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Note: Apologies if posting this seems a little presumptuous of me. With that said, I think that every forum needs at least one topic like this. I find them handy to link to in a pinch, and they're actually decent references when crafting any kind of lengthy piece of writing that contains an opinion of some kind. Introduction Bam! You have carefully crafted your argument and the post button was clicked. There it sits, a masterpiece of argument. Are you certain that it is? Now, you await a response that is equally glorious. Instead, you receive utter drivel, allegations of your own insanity/hysteria, or (my personal favorite) discussions of your clearly deranged emotional state. Sadness overtakes you, because the Internet has once again supplied you with another sad reminder of the death of critical thinking. :'( If only there was something that you could do to redeem the discussion. ... Well! Now there is! For only 5,000 easy payments of souls, limbs, and liters of human blood, you can both gain and spread the knowledge of effective argument. What is an effective argument? It turns out that a very smart person has already written a fairly decent guide on the art of argument. If you don't feel like reading it, then don't worry! I have a lovely picture! I also have a summary. An effective argument is one that lands somewhere in the top three tiers of the hierarchy of disagreement. Keep in mind, the goal of an effective argument is not to "win" a discussion. Instead, the goal of an effective argument is to communicate - to give your point of view the best possible platform that it could have. But, but, but... I don't want to argue? Yet, here you are! Even a statement that you don't want to argue is an argument. There's no escape really. If you're writing on the Internet, even if you agree with 99% of what other people say, you'll still find yourself in a position, eventually, when you need to say what you think about a topic. It's unavoidable. :'( Okay, fine, but like - how do I use this pyramid thing? It's actually really easy! Whenever you're writing up an argument, open this topic up in another tab or browser window. Then, ask yourself, "Where does what I'm writing fit into this?" If you think that you're on a tier that's a little bit too low, then stop what you're doing and UP YOUR GAME! Well, that's cool and all, but this just seems stupid. Why should I care? First of all, you just made an ineffective argument , but I digress! You should care, because bad arguments make it harder for people to communicate with you. If you're harder to talk to, then you may find that it's harder to build and maintain friendships. Good arguments, however, can build both friendships and mutual respect. Even if you don't agree with others and they don't agree with you, you can both shake hands and walk away with more than you went in with. That's what it's all about, really. Good argument teaches and shares. Bad argument simply takes away. Okay, I'm convinced! But, like... Do you have any other examples? Yes, actually! Let's take a simple "argument" and look at how it changes as we move from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top. Let's pretend that someone named "Julie" is planning a party and has decided to schedule it during the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, because this works best for her. Let's also say that she's already upset because you declined the invitation due to your busy schedule. I am going to make this an extremely informal example, just for the sake of showing how you can apply the general principles in this topic to just about anything. 0. Name-Calling - Well, Julie, you're a total <censored> <censored> <censored>. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ 1. Ad Hominem - Julie, I don't think that you looked at this seriously enough. o3o 2. Responding to Tone - Julie, I think that what you wrote is way too emotional! :0 3. Contradiction - The party should happen on a weekend. 4. Counterargument - Most people work during the weekday, so the party should be on a weekend. ^^; 5. Refutation - When you said, "the party should be on a weekday because that fits my schedule", you overlooked a bit of a problem. No one else is going to be off work on that day, at that time. 6. Refuting the Central Point - If you schedule a party on that day and at that time, then I won't be the only person to turn down your invitation. While it may be a holiday for you, not everyone is out of work during that particular day. You would get more attendees if you scheduled for the weekend, including me. Did you see it? Did you notice the thing? As you move further "up" in the hierarchy of argument, it tends to take a little more effort to communicate your point. However, look at the outcome. Even if you're right, Julie will have no clue what your point is if your argument lands from 0 - 2. You have contributed absolutely nothing of value to the topic. This is why better skills in building an effective argument can lead to friendship. An argument doesn't have to be a deleterious grudge fest. Instead, it can be a simple discussion, between two people that are mutually respectful. For an excellent example of the absolute highest form of argument on this site, please see this topic and the discussion between @Orius and @Nectar. I hate calling them out like this, but that really was good stuff. For an excellent example of the lowest form of argument... Actually, I don't think that I need to link any of these. They're surprisingly common, and I'm certain that we have all seen or been involved in at least one or more. Any other tips? Don't bludgeon people with a link to this topic if you think they're making a low grade argument. Feel free to growl at them a little and then move on. It's a waste of a good link to throw this thing at people randomly. This is a self-help reference, nothing more and nothing less. Remember to See Randomness. Don't assign malevolent intent or negative emotions to someone if you don't know them intimately. Doing otherwise is a great way to burn bridges. When in doubt during an argument, walk away from your computer for a few hours. Try to clear your mind. Maybe listen to music that you're fond of. Then, come back and see if you still feel as strongly on a topic. Maybe it isn't quite worth it, after all? Not everyone is going to get along! That's okay! However, if you think that you don't mix well with someone, don't throw yourself at them. Instead, give a healthy and intelligent amount of distance. It's the respectful thing to do. And, that's all there is to it~

Hi @Orius, As others have mentioned this community is actually ranking quite high for a number of anime related keywords so it certainly could be a nice way to get some exposure if you don't already own a blog. It would be a significant financial investment though from my end to implement this, so I've reserved this project for when the community becomes larger. For now though you are definitely welcome to advertise your own blog/website/channel in your signature.

how.. is.. it.. GOING?!? I know it's been awhile since I've shown my face around here, let alone anywhere really lmao (status: Hermit) but I've been having life slap me in the face continuously this year of crap '17, but today I had some time to at least hop on and say 'Hi, how's everyone? Hope the AF family is all good'. I dont know when I'll be able to get back on a regular schedule for any community based stuffs but hopefully I will get some time this autumn to come back for a bit and see everyone again. Miss you guys and hope everything is going smoothly for everyone.

Well this has become a trend for a while now and I've seen a lot of members join in and since I'm kind of a go with the flow person, I'll join in! If you feel like a Potato is worthy of asking any questions besides how french fries is made or if she's plotting something about fast food chains then you can go ahead and post something below! Ask everything and I'll try to answer them all to the best of my ability as a crossbreed of a Rye and Potato

My week has been fairly delightful otherwise! Errrr Wait....it's a new week. I started the week off like this.... ...well, last week was lovely anyway!

Narrowing my favorite game OSTs down to just a few candidates is an extremely difficult task - I'm a huge fan of game music to the point that my game music folder contains just shy of 30,000 files, I go out of my way to attend game music concerts. I followed OCRemix all the way back to the site's original founding, along with VGMix through its various incarnations up to its eventual demise. In short, I'm a video game music nerd. Completely and utterly. So... yeah, picking a few winners isn't an easy task - the temptation to have an infinitely long list featuring everything from Lunar, Crusader: No Remorse/Regret, Einhander, Touhou, etc is strong. But I will resist. If only because I can't be bothered to put sufficient work into this post to feature all of them. So, with no further ado, Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy games almost always have beautiful soundtracks, but for me, FFVI takes the cake. Highlights: The opening theme, Awakening, Edgar & Sabin, Kefka, Troops March On, Metamorphosis --- actually, damn near the entire soundtrack. I had the chance to hear the opera scene live, in concert, with professional opera singers, at one of the Distant Worlds concerts I've attended, which was an incredible experience. Who needs One Winged Angel when you can have that? Even beyond the OST, FFVI has inspired a lot of my favorite video game arrangements - with many of my favorites appearing in OCRemix's Balance & Ruin album. Speaking of the opera scene, it in particular received an exceptionally masterful tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xFhULStbkQ Link to the Past Picking a single Zelda game is difficult - Ballad of the Wind fish from Link's Awakening is probably one of my favorite tracks from the series, but while I love the game's sound track, it isn't quite as strong as Link to the Past's, which for me set the standard for Zelda games. Highlights: The opening theme, Hyrule Castle theme, Dark World and Skull Forest themes, boss theme, everything involving Ganon, and the ending theme. Honorable mention: The Hyrule Castle theme from Breath of the wild - I got goosebumps the first time I heard this. Combining aspects of multiple songs from multiple games - Ballad of the Wind Fish, Ganon's theme, and the old Hyrule castle themes, I cannot think of anything that would have made Breath of the Wild's final task any more epic than this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=gR1J5X7X7vk;t=1034 Silent Hill 2 & 3 Even separately, I think I've listened to the Silent Hill 2 and 3 sound tracks more than any other game OST - they're both chock-full of extremely listenable tracks that I've never grown tired of, with Silent Hill 3 kickstarting the series' trend of adding in haunting, beautifully done vocal tracks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBY_fUpmnQ Descent II Descent II, released in 1996, was one of the first full PC games I ever purchased - my family didn't really have much in the way of money, so I was basically entirely reliant on shareware games and demos for a long time, along with the occasional game borrowed from my father's coworkers. Descent II was my first introduction to red book audio in games - rather than using MIDI, or some similar format, the game's music was stored on the disc as actual CD audio tracks, and streamed in game. This allowed for sound quality that was superior to anything else I'd heard by leaps and bounds, and meant that you could listen to the game's music by just playing the CD back in any regular old CD player. The soundtrack itself was my first real introduction to electronic music, and remained one of my most played CDs for a very long time as I grew up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=YTfS3FwTs6g;list=PLV-HQnLhEAOjc3PflruPnvG-XS-T3KmYM

if anything i think it points away from me? since kirry said i wouldve just asked them if i could join, killing them would be a silly idea. now that theyre dead, i have no harem to join

Take a anime you like don't like and describe it entirely in one word!! ex. Sword Art Online - Intriguing

Big post arrives that seems all-inclusive. It suggests zoop is the traitor. zoop immediately rushes in to ridicule it to make people think less of it. I mean... 'wink' was a funny word to use and it made me go a little red in embarrassment to read your post but... running in with the only intention of ridiculing my post is, for lack of a better word... suspicious.

Boku No Pico-Horror or my own made up word, soulrotting

pffft im glad i come off as young and busy to you, but im three years older than you and very much homebound. thank you for not finding me suspicious though ive noticed this too, she hasnt said anything about 1804 or tried to defend her case in the slightest for this development which is strange to me.

Kohloo wins the award for crappiest week.

Really fucking shitty. But, it could have been worse. I was walking into town today and I got hit by a bicycle from behind while going down a hill. I kissed pavement, baby. I really don't recommend romances with asphalt! So yeah, I got slammed down. My face hit the pavement, which has resulted in a fat, cut lip and a chipped tooth (of course it's the one I just got fixed a year ago). My palms are a little sore from trying to catch myself and my right elbow got skinned pretty darn good. The bicycle, and its rider, slammed into my right knee really hard. Hard enough, anyways, that I now have a torn MCL ligament and possible damage to the meniscus. I get the joy of walking with crutches and I get to add a real sexy knee brace to my fashion. I've been told (recommended strongly) to go get some physio done in about a week. I also have to wait for them to get back to me about seeing an orthopaedic surgeon so we can find out what's up with the meniscus. So yeah, you could say I've had an eventful day. I got to go for an ambulance ride, at least that was kind of cool.

Well then. So either Kirry scrawled zoop's member code onto the wall in a desperate effort to expose her without making it so obvious that it would prompt zoop to clean it off... or.... the traitor just stuck her code on there to frame zoop. Personally, I believe that zoop probably did that. It sounds like something only she would think to do. Unless zin/Wedgy is on par with her. Which I'm going to have to guess at no, because I frankly don't want this to be any more painfully complicated. Just two suspects... please Because it wouldn't make a difference. If you were the traitor, the person you're talking to can't be the traitor. So if you told them your plan, they can't steal it. Nobody will take your word for it and you'll be safe the second time around if you do something different to what you said you would do. There's no chance of you stitching yourself up after all, unless you have a death wish. There are many people who's vote for you will not change regardless of you revealing your plan because of these two pairs of scenarios that are equally likely: 1a. You are the traitor. You discuss your strategy, and change it to avoid suspicion. 1b. You are the traitor. You discuss your strategy, and stick with it and pretend you must have been framed as a result. 2a. You are innocent. You discuss your potential strategy, and the traitor does something different. 2b. You are innocent. You discuss your potential strategy, and the traitor follows your strategy to frame you. Because nobody will trust you when you say "It's not me" which of course you would do whether you were or not, then it doesn't make a difference whether you share your 'plan' or not. You are just as likely to be framed as you are to pretend to be framed. Scenarios 1a and 2a are the same visible outcome to us. It looks the same to us, so we can't tell them apart. And because we can't tell whether you're the traitor or not, then voting for you is guesswork. That's why I'm reluctant to vote for you. It won't make me feel clever and I won't have any fun from winning a game of chance. I'd prefer to have solid evidence against someone, vote for them because of the informed (as opposed to blind) guess, and win as a result. That's proper detective work, and is what makes mafia games fun for me. I hope this makes sense, I've rewritten this 3 times in different formats Mine won't. I've decided that if I vote for you, that won't be the reason why. The other things I've previously mentioned leave more significant holes in your defence than that. I'm torn between you and zoop. It all depends on what I feel like on voting day. Traitor, you have a very strong defence. Now I intend to compare the behaviours that I think zoop and Sekkarou exhibit and would perform in order to deduce which one of you made the mistake of doing something that only you would do, and not the other. If I can crack the subtle language or behaviour fuck-up, which I sincerely hope is there, then I will vote for the person that made it. You are both equally my prime suspects. If the traitor is neither of you, my reputation, however small, is completely ruined. But I will take the gamble. Wedgy... zin... if either of you is the traitor, damn you. Damn you and your incredible defence that probably isn't actually all that incredible because I'll use my pitiful excuse that I'm 15, naive and not Sherlock Holmes. I'd better get thinking, huh? --- Side note/afterthought... is Cy~ in this game? Omg have I neglected you completely? Oh no... are you the traitor? Am I stupid? Are you and zoop in an alliance? Stop laughing at me!!

Like a certain mad scientist so cool? I would give up pretty easily. Two reasons: 1. The more obvious reason is that I have way less patience than the average person, let alone a fictional character whose sole purpose is to endure suffering. 2. I don't have any loved ones who would be killed like Okabe, so if I'm to prevent something, I'd probably prevent something stupid or of less importance. If I have the power of time travel, the most I would do is tell myself to work harder at school and make something of myself, something that, if unsuccessful, is disappointing, but not important enough to go through a hundred or thousand worldlines. I wish I know. I wish I have more brevity, to tell you the truth. Verbosity is the bane of charismatic responses. I guess all I do is type whatever's on my mind onto my computer. Even when I don't have a lot of say about a subject, I try to write as much as I can to contribute to the discussion. This is especially true with my movie reviews. I hate writing short reviews because it makes me look lazy. I want to inform my readers as much about the movie as I can while keeping the review interesting, and maybe even playful. I don't really think it's my duty, but I do feel a certain obligation to be informative, and more importantly, sincere. Another reason is that I have trouble expressing myself properly, so I keep rephrasing or repeating myself in hopes of getting my point across. I would worry a lot whether if I've made clear what I want to say, even as I'm typing this right now.

What story? Waaah this is not a question @zoop senpai! Well, they are interesting but I don't like it that much. I'm too round for gothic clothing.

Anyone ever of a game called Jet Set Radio? That game had a fantastic soundtrack, Hedeki Naganuma is a genius! Let Mom Sleep: Rock It On: Sweet Soul Brother: And of course, there was Jet Set Radio Future. Funky Dealer: Like This, Like That: Sneakman (Toronto Mix):

Ketchup, definitely. But if I had other choices, sour cream

Do you taste better with salt or ketchup?

Here is another song from the early 00's that I have enjoyed every time I listened to it, and reminds me of when I was swamp by school work. In Too Deep - Sum 41 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGri7i8Y2Y

It's not that special

Like this? *knocks THROUGH the door* Trickortreatgimmenachos I like sharing food :3

I would give you nachoes, for the record. Like, I have a ton here. I'm totally not greedy at all. Errr, for the topic. I feel sleepy af, lol, loooong work day. DX

You could've just knocked, you know.

*blasts a hole through your wall and crawls through it like the grudge, making a godawful drooling sound worthy of nightmares* Give.me.nachos. *hiss* NACHOOOOOOOOOOOS *ahem* I'm fine. I'm good actually. I feel like I've lifted a huge weight off my shoulders after talking to someone about some stuff.

I wish I had enough money and food right now to keep me from thinking useless and pointless stuff.

Hi @GreenEyes, @zoop has pretty much covered my thoughts. MyAnimeList actually has an API so we could get a module developed to list your favourite anime titles directly from your MAL profile... but... then you may as well just promote your account on your profile and signature as they present it better.

I survived, Halleluiah

Hiiiii, I'm glad to hear you're still kicking! Btw, I think I may have deleted you off of Discord. I didn't recognize the name and realized too late that it was probably you. Would love to catch up sometime!

Cirkyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Where have you beeeeen? You're not even on discord anymore!

*suspects @zin still, from the grave*

Nah, she just felt the urge to chime in just that once on - if I remember correctly? - my posting frequency. So no worries, you're safe from her feminine wiles.

Yea technology is probably going to be key in the future but I think we are starting to rely on it a lot almost to much....

sometimes i feel like youre a sadist :'(

Hi @Mars Terra thanks for your suggestion. The Manga/Light Novel section isn't overly active as we're predominately an anime forum, and it would be quite empty if we had a dedicated subforum for this. For now please feel free to just make them in the Manga/Light Novel area so we can gauge activity. Of course if it gets very active definitely happy to expand it.

Story about? My favorite are pumpkins. (They are vegetabl right?) They were plantes near to potatoes actually and I love thm during halloween as for least favorite and the vegetable I hate the most cause my Dad keeps on making dishes with it especially in mornings is Amargoso. I can't stand the bitterness. I was born sweet sooooo can't stand it.

Since it's pretty much dead for weeks now, guess I'll be posting all my visual novel updates in this thread from now on instead of "What Game Are You Currently Playing?". Finally finishing up on the three VNs listed in my sig, going through the "True" and final routes on all of them (except for Book of Shadows, which merely has a "final chapter" rather than a "true route"). Gotta say, most of these three VNs I've played this round are quite disappointing in one way or another. Let's start with Steins;Gate 0. I'll try to avoid spoiling anything as much as possible. Steins;Gate 0 It's a really well-written story that tells of a "What If" scenario which happens around the end of the first Steins;Gate. It's quite a bleak dystopian scenario at that. You get to see WWIII break out, people dying everywhere, depressing stuff. Some have felt that this was an unnecessary part of the universe we didn't need to find out, that the original Steins;Gate wrapped up perfectly already. I would disagree, because I felt it gave us certain fresh perspectives of the characters we didn't see before. For example, what I love especially is how it deals with Okabe's PTSD, because I feel that we don't really see enough of that in anime (which this VN is going to be adapted into anyway) or just mainstream media in general. You get to see how Okabe struggles with his decision in the 'What If' scenario. You get to explore a deeper relationship between Suzuha and Daru, something the original never had, leading to a respectable side of Daru you'll never see otherwise. And you also get a bunch of new characters like Maho and Kagari, which is where the flaws of the game start to seep in. I like the whole "Mozart and Salieri" relationship between Kurisu and Maho (respectively). I could personally relate to Maho's inferior complex a lot. I think she gave Okabe the push that was necessary, being another individual who has constantly failed. The problem with Maho's character, however, is the same problem with a lot of elements in Steins;Gate 0 - I feel she doesn't add anything meaningful to the main story. Even if she has a large presence as a main character, if you take her away, the story will still largely be the same. Furthermore, I wanted to see more of Kurisu than this new character who popped outta nowhere, and unfortunately, Kurisu's presence is very little, if at all. I know, I know, we've already seen enough of her in the first game (and the anime movie), but still. Compared to the more interesting young genius who tried to live up to her father's standards, Maho was just... kinda there. There wasn't even any comparison between Maho's inferiority and Kurisu's inferiority (towards her father), since we never really learned if Maho knew that Kurisu felt like a Salieri to someone else too, her own father. It's like, why is she even a character if such an obvious parallel isn't going to be brought up? It makes Maho feel like just another insecure character we're supposed to sympathize instead of seeing an otherwise interesting character relationship between Maho, Kurisu, and her father. Then there's Kagari. To be fair, Kagari at least brought something meaningful to the story - it gave Mayuri character growth, making her more than just some cliched Mary-Sue moe-blob. She's kind-hearted, seemingly can do no wrong... yay? Where's the interesting side to that? It's boring. I don't know why Okabe would bother to save such a boring character! lol But Steins;Gate 0 gave Mayuri more things to do and turned her from a hollow plot-device into a more respectable person, and Kagari plays a big role in this. That said, Kagari becomes the new plot-device of the story, serving as a tool to progress Mayuri's character, just as how Mayuri did in the first game to progress Okabe. What's worst about her character is that god-awful twist at the end that came out of the left field, when we finally learn who is under that motorcycle helmet. It was convoluted and utterly pointless. Finally, there's a quite a large amount of filler fanservice content that distracts from the story, though not nearly as much as the first game (I'd say it makes up at most 30% of the story). A lot of comedy, a lot of pointless dialogue, especially during Maho's route which felt more like "The Adventure of Maho and Moeka!" than Steins;Gate. So for a dark dystopian story, it's not all doom and gloom either, which should be a good thing on paper. The occasional humor is important when you have such a depressing story (especially if you went for the Bad End on your first playthrough), but too much of it can take away the stakes and tension. The humor worked for the first game because it created a mood whiplash when the twist happened, when the comedy slice of life turned into a depressing thriller. But in this second game, we're already informed in the prologue that Steins;Gate 0 is going to be depressing, so there's an audience expectation of a gripping story that's going to rip our heart out. There's no need to build up any humor just to surprise us later. Get to the meat of the story already. But like I said, most of the filler content exists within Maho's route. This is to supposedly make us care more about Moeka as a likable person, but unfortunately, I feel it didn't really add any interesting perspective about Moeka we didn't already know. Furthermore, whatever it is done here to make Moeka likable is kinda undone in the True Route, when she returns to her roots again, back to the way she was in the first game. Finally, in spite of Okabe's PTSD condition, he still comes off as kinda whiny. The whole story does ended up feeling just a little bit pointless by the end because we're back to where the first Steins;Gate left off at episode 23/Chapter 11, when Okabe finally gets his s*** together. It's like waiting for Daniel Craig's Bond to finally become the true Bond after the prequel, Casino Royale. It's exhausting. In conclusion, Steins;Gate 0 isn't utterly terrible, and is the best visual novel out of the three I've played. There's still a lot of valuable character development that lets you learn more about the cast, there's still a lot of 'feels' (though not as much as the first game), and there's still a lot of interesting sciencey stuff about causality, artificial intelligence, and the workings of human memory. It's a solid story especially if you're a S;G fan... but also an unpolished and flawed one. ★★★½ P.S. Despite my last point about Okabe, I would still recommend playing this before playing Chapter 11 in the first game. Stop reading at the part where Okabe returns from his failed mission in the time machine, as that's where Steins;Gate 0's story starts. After you complete Steins;Gate 0, return to Steins;Gate. Reap in the sheer awesomeness of Hououin Kyouma. It's much more satisfying that way. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows Everytime I play this, it only reminds me how I'm unable to play the real sequel, Corpse Party: Blood Drive. That game's expensive af. I couldn't find a cheap copy of Blood Drive online, so I have to wait a long while before I could get the proper closure I need for the Corpse Party universe. And yes, there isn't closure in Book of Shadows. This isn't technically a sequel to the first Corpse Party, and more like an anthology of short stories to highlight minor characters from the first game. It's not terrible, and I do enjoy getting to learn more about these side characters. But I feel it's just such a downer to the bittersweet ending of the first game. It's like, we're reminded all over again what a terrible fate these kids went through. It's really depressing, much more than Steins;Gate 0. The point of the game is really to just see cute characters go through a lot of suffering (emotional or otherwise) all over again. Some chapters are especially cruel since you're tricked into thinking that you can save certain characters you love from the first game, only to find out they suffer a much more agonizing death. Not a pleasant tale to read if you're prefer your stories with rainbows and sunshine. What happens in Book of Shadows is an alternate universe, another "What If" scenario that picks up from one of the bad ends during the first game's Chapter 5, the one where all the characters were sent to the beginning of the story, forced to relive their fate all over again. Yikes. Book of Shadows features a different kind of gameplay that I initially really didn't like (but eventually got used to). You can no longer control your character's movement like in an RPG. Instead, you have to pick from a map screen which room you want to go to. It's clunky and awkward. Unfortunately, from what I've learned about Blood Drive, it will probably get worse, as Blood Drive incorporates the 'chibi' style into the character design. Cute chibi in a horror game... Sigh. There's not much else to say about Book of Shadows. It's a good story worth reading with great characters, even if it's really depressing. You get more insight into what happened with certain dead characters in the first game, so that's a plus. For fans of Corpse Party, I would definitely recommend playing it at least once. ★★★★ The reason I rated this higher than S;G 0 (even though I said S;G 0 is the best of the three) is because, while S;G 0's story is the most interesting of them all, Book of Shadows' story is just done much better, more polished and well-written than the cluttered mess S;G 0 can sometimes be, even though Book of Shadows is kinda just repeating the same doom and gloom of the first game. Virtue's Last Reward Oh boy. Here we go. The worst of the lot. I had a really boring time playing Virtue's Last Reward. The first game was decent enough, nothing amazing, but this one was really a stinker. Many of the "routes" are repetitive or aren't even about the characters they're named after. For example, Tenmyouji's route is about Quark, not Tenmyouji, and Quark's route (the shortest and most underwhelming route of all that lasted, and I'm not kidding you, FIFTEEN MINUTES) is about Alice. Confusing and annoying. Once again, a group of people are trapped somewhere and are forced to play some dumb game to get out. In stories like this, it's important that you have characters you can root for, so that you would care if they die or not. Unfortunately, Virtue's Last Reward is made up of some of the most selfish people you'll ever meet... with the exception of ONE character, and only one, Luna, but even she has a reason that explains away why she's so saintly among all those selfish people. It's incredibly frustrating to read the story because nobody is likable (except Luna), and even the character you're playing, Sigma, can be a jerk as well if you choose to. An added element to this second game is something called the "Secret Files". When solving the puzzles on Hard Mode (which is the default mode), you can get an extra password that unlocks secret files. They are pointless. Aside from some filler content made for sheer comic effect, they also spoil certain plot elements that you're going to find out later anyway. It's a ridiculous slap to the face. Unlocking these files does unlock an extra ending, which I haven't played, but the process of it is just so tedious and stupid. There's not much to say about VLR either. Like I said, most of the routes are repetitive. You'll be hearing the same exposition dialogues again and again in different routes under different context. They do lead to you discovering different important information about each character's backstory, but the journey to discover these interesting backstories is tedious and painfully dull. Most of the story is just about these people acting like jerks to one another, that's it. I can't wait to see how much more terrible the final game in the series will be, the notorious, highly-hated Zero Time Dilemma. What a waste of money. ★★ All that being said, I am looking forward to playing the next three visual novels: - Muv-Luv Extra - Umineko no Naku Koro ni, the final two episodes - Euphoria Look forward to a sig-change in the future.

Well, Cy~, you're a total productive person for posting this. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ Did I do it right...? <_< Jokes aside, nice thread. Could always count on you to make another useful discussion to the forum. lol

That's simple. I wouldn't. lol

I think that is what many of us were pointing out. Still, this has been a fairly fun discussion, and is one that makes you think.

I would make and eat an unlimited supply of pizza until the end of times.

"I am mad scientist. It's SO Coooool!!! Sonovabitch!"

Oh right. I forgot HAHAHA

How do you write long as hell replies?

How quickly would you give up if you went back in time to prevent something, but it kept happening anyway?

I think I'd be even more insecure than I already am if I meet someone as intelligent as that. Even for highly intelligent people, meeting others who surpass their intellect would also fill them with envy and anxiety. Who am I compared to Salieri, who felt small standing next to Mozart? I think what I would ultimately do is the same thing I did with people I couldn't connect with - avoid him completely. Rather than risk making a fool of myself, or risk having my feelings hurt by his possible elitism, I would rather just keep to myself - after I've confirmed that he's as unapproachable as I've suspected, of course.

True, but the fact that Sherlock survived at all meant that even the most famous detective fiction played safe by keeping its protagonist alive till the bitter end. And with how formulaic and lazy modern fiction can be, keeping the protagonist alive is easier than ever.

Easily Lupin III, probably the most harmless of the lot. I can't imagine facing Ripping ol' Jack (who practically dissects women) or Hannibal the cannibal and expect to escape with my life. That is, of course, if I don't have those aforementioned detective intellect. If I happen to have the skills to match the wits of all these antagonists, then perhaps a proper challenge I would desire to face would be Moriarty. He's just such an iconic Holmes villain that it would feel so cool just to face against him like Holmes did at the famous Reichenbach Falls. Catching Ripper when nobody else has is nice, and it might be interesting to exchange psychology and philosophical musings with Lecter, but a confrontation against Moriarty just feels like the must-have experience any self-respecting Holmes fan should try at least once in his life.