/jp/ - Otaku Culture

And that's all for ChronoBox. Christ it's impossible to find a CG that's both interesting and neither porn nor a huge spoiler.

I should preface this by saying I haven't read much denpa stuff, but have played a lot of horror video games of a wide variety. Use this to modify the following opinions as you see fit.

First off, the good stuff. The atmosphere, mood, and overall 'something's not right here' bits were absolutely top notch and it was immensely satisfying to see almost all of it get either explained, referenced, or otherwise pay off in some way in the end. It nailed that balance of just enough things making sense and just enough not to make you feel as though there is definitely some sort of logic to it all if only you can figure it out, and then it all slid neatly into place at the end. And they thankfully had a wide variety of different 'bad things are afoot' music tracks so it never felt stale when things got creepy. Personal experience will vary of course, but I also felt like every time I thought I had come up with a good theory they smashed it down with perfect timing. Pacing was also really tight, with the exception of the last quarter of the game when it chugged a bit before picking up steam, mostly due to the change in tone.

Overall a real joy to read, like some sort of combination of snowball and rollercoaster, everything piling on itself, getting wilder and wilder each time. One of those games where you really *want* to figure out what the fuck is going on and don't feel cheated when you do.

Endings were nice and satisfying for the most part, though I think I prefer the normal/bad end mostly due to my tastes. Didn't catch myself saying 'that's fucking dumb' like so often happens with mystery stuff.

Though I do have some points to bitch about: there's a LOT of sex, and while it actually has a point and ties into it all thematically and everything, it takes a while to get "interesting" and the writing during those scenes is pretty bleh. Lots of play-by-play descriptions, lots of spoken sound effects, not a lot of variation in words/phrases. Granted there's some lovely fucked-up shit later that make them worth reading every line, there's also a lot of just plain BOKKI CHINKO KIMOCHII rerorerochuchu shit to have to wade through as well. And that goes for the horror bits too. Lotta people describing things happening to them in cases where it seems a bit implausible, if not outright silly.

But seriously, if they'd had better, tighter writing in the sex scenes it'd be a must read. I wouldn't call it much more than a popcorn flick, as in you're not gonna find the meaning of life in here anywhere, but it was a damn good one. Entertaining as all hell and I couldn't stop reading once I hit the last third.

also Shie "Fast Wheels" was best girl and not even the game itself can tell me otherwise.