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I've found myself playing through some visual novels recently. I remember seeing a deluge of them on the Vita near the end of the Vita's lifespan and scoffing at them. But even then, I knew of titles like Hotel Dusk, Zero Escape and Danganronpa. I actually bought Hotel Dusk when it came out, but couldn't get into the game. I did play a little bit of Phoenix Wright and remember enjoying it quite a bit. All this is to say that my exposure to visual novels is minimal.
Va-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
I finished Va-11 Hall-A yesterday. I enjoyed it. The structure of the game was ideal for me. Each day is split into two parts, so you work in the bar in the evening, then from your home where you can save, then back to the bar, then a checkpoint mid work day.
This made it well suited to portable play over several days.
I liked all the characters except the main character. She seemed to have no personality, then half way through she starts emoting and her personality seems incongruent with the first half of the game. But, they remain consistent throughout the rest, so its okay.
There were a few grammar errors, but not many. I think I noticed three.
Sometimes the game asks you to recall a customer's favourite drink or some non-obvious way to recall a specific drink.
There is a metric for success - after every day you get paid and you can earn a bonus for flawless service. But I think you can make it through the whole game even if you mess up every single one of these "special" orders?
Similarly, mixing drinks is binary pass/fail, but there is no penalty for retrying and you have unlimited retries.
It succeeds well at world building. Each character has their own storyline that expands upon the world, and you read various news items at your home to expand further. Often these news items form their own storylines as well.
I liked the character art, but almost universally I disliked the alternate character art. I also did not like the character portrait for the player character, but you rarely see it, so that was okay.
The ambience and art direction were good. The music interface was clunky, so I never bothered messing with songs after setting them up the first time, until the very end. I'm also not sure how to unlock other songs. There are one or two you can buy from your home. The music is quite good, but it restarts your playlist from the beginning after every save. It would be nice if that whole aspect was better integrated, but it's fine.
The Red Strings Club is very cool so far. Seems like a natural extension from Va-11 Hall-A. Only a few minutes in and already a lot more gameplay.
I am really enjoying The Red Strings Club!
So good! If anything, it is just getting better. Real narrative choices with consequences. I can actually see myself playing this a second time. We'll see. Maybe the consequences are illusory, but the illusion is good, if so.
I just finished my first playthrough. I found a part of the ending to be a surprise; but I'm okay with it. Overall definitely a very worthwhile game to play. I think I'll give it at least one more playthrough.
Oh, the little interactive bit at the very end is cool.
The Red Strings Club is really good!
The last time I played a game I liked this much was Gone Home, and I think that was very situational. This is also a way, way better game than Gone Home.
Real narrative choice and consequence and segments of actual gameplay.
Also super cyberpunk.
It does Va-11 Hall-A drink mixing better than that game. It's a point and click adventure game but with no point and click, only narrative choices. It has *hard* choices for you to make
I'm sure it's smoke and mirrors.
I talked a COO down from jumping off a bridge and I felt a sense of relief and accomplishment.
In my very limited experience, this is the pinnacle of the bartender/visual novel style of game.
Which sounds funny, but I'm not being facetious or trying to minimize it.
But maybe overselling it, too. Ha ha.
Maybe like if Detroit: Become Human (title?) was an actual game.
(No link provided because the official site seems to be broken.)
I started playing Danganronpa, but so far it is not really grabbing me. I like the idea of a battle royale setting; but I think it works against wanting to get to know the other characters.
I'm also finding the whole presentation to be much more anime/otaku than I'd really like. I'm all for genre fiction and tropes (I love cyberpunk!) but this style is a miss for me.
I'm not sure if I should press on or not...
I also have Zero Escape to try.
I haven't got to truth bullets yet, but I just don't think this game is for me. I was kinda hoping for some Zero Escape "escape the room" stuff, or Phoenix Wright accusation and trial stuff. So far it is just boring dating sim visual novel stuff with a very off putting graphical style.
🜄 @alchemistswater@social.linux.pizza @groovestomp It took me forever to actually get into Danganronpa, I must have started it like 20 times, got like five minutes in, and gotten bored. But at some point it really grabbed me, and now I've played all three to completion, and the Ultra Despair girls (Which was absolutely terrible, but you know. I had to.) I'd say keep going til at least the first truth bullets bit. If it doesn't get you by then, then hey, probably not for you.
@alchemistswater Thanks, I appreciate that. To be honest, I remember hearing about the truth bullets and I feel like at least encountering that part _ought_ to be a minimum bar.
I'll try to stick with it...
@alchemistswater I beat the first trial. Things definitely got a lot more interesting!
🜄 @alchemistswater@social.linux.pizza @groovestomp Yeah, That's sorta what happened to me. I kinda liked the art style personally, but that opening sequence with the whole dating sim aspect was just dull. It got much better.
Halfway through Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.
I finished Danganronpa. Hoo boy. I have mixed feelings. I don't think the mastermind was effective at all. I think almost the entirety of chapter 6 works against the game.
But the rest of the game did grow on me after the first trial. I still don't really like the art style within the game, although I *do* like the UI and gallery.
The controls are clunky and I never completely got the hang of the remember bullets segments.
So that was a pretty raw record from me going through those games. I obviously really liked The Red Strings Club. I haven't gone back to play it again yet, but reading about it here has certainly piqued my interest again.
I still have a positive memory of Va-11 Hall-A; but I definitely won't replay it. My recollection of it is that the game is shallow and I've gotten everything from it that I care to. I did enjoy the experience, but it's definitely a once-and-done sort of deal. I started playing through the prologue and lost interest immediately; so I don't think it really has any kind of staying power.
I very recently finished playing Danganronpa, so my thoughts are more fresh on that. I enjoyed it! I enjoyed it a lot more than my Mastodon thoughts would lead you to believe. I do certainly have mixed feelings about the game and I stand by everything I wrote; but the overall experience at the end was positive. I even dabbled a little in the extras. There's a "dating sim" mode you can play that seems a fair bit different from the main game. I only dabbled; but I was eager to move on to Danganronpa 2 and 999.
Danganronpa sits in an interesting space where it is part dating sim, part escape-the-room, part rhythm game and none of the bits are particularly well done or fit together very well, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The characters are interesting and the mystery is good. Like I wrote, I think the 6th chapter falls flat; but surprisingly this didn't affect my overall opinion too much.
One thing I would say is that the structure of Danganronpa is quite formulaic. The gameplay formula could be seen as bad; but I think it works well for mobile play. However, the segments go on quite long; so even though the structure is good for pick-up-and-play, it's often difficult to find a natural save state to quit at.
Danganronpa also feels too long. This is a tradeoff - many of the characters are interesting and the mystery is interesting, so I wanted to be part of that world and play more. But I had to dedicate serious time to get through the game, and it just felt like the balance wasn't quite there.
I think my issue with the game is that the trials are very long, but the gameplay is very shallow, and it's common to find situations where you know exactly what needs to be said in the trial, but the gameplay mechanics obfuscate how you need to achieve that. It's obviously a tradeoff as Danganronpa has the "most" gameplay of the visual novels here, even though the depth is quite shallow. But, it's always "good enough." As an example, in direct contrast with 999 - Danganronpa typically makes it easy to know what you can interact with, and exiting from accidental interactions is usually painless enough. 999 has really been causing a lot of friction for me by making those things more annoying to deal with.
I started playing both 999 and Danganronpa 2 now. I don't have anything to say about either as I am still very early on.
So I guess I am now a fan of visual novels!
Published on January 21, 2021