Recommend a VN

[OtakuNinja]

How long is Clannad anyway? I've heard some people say it can take 80-100 hours to complete everything in it, but I have a feeling that they may be exaggerating a little. My experience in the 50+ hours VNs are limited as I have only played one so far, so I have no idea what the norm for them are.

Well I don't know since I haven't completed it yet, but I think it's about 50 hours. I watched a LP from one of the routes and it was around 9 hours long. But then again, there is the Afterstory (which you have to unlock by playing all the routes) and I have no idea how long it is. But, judging from the anime, I wouldn't expect it to be more than 10 hours.

[Mysterious Stranger]

In all honesty the Kirimiya arc was the only one I really enjoyed. It was short, sweet and fun, and I liked it quite a bit. The Nekoko arc was alright. Though, here's hilariously supreme irony of YMK: the story that's all about drug abuse (i.e. Nekoko's) is the least surreal out of all three. Despite that, Nekoko had a decent ending, so I can't say I hated it. The Shiraki arc, though... oh boy, I'm fairly certain I loathed that one. Absolutely tedious up until a certain point, at which it just went insane, to a not-at-all-enjoyable degree. Seriously, one of the most ridiculous climaxes I've seen in quite some time. Ridiculous.

I had to use VNDB to find out which characters you were talking about, since I only ever hear people call them Mizuki and Aeka. Personally I had the exact opposite opinion in routes then you, although judging by the opinions I have seen it generally comes down to how much the player relates to them. Despite all the routes having being incredibly ridiculous at times, it still has many realistic elements within it. And yes, the Aeka climax was incredibly over the top and pretty damn stupid. How no one got arrested in that route was just bizarre.

I suppose you're right about the subjectivity of the arcs - while I might have been bullied a little when I was a kid, I never experienced anything approaching what Shiraki (or Aeka, if you prefer) went through. For me Kirimiya's crippling fear of the future was a lot more compelling, and I think there was a lot more closure to her story than Shiraki's. Also, the scene in her arc that was "ridiculous" (you probably know which one I'm talking about) was, at least in my opinion, one of the most memorable moments from the entire game, in the best possible way.

Not sure whether you are still interested in School Days HQ, but I finished it not that long ago (although I didn't complete all the endings, there were too many) and confirm that you could do a hell of a lot better. It's probably the one VN that's more realistic than KS and YMK, but it has a huge amount of bugs and the stupidest set of characters around that they actually make Shirogane Takeru and Luka (from ML and MGQ respectively) look like geniuses, and that it a pretty impressive achievement. It's kinda like the VN form of a soap opera, so if you like those kind of things you may enjoy it and I personally thought it was slightly underrated, but it's still a mediocre VN at best.

I am probably going to play School Days in the future, if only because a friend of mine (whom I think I've already mentioned) is a huge fan of the anime and swears it's the most brilliant thing ever. I don't think he's finished it yet, though, so I'll wait to hear his recommendation.

On a related note, I started playing Hoshizora no Memoria (after a somewhat arduous installation), and might I say that so far it is AWESOME. Looking forward to completing it 100%.

[acewing905]

@Mysterious Stranger:
If you haven't already, make sure that you're using the 1.2 patch and that the graph_vis folder (not file) in the game directory is deleted. (For hoshimemo)

[Mysterious Stranger]

@Mysterious Stranger:
If you haven't already, make sure that you're using the 1.2 patch and that the graph_vis folder (not file) in the game directory is deleted. (For hoshimemo)

Oh, don't worry - I took great care in making certain I had everything in order before playing. The dolphins should be no more.

[Nobody in Particular]

Well I don't know since I haven't completed it yet, but I think it's about 50 hours. I watched a LP from one of the routes and it was around 9 hours long. But then again, there is the Afterstory (which you have to unlock by playing all the routes) and I have no idea how long it is. But, judging from the anime, I wouldn't expect it to be more than 10 hours.

Well providing that what you said is true it would probably be around 64 hours. I'll have to try that when I have a lot of free time.

I am probably going to play School Days in the future, if only because a friend of mine (whom I think I've already mentioned) is a huge fan of the anime and swears it's the most brilliant thing ever. I don't think he's finished it yet, though, so I'll wait to hear his recommendation.

Well If you are going to borrow it from a friend then it certainly is worth trying. I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad VN, personally I quite enjoyed it (although this is coming from a guy that liked MLE, so I obviously have shit taste) but it had good potential and ended up wasting it. The drama is really over the top at times and many of the characters do incredibly stupid things with bad results and then complain about said results afterwards. It does have some very good ideas that seem to be non-existent outside of School Days though, for that alone it is probably worth a play through.

Also, be sure to do all of the bad ends. They are so hilariously over the top and perhaps the most entertaining part of the game.

On a related note, I started playing Hoshizora no Memoria (after a somewhat arduous installation), and might I say that so far it is AWESOME. Looking forward to completing it 100%.

Hoshizora no Memoria is a really fun game for what it is, providing you like overly happy stuff. Have you started or finished any of the routes yet?

[acewing905]

@Mysterious Stranger:
If you haven't already, make sure that you're using the 1.2 patch and that the graph_vis folder (not file) in the game directory is deleted. (For hoshimemo)

Oh, don't worry - I took great care in making certain I had everything in order before playing. The dolphins should be no more.

Good to see that people actually read up on stuff before plunging into the VN.

[stanman237]

In order to finish Clannad it does take about 100 hours because the 8 regular routes in Clannad takes about 5-7 hours each depending on reading speed. Afterstory is 10 hours. Getting the orbs in after story takes about 5-20 hours depending if you messed up in regular Clannad or not. Then there's the true end after all of that. Finally there's all the little extra stuff like Sunohara Bad Ending, Jet Saito, Baseball and Laser Tag, and Gamebook which could add about 15 hours.


NOTE THIS IS WITH A GUIDE

Without one I wish you luck because thats estimated to be about 300-400 hours

[Mysterious Stranger]

On a related note, I started playing Hoshizora no Memoria (after a somewhat arduous installation), and might I say that so far it is AWESOME. Looking forward to completing it 100%.

Hoshizora no Memoria is a really fun game for what it is, providing you like overly happy stuff. Have you started or finished any of the routes yet?

Right now I'm heading for Asuho's. She reminds me a bit of Kirari Shiino (only with TWICE the star hairpin power). Although we'll see where I end up - I just finished the "prologue" this past weekend, so I've still some ways to go.

[OtakuNinja]

In order to finish Clannad it does take about 100 hours because the 8 regular routes in Clannad takes about 5-7 hours each depending on reading speed. Afterstory is 10 hours. Getting the orbs in after story takes about 5-20 hours depending if you messed up in regular Clannad or not. Then there's the true end after all of that. Finally there's all the little extra stuff like Sunohara Bad Ending, Jet Saito, Baseball and Laser Tag, and Gamebook which could add about 15 hours.


NOTE THIS IS WITH A GUIDE

Without one I wish you luck because thats estimated to be about 300-400 hours

It certainly sounds like a lot of time, but who said you need to do it all at the same time? 300 hours/5 hours a day=60 days of never-ending fun!

NOTE: I lack a social life so for me this is excellent.

[encrypted12345]

I'm pretty sure Clannad is only that long if you don't skip the text you already read.

Personally speaking, I think Clannad too damn long for it's own good, but it really is a good visual novel. I personally liked Little Busters better.

[stanman237]

I'm pretty sure Clannad is only that long if you don't skip the text you already read.

Personally speaking, I think Clannad too damn long for it's own good, but it really is a good visual novel. I personally liked Little Busters better.

Yeah I prefer Refrain over Afterstory. You don't know what in the world is going on except its messed up. Then, well I'm not gonna say because of spoilers.

[Nobody in Particular]

Without one I wish you luck because thats estimated to be about 300-400 hours

What? I heard someone else say this, but I presumed they were exaggurating. If this is the case then I'm pushing this right to the back of my backlog.

I'm pretty sure Clannad is only that long if you don't skip the text you already read.

How long would you say it is when skipping the text then?

Personally speaking, I think Clannad too damn long for it's own good, but it really is a good visual novel. I personally liked Little Busters better.

Isn't Little Busters! meant to be pretty long too? Perhaps not on the same scale as Clannad, but I've still heard it takes a good amount of time.

[OtakuNinja]

How long would you say it is when skipping the text then?

I'd say the school arc is about 50-60 hours. The Afterstory is probably the same, or less.

[TheSongofRaven]

Looking you guy's judgement about Clannad, i think it's worth to play that Anyway, just downloaded Quartett! today and that's so epic nice visual novel. Love the character's background and music

[Nobody in Particular]

Looking you guy's judgement about Clannad, i think it's worth to play that Anyway, just downloaded Quartett! today and that's so epic nice visual novel. Love the character's background and music

I finished Quartett! not so long ago, it's a decent VN, even if it is a little short. It's a shame that so few VNs use the comic style that was shown in Quartett!, it was certainly the highlight of the VN. Also that protagonist was great.