Board 8 > The OFFICIAL Visual Novel Rankings

(+) Yeah! (+)

OK cool, I got the PS4 Collector's Edition!
---

Gooooot iiiiit! Yay, got the Vita Collecters Edition. :D
---

You're an Alright Guy, GANON
---

Most of the visual novels on GOG are currently on sale
https://www.gog.com/games?search=visual%20novel&page=1&sort=popularity
---

Are the XBlaze games any good? I like the BlazBlue universe, and the PC version of Code:Embryo is in a bundle on Fanatical ATM.
---

no, not really.

it doesn't really have anything much do with Blazblue other than some terminology and such (well, I never played the last two games so I can't really say for sure) and other than that it's a pretty run of the mill generic chuuni.
---

Fata Morgana, what might literally be the greatest story even written ( Im not joking ) for half off is such a good deal it should be illegal.
---

BlackMageJawa posted...

Are the XBlaze games any good? I like the BlazBlue universe, and the PC version of Code:Embryo is in a bundle on Fanatical ATM.

no.

code:embryo is redundant too, lost:memories is basically an update of that which actually links it to the BlazBlue games. still not really that enjoyable anyway
---

up
---

when do the characters in Chaos;Child get good @xp1337
---

Mac Arrowny posted...

when do the characters in Chaos;Child get good xp1337

idk has best character arimura shown up yet?

More seriously... that's actually not entirely a joke answer. In a lot of ways, I feel it's a bit of a slow burn in this regard and different characters "get good" at different rates. IIRC, Chapter 3 is a notable step forward for a good deal of them, if my order of events and where they happen is right. In some respects, it's more a matter of events proceeding to a point where the cast reacts to them and sheds light on different sides of them. I think by Chapter 6 or 7 they're really great and they still continue to get better, pretty much to the end.

best vn.
---

haha, that's actually good to hear! The cast seems to be heavily inferior to Chaos;Head's so far, especially Itou (why does this boring loser get so much screentime?). I'm still on Chapter 1 so it's nice to have something to look forward to.
---

Itou is definitely the weakest of the primary cast.
---

I also did not like Itou.

Kurusu by far the best imo, but MC and Arimura also pretty good.

I also agree on them getting better as they went on for the most part, though I was a fan of Takuru from the beginning at least.
---

Did you play CH, btw xp?

Also I do like Takuru but he seems like a less interesting version of Takumi so far.
---

Mac Arrowny posted...

Did you play CH, btw xp?

unfortunately no

I've seen the anime but I'm well aware that's not even remotely a good substitute.
---

I watched episode 0 of the Chaos;Child anime and...didn't hate it?
---

I think my main problems with it so far are that the comedy isn't good and it spends too long at school. CH and SG were both hilarious when they try to be, but almost all the jokes in CC have fallen flat for me. I'm an hour or two into chapter 3, and I'm still not that into the cast. Nono did her super annoying thing getting stabbed and blaming Takuru for it what a fucking bitch, and Kazuki is one of the worst example of her archetype I've ever seen, having done close to literally nothing so far. Arimura is cool, but she's had way too little screentime. I've enjoyed Mio's parts a lot too. Just need more of them, because they're great. The hospital scene at the end of chapter 2 was fantastic, but these school festival preparations are killing me.
---

Mio is also in the Top 3 for me, yeah. When I said Chapter 3 I was actually thinking of the end of it mostly.
---

Up to chapter 10 now. Characters still aren't doing it for me, but at least Nono is way better now than she was earlier.
---

Or maybe not. In my previous post, I meant she was better since she was dead, but then she still sends that fucking letter. What an awful person. It's like her goal in life is to make Takuru miserable.

Feels like the game just keeps getting worse as it goes along. Nothing that happens really makes logical sense. Just seems poorly written in general. At this point, I dislike most of the cast, with Serika as a major exception, though she's still poorly written too. Her power should've made it very easy to kill Sakuma (in his sleep, for example), and yet she didn't because...?
---

this makes me sad =(

If you're that far in and not liking it, I don't think it will get much better. There is definitely one point you're making that is addressed though.
---

Beat the first ending (seems like you always get the same ending the first time no matter what choices you make...?). Mostly good stuff there. The Serika stuff was all explained pretty well, and the twists basically all made sense by the end. Wasn't really a fan of Sakuma, but eh. Starting on the Arimura route(?) now, and it's off to a good start, at least. Reminds me of when I had hope for the game.

Other than the characters, the main flaw of the game in general is that it's way too long. There are a lot of ridiculously verbose sequences with text that doesn't say anything, and there are way too many flashbacks. Sometimes to the same thing over and over again, like that Senri sequence in the hospital. You don't need to show that to us 20 times (I counted), game!
---

Yes, you get the same/normal ending on your first run regardless of choices. After that is when the other rotues unlock based on choices.

Serika is the remaining member of my Top 3, but I didn't want to say that earlier because it involves all the late-game reveals.
---

I actually liked Serika the whole game, pretty much! It's nice how adventurous and supportive of Takuru she is.

Hoping Mio gets some more development. Of all the cast, she probably feels the most incomplete at this point.
---

Finished Arimura's route. Not quite what I expected, but not bad? The style felt different, and it wasn't quite as enjoyable as the main stuff, but it didn't really have anything I actually disliked. Most of the scenes were pretty nice. One of the things I noticed about the first route is that they tried really hard to make Takuru not have any romance with anyone, to an extent that felt almost unrealistic sometimes, so this was a fun change of pace in that sense. And the ending was certainly quite something. Wonder how the remaining content is...

How much of the game is left, btw?
---

also what's up with the awesome cafe waitress why is she so great
---

You're probably 80% through, if not more. I'm a bad judge of length
---

greengravy294 posted...

You're probably 80% through, if not more. I'm a bad judge of length

That sounds about right. I want to say it's more than 80% but honestly that might be about the right number, I was really engaged with most of the other routes so it probably felt like it went by faster to me.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Most of the scenes were pretty nice. One of the things I noticed about the first route is that they tried really hard to make Takuru not have any romance with anyone, to an extent that felt almost unrealistic sometimes, so this was a fun change of pace in that sense. And the ending was certainly quite something.

Yeah, agree with all of this. I really enjoyed the route and the ending cemented it.
---

Finished with the Uki route. The ordinary story parts of this were worse than Arimura's route, unfortunately. The serious parts were good at least, rare as they were, and the endings were pretty nifty, if dark.

I feel like this game should have more to say about what the Chaos;Head characters are up to. You'd think they would've stopped the new murders if they were around Shinjuku...
---

Nono route beated. This was a change from the last two character routes, oddly enough. Here the serious/plot parts were mostly pretty bad while the daily life parts were more interesting. The drama feels entirely manufactured and unearned. The twist that Nono is Senri is a good one. I didn't figure it out until shortly after the route started, but it makes sense with everything we've learned. Unfortunately the route didn't do anything interesting with it. The conflict all came from a few separate things:

1. Nono kept saying family members never lie.
2. She kept lying even once the truth was out

And... that's really it. The truth wasn't particularly world-changing, and if she'd just been honest (or hadn't gone on about that 'family never lies' thing, there wouldn't have been any problem. In that sense, I liked the ending. She tells the truth, and Takuru says he's fine with it and it doesn't change anything, which... duh. Obviously. Should've happened earlier. Also Senri's design is way better than Nono's, so the change is a big plus. Only part that was unfortunate was Serika's death ;_;. Still, it was nice to have an ending that could actually be considered a happy end in some way for once. Just wish the drama that got us their didn't feel so contrived.
---

Mac Arrowny posted...

On another note, Wakui seems oddly suspicious, but I guess we'll see about that

vindicated at last
---

probably too late now but just a warning: there's a map trigger segment in Kazuki's route (actually just before the point that you're probably at now IIRC) that isn't translated and doesn't give any indication that you've failed it for a while after the point you're probably at now.

it's presumably not a problem in the pc version if you get the fan patch, and you might be able to figure it out on your own since you've translated stuff before but it's still worth pointing out.
---

I used a guide and have the official PC version, not a fan patch. Also the text is ridiculously small there and I couldn't really read it anyway <_<. I don't even get why that section is interactive. It adds zero fun factor.
---

I meant that committee of zero patch or w/e for the steam release that translates a lot of stuff that pqube didn't translate in the ps4/vita version, like the cgs or the lines Serika says after various endings that don't have text accompanying them.
---

Ah. Serika's lines seem to have text in the Steam version now. Some CGs have untranslated parts, yeah, but I can read those at least.
---

hahaha, Kazuki route was fabulously entertaining. Felt like a bigger change than any of the previous routes. All the new stuff was pretty fun, though Wakui was a bit overly evil. Main disappointing part was that it just ended suddenly. Wish it had more of an epilogue.
---

And True Ending complete. Eh. Some nice parts, some bad writing. Par for the course with the rest of the game I guess. This chaos child twist was neat, but I don't quite understand the point? There was some cool foreshadowing with it how unathletic everyone was, but it didn't really seem to have any purpose in the plot. I think it opens up a bunch of new plot holes too, especially since Chaos;Head made no mention of it, but whatever. The rest of the true ending was alright, but with a few dumb moments here and there how come the public doesn't know anything about Sakuma being the true criminal? Why is Wakui so comically over the top evil (Sakuma kinda was too)?. Anyway, gonna conclude with some thoughts on the characters:

Takuru: I liked him at first, but he basically became more annoying as he developed. He had some real annoying moments even in the side routes. His wishy washyness reminded me of the worst parts of anime/VN MCs. Takumi from Chaos;Head was so much better it hurts. Was both more entertaining at being a total piece of shit and had more interesting development.

Serika: Mostly pretty great, both early on and later in the game. I wish she had a bit more of an identity of her own, but it fit with the plot that she didn't.

Nono: I really wish that everyone didn't worship her so much. It feels like everyone considers her to be the perfect human being. For a lot of the game, it feels like she's basically the fun police. She'd make sense in the real world as a good person, but in the game she basically just stops us from seeing the entertaining parts and forces us to read boring parts.

Arimura: Was fairly entertaining at first, but had bad development. I never really like the cliche about how "the strong girl is actually weak and needs a man to protect her".

Itou: Still think the game would be better if he didn't exist. He has pretty much no good scenes.

Kazuki: Another mostly pointless character. Main game would probably be better if she didn't exist. Her route was the best part of the game though, so at least there's that.

Kunosato: Kinda overly antagonist later on, but good for most of the game. Is it just me, or did they never reveal her backstory? Also, she was supposed to be talking with Kurisu on the phone, right?

Shinjo: Great 100% of the time. Very cool police dude. He was kinda like Nono, where he was supposed to be right all the time or whatever, but he always failed so he never really felt too overbearing. Great guy.

Uki: Eh. She's alright. They probably could've done more with her, but whatever.

Think that's pretty much all the important people. Wish they stood out a little more. Most of them are pretty plain.
---

Mac Arrowny posted...

Also, she was supposed to be talking with Kurisu on the phone, right?

Yeah. And towards the end when the plan was to evacuate the group to "her friend in Akihabara" she clearly meant Daru.

The conversation/scene between Takuru and Serika when they "first" meet in the True End when Mio brings her to his room is one of the more powerful scenes for me. Really, really loved it.

I'm sad you didn't seem to enjoy the VN too much, or at least seemed disappointed with it frequently, given how much I like it, but I liked reading your thoughts on it, and I'm glad another person has played/read it!
---

Yeah, I caught that it was Daru.

That scene is pretty good. I liked Takuru better in the true end. He kinda feels like an entirely different character there...

And yeah, I didn't like it that much, alas. It was a compelling read for the most part, but had some major issues for me.
---

hm, I was hoping Fata Morgana would ship by the end of the month but LRG's production update page updated to say it will ship in July. Just the CEs, of course - they have all the Vita games in hand already.
---

The PS4 standard edition is 'TBA', unfortunately.
---

Is this, too, the work of the witchs curse...?
---