Orius

Steins;Gate: Sonuvabitch

Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu I thought about creating a separate thread for the Steins;Gate movie I just finished watching, but decided that it would enough to just post my thoughts here. Many would agree that the TV series wrapped up the story perfectly, and there would be no need for the story to continue (looking at you, Steins;Gate 0). I have disagreed with this notion in the past, especially when S;G 0 has proved that there are certain character depths yet to be explored in the first series. However, with this movie, I have to agree. It is unnecessary. That's not to say it is bad, of course. The 25th special episode, Oukoubakko no Poriomania, was an unnecessary addition that didn't really add anything meaningful either, but it was still entertaining and gave us a better closure on Okabe and Kurisu's romance. This movie is the extension of that closure. Some people need that kind of closure, as ambiguity just isn't satisfying enough. We always want more from a good TV show that ended, even if the notion of "less is more" holds true. On a slightly off topic note, this reminds me of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. The visual novel has eight different chapters released individually at different periods, but did you know that there was only supposed to be six chapters? "The End of the Golden Witch" was the title, and it was very similar to Steins;Gate's ending in its ambiguity and supposed lack of closure. The fans wanted more closure, so more fluff was added and two more chapters were released, even when the story had wrapped up perfectly. And so, a Steins;Gate movie is born, rehashing much of what has already been said in that 25th special episode. Without spoiling too much, the movie reverses the role of Kurisu and Okabe when something bad happens to the latter, and Kurisu has to time-travel back to find a way in reversing his fate. While it's nice to see how much Kurisu cares for Okabe, and while it's also nice to see Kurisu understanding the despair Okabe had once went through while time-leaping... it's still a rehash of what came before. Most anime movies contain plots that don't progress the canon because they don't want to interfere with the TV series (the only exception I can remember is Madoka Magica), so most anime movies contain plots that return the story to Square One, or wherever the TV series left off. That being said, there are still good things that this movie offers. It won "Best Anime Film" at the 2013 Newtype Anime Awards after all. Those who love character examinations, those who love slice of life interactions that express a character's personality rather than progress a plotline, those who love romance stories, they will love this movie. Kurisu's character is fleshed out more in this film as we examine her vulnerable side when she's put in Okabe's role. Personally, I don't think it adds anything new to her character we haven't already seen, but many others have praised this part of the movie, so I feel I should bring it up. While it might sound like I loathe this movie or found it boring, that's not really the argument I'm trying to make here. The movie is an example of a low-concept plot that focuses on character growth, internal conflict, and character relatability. Some of my favorite shows consisted of low-concept plots, like Friends, Hourou Musuko, and Mushishi. However, when it comes to Steins;Gate, because the original TV series was arguably a high-concept plot that focuses on the consequences of time-travel and one man's desperate struggle to save his loved one, I don't really find a low-concept pitch like this that amazing, especially if its plot is so familiar. I like seeing all those lovable characters interacting with each other again, but this won't land on my top favorites. One thing that bothers me: why does Suzuha care so much about Kurisu saving Okabe? In this worldine, Suzuha shouldn't be that close with Okabe, if at all. I don't understand why she's so worked up enough to slap Kurisu on the face when Kurisu refused to save him. It doesn't make sense in the context of this film. I also really don't like how forced Kurisu's solution feels. Why did such an important part of Okabe's past have to be related to Kurisu? It's terribly contrived and feels like one of those stupid "everything is connected" stories. Many things in real life aren't connected. They happen by coincidence. Not to mention that Kurisu's actions being the cause for Mayuri's rescue contradicts the original message at the end of the TV series, that tomorrow is unpredictable, that man isn't in charge of his own fate. Kurisu just changed two people's fate by her own hands. ★★★½

Yeeees, keep spiraling the truth into oblivion so that you'll never find out its real meaning... Which is it? A misdirection or a genuine clue? lolololol

My current list: https://myanimelist.net/animelist/RyderFlynn Previously, I set the list so that it only shows what I'm currently watching by default. To see my completed anime, you need to click on the yellow Soul Gem orb at the top. I was afraid that might be too confusing, so I've changed it that the anime list now shows all my completed anime by default, in case people were curious about what anime I've watched, but too confused to bother.

The new wallpaper I got for completing Steins;Gate 0.

Do you taste better with salt or ketchup?

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.

It's convenient. Does all the things I'm otherwise too lazy to do. Yep, I'm one of those millennial types who's too dependent on technology and yet doesn't know how to upgrade RAMs, SSDs, or PPGs. Also, I use a Mac, so that puts me on the loser side of computers.

4

FTFY

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

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.

Uh, eat or "beat"? I'm afraid I'm a fussy eater; human flesh doesn't go well with me.

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.

Again, really depends on whether if I'm a detective or not. If I'm not, I'm dead anyway, even if I make a run for it. If I am, however, the workings of detective fiction means that I simply can't be killed, and I'll escape somehow, whether barely with my life or triumphantly. Either way, I'll still be the one to take them all down like a freaking badass in the end with my brilliant deduction! There is only one truth, and that truth is the detective always wins! xDDD

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.

Hah, I'm afraid I only know of Sherlock's style. Not really sure about the methodology and mannerism of the others. And Poirot's a bit on the chubby side of things for me. Yep, I'm superficial like that. I would say however the style that fits me best would still be Kudo Shinichi before his shrinking days. Cocky, arrogant, and kinda sarcastic too. Such an egoistical personality sounds exactly like me, I'm willing to admit. In spite of (or maybe even because of) my anxieties and insecurities, my ego is my biggest and most noticeable flaw.

I would probably be more excited than living my currently very dull, and very mundane life. It's not like I have people close enough in my life that I would cry over someone being dead every two seconds, including my own parents. Also, I get to be an intelligent detective who makes brilliant deductions with such style and charisma. What's there not to like? I think it's a better life worth living than whatever I have now, to be honest.

While playing Virtue's Last Reward, I came across a mentioning of Asimov's three laws of robotics. The first thing that came to mind was this movie, i, Robot. Having those three laws as its central plot was an interesting idea, thus I was curious why the film got such a bad rep from everyone (including myself when I watched it as a kid). A noteworthy fact is that Asimov's short stories series of the same title were referenced in earlier movies too, including Bicentennial Man in 1999, though the three laws were not the central focus of that movie, unlike i, Robot here. From a glance of the production notes described in Wikipedia, it's easy to see why i, Robot can at times feel like a jumbled pile of mess that lacks direction. Initially, i, Robot wasn't even about Asimov's stories, or even his three laws. Rather, it began as an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery with machines as the suspects, titled Hardwired. After a few years of development hell while having the script handed around by a few studios, including Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox, the original writer, Jeff Vintar, was brought back to incorporate elements of Asimov's short stories into the movie. A second writer was also brought in to rewrite the script for the big action star at the time, Will Smith, late in the production too. With such a chaotic production, you would think this would be the cause for the movie ending up a lesser beast than what it could have been. But believe it or not, a lot of movie productions follow a similar pattern. Cracked's Daniel O'Brien explained this better in : "Few movies pop out of the womb fully formed. It's rare for a movie to start with a clear idea in a person's head and then have that idea translated perfectly. There are script rewrites, studio notes, reshoots, and actor demands that go into every film. The movie you end up seeing is often a hodgepodge of different ideas that have come together at different points of the movie-making process." In other words, i, Robot was a potentially interesting script that just happened to have the bad mixture of bad luck, an unclear vision, a talentless director, and demanding studio executives. There are a number of obvious signs that can tell you that you're seeing one of those big-budget films where whatever passion the writer had was suppressed by studio demands: Out of place one-liners, a heavier focus on action scenes when the story is about a complex subject, a big-name star hired as the lead role, and last but not least, an unnecessary comic relief (Shia LaBeouf in this case). You see these signs, don't expect some passion project like Ex Machina. It's definitely rigged by the studio for maximum profit. For what it's worth, the movie was off to a promising first act, feeding the audience about the three laws as well as discussing the existence of a soul and simulated emotions in a mechanical body. It might be breaking the fundamental storytelling rule of "show, not tell", but it was much better than what comes after - a whole lot of pointless action scenes to make Will Smith earn his paycheck. An important detail about the Agatha Christie-inspired script is that, it initially took place entirely at the scene of the crime, with its only characters being the detective interrogating the machines. That sounded a lot more interesting as a mystery whodunit, rather than having Will Smith jumping around going, "Oh hell no!" So the movie lacks the substance it initially would have, another victim of the Hollywood system. It's a shame, because I rewatched this movie hoping to defend it as an underrated gem that's unfairly hated. But it isn't so. Asimov's stories were butchered here. Unfortunately, even his three laws couldn't prevent corporate greed. Finally, there's also that ending that really bothered me. It wraps up the story nicely in a convenient way that doesn't make sense. it still had free will, thus it's still considered murder. It's just such a lazy way to end a movie, which brings the final score lower by half a star. ★★½

Under normal circumstances, I would've said that would be the most suspicious. But we're hardly having a normal circumstance.

Well, now that I've exposed to you my would-be evil plan (if I were a Traitor), why would I throw myself into a game you host? Besides, I already stated that if this game is a success, my next plan is to turn it into an official roleplay.

Gotta say, zoop's got a point. Sekky's flippancy is kinda obvious, isn't it? I mean, if I were a Traitor, the last thing I should do is draw attention towards me. That's the general expectation. So what I would do is pull a reverse psychology by acting as flippant and obvious as possible. Makes sense, eh?