Hangout Visual Novels Hangout Thread

[Kaiten]

For open ended, free flowing Visual Novel discussions.

 

[Asarii]

I'm trying to get into some visual novels, but as a Mac user I unfortunately have a limited option in terms of what I can play. (Now I know why gamers usually go for PC.)

I wonder if there are other Mac users here who have found a way to get around it.

 

[k-dom]

Maybe you can use a Windows virtual machine with software like Virtual Box. I know this is used by people under Linux but I think it works for Mac

 

[Jammin]

I'm trying to get into some visual novels, but as a Mac user I unfortunately have a limited option in terms of what I can play. (Now I know why gamers usually go for PC.)

I wonder if there are other Mac users here who have found a way to get around it.

You might be able to run things in a windows emulator. I'm not a Mac user so my knowledge on the subject is kind of limited but I know those exist. So with enough tinkering you could probably get them running.

You could also probably play the PSP ones(ToraDora for example) via PSP SPP's emulator software. It supports IOS, Andriod, and I believe there is an unofficial mac build of some sort.

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And BTW has anybody ever seen anything weirder than this?

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Oh Japan, there is something very wrong with you....

 

[Cupid]

"I hope senpai notices me..."

Confess your love for your senpai on Valentine's Day! [14.02.2014]​

 

[Nii]

And BTW has anybody ever seen anything weirder than this?

​

Oh Japan, there is something very wrong with you....

I think I have


Called Hatoful Boyfriend and rather well known despite, or I guess maybe because, of the weirdness. Not like I played it myself, but I heard its actually quite nice and funny.

 

[SharkBait]

I might have to start browsing steam more or paying attention to kickstarters, it seems some are getting more support.

 

[Doraku]

Re: Steins;Gate

Wow the comparison is a bit whacky. First of all, I don't agree that it is because of the "not too appealing" part, it's just that alternate endings don't really work for anime. People only will get confused with that, especially if they don't play VNs. Second it would take way too much time to animate all of it, so they're focusing on the true route (which isn't a bad choice at all, focusing on what's supposedly canon). Third Heavens Feel gets a movie (or movies), so that argument already is invalid. Not to mention that Fate/Stay Night works differently because it has nothing like a "true" route, each route is a possibility and tells it's own story.

If I agree with something, it's that the Steins;Gate anime was certainly dark at times too

My point was there's a reason why the first ending of F/SN is being animated first, but not the second or third ending. I am more inclined to believe there's a business decision taken into account when you are going to allocate the scarce time and resources to make an anime adaptation. Of course this is just a fact-less assumption on my part, but I am guessing that the first ending is more popular compared to the other - or at least it was, otherwise UBW ending would get animated first.

Second, I don't see the reason why VN should have a so-called "true ending", really. I mean, if the canon ending is already predetermined, then what's the purpose of making choices in game? I think that defies the purpose of playing VN, although maybe most people just want some sort of official confirmation from the developer.

 

[Nii]

Re: Steins;Gate

My point was there's a reason why the first ending of F/SN is being animated first, but not the second or third ending. I am more inclined to believe there's a business decision taken into account when you are going to allocate the scarce time and resources to make an anime adaptation. Of course this is just a fact-less assumption on my part, but I am guessing that the first ending is more popular compared to the other - or at least it was, otherwise UBW ending would get animated first.

Second, I don't see the reason why VN should have a so-called "true ending", really. I mean, if the canon ending is already predetermined, then what's the purpose of making choices in game? I think that defies the purpose of playing VN, although maybe most people just want some sort of official confirmation from the developer.

Yeah, because it's the first ending in the VN and thus should get animated first, because in Fate/Stay Night they add to one another Animating Heavens Feel first would be just stupid, considering multiple things (for example, take Archer's true identity. If you don't know that from UBW, where it is the major point of the story, an important part of HF gets weird and confusing). Nothing else to it, if you ask me, considering the majority considers the first route "Fate" to be the weakest of the three.

Because it serves it's purpose and actually makes sense? Play Rewrite or better Ever 17 to understand. Others have it as mainly fanservice obviously, where you can derail from the main story to go for one of the other girls (like G-Senjou no Maou).

 

[Doraku]

Re: Steins;Gate

Yeah, because it's the first ending in the VN and thus should get animated first, because in Fate/Stay Night they add to one another Animating Heavens Feel first would be just stupid, considering multiple things (for example, take Archer's true identity. If you don't know that from UBW, where it is the major point of the story, an important part of HF gets weird and confusing). Nothing else to it, if you ask me, considering the majority considers the first route "Fate" to be the weakest of the three.

Because it serves it's purpose and actually makes sense? Play Rewrite or better Ever 17 to understand. Others have it as mainly fanservice obviously, where you can derail from the main story to go for one of the other girls (like G-Senjou no Maou).

Is it? Honestly I think it is not that perplexing for me personally, of course the third route is the most confusing one, but I bet DEEN could adapt the second route first if they wanted to. It's just the first route is easier to be digested compared to the other; that, I agree.

I am not sure. The best thing about visual novel is you have the liberty (well not a lot of it in most cases, but still) to choose how the story would roll. I mean if every route is the canon route, that would be interesting for discussion whereas if there's a thing called a (predetermined) canon route then well... I'll just watch anime instead because at the end of the day my choices would be wrong/did not matter anyway. I agree that multiple choices serve as the fanservice mostly, but it will be interesting if there's a VN where there is no such thing as the canon one. Most acceptable one, maybe.

 

[Nii]

Re: Steins;Gate

Moved the last few posts to the Hangout, considering they have nothing to do with Steins;Gate

Is it? Honestly I think it is not that perplexing for me personally, of course the third route is the most confusing one, but I bet DEEN could adapt the second route first if they wanted to. It's just the first route is easier to be digested compared to the other; that, I agree.

No offense, but I really have to question your memory. First of all, how exactly is the third route confusing? Everything makes sense as long as you read the other two routes FIRST.

Spoiler

Shirou gets Archer's arm, and it's hinted at that they are the same person. Animating that first would be stupid, because it destroys the surprise for the major plot point during UBW. Others might think of it as an asspull/weird stuff when they know nothing about UBW. And that's just one example.

Let's get this straight. When DEEN animated Fate/Stay Night hardly anyone knew much about it, if anything at all. You had some people playing the Visual Novel, but it was it's first try to get known to a huge group. Now let's say they went with UBW right from the beginning, instead of Fate and look at what UBW is lacking:

Spoiler

- A lot of the basics of the Holy Grail War. The first route is used for that and thus obviously a lot gets skipped during the second one
- Nearly everything Saber related. We get to know nothing about her, only an anticlimatic reveal about her Noble Phantasm during the later parts. You can't relate to her at all, if you don't know about her personality and background, which is almost entirely ignored during UBW because again, it was focused on during Fate. This works for ufotable now, because nearly everyone has seen Zero, and thus already knows a lot about her.
- All of a sudden you see a wild Gilgamesh ducking it out with Berserker at Illya's castle. No one knew anything about him back then, his introduction is whacky at best if you consider that.
- Which brings me to the next point of Illya having 0 screentime and gets killed in a flash. You can't care shit for her if you haven't seen her interactions and behaviour during the first route, where her character gets established a lot.

I could go on and on, but as you see it's plain stupid from the story's point of view to go with UBW first, at least back when most people knew shit about the Holy Grail War and everything related to that. Nowadays Fate/Zero is so famous that a Fate route isn't that necessary, though it still would have been the better choice to animate everything from the beginning.

I am not sure. The best thing about visual novel is you have the liberty (well not a lot of it in most cases, but still) to choose how the story would roll. I mean if every route is the canon route, that would be interesting for discussion whereas if there's a thing called a (predetermined) canon route then well... I'll just watch anime instead because at the end of the day my choices would be wrong/did not matter anyway. I agree that multiple choices serve as the fanservice mostly, but it will be interesting if there's a VN where there is no such thing as the canon one. Most acceptable one, maybe.

Fate/Stay Night has no canon route, everything is a possibility, even the bad ends. You have an example right before your eyes

And that is highly subjective. Making choices is a part of most VNs, but clearly not the one and only defining one. There even are VNs without any choices at all, or only one or two. I'm not sure why you are so hung up on the canon thing. What does it matter if the producers labeled this or that canon. It's something for the record, what the creators consider as the true story they had in mind. Does that mean the other ones aren't possible? No. Does it mean the other routes can't tell a great story? No. And that's the main point for me. I can still love a story and enjoy it immensely, no matter if considered canon by the creators or not, it doesn't matter.

And then there are VNs who avoid this thing entirely, where the routes connect to each other and the story ends in a "grand" final. There are many more ways to handle this, which brings me to the question how many you've read, out of curiosity? XD

 

[Beatrice]

Is there any way to play VN's on Android?
Ain't anything working for me.

 

[SharkBait]

Only ones I play on android are ones added to the store. Unless you mean if there are ways to get pc ones to play on android?

 

[Beatrice]

Yep.
Cause every single file looks like a text document.Can't play them cause it just asked me to:
"Open as:
Text
Audio
Video
Image".
every single one.

My old Laptop broke, so I had to get a Netbook.Android 4.2 Jelly.
My lovely Aoishiro and Fate.

 

[SharkBait]

Guess I will be purchasing my first pc visual novel end of this month, the BL game No Thank You from mangagamer here.

Though my computer is >5 yrs old, I hope visual novels arent too taxing.

 

[Jammin]

They're not. Visual novels have basically the same pc requirements now that they did 10-15 years ago. Might literally be able to run them on a toaster.

 

[Copy Panda]

Ace Attorney is considered a visual novel right~?

 

[Nii]

Ace Attorney is considered a visual novel right~?

Yeah, they're considered Visual Novels

 

[SharkBait]

Finally Vita ones are coming westward, with Amnesia coming to STEAM and VITA this summer.

 

[Cloudedmind]

We'll also be getting Code:Realize in the fall. I wasn't expecting such a new otome game to be released in the west. Let alone the announcement for another otome game right after Amnesia.