- Jul 25, 2017
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He actually hired 2 different voice actors from what the dev told me don't think any of the voices are using AI. Unless it's used for something else I have no idea about
Recommending Story-first games
- Thread starter jufot
- Start date
- Feb 11, 2018
- 207
- 386
Are you kidding me!? Was those lines in the clip AI-generated?!?
Hm. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate som things.
- Jul 25, 2017
- 13,487
- 17,732
nah he has hired 2 voice actors. The Female does the voice for the Squirrel , Vex , Cara , Kim and Sandra as far as I know. Then has has a male one that does basically all the guy's voices. At least from the conversations ive had with him where he mentions things about the voice overs.
- May 15, 2021
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I'm pretty sure he has mentioned AI voices at some point, unless I'm horribly confusing it with some other game. Which is possible, I'm quite scatterbrained these days. But yeah, it's absolutely incredible
- Feb 8, 2023
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While I understand the confusion, no. All of the voices in Rivers of Astrum are from voiced actors that I've hired on Fiverr, which are all credited in the "About" page of the game
That's also why some nsfw scenes are only partially voiced, because my agreement with my lead actress was always "stop wherever you're not comfortable, and I'll try to match the rest with stock sounds"
- May 15, 2021
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Ah, my bad! I've definitely confused it with some other game, then. Updated my original post.
- Nov 24, 2018
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You may have been thinking of ArianeB's games. She's been using AI to voice them with reasonably good results.
Tlaero
- May 15, 2021
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Thoughts on Alpha, Omega's fourth chapter? I'm particularly interested in those who are playing Alexa's path (romantically or otherwise). I just can't bring myself to it.
On the Ivan path, Lily and Taylor are far and away my favourites Both such wonderful characters.
On the Ivan path, Lily and Taylor are far and away my favourites
Both such wonderful characters.
- Feb 11, 2018
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I just tried Beach Glass and I think it might eventually become something good.
As of today it has probably only around 15-20 minutes of play time, but it looks promising. Great visuals and the only sex scene seems to serve a purpose in the story.
Normally I don't look for lesbian stories, but if the storytelling becomes good enough, I can see myself following this one.
As of today it has probably only around 15-20 minutes of play time, but it looks promising. Great visuals and the only sex scene seems to serve a purpose in the story.
Normally I don't look for lesbian stories, but if the storytelling becomes good enough, I can see myself following this one.
The third and final game of this series has finally been released, so I'm going to take the opportunity to recommend one of my favorite visual novels to everyone. And honestly one of my favorite series of fiction in any medium.
I've been playing visual novels for 20 years, and this is probably the only one where I really wish there wasn't sexual content in it, because the story is so damn good that it really deserves "The Last of Us" levels of attention and respect. But sadly it seems like most people seem to think sex in a game makes it smut by default, and completely unworthy of any attention otherwise, so that will likely never come.
The game series is named Kara No Shoujo, which translates to "Girl in the Shell", and is also known as The Shell in recent Western releases. The first game released in 2008 in Japan, the sequel came out in 2012, and the final game in December of 2020. The third game took 4 long years to be translated and finally just released in the West yesterday.
The series is set in the 1950s in Tokyo. A bizarre and gruesome serial murder case is dominating headlines, and you play as an ex-cop turned private detective that is hired by the vice president of a private high school to go undercover as a teacher to investigate the disappearance of a couple of their students.
The series consistently does an incredible job of having multiple plot lines going on and then weaving them together masterfully by the end. The writing and translation are top tier as well. It's genuinely a pleasure to read day to day interactions between these characters, in a way that it rarely is for me in other VNs.
It's also an absolute pleasure to play as a competent adult protagonist that actually has a personality and isn't a creep. Years before the game begins his fiancee was a victim in a similar murder case, and him working through this trauma is a big part of the story.
A few warnings, as despite how good this game is it certainly won't be for everyone.
1. It's a very dark game. Bad things may happen to good people. There are for sure lighter moments as well, but the overall tone is similar to things like The Last of Us or the movie Se7en.
2. As alluded to, the sexual content is not the focus of this game and it probably would be a better game without it. There aren't that many scenes, but even so when they're there they often feel shoehorned in or out of character (though from memory, the latter is mainly the case when you're on the way to a bad end). In Japan visual novels sell better if they contain sexual content, so sometimes you find it stuffed into a game where it really isn't the least bit necessary and this is one of those times.
Be warned though, you do absolutely need to play the uncensored version because the censored one doesn't just cut out sexual content, but also almost anything related to violence. In a game about investigating murders ... they actually cut out things like a crime scene being investigated or scenes from the killer's perspective. It's ridiculous.
3. It's mostly a visual novel, but there is some gameplay. It's very much a detective game, and at times you investigate crime scenes, choose a location to go to, or are asked to figure out some part of the mystery, such as picking the right culprit out of many choices. You may need to use a walkthrough to find your way to the true ending. Some people have expressed some frustation with this, but personally it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all. I genuinely liked the gameplay elements. But do save often and in different save slots just to make sure you don't lock yourself into a bad end. I know the recent releases have made that harder to do, but still, be careful.
This plot summary and description is mainly only covering the first game, as this is definitely a series you need to play in sequential order. IMO the series gets even better as it goes along, and the series also gets better at addressing its weakest areas from points 2 and 3. But honestly none of these things took much enjoyment away from me personally.
I get the feeling that in general Japanese visual novels are a bit under the radar on this site. But take it from me, I've read a lot of both Japanese and Western VNs, and this is the absolute cream of the crop. I recommend that basically anyone that wants a good story and is not too turned off by my listed potential downsides give it a shot.
I've been playing visual novels for 20 years, and this is probably the only one where I really wish there wasn't sexual content in it, because the story is so damn good that it really deserves "The Last of Us" levels of attention and respect. But sadly it seems like most people seem to think sex in a game makes it smut by default, and completely unworthy of any attention otherwise, so that will likely never come.
The game series is named Kara No Shoujo, which translates to "Girl in the Shell", and is also known as The Shell in recent Western releases. The first game released in 2008 in Japan, the sequel came out in 2012, and the final game in December of 2020. The third game took 4 long years to be translated and finally just released in the West yesterday.
The series is set in the 1950s in Tokyo. A bizarre and gruesome serial murder case is dominating headlines, and you play as an ex-cop turned private detective that is hired by the vice president of a private high school to go undercover as a teacher to investigate the disappearance of a couple of their students.
The series consistently does an incredible job of having multiple plot lines going on and then weaving them together masterfully by the end. The writing and translation are top tier as well. It's genuinely a pleasure to read day to day interactions between these characters, in a way that it rarely is for me in other VNs.
It's also an absolute pleasure to play as a competent adult protagonist that actually has a personality and isn't a creep. Years before the game begins his fiancee was a victim in a similar murder case, and him working through this trauma is a big part of the story.
A few warnings, as despite how good this game is it certainly won't be for everyone.
1. It's a very dark game. Bad things may happen to good people. There are for sure lighter moments as well, but the overall tone is similar to things like The Last of Us or the movie Se7en.
2. As alluded to, the sexual content is not the focus of this game and it probably would be a better game without it. There aren't that many scenes, but even so when they're there they often feel shoehorned in or out of character (though from memory, the latter is mainly the case when you're on the way to a bad end). In Japan visual novels sell better if they contain sexual content, so sometimes you find it stuffed into a game where it really isn't the least bit necessary and this is one of those times.
Be warned though, you do absolutely need to play the uncensored version because the censored one doesn't just cut out sexual content, but also almost anything related to violence. In a game about investigating murders ... they actually cut out things like a crime scene being investigated or scenes from the killer's perspective. It's ridiculous.
3. It's mostly a visual novel, but there is some gameplay. It's very much a detective game, and at times you investigate crime scenes, choose a location to go to, or are asked to figure out some part of the mystery, such as picking the right culprit out of many choices. You may need to use a walkthrough to find your way to the true ending. Some people have expressed some frustation with this, but personally it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all. I genuinely liked the gameplay elements. But do save often and in different save slots just to make sure you don't lock yourself into a bad end. I know the recent releases have made that harder to do, but still, be careful.
This plot summary and description is mainly only covering the first game, as this is definitely a series you need to play in sequential order. IMO the series gets even better as it goes along, and the series also gets better at addressing its weakest areas from points 2 and 3. But honestly none of these things took much enjoyment away from me personally.
I get the feeling that in general Japanese visual novels are a bit under the radar on this site. But take it from me, I've read a lot of both Japanese and Western VNs, and this is the absolute cream of the crop. I recommend that basically anyone that wants a good story and is not too turned off by my listed potential downsides give it a shot.
- May 15, 2021
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- 3,594
Finally had a chance to play this. Very promising, but there is just too little of it yet to know for sure.
Thanks for the recommendation! It definitely sounds interesting, especially with your praise of its writing, and "would have been better without sex" is always a plus in my book. How graphic is the darkness? You mention The Last of Us, which is absolutely fine, but your game has a necrophilia tag, for example, and that just doesn't appeal to me. More generally, I'm fine with violence even if it is gratuitous as long as it isn't sexual. So no rape, or anything sexually non-consensual.
Given that, would you still recommend it?
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Everything is a drawn still image. Sometimes there definitely will be a still image of a severed body part, and things like that. But honestly I don't do well with gore often, and the series never went too far for me. There's corpses for sure, but it's not super detailed visually or anything. Think standard horror levels as opposed to things known for being over-the-top gross. The darkest aspects are probably more written, as while you're seeing things from the investigation side there will occasionally be short cut away scenes from the killer's perspective, and you'll see how screwed up their minds are. But they don't get super descriptive with the violence, which I'm thankful for.
I honestly don't remember necrophilia even being mentioned in the game, but as I said the game is very dark, so it wouldn't be surprising if a killer in their final confession admitted that they engaged in it or some other evidence pointed to it and that's where the tag comes from. Kind of like how it wouldn't have been that surprising if a certain character in The Last of Us, the killer in Se7en, or Hannibal Lector was revealed to have done it. And it definitely wouldn't be intended to titillate, but rather to add to how disgusting that villain is.
I see that there's a rape tag on the 1st game (and not on the others), and I also don't remember any sexual violent scenes in the game, but I do know one character that you learn about from the distant past is revealed to have been raped, and what happened to her has a significant effect on the plot. Sexual violence is not a constant focus whatsoever though. But if someone is likely to be triggered by the mention of these types of things than this game will probably go too far for them, as it really doesn't pull many punches.
Much of the series is a grisly investigation into dark crimes (and some from long ago), so things like that very well may be revealed to have happened in the past. From memory I don't think it's ever shown and I don't think any of the murders you're investigating in all 3 games involve any of the victims being sexually assaulted. The killers have different motives.
So I'd still recommend it if this doesn't sound too far for you. If it's a really sensitive issue that you don't want coming up at all, for sure avoid this series.
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- Mar 25, 2017
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RE: Kara no Shoujo / The Shell
Maaaaan, I hate that game. I will die mad about that game.
The game is held in extremely high esteem, but maaaaaaaan I hate that game. Try it if you like depression porn I guess, it's an "utsuge" after all, but be prepared for it.
Maaaaan, I hate that game. I will die mad about that game.
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The game is held in extremely high esteem, but maaaaaaaan I hate that game. Try it if you like depression porn I guess, it's an "utsuge" after all, but be prepared for it.
Haha, as I said, it's definitely not for everyone.
Regarding your issue with the investigation scenes, for one, they improved this in recent releases. And also I don't think you're quite right on those details. I think it use to be that you could miss a clue and then get stuck into a bad ending path, but I think they just changed that to where they don't let you leave if you miss any clues so that doesn't happen anymore.
But yeah, don't play this if you're expecting everything to be happy and to go well. It's not that type of game. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's depression porn personally, but in classical terms it's clearly a tragedy and not a comedy. Anyone that goes into it expecting your typical dating sim type game with a murder mystery theme is basically doomed to hate it.
Regarding your issue with the investigation scenes, for one, they improved this in recent releases. And also I don't think you're quite right on those details. I think it use to be that you could miss a clue and then get stuck into a bad ending path, but I think they just changed that to where they don't let you leave if you miss any clues so that doesn't happen anymore.
But yeah, don't play this if you're expecting everything to be happy and to go well. It's not that type of game. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's depression porn personally, but in classical terms it's clearly a tragedy and not a comedy. Anyone that goes into it expecting your typical dating sim type game with a murder mystery theme is basically doomed to hate it.
- Sep 14, 2022
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I'm curoius about how it handles different endings in one game, when moving on to the next one. It just assumes a certain canonical ending from the previous one?
The true endings are canon. Other endings are just bad endings, like in a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Bad endings are usually the result of picking the wrong suspect or something like that, after the game assumes you've been given enough clues to figure it out. The game honestly does a much better job than most detective games at not being too obvious while also not leaving you just completely clueless. Occasionally those can happen, but more typically if you've been paying attention you'll have one or two people you have good reason to be suspicious of and will be able to make a good educated guess.
You also have a big notebook of all the suspects and clues to help you keep track of everything, and can review the clues to often find the answer you're looking for. Also there's multiple cases you're investigating in each game, and often multiple people involved in the crimes, so this type of thing comes up more often than you'd maybe think. It's not just an end of game thing.
If you pick the wrong person when it's really critical it may result in someone dying or the suspect getting away, and then a game over screen. But then the ending also often hints at what you did wrong, by revealing more details about what's going on behind the scenes.
- Jul 12, 2021
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Thanks for that great suggestion, I also think it has a lot of potential for the future. I've decided to support it... If someone read this line and haven't played it yet, you should do so
- Nov 20, 2018
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I am blown away, move aside, Strangers on Paper, this is the new best production game on this site, hands down. If there was such a thing as an AAA AVN this would probably be the closest to it.
Animations, models, lighting, colour grading, this feels like someone's study in making a short film. Definitely something to put on a watch list.
If I wanted to nitpick on something it would probably be the fact that it's very light on exposition. I love that it relies on showing a lot rather than directly telling the player, but the flipside of that is characters being somewhat more ambiguous than I'd like. For example, I couldn't figure out whether all 3 options on what you do given as replies to you are actual storyline altering choices or just her bullshiting a stranger at a party. I'm sure more will be revealed as the game progresses.
- May 15, 2021
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- Nov 20, 2018
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Thanks for the insight! An interesting point that I realized while thinking about it, is that it doesn't, strictly speaking, matter whether it actually changes anything or not down the line, what matters is whether it's a lie in the moment. Like she's either lying or not and that has implications for the character.
You could say that it's an open to interpretation thing, and I get that, but in my opinion if there was some kind of indication given, through some sort of internal monologue maybe, whether it's either way that would define character better.
Edit: it occurred to me that this whole point of confusion is really borne out of it being the game and having the choice, the choice itself is kind of confusing because it's after all meaningless and is just a concession to the nature of the medium. Another point towards superiority of kinetic novels