boukyaku

グリザイアの楽園 (Grisaia no Rakuen) took me longer than anticipated to finish. It's definitely shorter than Kajitsu but it's much longer than Meikyuu. I finished it last night and ended up playing Galaxy Angel a little to clear my head. First off, it's difficult to give a report on this VN since when one talks about a sequel, they have to assume the reader already went through the prequel. In this case, I don't think there's anyone who's gone through Meikyuu so will keep things as simple as possible. When starting you first have three choices, all of which one one is selectable. When completing the main route, you will than have four choices. The prequel to Kajitsu, how it all came to be and how the girls settled into their environment(cage), the main route, the main route after, and... Yeah... Hscenes... Yay... TRANSLATION: Same difficulty as Meikyuu and I can't compare to Kajitsu as I didn't play it in RAW form. There's more technical turns coming from medicine, diseases, etc, and technological phrases dealing with computer systems and the such. Military/government/political terms tended to jump over from Meikyuu (and I assume Kajitsu). Grammar is still on a really basic level except when a certain someone opens their mouth (no not Makina) and makes me sit and reread the fucking sentence for five fucking minutes to figure out what the fuck is going on. At this point I'm wondering if this character is stroking their own intellectual cock for fun. Unfortunately there's no Sachi to translate like she does for Makina occasionally. I also encountered a unique problem (maybe it's the same for Kajitsu, I did not encounter this in Meikyuu). The writer switches the narrative viewpoint multiple times in one scene. For example, you read Sachi's impressions of something, then the viewpoint changes to Yuuji, read his impressions, viewpoint changes back to Sachi, and then to Michiru. This was extremely confusing at first but you kind of get used to it. Take note though that I don't translate to English when reading Japanese. The meaning/pictures/shape/feelings/etc naturally come to mind when reading the language. MUSIC: Much, much better than Kajitsu, and better still than Meikyuu. I really liked the tracks for Rakuen. Not only did they do their job to set the atmosphere but there are some good melodies/rhythms as well. Naturally, the tracks switch to Kajitsu when transitioning back to school or a similar atmosphere arises and same goes for parts from Meikyuu, mainly Yuuji's past. When clicking on BGM option, there are four pages of tracks, as many as 25 per page. GRAPHICS: Same art as the predecessors of course, but for some reason everything seemed clearer and sharper. There's also 3D animation mixed into the bunch. This VN contains more action than Kajitsu and Meikyuu combined. Lots of stuff going on, you will never find a dull moment. Lots of emotional scenes as well. There's one particular scene that's incredibly beautiful but at the same time extremely depressing. If you think Meikyuu puts you through a roller coaster ride, Rakuen shoots you straight to Heaven(HA!). Here's my preference of the heroines: 1. Thanatos: One of my favorite heroines in any VN to date. 2. Asako: I really like this one. A really kick ass woman. 3. Yumiko = Michiru = Sachi = Makina = Amane: These girls end up kicking ass in their own way and are all crucial to the game. Yes even Michiru ends up being extremely important in a very unforeseeable way. I was pretty neutral towards the gang in Kajitsu but ended up liking them due to their growth in Rakuen. The extreme side of each personality gets toned down to a reasonable level and this makes them more likable (at least to me). There's nothing left unsaid when you reach the end. No loose threads, no loopholes, everything gets answered. I really enjoyed this VN. I will place it up there with FSN and MLA. You guys are in for a real treat. The wait is worth it! With that said, I'm done for a while. At least until this December.

I ended up finishing グリザイアの迷宮 (Grisaia no Meikyuu) last night in its raw form. I had to use a dictionary since at least 20% of this game contains technical terms. After playing this "sequel", I firmly believe that Kajitsu is mainly to prepare the readers for whats to come. Here's a little comparison: Kajitsu = MLE Meikyuu = MLU Rakuen = MLA (Maybe I'm wrong with this, no idea what to expect from Rakuen) I am not comparing these two directly, but just pointing out that comparing Meikyuu to Kajitsu is like comparing MLU to MLE. For those who don't know, MLE and MLU is mainly to prepare you for MLA. Same thing with the Grisaia trilogy (still, I don't know what to expect from Rakuen so just assuming here). On to the game then, there's no route to choose from. You have the heroine afters, which I skipped completely, an hscene and short scene option, which I skipped as well, and the main route, Yuuji's past. I did not run into a single choice. The main route will throw you in one hell of a roller coaster ride. This game WILL NOT be released overseas. EVER. There's much less comedy compared to Kajitsu, but when it hits, it hits hard, much harder than Kajitsu... I won't say anymore, but playing every heroine route in Kajitsu is important. I will say this though, I would start Meikyuu once (or if) both Meikyuu and Rakuen are translated. The cliff hanger in Meikyuu is just god awful and I'm glad I have a chance to continue immediately to Rakuen. It's the only reason why I will call Meikyuu a sequel, otherwise, it's basically a prequel to Kajitsu. It answers all the loop holes and mysteries (except one) of Kajitsu dealing with Yuuji's past. Rakuen is the first VN I will play that was recently released. For the most part, all VNs I've played are at least over two years old due to the time it takes to translate. Rakuen is, as of now, 3 months old. Unfortunately, it will probably take over two years to fully translate both games assuming everything progresses smoothly. Yuuji's route practically has its own soundtrack. Whenever you transition to the current time and see the Mihama students interacting, it switches back to Kajitsu soundtrack (which I didn't like very much). I liked Yuuji's soundtrack much more, it varies from jazz, to classical and techno/rave with added in guitar melodies. The most interesting character of Yuuji's past was Asako. What a woman! The art was the same as Kajitsu, no change there. I don't think there will be any problems with translation. The grammar in this game is extremely simple and the hardest part is getting past the lingo and terminology that gets thrown out whenever dealing with the military, spies, warfare, etc. The writing style was interesting to say the least. I usually play translated games because reading Japanese takes me 2-3 times longer than English and I also have to focus a lot more to fully grasp what is going on. This also take a lot more energy. BTW, the largest problem with both Kajitsu and Meikyuu is the monologue. It's way too long. It makes Kajitsu feel forcefully stretched. This isn't as noticeable in Meikyuu since it's not even half the length of Kajitsu if you're only playing Yuuji's past but still really annoying. That's my report on this "sequel". I don't think anyone will be disappointed except those who hate Amane/Makina route (I feel it's the same heavy atmosphere). I will start Rakuen tonight and try to finish within 3-4 days.

I finished reading Grisaia no Kajitsu last night ending with Yumiko route. First let me say that during the common route I developed no particular interests for any of the heroines. None of them hit any of my tastes, that's all. With that, I ended up going through whichever heroine route presented itself to me first, and imo, this is the way people should be arranging the order. Why? Simple, after each route there were a few things mentioned before starting another route that's related to whichever route you finished. Example: after finishing Amane route and before starting Sachi route, Amane will say a few things related to her route which you won't catch unless going through her route in the first place. It's real subtle. Another example: before starting Michiru route, Sachi will whisper a few things related to her route. This pattern repeats itself, but do as you wish. GRAPHICS: This is the first VN that I've played in 1920x1080 native resolution. It looks beautiful on my 27" IPS monitor. The artwork is pretty good as well but nothing anything like ef though this is practically a matter of preference. Someone may very well prefer the artwork of F/SN over this. The animation effects are OK but nothing like MLA where character faces animate in real-time. The game does utilize some lighting routines from DX9 though. MUSIC: Honestly, I did not find it that good. It's good enough to set the mood but that's about it. Nothing special here. Moving on... TRANSLATION: There are two very distinct styles of translating. Direct, and indirect. I prefer translating direct, or literally whatever the character(newspaper, articles, etc) is saying even to the point of it sounding a little awkward. Meaning, word for word, nothing omitted, nothing modified. English and Japanese is so different, even in the way you must think between the two languages, that some indirect translation is unavoidable (a whole paragraph can be written in one sentence for Japanese and you will probably end up needing to split it up into sentences for English though this only happens in literature like articles/newspaper/novels(no not VN)/etc). I don't like indirect translation because this ends up tainting the meaning of the medium by whoever is TLing in their own image. With that said, the translation of Kajitsu went beyond indirect, they practically added their own writing to the text. This is a definite no-no in my books. This went so far that I was usually confused in whether the TLing is completely off or they just modified the body to their own writing style. That's my take though I doubt anyone who doesn't understand Japanese will notice anything strange. In short, the translation was either a hit or a miss for most of the time. CHARACTERS: Truly a unique group of characters this time. One of the high points of the game is watching the interactions between characters (no not just the heroines, but everyone). Speaking of heroines, here's my ranking: 1. Makina: I did not find her that cute but found her and her route the most interesting of the bunch. A smile would spread across my face each time she opens her mouth. 2. Amane: I did not like the heroine that particularly well but a certain event in the route is the highlight of this game. And a certain silver-haired character in that event practically made the route for me. 3. Yumiko: I kind of liked this heroine and her route was not that bad either. There are as many people who like this route as there are who dislike it. 4. Michiru: The only thing I liked about Michiru is the voice actress. This heroine was too much of a clown for me. I was really enjoying the first-half of the route mainly because I just finished Amane route and was thinking Michiru was somehow connected to a certain silver-haired character but the route quickly became dull for me when the truth was learned. 5. Sachi: I wasn't really fond of Sachi or her route. I was really banging my head against the wall trying to finish this route. It really just dragged on for me and I think it's even longer than Makina route. It adds a little bit to the backstory of Yuuji but that's about it. I think this an OK VN but because I wasn't interested in any of the heroines I probably did not enjoy it as much as others. I don't know if it's because I wasn't in the mood or something else but none of them really cliqued with me except a sub-character in Amane route. Last, I'm wondering whether or not I should just continue with Meikyuu and Rakuen as they seem to be really short compared to Kajitsu (Meikyuu and Rakuen combined is still smaller than Kajitsu). It seems that Meikyuu is dealing with Yuuji's past with a nasty cliffhanger in the end while Rakuen is hell and the aftermath. Anyway, I seemed to have developed an unhealthy obsession with a certain silver-haired character so will probably go through the trilogy this week before the semester begins.

Not exactly, there's still the "true" (aka agave) route which ends up branching into the sequel.

Finished Michiru route last night... Erm, don't know why it's regarded so highly or preferred so much more than say, Amane. In the first half of the route I was almost suspecting that she had some kind of connection to you-know-who from the camping trip but was disappointed again to learn of her history towards the end. I think the writers could've done something great with this one but it ended up being too dull for me. I was kind of looking forward to Yumiko since I'm expecting a story similar to Makina. Too bad it sounds like her route has many flaws... Will probably finish this game tomorrow night. I also finished Sachi route couple days ago. Here are my impressions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eYSpIz2FjU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nenBk2OQZOA

For those who love the music in ef, don't just stop with the game OST. Apparently a good portion from the game music is missing from the OST. You can find the rest of it in the anime OST (they're practically the same music). ef / MLA really has good art and character animation, brings everything to life. I'm wondering why newer VNs don't apply the same techniques (like Grisaia no Kajitsu). You would think everyone would've copied and utilized the same engine by now.

Just finished Amane route. I was thinking it was a pretty powerful route during the camping trip but the anti-climactic ending ruined it for me. Oh well, at least a certain silver-haired / red-eyed individual made things very interesting and No idea who will be next, either Sachi or Michiru, whoever comes first. Don't have any particular fondness of any heroine for this one so just takin' them as they appear. Would've really been interesting to have a certain silver-haired / red-eyed individual route but with a different protagonist and a different game ^_^.

Just finished Makina route, can definitely tell it's the most unique route with the most unique heroine. Off to start Amane then.

I also want to see a Julia route. I just think of Cowboy Bebop whenever I see Yuuji and Julia interact for some reason. I mean, come on, look at her character design(physical) and name... -_-

Playing Grisaia since everyone I see just won't STFU about it . Currently on the common route. I can see why Michiru is popular but about the only reason why I am liking her so far is because her voice actress is the same for Kokoro from Majikoi (who is one of my fav in that VN. Apparently my version of the game has voice actresses from the PSP version?). Currently none of the heroines has taken any of my interests so far.

It would be great if people would post these quotes in the original language. Everything I've read is practically something from the translator. We don't know what's been added/omitted etc.

It's something I read from shoutbox(looks at Chocolatemilk), never even knew of Grisaia until recently .

Isn't Grisaia an edited MT? 0.o

It looks like the main protagonist is a subordinate of the Goddess イリアス and is an apprentice angel. His job is to go and help people who are being attacked by monsters while trying to avoid getting raped himself.

I definitely ended up getting the option of turning Rance into that but chose to end the route. I've only finished the True route and attained 90/106 CG scenes. I used the walkthrough on gamefaqs then got a few more when I started cheating in the end . I haven't touched the other heroine routes. It's time to stop when you start feeling like the gameplay gets really repetitive. If there was an option to auto-battle everything except boss battles and when important characters show up as the enemy, then I would still play. And yes, many priceless moments in that game. Maybe someone should take count how many times "Let me fuck you" is muttered in that game. Next game, Galaxy Angels. It seems like Fuwanovel has all three games setup nicely and after Majikoi, Utawarerumono, and Sengoku Rance, I really need something futuristic.

Sex sells . Anyway, h-scenes just makes the game more realistic to me even though the scenes themselves are usually horribly written/translated. It signifies to me that a certain level has been reached in the plot even if the scene itself adds nothing to the plot. It's the act itself that's significant to me. On another note, I just finished Sengoku Rance a couple of day ago. Funny game, an OK gameplay, and interesting characters. If you're looking for a game that will fill up a lot of your time, this is it. I ended up cheating in the end to get through the game cause it would take too much time to complete traditionally.

Currently playing Sengoku Rance and if you thought Koihime Musou had a large harem, you were wrong.

I actually had quite a low expectation for this VN when I first started it. Actually, it's this VN that got me back into these types of games in the first place. I think the last VN I played before MGQ was Private Nurse or something like that a while back. I don't know what it was but something about MGQ immersed me quite deeply, or maybe it was just my first VN in a long time. Kind of similar to eating a hamburger after being stranded on a deserted island for 10 years . Yes, old news and expect Rogue to finish the translation by the end of the year or after. His translations are quite good.

I read the summary of Umineko on vndb and it just sounds like a copy of one of those stories where a bunch of family members gather in an isolated mansion for inheritance issues and "stuff" starts happening. Tell me if I'm wrong. I mean, really, read the story summary. How many mystery novels were made on that basis? -_- On another note, the artwork I saw on vndb was a major, major turn off. Actually it's the main reason why I don't even try this game. Was this improved upon using the UmiTweak patch? I saw some comparison pictures of the same scene with and without the patch and it looks much better. Just wanted to confirm.

Right, I forgot about the "true" route. *sigh* Will go with that once I regain my patience with this game.

Time to report in. Majikoi -> Very funny VN, unique characters, enjoyable half-assed story. I see a part of myself in every male character in class 2-F. I do not know whether I should laugh or cry at this fact . I found Yukie and Chris route the funniest. Utawarerumono -> Wow, probably one of the best protagonists I've seen in any VN. Classic character personalities, good music, fun and simple gameplay with a great story. Majikoi S -> Sadly I found myself disappointed with Majikoi heroine routes (I only tried Yukie and Chris). They mostly consisted of h-scenes with a small closure at the end. For the Majikoi S heroines, they weren't as funny as Majikoi but still enjoyable. Funniest was probably Monshiro and Kokoro although I was expecting more from Kokoro. Lot's of kick-ass action for Tsubame route although she annoys me as much as Chris annoys many others. Margit was also just full of h-scenes with no content -_-. In short, if you enjoyed Majikoi, you will probably enjoy this sequel. Looking forward to the FD (Majikoi A1 to A5) where you get to mess around with Yoshitsune and the continuation of the awkward scenes with Monshiro .

The elements you mentioned here used to compare VNs would only be valid for similar VNs. Something that is relative to eachother. I could see one comparing Hoshizora, ef - a tale of the two, and other similar drama VNs using this value based system but I simply can't see it when there are no similarities between the VNs. Similarly based VNs would be Sengoku Rance vs Utawarerumono (or Kamidori Alchemy Meister vs Koihime Musou etc), or MLA vs FS/N, and the list goes on. I would definitely start comparing the details of the aforementioned VNs to see which would be better than the other. But this holds no weight for vs Majikoi. Unfortunately I've only played Majikoi and no other VNs of its kind so can't use a comparison there. With that typed, I actually liked Chris route second only to Yukie. I found Chris route pretty damned funny compared to the rest and Yukie... What can I say about Yukie, a split-personality wannabe housewife swordswoman who can compare in fighting ability to Momoyo... Come on . Momoyo's route was also quite funny, and I didn't like Wanko route while finding Miyako route the worst. Wanko route just wasn't that funny (were they trying to make fun of wanko to kurasou?) and Miyako route, the serious drama in this one wasn't funny but just boring. It's unfortunate though since most of the interactions between the protagonist and Miyako is funny, but she becomes boring after becoming his GF -_-. I might try Majikoi S just for Kokoro route because I found her to be quite funny too . Since this is a VN rec list thread, anyone have any for VNs similiar to Majikoi?

That's a pretty shallow comparison. I'm talking about the depth and context of a game. You can't say either game is better than the other because they try to accomplish completely different things. Hoshizora is obviously another drama eroge while Majikoi is just one big fat JOKE. Everything about Makijoi is a joke, you can't take anything in that game seriously. It's meant to be a comedy eroge to which it accomplishes very well. Even the forced drama is in itself one big fat joke. That's why I'm saying you can't compare the two. Neither is better than the other, they're just different. Hehehehehe... It's easy to derail a thread XD.

You can't compare Majikoi and Hoshizora. They are both completely different games.

Nocturnal Illusion "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allan Poe, "A Dream within a Dream" "The reward of pain is experience." -Aeschylus "Love and hatred are the same thing. The former is just aggressive and the latter is passive." - Hans Gustav Adolf Gross, "Criminal Psychology" "Pain is a great teacher for human beings. The soul grows under the breath of pain." - Wolfram von Eschenbach "To be human is to have the freedom to control one's fate." - Karl Marx, "Economic and Philosophic" "Without the desire to live, there is no love of life." - Albert Camus, "L'Envers l'envers et l'endroit" "Those pretty, well disciplined, chaste girls who don't listen to others... It's no wonder that they are eaten by wolves." - Charles Perrault, "Little Red Riding Hoods" "Fear of death is the realization of life's unresolved contradiction." - Leo Tolstoy, "Life" "Love is a sacred yearning to the unknown of the purest part of our soul." - George Sand "Freedom does not exist as an external truth. It exists inside men, and those who wish to be free are free." - Paul Ernst "Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but always To be blest." - Alexander Pope, "An essay on Man" All of these aren't directly from a VN, but technically they're in one .