Board 8 > Platinum #99 - Muv-Luv Alternative

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/7674-muv-luv-alternative/Articuno2001
https://www.truetrophies.com/game/MuvLuv-Alternative/trophies?gamerid=5963&showall=1

A truly brilliant story only shackled by the fact that you have to play through a much worse visual novel multiple times to get the full effect. Still, definitely recommended, and one of the few 10s I've given out on VNDB (Steins;Gate and Fate stay/night being the other two). Everything from Chapter 7 onward is amazingly done, especially the parts that happen in Extra's broken timeline.

sumika is truly the greatest yandere

yuuko is best girl

Platinum #100 is next, and I'll be lining up trophy #7,000 to go with it. I've already gotten the majority of trophies in the game I've chosen, and since I'm only at 6,947 trophies I'll need quite a few more from other games as I go towards it. Quite a big milestone for something that started over seven years ago now.
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do crypt of the necrodancer next
or kerbal space program
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Sumika stuff in Extra timeline when Takeru was going through the major PTSD is probably the most emotional I've gotten in a VN.

I like Muv Luv Alternative but I think the major issues it has relates to how fuckin long some of the explanations are and some of the drama especially towards teh end was too predictable. And sometimes action in a VN for me doesn't work as well as it would in an anime or movie;.
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Like I said in the last topic, I didn't actually mind Extra. Particularly since it kind of felt like the only time the side heroines got any screentime/focus and the alternate scenes had any effort put into them.

With unlimited I thought the main problem was that only a couple characters got most of the screentime and everyone else only got the equivalent of one animu mid series focus episode. and the few choices like the game boy bit or the ending were super pointless and a waste of time because of how redundant they were.

and then in alternative, those things were actually worse since what little development some characters had were basically undone and they didn't get anything new to replace it because the potential screentime was given to the valkyries instead. and even though you don't have to do it as many times it probably takes a lot longer to skip through like half the damn game to get the other ending variations even though they aren't really worth it. like, I was expecting the girls to at least mention their unlimited ending passing it off to themselves as a dream or something at some point or in their confession, but nope.

other things:

1. it was kind of jarring that after extra and unlimited have a theme more along the lines of how things can't remain the same forever and you have to learn to accept change and move on, alternative is super unhealthily fixated on the past and getting things back to the way they were. Even if there was some plot rationalization to it. eh.

2. also, I can't help but feel that it was kind of backwards in regards to endings and such... unlimited had all these endings, but they didn't change anything because it was a bridge game infodumping/setting stuff up and could only have a fairly limited scope of outcomes. I was hoping for more routes/branches in alternative because it's a more of another 'full' release, even if there was a final true end overriding everything else or they were just bad endings. but no, it just has the one route just as I expecting it to.

3. speaking of which routes or other scenes with the valkyries would have been nice, even though it's kind of ntr because they were from other h-games. maybe at least something with Akane since I doubt she could considered a main heroine/route like her sister in her game of origin (though I only watched the animu, idk) and has some degree of friendship/rivalrly with the muv luv characters

4. I think the overall plot as a whole would have been better if they skipped the whole reset idea. say axe the last chapter of Unlimited and replace it with an action chapter something like Alternative chapter 6 and have the graduation then start out alternative with introducing the valkyries and infodumping about the beta and pacing the plot better instead of spending a fair amount of time rehashing things at the start then dumping everything new in the course of a couple days.

anyway rough tiering of the vns available on the vita that I've played so far

underwater ray romano 2
chaos;child
hatoful boyfriend >_______>
steins;gate
muv luv alternative
muv luv extra/unlimited
danganronpa series
steins;gate 0
zero time dilemma
xblaze code embryo
xblaze lost memories
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Mr Crispy posted...

I think the overall plot as a whole would have been better if they skipped the whole reset idea.

I actually agree with this. I loved Alternative overall, but the early parts are actually some of my least favorite parts in the entire series.

Also go my underwater ray romano. (Also if that's referring to just Mask of Deception then uh you should play Mask of Truth because it's really fucking good)
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I'll also say actually that I don't like the ending of Alternative either. Feels a bit too...cliche I guess? Also I'm generally not a fan of endings that completely undo all the events of the plot in the way that this one does, though within that category of ending it's not as bad as it could be (but still not great)

The stuff in the middle from the Extra timeline stuff pretty much up until the final arc is top tier VN content though imo.
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I actually didn't mind the recap. It wasn't anything spectacular like the second half of Alternative but it was still interesting to see Takeru breeze through all the things that gave him problems in Unlimited.
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