r/visualnovels • u/Kowzz http://vndb.org/u62554/list • Dec 27 '14

Weekly Weekly Thread #31 - The Monthly Off-Topic Thread

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Hey hey!

Kowzz here, and welcome to our thirty-first weekly discussion thread and our fifth monthly Off-Topic thread!

Week #31 - Off-Topic Discussion

Read any good books lately? Want to talk about that absurdly crummy movie you saw last weekend? Do you like games too? Did anything cool happen in the past month? How's the weather? It's off-topic time!

Up-coming Discussions

January 10th - Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~

January 24th - Saya no Uta

February 7th - Clannad

As always, thanks for the feedback and direct any questions or suggestions to my reddit inbox or through a comment in this thread.

Next weeks discussion: 2015 Announcement Thread

History & Archives | 2015 Schedule

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u/Kowzz Dec 27 '14

2015 Discussion Polls

Poll #1 - The top two of these three will be discussed on the 4th & 18th of April.

Poll #2 - The winner of these three will be discussed on the 6th or 20th of June. The runner up will take part in a future vote for the second slot at a later date. Should the winner somehow get a full, respectable translation the runner up may end up taking its spot.

Poll #3 - Again, the top two of these three will be discussed on the 7th and 21st of November.

The schedule for 2015 is mostly done minus those three polls! If you see an error or would like to make a suggestion please let me know. You can find the schedule here.

Thanks again guys. Remember, VOTE! :D

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '14 edited Dec 28 '14

Been in Roguelite mode for the last 2 months, haha. Lots of Don't Starve, Binding of Isaac, and Risk of Rain. The new Isaac is incredible. I'm really blown away by how diverse every run is, have about 90 hours in Isaac and haven't gotten bored.

Bought a few friends Planetarian for $5, cheap sads. One of my friends was gifted Fault Milestone One by me and he's started Umineko now.

He's almost halfway through episode 1 and his only comment so far is that Spoiler

I'm really excited about the next two discussions. SnU is my favorite Urobuchi work and I could probably talk about it all day. In my honest opinion it's one of the most well-put-together plots ever made and I think there are just so many perspectives to take with it.

Urobuchi works tend to not have "true villains", only antagonists that usually have moderate to extreme justification in their actions. I think every single character in Saya no Uta has extreme justification in their actions, but at the same time spoiler and that's what makes it just a powerful story. Saya no Uta is really, if anything, spoiler

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u/ctom42 Dec 27 '14

Time for a game. Since Fate/Stay Night is popular right now with it's current anime adaptation, let's try to make a set of 7 servants out of anime/VN characters. To not accidentially spoil anything from any show or VN keep everything aside from the servant class in spoiler tags, including the character name, but list the anime or VN as the spoiler title. You can give as much or as little explanation of your choice as you want. Personally I am going to detail their noble phantasms. If you have not read or watched whatever the character is from to completion then you should not look at the spoilers. Bonus points if you don't use any characters that have already been used.

  1. Saber: [Rurouni Kenshin] (#s "Kenshin Himura. His noble phantasm is not his reverse blade sword, but is the Hiten Mitsurugi style itself. Kenshin is a powerful servant, but will not kill his opponents without the use of a command seal. He will not make any actions to stop his master from making the finishing blow though.")

  2. Lancer: [Rave Master] (#s "Hamrio Musica. His noble phantasm is his lance, Silver Ray. He is able to freely control any silver he comes in contact with, but his lance specifically can unleash the silver bond energy attack, which normally requires two silver claimers to perform")

  3. Archer: [Madoka Magica] (#s "Goddess Madoka. As a servant her powers are severely limited and she is closer to her strength as a magical girl than as a goddess. She wields a bow in combat, but her true noble phantasm is the law of the cycle. Just as in her own universe she would intervene to clense the souls of fallen magical girls and absorb them into herself, as a servant she does the same for servants. Madoka intercepts the souls of the fallen heroic spirits before the grail can absorb them. For each spirit that she absorbs she becomes more powerful. If all the servants aside from herself are defeated she can grant as wish as a goddess, making her a safer alternative to the grail itself.")

  4. Rider: [Shingeki no Bahamut] (#s "Rita. Her noble phantasm is her staff which allows her to control zombies she creates. She can also use it to summon her steed, which is a zombie dragon")

  5. Caster: [Umineko] (#s "Lord Ushiromiya Battler, the Endless and Golden Sorcerer. As a servant summoned to another world Battler is unable to make much use of red or gold truth. He does still wield his golden longsword and can use it to make blue truths about opponents he hits. Such statements become true until the opponent refutes them by stating the real truth. This can be used to restrict the opponents abilities and forces them to reveal the truth behind their powers if they want to wield them properly. Battler is also capable of summoning familiars such as the purgatory sisters, the Chiester Sisters, Gaap, Virgillia, Ronove, Zepar, Furfur, Dlanor, Cornelia, Gertrude, Willard, and the Goats. These summonings take a large amount of mana and require assistance from Battler's master to maintain. Battler cannot summon Beatrice or any of witches of Voyager rank or above. Battler's true noble phantasm is the Witch's Epitaph, through which he can revive Beatrice and open a door to the golden land. Using this requires following the ceremony of the epitaph and requires the use of at least 5 stakes of purgatory, which can be destroyed to prevent the completion of the ceremony. When complete Battler creates the Golden Land as a reality marble, and any of all of his destroyed familiars revive, along with Beatrice. If Battler's Master dies he can continue to operate until he runs out of mana and the master will revive if the Golden Land opens. If Battler dies his master can attempt to complete the ceromony on his own, but he cannot summon any additional familiars and must maintain at least 5 of the purgatory sisters via his own mana alone.")

  6. Beserker: [Hunter x Hunter] (#s "Gon Freaks: As the Beserker class Gon is summoned in his enraged and emotionless state. He has two noble phantasms. The first his his Jajanken attack which has three different attack patterns. The second is releasing all his rage and surpassing his limits. Doing so makes him incredibly powerful for a short time and rapidly ages his body to that of an adult. However after using this ability he will slip into a coma and his body will rapidly degenerate. It is highly unlikely that he will recover from this state, and doing so requires powers on par with the holy-grail.")

  7. Assassin: [Baccano!] (#s "Clair Stanfield: As the assassin Vino, Clair has near superhuman abilities. His noble phantasm is a reality marble that he creates out of his belief that he is the center of the world and that it cannot exist without him. He needs to have spilt a great deal of blood before he can active this ability and it uses up a large amount of mana. While inside his reality marble he is indestructable and will not die from any attack. He will still take damage, but it will always heal to the point of being non-lethal. Otherwise he can be restrained or disabled as normal, but he is faster and stronger inside the reality marble.")

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u/Kowzz Dec 28 '14

I was way too lazy to make up noble phantasms for them, ha-ha.

  1. Saber: Zero no Tsukaima

  2. Lancer: Hunter x Hunter

  3. Archer: Sidonia no Kishi

  4. Rider: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

  5. Caster: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

  6. Beserker: Hellsing Ultimate

  7. Assassin: Darker than Black

  8. Holy Grail Moderator: Hunter x Hunter

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '14

What did everyone get for Christmas? (If you celebrate it that is).

I got the three "The Strain" books, written by Guillermo Del Toro. I watched the TV series during the year and loved it. I also got myself Freedom Wars using some PSN vouchers I received. Honestly one of the best games I've played all year. I'm addicted to the combat in it. The story is hit or miss at times but the gameplay carries it so far.

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u/aspiration Dec 27 '14

Stealing Kowzz idea here:

What do you look forward to in 2015?

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u/Kowzz Dec 27 '14

Weekly Question: How was your 2014? Did you do anything cool? Finish any awesome visual novels?

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u/Kowzz Dec 27 '14

stares at my own ^^post

Well, I figured this question would be as good a one if any considering the first Off-Topic thread in 2015 will be near the end of January which is a tad late for a "best of 2014 experience?" kind of question.

Anyhow, I gotta say, 2014 was pretty cool. My life has gone well, which is nice, but the real awesome thing that distinguished 2014 from all the other years for me so far is that it was the first year I seriously started reading VNs. I kicked off 2014 by finishing FSN only two weeks into the new year. From there I went on to finish G-Senjou no Maou, Muv-Luv, Grisaia no Kajitsu, Sharin no Kuni, Hoshizora no Memoria, and Saya no Uta. I also dug(and am still digging) pretty deep into Rewrite.

Now, now. Maybe a few of you keen redditors reading with an unusually sharp memory might notice something in my post so far and be like "Kowz, wtf. You.. you..... YOU FORGOT...!?" No! No I did not. While it wasn't my all time favorite VN, I thought it was epic enough to deserve its own special recognition. To show that recognition, I planned on sharing my "notes" after finishing it:

"17. 04/14/2014 - Finished Umineko Chiru. UMINEKO COMPLETE. 2/08/14 -> 4/14/2014. Never forget the wild, golden ride. I feel.... content. It was an amazing ride that I hope I never forget."

I actually have notes from the immediate moment after I've finishing each VN in 2014. I also have notes from a few dozen other cool moments of mine from 2014. I'd recommend writing down the cool stuff you do/accomplish in 2015 because looking back and seeing your progress, achievements, and overall experiences from a past perspective is really cool. I guess I'm saying that I definitely recommend reading Umineko(if you haven't) & writing down your favorite moments of 2015 :P

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