Any thoughts on English or Japanese? I've generally stuck to Japanese in Sci;Adv games because I really didn't like the Steins;Gate English dub. I'll give English a chance first and see if I come across any voice I just can't stand.
Edit: gave it a try. Not horrible but think I'm gonna stick with Japanese
Edit edit: got through the opening mv, so far really liking it! I wish this had more discussion around it because I'd hate to lose the Sci;Adv series.
Btw, it looks like there's a new patch on PC that fixes the bug that caused visual artifacts with the English text. It wasn't a huge deal, but I'm still glad to see that it's no longer a problem.
Got to the end of chapter 7 (I think anyways, the delineations aren't always super clear since you only see them in the load screens), but this was a big reveal and it's now chapter 8
I had considered that Cicada was a digitalized version of Kent, but somehow didn't see it being an Amadeus version, despite the fact that Amadeus was name dropped earlier. They really are bringing a surprisingly large amount of stein's gate references and concepts, to the point where I wonder if this is just what became of the Steins ??? game that was teased years back
Science Adventure games are all traditional VNs rather than ADV. They typically have some sort of gimmick that factors into how the story branches in place of traditional VN listed choices (i.e., delusion triggers in Chaos;Head, D-mail responses in Steins;Gate, hacking triggers in Anonymous;Code), but that's the extent of the interactivity.Is this an ADV(enture) type of Visual Novel like Phoenix Wright which has some interactivity like puzzles in it or is this more a straight-up visual novel?
Is this an ADV(enture) type of Visual Novel like Phoenix Wright which has some interactivity like puzzles in it or is this more a straight-up visual novel?
Science Adventure games are all traditional VNs rather than ADV. They typically have some sort of gimmick that factors into how the story branches in place of traditional VN listed choices (i.e., delusion triggers in Chaos;Head, D-mail responses in Steins;Gate, hacking triggers in Anonymous;Code), but that's the extent of the interactivity.
If you're curious about visual novels and haven't played them before, Science Adventure is probably the best place to start, though. Steins;Gate was the gateway game for a lot of people. It's not the best place to start today (that would be Chaos;Head Noah... patched with CoZ patch). These games are as close to a "AAA" production as you're ever going to get in this genre.
I would not start with Anonymous;Code. While it works as a standalone game, it works much better when you have knowledge from previous games to contextualize events here that would otherwise appear as if they were magic. Also, this game straight-up spoils one of the central plot points of Steins;Gate.
No problem, good to hear. And as already said, be sure to install the patch that fixes Chaos;Head Noah before playing it once you do pick it up, though. It was linked earlier already, but I'll do it again myself this time for the new page.Thanks for the replies. Guess I will try that type of VNs with Chaos;Head Noah first, once I have some time for it.
While starting with Chaos;Head probably gives you the best experience for the Sci;Adv series as that's the origin point of the series, I can also see it as the one that has the highest chance of turning people off of the series because of how unpleasant it is to read. It's really good though.Thanks for the replies. Guess I will try that type of VNs with Chaos;Head Noah first, once I have some time for it.
While starting with Chaos;Head probably gives you the best experience for the Sci;Adv series as that's the origin point of the series, I can also see it as the one that has the highest chance of turning people off of the series because of how unpleasant it is to read. It's really good though.
I think what makes C;H different is that the protagonist is like that non-stop for the entire game while the other games at least have parts where they're normal and even likeable. And while other protagonists are pretty unlikeable in their own way at least they don't constantly think of stuff that'd put them in jail like Takumi does. I guess if the others are like Reddit, Takumi is 4ch?From my experience, new readers can get that unpleasant reaction from any game in the series (except Anonymous;Code) because of how unlikeable all the protagonists are designed to be from the start. You even see this with Okabe in Steins;Gate, with some people just instantly hating the guy.
Science Adventure in general has no shortage of fanservice, not really limited to one game or sub-series. Complaints about psychic powers/DI-Swords in the Chaos games never made any sense to me when there was nothing out of left field about those elements. Wouldn't know if that take on the supporting cast is directed toward vanilla C;H or how they were expanded upon in Noah.Regarding what was being said here yesterday, if I started with Chaos Head I wouldn't have played a single one of these games ever again.
Unredeemable protagonist, fan service to make you go blind, random anime magic couples with the most stereotypical anime girls one could create...
The story is cool, and the darker tone of it is okay, but hooooo boy, do they land the tone way better in other games.
I mean, for me DI-Swords is okay, what I feel is incredibly bad is how they just give them to the anime harem Takumi stumbles upon, all of which just represent every single trope possible in both terms of design and personality. Noah expands a little of them, sure they give them more darker and more serious moments, but they feel so bland and overdone.Science Adventure in general has no shortage of fanservice, not really limited to one game or sub-series. Complaints about psychic powers/DI-Swords in the Chaos games never made any sense to me when there was nothing out of left field about those elements. Wouldn't know if that take on the supporting cast is directed toward vanilla C;H or how they were expanded upon in Noah.
Takumi will always make it a potentially hard sell though, regardless of why he was the way he was.
Hmm, interesting. I had always found it odd how Science Adventure games had remnants of harem/romance VNs like that even though they always had a true ending route and preferred heroine that the stories eventually centered on, whereas games among the latter typically more rarely canonize any one route among the branches after the common route to avoid alienating fans of specific characters.If Anonymous;Code is anything to go by, the series might be moving away from some of the tropes the series has followed up until now. Most notably, this is the first Science Adventure game without a "harem" cast and branching paths for each girl.
Chaos;Child remains the only dud for me personally among those I've tried (didn't even hate it initially, but grew gradually more discontent with it as it went along), only saw the anime for Steins;Gate 0 to which I remain indifferent beyond the introduction of Maho to SA. No idea if Occultic;Nine will ever get ported given the current state of MAGES.I mean, for me DI-Swords is okay, what I feel is incredibly bad is how they just give them to the anime harem Takumi stumbles upon, all of which just represent every single trope possible in both terms of design and personality. Noah expands a little of them, sure they give them more darker and more serious moments, but they feel so bland and overdone.
And yeah, I mean, sure Steins;Gate (to name the most famous one) has CGs of someone taking a shower or whatever, and a super horny male character, but Chaos;Head feels like dimensions above the fan service level I'm good with.
I don't know, like I said I'm kinda glad it wasn't my first experience with these games, because I would have noped the fuck out out of any sequel, and it would be a shame as the rest of the series range from pretty fun to damn masterpieces (I haven't played Occultic;Nine or this yet though!)
Finished it today, really loved the hell out of it in the end. For me once we got out of the "Cicada quest of the moment" chunks into the bigger story implications is when it really kicked off. I could kind of seeing this being a gateway recc for VNs with limited interactivity.