/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>28782738

>>21035731
I found those hilarious because they seemed like a parody of how convoluted the game is. Even though it was probably intended to be a proper game of Mahjong.

To people who know nothing about Mahjong, it's just a bunch of old men seemingly pulling rules and victory conditions out of their asses, all with absurd names.

>"I have DORA!"
>"yeah, but I bet you didn't expect my DOUBLE RIICHI"
>"try again, Ooishi- san, I have three han and two yaku, which means I can do a TRIPLE HAITEIHAI with FIVE PAN"
>"hey guys, check out this sick TSUBAME GAESHI"
>"UUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!"

>>20278278

>>17982140
Umineko is a novel. You are not supposed to be looking at the pretty sprites. The originals are expressive and improve the experience, but they never distract you from the narration or prevent you from imagining the scene yourself. That's where the PS3 sprites and backgrounds fail and feel awkward.

The voice acting is great, but I still think the experience is better, more dinamic and less cringy if you imagine the voices in your head. There is nothing more awkward than having a super fast battle slowed down by voice acting. Or accidentally clicking and interrupting the voice acting. Or having the music loop 5 times in a row because the voice acting made the scene take way longer than it should.

The original novel doesn't have any of those problems and the whole aesthetic is much more charming and interesting to look at. The updated sprites and backgrounds look nice, but they feel sterile, boring and artificial compared to the originals. I'm not saying they are shit, but I think they are worse.

Also, Ryukishi often uses vague facial expressions that convey different emotions depending on the context. Only the original sprites do this well. The updated versions lose that subtlety and look awkward at times. It's very noticeable in Higurashi.

There's something about Ryukishi's deformed sprites and the blurred real life backgrounds that make his novels feel even more immersive. It's like your mind just accepts that bizarre-looking world and gets lost in it more easily.

It's also a very unique art style that stands out and makes you feel happy when you see it. The PS2 artwork is much more generic. And the backgrounds are awesome. Since they are photographs, they feel very realistic, but the blurring gives them a surreal vibe that matches perfectly with the character models and the story itself. It makes them feel separated somehow, so you never find a scene ridiculous because of the perspective.

This is very apparent in Higanbana. It just wouldn't be the same with generic anime designs and sterile drawn backgrounds.

Some other examples would be the phone and the super detailed 3D chain in Umineko. Or the super detailed ash tray in Higurashi. They feel extremely genetic somehow, there's nothing unique about them. But since they are so detailed, you can't help but notice that Rosa's phone is the same as the one in the mansion, and the same as every other phone that appears in the story. Even the generic picture of a plant that sits next to the phone is the same every time a phone appears. It's obvious that it's just a recycled background and it just takes you out of the story. It looks silly.

In the original novels, you can see the backgrounds but you can't really see any details. Things like phones or ash trays don't stand out so much, it's not as immediately obvious that this phone is exactly the same as the one you saw in a completely different location. It's blurry, you just know that it's a phone and nothing more. It simply conveys the idea of a phone. Same with Hinamizawa and Rokkenjima. The detailed drawn backgrounds in the re-releases make these places feel less realistic and give us too much detail, leaving no room for the imagination. The image is too clean and you can easily see how boring and empty everything looks. And the perspectives look strange sometimes because there isn't a separation between the realistic backgrounds and cartoony sprites. The PS3 version lacks that separation and makes it harder to use your imagination. The sprites look like they belong in that world and the whole perspective makes everything look off.

The blurry photographs are more artistic, even if they didn't take too much effort to create. They are just very interesting to look at. There is more to art than technical detail, don't be a dumb goat. The whole experience is better and more cohesive without any patches.

Oh, and the CGs make some scenes feel really cheesy and "tryhard". Some even look ridiculous and over the top. Not a fan.

I'm not saying that nobody should be allowed to like the updated versions. I don't give a shit about what people like or dislike. I just think it's a shame that new players will have a slightly worse experience when they could have just played the original. You can't deny that some parts have problems, sound cringy, take too long or just look awkward. Take a look at Narnith's EP1-4 videos. The game looks awkward as shit in general and I can't help but cringe the whole time. That could have been avoided.