Visual Novels

[scy]

[Maxine MagicFox]

Why are people so miffed off at the ending of Umineko?

[spoiler]I thought that he had confirmed the true identity of Beatrice at the ending of the 7th novel? Granted I'm reading my way through it right now so I dunno. And the epitaph is solved. Other than maybe walking us through every fucking "so how did Beatrice do it?" in the four games, what's left to "reveal"? And why are people so pissed?[/spoiler]

[scy]

Spoilers~~~~~
[spoiler]The mystery of the whole thing is handwaved off and never solved. The resolution of Game 8 is vastly, vastly, vastly different than what anyone possibly expected.

Ryukishi wanted a mystery to create discussion amongst the fans; the speculation and the formulation of theories was the beauty of the mystery. Many readers wanted a mystery to solve with a resolution that clears that up, not a resolution that hides it in a closet.

ps, Beatrice is less the murderer/killer and more of the princess in distress. She isn't the villain of Rokkenjima. Game 7 is the end of the mystery of Beatrice but the mystery of Rokkenjima continues without her. Hell, theoretically, removing Beatrice as a whole changes nothing so long as the murder game continues.[/spoiler]

More in-depth spoilers~ [Edit: Game 8 stuff is mentioned like whoa]
[spoiler]Basically, the "point" of Game 8 is to show the purpose of the games as a whole (Games 1-2 are written by Shannon/Kanon/Yasu and the rest are done by Hachijo and Tooya/Battler but their _purpose_ is explained, not anything about the games themselves). The solution is waved in front of the player as the goal of Game 8 and Ange ultimately chooses to not learn the truth.

Most the people angry are those who were in Umineko to solve the mystery. Who the killer is, why they did it, and how they did it. Ryukishi, instead, uses the mystery as a means to hide a story of Ange overcoming her past. Which kind of comes out of nowhere as it means the entire series is really about Ange and she's kind of a backseat character for the series.

Plus the whole "IT'S MAGIC" being the true solution and all. Sort of. If you choose "It's a trick" then Ange remains kind of hateful and suspicious of people and guns down Amakusa and the Boat Captain and drifts off into nowhere. The magic solution has the solution being hidden away (in a very strange "I SHALL TELL YOU THE SOL--nevermind BAD IDEA BYE" kind of way) and Ange living on oblivious of the truth but a better person. But that does unlock the Tea Party (as useless as that was) and the ??? Ending which has Ange reuniting with Battler and the Trick Ending just has more dead bodies.

I personally liked the solution once I grasped that the cat box will not be opened. That's part of the point. Leave it to rest at the bottom of the sea, as it were, as learning the truth _doesn't expand the story at all_ but just satisfies curiosity.

There's enough things mentioned that the solution can be found from it if one looks hard enough but "finding a solution" is very different than "the solution." I mean, we know that "death of a personality == death" as per Game 8 confirmation, the board is 16 people total with Kanon and Shannon _both_ being imaginary (or not? fuck I still have no idea if either "exist" in any capacity) and that Beatrice's "plan" is more literally a game that goes the wrong way as noone is meant to die but somebody in the family uses the opportunity (what a go-getter, GOLD STAR FOR YOU).

Basically, "expected mystery and got a mysterious empowerment story instead" is what it comes down to. It's like expecting a thriller out of Higurashi but it ends up being about cake. If you go into Game 8 and Umineko's resolution expecting to be closer to the "whodunnit/whydunnit/howdunnity" to the murders then you'll be disappointed; if you want closure to the characters involved, then you'll be a bit happier.

Edit: Best way I can put it is remove all the murder and death from Umineko. That tale about family, love, and bonding that remains is the story of Umineko that Ryukishi resolves and wanted to express.[/spoiler]

[Sampson]

The fact that Ryukishi [hide]portrayed the mystery fans as goats (which is not a good thing)[/hide] irritated the Japanese fandom. Or so I heard. /jp/ isn't particularly reliable.

Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers
[spoiler]I wish Ryukishi just built up to Ep.8 better. Sure, there's some Anti-Mystery/Fantasy stuff going on in the first three Chiru games, but the truth/solution plays the central roles in those games, so...yeah.

And Yasu's existence kind of irks me to begin with. I understand the whole "original identity" thing, but was introducing him/her really necessary? The fact that there was no reason to infer their existence in the Question Arcs isn't helpful. Oh, well. It could be worse.

And the "official" solution for the first twilights of Ep.1 and 3 are extraneously risky, at least in my opinion. Seriously, there's a difference between taking reasonable risks and being stupid. Pretending that there are six corpses in a shed that everyone has the ability to examine when there are actually five is stupid. Faking your death, running off to change your clothes and fake your death again, then running back to where you originally and changing your clothes and faking your death is even worse. Grumble grumble etc...[/spoiler]

But there were some good BGMs in the last episode so it's all good.
[spoiler][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AomkWFmv_8A[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YyVpNKA7vs&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiUjogfu2Kw&feature=related[/youtube][/spoiler]

[scy]

[Sampson]

[fauxsquared]

Just got done with my first play-through of Kanon. Chose the Nayuki route. gonna go back later and do another character I think I am going to go with Makoto next.
Playing fate stay night now.

and yes I know these are incredibly old.

[fauxsquared]

so i finally get to the H-scene in fate/stay night.

[spoiler]I find it humorous that everyone wants saber...especially rin.
"Even I didn't know I swinged that way"-Rin[/spoiler]

[noodles]

[fauxsquared]

I know. Its hard to enjoy it as an eroge when I actually like the charas. They did however make it pretty good.

[Sampson]

Umineko question of the day GO

Ep.7 spoilers
[spoiler]So, ItL, what's Yasu's gender (and/or sex)? I believe in the relatively common theory that Yasu was born a male and damaged his sexual organs in the cliff thing, and for simplicity's sake was raised as a girl. This explains the "MY BODY CANNOT LOVE" and the "three years older but nobody could really tell" puberty delay.

So Lion is a male. And that means Will is gay.[/spoiler]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[scy]

[Sampson]

Honestly, I only wanted Lion to be [hide]male for the homolust. Umineko wouldn't be where it is today without the homolust. Seriously...it wouldn't.[/hide]

I think we all know where my priorities lie.

[Weeaboolits]

Finished one of the stories on Narcissu, felt weird not having any decision points, but it was enjoyable.