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Anonymous;Code |OT| Hack into God
- Thread starter Sumio Mondo
- Start date
- OT
Interesting that a character name dropped Kurisu in the actual story (as opposed to cameos like Frau Kojiro and DaSH being on the list of top rankers for the quest). I'm wondering if we might actually see a returning Stein's gate character in the story here, given the similar concepts at play. Also I wonder given the prevalence of Earth Simulator stuff if we'll get something about the world the game takes place in itself being a simulation, given that wrinkle in actual simulation theory. If so, then maybe the time leaps are the result of someone hacking the simulation to literally reload saves with altered data
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.
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.
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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
The only ting to keep in mind with the Japanese dialogue, at least until we get the CoZ patch, is that cutscenes and background voices are not translated. This is practically never a real problem since you understand the point of the scenes anyway, and most of the cutscenes I've seen this happen in so far are intended to be unintelligible, but there was one instance of an important cutscene with Japanese voice and no text that I had to reload a save, change to English voices, play the cutscene, then change back.
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.
OP
OP
For some reason I thought that was intentional lol.
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This game does something subtle with the music that I really like:
Whenever the game dives deep into Steins;Gate lore, the background music changes to a remix of the mystery theme from that game. DaSH did something similar for the later parts of its story, and it really helps the games feel connected.
I just got past this point myself.
My heart almost stopped when that Amedeus boot screen popped up, and my excitement went through the roof. And then I was instantly disappointed to see Cicada instead of Amadeus Kurisu, only tempered by the cool remixed music from Steins;Gate 0 that plays during this scene. And then, to rub it in, the American woman (who's name I can't remember at the moment) tells you to "ask Kurisu" about something, making my excitement rise again. But once more, I was left hanging since Kurisu was indeed asked... off-screen and by her colleague. Gah! It would have been interesting to see her again, especially since she would be about 45 years old or so at this time.
But I firmly believe that Kurisu wouldn't have been namedropped this hard (including an actual picture of her Amadeus incarnation) if it's not building towards something specific involving her. My personal theory is that Amadeus Kurisu is the one giving Pollon the save/load powers, but time will tell.
But I firmly believe that Kurisu wouldn't have been namedropped this hard (including an actual picture of her Amadeus incarnation) if it's not building towards something specific involving her. My personal theory is that Amadeus Kurisu is the one giving Pollon the save/load powers, but time will tell.
I'm loving this game. Unless the last three (?) chapters mess things up, it's going to stand proudly alongside the best games in the series while also being completely different from them. It carries on the tradition of each different part of the Science Adventure universe having its own tone. The Chaos games are horror. The Steins games are drama. Robotics is slice-of-life. And now, Anonymous is action.
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.
Thanks for the replies. Guess I will try that type of VNs with Chaos;Head Noah first, once I have some time for it.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I finished it yesterday, though I've still got a bit of side content left. It's a great game all the way to the end. One of the central characters is absolutely garbage though:
JUNO is trash writing from start to finish. I have no idea what they were thinking by writing her like this, but she ruins just about every scene she is in. And just to rub it in, the game doesn't even bother to explain why she attacked you in the opening chapter.
Luckily, she doesn't appear that often during the game, but still. She can now join Reyes from Steins;Gate 0 on the pedestal of poorly conceived Science Adventure characters.
Luckily, she doesn't appear that often during the game, but still. She can now join Reyes from Steins;Gate 0 on the pedestal of poorly conceived Science Adventure characters.
I loved the story a lot until Chapter 8~, but I feel the climax of it kind of lost me. I'm currently at the start of Chapter 9 and I really don't feel the direction they're going for at all.
The world is a simulation angle was a bit obvious, which isn't really a bad thing, but what I have an issue with is what happens later with Soga. While failing to help him was a cool way to ramp up everything, him becoming a god shatters any semblance of a grounded narrative. There is going over the top and there is jumping the shark, and I feel here the former seems to happen. That said, how they managed to mix the religious themes with the scientific ones is kind of amazing, even the justification for Soga's powers from both angles, that he is essentially the anti Christ because he somehow managed to sync with his "higher plane" self, from what I understand.
Having thought about it and talked to some other people about the implications of the events in this game, I can confidently say: Holy shit! Anonymous;Code puts almost everything that has happened in this series into an entirely different light. It's crazy seeing all the small hints and references to this game as far back as Chaos;Head Noah.
It's hard to imagine where the Science Adventure series will even go from here.
It's hard to imagine where the Science Adventure series will even go from here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!)
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.
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.
Expecting to go with Switch once I get this, since the localization is of much better quality than we've been getting.
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Don't even try. Not only isn't it translated, but it's widely considered the worst version of the story (the only instance of a Science Adventure story where the VN isn't the superior version), which isn't particularly good to begin with. Just watch the anime, which is more than enough for A;C.
I'm maybe like 10 hours into it and enjoying it, but definitely not at the level of Steins;Gate. Can't really say how it'll fare against Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child or Robotics;Notes yet. It feels more like Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes than the Chaos games theme wise, at least to me.
Edit: I should get around to watching Occult;Nine. Next time I sub to Crunchy Roll for a month I will.
Edit: I should get around to watching Occult;Nine. Next time I sub to Crunchy Roll for a month I will.
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.
The game really has strong pacing, sometimes to the detriment of secondary characters' development, but so be it. You never have the chance to get bored of any single plot point before being tossed into something else, and the story goes completely wild towards the end.
Now go back and (re)play Chaos;Head NOAH. That game has multiple references to Anonymous;Code despite being written long before it. In particular, one of the endings to that game made little sense at the time but now has taken on an entirely new form based on what we've learned from A;C. That ending carries an enormous implication for the nature of the overarching story of the Science Adventure series.