Sleepycat wrote:Well, this may be a delicacy, but i noticed a sound close to a cricket chirping in some evening open-air sequences, while i was expecting the more japanese cicada shrill, like the one you always hear in every anime, the famous "higurashi". Cicadas are supposed to "cry" early in the morning or late in the evening, while the sequence was around 22.00, i guess, thus making crickets appropriate. Anyway, neither i am an entomologist, nor i like insects. I can't bear them. Someone who actually went to Japan is probably needed, or just forget about my weeaboness and stick with the awesome stereo-crickets. What a pretty elaborate sound effect.
Well, from what I can tell, down here in Okinawa I've only heard crickets. Maybe its because its not the right season or what, or maybe Im not registering the Cicadas since they only come every couple of years back in the States, but the cricket noise is not completely out of place. Now, I haven't been to mainland Japan yet, which is where this game is supposed to take place, so it might be a little different up there, but from what I can tell, the scene is o.k. in regards to the local fauna.
edit: I'm officially retarded. Now when I actually pay attention I hear Cicadas everywhere. Goes to show you how much attention I pay to such things. I still cant confirm if they are out around 2200, mainly because I'm either inside, listening to my iPod while walking, or too tired/drunk to notice.
Thanks, i was expecting something like that. Cicadas are japanese summer's trademark, especially end summer.
Lol @ edit, i never used to pay attention too, but i was brainwashed by higurashi no naku koro ni, now i hear cicadas in every anime. Anyway, if you confirm that crickets are that common, is all about devs' choice and i won't object.
Please let me know if you can hear them late at night, now i'm curious. Feel free to PM, i don't know how many people here are interested in those insects.
Two devs visited the area KS is set in last year, one of them in the exact time of the year KS is set in. This should be sufficient as far as research goes (even if we, in the end, don't give a shit about entomology)
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
☆♥Aura♥☆ wrote:Two devs visited the area KS is set in last year, one of them in the exact time of the year KS is set in. This should be sufficient as far as research goes (even if we, in the end, don't give a shit about entomology)
Neither do I honestly, just trying to clear some things up. I'd have to say though, that bit of research for just a VN is astounding. Wish I could help out with stuff like that, but you seem to already have what you need.
And to Sleepycat, I'll try to keep an ear open to them, but it could be a possibility that the constant raping of the air by the helicopters we have on this base might scare them away. I'll get back to you asap.
Jesus H Christ, this game is professional quality and, speaking as someone with some... mental issues, incredibly sensitive and sympathetic. If I hadn't found out on TvTropes that 4-Chan was behind this, I wouldn't have believed it.
First playthrough completed. Oh God, I think I'm in love with Rin. Next stop: Lilly, with luck. Thanks for this gem.
Shizune apologist, Rin fan, semipro visual novelist, noted attention whore
I write KS fanfic. I preread KS fanfic. PM me with requests for either.
delta wrote: I've been caustic and mean since before 4chan even existed.
Katawa. It's a harsh word. Four Leaf found out, to their horror, that it's not a relatively neutral term like 'disabled' but something more akin to "Mutant, Retard, Gimp." They didn't change the name after that, and I respect their decision - it seems to me that they're trying to bleed the term of it's venom. Queer used to be an epithet, too. Then people - like my parents - started using it as a badge of honor. See also the gradual defusing of the N-word.
I can entirely see Shizune signing with her >:3 face and Misha going "There's no one here but us Katawa!" and laughing. (Also, my memetically infested brain immediately went OH SHIT IT'S A DEAF >:3 GET IN THE WHEELCHAIR!)
Tigerbunny said that he avoided the game because it felt like "a Reductio Ad Absurdium" take on moe - a word, that for the sake of this rant, I'm going to use to mean "the affection you feel for someone you want to protect." It's a fair impression, I'll grant him. He isn't wrong in how the game presents itself. It was born off of the cancer that is /b/ (well, actually the /a/ board on 4-Chan, but a lot of /b/tards were involved in it's conception) from some random doujinshi pages about an H-game, never made, starring young, beautiful women with disabilites, and the forums exploded with fanart about "Deaf-tan, Blind-tan, Legless-tan, Armless-tan," and "Burn-tan." I can see his point about the connotations.
But Four Leaf, in it's wisdom, hired a core team of very professional artists and writers, and forced people to register on a forum to offer ideas, and were not at all shy to, as they say around 4-chan, make sure that the malicious and the prejudiced got "B&" big-time. And as a result...
I didn't hear a word about Deaf-Tan. Instead, I met the mischevious, beautiful, eloquent Shizuka, the leader of the student council, responsible to a fault, competitive and playful and just a bit tsundere. Blind-Tan was nowhere to be found, but Lilly was a kind, sensitive, eloquent woman, who had befriended the shy young Hanako (Burn-tan? Who's Burn-tan?), who regrets leaving her home and her sister Akira, who is just Yamato Nadeshiko enough to make perfect tea from green tea powder. I met the mercurial Rin, an artist who weilded a brush between her toes to make bold strokes, who was deep and wise and bluntly honest - and I didn't miss Armless-tan in the slightest. I could go on.
There is really only one object of our pity, only one character who very much is his disability, and it's not the main character with his coronary arrythmia (as much as he thinks he is in moments of despair), or any of the girls. It's Kenji, who is a paranoid scizophrenic with mysogynistic delusions. And even he is somewhat functional, but... sad. I pity him, but more because he hasn't come to terms with his limitations and focused on his strengths, like the others.
TL:DR - this game is a lot more thoughtful than a lot of people give it credit for. Give it a chance - I was lucky enough to find it on TV-Tropes, not on the -Chans.
----
Please distribute this to spread the love. There are a lot of people who won't try it because of misconceptions (specifically, that this is either brazenly offensive or ludicrously moe), and, well, this is a work of literature worth giving a chance.
Edited to fix the stupid, stupid Shizune typo. Will you let me go now, Misha?
Last edited by Tsundere Lightning on Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Shizune apologist, Rin fan, semipro visual novelist, noted attention whore
I write KS fanfic. I preread KS fanfic. PM me with requests for either.
delta wrote: I've been caustic and mean since before 4chan even existed.
Tsundere Lightning wrote:(well, actually the /a/ board on 4-Chan, but a lot of /b/tards were involved in it's conception)
Making shit up.
Tsundere Lightning wrote:I was lucky enough to find it on TV-Tropes, not on the -Chans.
Elitism.
Tsundere Lightning wrote:Please distribute this to spread the love.
Arrogance.
Cool review bro.
<duanemoody> you're ruining the illusion of craftsmanship we see in every commercial for some product
<duanemoody> like cheese
<duanemoody> it has to be a bearded intense man in a leather smock hyperfocusing on sculpting some pointless detail
<duanemoody> badly lit for maximum contrast
<duanemoody> LIKE THIS, visual novels are made
Sorry if I offended everyone with that post. I'm fairly new to this fandom.
The Shizune thing was an inexcusable typo. Thank god I didn't put in my last post - I facepalmed after putting in "KaWAta" in the title.
This game is based on the images and fandom from a peice of art posted in the /a/ forum, and a great deal of the design staff are regular lurkers and contributors to 4-Chan. Pointing this out is hardly "making shit up;" these are established, true facts.
By mentioning the Tv-Tropes thing, I mean no disprespect. I enjoy the -chans and I'm a regular lurker and poster on /TG/, /A/ and the adult forums. It's just that 4-Chan, especially /B/, has a bad reputation, often deserved, of being insensitive about these sort of things. I was glad I found it on Tv-Tropes and mentioned this because many people, including my LJ friends, assumed that it would be a parade of "LULZ LET'S RAEP DEAF-TAN" and I wanted to assure them that this was superlatively well written. Had I found it through /a/, I almost certianly would have had the same reaction.
I admit that assuming my critique of the game will, inevitably, change people's minds about it is arrogant. I certainly hope it will, however. I merely wanted to provide a good critique.
Last edited by Tsundere Lightning on Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shizune apologist, Rin fan, semipro visual novelist, noted attention whore
I write KS fanfic. I preread KS fanfic. PM me with requests for either.
delta wrote: I've been caustic and mean since before 4chan even existed.
Tsundere Lightning wrote:This game is based on the images and fandom from a peice of art posted in the /a/ forum, and a great deal of the design staff are regular lurkers and contributors to 4-Chan. Pointing this out is hardly "making shit up;" these are established, true facts.
I'd like to see the proof backing up your "established facts".
<duanemoody> you're ruining the illusion of craftsmanship we see in every commercial for some product
<duanemoody> like cheese
<duanemoody> it has to be a bearded intense man in a leather smock hyperfocusing on sculpting some pointless detail
<duanemoody> badly lit for maximum contrast
<duanemoody> LIKE THIS, visual novels are made
Tsundere Lightning wrote:This game is based on the images and fandom from a peice of art posted in the /a/ forum, and a great deal of the design staff are regular lurkers and contributors to 4-Chan. Pointing this out is hardly "making shit up;" these are established, true facts.
I'd like to see the proof backing up your "established facts".
Edited to add: This doesn't prove that they're /b/ contributors, and I might not have wanted to say so. It does prove that they're part of the Channer culture though.
Shizune apologist, Rin fan, semipro visual novelist, noted attention whore
I write KS fanfic. I preread KS fanfic. PM me with requests for either.
delta wrote: I've been caustic and mean since before 4chan even existed.
This isn't evidence that a "great deal" of the staff still consists of 4chan lurkers. This is only evidence that the Games development began on 4chan.
<duanemoody> you're ruining the illusion of craftsmanship we see in every commercial for some product
<duanemoody> like cheese
<duanemoody> it has to be a bearded intense man in a leather smock hyperfocusing on sculpting some pointless detail
<duanemoody> badly lit for maximum contrast
<duanemoody> LIKE THIS, visual novels are made
Tsundere Lightning wrote:...point. I'll correct that factual error. Sorry about that.
It does seem to imply that the ORIGINAL design team were recruited from 4-Chan. Incidentally, did any of mudkip's stuff get used in the final game?
Again, no offense meant.
I must say, you sound like you think that the entire population of 4chan comes from /b/ and is 'conditioned' by it. This COULD be true to a certain extent, but the rest of them (such as the devs) don't give a shit about /b/. 4chan is not /b/, and sure as hell /a/ is not /b/ either.
I'm sorry about that. I meant no insult to the dev-team. I wanted to rebut the additudes that would prevent someone from playing this worthy game and it's story, but ended up acting like a prejudiced nitwit.
Truce?
Shizune apologist, Rin fan, semipro visual novelist, noted attention whore
I write KS fanfic. I preread KS fanfic. PM me with requests for either.
delta wrote: I've been caustic and mean since before 4chan even existed.
Silentcook wrote:Q: Are you all Anonymous posters from 4chan?
A: No. Several of us browse 4chan occasionally, and we might post even more occasionally, but that's it. Believe it or not, we never start threads about KS. We might respond to them now and then, but most of the time we're far more busy working on the project.
"Several" does not equal "A great deal". There is a reason why the FAQ is subtitled "It will make you a better person. " Reading it will give you SUGOII knowledge so you don't end up looking like an idiot when you ask an obvious question, or say something that is quite incorrect.
