward makes it a bit more difficult to recommend things. That's technically only 3-4 seasons if I understand how the anime stuff goes. I haven't really been completely impressed by many new shows of late, I have high hopes for Sankarea, but that doesn't start for another month or so. I suppose you could try Usagi Drop, as something very original. But it is also extremely different from most other anime, and may not be everyone's cup of tea. I'm also enjoying Kill Me Baby as a random comedy outlet. Usually base comedies don't work well with me, but the absurdity in this one seems to work. It reminds me of Lucky Star, and how great and relaxing that was. Though I don't think KmB is nearly as good so far.

^--Do want. I've been playing Deardrops all day today(night... morning now?) since I've spent most of the week playing Kamidori non-stop. I've been playing it more on the weekdays and reading more story-based novels during the weekends. Mostly because the overwhelming passion and addiction I had for Kamidori is wearing off as I get into NG+ grindy stuff. There's still more I want to see, but I need some breaks into something more relaxing. Technically, I'm also part way through G-Senjou no Maou as well, that one is just too heavy to read for an extended period and I need something lighter. I have Tears to Tiara and Canvas 2 downloaded and in the waiting list as well, so I have plenty of things on my plate for the future.

Oh man, I just finished my first route in Deardrops. This VN is wonderful, such a refreshing change from the typical high school slice of life. I just finished up Riho's route, and will probably go Rimu next. As to seconds... I'd have to actually say no. As much as I felt the heart-sucking emptiness in the pit of my stomach at the end of a really good story from this, I also feel like the way they took it wrapped things up nicely. Either way, incoming end of route reviewish-rant thing below: Spoiler stuff here, read at your own risk: Certain feelings like him leaving her to go abroad, and back to the oppressive craziness that made him snap in the first place worried me as the final concert happened. However by the time he was on the plane and they were preforming while being separate I was nearly ready to stand up and go find an instrument myself. The feelings of heavy rock from Riho being pissed at people as they were looking for sponsors, and the way he passed on the guitar to the young girl just makes me bask in the feeling of pure awesome that runs up my spine as I think back to it. End Spoiler Riho herself really makes me wish I could play any sort of rock instrument. I've seen a few 'rocker' type heroines in VN's but Riho just makes me smile in a slightly creepy way when she was on the screen. She has that really alluring sexiness rocker girls can have, without being too much. The tsundere part wasn't overbearing, and I just overall like the character. I do have two negatives for the novel however, one being that the H-scenes seemed very lackluster to me. The art there seemed sloppy and distorted. This from the few scenes in this route. I actually thought Riho looked the best nude in the one bath CG, than any of the full H-scene ones. At this point after finishing the route, I'd almost trade away the H-scene replays, for the ability to replay the main concert scenes over again. Those cg's really felt like the characters were drawn the best. At least to me. The other negative would be the lack of an animated music video. I really really really want to see one of the songs with them playing. I the little videos for each of the routes in Katawa Shoujo have me spoiled a bit, but is one little animation too much to ask for? The slide-show type intro thing didn't really do it for me. I guess along that nature I will hope for an anime version of the game, because I think it would make for an amazing one. The beach concert alone would make me watch. XD So far the story gets a 5 star rating from me. I don't know how the other routes will pan out, but if they are half as good as Riho's I know I won't be disappointed. It will be a hard act to follow however. Edit: aaand just finished Rimu's route in a matter of hours. That was... absurd and short. Riho's took me most of two days to finish, and Rimu's randomness was done in a matter of hours. I suppose the route fit her as a character, but it felt very strange. Oh well, onward to the next path. Going Yayoi next, saving Kanade for last, as I'm more interested in how that'll work out with the concerts and music I like so much. Edit2: Just finished Yayoi's route. That was short, but very sweet. I liked it quite a bit more than I thought I would. The Guitar Princess was quite a bit cuter than I expected, both in H-scene and out. And the story behind what happens with her Guitar is pretty impressive to me as well.

yeah, the NG+ stuff does carry over. And I've got so many armor enhancing gems now it's kinda silly, the +move and +skill% ones are nice. However, I too have been selling the treasures. Just got the orange jellies quest done, so I'm expecting there will be gemstone farming in my future. I also just recently got an item call Marwen's ring. That gives 1.5x stat growths upon level up, that I wish I had ages ago. I can imagine if someone really wanted to get the most out of their characters, that this would be a very important item.

I think the difference between good and bad comes from how much character depth the characters actually have. Are they a character who just happens to be Tsundere as part of it, or are they a Tsundere as their whole character. If it's the latter and the tsundere part is everything that defines them, then it usually ends up being a bit lackluster. That's my 0.02$ dropped into the bucket.

Time for another of my favorites: *hums along*

Ok, I just caught myself stopping my VN and feeling like the world was crashing around me for several minutes. We've had conversations here about the feelings of emptiness or emotional highs we get from these games, but I felt like I needed to post a new thread. I'm playing Deardrops, and one of the characters has firmly decided to dive full into music, abandoning societal norms. And her excuse is that she doesn't want an escape route that might make her abandon her dream because of her human weakness. This hit home. HARD. Beyond this I don't even know what happens, because I stopped and began writing this. Things may take a totally different turn as the VN continues. I don't know how else to explain it, but I just had to stop the novel and stare into space for several moments. I've sort of collected myself(still feeling enough to want to post this however) and reassured myself that my life is going the way /I/ want it to go. Not the way someone else wishes it, or how society decides it should be, or even just just the path of least resistance. I may still be fooling myself, life is cruel and harsh sometimes. Even so, I love it when the media I enjoy so much moves me to these deep levels. These emotional moments in VN and eroge just seem to come out of nowhere sometimes. I'm wondering if others have had experiences like this, and if so, what happened to bring it on, and how did you deal with it?

Wow, SB, you're playing the game without using Ful's Mill. o.o I can barely kill anything without swapping that accessory around to my different characters. By the time I get through all three main heroine routes, most of my team will be having one of those equipped at all times. And yes, I'd go with armor 100% of the time with the angel beads question. As good as that hammer may seem, it's still elemental. Meaning some enemies will be resistant or even absorb the damage from it. And from the sound of things, the skills on that armor are much more useful.

Bah, I just met Roka, and now my hopes are dashed... Maybe there are H-scenes and you just haven't found them yet? There's that odd segment showing Wil in the scene room. So far these NG+ angels are a bit lackluster in personality. And is it just me or is the Mare one drawn messily? Makes me sad.

I'm finding in my NG+ run here that I do every map until it says complete on it, then move on. Stockpiles some alchemy mats without feeling like I'm actively grinding. But it's always nice to know there's more hidden stuff like this. I really do enjoy the depth this game has, even if the story is a bit standard at times.

Mel is definitely gorgeous, and her story is pretty awesome too. But I've had mediocre success with her combat ability. The Reaper is awesome as well, but feels unfinished, maybe it's because I haven't leveled her much since she started so high level. I also know there is some NG+ stuff that I haven't gotten to yet, so we will see how things turn out as we go. On a side note, I think Kohakuren's voice is the best in the game. It just seems to add so much to her personality and feel to the character.

If I recall that was the one that said Yuidora Woodland, and ended up in the Amurent Forestland west of town instead. Might want to check there for the scene. Also... my god... Yuela with double action...

So it seem like tons of us are playing this game. I was curious now that some time has passed, what's your favorite character in the game? and why? Mine is probably Sunia. Some of the others come close, but her shyness and amusing plot points really make me smile. I also think she is shaping up into one heck of a combatant after her 2nd upgrade that gives her the Ice Blade attack. She has good range, and while a little low on hp, her defenses seem to be decent.

Hard to say if they have full on H-scenes. As they don't have any segments in the 'replay' section of the extras. They have a bunch of CG's however. I just started my NG+ so haven't explored every bit of that just yet.

Sort of. There are side quests that end up adding other characters, and certain events happen depending on what level your characters are. Other than that, you can go to repeated battles with no further story change after you do the first battle on each map. Basically this is a rpg game with VN story between battles. Sort of like Fire Emblem, but with repeatable maps and a great deal of items and customization possible. If you are looking for a typical sit back and relax VN to read, this isn't a good choice. There's quite a bit of good story, but the core of it is more a game than a novel.

Yeah, I'd be sending my powerful AOE-ers at that group. Some Carpet Fire from Serawi, some Io Rune from Emi, then probably thunder breath and the tidal wave aoes from the dragon and afnac to clean up. Don't know what most of those characters you have are, I assume the NG+ angels. But I've never had much luck with any of the angels as far as powerhouses. Melodiana is ok... but she's much more melee than ranged, the other one I have Elizawhatsit, just seems a mess. However she is a mage type, so I might bring her into a battle against all those annoying Wraith types. Suina would probably be awesome as well, Frozen blade eats them up. Melee magic for the win. Also, good to know about the level cap thing. I'll be sure to ignore that one when I go NG+.

I assume that's new game+? I'm just getting ready to finish the game for the first time, and don't remember that. Spectre types in general annoy me though... so it's nice(not really) knowing I have that waiting for me. heh.