/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I've been out of the loop for a while, has there been any translated game getting updates in the last few months that isn't TW or Megaten?

>>46443579
Unfortunately no I've been out the loop for a better part of 10 years. I'm trying to catch up. I miss overly complex and borderline autistic writing in my LN. So I would like some recommendations thank you

Mio holofes 5 aftertalk, 17-03-2024

>Thank you as always
Mio starts by thanking everyone for their hard work. Mio thinks the event was extremely satisfying and she'll check out everyone's submissions for AsaMio after the stream.

>Holofes/Expo
On Friday, Day 0 of the event, they were allowed to tour and sign on a lot of things for the expo. Mio is shocked at the size of the venue this year, even mentioning again how the seating stretched beyond the horizon, and especially the fact that the whole venue was just one giant floor with no upper levels. There were troubles, of course, like the giant pillars blocking the view and being far away from the active screen, but Mio thought overall they worked it out pretty well.
Mio was amazed by the intensity and vigor of the crowd, it shook her to the core when she was on stage. During stage 2, Mio was placed on the rear end for both her solo and group songs - which made her think Miofa must be wondering when she'll perform. The moment Mio appeared on stage, Mio could feel the accumulated energy from Miofa who have been waiting for her almost tremble the earth. The penlights too, thus far they've been mixed between red and green, leading to the Miofa forest is burning and Christmas color jokes, but this year was overwhelmingly green. Mio wonders if Miofa whispered to the people next to them that Mio's color is green.

>Aspirations
Mio loved how energetic the crowd was and how explosive the reaction was during the last "baka mitai" during Night Loop. Mio expresses how she isn't satisfied with only one solo song and wants to do a sololive. To have been given an extremely supportive and powerful reaction from the crowd, from that many people, despite having been made to wait for so long, struck Mio's heart. Mio wondered how she can repay this favor and thought she won't ever forget this feeling. She's extremely thankful to Miofa and will work even harder from now on, she wants Miofa to feel proud to have supported Mio. Even after having entered her sixth year, Mio still considers herself to have not changed much while others have been moving in leaps and bounds, becoming more skilled and more popular. Mio will keep trying her best, in hopes of one day becoming a part of this group of successful people.

>Delight and Respite
Still tearing up, Mio exclaims she had fun with the event overall. Since her appearance was quite late in the schedule, she had a lot of time to wait and send off everyone, chat around, play cards, eat snacks and meals, and spy on the attendees with the cameras. She also met ID members and gave them snacks. In the break room, she played with quite a few people. Subaru had wanted to play cards so she brought out her deck and played President with Subaru, Pekora and Nene. Mio thought Subaru and Nene were often caught in slumps where they couldn't deal while Pekora played pretty smoothly - Mio thinks Pekora does have an image of being good at games. Halfway through, Polka came in and started backseating Nene for her plays. Then Iroha and Lui came in and played as well; Iroha was in a pretty similar place with Subaru and Nene while Lui was smart in her plays. Mio also played old maid with Botan, Korone and Iroha in another break room, though Iroha didn't stay for long. Mio says to watch Korone's retrospective and ask her what happened when they played old maid.

>MC section
When they were discussing what they were going to do during the MC section, Mio had thought Polka would be the one to tsukkomi and she could freely joke around but in the end, the three played boke with no one to slap them for their jokes.

>Gamers Live Event
Mio begins by asking Miofa if they've followed the twitter account and to please do so if they haven't already, to relieve staff of their worries about the event. As scheduled, Fubuki will reveal more details on the 22nd so Mio won't say much but Mio is excited to perform at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, it's a big venue. Mio is sure everyone was surprised by the new gamers song suddenly playing in the background when it was revealed. The event itself will be more focused on entertainment as gamers usually does, Mio hopes everyone will look forward to it. Mio is surprised by the reality that the event is barely two months away as there's still a lot to prepare for. Mio states how this year might be a busy year again for her with the live event, no more Spring-Summer break. Despite the rapidly advancing time, Mio is still excited for the event. She wants to bask in the energy that Miofa have given her during holofes again, standing in front of everyone on stage is a wonderful feeling.

Mio doesn't know what awaits her in the future but she'll always carry this memory of Miofa supporting her with her and hopes to be able to give Miofa a reason to be this impactful again, hopefully during her sololive.

While I pulled layer after layer of my kimono from my body, I heard Reimu and the others talking outside. "-She need to escort us, anyway?" It sounded like Kasen was asking the questions. "What the hell's she got in here that's so dangerous?" Even without seeing her, I could tell that there was a level of interest that wasn't quite for pure curiosity. In fact, I was almost certain that Kasen wanted to fight whatever those two girls that I had seen were. "Oh, Reimu - You've got...Here. Come here." I heard the jingle of chains, and then heard Reimu fussing. "No, stay still, you silly Shrine Maiden. Honestly, you've let your hair get so messy. How can you claim to be from a respectable Shrine if you look like this? Now - Stop moving, I'll only take a moment."

"Kasen - Stop, I'm not - How come this part of you stuck around? Get - Get off!" The jingling continued, and I heard stifled laughter coming from Marisa and Tenshi.

"Y'know, I didn't really believe you when you showed up." Marisa said. "But - Only Kasen treats Reimu like this." Reimu swore at Marisa, then yelped. I heard the sound of a light slap, and the continued jingle of chains.

"Don't curse, Reimu. It's unbecoming. I'm still just as much the hermit as I am the oni." Kasen reprimanded, her voice sounding exactly as Lady Kasen's did instead of the strange middle ground between Lady Kasen and Raki that the oni occupied. "You - Are - combing it after you have a bath, aren't you?"

"Would - Stop fussing! And if you hit me again, I'm going to get upset! I can take care of myself! Marisa - Tell her!"

"She absolutely cannot." Marisa immediately replied. "Died once from eating rotten food, forgets to cook for herself for days on end, the list goes on. Carry on, Kasen." I heard Reimu try and curse again.

Finally disrobed from my kimono, I turned my attention to the second outfit. Having already worn it once, I felt like I'd not struggle too much with it. Perhaps the tie, though. Reimu could tie far more excellent knots. "Marisa, you - You-" Reimu seemed to still be having trouble dealing with whatever it was Kasen was doing.

"Oh, relax." Marisa almost whined. "You know, I didn't even know Kasen was an oni, and then I find out when she merges with her missing arm? And - I find out that practically everyone knew except me? I love you, Reimu, but I'm feeling just a little bitter about that. Watching her fuss over you is good anathema for this sort of betrayal, though." I hoped she wasn't feeling too bitter. It hadn't been a particular intention of anyone's to keep her out of the loop - It had just sort of...Happened. Tenshi, Komachi, and Reimu had already known, and I'd found out the hard way. Yamame had just followed on from there. "Don't look at me like that, Tenshi. You knew too. I'll have to smack you around a bit as payback later."

I pulled my trousers on first, then the shoes. "Er, if it makes you feel better, I - Ah, didn't know. At least, not until I found out." Keine spoke up, after having been very quiet for the last few minutes. "Though - I don't think I was exactly in the competition, anyway." She'd said that slightly strangely, though I wondered whether she was referring to finding out right now or some time earlier. "But - Miss Kasen is right about your hair, Reimu..." An involuntary shudder ran through me. Keine had spent far long messing with my hair throughout my life as it was.

"Hey, just call me Kasen. Never was a fan of 'Miss.' And don't call me 'Lady' - Only one person insists on calling me that, and I'm not quite the same as the person he started using the name for." I swallowed, clenching my teeth for a moment. Yes - Lady Kasen was reserved for the hermit with the missing arm. Kasen was the full oni. "But - Y'see, Reimu? She agrees with me. Now - Just..."

Reimu just growled.

I slipped the shirt on, beginning to button it. We'd been careful not to get any creases on it since I'd had it, and it still felt just as silky smooth as it had when I'd first touched it. Once the shirt was buttoned, I tucked it into my trousers and lifted the suit jacket from the box. It was perfectly fitted to me, but I still couldn't help but feel like it was just slightly constricting. Nerves, I imagined. Outside, the jingling chains had finally stopped. "There. That's better, right?" Kasen asked. "Right? C'mon, Reimu. Say it's better."

"It's - It's only a little bit better." Reimu replied in a strangled voice. "But - Completely unnecessary. Can we move on now?"

"Sure, sure." Kasen replied, sounding like she was holding a laugh back. "So, who's the mystery nightmare creature that Yuuka doesn't want us wandering around the mansion for?" I pulled my collar up and slipped the tie around it. I'd tried to learn the way that Reimu had done the knot, but...Frankly, my fingers just weren't as dextrous as hers were when it came to something like this. I could manage a clumsy knot of a sort, but nothing close to what Reimu could do.

“What do you mean, 'pregnant with a building'? Are you insane, crazy? My Sekai was conceived by me and her father while expressing our love to each other, there were no IUI or months of trial and error—as if me, Yukari Yakumo, would struggle with getting pregnant! Let me clear this misconception; it was a night filled with stars and fireflies[...]” The Bunbunmaru articles goes on and on with excruciating detail of The Gap Sage sexual life—passages about 'Gap Sex' and 'Gap age-play' rank in the hundreds. It sold out immediately and took first place of 'most selling newspaper of all time in Gensokyo', selling twice as much as the first issue about Reimu's abuse on her husband and daughter.

last time in the HSE:
>Anon came back to hell, Yukari awaits him there; he tells her to fuck off for once in his life… Not that it mattered much, but it was very cool. Go, go, Anon! Sekai visits her parents, and Anon reminesce about not projecting the sins of others on their children after fucking silly Yukari;
>Yukari has a total meltdown over her Towel of Babel built upon lies, fucks Anon in an attempt to kindle anything between them that is not either fake or caricature, fails spetacularly. It's a sight to behold… Then their eldritch god of a daughter comes to visit, and all the validation Yukari was seeking for is found in Sekai's unwavering love for her and Anon, festering her delusion to oblivion and beyond;
>Hana tsuns over her mother's gift, and after a lot of beating around the bush decides to wear the Legendary +10% DMG bonus alcot. Has cute chuuni moments at the breakfast table and asks for some guidance with her powers—all very cute~—, but then she blurts about her most embarrassing moments at Eientei after getting her ability, prompting Reimu to return to her bullying days. She's still laughing as of now;
>Marisa has a heartfelt talk with Reimu that may or may not involve beating with a broom, if you understand what I am saying;
>Aya does many things, mainly she goes to Nitori to talk about good ol' terrorism and, during that, bask in the glory of a ressuscitated Hisoutensoku. Gets mind raped by her insecurities and fears inside it, and is deemed unworthy of piloting Gensokyo's greastest SUPAROBOTO. At least she leaves with enough explosives to tumble Youkai Mountain… but forgets which are duds and what are actual explosives. Amazing. Simply amazing. Gets petted by Reimu and almost dies;
>The Jobber Squad jobbs together an attack plan for the day of the Solstice and, even with the help of a real God in the Hakurei God himself, the plan is still fault to death. Gladly they have dumb luck and a TRUE Shrine Maiden with them, so it's all fine and dandy~before that, Yuuka bickers with Tewi, to no avail. The lolibaba is too strong for them;
>Seija and Goro do Seija and Goro things—play with puppies, try to impress their mom with saloon tricks and bicker with 'literal' children—, they share with Yukari that Sekai has contacted them and hacked their bodies, but are unable to tell her some truths because of Sagume's power. Sadge. At least their meeting with Konngara ended with no casuality or eternal loop of 'nothing personal, kid';
>Keine's revolution goes on and more and more she reveals that the swastika might've been a good idea to keep, as the Hieda Clan takes the bait and starts to censor her words; even gets in contact with a shady—reads trustful—reporter to spred propaganda and lutherian revolution sentiment to the masses. I can feel the violent protest in my goddamn bones already. While that bomb awaits to explode, Mokou has a crisis towards her violent tendencies that culminates in her hitting her fucking two months old baby. What the hell?! Mystia then comes, they talk about motherhood and hurting those you love, and everything ends nicely for now;
>Kosuzu is on the verge of breaking as she realizes how fucked up is her situation and the danger that it gears towards her family… And that's BESIDE the revolution she's taking part of. At least there her talents—both literal and arsonistic—can be well used. Poor Suzu;
>Solid Chen and Liquid Flandre sneak around the HSE, pursuing the Jaku Duo. Very cute~;
>In an alternate reality, Hana has learned nothing and fucks her mother AGAIN, now during a goddamn therapeutic relapse. Very not cool.

—
Last thread edition, next is the Finale!
—
This thread is for the spinoffs of the spinoffs of a fan work, read below to catch up.
OG work here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43718466/chapters/109935363
Read Hana's story here:
>“Hana Hakurei is the daughter of Reimu Hakurei and her husband, Anon. As the future protector of Gensokyo, Hana was never going to have a normal life, but it was worse than it should have been.”
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52050766/chapters/131634781
—
previous thread: >>45888560

>>46056585
>more VN than mobage
Yeah but a lot of the mobage development is long term, so even if it's one game that could be taking man hours.
Take the alicesoft game above I just posted about: Alicesoft used to release 1-2 games every year just abouts, until 2020 when they started working on Escalation Heroines.
Sure, their leader basically stepped down around this time and they're probably trying to find some new footing, but still.
Or at least that's how it was last I checked, I've been out of the loop a while.

the old guide used to have an onahole brand guide. out of the loop so not sure. i've been burned by crap g-project, and i just miss my tomax which my seller of choice doesn't have any of anymore

>>45249384
i've been so out of the loop of the fangames despite playing the original a decade ago but even playing .flow recently like did still gave me that feeling (probably because i at least saw bits and pieces of it and 2kki in random youtube videos showcasing events). in comparison 2kki's only just ok to me, i like it but even playing an older version in 0.104c i still think it's a bit too big, i like the more compact nature of the original but that's kind of the point of 2kki so it's just me.
>>45270308
extremely late post because i didn't see a yume nikki thread here until now but if you still haven't it's great.

>>45907477
I've been out of the loop for a while but ensemble always used to ship PlayDRM on physical, other companies also did use it for online activation and that DMM game player shit, guilty and empress being an exception as they always swear by starforce.
>>45907913
Would have been a non-issue a few years ago. How do we convince japan to upload again?

Komachi fell asleep seconds later, and I decided that it was probably time to make our escape. I wasn't looking to care for more sick girls already. I'd done two last year and that was enough to keep me happy for a while. "Kept me up all night, coughing her lungs out and sneezing." Raki muttered, watching the sleeping Shinigami. "You could hear it from all the way up at the top of the dojo."

I raised an eyebrow to Yamame, who waved her hands defensively. "I really didn't make it that bad! Either her immune system works differently, or she's a drama queen!"

"Probably the former." Lady Kasen interjected. "She's usually so laid back that I can't imagine her milking this in private. In front of the Yama, perhaps, but she never needs to hide anything around me." Komachi chose that moment to groan and roll over. It reminded me of the sick Reimu doing the same thing, so I again decided that we should get out of there. "You'll probably want to start on the wedding preparations soon, but not that soon." Lady Kasen told us. "Take some time to relax. An unbalanced mental state can be as dangerous as any attack." She was raising her finger into that lecture pose, and I didn't think I wanted to be stuck here listening to it for hours.

"Houso, you're eating too much." Raki suddenly said. I looked over at her to see that she was lifting Lady Kasen's tiger with one hand. She placed him on her lap - Never mind that he was too big for her lap, and both his hind legs and his fore legs were hanging in the air - and began to scratch him behind the ears. He let out another tiger-like purr, and Raki smiled, looking very pleased about it.

I took that chance to stand, and Yamame joined me before Lady Kasen could start again. "So, er, we'll go and...Relax." Yamame announced. "Um, will we see you again soon?" There was a note of hope in her voice.

"Of course you will, Yamame. I'm not leaving him alone for too long, or he'll start to forget his training." I stood up straighter and looked away from Lady Kasen, who was eyeing me with some amusement. Much as Lady Kasen's training had been immensely helpful to me as a person, I, much like Reimu, would rather not repeat it unnecessarily. "Will you be at the Shrine soon?" She asked, tilting her head. I cleared my throat and told her that Shameimaru was looking to meet me there on the fifth of the month for some sort of interview. I didn't know many details yet, aside from her old request for an exclusive. "Then...We will likely come to the Shrine on that day, too."

Lady Kasen nodded. "Ah, I almost forgot. Have you thought about wedding rings? It's not exactly...traditional, at least by Gensokyo standards, but neither was the engagement ring, and you all seemed to love that regardless." I asked her what she was trying to say. "Well - I suppose this should come as no surprise, but I've been to the Outside World several times since Gensokyo formed, and I was there for most of the time before that, too. Wedding rings as an element of a marriage ceremony only showed up right before right before barrier went up." She stopped for a moment, as if getting her thoughts straight. "But, in the time since, they have become very popular in Japan. And, perhaps somewhat popular in Gensokyo too, since the youkai have learnt about them, and the humans have learnt about them too. Those outsider families in the village, one of them is from the west, isn't he?"

I thought for a moment. Yes, there was a man with distinctively different features to most of the village. "He, I believe, keeps a wedding ring, though his wife has passed away." That was right. He'd remarried in the village, but I'd seen the gold band that had presumably once sat on his finger hanging from a loop of string around his neck before. Slowly, I nodded to Lady Kasen. "He explained the tradition as best he could, and so the rest of the village got the idea. It didn't take long after that for it to catch on, though given the danger of mining out here, I doubt anyone there could get something quite like what you got for Yamame." That did make me smile a little. Knowing that I'd been able to give Yamame something that not many else would have been able to do.

At about that point, I realised that I'd been caught in exactly what I'd been trying to avoid: One of Lady Kasen's lectures. "Partner, I think you're overloading his poor brain." Raki muttered from where she was stroking Houso's back. "Give him a rest."

Getting back into Japanese music after loving Sheena Riingo and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu forever ago.

Recently found PEDRO, Necry Talkie, bloodthirsty butchers, and CAPSULE and have been having a blast. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also why is AyuniD always crying in interviews?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-MylLQHD1A


Here's a couple songs I've really been enjoying this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APVoYAxXvbo (Also if anyone can explain the significance of this goofy looking dude doing a cover of this song that'd be great, out of the loop)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwn49r14nIc
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sJtYuflq-Q8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T3ofoKfEoY

>>45717051
(cont.) works as a cashier some more, fucks Onee-san and learns her story, goes to class, plays the baddy who kills Amane and fucks over other people and lovers. Btw despite loving everyone he doesn't show it or has ANY conflicting feelings about dating Onee-san and even fucking her in front of 3 of his brainwashed exes! Then after their deaths he spends a day having fun with Funabori watching movies, fucking and then festival time again. Time rewinds and NOW suddenly out of nowhere he wants to fight again. ???? Why? How? He never once in this route which only lasted a single loop within that timelap made any plans for anything. I don't get it. It's like a filler episode before the final battle and skipping over the training arc then bullshitting the final boss with a new deus ex machina move. Why couldn't Kyouhei be shown doing literally anything in this route?

Let's get to the next issue, the plotholes. About Kuuko, we were shown that she gets mind controlled in her sleep before she turns into the shark. She never remembered her shark actions! Now she's mysteriously aware of everything, not just retained memories, and after her kills she copes undersea. Where does this come from? She's aware of her role as a shark as if she were the sister after regaining her consciousness and freed of the control device. Yet she wear it again and talks like retard Kuuko. I always forgot to mention in prev. posts that no one ever reacts to Kuuko's blue streaks tattoo on her skin. What even is that since she kept it after not being a shark anymore.

The writer still hasn't explained what happened to Amane at the end of the loops when she regrets killing the shark. Why even since she doesn't care about killing Kuuko or bystanders. So what is her regret? Or her saying it wasn't her purpose. Or Kyouhei saying he knows about Tokyo. We still don't know how they met, how the siblings became shark hunters, he can't even swim! I guess him "knowing" Tokyo is from his memories of loops escaping there? Not originally being from Tokyo like I thought in earlier routes. We also still know nothing about Kyouhei or Remi's parents. Were Touka's parents maybe killed by sharks and not illnesses? What even is Maruri's home life? Instead there are new questions. Funabori started season 1 sengoku, went into stasis until season 2 showa, then again until season 3 reiwa. Why don't the takos replace her or use other admins? Why did they even allow Kyouhei when he was their VIP actor. Mindcontrol makes no sense. They need physical tentacle rape to start it but then use psychokinesis to control? And takos are aliens using a basement server to then control tako robots as cameras and minions who look real but are robots. If they can rewind time why use manual labor to rebuild or get rid of trash? Rewinds are confusing. The dead come back but some dead are removed permanently despite being interesting to takos. The mind wipes are not perfect so errors happen. It's dumb. Also the food restocking. There are 15.000 islanders (but only 30 kids in school) on this tiny island, I don't believe it. If Funabori only admin'd that 1 district I'd believe it. She can't oversee 15k people. She can't even work 1 konbini.

I have no idea how they'll win in the finale. Honestly I don't care. I hate this VN. Every year I read 1 game like this and force myself to finish it. This time is the last. I won't read shit anymore I don't like reading. The common route started good, the first school day and the Maruri toilet event told me something was off. Then Maruri's terrible route should've been the last straw. I pushed for Touka (worth it) and Kuuko (not worth it). I got invested and with every route I didn't want to not see it through. Remi's route was the worst for pacing and "romance". Kuuko's was boring and disappointing. I fucked up wasting so many hours. Not again. Fuck kusoge.

I don't plan to make a post for the finale unless it blows me away. I expect no answers and a lot of bullshit. Sharkness Life Grand Route, fuck you already. I'll avoid anything by this writer in the future and I'll fucking stop reading time travel/loop stories since every single one sucks. FUCK THIS GAME FUCK THIS GAME FUCK THIS GAME

And that's it for episode 6 of Sharkness Life. It was meh, the disappointment continues, and in some ways the main story got even worse. Where to even begin.

I liked the way the previous routes unlocked the Onee-san route by adding an anti-choice after each route. At the start of her route I felt like a complete idiot for some of my previous complaints that were immediately touched on. I really liked where it was going with the every route happened but was undone by the takos even when they left the island. Furthermore Kyouhei joining the enemy because he realized fighting was pointless opened up the gates to so much information about the inner workings behind Onee-san's operation. That was fantastic but also where the good parts ended.

Funabori's own background tying in with the sengoku slave trade revealed in Remi's route was okay but there were 3 or 4 of these history sessions that just didn't reveal much new or interesting. I also felt nothing for Funabori as a person. Such a tragic fate and things she lived through, but it didn't grip me or shake my heart. It was bland and didn't stand out from any other dialogue. The short police book story was done better than this. Funabori should've had gotten an actual flashback episode but that would kill the budget.

The tako's ability to give admins any skill, knowledge and role was interesting and explained how Onee-san could do things. What the route never revealed was how she's able to survive with what I assume is 1 hour of sleep. She's always awake and everywhere. Kyouhei only goes to school and the konbini and it drains him. So how does Onee-san do it for thousands of loops? She said she could be cloned but it would be too risky to run into herself or cause people to get confused. They should gone with clones being real to make sense, paradoxically.

Too much of the route focused on this new everyday life with work. The BBQ happened and the writer started the grimdark part. People die and Kyouhei is involved. He even planned Amane's murder, had to watch Remi get killed (NICE) and then he broke the broken Maruri. This would've been interesting to read if not for Kyouhei. The writer, again, failed to make me feel anything for a main character. He's distraught by his actions and the hopelessness makes him even want to kill himself. He vomits here and there, apparently looks like a zombie, and cries often. But why do I not feel his despair? I thought he was annoying and made no sense. He willingly joined the enemy and accepted being a bad guy doing bad things he has no control over like fucking broken Maruri (off-screen) while Remi watches in shock and later tormenting Maruri until she gets gangraped(?) by takos again. He "plays a script he's given" but I didn't feel it. He just seemed inconsistent and shitty.

The romance was bad. What I saw wasn't love but 2 people using each other to cope with a crappy situation. The H-scenes were ok and a bit shorter, 3 being single CG. Art was a bit better but the writing was boring. Unusable for me. I reread katan's Samenana "review", he praised it a lot for being an old fashioned scenario game while warning that it's not a character game. After Onee-san's route I can only agree that it's a really bad character and romance game. None of the character's feels deep or receives much development. They aren't unlikable but they're more akin to a forgettable movie cast than a VN cast. The romances are undercooked and shallow. The plot conveniently interferes with it. There are no date events or casual scenes. Feelings just happen, they have sex and deal with the plot, time skip to happy end. Other CUBE writers did the opposite and had long common routes that fleshed out the cast and eased into a believable romance that had love. Light on story but not lacking drama they worked as character games but not scenario games. Anyway my takeaway from Samenana's writer is that he has no fucking concept of love and romance writing, less than many other writers who lack experience but make up for it with imagination and wish-fulfilment.

Back to the route's story. After all the bad things that happened yet didn't feel shocking or gripping, probably since we know it's just another loop until the timeline is reset. so nothing matters. Why care? It could make us relate to the admins but it fails., we arrive at the cliffhanger ending seguing into the far too happy and upbeat OP movie. Kyouhei announces his renewed will to save everyone and falls completely flat on his 2D nose. Seriously, tell me what this shitty route was even about. Through the choices he rejects the other girls and thus remembers everything, realizes the pointlessness of fighting, joins the enemy, learns almost everything, works as a cashier,

>>45662238
I've been out of the loop and was surprised to see her as an indie again, what went wrong?

>>45656738
Any stream? Sorry I've been out of the loop for 3 years

>>45629952
Speaking of Rushia, I've been out of the loop, I thought she joined some other company(ies) so why is she back as an indie and looks exactly like one of her old pink Rushia skins (same artist?)

She led us out of the room, then down the stairs and into a larger kitchen, with the same tiled floors and a raised sort of block in the middle with seats around it. "Sit." Hearn told us, waving a hand toward the seats. Imagining that Yamame was probably feeling about as bemused by now as I was, we both took a seat. "I'll get you something." Hearn told us, turning to the complicated array of tools in the kitchen. And then...She just stood there. Staring between all the things. After a moment, she began to bite at the fingernail of her ring finger on her left hand. I saw Yamame open her mouth, so I elbowed her in the side and shook my head. For a while longer, we just watched. I had a suspicion that she relied on Ran for so much that she wouldn't actually have much idea about what to do with herself, and I wanted to see how she would handle it. The answer, it seemed, was not well. A few moments later, she finally clapped her hands together and span. Her face looked like she was straining to keep it together. "As a matter of fact, I think I'd be better served just getting you back home!" She said brightly, like it had been her plan the whole time.

She sat down opposite us, her robe spilling open even more. Tiredly, I reminded her. "You're the ones who barged in on me, remember?" She told me, doing absolutely nothing about it. "Is it embarrassing you? Hmm?" Privately, I decided not to mention second-hand embarrassment. "Now, it's...Rather early in the morning here in Finland. Sunrise isn't until sometime after nine in the morning - The Hour of the Snake, and it is currently late into the Hour of the Dragon." I looked out of the window here, which looked out onto the snow-covered land beyond the house, and saw that perhaps the sky looked slightly lighter. "Of course, that means most of those funny little regular humans out there are already up and about."

I wasn't really sure where she was going with this, so I changed the subject and asked her again how we'd ended up here. She got a little...fidgety at that. "A-Ah, well...You see..." She seemed to be stalling. "So, have you ever fallen asleep and woken up feeling like your arm wasn't there anymore?" Every time I slept in the same bed as either Reimu or Yamame, but I imagined that wasn't quite the point she was trying to make. "It's like that, but with non-Euclidean geometry and spatial travel, if you can imagine that." She frowned. "No one can imagine that. Forget the arm." Done and dusted, since I didn't get it in the first place. "I believe my dreams may have caused a feedback loop triggering a cascade in my brain that caused a spontaneous activation of my ability to create gaps." That sounded like something she'd made up. "That's because I made it up. I think I actually was just having a dream that you two were in and I subconsciously opened a gap to where you happened to be at that moment." Well, I thought, that was much simpler.

"So, er, why are you here, Miss Hearn?" Yamame asked tentatively.

Hearn watched both of us with some amusement. "You may recall the conversation in which Reimu mentioned my coming hibernation?" We nodded. "Something of a lie, I'm afraid. Personally, I'd rather not reveal it, but you've forced my hand somewhat. I do have some business to attend to out here, but mostly I'm here because I like to spend some time in the Outside World. It helps...Remind me of what Gensokyo is for. I came here once, a very long time ago. With Re-" She clamped her mouth shut at that moment. I decided not to ask her any questions about that. It seemed like there was some sort of personal history there.

At that moment, there was the click of a door opening. "Lady Hearn, Chen told me that-" Ran, her tails and ears hidden and a beret on her head, froze. Her outfit had been replaced with another dark suit, and her hand still rested on the door handle. Her other hand held a bag which seemed very weighed down, though I couldn't imagine what the delicacies of this 'Thin-Land' were. She looked at me, then at Yamame. Finally she looked at Hearn. "Ah." She muttered.

I turned my head back to Hearn. "Yes, good morning, Ran. As you can see, we have two uninvited guests!" Hearn rather dramatically pointed out. "Fortunately, they're adorable enough that they could stay, if they wanted, but I rather suspect that they would like to be off, hmm? Finland's climate might not be quite suitable for a spider." She looked between Yamame and I, and we both nodded eagerly. "Oh, what a shame. I shall have to wear less to bed for the next attempt." That, I decided, was not something I wanted to participate in. "Now, where shall I send you? The caves?" I shook my head and hefted the package I was still holding.

I've been out of the loop in the last 12 hours, what did Ririka do

>>45390361
I've been playing this game a lot since launch, and honestly when playing the "EXTREME" content, if you ignore the whole fact that optimally you're dodging as little as possible and cancelling as much as possible, it seems like it'd be a fun little 5 stage shmup. There's tons of fun patterns, skills and situations, even if the few enemies are recycled all the time. But it's as if they were forced at gunpoint to somehow make it all into gacha format and then they just rushed some sort of shitty system out. I believe this would've been unironically more financially successful as a stand-alone game with lots of small character dlc along the line, or something like that, because the shmup dev fundamentals are clearly still there.

But yeah, right now the way they except you to play the same stages a billion times is completely absurd. No-one is going to do that. Except insane people like me because that's exactly what I've been doing for hours in the past few days. The game sucks balls and I know it, but there's some weird basedness glimmering beneath it all and I just keep playing it, trying to brute-force my way up the tower mode. It's completely broken in a fun way.

If anyone actually cares about strategy in the game:
Right now it's ALL ABOUT spamming bullet cancelling skills. The dual lasers, jelly crush, they 8-way shot around you, etc. All the stat power ups are completely irrelevant, you're supposed to just get all the good skills and nothing else. And to be able to use more skills in a run, you need the skill that gives you lots of spirit in exchange for some shield bar (from a 4* card), and then you use a heal skill that restores that shield back (3* card). You loop these two for infinite spirit and spam other skills while doing it. And so you can cancel everything by just doing skills non-stop, even if you're half the recommended power of the stage.

Also playing with an emulator is out of the question. The game slows down to a crawl on them. Which is actually yet another huge issue with this game: playing on a shitty device is actually preferred because of the slowdown. You have a huge advantage like that, the game just becomes insanely boring.

>>45352870
Then you're a fool who misses the point. The true gentleman makes her see him as her equal and rules by her side.

And she was playing a bit and acting out her part of a play when the asshole pulled a gun and shot her. He best be thankful he got off lightly by being killed quick and painlessly. He could've been hogtied and dropped at Eirin's ball crushing factory after being forced into a time loop by Kaguya because she's a (moon)bitch like that.

>>45352922
Not even sure who the guy was. First we're reciting a play for the upcoming Christmas party, next thing some jackass comes strolling through the mansion doors and pulling an Alec Baldwin. What'd he expect?

I've been out of the loop for at least 10 years, can I get a list of what fangames are worth playing these days? I remember playing .flow (loved it), 2kki (couldn't really get into it at the time), lcddem (didn't really like it) and the Neftelia games (I think I liked these ones a lot).

Are vocaloid songs still a go-to for utaite? I've been out of the loop for like 5 years at this point. I don't even recognize most of the names posted here.

attention newfriends, this is what happens to you when you don't emmerse in compelling content from week 1:
>Hi everyone, I've been learning Japanese for slightly more than 4 months now and while I'm very happy I started learning Japanese, I have, once in a while, a huge motivation drop where I just have no motivation whatsoever and I just botch my Anki, right now, I'm doing 12 new words a day with the Core 2k/6k deck (I'm at 1870 right now) and trying to do some Kanji every day with RTK, I first tried to do 20 kanjis a day but the more I progress the more I lose motivation doing so, I'm now at barely 10 and I often skip days. I also try to follow Japanese Ammo with Misa videos as they are very easy to follow and don't really require extra work (at least for now). I would also like to do a bit of sentence mining here and there to get a bit of exposition to the language but I have no motivation for it as well...
>My routine feels like a boring loop that takes a huge chunk of my free time and that doesn't feels really rewarding, in my mind, things will start getting easier and more fun when I'll be more comfortable with grammar and when I'll be done with RTK but I'm scared that when I'll reach this goal I'll feel like it won't be enough again... Has anyone been through a similar situation? What did you do to get out of it?

>>45230418
About Gousotsu, yes I know. People have said this about Gousotsu a million times and It's completely fair, I just see it different personally. I don't mind the SatoRika stuff (I don't really give a shit about shipping, Nor do I care too much for Rika or Satoko in general, I'm a Shion fan). I can buy their relationship but I can imagine anyone who ships Satoko or Rika with anyone else would fucking hate it lol. I'm just gonna quickly type how I feel about Gousots, I'm bored out of my mind anyway. gousotsu had shit execution but I can appreciate what it tried to do for Satoko and Rikas relationship and the intended way to view it i think is in the same way you'd view Umineko, with love.

When Rika breaks out of her loop, she's way too absorbed in her new life to realise Satoko is hurting, and this is also especially because she thinks she understands Satoko better than Satoko does herself, which is just no true. She realizes Satoko is struggling obviously with how she helps her study etc but she doesnt get that thats not what its about for Satoko. Satoko on the flipside treats Rika the exact same and makes little effort to understand her either but she thinks of it as Rika deceiving and abandoning her in favor of her new life. To her, Rika lied to her and she's a different person from who she thought she was, even thoug Rika didnt have malicious intent but this is the only way satoko can view it as and it obviously comes as an immense shock to her. Doesn't help that Satoko also already has abandonment Issues.

In the og, the main evil was constant misunderstandings between everyone and only when everyone came together was Rika able to defeat the tragedy. Now in gousotsu the main evil is deception because Satoko goes on to use deception as her weapon. so in gousotsu, the way to defeat this evil is through honesty, which is how Rika eventually realizes that Satoko isn't out to destroy her, just that she is hurting. so after having her guts torn out by Satoko and realizing this, she prepares a genuine gift for her birthday, the repurposed trap with Rika's love for Satoko. Rika could've done some epic shit to see through Satoko or whatever but that would've just been feeding into Satokos game of deception. Rika subverts it into empathy and honesty and it's the start of Satokos downfall.

Then eventually comes the race between fragments etc etc, where neither of them can reach the sword (i forgot its name) because neither of them truly want to erase the other. Both of them in reality are just fucking frustrated and what theyre doing is more akin to a heated argument rather than some epic battle between the two. Satoko herself is already a very emotional person and comes to realise her view was misguided and she's just been venting out all her frustrations onto Rika (the witch satoko being a personification of her darkest feelings towards rika and her desire to punish her) at this point and this is where she loses and Rika manages to take hold of the sword and she expects Rika to punish her but she doesn't because Rika upon seeing this cools down as well and empathizes with Satoko. She throws the sword into the river where their sins are cleansed by their forgiveness for one another and this is how Hanyuu also achieves her victory against Eua. I think It's fairly satisfying to see them come to a mutual understanding in the end through their love for each other.

Satoko imagined fragments where she made a game with defined rules to send a message to Rika who she believed lied to her. Sound familiar no? This is why I believe you should read Umineko first before watching Gousotsu. When Satoko splits with witch Satoko, the other innocent Satoko who says ''she went wrong somewhere'' isn't the Satoko from the og. You can interpret that It's the Satoko from the time where she tried so hard to convince Rika to not go to st lucia and how she waited for years only to end up betrayed again. It ends with Rika and Satoko in the lake after having thoroughly beat each other up before eventually coming to an understanding through brutal honesty. Satoko suppressed the dark thoughts she had towards Rika and realized they were wrong , which she realizes during their fight as they both listen to each others frustrations. They fought it out and came to an understanding. As for witch Satoko, to me, she split off and became it's own entity and will go on to chase Bernkastel through the sea of fragments.


^^ FYI MY OPINION/INTERPRETATION

There's more I can say but you get the point if you've read all this. I like Gousotsu but I 100% understand why most people don't, there's a lot wrong with it that I didn't talk about but I can appreciate what it tried to do, even though the violence could've been toned down so much and It's so hyperfocused on Rika and Satoko, even if the other club members play a part. It heavily suffers from being an anime imo, I wish it was a vn.