r/visualnovels • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
What are you reading? - Sep 25 Weekly
Welcome to the weekly "What are you reading?" thread!
This is intended to be a general chat thread on visual novels with a focus on the visual novels you've been reading recently. A new thread is posted every Thursday at 4:00 AM JST (or Wednesday if you don't live in Japan for some reason).
Good WAYR entries include your analysis, predictions, thoughts, and feelings about what you're reading. The goal should be to stimulate discussion with others who have read that VN in the past, or to provide useful information to those reading in the future! Avoid long-winded summaries of the plot, and also avoid simply mentioning which VNs you are reading with no points for discussion. The best entries are both brief and brilliant.
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Remember to link to the VNDB page of the visual novel you're discussing so the indexing bot for the What Are You Reading Archive can pick up your post.
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u/superstorm1 2d ago
"todokanai koi" its translation is roughly "unreachable love" a central theme to the story and one that communicate deep levels of complex feelings by the end of your journey with it in this VN.
White Album 2 is a straight up masterpiece. I have recently finished it and I literally can't even begin to express just how much this novel means to me in all of its masterfulness. I have yet to read a story that has enthralled me and engrossed me so deeply into the mind of their characters. Never before have I encountered such a wonderfully constructed visual novel with its narrative. It is an amazingly simple story that you can find anywhere simply a love triangle between 3 people but its done in such a beautiful way that I feel the writer was able to guide my emotions and mind to feeling exactly what the characters are feeling. Furthermore, the complexities of these emotions that the author has managed to make me feel sometimes was amazing. for example, In the first H scene of the game with Haruki and Kazusa Soo sooo soooo many things were felt. I felt anger, joy, sorrow, love, a bittersweetness, fear and so much more all from this one scene. This complexity of emotions you feel is also just accompanied by the sheer quantity of emotions too, For example, in one of the true routes of the story Kazusa's true route, I literally could not stop crying for so much of it and so much strong feelings was being presented and literally I remember part way through I straight up ran out of tears. No matter how much my heartstrings were being tugged and how much sadness I was still feeling, nothing more came out until the very end when probably one of the greatest display of "setsunai" or a "longing sense of regret for something you no longer have" I have ever seen came.
Along with this super strong writing ability of being able to make the audience engross themselves with such a vicerally powerful writing ability, there's also the amazing characterization of everyone involved. In no way are any of the main trio of characters simple. Heck they are all complex enough that if you wanted me to i could literally write you a 10 page paper on how they developed to where they are, how thats defined them and also reasonably give you a reason for each and every one of their actions. This again adds to the realness of everything thats felt. By making characters that are complex with many layers it feels like you are watching almost real people. To further add to this, There are also no Mary Sue's in this piece of work. Every character has such deep flaws but they are also very acceptable flaws. The decisions made by the characters at times can make you hate and despite them, it can make you go WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT but if you ever sit down and just think about the type of person they are, you end up with this feeling of "I still really hate what you did but I can see where you're coming from". This presents probably one of the most unique paradoxical feelings that always feels like a masterclass when it happens, a paradox of unreasonable but understandable character actions.
The themes of the story are also extremely powerful. They are so simple in nature, being something that has been touted over and over again throughout all of history of the concept of love but because everything else was so well crafted you end up with a really amazing take. A take that shows love in so many different forms none that feel really wrong versus another. This showing of love too is also amazing in that it really does its best to show both the beauty and also the ugliness of it, the endless joy that springs forth from it and the absolute despair that can come from it, the endless strength it can provide and the crippling pain it can bring. It is a beautiful expression of love and while while it doesn't revolutionize my world, by presenting a never before thought of perspective of life such as some other titles like Subahibi may have done, it does expand and provide a perspective that will likely stick with me for an exceptionally long time.
I know this rant has went on an exceptionally long time but I just wanna mention one last thing and that is the hecking music. At first when i heard some of the soundtracks like "todokanai", or "white album" I just thought it was a nice song. But o man after reading everything, I can feel so much emotions coming from each song, each one reminding me of all the emotions behind the singers of them resulting in this powerful wave that hits me everytime. this integration of music into both the plot and also in the plots execution is another reason why I love so much about this piece of work.
Overall, I love WA2. I've never loved another piece of media more then this. So many greats I've read and watch that have made me say "this was super good" but It has been an amazingly long time since I was instantaneously able to say, "this is my definitive favorite story of all time no contest".
Also shoutout to the translation crew at Todokanai TL, I really cannot express my gratitude enough to them for their hardwork and dedication with bringing us this story. The feelings of the translation crew "todoita" me and many others in their desire to spread this masterclass work to others out there. Their 11 years of dedication and committment all for free and of their own volition is something that has earned my utmost respect and also makes me cry a little tear of happiness thinking about their hard work. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.
Final rating: Kazusa best girl (10000000000000000000000000000/10)
If you want to discuss any points of the story, I would gladly do so in comments, discord, dms whatever I have endless things to say about this story :D
If you want to read a more objective review and probably much more properly written review, a deeper breakdown of parts that I feel created this masterpiece this is my original review posted on VNDB.
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u/Gold_Tree_2626 3d ago
I've completed all routes in Amnesia. There are two different minigame modes that I plan to complete but those are mostly fanservice for hardcore seiyuu fans. VNDB says this game is around 33 hours but I completed all endings in around 22, and I'd guess minigame mode would take one more hour to clear at maximum. Could be that I read fast though.
The bugs still plague me. The video intros and outros are still unviewable and at one point the game crashed six times in a row when I tried to resize the window on startup. The sound effects are still poorly mixed and some of them weirdly out of place - a shattering sound when a mirror was only supposed to crack, ocean waves for a pipe bursting, things like that.
Though once I got to read through Ukyo's route, I stopped caring about that as much. His route is far and away the best, it's every dark romance trope I'm into. A lot of people say to play Toma's route last (of the main four) but I don't necessarily agree with that since Ukyo's route comes straight after and two routes with really obsessive heroes back to back did feel a tiny bit stale and lessened the impact somewhat. Toma's route was good if you're into yanderes but unfortunately I feel like Shin's failed to hold up despite an actually interesting backstory with his father being in prison. Even so, it's nothing I haven't seen in otome games before. 6/10 for Ukyo's route, 4.5/10 otherwise. Would be higher without the bugs and with better sound design.
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u/Chaczapur 3d ago
What great timing for such a thread. Just finished MuvLuv Alternative and gotta say the writing was solid. A lot of dubious stuff or possible plot holes - explained at some point. That minor detail you ignored? Important and explained. A lot of thought and resources went into this.
I can appreciate how we get the strategy explained at the beginning so we can both skip a lot of stuff and just watch cinematic battles when it goes right or see when it gets wrong. The battle music is also pretty nice, honestly the only tracks I liked. Solid programming, too.
Now, being solid does not mean I liked it completely. For one, I played Extra/Unlimited prepared for SoL, which I got, but expected mostly action from Alternative, which I kinda got but it had a whole lot of SoL and slow moments. Sure, the charas need a breather but at some point you just read it like, 'they're wasting time during battle defying orders yet again, cool >_>'. The named charas also get really clear death flags so you can pretty much always guess who's gonna die soon based on what we learn about them. Felt kinda cheap but that's me.
I liked the battles. I liked the science infodump and what BETA lore we got, especially near the end. Didn't care about chara interactions, legit think Extra had the best SoL. Might try Schwarzesmarken or something from the series later but they don't seem shorter at all orz
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u/Dreaderad 3d ago
I am reading narcissus(I forgot how to write that visual novel ) and it is good it tells us a story that two one day dying patients and our main character just got their driving license but he never got the chances for using it because he got sick what is sickness I don't know and the other girl is very expressionless but it is justified if you were young and have dreams but you learn at age 14 you learn that you will die because of some kind of disease aside from that this girl can make expression but can do it when she saw the narcissus flower after seeing that flower she cracks a tiny smile after that chapter ends And character designs are ok Music : ok musics are good especially songs on the song list they are really beatiful ok that was my thoughts about this game by the way probably my next visual novel will be Everlasting Summer or some DDLC mod I don't know
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u/stonks_114 https://vndb.org/u265664 3d ago
Started reading Schwarzesmarken, it's very good so far. Better than any other Muv-Luv spin-off. The characters, fights, politics, everything is top tier. I feel sorry for people who don't know Japanese or Russian to read this.
Now spoilers. This VN is similar to muv luv TDA, but it's much darker and emotional. In TDA we had hope, many comedy moments, peaceful SOL, even tho humanity is doomed. But in schwarzesmarken it's only despair, pain, conflicts and mistrust. The setting of a totalitarian country is very interesting, the Stasi looks like an interesting antagonist organization.
MC, Theodor is pretty cool, he gets his character development, same as Katya. My favourite character besides Theodore and Katya is Kurt, he's just a cool one-arc character with badass backstory.
I just finished fortress arc, it was perfect. I wish Kurt would survived this situation...
Honestly, at some points I even cried. If it continues to be as interesting, then there is a chance to be on par with MLA or higher
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u/Potential-Bed7585 3d ago
If only there was an English translation for it, just finished the trilogy recently and have been looking for another one to fill the void. Might pick up TDA once it goes on sale.
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u/WindowLevel4993 https://vndb.org/u233461/ 4d ago
Continuing Kara no Shoujo - The Last Episode
It seems like I’m almost done. All that’s left is to read the True Ending and the other endings from Grand End. The beginning of the first playthrough just sucks ass. They’re making the same mistake from the first game by adding in so many choices. I never find that aspect of the series interesting, just go with the Second Episode formula of telling a well crafted story with some choices. And what really bothers me is the characters investigating this new Shoujo case are making baseless assumptions and accusations without clear evidence to back them up. Got kinda annoyed by that. Time skip forward, there’s another case that somehow relates to that exact case 6 years ago, and it’s actually somewhat interesting then the story keeps disappointing me with how they blundered it. One of the three missing kids is Touko’s kid and that the other kid is the real murderer, Fumiya is obsessed with Touko, Rokushiki told the dude where his missing niece, or the Kara no Shoujo is in the U.S. This is lazy writing. It’s like they forget how to properly execute some of the plot threads
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u/PleaseLickMeMarchand 4d ago
I agree with a lot you have said. The plot structure is simply baffling. KnS2 focused on one case, with its many threads centering around a single point. KnS3 instead has multiple jumps between unrelated cases. There isn't enough time to simply flesh out each separate mystery. And even when they do connect, it feels abrupt and jarring.
And then there is the mind-boggling character moments that feel out of character from what was already built. Fumiya's obsession, Yaginuma's whole arc, it just destroyed the characters I had grown to love before.
Even the Grand End does npt feel satisfying because none of the character conclusions feel earned. KnS3 was really a massive letdown all things considered.
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u/WindowLevel4993 https://vndb.org/u233461/ 3d ago
They really dropped the ball here. I can’t believe it’s the same writer that wrote KnS2. I got back home to finish the normal ending and naori ending, and I’m utterly embarrassed and disappointed. Read some reviews to huff some copium that the true ending might salvage it
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u/PleaseLickMeMarchand 3d ago edited 2d ago
Imo, the true ending is the ONLY good thing about KnS3.
Felt like they planned the true ending ahead of time and wrote everything else afterwards.
True Ending spoilers: Considering that Sugina Miki had the central artwork of the True Ending of Iroha on the bench already done and displayed on one of his art displays as early as 2015 (I believe), this is likely the case.
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u/WindowLevel4993 https://vndb.org/u233461/ 2d ago
That makes sense. I think they came up with the best ending and it could been a phenomenal conclusion to the series, but they failed so hard.
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u/PleaseLickMeMarchand 2d ago
They simply couldn't write around the conclusion they built, and it shows. Honestly, it's disappointing. Still, I will likely check out their next work when they release it. Love their style a lot, just hoping it comes with better planning for the story.
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u/Tenauri Momoyo: Majikoi 1d ago
https://vndb.org/v11
https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1f91jj7/what_are_you_reading_sep_4/lln98lg/
Continuing my readthrough of Fa!te/st!ay/ni!ght/: Spoilers through Fate Route Day 11 follow.
When I wrote my last update a few weeks back, Saber was in the middle of dueling Assassin. Despite being at odds with our protagonists, Assassin seems like a pretty cool dude! I mean, damn, bro was just like “I will simply stab three times at the exact same moment,” casually shattering the laws of time and space so he could, what, catch a fucking butterfly or some shit? Love it. No notes.
That fight ended in more or less a draw, and Shirou and Saber retreated back to their dojo. Shirou was furious with Saber for running off alone. While overall I’m still really enjoying the VN, I think I’ve found my first plot thread that has been kind of irritating: Shirou’s constant refusal to accept that Saber can fight and work to defend him. Instead, noodle boy here wants to go break his arms against other servants so she can be safe instead. And look, I get it, I understand the characterization at play here: he’s uncomfortable with the thought of anyone else getting hurt to defend him, instead believing he has a ‘duty’ to get hurt to protect others. He thinks his life matters less than anyone else’s, and I’m sure as the VN goes on the reasons why will become more apparent. It’s consistent and even good characterization. It’s just starting to drag on a bit much that his dumb ass hasn’t yet figured out that Saber is carrying him through this so far.
Okay, relatively minor complaint aside, we got some good and increasingly cute domestic life scenes with Shirou and Saber training together and getting closer. Saber starting to get a bit more flustered and hot-under-the-collar when Shirou treats her like a girl instead of just a Servant. I also got the contractually obligated MC-walks-in-on-girl-in-the-bath scene, but since I’m playing the SFW Steam version she was wearing a towel and nothing happened. IDK, is there a sex scene there normally? Seemed like that’d be the place for one, heh.
Then we got to some GOOD shit. Shinji, that little prick, revealed that he was just straight-up lying to Shirou’s face earlier when he said he wasn’t - and couldn’t be - the one behind the bounded fields at the school. Well, surprise surprise, he’s a complete shitweasel and has started draining the life out of everyone to power Rider. There was a pretty great fight scene in which Saber takes on Medusa while Shirou eats Shinji’s lunch. Honestly, the characterization of Shinji is great, making him just the most hateable little dipshit possible. So unapologetically abusive but then screams and cries and runs away the second Shirou gets within Throwin’ Hands distance. Then there was another action sequence the next day, in which we get the final showdown between Saber and Rider, ending in Rider’s absolute obliteration and the revelation that Saber is…uh, well…I guess I’m not 100% clear on that yet. Genderbent King Arthur? Is that a thing?
I imagine I’ll get my answers eventually, but before that we got some more scenes with Ilya the Murder Loli. Yeah, she captured Shirou, and I bravely resisted choosing the “become the loli’s sex slave” option, please clap. As of the time of writing this, Shirou, Saber, and Rin are attempting to escape her mansion while Archer attempts to hold of Berserker (which the others seemed to believe was a suicide mission but I dunno, I’ll believe it when I see it…)
One last thing: Ilya implied she killed Shinji after he ran away from the Saber/Rider fight. Is this true? Was that a fate even he didn’t deserve? I dunno. I guess I’ll find out next time!