Recommending Story-first games

5.00 star(s) 8 Votes
May 23, 2021
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I understand, but there are also meaningful choices. This episode was two very distinct routes, for example.
i guess i care a little too much how much certain choices affect the endings of the story because when az finishes the game these routes won't matter anyway
 

realjitter

Member
Jun 21, 2021
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i guess i care a little too much how much certain choices affect the endings of the story because when az finishes the game these routes won't matter anyway
I haven't played that game yet, but what you're basically saying is that there are several LI's, but you can only have an ending with one specific person?
 

Dragon59

Conversation Conqueror
Apr 24, 2020
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Of Birds and Bees
[DiscipleOfVirginia]


https://f95zone.to/threads/of-birds-and-bees-v0-6-discipleofvirginia.42860/

I did a quick search of this thread and this VN didn't pop up. So, I felt I should throw my pennys in on it.

I have never seen a story developed like this on F95.. Dev mentioned Lovecraft in the OP and it fits. I spent the begining asking myself WTH is going on. Why am I playing this?

Then the Crap hits the fan and it all gets... curious. A hell of a story going on here. Horror, Thriller...Oddness. There is a major choice that I played conservatively ... and Damn. I'm still not done with the available content. Had to take a breath.

The style is unique and takes some getting used to. I almost never play with headphones but they are recomended to hear the voices. It's easy to click through transitions which have a lot of info at times. (Lord knows what I have missed.)

Big asses are over done and talked about often. Nothing makes sense for the first couple chapters. Some Engrish. But that may be intentional. Yet, it comes around and the "Ohh. What?!" moment hits. I was just not ready for it. (I was about to delete to be honest)

Just thought I would throw it into the mix on this thread. It's worth the time I think. Pay attention to the clues and just wait for the OMG moment. o_O

Edit: The fat and gross men in the preview pics are easily avoidable..Some thing need not be seen IMO.
Not sure if I'll pick this one up. I'm not a fan of corruption games in general. Is there something beside that that helps it be a good story?
you can have sex with multipile girls but the ending is only with one
That's one thing that irritated me about Melody. You were able to have a perfectly harmonious household of four, yet the game forced you to give it up for the good ending. It wasn't a case of someone found out about it and it limited her career. You just had to be monogamous with Melody for her to get the best ending. It made no sense to me.

And I got a few facepalms for stating such. :rolleyes:
 
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bacienvu88

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Aug 3, 2021
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Halfway House episode 10 is out! Everyone's favourite character Officer Monroe is back :cool:

View attachment 2639279
I should probably continue this at some point.

The first time I played HH I absolutely loved it (2 years ago?). Then I tried playing it from the beginning a few months ago and could only play a few chapters. The MC is just too juvenile. I know he is supposed to be juvenile, but it is too much for me. And for some reason everyone else indulge him as well-
That's one thing that irritated me about Melody. You were able to have a perfectly harmonious household of four, yet the game forced you to give it up for the good ending. It wasn't a case of someone found out about it and it limited her career. You just had to be monogamous with Melody for her to get the best ending. It made no sense to me.
I don't think I ever got the quadrouple ending so I can't say exactly how that turned out. But my problem with most of those poly-endings in AVNs are just too easy. Most of the time it is just the main LI suddenly saying that they are fine sharing even though they were jealous of the others a minute ago. Those kind of relationships would be more satisfying if it is a main part how they all struggle with the relationship, jealousy and how it should all work for it to be harmonious. Melody in particular would be a difficult considering Melody herself would be away on tour all the time.
 

yossa999

Engaged Member
Dec 5, 2020
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understandable take
honestly thought that az should have just made it a kinetic novel it's kinda irritating ngl but respect to him for not changing it and sticking to his vision
just hope he don't repeat the same thing in his next project
It sounds like you take Emily's happy ending for granted. I guess you have to make the right choices to get there, otherwise you'll just leave the Halfway House and go your own way or worse if you get more involved in Piper's business. So it doesn't feel like a kinetic novel, although it should be rather called a "Chasing Emily" game where the happy, neutral and bad endings are possible. It really saddens me that all this relationship building with other girls does not lead to anything in the sense of romantic relationship or even just comes down to one-time sex.
 

realjitter

Member
Jun 21, 2021
296
371
Did "read" FairWood Retreat 87. It's supposed to be a slasher/horror AVN that won't hold back according to the dev. Well, as of now it's just the prologue of it and it's only about 5 minutes long. So there's basically nothing to talk about as of yet. What I can say about it though is that it opens like any other typical slasher movie does. Which is already a good sign in my mind. The writing of it felt a little weird. The characters are written like teenagers, but they all look like 20+ year olds. Should've probably just went with real teenager here for the prologue since there wasn't any sexual content.

Not gonna lie, the developer talks a pretty big game in his thread about what his game's going to be. The way he describes it is kinda the way i would go about it... :p, we'll see..

And yeah, and then there was Brenda of course. Oh my beautiful Brenda :p. My condolences to her parents because she died way too young. She had her whole life still infront of her. So many things to discover, experience and see... So many dreams and ambitions.. And now she's just gone, dead... Sitting there on a pixel cloud, all bored, in pixel heaven with no way to come back... This isn't right!. It just isn't =(. So whoever did this shameless, gruesome act of violence, you better watch out because the MC will come for you. And when she does it won't be pretty. No, she'll flash her boobs at him and then it'll be all over for whoever did this!. She'll quote Ash from Evil dead by saying "who's laughing now?" while mercilessly suffocating him/her/it with her boobs!. So Brenda, don't worry, your death will not be in vein! :p. No matter how many others will join you up there on that pixel cloud...

Oh, did I mention that I liked Brenda?. Well, at least her model....
 
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bacienvu88

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Aug 3, 2021
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I just released episode 1 of New Antioch, which will be very story driven.
I shall follow the future of this game with great anticipation. I really like the setting and world building so far. A bit too early for me to really say something about the characters but I do really like the slave girl (although it is a too porny for my taste that she basically skips killing MC because he has a horse cock). According to the dev notes harem is one of the foci for the game which makes me worry for the future characterization of the LIs.
Let me recommend the Strangers on Paper
The 100% story-based natural product, imho. Very well written, read it in one breath. Although the renders are also very good, at least the girls are beautiful, and the guys - who cares :)
First impression: Yet another dudebro who has been a shut-in for years and when he is finally coaxed to go out women trip over themselves to get to know him. And what is it with AVNs and bars? Every other game has MC work in a bar, a friend works in a bar or both. And if it isn't a bar it is a cafe.

Second impression: These LIs are pretty interesting. In a very weird sort of way.

Third impression: This game has grown on me a lot. I really like the characters. The game has a mix of funny, embarrassing, awkwardness and weirdness that works surprisingly well.
 

yossa999

Engaged Member
Dec 5, 2020
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[...] And what is it with AVNs and bars? Every other game has MC work in a bar, a friend works in a bar or both. And if it isn't a bar it is a cafe. [...]
Although this is clearly a rhetorical question, I will answer anyway:) The bar is the easiest and most natural way to introduce new characters, tell their stories, make them meet the MC, let them bond and/or have a drunk one night stand.
But this is the first VN that I can remember that explains the character's psychological motivations for being a bartender, albeit in a rather simple way. Thanks to his extroverted nature, this guy literally replenishes his energy by interacting with people. That is why he values his regular customers, considers them almost friends and often treats them to free drinks at his own expense.
 

Tlaero

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Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
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Well, and secondly, and that's nitpicky as fuck, the developer likes to describe redundant things. For example "She reaches down and picks up her glasses". That's something you do when writing a book, but in an AVN you literally get to see it happening... No need for telling your audience. I'd scratch all of that tbh...
Granted, "She reaches down and picks up her glasses" isn't very compelling storytelling. But, if your meta point is that VNs should just be dialog and images, then I disagree with it.

First, most VNs aren't all that visual. The majority of them have static backgrounds and waist up character overlays with 5 or 6 expression differences. Not a lot of storytelling potential there.

Second, if unadorned dialog was sufficient, then we wouldn't need skilled actors for our movies.

Consider the following two variants:

Background: A hotel lobby.
Character overlay 1: An older woman who's still hot. She's got a neutral expression and is not wearing glasses.
Overlay 2: Same woman, wearing glasses and smiling now.

Variant 1:
(Lobby with overlay 1)
[You] Excuse me, miss. I'm looking for someone.

[Her] Just a second, sugar.

(Switch to overlay 2)
[Her] Well, well, well. Maybe you found her.


Variant 2:
(Lobby with overlay 1)
You're supposed to meet your blind date in the hotel lobby, but the woman you find there is older than you expect. You approach her and say timidly, "Excuse me, miss. I'm looking for someone."

She squints a bit as she turns her gaze to you. With a slight shake of her head, she says, "Just a second, sugar."

Without taking her eyes off of you, she plucks a pair of horn-rimmed glasses from the table beside her and puts them on.

(Switch to overlay 2)
You see hunger in the woman's eyes as she assesses you like a piece of meat. Longingly, she says, "Well, well, well. Maybe you found her."


I'll argue that Variant 2 has more story, or, at the very least, more characterization.

A visual novel is still a text-based storytelling medium. If you hid the text and only looked at the images, you'd get little to nothing of the story. The images certainly enhance the text, but they don't replace it.

This would change with great voice actors, but none of us can afford them. ArianeB is starting to work with AI voiceovers though. I'll be interested in seeing where that goes.

Tlaero
 

bacienvu88

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2021
1,714
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The bar is the easiest and ...
I guess it is "the easiest" that is my problem. How about doing something more interesting than the easiest thing? I want more variation!
First, most VNs aren't all that visual. The majority of them have static backgrounds and waist up character overlays with 5 or 6 expression differences. Not a lot of storytelling potential there.

Second, if unadorned dialog was sufficient, then we wouldn't need skilled actors for our movies.

Consider the following two variants:
Most AVNs seem to try to do the second variant as inner monologue. But I much prefer your style of writing. Which also has the advantage of that you don't need to include the "Hey MC, you're spacing out again!" line.
 

Raife

Active Member
May 16, 2018
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View attachment 2641064
that's what i meant not necessarily the update ending but the game itself future ending
I respect the dev's choice. There's no 'law of AVNs' that requires 'good endings' for all LIs.

In fact, there isn't much difference between AZ's approach and the traditional 'true end,' 'good end,' 'bad end,' schema in Japanese bishoujo games. It's just that AZ will have one 'true end' with a LI, one or more 'good ends' without a lasting relationship, and perhaps a 'bad end.'

I have no idea why people get so worked up about these things. Yes, the other LIs are appealing, but if the dev wants to tell their story this way, it's a valid choice. In this particular game, it probably contributes to a more realistic narrative, given the MC's youth and immaturity.
 
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5.00 star(s) 8 Votes