What are you playing right now #2

[Gare]

Yeah, I stayed away from the wiki due to spoilers. It's pretty much the first game of this kind that I've played, and mostly tracked it down because of all the... "interseting" things I've heard.

I'm totally open to some recommendations, by the way, since I know you're more knowledgeable about this than myself. And I obviously mean stuff that is actually good, and not just a generic porn game with zero story.

[Shareware]

I can't decide anymore. I'm playing too many things at once.

I am now playing: MVC3, FEAR, KOFXI, Devil May Cry, RE2, Shinobi, Guilty Gear X2, and SOTN.

Jeez. My hands are full.

I've never played DMC1 before, and it plays a lot more like RE than the later games. It's like a fusion of the two, which of course isn't that surprising, considering the series' development past.

[Illora]

rockband

[Chocobolicious]

Yeah, I stayed away from the wiki due to spoilers. It's pretty much the first game of this kind that I've played, and mostly tracked it down because of all the... "interseting" things I've heard.

I'm totally open to some recommendations, by the way, since I know you're more knowledgeable about this than myself. And I obviously mean stuff that is actually good, and not just a generic porn game with zero story.

Fate stay/night, Tsukihime, are two examples of good VN that ended up taking off into other genre.

If you dont mind porn VN, Kana has a really good story (And some disturbing bits near the end in a few of the endings.) though, admittedly, pretty h-heavy if that isnt your thing.

Sengoku Rance is a fun/funny series, but again, quite a bit of porn mingled in. Still, hilarious all the same.

..man, trying to think of VN that arent super-porn and in english is pretty difficult. Ha ha ha.

Dividead? I /recall/ it being good, and I recall some of it being interesting, but I havent played it in about 12 years so it could just be nostalgia.

Oh, also, EVE.

And Ever 17.

[Gare]

Although it's not the main reason I'm planning to play these, the porn itself doesn't bother me at all. I've seen my fair share of h-anime, so yeah.

In any case, much appreciated.

[Drageuth]

Currently playing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Fun game so far, but it's still taking me a bit to get used to the camera. I can't seem to find a configuration that I like for it...

[Raype]

Yeah, I stayed away from the wiki due to spoilers. It's pretty much the first game of this kind that I've played, and mostly tracked it down because of all the... "interseting" things I've heard.

I'm totally open to some recommendations, by the way, since I know you're more knowledgeable about this than myself. And I obviously mean stuff that is actually good, and not just a generic porn game with zero story.

For the most part, Gen's other works are all more or less a decent bet , or anything Nitro+ does in general. They're one of the larger suppliers of games of this type. A general listing of a couple of the games that have gotten translated is over here, and fortunately, they list the developer. Aside from fan translations Phantom of Inferno received an official translation and manages to be fairly good aside from the craptacular game engine. But it's worth noting that SNU is easily my favorite thing to come out of him and one of my favorites in general, and while the other works are a little on the grim side they don't quite hit it anywhere near as well as that one did, in my opinion.

Dark games in general do not seem to see a lot of localization, so it's a bit hard to find an easy connection of "if X was good, you might like Y". I believe I recently brought up Cross Channel due to Mistral's comment earlier in this thread. It's a great game, but it's not exactly horror focused. Even if it does sorta go that way eventually, but it's horrifying for COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS.. It's also pretty far up my list of great games of this type, but it's a little bit slow and whether or not you can get into it is highly dependent on how you feel about character focused stories. The plot is largely just there as a framing device to deal with the various unusual and interesting traits of the characters. Stuff happens, but it's not really the point, as they REALLY try to show off. If you can stomach mood whiplash and the slight insistence on having a base premise that seems a tad too normal it can eventually yield some good stuff.

Planetarian comes to mind as both a good storyline and a fairly dark game thematically. It's pretty much a really depressing science fiction story centered around a scavenger in a burnt out world and a long abandoned robot. I enjoyed the flashbacks and world building a bit more than the central plot, but as it's fairly short and generally well done, I had a good time with it.

Unfortunately, people saw fit to push back Cartagra and Kara no Shoujo. I have played a bit of those, and I feel they would be VERY easy to recommend in this case. If and when they finally get released I'd recommend you give them a go. They seem a quite bit up your alley and I am still resisting the urge to push through it in japanese. These have gotten a hell of a reputation with the people who can actually get through them. Plus they get this stuff the hell out of the high schools and away from teenagers, and more towards detectives and crimes. How can that possibly not be a positive thing?

Currently I'm trying to get around to finishing G senjou no Maou. The premise has a bit of promise and there's an appropriate amount of mind gaming and some fairly entertaining characters. I'm still unsure of whether or not it'll turn out to be good overall, but it's at least managing a solid showing for the time being.

Fate stay/night, Tsukihime, are two examples of good VN that ended up taking off into other genre.

If you dont mind porn VN, Kana has a really good story (And some disturbing bits near the end in a few of the endings.) though, admittedly, pretty h-heavy if that isnt your thing.

Sengoku Rance is a fun/funny series, but again, quite a bit of porn mingled in. Still, hilarious all the same.

..man, trying to think of VN that arent super-porn and in english is pretty difficult. Ha ha ha.

Dividead? I /recall/ it being good, and I recall some of it being interesting, but I havent played it in about 12 years so it could just be nostalgia.

Oh, also, EVE.

And Ever 17.

As far as this post goes, I greatly preferred Tsukihime over FSN, despite the former having EXTREMELY low production values (you can pretty much fit the entire production staff in a phonebooth). But both manage to be leagues above any form of anime adaptation. That brief epilogue to the anime I mentioned in the anime thread a while back comes straight from the novel. And that was actually less depressing than one of the other scenarios which more or less feels like some sort of grimdark fanfiction version of the plot. Of course, a serious downside is that the story DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Tsukihime actually manages to be decently far up my list of likeable novels, but some of that could be the nostalgia talking. The storyline was fairly interesting and they managed to make each of the plotlines rather unique. It does get REALLY BAD at times, but I preferred to view those sections as a sort of B movie. In that regard, they're side splittingly hilarious.

I found Kana pretty dull, actually. But perhaps that's just me.

I can somewhat second the sengoku rance option. It's not anything like SNU, and it barely resembles VNs in general. Plus it's extremely porn heavy, it's got loads of cheesecake, and the main plot isn't all that great. But it's videogame CRACK. Do not ever start playing it if you plan to do anything productive for the next 20 hours or so. You WILL be stuck to your chair.

I recall Dividead being largely okay. It's been a while here as well though. I can't seem to recall anything that stands out too much though. I just remember a general blur of body parts and psychotic bitches.

I haven't really played Eve.

Ever17 is a bit of an odd case. It's 2/5 of a dull as hell storyline, 2/5 of a pretty good storyline, and 1/5 of a FUCKAWESOME AS FUCK, JESUS CHRIST storyline. Takeshi's storylines pretty much put me to sleep, Kid's storylines were rather enjoyable, and the epilogue (which you can only touch after finishing EVERY OTHER PLOT) is pure goddamned gold. It's weird, it's interesting, it breaks your goddamn brain like a dried twig, but it takes FOREVER to get good, and some of the storyline's are a real chore. If you stick with it and don't mind that you spend about 15-16 hours fairly bored it's largely worth it (because it's DAMNED LONG. Actually, SNU is relatively short for the genre's standards). Otherwise, it's easily skipped. If given the choice to go back and tell myself whether or not to waste a few days reading it, I'd probably go with the reading it option. Which reminds me, I still need to get around to playing Remember11 before that Never7 translation wraps up. MORE BACKLOG.

[Gare]

Well, those should keep me occupied for a while. Thanks a bunch.

*saves whole post in txt file*

[Inferno.]

Killzone 3. Literally only just put the disc in though, so I've no idea what I'm getting myself into just yet.

[NextBlazeEx]

kh2,sf4,Sotn,ssbb,judgement,guilty gear xx pc(for online play),and soul calibur 3

[Chocobolicious]

So, Rift started up. New MMO, definitely 5 parts wow, 4 parts WAR and 1 part original content. So far its fairly alright. Honestly I'm not a big MMO type of person and when I have really been addicted, its tended to be the less popular ones (I actually still play ffxi. Its pretty unlike anything out there, always has been.)

Dunno, got a 6 month sub, so Ill see how it goes.

[Gare]

Gray Matter, the new adventure game from Jane Jensen (who created the Gabriel Knight series). This should be good. Especially since I've heard some really positive things about it. Hell, the soundtrack alone is giving me some serious GK vibes. Mostly because it's the same composer.

[Mistral]

Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia.

Let's see, protagonist is stereotypical hot-blooded idiot hero with awful memory, gets to meet shy yamato nadeshiko type and "emphasis on tsun"-dere pettanko under fairly contrived circumstnaces, both of who are strongly attracted to him for initially ill-defined reasons, and is given a mission to save the world. Hmmmm...well, it kind of hurts the brain, but I haven't actually lost interest due to any of that, so...I'm still playing it, I guess? It's not like I've gotten much past the beginning yet, and it's also giving me a strong Mana Khemia/Atelier vibe, which is unsurprising considering that it's from Gust.

[Synthetik]

The Legend of Zelda.

[MaryGR]

I play Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on PS2. Couple months ago I finished the same game on GBA. I also take small breaks with Pool Shark 2 and NYR: New York Race on PC.