Katawa Shoujo Forums

I finally finished Hoshizora no Memoria just yesterday. Thought I might as well post a few of my thoughts.

If I had posted here before finishing that last arc, I probably would've typed up a lot of statements that would've sounded like this: "Well, it's not that great, but it had a lot of astronomy stuff in it, and I am quite a fan of astronomy, so, I really liked it regardless."

Unfortunately, I did finish the penultimate route - to clarify, I did not complete the very last one, which was Mare's. I probably never will, because that last arc I completed honestly ruined the majority of the game for me (I still think Komomo's route is the best the game has to offer, for the record). I could go on for hours about how much of a mess the penultimate arc really is (I can't say whose it is for spoiler-y reasons), but I will say this (also in spoiler tags just to be safe): There is a rewind. The narrative just stops, does some nauseatingly lengthy expository flashback monologues, and then rewinds to a point earlier in the arc's storyline. And then proceeds from there as if all prior events did not occur. In short, the arc wasted my goddamn time. That made everything that happened after that point utterly meaningless. And I absolutely loathe it, because there were so many cool ideas in this VN that I really liked.

So, if I were to recommend Hoshimemo... definitely play it if you're an astronomy fan - but you should really only do the first three arcs that are initially available (Asuho's, Aoi's, and Komomo's, to be specific). Once you complete those three the rest of the game starts to get really messy and decidedly unfun.

Oh well. Moving on to Crescendo next.

(I can't say whose it is for spoiler-y reasons)

Yes you can. Spoil it! Spoil away!

Oddball wrote:

(I can't say whose it is for spoiler-y reasons)

Yes you can. Spoil it! Spoil away!

You only discover her name after finishing Asuho's route (again, lots of fun mystery stuff going on in this game), so I'd consider it something of a spoiler.

It's Yume's arc, though, if you really want me to be specific.

but you should really only do the first three arcs that are initially available

Eh... I think you just shouldn't recommend Hoshimemo at all, then. Cause ***'s route is really fun, and reading Hoshimemo without that is like reading just six books of Harry Potter and skipping the last one. I get that her route is hated by some because of the time reversal, but there are many who don't mind that. So anyone who's reading should read it for themselves and decide, or just skip Hoshimemo altogether. No point reading the first available three only. The "mystery girl" route is anyway all worth it just to see the character interactions between her and You. She's a riot. Mare route, well, I can see why some wouldn't want to do it. It's like in the previous route they say, "okay, she's your daughter", and in the very next one, "now fuck her".

acewing905 wrote:Eh... I think you just shouldn't recommend Hoshimemo at all, then. Cause ***'s route is really fun, and reading Hoshimemo without that is like reading just six books of Harry Potter and skipping the last one. I get that her route is hated by some because of the time reversal, but there are many who don't mind that. So anyone who's reading should read it for themselves and decide, or just skip Hoshimemo altogether. No point reading the first available three only. The "mystery girl" route is anyway all worth it just to see the character interactions between her and You. She's a riot. Mare route, well, I can see why some wouldn't want to do it. It's like in the previous route they say, "okay, she's your daughter", and in the very next one, "now fuck her".

I liked everything in ****'s route up until the expository mess that came before the time reversal. The reversal itself only crystallized my dislike (read: hatred). Even beyond my problems with that, though, I think the majority of the arc is confused with regard to its theming. Maybe I'll go back and read it again at some point to see if I can get some new insight, but honestly at the end it left a bad taste in my mouth. It goes without saying that I didn't find any of it fun once it came to the reversal. You might be right with the Harry Potter analogy, though... but I honestly think I would've had better memories of the game if I had just stopped after those three.

Also, I forgot to mention it, but Hoshimemo happens to have the greatest off-screen love triangle of all times.

Mysterious Stranger wrote:
Also, I forgot to mention it, but Hoshimemo happens to have the greatest off-screen love triangle of all times.

Love triangle? But as in all eroge, all the girls like the protag (Chinami and Asuho like the protag visibly), so it's way more complex than a triangle.

Mysterious Stranger wrote: Unfortunately, I did finish the penultimate route - to clarify, I did not complete the very last one, which was Mare's. I probably never will, because that last arc I completed honestly ruined the majority of the game for me (I still think Komomo's route is the best the game has to offer, for the record). I could go on for hours about how much of a mess the penultimate arc really is (I can't say whose it is for spoiler-y reasons), but I will say this (also in spoiler tags just to be safe): There is a rewind. The narrative just stops, does some nauseatingly lengthy expository flashback monologues, and then rewinds to a point earlier in the arc's storyline. And then proceeds from there as if all prior events did not occur. In short, the arc wasted my goddamn time. That made everything that happened after that point utterly meaningless. And I absolutely loathe it, because there were so many cool ideas in this VN that I really liked.

Most people hate that time travel bullshit scene. Honestly I enjoyed the route but that scene was so terrible and pretty much everything that came after it, except for the epilogue. You're not missing out on much by doing Mare's anyway, it was decent but it didn't have much of a storyline and it was incredibly short.

And yes, Komomo's route was the only "good" route really. The Hoshimemo character routes were rather disappointing, especially in comparison to the common route.

acewing905 wrote:(Chinami and Asuho like the protag visibly)

I always thought the whole Chinami being a brocon thing was just the translator fucking around. Most of the lines that she showed that side of her were stupid and ended up with al the characters playing it off as a joke.

Nobody in Particular wrote:Most people hate that time travel bullshit scene. Honestly I enjoyed the route but that scene was so terrible and pretty much everything that came after it, except for the epilogue. You're not missing out on much by doing Mare's anyway, it was decent but it didn't have much of a storyline and it was incredibly short.

And yes, Komomo's route was the only "good" route really. The Hoshimemo character routes were rather disappointing, especially in comparison to the common route.

Couldn't agree more. I'd actually say the common route (along with Komomo's arc, of course) is the best thing about Hoshimemo... unfortunate, since most people (including myself) would only read it once and then skip over most of it on subsequent playthroughs.

Nobody in Particular wrote:

acewing905 wrote:(Chinami and Asuho like the protag visibly)

I always thought the whole Chinami being a brocon thing was just the translator fucking around. Most of the lines that she showed that side of her were stupid and ended up with al the characters playing it off as a joke.

Probably, but I still liked that. Chinami was one of the funniest characters, honestly. Too bad her arc was almost as messy as ****'s.

acewing905 wrote:

Mysterious Stranger wrote: Also, I forgot to mention it, but Hoshimemo happens to have the greatest off-screen love triangle of all times.

Love triangle? But as in all eroge, all the girls like the protag (Chinami and Asuho like the protag visibly), so it's way more complex than a triangle.

Notice how I said off-screen.

I'm referring to Taiga, Kasumi, and Chihiro.

A friend of mine heard about a VN called Para-Sol. Has anyone heard about it and can tell me what it's about?

OtakuNinja wrote:A friend of mine heard about a VN called Para-Sol. Has anyone heard about it and can tell me what it's about?

Nothing, except that their publishing company was completely demolished due to the earthquake back in March 2011 O.o
http://vndb.org/p164

Mysterious Stranger wrote:Oh well. Moving on to Crescendo next.

It is a nice one, actually. And with a ghost story.

dunkelfalke wrote:

Mysterious Stranger wrote:Oh well. Moving on to Crescendo next.

It is a nice one, actually. And with a ghost story.

It is rather nice.

I just finished it the other day (it is delightfully short, for the record), and I think it's one of the better VNs I've played. Kaho and Kyoko's arcs were a little vanilla, and Ayame's was alright. But Yuka's arc was soul-crushingly good, and the route for Kaori was an absolute blast.

At first I was dreading the ghost story route (I do think that's a spoiler), simply because good Christ, can I play another visual novel that doesn't have some bullshit supernatural element thrown in for no reason? But it actually ended up having a very satisfactory resolution, and I rather liked it.

Kaho singing was a delight, especially because of the cute accent. Didn't like Kaori's part, though, but it is probably due to my aversion to tobacco smoke. The only part of it I liked was going to the movies, that nod to another VN did hit home a lot. Especially the "Today, I saw the ocean. I'm not afraid anymore.". Always a tearjerker.

Mysterious Stranger wrote: Notice how I said off-screen.

I'm referring to Taiga, Kasumi, and Chihiro.

I gotta learn to read. -___-

As for VN recommendations, anybody tried Duel Savior?

So recently I've been listening to the Deardrops opening over and over and over again. And I did play Kira Kira a while ago, and... well... I really didn't like it, to be perfectly honest (I believe have a few posts on this thread to that effect). But, I recall somebody mentioning here that people who dislike Kira Kira usually prefer Deardrops instead. So I do plan on playing it. My question would be whether or not I should play Curtain Call first.