Update 0.28 - Jun

Heh, been a tad busy this week and kept forgetting to reply to this message. I did end up binge watching The Boys on one of my days off and found it largely enjoyable. Should be fun to see where it goes in the follow up seasons. Anime wise, I've actually seen all those you mentioned except for Overlord and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. I agree that Shippuden was leaps and bounds better than the original Naruto, though it did get a bit tedious at times with the ungodly amount of filler episodes they added towards the end. For all the flack it gets I've found that 'Boruto' is a solid follow up to the original and keeps with the tone of the series while showing how much things have changed in the aftermath of the war. I liked the premise of Ajin and hope they make a few more seasons given how it ended, felt like there was still more story to be told. Parasyte started out good but I hated the last couple episodes, got way too philosophical and introspective at the end for my liking. Assassination Classroom was a fun anime overall though it felt a bit rushed at times and was shorter than it could have been, but was one of the few anime that actually had definitive closure and didn't leave off in such a way that left the viewer wanting another season to wrap things up. Another was basically if Final Destination was an anime lol. But never took itself too seriously and was just humorous and fun to watch. Death Note is one I did really enjoy, (and Near totally cheated to win in the end you can't change my mind on that) though it was one that dragged on longer than necessary at times it had a solid ending that wrapped up things quite well.

Richard

Yeah, I highly suggest The Boys. Not for it's concept being extra ordinary or very unique, but for it's crazyness, if you look at it that way. Thank you for the link, will check it out. I've heard of 'Dr Stone', I am pretty sure. I don't know what 'To the ABANDONED Sacred Beast' is about though. Currently I am watching Naruto Shippuden (better than series 1 of Naruto with even more episodes). It's propably without a doubt the very best anime series. The first season (series) was rather childish/for childs one could say, but you can't say the same about Shippuden. It's an incredible show. My favourite anime so far are Netflix's Ajin Demi-Human, Parasyte the Maxim, Overlord, Assassination Classroom (begins boring continues really good, seriously) and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Death Note is a very well made show, but it wasn't really to my liking. Another is a mystery anime where the last not least episode a massacre is, very shocking. I haven't seen tons of anime to be honest.

I'm always open to new suggestions for VN's and books to read so when I can I'll check out a few of the ones you suggested. For Hiddenwall's Patreon page the link is here: https://www.patreon.com/hiddenwall/overview. I admittedly don't watch a lot of TV, though I recently did start watching two fairly new anime's 'Dr. Stone', and 'To the Forgotten Sacred Beasts', both of which I've enjoyed quite a bit. I'd heard some things about of 'The Boys' on Facebook but hadn't had a chance to look into it as of yet. I'll add it to my list though for when I have some time to kill.

Richard

A conversation sequel Well, Anders is, without a doubt, one of the best novel series I have encountered, until today. Among other famous or not famous series such as Eragon (created at age of 15) or The Chronicle of the Immortals (translated, don't think it's available in English :/ from a german bestseller author) I heard that about EA too. I won't disagree with you. Although I think it's easier to write a beginning than for example a middle part. I am not against the beginning at all, I liked it. Now though I am not able to understand why they still have over a thousand Patrons. In my point of view there are clearly better VN's. Oh it's just like what you wrote basically. (Writing & reading in the same exact moment... Yeah) Timeskips sound about right. Could it be that a visual novel without timeskips only works if it isn't a normal-life type story? Because this scheme seems to work in Uncommon Breed where everything can happen, unlike in EA. TA on the other hand is a good comparison example. The basics of both VN's are of course very similar. Give Password a shot. You will not be disappointed (I only like one character what is enough for me anyway. He is a good 🐺). B101 is a Russian VN, yep you read right, that was translated into pretty poor English and the developers “refused“ to bring out updates later on, when I don't know. It's been a while since the last update. Now Incubus Academy... I played the very beginning and are already unsure if I will like it. Your taste may be different, who knows. YAGS is plain a waste of time. I wouldn't recommend it, even after my death. If you “hate“ how EA turned out you will hate this. Simply because you could say the story happens in a time loop and that's how boring it is... I looked up some of them and will check out the rest. I propably need to say it again; I have no access to a private computer/laptop, so I can't play most or all for now. (my bad I never really cared)🤷 I wrote them down. Ah, before I forget I can't open Kingsguard on furaffinity, it blocks me. The Patreon page I could open, but searching for Patreons doesn't work for me. Link please...? (I have a FA account) Say (randomly) do you watch any new tv shows? One of these which is incredible is called The Boys (weird name for a show like this tbh). I don't call the show itself incredible, though the plot is very comical and crazy, what I personally enjoy and also kind of criminal, what is usually boring to me. The genres are crime, action and comedy. 'Mindfuck' shows and stuff is just something I sometimes need. I am not familiar with Amazon's movies and series, but this one caught my attention. Right now it has a very good reputation with 9.1 stars rated on IMDb. Just so you know it's fsk 18. I found out about it recently, so why not share, right?

Can't say I've ever heard of "Anders" but if as you said it wasn't translated into English it's not likely to have come to my attention. Definitely sounds interesting though. VN wise, I do have to disagree about EA to a point, it started out really strong and built a solid reputation among supporters which is why it's as successful as it is. That said I do wonder how it maintained that level of support for as long as it has. Admittedly I really did enjoy it up till about day 14/15 for most of the characters but around that time it started to feel like everyone was in a holding pattern and each update was too similar to the previous ones becoming repetitive and boring. I think it would have benefited from utilizing time skips in a similar vein to TA here. Trying to fill 30+ consecutive days of a story is bound to be trying, consider for a moment if Shoichi had three consecutive updates where all that happened was that he and Yuuichi went to school, had lunch with the group and walked home together afterwards, it would be tedious to read through no matter how realistic it is. (And they probably do have multiple days of things of that nature happening during the school week but thanks to liberal use of dates and time skips it is unnecessary to include in the narrative.) Moving on to some of the others, I had played an early version of Uncommon Breed but never really kept up with it to see how far it progressed, and I'd heard bits and pieces about Password but never played it. Not familiar with B101, Acubus Academy, or YAGS offhand either though I'm always open to giving new projects a fair shot. For the ones I mentioned that you weren't familiar with, Major/Minor and Winds of Change are both on Steam. Kingsguard is being created by Hiddenwall, he has a page here on Patreon as well as FA with the most recent builds, and Hidden World is also here on Patreon, but was a rather small project so it's understandable that not many people were aware of it. (Especially once it went radio silent) In case you were interested though: Kingsguard's most recent build: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31378446/ And Hidden World's Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=3430621

Richard

It's all good. I hadn't really checked this post for a while either since it's nowhere near the top of my feed anymore and Patreon does seem to have a habit of not notifying posters of a reply to a reply for some reason. I can appreciate your take on the different aspects of relationships, and I agree that sometimes writers do invent the most ridiculous reasons for characters to argue simply for the sake of adding drama to their story and it's a very transparent and flimsy attempt at best. Also yeah if a character dies (no matter how minor their role may have been) and the surviving cast simply moves on without acknowledging that is unrealistic and immersion breaking, as well as insulting to the reader's intelligence. (And the mark of a poor author in my opinion). The third book of the 'New Darkness' trilogy by Joseph Delaney is one of the better examples I can give for this, in that a character named Jenny, who despite having played such a major role in the books up till that point, was killed in such an unceremonious manner, and her death was pretty much just shrugged off by Tom (the main protagonist and her mentor) that it was clear that the author had no plans for her character and no idea what to do with her beyond that point and was one of the biggest contributors to the book's overall failings. (And frankly with as good as the first two books in the set were it was clear that the third one was half-finished mess that the author just shoved out to meet a deadline and didn't have the quality and shine it should have) For the sake of brevity, (which may be too late given yet another massive wall of text lol) I'll jump to your question about the VN's I've enjoyed. Obviously this one is high on my list of favorites, I often recommend it to people looking for suggestions (while leaving out one or two minor details to avoid any shameless self promotion). I followed EA for quite a while but fell out some time ago and just never got back into it, (this was before the artist change, but I admit that is part of the reason I'm hesitant to get back to it given that I'm not overly fond of the new style) Sins and Paradise is another I've procrastinated on recently and eventually need to play catch up with. (The sad thing is I still pledge to both of those here on Patreon despite not actively keeping up with the updates) I'd be remiss to not at least acknowledge Blackgate, in spite of all it's flaws it was one of the first VN's I followed and hate how far it's declined from its peak given how good it used to be (and still could be if Bane would get his act together) Echo is another one I enjoy, Repeat (despite it's frequent delays) has a lot going for it and is worth the read. My current favorite at present is Kingsguard, it's still fairly early in development but has a ton of potential. Both Major/Minor and Winds of Change (written by Klace) are finished VN's that are a bit shorter than some out there, but have engaging stories, likeable characters, well written dialogue, and good pacing that make for an enjoyable read. Two more that I really enjoyed, and had so much potential were Hidden World and Project Aego. Sadly neither of them seem likely to resume since they have both been on hiatus with no word from their writers in over a year. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind, I've played a lot of VN's over the years so I'm sure there are more I could mention if I gave it some thought.

Richard

Oh my, I feel so bad for Shoichi after finishing the update that I feel like I have to go back and finish his route again. Poor guy... The update itself was very enjoyable, the last time when I played the game I only finished Jun's route, and it was more than a year ago, I think, so this time I saved it for the end and oh boy, that was truly something. As much as I hoped for a better ending, it certainly was heart-wrenching and well-written. Jun is almost too precious (sometimes even crossing that line a tiny bit)!

Keo

Well eh... I forgot about my message here and received no message that you wrote back. I don't really know what I should reply to that monstrosity of a text. (It's great analysing a game like this, don't get me wrong) It's not like I cry about fictional characters who die or lose their friend/s either or about other less likeable scenarios. Though wishing them the best possible outcome is in my nature. Also if I “fall in love“ with one character the others aren't as important to me anymore. They're relevant for the story, but not for my interest. I don't want them to die, but I care less when it happens. I do appreciate conflicts in relationships. It's just sometimes the differences that the characters are having are blunt and unrealistic, sometimes the characters act weird, like in Extracurricular Activities (the MC). You are right with saying two long-life friends fall in love is a cliché. I don't mind though I like it. I do also very like Tyson's character in Password, Who was bullying the MC. His personality simply makes sence. I don't enjoy reading about characters that are just there to seduce the MC, like Darius from EA too. Hating a game only because of one or two “wrong“ characters would be false, I am not like that. I'm sure I would like a few, different things in each and every route. When a character dies and it doesn't affect the other characters It's no use. A story like this can't be any good really, shouldn't be a thing. What are your favourite VN's, if I may ask?

Aye, nothing wrong with looking at it in that way. I personally do enjoy all three routes on their own but little things like this that overlap and show the continuity across all of them despite the differences in major events is something more VN's should do, rather than ignore inconsistencies altogether or use the thinly veiled excuse of "self contained routes with no consequence on the others." I'm not the type of person to form emotional attachments or get too heavily invested in the lives of fictional characters, which isn't to say I don't care what happens to them or don't hold on to anticipation wondering what will happen next, but it's not going disrupt my life in any way shape or form either if two characters from a story don't end up together like I expect. (See 'Echo' and its aversion to happy endings for an example of this) While I do agree with the premise that Shoichi is the most logical relationship for Yuuichi (and frankly the one most likely to endure) It doesn't stop me from enjoying the other two for what they offer either. The two life-long friends falling for one another is an almost cliched trope in novels these days (visual or otherwise) but that's not a bad thing. It does have base in reality, and a lot of people can probably relate to it on a personal level. For the sake of realism I appreciate the ones that end poorly and ultimately ruin a friendship, even if that's not the most pleasant outcome, since ultimately it does seem highly unlikely that they could simply go back to being friends after that without the lingering feelings (good or bad) making things difficult. In the end though it's ultimately up to you to to enjoy the story in whatever way appeals to you the most.

Richard

It may be weird for you, but from what I have read, I think I can tell, you propably feel nearly similar about it or can at the very least relate to it. So... From the time on I started Tennis Ace I fell in love with the character Shoichi and his personality. Then, as soon as I knew he was in love with Yuuichi for years, without him knowing about it, I knew I couldn't play the others routes anymore. I was pretty much dumbstruck. lol... I mean we can all tell that they're perfect, heck pretty much meant for one another, right? For me this is all I need. I don't dislike the others at all Jun, Keisuke. Yeah I know, I care way too much about these two. When it comes to love relationships you can't care enough though, in my opinion. I'm not the kind of guy that cries his soul out over depressing love stories with like characters who have suicidal intentions and terrible car accidents, after that ones part of his or hers mind is erased, but I sure do care alot. Two long life friends falling in love with each other has to be the best thing, I can think of, in such a context. The second best imaginable thing for me would be a guy and his former bully fall for each other, like in Password a relatively young still awsome visual novel. Just wanted to share my thoughts.

Have to say it's hard not to feel bad for Shoichi in this update, he's in a very unenviable position of wanting his friends to be happy but that means losing out on something he wants in the process. It will definitely be interesting to see how he handles the situation moving forward. In particular his reaction on finding out Yuuichi and Keisuke started dating will certainly be memorable. (Granted that hinges on the premise that they actually tell the others about that but still.) The situation between Yuuichi and Jun is following a logical path given their respective personalities and the amount of time they've been acquainted. While I can understand people being impatient about it all things considered, I should advise them to not get their hopes up for a quick resolution, there's no guarantee that the next update will have the confession, and frankly it would be more realistic to hold off on that for a while. (I realize that would be months in real time but bear in mind that would very likely be just a few days in the VN.)

Richard

3 moths waiting are cruel, but it is good. Yuu and Jun don't know the other really well, and it's naturally that they need time. but the first talk with Sho and Saya was ,,something,, because we know about Sho's feelings for Yuu, that will end bad. but regdlass the update was good and the talk that Jun is gay, and the little Teasing Aki at the end was funny. but i hate to wait 3 month, for Yuu confession of his feelings.

It's Santa Keisuke

Great update, but my heart hurts from the lack of closure. It's definitely going to be a long 3 months before we can see Yuuichi tell Jun how he feels definitively.

Thanks for the CG on Keisuke's route. It was glorious! As for Jun... man he's just my favorite out of the bunch and just seeing as how things are going quite differently for him in comparison to the other two hurts..., but I can't expect all the routes to go the same way. So here's hoping that our little ball of sunshine gets his happiness eventually although it feels like MC will need a breakthrough for things to change... Anyways happy w/ the update. so sad to know we'll have to wait another 3 months for the continuation, but we're only human and we can only do so much in such little time. Thanks again for the update and will be looking forward to the next one.

Allen Walker

long have we waited, Jun's update activated!

Allen Walker

it's here...

Oz