Nestor's Cola

It’s been a while since I played (and reviewed) a japanese game. There are several reasons for this hiatus. The one that sticks out most visibly is minori, a notably racist, isolationist, and terminally xenophobic game maker from Jolly ‘ole Japan. See, refer back to my posts on Equality Now. It can be easily concluded that minori are chafing under the yoke that their own government placed on them by blaming foreigners. Their response at first was to block foreign IP from their site. Another response was to post a thinly veiled message on their redirect page, essentially boiling down to “unless you are japanese living in japan, we don’t want you buying our games, participating in our activities, or even visiting our website.” Their solution? MOVE TO JAPAN. Literally, it says that right there on their website. “You want to play our games? Move to japan. We won’t have a problem with that.” Riiiight. I’m going to move overseas to play a game. I’ll get right on that.

I’ve heard some interesting defense in favor of minori. That they’re in the right to block foreign business. In this context, they are. Here in the US, you’ll frequently see the signs “we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” and generally speaking that’s perfectly okay to do. But this blocking of foreign business only started after Equality Now started their shit. This sophomoric reactionary stance is pretty fucking childish. Hello, it was your own fucking government that passed the goddamn regulations. The US didn’t do it. England didn’t do it. Zimbabwe didn’t fucking do it; It was your own goddamn politicians that couldn’t stand up for themselves, for the nation of Japan, for their rights, for anything. They’re the ones that said “You can’t do this.” End of line. Accept some goddamn personal fucking responsibility.

A second defense I’ve heard is that by blocking foreign IPs from visiting their site and purchasing/ using their games, they are defending their games against piracy. This is ALSO a crock of shit. It’s the Japanese that buy the games (IN JAPAN, LOLOLOL), it’s the Japanese that make digital copies, and upload them to P2P sites. Blocking foreign visitors from their website does nothing to “stem the tide against piracy” at all. Straw man defense: defeated.

So in any case, they’re taking out their impotent frustrations on the only people that can’t fight back: foreign fans. When you think about things like that, it’s not just insulting, it’s a brutal assault on your own humanity. You’re not worthy of playing their games by virtue of your birth- something you can no more control than the weather. Ultimately foreign fans have two (realistic) choices (I’m not even going to factor in minori’s outrageous idea of moving to another country just to play their games- let’s not be completely fucking stupid) when it comes to playing their games:

1. Give up on playing their games altogether. (no way!)
2. Get their games from another source, bypassing minori altogether. (Can do.)

In addition to that, my desire to play these games comes and goes in waves, and this was essentially ebb tide. Part of that is my completionist nature: I have to complete every game I play. I tried my hand at Clannad, and I ended up stopping after playing through the best route, simply because I have absolutely no desire for any of the other girls. Since I can’t start a new game because I haven’t finished Clannad (and won’t ever) I simply stopped playing altogether. Well, I got over that and soon I’ll have a good review of SWAN SONG up on the site. Maybe within the next couple of days. Look forward to it!

I was first introduced to Cross†Channel when I started hanging out in one of TLWiki’s irc channels, and the introduction was less than descriptive. I was simply told that it was good and I should play it on that merit alone. What the hell, I’ve got nothing but time. I don’t know what sort of expectations I had when I started Cross†Channel. Well, it’d be safe to say I didn’t actually have any to begin with. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. In fact, it was only when I started the install process (what fun! haha!) that I realized it was the inspiration for that ridiculously insipid-yet-addicting flash game, Nanaca Crash.

Installation/ Patching:

Installation is a breeze, patching is easy, simply run the *.exe.

Menus/ interaction:

I found the hover bar at the top of the page to be a kiss-curse in a way: damned useful but fucking annoying. I feel that they handled the repetitive text the best they could.

My first impression was that the protagonist Taichi was a loon. Irrational, nonsensical, and ridiculously energetic. This is a huge step away from other protagonists I’ve played. The Junker was bluff and no nonsense, Fuminori was cold and calculating, Takumi was cowardly and introspective, Shirou was idealistic, etc. From the very start though, Taichi pointed out (and kept pointing out) that the Gunjou Institute was not a normal school and this was not a normal world.

I initially thought that this was going to be a simple progression of events with a bizarre protagonist, so after a brief assessment of the superficial facts, I chose a girl and moved forward with the expectation that I’d get her in the end. Well, that’s inaccurate. Each week I gain the option to pursue an additional girl, and the story is not linear.

The Girls:

I was presented with the option of pursuing a girl and when presented with that choice, I rejected her. Rejecting her introduced me to Misato, the beautiful sempai. Learning about Misato was like watching a rose bloom. Every layer of gorgeous petals simply opened the way to reveal yet more beautiful petals. I fell for her instantly, and I fell hard. She’s so wonderful, so cute, so amazing. Everything she did was amazing.

On the second iteration, I was once again presented with a choice, and this time I chose Touko. I was hesitant to pursue her in the beginning because she gave off a very strong Tsundere vibe. I’ve never been a fan of the tsundere archetype and was resistant. However, I was impressed. I was impressed and touched. Touko was amazing, regardless of whether it was her bizarre oral fixation or her naïveté, Touko touched me. She touched me in a way beyond what I thought possible; when her week ended I went back not once but several times in an effort to change certain things.

The third week I was given the chance to chase after Kiri Sakura, and so I did. She’s always been cool and displayed a certain animosity towards me, and with Touko’s end still ringing in my ears I could only jump at the chance. To be honest, I’m glad I did. She’s ridiculously fragile and complex, like a puzzle made out of spun glass. Playing through Sakura’s route was a little rough, but it was amazing. I fell so hard for her.

As each route progressed, I was eagerly looking forward to Miki. Miki was this little bundle of flat-chested cheerfulness in every other route. I expected something delightful, and I wasn’t in the least bit disappointed. Miki is indeed a flower, as much a flower as Kiri, and most definitely is Taichi’s pupil in every aspect. She’s also a delight. Her ending was more of a shock than Touko’s or Kiri’s, but so much more rewarding than either. Not only because it revealed so much more than any other route, but because from the beginning to the end everything was simply done in a way that was amazing.

After so much about Youko had been revealed in each route, I was finally given the option of pursuing her. Her route was short and brutal in its simplicity. There was no one else that understood her the same as me. There was no one that understood me the same as her. Everything else was irrelevant.

After each main route, everyone gets a mini-route that answers a lot of questions and concludes a lot of open-ended and ambiguous ends from the previous weeks. They must be completed in order. We get a proper ending and Taichi’s inevitable conclusions and resolution.  Afterwords, we get a credit roll and we finally understand what Cross†Channel is all about, what it really and truly means to cross paths with someone else.

The game touched me in a really amazing way. I haven’t felt this way in a very long time. I was initially going to give it a low score because I didn’t believe it was up to par with other games I’ve played, but ultimately that was wrong. The game is immediately elevated to the top ten. If I could give it a higher score I would. I leave you with several things. Taichi’s recipe for cooking rice, and Miki-Miki with Taichi.

The best way to cook delicious meals:
1. Believe in yourself.
2. Weigh the rice.
3. Each and every grain of rice contains a precious life.
4. With those innumerable lives, people can keep living.
5. But every life will eventually return to the earth.
6. The Earth is Life, just as Life is the Earth.
7. In order to someday bring about new life
8. Long Sci-fi novel “Gaia’s Journey” – Fin
9. Polish the rice and wash it for twenty minutes.
10. The summertime makes me want to eat some incredibly spicy curry.
11. Cook.
12. Stare long and hard at the fire, letting dangerous thoughts soak into your body OR remembering comrades-in-arms who gave their lives to protect you (Two choices)
13. Once cooked, steam upside down for ten minutes.
14. Super delicious rice is born.

Off and on I hear about our favorite anti-free speech, pro-censorship feminist group Equality Now attempting to do away with all sorts of things they arbitrarily deem offensive, all around the world. I don’t claim to have my thumb on the pulse of events, and most certainly I don’t have any sort of reputable information to present, but this is what I’ve heard:

First, we know that they forced japan to essentially fuck themselves in the ass. Well, the Japanese fucked themselves in the ass, because they bent over for the giant gaijin penis. err, vagina. Whatever. The Japanese should have told the histrionic feminist group to get fucked, get back to the kitchen, and then slapped them in the face with their constitutional rights. To climb on a moral LAWFUL GOOD soapbox here, it doesn’t matter if I find rape games to be disgusting or reprehensible, the constitutional law says they can be made and sold to the adults that want them and that right cannot be infringed upon. Period. Equality Now should have been told to fuck off.

Secondly, and apparently most recently, (no verifiable sources on this one, sorry) Equality Now has decided that what they’ve done simply is not enough. “Japan is a nation which accepts hentai. This encourages rape so hentai must be banned. Rapelay was withdrawn from sale, the EOCS banned all fetishes, and some companies have banned foreigners from their websites. This is not enough. The Japanese government must ban everything we object to and make it all illegal. The UN must tell the Japanese to do as we direct.” Of course, they also say, “Women should not have to resist sex to be able to call it rape.” which opens up a whole different direction of irrationality and misandric terrorism. I can see it now: “he raped me.” “no, it was consensual.” “I don’t have to say no, fight back, disagree, or otherwise express an unwillingness to have sex, I can simply decide that it was rape and it is so.”

Let’s sort of set that to the side here for a brief bit. One thing I can’t help but do is draw a parallel between this… ridiculous campaign and jack Thompson’s equally ridiculous campaign against violence in video games. Same medium of entertainment, same question of artistic expression, etc. But I will show you a couple of things I’ve picked up in my travels through the internet and I’d like to ask you to consider a few things.
First, rape has gone down since the early nineties.(Source) This roughly coincides with the increase of VCRs and VHS distribution of porn. There’s no direct correlation that says that as sales of porn videos have gone up, rape has gone down, but it’s damn suggestive.

Second, Violent crime has also gone down since the early nineties (Source) which again also roughly coincides with a larger market penetration of ‘violent’ console and PC games. Again, no direct correlation between violent crimes and violent games here, but as I said before, it’s suggestive.

So, putting two and two together, we can see the direction Equality Now is taking is a bad one. However, the Japanese have a bit of a passive-aggressive inferiority complex, which means that if a vocal histrionic and irrational minority like EN says something should be banned, they will willingly and happily legislate it out of existence without so much as a whimper of resistance- and then they’ll angrily mutter under their breaths about how it’s EN’s THE FILTHY GAIJIN’S fault. Simply put: Equality Now is a bunch of fucked-up and histrionic cunts, and the Japanese are servile spineless fags. What a great combination.

If there’s one particular franchise I’ve never quite had an interest in, it’s the Shuffle! Franchise. I watched the anime back in 2005 and up until the tail end when Kaede goes yandere. Suddenly it got a whole lot more interesting! Ahahaha~! Though if you were willing to sit through twenty-two episodes of doormat, tool, and generic, utilitarian plot with the consistency of runny eggs, then I suppose you deserve what you get. The anime ended as badly as you can imagine with a trite, cliché, and thoroughly un-enjoyable conclusion. This soured me on the series, on the game, and the franchise in general. That and it’s most vocal proponents are perhaps the most histrionic retards.

Mercifully, I forgot all about Shuffle. I picked up the translated game… I’m not sure why. I went on sabbatical from playing ren’ai and visual novels for a few months because I could no longer feel the magic. Anyway, I picked up the translated game the other day. I struggled with myself and decided to play it. No guts no glory, and sometimes you have to suffer so that you can ultimately appreciate something else even more.

Menus/ interface: First off, I don’t particularly like the default settings. The music was too loud, the text didn’t appear quick enough, and the menus were a bizarre and motley collection of nigh-incomprehensible sliding bars. The font was faint and barely visible. There was no cute game cursor. After spending more time than necessary configuring and customizing things to my liking, I started playing. (4/10)

Story: I want to say that the story is as bland as it was in the anime, but that would be wrong. Ultimately it’s worse. You find yourself going back over the same territory over and over again, rehashing the same plot details over and over and over, ad nauseum. Skipping text you’ve already read is a given, but I spent more time skimming through text I’d already read than actually getting to individual story. Ultimately a very bland and unrewarding experience, especially as the already-read text seems to multiply with each route completed. Whomever decided to “decensor” the game really, truly, and strongly needs to take a class on human anatomy. Barring that, they need to watch a porno. Things don’t work that way (or look that way). Story-wise, the world is flat and two-dimensional. I’ve played a variety of other games and if you took the characters away, you can see the world behind them. A strongly shining example of this is Planetarian. If you took the Junker and Hoshino Yumemi out of Planetarian, you could still see beyond them, see the city, and see the world as it was, but the world of Shuffle is simply a contrivance. Tripping flags is ridiculously easy and the choices available have no effect on the inevitable conclusion except that it locks you into a specific route. Once you’re locked in, you can skim the text, collect the ending, and move on to the next girl. Speaking of girls… (2/10)

Sia: I went through her route somewhat baffled that I was interacting more with Primula and Nerine and Kaede more than with her… up until the point that I bagged her. Her … plot twist was lackadaisical and didn’t seem to have any real tangibility. Ultimately, I didn’t like her. The only benefit to playing her route was that her voice was different than the anime and it didn’t grate as badly. I apparently didn’t have a lot to say about Sia during my playthrough; my notes seem to only mention her a few times. “Oh God Sia is stupid. She’s about as dumb as a sack of hammers. Hahaha, logic 1, girl 0.” Her ending is as baffling as it is insipid and destroyed any hope of redemption for her. (3/10)

Kaede: I played Kaede with some trepidation; To give fair credit where credit was due, I tried my best to like her, but I dislike her very strongly. My notes reflect this, at length. “She’s such a fucking tool. “I’m a gaping vagina that exists solely for the purpose of Rin-kun”  Oh fuck, there she goes again. “I have no self identity, I simply exist to be useful to you.” What the fuck girl. Oh for fucks sake girl, you’re fucking retarded. just kill yourself. God, Kaede’s obsequiesness is disgusting. Fuck, Kaede sounds a lot like Mikuru from Haruhi- Oh god, she is. No wonder I can’t stand her. I think Kaede-chan has sort of a persecution complex: she feels he should reject or punish her or take advantage of her, but he doesn’t. Of course Kaede is also a retard, so there’s that, too. I’m fairly certain that her childhood illness (lol) scrambled her brains and she was never actually able to grow up as a normal child. Maybe I’m a bit jaded and cyhnical, but she gets no sympathy or pity from me. She’s just a retard, herp derp. Oh, finally got some Kaede time. Wait, what the fuck is this shit? “I’ll hate you if you don’t”? She’s a fucking retard. And a slut. a trite, manipulative whore that needs her meatsocket to be filled in order to think she’s a verifiable human being. God, her ingratiating servility is disgusting. I want to puke twenty years of cigarette tar directly into her mouth. She’s the worst kind of woman. She takes away the entire valuation of being a man. How can a man feel like a man if he’s expected to do jack shit? “use my body, take advantage of my kindness, capitalize on my retardation but don’t love me.” God what a fucking piece of work. I was right about the persecution complex. “To serve Rin-kun is my life!” What fucking outrageous stupidity.” (1/10)

Asa: I remember I liked her in the anime, up to the end, when she just became repetitive and stupid. The game is a lot like this, but because of the story bloat and all the “skip previously read portions” I was simply marking time until I could read through her arc. She was awkward in her femininity and responded to certain inquiries like a tsundere. Certain elements of her arc (namely unnecessary bloat) kept me from liking her. When there wasn’t crap in the way of her story, her arc seemed contrived. There’s this block of time between “I’m interested in someone else” and my kiss with Asa that is completely devoid of interaction with her. From zero to hero in a couple weeks? I don’t fucking think so. Then things started balancing out and I was daring to hope, but no. crash and burn. In the final result, I was wanting a Kareha route more because she was far more entertaining. Ama and Kareha made this route shine, but unfortunately the route wasn’t about them. (4.5/10)

Nerine: Surprisingly, all throughout Sia, Kaede, and Asa’s routes, I was always sort of eyeing Nerine. When I played through her, though, my first thought was “Start a new route, skip through blue text.” The blue text being, of course, shit I’ve already read before. The blue text kept going and going and going. The game starts June 13th and her route-specific content doesn’t actually start until July 22nd, and that was a five-minute scene at the pool. Afterword she seems to display the same sniveling, cringing, eager-to-please meatsocket philosophy that Kaede seems to personify. However,  in the tiny amounts of story we get while sifting through the already-read bloat, you catch glimpses of a potentially decent character that doesn’t suffer Kaede’s crippling flaws- there’s a world of difference between sniveling servility and devotion. But because you don’t get anything you haven’t already seen until mid-august, she falls flat. Her ending drama is very much in tune with Sia’s, Kaede’s, and Asa’s- female irrationality heaped atop poor writing and straw logic. (4/10)

Primula: Throughout my playthroughs, I never once considered Primula’s route. I can appreciate judicious use of a token loli, but there was never anything through any other route that said Primula was worth pursuing in the slightest. She’s also the last route in my playthrough, so with that in mind, the deck has already been stacked against her. Primula in a school swimsuit is appropriate in her type of appeal, but it simply seems I’m being pandered to. “Here is a token loli. It’s expected you’d see her in these things and doing these things, so here she is, doing those things.” I feel patronized and insulted. She wants validation and affection, I respond by giving her penis. LOGICAL CHOICE. (2/10)

First off, all Glory to the Immortal God-Emperor, in whose name we conquer.

Secondly, Saber makes a great Space Marine. See?

In Fate Stay Night news, there’s going to be a movie on Unlimited Blade Works. It hasn’t come out yet, and won’t until January 23rd 2010, but people are already saying it sucks, it fails, and generally has already gone into the grave without ever being produced yet. Perhaps I’m optimistic, or perhaps I’m sick of the jaded cynicism that pretentious faggots put out because it makes them seem edgy or cool, but I’d rather see for myself when it comes out, rather than castigate something that hasn’t even been made yet. Additionally, I’ve been planning on writing a full review of Fate Stay Night and dissertations on each of the three arcs, but I haven’t had time. It’s coming, so please wait warmly.

Thirdly, I may actually start posting some of my older photography.

Finally (and I know you’ve been waiting for this, hahaha) I’ve come across Suigun Murakami’s F-ism volume 13. Holy shit, stop the fucking presses, amirite? Hell yeah. That shit is always awesome. This time, there’s a nun. I love nuns. Especially tied up with crosses sticking out of their butts. I am the quintessential and discerning bastard, enjoying only the finest of pleasures.

I don’t know what sort of expectations I had when I started Cross†Channel. Well, it’d be safe to say I didn’t actually have any to begin with. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. In fact, it was only when I started the install process (what fun! haha!) that I realized it was the inspiration for that ridiculously insipid-yet-addicting game, Nanaca Crash. Cross†Channel is excellent. Firstly, Taichi is a loon. Taichi is awesome. Totally off the hook and way out in left field, he brings this lunatic edge to the story that leaves everyone sort of… nonsensical. I think he even dropped a Fallout reference. The game has a cyclical element similar to Kagetsu Tohya that I can’t explain without spoiling.

The Girls:

I initially thought that this was going to be a simple progression of events with a bizarre protagonist, so after a brief assessment of the superficial facts, I chose a girl and moved forward with the expectation that I’d get her in the end. Well, that’s inaccurate. I was presented with the option of pursuing a girl and when presented with that choice, I rejected her. Rejecting her introduced me to Misato, the beautiful sempai. Learning about Misato was like watching a rose bloom. Every layer of gorgeous petals simply opened the way to reveal yet more beautiful petals. I fell for her instantly, and I fell hard. She’s so wonderful, so cute, so amazing. Everything she did was amazing.

I got distracted during one iteration and chased after Kiri Sakura. To be honest, I’m glad I did. She’s ridiculously fragile and complex, like a puzzle made out of spun glass. Playing through Sakura’s route was a little rough, but it was amazing. I fell so hard for her. Playing her route touched on Touko’s route as well as Youko’s route; in ways that showed me that perhaps they’re worth pursuing.

I’ve run through an iteration with Touko, and she comes off as a very bitter and cold girl; very tsun. But wow, you give her food and bam! straight to dere dere mode! She’s not particularly sophisticated, but I can appreciate her. She’s so sweet.

The Game:

Installing was a bit more difficult as it was two CDs and you have to understand the prompt to pop out the CD and pop in the new one. Other than that, no difficulty. Maneuvering around in the game is easy too. Menu and options and saves are handled by a floating menu at the top edge of the window.

Patching:

the folks over at Amaterasu have a patch that’s currently up to week three. Give it a shot.

When Tinfoil mentioned that he was looking for QC’ers for the Chaos;head RC2 patch, I went ahead and jumped on it. hanging out with them on their irc channel and listening to them talk about various problems and searching for workarounds, it really helps cement in your mind tha tthis isn’t as loose and as disorganized as many people seem to believe.

Some time ago, someone affiliated with a game translation group mentioned that wiki-driven and community-driven projects were doomed to failure, and that only dedicated groups with staff would be able to turn out any sort of … product. He went on to castigate everyone at TLWiki, wretched hive of scum and villainy, so on and so forth. Now, admittedly, I haven’t spent but one day with TLWiki, but there doesn’t seem to be the sort of disorganization, chaos, or what-have-you that he predicted.

Anyway, getting back to the central part, I’m QC’ing the RC2 with the expectation that I’ll be grammar-nazi-ing the text. this means I’ll be playing through it again, something I’ve been hesitant about doing. To be frank, I’ve been hesitant about playing any game, I’ve reached a point where a sabbatical is necessary. I love the game though, and I want to help, so it’s time I leave Elba and get back into it. I can only hope that I don’t end up returning to St. Helena to complete my exile, hahaha.

Coming back to the ren’ai/ visual novel/ eroge genre, the big thing that’s on the lips and hearts of the entire community is the rather … dramatic actions that have been going down. I can’t summarize very well- No, I can, but this sums it up succinctly, taken from sankaku complex.

An Irish rag on a slow news day picks up the story that importers have been selling Rapelay via Amazon. The theme is that the game encourages rape and is child pornography.

Amazon completely drops the product, including in Japan. Other retailers soon follow suit.

Feminist busybody group “Equality Now”, which organises spam campaigns to keep its members busy without actually having to deal with problems directly, targets the game, accusing it of human rights violations and telling the Japanese government it should be banning this sort of thing, like low crime paradises such as the UK.

The developers tell the foreign feminists to get lost.

Soon after the Rapelay developers cave in and completely remove the game from distribution.

Equality Now’s Japanese lawyer (the group has no presence in Japan) drums up anti-eroge media attention.

A Japanese diet member, an avowed feminist, picks up on the scandal and starts calling for a ban. Objections start with the opposition and minor parties and soon the ruling party jumps onto the bandwagon.

A “study group” is organised to decide how best to ban the games.

Broadcaster TBS falsely reports that the EOCS has banned the games.

The EOCS bans the games.

Personally, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit from a bunch of histrionic women that have nothing better to do than meddle in other peoples’ lives. I have low opinions of feminists as it is: a vocal group of women looking to work at cross-purposes to any other suggestion excepting their own agenda, namely that of the bitterly vengeful subjugation of the evil opressive patriarchy. A shame they can’t channel that energy towards more positive, constructive pursuits- after all, that sammich won’t make itself.

Getting back to it, though, my view is this: a woman in britainland arbitrarily decides that a fictitious game is the root of all evil, and campaigns for its removal. Any sane society would have told ‘Equality Now’ to get fucked. I’d like to point out the rough parallel Jack Thompson made with his (equally ridiculous) hate-parades on violent video games being the source of all the world’s sores. Unfortunately, Eroge makers have pretended to be good little dead goldfish and have shown their bellies, resulting in regulation and censorship on more or less, an unregulated industry. Now where will I find a game that lets me whip a pooping catgirl? Without caving to hysteria or running off the deep end, this sort of sets a dangerous precedent. After all, we’re talking about the censorship of fiction and fantasy. This is something to be concerned with.

The result of this censorship has been less than stellar. A few companies have started blocking non-japanese IP addresses. This is the wrong thing to do. It was japanese legislation, it was japanese politics, it was japanese corporate interest that censored them- however foreign fans feel the brunt. The Japanese should have told Equality Now to get fucked, get back to the kitchen, and then slapped them in the face with their right to freedom of speech. Foreign fans should not be punished because of local ineptitude. Instead, we get xenophobic statements like

Some foreigners seem to be having an antipathy against EROGE.
Therefore, We prohibited the access from foreign countries, to defend our culture.

And let’s not forget,

PLEASE PLAY THE GAME OF YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU PRAY FOR THE WORLD PEACE!:-)?

So the conclusion that can be drawn from this is… Gobots suck.

I got permission from Tinfoil (from TLWiki) to mirror the patches for Saya no Uta and Chaos;head.

So within… a couple of days or so, I will upload and host them. Look forward to it.

Editus:

Chaos;head and Saya no Uta patches.

Links verified as of 11:41pm 3/29/2009
In keeping with the localization of Nitro+ games through JAST, I have removed the DDL links to the translation patches for both Chaos;head and Saya no Uta as of 7/23/2009.

Tsukihime:

I’ve been debating writing the review for the longest time. I’ve talked about the game off and on (and at great length, I might add)but actually writing a review… that’s heavy work. Heavy. I really like this game, and I’ll easily put it in my top ten games to play. It’s got depth, substance, and the characters are great. To cut down on my workload, I’ll be taking excerpts from my ramblings in other places.

The game divides into two portions: the Near Side and the Far Side. Near Side involves the two Arcueid and Ciel routes and your dealings with them, while the Far Side takes things closer to home and involves your sister Akiha, and the maids Hisui and Kohaku. I have been told that word for word, Tsukihime has more text than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and I figure that’s enough reading to satiate anyone’s desire to read, read, and read some more.

On my own experience with Tsukihime, story-wise: I only had the barest of ideas- no, not ideas- unformed concepts about what I was getting into. Starting the Arcueid route, I was blown away by how things went from “this is who I am, this is what I’m doing” to “holy fuck shit crap, what the fuck just happened?”Things moved on from there, and got better and better. I got a feel for the world really quickly. The disparity between Arcueid’s nature and her personality was amazingly well-expressed. If Arcuied’s route and Ciel’s route were two sides of the same coin, I have to say that while Arcueid’s route was well defined and written, the complementary side (Ciel’s) didn’t reach me as well as Arc’s did. Once you’ve played through the Near Side routes, you unlock access to the Far Side Arcs.

The first route of the Far Side arcs I played through was Akiha’s, following through the natural (intended) play order. I had expected that when I played through Akiha’s story that there would be a reconciliation but instead I got a completely different story altogether. When I played through it back in December of ‘06, I wasn’t interested or particularly attentive, not to mention she wasn’t easy to like at all. I replayed parts of her route just the other day, though, and no one was more surprised than me when I discovered that not only could I understand her better, but I also started to… appreciate her motivations. I still don’t like her very much at all, but… well.

When I played through Arcueid’s, Ciel’s and Akiha’s routes, I was sort of… I don’t know… brusque to Hisui. Maybe a little rude. I figured, “Well, when I play through her arc, I’ll make it up to her.” Jesus Christ, wrong assumption to make. It wasn’t so much being nicer to her as it was fucking with an abused puppy. You give it a little food, coax it to let you pet it, and then you kick it. You repeat the process. Oh, man. I felt fucking bad. “Hisui, come here, I need help” followed by “Arrrg! don’t touch me, I hate you, go away!” … rinse, repeat. That was part of it. But at the same time, coaxing Hisui out of her reticence and hesitation, to the point where she eventually made her decision at the end to be by Shiki’s side was amazing. From the first time that I played the game to the last time a couple days ago, I’ve loved Hisui. She’s sweet, simple, and wonderful. By far and above she’s number one in my book, above any other character in any other game.

I can’t remember who told me, or when or where, but it was made mention to be wary of Kohaku. I had this… sort of visceral wariness of her when I finally did play Tsukihime that always put me on edge whenever I was around her and I didn’t know why. I have to say that if Hisui is my favorite because she fulfills me, then I’d have to say Kohaku is also a favorite (though not as much as Hisui) because she challenged me. Dynamic, emotional, dangerous, exciting. Kohaku comes as a close second to Hisui in the game, but for opposing reasons to Hisui. If Hisui was a refreshing beverage that put you at ease, Kohaku was a spicy dish that made you sweat!

Menus: moving around the game is a breeze. Saving, loading, skipping ahead, etc are all easy to do. Clean and simple interface.

Patch, Patching: My copy was pre-patched, I didn’t have to do anything. Yours may be different. Oh well.

What to say? This game was phenomenal. A couple of years ago, everyone was talking about “Saya no Uta” and how badass it was. I installed it and discovered it was entirely in moon, and tried it out anyway- aside from it being entirely incomprehensible, it was also very gory. It was only later that I learned it was done in “typical Nitroplus style” where it’s dark, bloody, and … grim. So, encountering this a couple years ago, my first reaction was to uninstall, delete, and forget about it. What’s the point of playing a game you can’t understand? I kept it around, though. you’re always hearing about translation groups picking up projects and I figured if it really was badass, I could wait.

Bang, right out of the blue, a few days around the Christmastime, the TLWiki popped out with an announcement that they were at 70% translation. a couple days later (those fuckers work fast!) they had a 100% complete beta patch. So, I downloaded the patch and installed.

Story: Man, you can get a summary of the story over on wikipedia if you want to know what it’s about. Saya, though. Saya hit me the exact same way Kohaku did in Tsukihime. Beautiful, sweet, playful, and she’s hiding something. She’s dangerous.

I didn’t get a very strong feel for the other characters because they seemed to be incidental, only there to drive the story along. Of course, part of it is the main character’s disconnection with everything around him, but the other part of it is that they didn’t feel as tangible or as welll done as Saya. Even Yoh, who … well, I do feel bad for her, terribly bad for her. She and Oumi were the only two that stood out besides Saya. There’s a scene where Oumi goes to Fuminori’s house (and later, Yoh does the same thing) that really fleshes out their characters.

Menus: Navigating around inside of Saya no Uta is a breeze. I had a little beef with moving from “previously viewed text” to “current text”- it’s not as intuitive as I’d like, but it’s not really that big a deal.

Patch/ Patching:You did see the brilliant and blatant TLWiki link up there and got the patch from their site, right? ‘course you did! It’s a lot more straightforward than their Chaos;head patch- install the game, back up files, unzip patch, copy patched files in and overwrite. no one-touch patch here, it takes a very small level of technical expertise. Minor. Like Copy/ pasting files.

No downloadables, but you can have a cute Saya~

Editus; more to say:

I took a break from playing games and focused my attention on other things, but every once in a while someone would start a Saya image flood and since I’m weak, I ended up playing through Saya no Uta a second time.

Lovecraftian references aside (and I picked them out substantially faster the second time through) there was a question of … (semi-spoilers ahead) whether Saya understood morality. With the exception of Fuminori’s abandonment of common morality, social graces, and tact in the face of his … affliction, (I don’t believe) she had a lot of interaction with enough people to cement morals. The counter to that of course is that she did feel shy/ guilty about her eating habits, which says that there probably was at least a recognition of wrongdoing, though playing with the neighbor and her sadistic abuse of Yoh reflect otherwise. A shame it wasn’t explored further.

A second thing I’d like to mention is the … “bad” end. I didn’t particularly like that ending because it was very sad, but the second playthrough was a bit more rewarding. I mean, sure the other option was sort of a … melancholic end, with the spores and shit, but frankly, the sad end was tragic in a romantic way and Kouji was portrayed as … a hero, liberating Fuminori from Saya, (but I still couldn’t help but feel Kouji was a dick) so there’s enjoyment there too, despite how much it sucks.

On the verge of tears, Kouji continues to swing his pipe furiously. The monster’s slimy fluids fly through the air, joining with the blood already covering his face.
The creature extends one thin, trembling tentacle to touch Fuminori’s shoulder, then lovingly caresses his blood-stained cheek??
And then it stops moving.
Even in its final moments, the monster would not let go of Fuminori. It died joined with him.

Man, that’s intense.

Finally, I’d like to be the first to stand up and say that Saya no Uta gets a lot of bad PR. Just running through a few reviews via google, I see “disgusting”, “terrible”, “sick”, and shit like that come up a lot in relation to Saya no Uta. I happen to think that there is a specific kind of person that gets off on condemning things he doesn’t clearly understand, and Saya no uta is a shining example of something that’s easily misunderstood. However, if there’s an open mind and an attentive eye, I believe that anyone can see past the gore and violence and see the love story that exists beneath the… for lack of a better term, candy coating.