So uhhhhhhhhh..... When does the good bit start.

[greatgodom]

As a preface I got into VNs this year. Tsukihime, Steins, Fate, Umineko, and while I was initially prejudiced against the genre as trash, something sweaty weebs who will consume anything with waifus played, they were all really (really) good stories.

But I'm 5 hours in to what is supposed to be required reading for the supposed GOAT and I have to say this feels alot like the stereotype of what I thought VNs were to begin with, like a 6/10 SOL anime on MAL.

Like, I don't even see how it's possible that any of this could possibly be "important". Every key beat in the story so far has been parody fluff...

Without spoiling, all the stuff with the rich girl, where our male friend has been, its just one obviously not meant to be taken seriously (but also yes that actually happened) thing after another.

The characters? They're extremely monotone and tropey. I think I could give gpt a 5 line example of each and it would be able to write out what they'd say or do in any given situation no problem.

TLDR: It seems like you guys are saying I need to watch Red VS Blue before playing Halo. I don't get how any of this could possibly be relevant or necessary to a "serious" VN story.

[xHans]

Don't play it then, you're the one missing out. I very much enjoyed extra and i'm also surprised you're incapable of grinding through extra seeing how you've read one of the worst VN to ever exist and terrible pacing, umineko.

Either grind through it or accept that it isn't for you. The "good" part meaning, the people who can't stand SOL type narratives starts 40-50 hours in.

[greatgodom]

Originally posted by xHans:

Don't play it then, you're the one missing out. I very much enjoyed extra and i'm also surprised you're incapable of grinding through extra seeing how you've read one of the worst VN to ever exist and terrible pacing, umineko.

Either grind through it or accept that it isn't for you. The "good" part meaning, the people who can't stand SOL type narratives starts 40-50 hours in.

I'm asking if there's a change or something that makes it worthwhile, or if it's one of those "if you don't like it by now you're not going to like it" ones.

I do not enjoy this as it is, and I don't see how it could possibly be important when everything going on is a joke.

I really doubt a "PTSD sim" that everyone says makes this worthwhile is going to require having sat through hours of rich girl buys entire city/walking in on people changing/10000 chefs show up/limo is 200yds long/my best friend was tom hanks in castaway to understead.

If it is was an SOL where important relationship stuff seemed to be happening other than LOL RANDOM XD, I could see the argument, but so far that hasn't happened. It's just 10 min long random implausible thing one after the other and every single character was in love with the MC from the second we met them.

[Gordon Ramsay]

I really doubt a "PTSD sim" that everyone says makes this worthwhile is going to require having sat through hours of rich girl buys entire city/walking in on people changing/10000 chefs show up/limo is 200yds long/my best friend was tom hanks in castaway to understead.

I have read over 50 VNs in my life, now this trilogy is very different to...say: fate or steins gate, first 2 games (extra/unlimited) are closer to your vanilla trope romance VN that some people couldn't really get into it and just skip to alternative.

Now me? I enjoy reading nonsense comedy so the first 2 games were just a relax/chill experience and then BOOM alternative is just way too serious way too political and epic, I was not expecting that much of a contrast, love this trilogy overall.

If you choose to skip to alternative, is perfectly fine, alternative is 3 or 4 times longer than the first 2 games so you have plenty of time to get in touch with the characters and there is not much that comes back from extra, but there is the meiya's storyline coming back a little bit from unlimited for the first quarter of alternative and obviously the more time you've spent with her in either extra or unlimited or both, the harder it hits.

Maybe just skip extra and start in unlimited?
now if you decide continue extra I recommend Chizuru's route, its the best written from a psychological standpoint and Meiya's is the funniest route.

[greatgodom]

Originally posted by Gordon Ramsay:

I really doubt a "PTSD sim" that everyone says makes this worthwhile is going to require having sat through hours of rich girl buys entire city/walking in on people changing/10000 chefs show up/limo is 200yds long/my best friend was tom hanks in castaway to understead.

I have read over 50 VNs in my life, now this trilogy is very different to...say: fate or steins gate, first 2 games (extra/unlimited) are closer to your vanilla trope romance VN that some people couldn't really get into it and just skip to alternative.

Now me? I enjoy reading nonsense comedy so the first 2 games were just a relax/chill experience and then BOOM alternative is just way too serious way too political and epic, I was not expecting that much of a contrast, love this trilogy overall.

If you choose to skip to alternative, is perfectly fine, alternative is 3 or 4 times longer than the first 2 games so you have plenty of time to get in touch with the characters and there is not much that comes back from extra, but there is the meiya's storyline coming back a little bit from unlimited for the first quarter of alternative and obviously the more time you've spent with her in either extra or unlimited or both, the harder it hits.

Maybe just skip extra and start in unlimited?
now if you decide continue extra I recommend Chizuru's route, its the best written from a psychological standpoint and Meiya's is the funniest route.

Ill give alternative unlimited a shot before I drop it.

[CoffedCat]

when you hit start on the main menu

[greatgodom]

Originally posted by CoffedCat:

when you hit start on the main menu

>anime avatar with ♥♥♥♥ written on hat
now this is who the game was made for lol. i have no problem seeing you liking it.

[xHans]

Originally posted by greatgodom:

Originally posted by CoffedCat:

when you hit start on the main menu

>anime avatar with ♥♥♥♥ written on hat
now this is who the game was made for lol. i have no problem seeing you liking it.

This is why we need to gatekeep. The "Bullies" picking on some random obvious freak online. Go play something else if you dont enjoy the game

[Magicflier]

I don't know what you were expecting, but Muv-Luv first released in 2003. Muv-Luv also played a role in kicking off a number of tropes in romantic comedy that are popular (and also now "overused") to this day. It was intended as your run-of-the-mill bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans, but with the addition of some fresh tropes AT THAT TIME. The big game changer is that there was a surprise story added after the romcom bits were completed, and it got fans rating it highly because it stood out from the bishoujo game norm.
The sequel "Muv-Luv Alternative" expanded on this additional story, and it was so good that its popularity went off the charts. Even Muv-Luv Alternative kicked off a few more tropes that are still popular today, like how it inspired the author of Attack On Titan.

This is why it is popular.

You seem to enjoy a lot of dark stuff from developers like TYPE-MOON and works written by Ryuukishi07, so you don't realize that you are jumping from one community to another community. Muv-Luv was intended as a bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans. Since you're expecting dark stuff right from the get-go means you are not Muv-Luv's intended audience. Muv-Luv is more focused on romance with psychological action injected into it, psychological action is not the core theme of Muv-Luv (like the stuff you are reading from TYPE-MOON and Ryuukishi07).

[greatgodom]

Originally posted by Magicflier:

I don't know what you were expecting, but Muv-Luv first released in 2003. Muv-Luv also played a role in kicking off a number of tropes in romantic comedy that are popular (and also now "overused") to this day. It was intended as your run-of-the-mill bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans, but with the addition of some fresh tropes AT THAT TIME. The big game changer is that there was a surprise story added after the romcom bits were completed, and it got fans rating it highly because it stood out from the bishoujo game norm.
The sequel "Muv-Luv Alternative" expanded on this additional story, and it was so good that its popularity went off the charts. Even Muv-Luv Alternative kicked off a few more tropes that are still popular today, like how it inspired the author of Attack On Titan.

This is why it is popular.

You seem to enjoy a lot of dark stuff from developers like TYPE-MOON and works written by Ryuukishi07, so you don't realize that you are jumping from one community to another community. Muv-Luv was intended as a bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans. Since you're expecting dark stuff right from the get-go means you are not Muv-Luv's intended audience. Muv-Luv is more focused on romance with psychological action injected into it, psychological action is not the core theme of Muv-Luv (like the stuff you are reading from TYPE-MOON and Ryuukishi07).

This is reasonable. I didn't really think type moon stuff was all that dark on a Japanese scale but I can see what you're saying. But if I search, "dark VNs" its going to be way more gore and ****y than type moon or steins gate.

But you have your own problems im sure, anyway you answered my question, which is that its "good for the time" and I'm not the intended audience so it won't improve, it really is all like that.

[Magicflier]

Originally posted by greatgodom:

Originally posted by Magicflier:

I don't know what you were expecting, but Muv-Luv first released in 2003. Muv-Luv also played a role in kicking off a number of tropes in romantic comedy that are popular (and also now "overused") to this day. It was intended as your run-of-the-mill bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans, but with the addition of some fresh tropes AT THAT TIME. The big game changer is that there was a surprise story added after the romcom bits were completed, and it got fans rating it highly because it stood out from the bishoujo game norm.
The sequel "Muv-Luv Alternative" expanded on this additional story, and it was so good that its popularity went off the charts. Even Muv-Luv Alternative kicked off a few more tropes that are still popular today, like how it inspired the author of Attack On Titan.

This is why it is popular.

You seem to enjoy a lot of dark stuff from developers like TYPE-MOON and works written by Ryuukishi07, so you don't realize that you are jumping from one community to another community. Muv-Luv was intended as a bishoujo game for bishoujo game fans. Since you're expecting dark stuff right from the get-go means you are not Muv-Luv's intended audience. Muv-Luv is more focused on romance with psychological action injected into it, psychological action is not the core theme of Muv-Luv (like the stuff you are reading from TYPE-MOON and Ryuukishi07).

This is reasonable. I didn't really think type moon stuff was all that dark on a Japanese scale but I can see what you're saying. But if I search, "dark VNs" its going to be way more gore and ****y than type moon or steins gate.

But you have your own problems im sure, anyway you answered my question, which is that its "good for the time" and I'm not the intended audience so it won't improve, it really is all like that.

If you are a romcom fan and still want to give it a chance, I suggest you read Muv-Luv while considering Muv-Luv romance as a story that stood out as a romcom back in 2003. It is true that Muv-Luv Alternative is completely full of the stuff you would find in TYPE-MOON stuff. All I am saying is that Muv-Luv was not intended to be psychological action, the developers just decided to add psychological action and expanded on it midway into the Muv-Luv series. Even if you are not the intended audience, you can still force your way into the series and still enjoy it. I'd say that you won't be able to enjoy it as much as others, but I wager you won't regret playing Muv-Luv Alternative considering its darker themes.

[korytoombs]

Extra is a generic VN.

Unlimited, takes that and says FU. It's a wild ride.

[Empathaur]

It is a complete experience, and the parts that you hate now will make more sense with the context added later on. It takes like 130 hours to read the entire story (all three "acts"), and you've spend 5 hours reading the first part. It would be like asking what all the fuss is about with Lord of the Rings because you are bored with the Bag End dinner scene at the start of The Hobbit.

If you want to maximize your time spent/efficiency, find a spoiler freeish-guide and follow it. The first part of the story is boring, on purpose, but important. I happen to be a fan of the generic VN stuff, but even if you aren't, you will look back on it with more appreciation once you've completed it. Probably.