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Felli Traydor
.User deleted
Just what did we do with you if you finally showed yourself?
The answer to that will be found here!
Some of the things I do are hard to communicate with the RL-people available to me. The attention span of adults towards special interests is just so small. Already while explaining the basics of it they try to switch back to normal topics, before one even had the chance to get to the points of why it is so enjoyable.
Maybe it is the same for you.
Sure one could go to a specialised forum to talk about that one thing. Truth is though, most internet communities are rather toxic nowdays and after the points of one topic are exchanged one would have to move on for the next board anyway to cover the next interest. A rather short-lived thing which is not really satisfying.
I would prefer to keep the people the same and whenever there is interest they can jump onboard.
In order to let them know of the current thing your doing a thread would be the best solution, otherwise there will be bits and pieces in all the other threads, creating a mess.
I'll just start with an example of how it could look like.
As you know I play the second Oreimo game for PSP. I got 100% on the first disk by now, which is basically the first game again. The second disk which I started peeking into picks up from the good ends of the first game. I will cover the first disk for now.
Looks like Spoilers within Spoilers don't work here so it got a bit messy/loaded, Sorry for that!
First Disk
GameplaySPOILER (click to view)Game is build like your usual Visual Novel. There are 2 ways to influence progression, one is called the O.R.E. system. These are special keywords you collect and sometimes they become available for use during the game. The second system is called TwoShot Dialogues, this a short series of talk where you can choose wether to retort or not. Usually 3 to 5 times per TwoShot. Both influence progression of course and especially the latter shoots up the possibilities for getting CGs or not. The rest is normal a basic storyline in which one chooses the route to enter.
Basic storylineSPOILER (click to view)The game starts when Kirino came back from America. There is a Siscaly tournement coming up, in the quarrels beforehand the partners are decided as well as which otaku-girl route will come later. The option not to participate opens Ayase and Manami route. Kyousuke forgot that a School trip to kyoto starts tomorrow. Kirino mails that to her friends and everyone asks for souvenirs which will be the last decission of which route to enter.
The funniest thing in this part is when Kyousuke, Kuroneko and Saori play in his room. There is a video where Kyousuke dies in the game and the other to continue their battle without reviving him. Saroi does that just a second before his timer is up.
Manami routeSPOILER (click to view)Die! didn't read her route, just clicked through. It's the only time I went to a walkthrough for this game because I didn't want to spend any time and nerves on it. Like I said in a different thread my rage towards her is high. I mostly cannot stand normal characters who are fine staying plain. Normally I can just ignore them, but this one destroyed Kyousuke's personality when he was in greatest need of help in the Light Novel. Truly unforgivable.
Ayase routeSPOILER (click to view)A rather short route and I'm glad for that. It's her usual attempt to get to know Kirino's hobby better. While she is there she can hear Kirino playing an Eroge through the wall.
Next day when kirinio isn't home Kyousuke's solution is playing SisxSis with Ayase. At this point Kyousuke has not played the Rinko route yet, you know the one being similar to Kirino. Talking Ayase into playing the game bears a striking resemblance to the first interaction of Kyousuke and Kirino, just with reversed lines. As back then they settle for the All age version, but after dealing with Rinko for a while Ayase asks for the 18+ version.
Kirino comes home and both of them couldn't stop her from entering, his door has no lock after all. Smelling a girl's scent searches through his room but couldn't find Ayase.
Noticing the Rinko-kissing scene on the screen, she asks him how he finds Rinko. Ayase brought the Kirino-Rinko similarity to his attention so he starts there. the usual hentai-Siscon-die! quarrel starts before she lengthy explains what Rinko is all about before leaving the room.
Kyousuke and Ayase continue going through the Otaku world, visiting Akihabara, meeting Saori there, and Summer Comiket together.
Kirino finds out that they are dating.
Kyousuke gets killed by Ayase if he denies it, breaks up with Ayase after Kirino states that she wants to be his most cherrished person or says he love them both. The latter is supposed to be the good ending, which ends up with Kirino being abroad coming to visit sometimes and Ayase is pregnant.
There is an IF-Bad end as well in which Ayase threatens all other friends of Kirino via mail and is breaking Kirino's mental health in the process as she knows every new mail address to have Kirino just for herself. A despicable ending similar to my Manami issue.
Saori RouteSPOILER (click to view)Another relativly short route. Saori has a marriage interview with a 40 year old successful man arranged by her parents. She is forced to give up her Otaku life by him and most endings are that she is gone marrying him. In the good ending there is a wedding with Kyousuke who keeps convincing Saori to stay an Otaku.
I would say more but during the entire route it is pretty much all he does. One of the few jokes in that route is that Kuroneko hands out a strange talisman to give to Saori, leading into an immidiate bad end.
The other joke that stayed with me is after he asked Kuroneko to go in her place to get material from Saori, Saori asks wether he goes for the kuroneko route this time. If he denies that (TwoShot) there will be a later statement by Saori that a harem route with Kuroneko and Kirino is not possible in RL, to which Kyousuke reacts a bit depressed.
Kuroneko RouteSPOILER (click to view)Another quick to explain route. During the Siscaly tournament Kyousuke states that he cannot 'keep up with her' causing an misunderstanding that lasts till the ending. He meant her skills, she understood their friendship.
After the School trip she avoids Kyousuke and focus on finishing her Novel for the Summer Comiket till the point she collapses.
At this point Kyousuke's attempts to let hiim help are accepted, so he becomes her assistant.
Similar to the Anime and Light Novel she wents to bath while he is at her home. This time he searched and wasn't interrupted by the sisters.
Best CG of the game comes in her bad ending when Kyousuke messes up the delivery to Summer Comiket and is punished.
In the good ending they get together and Kuroneko mocks Kirino to behave better otherwise she cannot say 'that her little sister Can't be this cute'.
Kirino routeSPOILER (click to view)After the Siscaly tournament showed him her song and orders him again to play SisxSis-Rinko route finally. When they both played together Kirino avoided that route, as she sees the resemblance as well. It's very important to her for him to play it. So he comes back from the School Trip, bringing her a local special edition of Meruru figures (1 for each temple!) but she acts cold and doesn't want them. In the night she slaps him awake and asks him why there are so many Otaku goods in her room.
Turns out she forgot all Otaku related Memories and those of the improved relationship with Kyousuke. So he tries to make her remember but to no avail. It strained Kirino quiet a lot as well.
Neither the song she composed (Secret x2 by Ayana Taketatsu that I translated), nor her Novel could bring back her memories as well as when Kyousuke empties a bucket of water above his head.
Kirino herself is unsure wether to try to retain her memories or not. In most cases she does not give up and picked up the Souvenir from Kyoto out of the trash.
The endings are: Kurnoneko tricks Kirino by making her mad into revealing that she actually did not loose her memories and just wanted attention of Kyousuke. She does not recover her memories but goes into the Otaku world anew.
And lastly the good ending Kyousuke's last resort worked. Playing the SisxSis Rinko route with her together, they got both emotional because the route is basically the same to their current situation and upon Kyousuke remembering the will always love you final line Kirino is back to her old self.
Why she lost her memories is not really revealed. She said she was to excited when going down the stairs (but in an earlier visit at the hospital they could not find a physical issue for her memory loss). The reason for the excitement was revealed by Kuroneko, as the 3 chatted directly before it, saying she couldn't wait her brothers return next day. At the Summer Comiket her song won in a competition and she sings it on stage thanking her Aniki.
IF Kanako routeSPOILER (click to view)After Kirino the character I like the most got an If route branching of the Ayase route. If Kyousuke reveals to be the Manager at a Summer Comiket concert to her. If routes are quite short with no real options to pick from and have just one ending. Like usual Kanako bosses Kyousuke around forcing him to a few dates.
While she sometimes say that she loves him, he thinks that it is just her referring to his wallet. As she did this with other boys before. After refusing to kiss her they seperated on bad terms.
She came home to the Kousaka's house and she revealed to Kirino that she knows that Kirino is an Otaku. Having had a bad feeling after letting Kanako into the house he brought up Snacks and drinks to see the scene. Kanako states that she still finds the Otaku stuff gross, but she won't quit being Kirino's friend, as she is very important to her.
Kyousuke is impressed by her and in the backstage of a later concert she gets him to admit him to be a Lolicon when she kissed him.
If route Kyoto tripSPOILER (click to view)A funny If route, Kyousuke and Akagi discover a weird room at the Inn on their school trip. Everything is 8bit in itand they cannot talk properly anymore. just 'Pupupupupu' all the time. They understand the meaning however. Finding a paper stating that a wish is revealed at a hidden shrine Akagi goes on into this weird world. Kyousuke follows him while grumbling. After Hearing them going 'Pupupupupupu' for more than 10 minutes straight (not so straight as my face back then when I played it with headphones) they arrived at the shrine and Akagi wished to be forever with his sister.
They popped out in front of Kirino's school, the wish extended to him as well, and after seeing how she goes all 'onii-chan' over him, Akagi leaves to go to his own sister.
The mood of Kirino swings then as she mentions that he gets along with other girls. In order to be forever with him she plans to break his arms and legs...
Kirino expansionSPOILER (click to view)After finish all other girls Kirino gets an extansion in which is revealed that they are not blood related, but Kyousuke is the son of the Mother's brother. That's why there are no pictures of him inside the family album of their childhood in this game. Before Kyousuke tells Kirino what the parents revealed to him they both behaved weird. After Kirino knows it to there is a short timeskip of a few days with a Kirino at sunset CG saying that she always liked him. A very lackluster ending emotional wise after all the trouble to unlock it.
There is another weird IF route for Kirino in which she is in a bad mood. She forces Kyousuke to go shopping with her, treating him bad all the time. She leaves him in front of the stores while letting him carry all the bags, a few known characters walk by ridiculing him further as he comes up with embarrassing reasons to be there with these bags. Notable here is only him being a crossdresser and Kuroneko and Saori demanding pictures later. After they got home she is scene taking a bath telling herself that it was a good day. Kyousuke gets to see no kindness even in the end of 'THE ABOMINABLE KIRINO' IF route. Leaving Kirino the only one satisfied that day.
All in all it is pretty basic, the gems within I told you here as far as I remember them. Felt a bit lackluster at some points but the game came out way before the Light Novel ended so it has an excuse. Still enjoyed it thanks to the gems.
Some more random picturesSPOILER (click to view)Kyousuke hearing Kirino's song.
Another Kuroneko collapsing pic
Ayasse meets Saori
You don't throw stones at people!
No memories, no happiness
We're Dating!
Water bucket
Friendship
Somehow they managed to get pictures of everyone wearing a swimsuit in this game without ever visiting a pool together!
One doesn't play with an untamed cat without getting scratched!
You cannot take him away from me!
And lastly the little sisters.
#1 check, #2 check, but who is #3?SPOILER (click to view)Ah right, I mentioned the two who I like the most in this series. Number 3 goes to Hinata. She got cut quite badle in the Anime, and her parts in the LN aren't very long eithter, but int hose short parts she shoewed an awesome personality. Kyousuke didn't make it into the list because I am still a bit mad at him, because of what I mentioned in the Manami route section.
This weekend I plan to read La piccola città by Heinrich Mann.
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Felli Traydor .
User deleted
First off, if you want to request something of the Oreimo game, be it more CGs or (since some parts are written by the Light Novel author) the complete text of a route, just name it. I should be able to type them on pc pretty fast as if you'ld like.
So weekend is basically over, I managed to read 74% of the book La piccola città by Heinrich Mann.
To be honest, I didn't like it. I'm currently fighting with myself wether to read the last 26% or not. Regarding my personality I will give into myself and do it, but I don't really want to.
The first 20 pages were the biggest pain. at least 30 persons were 'introduced' just with a name and if lucky a profession. Up to now that hasn't really changed, more people were named but none was really described.
In my opinion there is just one person who can be described as having even a personality. It's the same one which got a real description on how she dresses and what hair colour she has at least. Sadly she is not really part of the main cast and does nothing to progress the story.
The story so far is, a small city hired a few singers. While the performance is well visited, it creates a split in the population. Liberals vs Religous people and at the same time a proclaimed class struggle, but there is barely any below-midclass guy mentioned at all.
The religous group under a fanatic priest says these artists drop the sexual morale in the city. And indeed the inhabitants and the artists are swapping partners very fast. The liberals are led by an advocate who could be argued to be the main character as his words are more mentioned than all the others. He has no real personality though. With the absence of personalities the interactions between the characters are quite dull.
What made me pick up it in the first place was the cover description of it being 'colourful and exciting descripition of Italy at the turn of the century by Heinrich Mann'.
It is neither exciting nor colourful. Persons are not described, landscape is not described. It just mentions what and who is somehow close at the spot where people currently talk.
It's a real let down and I have no hope of it changing in the last 26%...
Edited by Felli Traydor - 8/5/2016, 23:38. -
Felli Traydor .
User deleted
Mhh since I haven't done much worth writing about I will just conclude the last 26% of that book even though it is not really worth it.
The fanatic priest suddenly had feelings (unfortunatly I cannot say developed) for one of the artists. Got jealous when she entered the Inn she stayed at with someone else and started a fire there.
The leader of the liberal groups gets blamed for a few pages for committing that arson. Priest feels guilty and pays for it using church money.
The only person I liked somehow got the priest to semi-confess that he did it. Somehow because he got worked up when he looked at her while talking to the people. It was just one sentence where she is mentioned so it could be easily missed. And semi-confessed because the audience to his speech still didn't think he did it, only the reader realises it.
In the end everyone stops quarreling (the book even speaks of stopping the civil war in the city) about the...well what...I think in the end the author settled that the conflict was about progressive vs religous people, forgetting everything about the class struggles claimed before.
So everything is back to a peaceful little city and the artists leave. At the last very few pages it presented a Romeo and Juliet ending for 2 characters. But their sidestory has no real connection to the main story and so it didn't carry any message. So the disappointment stayed true.
I reread a Light Novel (24 volumes), but I don't know if I should write here about it. It is technically not a very good LN, but I somehow got enough from it to read it again. I have troubles finding out why that is though.. -
Felli Traydor .
User deleted
Well since I mentioned it I might as well talk about the Light Novel. Spoilerfree this time.
The setting a far away future, when the earth is a wasteland. No animals, no vegetation. Seasons are location based and don't change if one stays in the same place. Giant Insect like creatures, named Filth Monsters, are the dominant species. They come in different phases, the females bear larvae who eat the mother and the other larvae in order to molt into the next phase and become mothers themselve. Filth Monsters who gave up on reproduction turn male and grow stronger over time.
They also eat Pollutants if they are immune to them, those are little particles in the air which kill every living beings. If Filth Monsters come across humans they'll eat them too.
Humans exist only in walking cities called Regios. These cities have a consciousness, called a Electronic Fairy. They controle all functions, where it moves to, keeping up the Air filter to protect the city from the Pollutants, and other things. Some cities have specific functions. Like one coordinates roaming buses (the only way to travel long distances between cities), others are academic cities where young people can learn for six years.
The cities need Selenium, an easily obtainable material from fixed mines. If cities cross their paths the humans have to fight each other for these mines. A city without a mine to resupply will die.
There are 2 types, and one subtype, of humans. Normal humans and Military Artists. Those Military artist posses an additional organ, Kei veins. They are vital organs and the source of their strength. The usual fighting stuff, Internal Kei techs improve the body, external Kei is used for flashy attacks. The subtype of Military Artists are Psychokinesists. They don't posses much direct fighting strength, so they are mostly supporters. They usually collect and provide information through flakes they controle with their mind.
How did the world become like this? It is revealed later. As the current humans don't know that at the beginning I won't tell you that!
However there are plotholes, which is really annoying. There are two untranslated prequels, which might explain more, but because they are prequels so I doubt they don't clear up the end of this Light Novel. I consider it one of the big weaknesses.
Anyway, the main character is expelled from his hometown and arrives in an Academic city to learn. However the Student Councel President knows him and forces him to switch from general studies to be a Martial Artist. He even forced his own little sister to do the same thing before the main Characters arrival.
So this is how the story starts.
Why did I say, in the previous post, that this LN is not very good? I mentioned plotholes already, but I can endure that. There is another thing why the story is not good, but I won't say it because I cannot say it without spoilers.
Now comes the tricky thing. The thing which somehow gives me the pleasure to read it despite it being technically a weak point. There are often strings of direct speech with no indicator who is speaking what. It is often confusing when a character speaks two lines in a row, until a line is suddenly dropped, unfitting for the character one thinks who is currently speaking. And so one goes back up to look for the point where the alternating direct speech was interrupted. An English translation of a Japanese language, which is able for such distinctions, doesn't help either.
But why do I strangely like it? I think it's because it allows me to think as the characters because their own thoughts are absent during these parts. The Light Novel's story is sometimes quite weak, when it deals with revelation of things. I can endure that because of two characters which are developed mentally and I like them both even!
There are only few drastic changes in their way of thinking, but those are just temporally caused by single events. In the heat of a moment so to say. A persons personality doesn't change that easily and the Light Novel portrays that well. Rest assured, they are changing over the volumes. Other than those two, there are a few more I really like, but they don't appear that often, but many characters I don't really care for.
And one I really dislike. Not the Manami from Oreimo level of hate, but still quite strong displeasure. Whenever I have to think as her I want to skip that part...
Of course there are often times when the thoughts are stated as well, (more than the long direct speech strings), these are the times where one can update on the character's mind.
There is a 25th Volume btw, not just the 24 I mentioned earlier, but only a very small part deals with the aftermath for the characters I do care for. I think that is all I can cover without spoilers..... -
Felli Traydor .
User deleted
While waiting for response I might as well update this.
However, since it's been 5 months since my last post in this thread I will only mention recent things.
Among the things I read were three Light Novels.
The first was Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (7 Volumes). [contains spoiler, I don't recommend the LN]
It's about a boy [High school age] who got offered a 'box', which grants a wish, but refused it. Thus the entity which offered it tries to monitor the person and gives boxes to people close to him, and observes his actions.
The beginnning (first two arcs) was okay, the time loop theme wasn't that spectacular, but still done well enough. I actually wanted to drop it after the first volume, but stayed because the author successfully tricked me at one part. The second arc (second volume) had another progressive, repeative cycle theme, this made it quite easy to avoid the next of the author's attempt to trick the reader. Unlike in the first Volume the reader actually had a hint this time.
The story so far contained some normal darkish elements till now. Some threats, some uneventful deaths. nothing major.
With the third arc that changed, and it's got quite dark. I consider this the beginning of the mid of the series. While the beginning was good, I found the middle to be very bad. Again it was another repeative cycle, because the arc spans over two volumes it was really dragged out after the first round.
However the spike of darkness was too huge compared to first two novels.SPOILER (click to view)Again the author tried to mislead the reader for an event, the rape of the female main heroine as well as of a new character. After some time it was uncovered that the rape did not happen, only to be followed of a backstory gang bang rape scene. One more time the author tried to be misleading by using a nickname of the victim which hinted at a main cast girl (not that her involvment provided even 20 pages over the whole series) just to reveal that the victim was an unmentioned character. It was mentioned in a way that one got the impression that it was just half as bad just because she was an anon. I REALLY hated that.
The second arc of the mid lasted two volumes again, thus dragging everything out and I was completely bored. It didn't help that there was not even an ounce of logic for the villain to act that way (and a few other people). While it wasn't a cycle event for the first time, it had the feeling of one, because it was segmented by the same event.
Now to the ending part which just consisted of the last volume and the reason why I even bothered to mention this LN. It was great. It basically was a long and proper conclusion. The darkness settled to a level between the beginning and mid, which I found to be the best level.
Still I cannot recommend it, but thanks to the ending it earned a mention, as many endings seem lackluster in this medium.
Second Light novel was Toradora!, with a length of 10 Volumes. [Spoilerfree]
I first watched the Anime (covering all volumes), because of a recommendation. I found the reasoning for actions sometimes very lackluster, thus I looked for an original source and found the LN to be translated. I also learned that the author was a woman and that somehow lead to expectations. (Totally my mistake to hav expectations based on genders T.T)
The scenes themselves were pretty well written and I liked the plot immediately.
Plot was that the two main chars got up a class, classes were mixed and they ended up in the same one. Male main person witnessed the female main person trying to put something into his schoolbag, followed by a short quarrel between them. At home he found out that it was a love letter (empty). Female main person snuck into his house at night trying to recover it.
Comes out the letter was meant for his best friend. He tried to calm her down by revealing that he has a crush on someone as well, best friend of hers. They decided to help each other out.
Yes, I know. It's so cheesy. One immediately knows how the end is going to be 90% of the times.
I won't defend myself for liking the plot though. The journey is the goal! (<< this counts as defending?)
Now the problem with it though. The journey was completely the same as the anime. It had the same holes, except for the ending. That was slightly longer and more reasonable in the Light Novel.
What I found to be the most frustrating (since I watched already the anime) was that there was nothing really extra in the Light Novel. Normally there would be a few sidestories or interactions that wouldn't make it into an anime because of time restrictions. But in this case everything got into the anime 1:1, except for the ending. Either the anime team made an awesome job, or the source material was really lacking.
However I liked the scenes as they were, drama and funny moments were not over the top but well done in a good mixture. Thus this get's a recommendation, although it is enough just to watch the anime and read the last volume.
Thid and last Light Novel to mention tonight, Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru which is translated up to the lates volume (11th) but didn't end yet. [Spoilerfree]
Out of the three I liked this one the most with just two annoying parts.
How did I find it? Well, there is actually one manga I followed (Tokyo Ghoul) and one time I got bored when the release was dragging and I started to browse other new releases. So I found the Manga of this first, but I didn't really like the plot. It was too standard (am I even allowed to say that after my comment on the earlier Ligh Novel?), but since I was bored I just continued.
The cynical thinking of the Main Char got me hooked. It was highlighting a life style that is usual deemed wrong in our society, that is liking to be alone.
Since the Manga wasn't very long, I looked wether there is a source material and found the Light Novel, translated. (yeah~!) It added a lot to the thinking, the characers were mostly likable. Progression was fine, stories weren't too long (three exceptions). A real gem.
One of the exception was in a bonus material, so it doesn't count. The other one was a card game session (real boring as I don't even know the card game to begin with, there was an out of character thinking at one point which made me rage, but the main issue was just it's length without adding anything)[third volume iirc] and lastly a baking event in the latest volume.
The first annoying part I meantioned in the beginning were slight changes of facts from the early volumes.
Normally I ignore that, as LNs are mostly not planned far ahead in the beginning, but they were quite numerous in the latest volume that it did really got on my nerves.
The second annoying part is that some side characters were very underdeveloped for a long time. (two still are, if one doesn't need them, just drop them! seriously. It's not worth to mention them for like 5 lines, before dropping them back into oblivion, just to use the same joke over and over. I even felt pity for them at some point <.<; )
But the rest, and thus the majority, was really a nice read. And it gets a high ranking recommendation.
I also read a biography-novel about Genghis Khan from the viewpoint of the women. Was a good read as well, but I am unsure wether I can actually trust the facts and label them as knowledge. I might research that at some point.
Mhh anything else? Oh, christmas related handicraft event at the Kindergarten today. Was some fun, but it was a pain to carry everything home without breaking the things created.
Hope you had a good time as well!. -
Felli Traydor .
User deleted
It's been a week since the last post, so here goes one thing I did since then.
I started to write a fanfiction because I thought it would be a good training for the time when you return to this site. Something along the line that it would help me stay in character and as a positive side-effect it might make me better at English.
Most of the chapter was already typed during my last post here, but it wasn't finalised at that point. That's why I didn't mentioned it.
I published it three days ago and to my surprise it was well received. At least when I compare the visible numbers of follows and favs with other stories and put things like amount of chapters and first publication date into account, I can only reach the conclusion them being above average.
Even if it wasn't my goal, of course I am glad about it. However it appears that the praise kind of blocks me from starting to write the second chapter.
I had no problem coming up with the story that should take during it, it's the normal writing that I am unable to start. The actual thing I wanted to train in the first place, continuation.
I get the feeling that it wouldn't have been much of a problem if I started out bad or at best normal. The typical 'I'm not good at something, so I'll practice and get better!' mindset.
With this good start though I now have to deal with meeting expectations. Rather than serving as motivation it seems more like a burden to me.
My goal was a selfish one to begin with (excluding you to be able to use the selfish term, but I want you have fun here as well), other people should just serve as advisors for the areas I need advice on.
I wonder if I should just wait in hope that feeling might go away or force myself through it..
Oh you precious free time! |
