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Dondake

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Posts posted by Dondake

  1. Spent the entire night 'till morning playing "Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition" after I bought it for four bucks, though that doesn't necessarily indicate that I'm obsessed with it. Since it's an open-world game, that means once I've explored all the locations and side quests, I'd be pretty bored with it. Actually, I'm starting to get bored of the routine of the game already, going around completing missions for both the cops and the triads. It's pretty much GTA IV/Yakuza 0 but with Chinese triads. You can pretty much just interchange these labels between the three games and it would generally feel like the same gameplay.
     
    Well, except you actually get more choices in how you want to complete certain important story missions in GTA IV.
     
    I'd probably be bored of this game in a few days, much faster than Two Point Hospital. At least it's cheap.
  2. Needed an 'angry' game to vent out my frustration, and I remembered this edgy title called "Hatred". The title explains itself. It's pretty much a game designed for angry 12 year olds living in their momma's basement trolling the Internet.
     
    And here I am. Playing it.
     
    Still, were it not for its ridiculous self-aware dark humor amping up how violent the protagonist is trying to be, this game definitely wouldn't have seen the light of day, I think, especially with shootings being as rampant as they are in America. And it's not something like "Manhunt" or "Hitman" either, where the people you kill are pretty much scumbags who deserve it. Instead, you're shooting innocent bystanders here as part of some "cleansing", mixed in with the occasional cops you have to survive against.
     
    There are side-quests at times that give the game some variety, like burning down stores or blowing up gas stations. The game also has a top-down view, so the combat can be a bit awkward. I really loathe these kinds of games where it's more convenient with a controller. Thankfully, "sprint" and "crouch" can be toggled, so you can leave them on if you want. However, sprint can only be toggled for a few seconds before the main character runs normally again. The awkward combat mechanic is made more difficult when the only healing available is by performing "executions" on victims that are nearly dead, but not completely dead. Yeah.
     
    Anyway, it's amusing for what it is, and it does serve the purpose of numbing my brain and killing my boredom. But when it comes down to it, it's pretty formulaic, just running around shooting people. The execution cinematic is amusing enough, since there are various violent and brutal ways the killer pull them off, but there's not enough variety to keep me entertained for long. God, who knew playing a psychopath can be so... boring?
  3. I remember when there was a time when I would do something similar like the OP, read one route then move on to another VN, before coming back to that first VN when I finished another route for the second VN.

    Nowadays, I just read six VNs at the same time, not really caring which route I finish first. Nowadays, I'm just trying to find anything to kill my boredom.

  4. Personally, I prefer drama and horror. I don't really enjoy romance or mystery visual novels, even if I happen to run into a lot of the latter genre because many of them are considered to be kamige. Mystery stories are fine, but I find that a number of them tend to have a boring story and characters, like Ever17 and Root Double.

    I also don't like happy endings that are wrapped up neatly with a bow on top. I prefer more realistic endings that address the kind of conflict the characters had to go through.

    Above all else, I guess I prefer tragedies over happy stories. I find them literally more stimulating than peaceful and relaxing stories. Tragic stories literally trigger your senses and emotions far more than relaxing stories would. I like that emotional stimulation. I like it when a VN gets me to feel such intense feelings.

  5. Heyo. Already talked about the kind of VNs I'm reading right now in my intro thread, so I'm feeling kinda lazy to repeat all that again, but... whatever.

    • Swan Song
    • Aoishiro
    • Root Double
    • Kara no Shoujo
    • Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~
    • Fate/hollow ataraxia

    I'm from Singapore, currently 28 years old. I like movies and anime, but I'm currently spending more time with visual novels than anime. Haven't seen an anime for months, not counting the adaptation of "The Labyrinth of Grisaia".

    That is all. Nice to meet yall.

  6. Haven't watched cartoons for a long time. I had a mix viewing between Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon cartoons;

    • Kim Possible
    • Teen Titans
    • Totally Spies
    • American Dragon: Jake Long
    • Phineas and Ferb
    • Rugrats and Rugrats: All Grown Up
    • Recess
    • Lilo & Stitch: The Series
    • The Powerpuff Girls
    • My Life as a Teenage Robot
    • Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
    • Spider-Man: The Animated Series
    • The Fairly Odd Parents
    • The Mask: The Animated Series
    • Spongebob Squarepants
    • Courage the Cowardly Dog
    • KND: Kids Next Door

    Oh, and there's a cartoon I haven't watched much, but I consider it to be criminally underrated: Fillmore, Disney's parody of '70s cop drama set in an elementary school. If that intriguing premise doesn't grab you, I don't know what will. It's a hardcore series with amazing character writing and compelling emotional drama. My only problem is that, as a non-American, the dialogue often escapes my comprehension, so I really need subtitles to watch that show.

    • Like 1
  7. Played some Yakuza 0 last night, but got annoyed by two things:
     
    1. The game plays smoother with a controller, and I recently sold away my PS4 dualshock controller... On KBM, I sucked hard playing the rhythm mini-game. Sigh. I hate playing rhythm games on KBM.
     
    2. The game is basically GTA IV with yakuza. It's a massive game with 24gb, but I don't really like open-world games. It's just not my cup of tea. But the really disappointing thing is that I had presumed from reviews I read that the game can be played in any way you want, kinda like a visual novel with choices. But really, when it comes down to it, it's pretty much a false illusion of choice, and rather than "playing it your way," it's more like you're ticking off a series of checkboxes after every side-quest or location you've visited. I mean, I guess you could play those side-quests in any order you want... but does the order you play them in really matter in the end? Would there be any consequence to what kind of side-quest you complete at all? I doubt it. Which is why I don't like open-world games, because they feel like you're a tourist on a bus tour going down a list of locations you want to visit set for you by the tour guide, rather than picking the kind of experience you want to have... if that makes sense.
     
    Anyway, that's why I don't like linear games, because they lack that sense of personality. Every person playing the same game would have the same kind of experience because they would essentially be taking the same path you're taking. It's boring that way. Even open-world games have this problem. You're still visiting the same location every completionist out there who visit every location would be visiting. There's no difference if you simply visit every location too like a completionist.
     
    But anyway, I uninstalled Yakuza 0 just after a few hours. Waste of money and waste of time. Steam's refund policy triumphs again.
  8. I'm pretty okay with it, as you can see from one of my latest profile posts. We all have financial issues of some kind. Call it "stealing" if you want, but as long as the law can't catch me, I don't give a damn. Sorry, but that's just reality of the world for you. Maybe invent better anti-piracy methods if you want to starve off piracy.

    I do understand the sentiment that "piracy hurts developers", however. It's not like I never buy my games, ever. But I only pay money for games I deem worthy of my purchase. Sometimes, even such a commitment only punished me instead of rewarding me. Take for example, Hitman 2. I bought the game - Gold Edition even, so it cost extra - but the game lagged like hell, and I couldn't refund it because by the time I discovered the levels that do "lag", which is like the 2nd or 3rd level, I've already clocked in more than two hours, meaning that I couldn't refund the thing and I'm stuck with a piece of shit that's unplayable. But I digress.

    The point I really want to make is that, I do give good money to good developers that truly deserve my hard-earned cash. Piracy helps to give that "free trial" so that you could test it out and see if you want to support the developer or not (I didn't get the chance to do so with Hitman 2 and got punished for it). Many piracy websites and even the pirated game itself have messages to encourage players to buy the game if they like it.

  9. Played lots of VNs over the past week, as usual. I'm trying not to talk too much about that over here though since I'm not sure if there are that many people out here who read VNs and are therefore interested to read this sort of thing, so I'm trying to keep my posting to mainstream gaming, But occasionally, I guess I'll just drop one or two comment here and there out of boredom.

    Let's see... got a VN I ordered online delivered today. It's an otome game, meaning that it's catered for female gamers, but I've read that it can be enjoyed by males too, unlike something that's considered "girly" in America like "Barbie's funhouse" or something. Unless you're a male who's into Barbie. No judgement. So far, the notion that otome games can be enjoyable for males holds true. It just comes off as your average anime harem, except with males. And well-written ones like that ones I bought don't really focus that much on sex anyway, even if some of the implications is still problematic, as far as Japanese stories go (like suggesting that a guy who talks openly about having sex with you makes him just a "lovable goofball" instead of a dangerous creep who should be locked up). God, as a guy playing as a female, I'm honestly creeped out, having finally understanding how a woman feels towards men like that. Japan seriously needs a #MeToo.

    Anyway, other than that, I'm also playing five other VNs at the moment, including Kara no Shoujo and Fate/hollow no ataraxia, the latter of which being a sequel to Fate/Stay Night (though it's more like a fandisc than a sequel, meaning it's more like DLC material). Might go into more details talking about them in the future, should I notice any interest in VNs around here.

  10. https://kotaku.com/sony-ends-production-of-physical-vita-games-1826060406

    Quote

    Sony is ending physical production of Vita games, Kotaku has learned. Although the hardware manufacturer says digital distribution will continue, this move will mark the end of physical cards for the maligned portable game system.

    Sony’s American and European branches “plan to end all Vita GameCard production by close of fiscal year 2018,” the company told developers today in a message obtained by Kotaku. The message asks that all Vita product code requests be submitted by June 28, 2018, and that final purchase orders be entered by February 15, 2019. Sony’s 2018 fiscal year will end on March 31, 2019.

    In an e-mail to Kotaku, a Sony spokesperson confirmed that Vita card production is coming to an end.

    It’s been a long, strange life for the PlayStation Vita, a system that launched here in 2012 with the slogan “console gaming on the go” but quickly lost ground to mobile and tablet gaming, along with the surge of Nintendo’s 3DS. Sony’s baffling decision to only support its expensive proprietary memory cards made the system pricier than it needed to be, and big studios quickly dropped support. Although the system remained consistently popular in Japan, Sony’s North American and European branches all but ignored it after its first two years on the market, and it has been floundering ever since.

    The Vita has become a treasure trove for JRPGs, niche Japanese titles, and indie games, although that mantle has since been seized by Nintendo’s mega-popular Switch. Now, we’re a step closer to saying goodbye.

    Old news from May this year, but thought I would bring it up since 1) we're fast-approaching that time when the production of Vita physical games is stopped, and 2) because there wasn't any thread for this, and I'm just interested if anyone else is affected by this issue.

    Firstly, I just want to say I've never been a big fan of Nintendo. I sold my 3DS because I needed to make some money back from buying Hitman 2 and I didn't cry over it. I won't bother buying Switch either because it's so expensive. So I just couldn't relate to this whole "Vita is outdated because Ninten-do" mentality, especially with the huge amount of visual novels that are released exclusively on the platform.

    For those who don't usually read VNs - which I'd assume makes up a large population of this forum - this probably doesn't raise your attention much. But for someone like me, someone whose local PS store has a very limited range of Vita indie games that are in the English language, including English visual novels, this spells big trouble because I got my two latest Vita VNs from buying second-hand copies, meaning physical copies. This means that if production is stopped, any VN released in the future won't be accessible by me anymore unless I Japanese or improve my Chinese. I guess I could try and bypass the PS store's detection system and bluff that I'm from America or something, but I don't even know how to pull that off, since my debit card is probably recognized as non-American.

    I hate that this problem is explained away with "digital copies is the wave of the future" when there's so many problems that come with digital copies, not the least of which being all your purchases are controlled by a corporation with agendas. Reselling your games is also impossible unless you sell your entire account, which will warrant a ban from the respective game company (be it Valve or Sony). Such a cheap and lazy way to excuse themselves from making physical copies anymore. If you want to make money off digital copies, don't pass it off like you're revolutionizing video gaming or standing on some pretentious moral high ground. You're not. You're just making money, that is all. State that plain as day please.

    Anyway, that is all I want to rant about. Just want to see if anyone else is annoyed by this problem.

    • Agree 1
  11. Played a little indie game called "Manual Samuel" yesterday, expecting it to be some adventure game with choices like The Walking Dead or at least interactivity, but it turned out to be this really annoying game where you have to control a character using a very awkward set of keys on your keyboard. And when you start the game for the first time, guess what the important message you'll see is? "This game is better with a controller." Yeah, that explains it. A PC game that works better with a controller.

    Anyway, it's short enough that I managed to complete it and forgot about it. It was okay, and the comedy is... passable, I guess. It's the sort of 'quirky' humor that hipsters like to describe indie games with. You know the kind. Undertale-ish.

  12. 3 hours ago, Ryan Dave Jimenez said:

    You read a lot of visual novels. I tried getting into them before but had a tough time finishing one.

    But I want to try again coz I think they're pretty interesting.

    Yeah, same here. I used to have trouble reading them because I hate reading, but when I realized there's a lot of good stories among visual novels, I kept reading and eventually got used to the habit. It takes some time to get used to it. I've spent about (altogether) a year or two reading VNs now.

    I recommend reading the more popular beginner titles like Fate/Stay Night and especially Steins;Gate to get you started. The latter in particular is very digestible for newcomers.

  13. Simple enough thread title, don'tchu think? ^_^

    Ahem. Anyway, you know the story by now: searched high and low for an anime forum, stumbled onto this one, made an account and said hello. :D 

    Interests:
    1. Anime, naturally
    2. Visual novels (currently reading 6 of them)
    3. Casual video games (meaning no PvP or overly challenging strategy games)

    Not much to tell, since I'm a relatively average guy. I'm currently reading the following visual novels:
    1. Kara no Shoujo
    2. Swan Song
    3. Aoishiro
    4. Root Double
    5. Fate/hollow ataraxia
    6. And last but not least, The Labyrinth of Grisaia

    That last one has an anime, which I'm going to watch. I'm almost at the end of the VN though, so I'm really playing catch-up with the anime. Didn't like The Fruit of Grisaia's anime, since that felt like a waste of time with its condensed content. Michiru's route sucked in that anime, since there wasn't even

    Yumiko crying her eyes out at her funeral.

    The whole thing just felt rushed and unsatisfying. Only reason I'm bothering with Labyrinth is because I saw an animated scene that the VN didn't show in image form (it was only described with words). Still, that scene in the anime felt a lot less brutal than what the VN described with mere words. A lot less blood and violence, really.

    Anyway, not sure if I'll have much time for other anime, but I might stick around here for a while. Pleased to meet you. 

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