Visual Novel Discourse

A blog where two nerds talk about the visual novels they're reading. Current visual novel is Amnesia: Memories.

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Update

I am really bad at this updating regularly thing. Sorry again. Apparently it’s the season where all the trees start fucking. I’ve been able to breathe through my nose for precisely five minutes today through a combination of medicine, spicy food, and a hot shower. I can already feel my nasal passages clogging up again.

The Happening was real. It’s Happening to me.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Hey guys

so.... about those updates this week

I’ve been a little busy

sorry guys

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Clover Day 11

Another day another dollar. Or… the equivalent amount of yen, I guess.

On Paige’s way into work she stops to observe a conversation between Mine and the manager. Waka tells her that he’s too busy to hang out tomorrow.

Apparently it was Mine’s idea.

My least favorite character is shitting on my other least favorite character. I don’t know who to root for.

Oh right, neither. Because they’re both assholes.

Mine’s dialogue clearly implies that she was trying to set up a work gathering at the last minute to fuck Paige over specifically. Because she knows that Paige has a fireworks date with Kent.

oh right

Apparently Paige has a fireworks date with Kent. I guess in a roundabout way, Mine trying to dick Paige over accidentally helped Paige?

Work goes pretty smoothly until Paige is stopped by her manager. He tells her that there’s a customer asking for her at table nine, makes a scary face at her, and leaves.

Surprise of all surprises, the customer is Kent.

Kent is still kind of a jerk.

Kent is still trying to understand the human concepts of cosplay and boners.

Ikkyu is a pretty solid wingman when he’s not trying to steal Paige away from Kent. I wish we saw more of useful and nice Ikkyu this run instead of seeing so much “Out to steal yo girl” Ikkyu.

Kent came to apologize for his outburst yesterday. Also he brought cake. Careful Ikkyu, Kent might take your title of best boyfriend.

Kent also remembers his promise to walk Paige home at night, because of the scary dude who threatened to murder her.

Paige goes to put the cake in the fridge in the back. Waka stops her and smiles cryptically. It’s weird and I don’t think there’s any explanation for why he’s so goddamn weird?

She’s stopped by Mine who looks in Paige’s present box, and makes a bunch of passive-aggressive comments. Like… if she wasn’t like this all the time Paige might have offered to share her cake with her.

Well, Paige wouldn’t have, because that would have required having any sense of initiative. But you know, a non-paper bag puppet person might have.

Paige goes home and Orion talks her ear off playing Sherlock Holmes. Apparently she switched phones just after she started dating Kent. He guesses that it’s because she wanted to talk to him more often. I’m guessing it’s because the Paige that Paige Prime killed and replaced dropped her phone, and it was a coincidence.

(Spoiler: there’s no such thing as coincidence and Orion’s stupid theory is probably right)

Anyway, that was a short day. Next time, fireworks.

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Amnesia: Memories- Kent Route, Day 11

Oh boy, we get to work for three days.  Orion is considerate enough to check in with us to make sure we’re ready for the day.  That was sweet.  I think we’re ready!  We haven’t forgotten everything we’ve learned, have we?  

That sounds fun!  Most of our colleagues aren’t totally awful.  In fact, they all seem pretty cool!  It could be lots of fun!  

Oh, oh, fireworks?  Sweet!  This is the literal first time we have heard about the fireworks show, so, uh.  I dunno.  Are we going with Kent?  Kent hasn’t said anything.  Maybe we aren’t going?  That would suck.  We would miss out on hanging out with Kent and on fireworks.  

But then again, Kent was a massive dick yesterday.  Maybe we should boycott him out of protest.  But for the sake of my own personal enjoyment of the game for now, I’m going to ignore the fact that Kent lost his temper and hurt us.  

Oh.  Oops.  We were supposed to know that.  Did Kent forget or is he expecting us to remember without him mentioning it? What if Mine hadn’t said anything at all?  Kent would have been hurt.  

Mine suggested that we all go as a coworkers, but the manager had other plans and couldn’t come, so that outing won’t be happening tomorrow night.  That’s too bad.  Mine sweetly tells us to go and have a good time at the fireworks.  We will do our best, Mine!  

Oh.  Well.  I guess Mine didn’t actually mean that in a friendly way.  Clearly I am good at reading social cues.  I guess it makes sense for her to be jealous when we have a date and she doesn’t and she really wants to have one.  Orion’s brief moment of sympathy for Mine lasted about a second before he says that we need to be worrying about ourselves.  He says we need to find out what our plans were for the fireworks show tomorrow.  That makes sense.  You know what else would make sense?  For us to just ask Kent.  

Oh, or we could use the resources we have on hand!  That works, too! Clever thinking, Orion.  So we have a date with Kent tomorrow at the fireworks show and we’re meeting at the train station.  Orion comments that Kent never even mentioned it.  He’s pretty busy, Orion.  Maybe we should remind him? Oh goodie!  Orion agrees with me! 

And off to work we go.  We have a great day, which is a great feeling.  But then, our manager gets our attention.  Just like me in real life, Orion assumes that we are in so much trouble. But thankfully, this is not the case.  And yet, the manager looks pretty angry with us.  Talk about stressful!

It’s our friendly neighborhood boyfriend!  He compliments us on our work ethic.

Wow, who asked you? I certainly didn’t ask.  Wow, you really can’t give a girl a compliment without making it a backhanded insult, can you? .... And Orion agrees with him, what a pair of assholes.  This is your fault, Orion, I don’t even want to hear it.  

Maybe I’m the one looking to start a fight now.  Anyway, Orion comments on our our old emotions for Kent are coming back.  That’s great news!  And Kent tells us, albeit in a more reserved manner, that our uniform makes us look hot!  Yuss!

Dude, Kent, you are hopeless.  HOPELESS. But at least you are listening to decent dating advice.  Kent reassures us that he wasn’t lying about our appearance and such.  That’s good to know.  Orion politely gets out of our way.  

Kent!  You are SO forgiven, come here, you precious adorable dork of an asshole that I love.  And he’s brought us a present!  Not just any present...  A HALF-MONTH ANNIVERSARY PRESENT!  This dude is so adorable and dumb and precious and i need twenty.  

And then we get our first (and only) option for the day!  Our options are “Thank you...” and “It is a surprise...” and I went with the second one because the walkthroughs on the internet tell me that that’s how to get the best ending.  Kent is glad that we were surprised and that we like the gift.  Kent also expresses that he worries about not meeting our expectations.  He reassures us that he will do anything he can to meet our expectations next and I just can’t with this guy, okay? 

He concludes with a statement that he just wants us to be happy and my heart is just.  Melting.  Kent also promises to walk us home after work.  Awesome!  Waka the manager reminds us that there is a refrigerator in the back for us to store our cake in and also silently approves of our .... work performance?  Because we got a gift from a customer.  Mine is jealous.  

Orion reflects on our dating experience and waxes poetic about stuff I really do not care about.  Blah blah blah, same phone carrier for less charges while flirting blah blah blaaah.  And that boring note is the one we end our 11th day on.  

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Bonus update

Your friendly neighborhood Mod here. I went ahead and posted this week’s update as an apology. I know I’ve kind of been ignoring Amnesia lately. Regular posting will resume this week.

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Clover Route Day 10

So Paige visits Kent to tell him about the creep she met yesterday.

His hypothesis is less than encouraging.

Kent goes on to ask Paige if we know why this guy might be targeting her. It didn’t seem like the creep was targeting her specifically. We just sort of ran into him on the street, and he said some spooky stuff. Hell, for all we know Paige might actually have been friends with the guy, and they vaguely threaten each other like Kent and Ikkyu do.

This could all be a hilarious misunderstanding.

I chose to tell him no. It was the most honest answer, Kent asks why Paige is so afraid. Like she has to know the specific reason that some guy threatened her for her fear to be valid? It is way scarier to have a guy talk about killing you for no clear reason, in my opinion.

Still, Kent is doing his best to master the human concept of empathy.

I get down on Kent a lot, but he really is trying his best.

Now, we didn’t really cover this before, but this is a Japanese game. From what I understand, PDA between couples is very frowned upon. In the “You kissed in public? You perverted freak” sort of way. I feel like this is important context for previous and upcoming scenes.

So Kent actually trying to make physical contact with Paige (and having admitted to wanting to do so before) shows a lot of growth on his end. Of course, he didn’t initiate it in the best way.

For instance, perhaps the big guy Paige is alone with coming at her suddenly after they literally just finished talking about the potential serial killer who knows who she’s dating and where he lives might not have been the best idea.

Kent tries really hard though.

He offers to walk Paige home from now on. What a gentleman. I would usually say something about gender roles, but let’s face it. Of the two of them, Kent is probably more equipped to deal with any creepy guys by virtue of size and having a sense of initiative.

As always, Kent’s phrasing is important. He says “I might be able to help” not “I’ll take care of it” He does seem to respect Paige and her ability to take care of herself on some level. Which is a little odd given how often he belittles her.

Suspenseful music starts playing here. Kent shouts to the door that he has a weapon, it would be tense if this game didn’t have voiced dialogue. We can clearly hear that it’s just Ikkyu.

Orion doesn’t find it nearly as amusing as I do. Paige doesn’t find it to be anything, because she, like Kent, does not understand the human concept of emotions.

Once they’re done playing… whatever that is, Ikkyu decides to stir up some shit.

Okay so, remember that context I brought up earlier? Ikki is really crossing a line here. Okay, so I really like Ikkyu. He’s probably my favorite boyfriend. He is making a terrible showing in Kent’s route.

Kent goes on to prove how not jealous of Ikkyu he is. We’re given the option to tell him whether or not we like this. I chose to tell him that it hurts, because he is very clearly giving Paige a noogie with his palm. Calm the hell down, Kent.

Kent apologizes and walks Paige home.

Full disclosure: I had to replay up to this point on a fresh save. I’m pretty sure I picked all the same options as I did before, but I did redo the math segment in order to get a better score. I doubt that’ll have much significance to what ending I’m on the path towards, but I thought I should say something for the sake of transparency.

[firis-chan]

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Something Different

Soooooo..... yeah.

Until I can get back to where I was in Amnesia, let’s do something else.

It’s time for Long Live the Queen, a short visual novel/raising sim where you, the player, guide Elodie through the perils of being the crown princess until her coronation.

The biggest problem, aside from the assassins and such who want Elodie dead, is that Elodie is as dumb as a box of rocks.

Despite coming home from school Elodie doesn’t seem to know anything about anything. 

Math? Nope. 

History? Why would she ever need that?

Court Manners? Please, does she look like some kind of princess to you?

The goal of the game is to teach Elodie the skills she needs not only to survive, but to become a good ruler. You would think that the king would have started her education more than a couple months before Elodie was legally an adult, but we’ll work with what we can.

A big part of the game is managing Elodie’s mood. Moods can either help or hurt Elodie’s efforts to learn whatever skill you need her to. RIght now Elodie’s mom just died. She’s pretty depressed. So she’s taking negatives on anything social and athletics, but bonuses for animal handling and expression.

I’ve decided to go for maximum violence and teach Elodie about swords, and also math because c’mon Elodie.

Week 2: Elodie’s aunt and uncle arrive along with her cousin. It’s the weekend now, so we can get to the meet of trying to manage Elodie’s wild mood swings.

This map shows how Elodie can spend her free time. The stars mark special events that can only be seen on certain weeks. Different actions will affect her mood in different ways. It’s important to know which skills take bonuses or minuses from which moods when you’re planning your game.

Week 3: The Duchess of Ursul shows up. The king openly decries her as a traitor to the crown and the reason the late queen died.

Elodie makes the logical choice.

Every ten or so points the lesson gives you the chance to read some flavor text. In the case of sword fighting it’s just what sort of sword techniques Elodie learned, but for others you get to know interesting tidbits about the country Elodie’s going to be running. Apparently there are druids.

Week 4: Elodie and her cousin are playing in the garden when Elodie is attacked by a poisonous snake. Fortunately, her cousin is there with healing magic. Elodie promises to keep her cousin’s powers a secret, but her aunt comes in and announces that they’re leaving. Elodie is left without anyone to play with again.

Anyone who isn’t her prisoner, anyway.

Week 5: Elodie learns about markets, but she still has much more to learn. The Duke of Sedna sends Elodie a necklace that she immediately puts on. Because it’s sparkly and makes Elodie happy.

Week 6: A strange priestess appears and warns Elodie that she must release the duchess or her kingdom will be unprepared for the wars ahead. Elodie tells her to fuck off.

Week 7: The Duchess’s brother comes to beg for his sister’s release. Elodie gives his sister’s title over to him, and goes down to the dungeons to rub the ex-Duchess’s nose in it. 

And also execute her.

This goes poorly for Elodie.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Amnesia: Memories- Kent Route Day 10

We pick up on Day 10 at Kent’s house after we tell him about our scary encounter with the mysterious possible murderer.  

We are off to a great start.  No memories, spirits in our heads, friends that think we’re out to get the targets of their affection, an emotionally constipated boyfriend, and now we might have a serial killer after us.  Good deal. 

 Heeey, if there’s a serial killer aspect to this story, are we going to be rescued by big, scary Kent?  Yes, please~ I have always been a slut for a damsel in distress story.  But what would make me even happier is us rescuing Kent!  0v0

Kent is suspicious of the fact that we say we don’t know the guy that apparently knows both of us.  

Orion suspects that we might have known the scary guy before he lost our memories for us.  I agree that it’s unlikely that we have never seen or met him before.  Kent, ever the diligent man, notes our paleness and asks if we know of any reason anyone would want to hurt us.  Unfortunately, we have no memories and we’ve been hiding that, so we can’t tell him any form of helpful answer.  My answer choice here is “I can’t think of anything,” since we literally know of no reason that anyone would wish us harm.  

I dunno, man.  Maybe I’m pale because a scary guy I don’t know knows my name and your name and was talking about killing me and then you’re like “maybe he’s a serial killer.”  You tell me, would that not elicit at least some concern?  

Of course, Kent immediately follows that up with “He must have been really scary!”  And I’m like no fucking shit.  Before any further conversation can be had, Kent comes closer and looks really freaked out.  

Awh, was he going to hug us and then he realized he was about to touch us and was like “holy shit, better not frighten girlfriend”? Like, I could probably use a hug right about now, maybe chill, Kent.  

“I wasn’t going to do anything outrageous...”  Kent, you’re blushing because you wanted to give us a hug?  Precious.  Or... not.  

Well, I suppose hand holding can also be comforting.  But personally, I’d rather have a hug.  But he doesn’t stop there.  

Kent really worries too much.  We’re dating.  Hand holding and hugs and even sometimes kisses are typical things to expect from romantic relationships.  Having you come closer to me and hold my hand to comfort me is a plus, not scary. This must be because of our rocky relationship and the rocky foundation of it.  

“So you don’t need to be so guarded.”  Is the final part of Kent’s next lines.  Were we making a face?  Like.  Kent is the least threatening person we’ve met the entire game.  I’m pretty sure I could put him up against a kitten and the kitten would be scarier.  

Fortunately, Kent takes our concerns seriously.  He offers to walk with us after dark to make sure we’re safe.  I also love how Kent doesn’t put forth a bunch of blustering bravado to impress us.  He could just as easily have said “I’ll walk you home every night to make sure you’re safe.  I’ll beat him up if he bothers you.” or anything else involving typical macho man bravado.  But instead, he says he might be able to help deal with that man.  Help deal with that man.  Not swoop in as a hero in a cape to save the day.  Not fix the problem for us.  Not to reduce us to a prize in some macho man fight about who gets the girl.  He says he might be able to help us deal with him.  

Another significant choice of words is saying that he might be able to help.  Kent makes no guarantees that he would be able to protect us from any threat.  He humbly acknowledges here that he might not be able to deal with this guy if he seriously is dangerous, but he will do what he can to help us if it came to that.  There is nothing I like more than a guy that is honest with me and himself about his capabilities and the situations we are in.  

We are going to die.  I know I was just harping about how nice it is that Kent is honest with me and that he will help me deal with this scary man, but if the scary man is here right fucking now, I need more than like two seconds to mentally prepare myself for the fight or flight reflex.  If I’m hiding, are you going to shove a shelf against the door or are you gonna be dumb as fuck and open the door for the serial killer?  

Kent, I don’t want to watch your bespectacled ass die in front of me while I hide under your desk and hope I’m not discovered-

Son of a fucking bitch.  Kent.  Ikki.  I’m over here having a panic attack because serial killer and you two have to play your fucking math nerd assassin games?  That’s it.  I’m done.  Play your games like the overgrown children you are.  I’m going h o m e  and there is nothing you can do to stop me.  

Oh.  I can’t leave yet?  Not cool, game.  I’m mad.  Can’t we just leaaave?  No?  Fine.  

Kent apologizes for the interruption that Ikki caused in our discussion. As if that is what merits an apology.  How about giving me a heart attack and knocking twenty years off my life?  

Ikki changes the subject to math puzzles that Kent likes to make and when he discovers that Kent already gave us some of said puzzles, he has the most hilarious reaction.  You fool.  You didn’t even suspect that I love math puzzles.  Maybe soon, I’ll join your stupid play pretend math assassin games.  

Okay.  So I can’t really fault him much for this one.  Although, I am personally offended.  We already know that we met Kent through a basic/beginner’s math course thing, so it’s natural he would consider our math skills elementary at best.  But still to come out an say it in front of your bro and in front of me.  Rude. (This is another rare occasion where Orion and I agree).  

Immediately following Kent’s statement, Ikki takes to his defense... Or so it seems.  “I’m sure he’s a ton of trouble.  He’s not a bad guy though, so try to be patient with him.”  

Kent is suddenly affronted by something Ikki says or does and one thing that I don’t like about this scene is how we don’t know what Ikki is doing until Ikki and Kent describe it.  Would it have been that much more difficult to draw Ikki’s hand reaching over the camera to rub our head?  

Kent is, understandably, upset by this development.  Ikki is taking some liberties here, what with rubbing the head of his best friend’s girlfriend.  

Wow, Ikki.  You’re not even hiding the fact that you’re doing this to make Kent jealous. The tone of voice the actor uses here cements that fact, which I cannot portray to you through text and screenshots.  To Kent’s credit, he keeps his cool, calmly telling Ikki that he has no morals.  

Of course, Kent is getting prety worked up about Ikki touching us.  It’s probably because Kent can’t even bring himself to hold our hand without dramatically working up to it.  Ikki is being pretty insensitive to his best friend.  And Ikki isn’t content to leave it at that, either.  

Before, it could be excused as a little lighthearted teasing, but now Ikki is just being an asshole.  Like, dude, maybe leave Kent and his insecurities alone?  Also, maybe stop rubbing my head, cause like, I don’t remember you asking permission to touch me and I’m sensitive about things like that.  But alas, being a silent protagonist with a spirit running our show, we don’t have the option to punch Ikki for being too familiar and touching us without permission.  

Ikki, seriously?  With friends like you, who needs enemies?  Openly flirting with your best friend’s girlfriend and pushing our boundaries by touching us and making open advances without permission.  Kent is having no more of this.  

He’s clearly getting pissed.  Ikki should call it quits, since it’s obvious that his playful teasing isn’t being well received.  But he doesn’t.  He casts another jab at Kent by brazenly asking for our number right in front of Kent.  

Look, there is nothing wrong with a guy and a girl who are not romantically involved exchanging phone numbers.  Men and women can be friends, after all.  But Ikki’s timing here is awful.  He’s flirted with Kent and insinuated that he would give us more intimate contact and Kent is already suspicious that Ikki intends to seduce us.  It’s just a dick move. 

We, the MC, could definitely do more to discourage Ikki’s advances, but we’re a blank paper bag with little real input into the story.  So, we exchange numbers and Ikki backs off and heads out. 

Alone, Kent approaches us, with a deep blush on his cheeks.  Is he going to ask us for reassurance?  Is he going to attempt to reaffirm that we have feelings for each other?  Is he going to do something sweet? Oh, Kent-

This sets off so many alarm bells in my head.  He’s got his hand balled up in our hair and his expression is the scariest I’ve seen on him.  Kent is so insecure that he would hurt us to prove to himself that he is manly enough to touch us in an intimate way.  

Personally, in real life, this would be a straight up deal breaker for me.  I don’t give a flying fuck how cute you are, how smart you are, how much I like you and am interested in you romantically, the minute you cause me physical harm is the minute your ass is on the curb.  No one, no man and no woman and no one of any gender on the spectrum will be allowed to cause me physical harm of any kind and stay in my life.  Unless it’s completely accidental, like, we ran into each other face first and now we’re laying in the floor groaning about how much our heads hurt.  

You have disappointed me, Kent.  You have disappointed me.  

But you are still, by far, the best boyfriend this game has to offer.  You heard me correctly: there are boyfriends in this game who treat us much worse than this.  Much worse.  I will miss you and your insecure hair pulling when we move on from your route to another.  

Fortunately, we get a chance to talk to Kent about how this hair pulling, rubbing thing feels.  I choose “I don’t dislike it, but it hurts.”  In this scenario, alone with a man bigger than me, who is already holding me by the hair, I wouldn’t want to antagonize him.  Best to pacify him and when I’m no longer in immediate danger, run for the hills.  

I don’t forgive you.  First of all, your hand is still balled up in my hair.  You’re pulling my hair as you apologize to me for pulling my hair and hurting me.  Second of all, you lost control and you hurt me.  You hurt me because you wer insecure and you are intelligent enough to know better.  Not laying a harmful hand on someone you profess to love isn’t difficult.  It’s being a decent human being. 

Well, first of all, he wasn’t pulling my hair and hurting my head.  Second of all, I don’t have a good answer for that, because the protagonist is a blank, passive page and Orion calls almost all of the shots. But we’re hiding this from Kent, so we don’t have a good explanation for him.  But!  Regardless!  You have no right!  To harm me!  No matter if you think someone else was allowed to do it!  

Can we go home yet?  No?  Kent has to angst about how Ikki will make advances on us? You don’t trust me to love you and to choose you over Ikki?  Just what is our shitty relationship based around, anyway?  Why are we even still trying at this point? 

Then get your hand out of my hair, shit fuck.  

“While I hesitate to even hold your hand, your heart could turn towards him...” Hand.  In my hair.  Fuck you.  Also, before this fiasco, I would have said “of course not.  You are being paranoid.  “I’m afraid that he could take you away from me.”  Dude, I don’t even want to see your face right now.  

“It takes all I have just to touch your hair.”  Then stop touching it. It’s not like I’m forcing you.  

Oh, well, since you put it that way- you are not forgiven.  Not that quickly, you asshole.  Prove to me you aren’t gonna abuse me and that that sort of thing will never happen again.  Oh, wait, things like that usually have repeat performances.  

“Could you go home for today?  ...I’ll walk you back.”  

Oh, thank God.  Just the words I was waiting for.  I don’t especially want you to walk me home, but better for you to walk me home than me be axe murdered in the street, I guess.  

Back at our apartment, Orion says “That was a surprise.”  and I’m like, which part?  Kent going crazy and pulling our hair or Ikki violating our personal space or maybe the way that Kent excused his behavior like an abuser would do?  

Which is a major warning sign in my book.  Danger, danger.  That’s not something to be happy about, Orion.  “He might like you more than we expected.”  Bro.  This is a bad thing, not a good thing.  Instead of getting more onto Ikki about this, he let all of his anger out on us.  That’s not cool.  

What a crappy note to end day 10 on.  And our romance was finally starting to get better.  

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Mod talk

Whoa there. Guess who's inbox is open for questions! I'll give you a hint: it's ours

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Mod talk

Your friendly neighborhood mod here. I ran into some minor technical difficulties of the dead computer sort. I've got the computer sorted out, but my save files are gone. No post from me this week.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Amnesia: Kent’s Route, Day 9

Kent invites us into his home for our date!  And then he strikes up conversation- I think we might be getting through to him.  He continues and tells us how he thinks we should talk more.  Great!  He says we should tell him if we have any issues with his behavior.  I sure will, Kento-san.

Let’s take advantage of his willingness to talk and learn more about our boyfriend.  I started with “What are you always working on?”  

We learn a little more about his potential trip to study abroad if his thesis and presentation are well-received.  The high stakes associated with his presentation on the twenty-fifth bring a little more context to his abrasiveness.  Kent is really excited about the offer to study abroad.  This is a very big opportunity for him.  

Kent, for the first time, expresses an interest in going steady for the long-term.  I’d be lying if I didn’t say that that made me happy. Orion flails about how unexpected it is for Kent to be thinking of anything major like marriage when we have had such a rocky relationship.  

When asking Kent about if he’s super busy right now, he tells us that he’s pretty busy and that it would be like this until his presentation and then he’d be packing up to leave to study abroad.  Kent laments how little time we have to spend together as a result.

What a sweetheart.  You can work on your stuff as much as you want.  I’d be perfectly fine with reading next to you.  Or helping with your stuff!  

Well, it was nice while it lasted.  We are a distraction to our bookish love interest. But at least he has enough feelings for us that we take up his attention?  But we’re making him fall further and further behind in his preparations.  That’s not good!  

 Also, what the fuck is happening with his hand here.  Surely it hasn’t been this large in previous shots.  Or- apparently it has been, but wow at the size of his hands.  

We get to ask Kent if he’s calling us because he feels obligated or we can tell him that he doesn’t have to invite us over.  I chose to ask if he felt obligated.  

He clearly didn’t expect that response.  I think he can tell that he was being hurtful and that his words were enough to make us doubt his emotional attachment to us.  

I think he might have missed the point here, but yes, as a matter of fact, I would be suspicious of you and your intentions.  But I trust literally no one.  

“If I said I actually wanted to hold your hand right now, you’d stop coming over, right?  Would you go home immediately?”  

Dude, Kent, chill.  It’s just holding hands, it’s not like we’re having sex and making a million babies.  We’re dating and holding hands is, like, part of the event description.  

But he was worried that we would run away from him, so he made up an excuse to get us to come over.  I’m glad that he comes clean here to let us know how much he enjoys our company.

 This must be some sort of cultural thing.  Hand holding isn’t taboo here in the United States, after all.  

Sorry, I couldn’t focus over my doki doki.    But in all seriousness, it’s another point in his favor for him to do everything he can to help us feel safe around him.  And I choose my words carefully here: there is a very real and large difference between helping us feel safe and trying to make us feel safe.  More on that in later routes.  

He continues to tell us that he’s happy for us to be here, even though we are a distraction.  In a long, roundabout way, he did answer our original question: “Are you calling me out of obligation?”  The answer is clearly no.  He genuinely wants us around.  But personally, I would find it distressing that I was hindering him in his life goals just by being there.  My initial response would be to give him some space to do his work and visit later, but I know from experience playing the game that this will not give me the good ending for Kent and I’ve played this route multiple times and I still haven’t gotten the good ending, so let’s just tuck those inhibitions aside for now.  

Naturally, Orion flails about how unexpected Kent’s admissions are and frankly, I’m over it, Orion.  Just lemme flirt with my boyfriend without your bewildered flailing.  Although, I suppose that the argument could be made that he is feeling and expressing our bewilderment, since he somehow rearranged our brain.  

From here, we get another choice:  Work on the math workbook that Kent made for us or reread the manual for work again.  Math lovers, rejoice!  We get to actually solve the math problems! Or just guess at random if you don’t like math.  You have a 25% chance of guessing the right numbers.  Go go, Gadget Math Problems!  (I am lowkey disappointed that it’s only ten questions.  I love math.)

Getting all of the questions correct will earn us a genuine compliment from Kent after he checks our work.  But alas, he must now return to doing his science math. Orion complains about the math problems being too hard and suggests that we should read one of Kent’s books for awhile.  

We have such a good time at Kent’s house that we lose track of time and it’s dark outside.  Kent wishes us a good night and tells us to be careful.  Orion and I agree with him that we need to be careful out walking the streets alone at night.

Progress!

No memories, who dis?  This stranger knows us by name and proceeds to tell us how important it is to not walk around alone at night.  While I appreciate his concern, he’s pretty intense about it.

 And this is concerning.  Worry meter has gone from about a 3 from being approached by some random dude to a solid 5.  Orion, finally, asks all the important questions like “what does he mean by that??”

 Mm, yeah.  A little bit.  

Wow, look at that expression!  Worry meter is now at 9.  Apparently this scary man knows Kent as well as us.

  Worry meter: 12/10.  Run away!  Oh.  Instead we stay and talk to the scary man.  Okay.  Cool.  Whatever.  

Do we regret our life choices yet?  I’m regretting my life choices.  Mainly the one that involved not running for my life before it got to this.  

And then….  

Wow, somehow him trying to stop being scary makes him scarier.  Worry meter up. The stranger gives us a final warning before peacing out.  So, naturally, we run away home, ending our ninth day.  

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Mod note

Sorry about that. Phone posts from my personal blog redirected to this. Log again. I've cleaned it up. -Tardiff

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Mod Note

Hey guys,

Real life has kind of been kicking our butts lately, so there won’t be any new posts this week. Posting will resume next Tuesday while we try to get things back under control.

Sorry about that, you guys.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Girl’s Side Story Part 4

Oh no.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Ooooh no.

OOOOOOOH NOOOOOOOOO

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOooooooooo.

You guys. I have some really bad news. In the past two Girl’s Side games I’ve played the teacher has been a romance option.

I’m pretty sure this toddler is going to be a route we can go down.

The good news is, he has the whole babyface thing going for him. Maybe that’s enough to fufill the shota quota for this game and all of our other options look around Page’s age.

Yes good. Thank you, responsible adult.

A strict but responsible adult. Why couldn’t he have been Page’s teacher?

GAMEPLAY!

So here is the actual game portion of the game. During Page’s free time she can do a variety of things to raise some stats at the expense of others. Guys don’t just care about how much affection they have for you. These guys have standards. If your stats aren’t high enough you don’t get your happily ever after.

The column on the right will fill out later, so let’s just go over the options we have right now.

Sleep, lowers stress but also all of the other stats. Everything besides sleeping raises stress. If your stress gets too high then Page will get sick and have to stay home from school. It’s a pain in the ass, so try not to let this happen.

Study: Raises Intelligence, Arts, and Style at the expense of fitness and charm.

Painting: Raises Arts, Style and Intelligence at the expense of fitness and social.

Running (The actual animation is usually jump rope though): Raises fitness and social, but lowers Intelligence, Arts, and Style. This makes it an annoying balancing act to keep Page’s grades up while dating a more athletically inclined boy.

Fashion Magazine: Raises Style, Charm, and Arts. Lowers Intelligence and Social.

Makeup: Charm, Style, and Arts go up. Fitness, Social, and Intelligence go down.

The picture of the telephone lets us call people, but I don’t think we have anyone’s number yet. The picture of the shopping bag with the shoe on it lets us go out to buy new clothes. We have 100 bucks burning a hole in our pocket, but shopping can wait.

The clothes hanger lets us change our outfit or look at previous outfits. This will be important later on, but not so important now.

The computer lets us check the local news, look at what is fashionable right now, and look at our horoscopes.

I forget what the gavel is for. I think it might be game options or save/load. Or that might be the icon under it which I also forget what it does. The point is, these two options aren’t ever really relevant to the matter at hand and can be safely ignored.

The calendar lets us look at the calender. Good for reminding us when we have dates coming up or if there’s an event upcoming.

The envelope lets us check our email. We get emails for all sorts of things, so it’s good to check them as soon as they come in.

Next time, we’re going to be meeting two new friends.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Girl’s Side Story Part 3

So we’re finally almost getting into the game proper. Almost.

The stats on the left are all fairly self-explanatory.

Stress is bad and raises slowly over time.

Money is how much cash you have to spend.

Intel(ligence) is how smart Page is.

Fitness is how good at sports Page is.

Style is how much Page knows about fashion.

Arts is how good at art Page is.

Social is how good at conversating Page is.

Charm is how good at being charming Page is.

Honestly, none of these stats matter when it comes to your day-to-day interactions with your potential love interests. They do, however, control how well you do in things like your exams or festivals. Also, your stats determine what cute boys you meet and whether you get a good ending on any particular route. 

Remember how I said that there was an ABSOLUTE PERFECTION route? Yeah, they usually require all of those stats to be well over 100, along with the usual certain number of dates and affection rating requirements. I will not be completing that route on my first try. With any luck I’ll get an easier boyfriend to impress.

Right now Page is strong and charming, but not very bright. There are actions we can take that will alter Page’s stats, but not now. Right now all we can do is check our e-mail (which just tells us that we might get e-mails about part time jobs at some point in the future) and go to school.

Page is really excited for her first day of high school. I remember mostly being super nervous, but Page is a lot more sociable than I was at her age.

Page gets excited and presumably begins to skip to school, only to run headlong into a grumpy looking giant.

“...Zack”

What a happy reunion. I’m pretty happy that Page was so quick to figure this out. If this was Amnesia it would be at least another day or two or two of Orion flailing around and wildly speculating while Paige stares blankly before we’re allowed to come to this obvious conclusion.

I honestly do like that game.

The trio walks to school. They exchange some friendly catching up banter while the brothers bicker a little.

The brothers insist that Page hasn’t changed at all. Since our experience of Page from before the game started is limited to that flashback, I’ll go ahead and assume that these two know better. Maybe they’ll reminisce about old times at some point. It could be fun.

Once they arrive at the school, faceless NPCs gossip loudly nearby. Apparently Ruka and Kou are famous. Or probably infamous, given our earlier conversation about expulsion. I’m sure we’ll find out what kind of trouble they’ve been causing without Page on their routes.

Until then, we have an entrance ceremony to attend.

A perfectly normal thing to hear in your school principal say during the entrance ceremony, I’m sure.

[visualnoveldiscourse]

My apologies

Mod here. I am on mobile and didn't realize that I was shitposting here as opposed to my personal blog. The shitposts have since been deleted. Sorry for the inconvenience.