Is the storyline any good?

[from small town]

Hello, I'm not a real VN lover, but I did enjoy some VN games in the past.

Is this a pure VN ? Or does it have other mechanics, like Zero Escape, Danganronpa, or Ghost Trick?
If this is pure VN, does it have something like skip mechanism (like in Virtue's Last Reward) as they are different endings ?

How do you rate the story compared to VLR, Steins;Gate, Danganronpa 2 and Ghost Trick?

Thanks

[kilicool64]

It's a pure VN, though like Steins;Gate, the branching is handled through a unique system rather than conventional choices. Basically, at various parts of the VN, you're asked to give certain characters a trust value between 1 and 9. How you set them determines what branch you get. There is only one true ending per route but there are plenty of bad endings and optional scenes you can get this way.

It doesn't have a flowchart like VLR (though this would have been really difficult to implement here because this VN has a much larger amount of branches than VLR), but there is a skip mode that allows you to fast-forward until you reach the next branching point or unread line. There's also an option to instantly jump there instead.

As for how good the story is, I may be somewhat biased here, seeing how I'm part of the translation team, but prefer it over VLR, Steins;Gate and Ghost Trick, personally (haven't played Danganronpa 2). Despite what it may seem at first glance, it's primarily a really in-depth character study, though it also has a well-developed setting and some thought-provoking themes.

[Metal Upa 123]

While I can't rate it above Steins;Gate (I'm a huge SciAdv fan) I can say that it is better than VLR. Have not played Danganronpa or Ghost Trick yet.

The biggest issue this one has is the incredibly slow pacing at times. If you aren't able to handle slow moments in VN's very well you may not enjoy this one, but if you stick it out through to the end I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.

The rest of your questions are answered by Killicool64 above, and I agree with all the points he made. The later points are much more character focused than deep complex narrative focused, but that's not to say there isn't any complexity to the story.

[kilicool64]

Originally posted by Quibber123:

While I can't rate it above Steins;Gate (I'm a huge SciAdv fan) I can say that it is better than VLR. Have not played Danganronpa or Ghost Trick yet.

The biggest issue this one has is the incredibly slow pacing at times. If you aren't able to handle slow moments in VN's very well you may not enjoy this one, but if you stick it out through to the end I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.

The rest of your questions are answered by Killicool64 above, and I agree with all the points he made. The later points are much more character focused than deep complex narrative focused, but that's not to say there isn't any complexity to the story.

It should be noted that slow pacing is not automatically the same as bad pacing though. I actually liked the fact that a lot of the content after Root A was slow paced because it allowed exploring the characters in more depth than was possible in Root A. But I can understand that some people may find this tiresome.

[Metal Upa 123]

Originally posted by kilicool64:

Originally posted by Quibber123:

snip

It should be noted that slow pacing is not automatically the same as bad pacing though. I actually liked the fact that a lot of the content after Root A was slow paced because it allowed exploring the characters in more depth than was possible in Root A. But I can understand that some people may find this tiresome.

I do agree that slow pacing isn't bad especially in a character driven story, but there's a whole lot of dialogue and exposition in the first 2/3 of root B that I felt added very little to the characters. I didn't even care for a single one until the very last handful of chapters in the game. The first 20-30 hours felt like background information and world building required for you to understand and empathize with the characters for the last 20-30 hours.

Yes, it showed their day to day lives and how peaceful they were and there was quite a bit of foreshadowing in there, but 12 hours+ of that with very few interest spikes did wear. The biggest offenders were the overly long sections that take place in the school explaining concepts that (I felt) were explained well enough in root A or could have been explained in just enough detail for the foreshadowing with the rest in the additional glossary. Then there is a 20+ minute school lecture that explains why being irradiated is bad...

Hopefully that doesn't sound like I'm coming off as I hated the first half of the game, (Root A was fantastic and Root B did have a lot of really well done foreshadowing, paranoia, and doubt) but I find this VN very hard to recommend to people who haven't tried out many straight/slower paced VN's before.

If the OP is willing to give this VN a fair shot knowing that there's going to be slow moments he's in for, in my opinion, one of the best VN's out there.

[from small town]

Thanks for your opinion. So it can be safely assumed that this game has good storyline.
I played a VN which has bad pacing before, in Ever17.
I'll probably pick this after Zero Escape 3, which should be out next month on Steam and Vita.

[Wyrtt]

Story is 7 out of 10.
Pacing is bad for B route as you get a lot of useless build up just for single twist that isnt really a twist.
Engings are not compared to mess other vns have. Its relativly full and chews down every detail for you.
One of the top 10 vn on english for me and one of top 200 vn overall

[the_gurminator]

I dont get how anyone can talk about bad pacing and then praise VLR. Ever17 was slow at times, yes. But VLR had no buildup or subtlety "Hey guys, it's been 5 minutes so far, have I made it clear I can jump to alternate worlds/timelines yet?"
It also gave be deja vu as a fan of the Infinity series.

Root Double did have some horrid pacing, Root B is very slow and jumps between action and long boring flashbacks, and flashbacks in flashbacks. Root C is also a needless thing covering what you already know from A and B, but atleast it's short. If you can get through root B then you're fine for the rest of the game.

[kilicool64]

Originally posted by the_gurminator:

I dont get how anyone can talk about bad pacing and then praise VLR. Ever17 was slow at times, yes. But VLR had no buildup or subtlety "Hey guys, it's been 5 minutes so far, have I made it clear I can jump to alternate worlds/timelines yet?"
It also gave be deja vu as a fan of the Infinity series.

Root Double did have some horrid pacing, Root B is very slow and jumps between action and long boring flashbacks, and flashbacks in flashbacks. Root C is also a needless thing covering what you already know from A and B, but atleast it's short. If you can get through root B then you're fine for the rest of the game.

I wouldn't call Root C needless. It's true that not a whole lot happens in it, but it would feel rather weird if the one plot thread it covers is skipped completely. And while that plot thread isn't hugely important, it does provide the answers to a lot of moderately important questions raised in Root A. It's certainly possible to figure them out yourself, but not everyone would get all of them.

[Wyrtt]

Originally posted by the_gurminator:

I dont get how anyone can talk about bad pacing and then praise VLR. Ever17 was slow at times, yes. But VLR had no buildup or subtlety "Hey guys, it's been 5 minutes so far, have I made it clear I can jump to alternate worlds/timelines yet?"
It also gave be deja vu as a fan of the Infinity series.

Root Double did have some horrid pacing, Root B is very slow and jumps between action and long boring flashbacks, and flashbacks in flashbacks. Root C is also a needless thing covering what you already know from A and B, but atleast it's short. If you can get through root B then you're fine for the rest of the game.

well I certanly never praised VLR. Also B is like 40% of the game. It feels that long.
You go for action and mystery and than sudenly they throw yet another school boy slice of life story fro nex 5 hours.

[the_gurminator]

I dont think B was that long. I spent most of my time on A due to bad endings with the annoying choice system. For VLR I was talking about OP who loved it, yet said E17 had pacing issues. Both games do, but I would rather a slower pace than something so rushed and unsubtle it spoils things early on.

Still A was enjoyable, B wasnt, C is so short it's not worth mentioning and D was enjoyable too. If you read ABCD then I can understand why B would feel so bad, part of the reason I played B first was not wanting to jump from tense rescue crew to highschoolers.