No, his photo is Kanade from the anime Angel Beats, she's a minorStack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:39The style and cadence make me suspect another KOS-MOS situation.
She's not tho, KOS-MOS is a doll, meant to be Mary Magdalene's vessel. Which only happens once she get her missing anima from T-ELOS.
No I meanKOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:58No, his photo is Kanade from the anime Angel Beats, she's a minorStack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:39The style and cadence make me suspect another KOS-MOS situation.
KOS-MOS is a video game character and also a ******* battle android with big boobs
Learn the difference
Stack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:07No I meanKOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:58No, his photo is Kanade from the anime Angel Beats, she's a minorStack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:39The style and cadence make me suspect another KOS-MOS situation.
KOS-MOS is a video game character and also a ******* battle android with big boobs
Learn the difference
I think it's a girl
Well, the writing indicates low IQ and low testosterone, so... I'm being charitable.KOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:08Stack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:07No I meanKOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:58
No, his photo is Kanade from the anime Angel Beats, she's a minor
KOS-MOS is a video game character and also a ******* battle android with big boobs
Learn the difference
I think it's a girl
ok ******* ******Stack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:10Well, the writing indicates low IQ and low testosterone, so... I'm being charitable.
I feel like a pacific war veteran right nowKOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:06She's not tho, KOS-MOS is a doll, meant to be Mary Magdalene's vessel. Which only happens once she get her missing anima from T-ELOS.
KOS-MOS wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:11ok ******* ******Stack of Turtles wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 23:10Well, the writing indicates low IQ and low testosterone, so... I'm being charitable.
The publishers HostedGames and ChoiceOfGames, basically the same entity, often have this line in the promo of their game:gerey wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 14:22you may also want to take a look at
store.steampowered.com/app/446310/Sabres_of_Infinity/
store.steampowered.com/app/446330/Guns_of_Infinity/
store.steampowered.com/app/2169120/Lords_of_Infinity/
store.steampowered.com/app/318330/Mecha_Ace/
All developed by the same guy, Paul Wang, IIRC.
(I don't play any from the publisher, for that matter)
He doesn't - there's a whole disclaimer at the start of "Guns of Eternity" about how the character can only be a male because of the historical period the game is inspired from (Napoleonic Wars).Poityu wrote: ↑ June 26th, 2025, 06:27Paul Wang's does not have that in the promo so it is possible that his games don't delve into it,
As someone who's played dozens of Choice of Games and Hosted Games, I can confirm this is true. In fact, they're pozzed so often that the latest Hosted Game I played (Breach: The Archangel Job) was conspicuous with it's lack of ******* or ******, with all of the companions being blue/green/hazel-eyed and red/blond-haired Europeans with a single Asian and an optional ****. Though this was only surface appearance as the most powerful person in this game is an arab woman CEO of a Canadian corporation who makes the Gary Stu character that you follow wear a skirt and profusely apologize to her.gerey wrote: ↑ June 26th, 2025, 06:30He doesn't - there's a whole disclaimer at the start of "Guns of Eternity" about how the character can only be a male because of the historical period the game is inspired from (Napoleonic Wars).Poityu wrote: ↑ June 26th, 2025, 06:27Paul Wang's does not have that in the promo so it is possible that his games don't delve into it,
But yes, Choice of Games and Hosted Games titles are usually pozzed, though I am not sure how much money the parent company gets from the Hosted Games titles.
Good movie.
Huh. Hmm. What visual novels have you read? I had the impression that visual novels are in general more dialogue-oriented than traditional literature. Though it could be more of a rule of thumb.WhiteShark wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 12:28I'm a gameplay-first kind of guy, so I'm having trouble thinking of recommendations that fit your criteria, but my limited experience with VNs has been that they have way more useless descriptive text than a decent book.
I meant to say that the presence of cute girls is usually irrelevant to the story, not that I necessarily dislike it :')
Well, besides Doki Doki, I liked everything from etherane https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... r=etherane. Hello Charlotte was recommended to me by redditors because pixelated aesthetic creepy depressive cute girl featuring cheap indie rpgmaker, but it's actually really good even beyond that. The only issue is that it's intentionally extremely obfuscated, it feels more like reverse-engineering a story than reading one. I suppose it was too personal to be made easily, or even at all, understandable.Valter wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:15Any other story games you liked or disliked, or have or have not played yet?
Actually, I know EXACTLY what I should put as my profile pic. I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier.adad wrote: ↑ June 30th, 2025, 00:41Well, besides Doki Doki, I liked everything from etherane https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... r=etherane. Hello Charlotte was recommended to me by redditors because pixelated aesthetic creepy depressive cute girl featuring cheap indie rpgmaker, but it's actually really good even beyond that. The only issue is that it's intentionally extremely obfuscated, it feels more like reverse-engineering a story than reading one. I suppose it was too personal to be made easily, or even at all, understandable.Valter wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:15Any other story games you liked or disliked, or have or have not played yet?
I liked Omori overall, but not for the same reasons as most players. Omori is yet another pixelated depression rpgmaker, and numerous parts of it I dislike because of this. However, unlike most depression games, this one also somewhat leaves open the possibility of the depressed person being in the wrong. There are two routes in the game, but most players only play one, because the other one is considered an "alternate" route, which is completely untrue. Anyway, it is that route that explains all the intentions of the final antagonist of the game, and why he has been right all along, and why the depressed main character is indeed a pathetic **** who deserves to die. That is the part I like about the game. You know. The "anti depression game" part. Which is ironic. Or maybe not. But again, just as a coincidence surely, here too that part in particular is more obfuscated than everything else in the game, to the point people don't even consider the route "canon". Because they didn't understand it, that is.
Uh... Don't hang me for this, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley was alright. Well, the parts that have come out so far anyway. I played this because I saw a meme about it. Every place I searched for recommendations ended up in failure, so I thought, what difference does it make? Anyway, episode 1 was alright, episode 2 was atrocious, and episode 3 made a very unexpected comeback after the monstrosity that was episode 2. I almost quit the game after episode 2 actually. I mean, I don't really see the game as promoting incest to be honest, not really. I don't exactly see the characters and go "oh yeah, I want to be just like them!". Quite the opposite if anything. But anyway, since the game isn't finished, I can't exactly say if I liked it or not yet. It depends a lot on how it's concluded.
...not much more comes to mind to be honest. Most games I play I don't like. Maybe it's a me problem. I'm not sure if I should be making a list of the games I didn't like too, I'm bound to insult someone. Except japanese visual novels, you all probably hate those too, so... Actually let's not name them individually either, naming the subgenre is enough. And before you point it out, about the girl in my profile, the anime/visual novel I took that from is also bad, but the girl is cute enough, and the story was good for like the first 10% of it, so I just assumed the rest of the story doesn't exist or is up to interpreation or whatever, hence enabling myself to grab that screenshot. Though it would probably be easier to just change my pfp. What do I even replace it with anyway? I should have just left a meme or something. Welp.
I liked DDLC but that was however many years ago, and Andy&Leyley is merely okay story-wise, though I haven't played the latest chapter, but it tended have good comedy so I like it too.adad wrote: ↑ June 30th, 2025, 00:41Well, besides Doki Doki, I liked everything from etherane https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... r=etherane. Hello Charlotte was recommended to me by redditors because pixelated aesthetic creepy depressive cute girl featuring cheap indie rpgmaker, but it's actually really good even beyond that. The only issue is that it's intentionally extremely obfuscated, it feels more like reverse-engineering a story than reading one. I suppose it was too personal to be made easily, or even at all, understandable.Valter wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:15Any other story games you liked or disliked, or have or have not played yet?
I liked Omori overall, but not for the same reasons as most players. Omori is yet another pixelated depression rpgmaker, and numerous parts of it I dislike because of this. However, unlike most depression games, this one also somewhat leaves open the possibility of the depressed person being in the wrong. There are two routes in the game, but most players only play one, because the other one is considered an "alternate" route, which is completely untrue. Anyway, it is that route that explains all the intentions of the final antagonist of the game, and why he has been right all along, and why the depressed main character is indeed a pathetic **** who deserves to die. That is the part I like about the game. You know. The "anti depression game" part. Which is ironic. Or maybe not. But again, just as a coincidence surely, here too that part in particular is more obfuscated than everything else in the game, to the point people don't even consider the route "canon". Because they didn't understand it, that is.
Uh... Don't hang me for this, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley was alright. Well, the parts that have come out so far anyway. I played this because I saw a meme about it. Every place I searched for recommendations ended up in failure, so I thought, what difference does it make? Anyway, episode 1 was alright, episode 2 was atrocious, and episode 3 made a very unexpected comeback after the monstrosity that was episode 2. I almost quit the game after episode 2 actually. I mean, I don't really see the game as promoting incest to be honest, not really. I don't exactly see the characters and go "oh yeah, I want to be just like them!". Quite the opposite if anything. But anyway, since the game isn't finished, I can't exactly say if I liked it or not yet. It depends a lot on how it's concluded.
...not much more comes to mind to be honest. Most games I play I don't like. Maybe it's a me problem. I'm not sure if I should be making a list of the games I didn't like too, I'm bound to insult someone. Except japanese visual novels, you all probably hate those too, so... Actually let's not name them individually either, naming the subgenre is enough. And before you point it out, about the girl in my profile, the anime/visual novel I took that from is also bad, but the girl is cute enough, and the story was good for like the first 10% of it, so I just assumed the rest of the story doesn't exist or is up to interpreation or whatever, hence enabling myself to grab that screenshot. Though it would probably be easier to just change my pfp. What do I even replace it with anyway? I should have just left a meme or something. Welp.
The first 2 episodes as a whole of Andy and Leyley are indeed merely okay (...at best) story-wise. I did mention I wanted to drop it after finishing episode 2. Episode 3 however is a visible increase in quality, especially relative to episode 2. If you got through the first two ones, you might as well play episode 3 too. Though the story is more serious and less comic than previously, so if you prefered the comedy, maybe not. Or maybe it isn't, I don't know. I was paying more attention to the serious parts to be honest.Valter wrote: ↑ July 3rd, 2025, 04:39I liked DDLC but that was however many years ago, and Andy&Leyley is merely okay story-wise, though I haven't played the latest chapter, but it tended have good comedy so I like it too.adad wrote: ↑ June 30th, 2025, 00:41Well, besides Doki Doki, I liked everything from etherane https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... r=etherane. Hello Charlotte was recommended to me by redditors because pixelated aesthetic creepy depressive cute girl featuring cheap indie rpgmaker, but it's actually really good even beyond that. The only issue is that it's intentionally extremely obfuscated, it feels more like reverse-engineering a story than reading one. I suppose it was too personal to be made easily, or even at all, understandable.Valter wrote: ↑ June 25th, 2025, 22:15Any other story games you liked or disliked, or have or have not played yet?
I liked Omori overall, but not for the same reasons as most players. Omori is yet another pixelated depression rpgmaker, and numerous parts of it I dislike because of this. However, unlike most depression games, this one also somewhat leaves open the possibility of the depressed person being in the wrong. There are two routes in the game, but most players only play one, because the other one is considered an "alternate" route, which is completely untrue. Anyway, it is that route that explains all the intentions of the final antagonist of the game, and why he has been right all along, and why the depressed main character is indeed a pathetic **** who deserves to die. That is the part I like about the game. You know. The "anti depression game" part. Which is ironic. Or maybe not. But again, just as a coincidence surely, here too that part in particular is more obfuscated than everything else in the game, to the point people don't even consider the route "canon". Because they didn't understand it, that is.
Uh... Don't hang me for this, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley was alright. Well, the parts that have come out so far anyway. I played this because I saw a meme about it. Every place I searched for recommendations ended up in failure, so I thought, what difference does it make? Anyway, episode 1 was alright, episode 2 was atrocious, and episode 3 made a very unexpected comeback after the monstrosity that was episode 2. I almost quit the game after episode 2 actually. I mean, I don't really see the game as promoting incest to be honest, not really. I don't exactly see the characters and go "oh yeah, I want to be just like them!". Quite the opposite if anything. But anyway, since the game isn't finished, I can't exactly say if I liked it or not yet. It depends a lot on how it's concluded.
...not much more comes to mind to be honest. Most games I play I don't like. Maybe it's a me problem. I'm not sure if I should be making a list of the games I didn't like too, I'm bound to insult someone. Except japanese visual novels, you all probably hate those too, so... Actually let's not name them individually either, naming the subgenre is enough. And before you point it out, about the girl in my profile, the anime/visual novel I took that from is also bad, but the girl is cute enough, and the story was good for like the first 10% of it, so I just assumed the rest of the story doesn't exist or is up to interpreation or whatever, hence enabling myself to grab that screenshot. Though it would probably be easier to just change my pfp. What do I even replace it with anyway? I should have just left a meme or something. Welp.
That said, I dropped Omori and HC so there's a big difference in our tastes, though given your bias towards ****** up plots by unhinged indie devs I would still echo the Slay The Princess recommendation someone else in this thread posted, and add Pathologic 2 to the pile.
I have to say Hello Charlotte grew on me. To be honest the biggest roadblock was getting over the RPGMaker systems which I find to be archaically unfriendly, an aversion that developed into an automatic avoidance mechanism whenever I learn that a game is built on it. But I gave it another try and the game managed to pique my interest, so I just pushed on despite the engine.adad wrote: ↑ July 5th, 2025, 01:07The first 2 episodes as a whole of Andy and Leyley are indeed merely okay (...at best) story-wise. I did mention I wanted to drop it after finishing episode 2. Episode 3 however is a visible increase in quality, especially relative to episode 2. If you got through the first two ones, you might as well play episode 3 too. Though the story is more serious and less comic than previously, so if you prefered the comedy, maybe not. Or maybe it isn't, I don't know. I was paying more attention to the serious parts to be honest.Valter wrote: ↑ July 3rd, 2025, 04:39I liked DDLC but that was however many years ago, and Andy&Leyley is merely okay story-wise, though I haven't played the latest chapter, but it tended have good comedy so I like it too.adad wrote: ↑ June 30th, 2025, 00:41
Well, besides Doki Doki, I liked everything from etherane https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... r=etherane. Hello Charlotte was recommended to me by redditors because pixelated aesthetic creepy depressive cute girl featuring cheap indie rpgmaker, but it's actually really good even beyond that. The only issue is that it's intentionally extremely obfuscated, it feels more like reverse-engineering a story than reading one. I suppose it was too personal to be made easily, or even at all, understandable.
I liked Omori overall, but not for the same reasons as most players. Omori is yet another pixelated depression rpgmaker, and numerous parts of it I dislike because of this. However, unlike most depression games, this one also somewhat leaves open the possibility of the depressed person being in the wrong. There are two routes in the game, but most players only play one, because the other one is considered an "alternate" route, which is completely untrue. Anyway, it is that route that explains all the intentions of the final antagonist of the game, and why he has been right all along, and why the depressed main character is indeed a pathetic **** who deserves to die. That is the part I like about the game. You know. The "anti depression game" part. Which is ironic. Or maybe not. But again, just as a coincidence surely, here too that part in particular is more obfuscated than everything else in the game, to the point people don't even consider the route "canon". Because they didn't understand it, that is.
Uh... Don't hang me for this, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley was alright. Well, the parts that have come out so far anyway. I played this because I saw a meme about it. Every place I searched for recommendations ended up in failure, so I thought, what difference does it make? Anyway, episode 1 was alright, episode 2 was atrocious, and episode 3 made a very unexpected comeback after the monstrosity that was episode 2. I almost quit the game after episode 2 actually. I mean, I don't really see the game as promoting incest to be honest, not really. I don't exactly see the characters and go "oh yeah, I want to be just like them!". Quite the opposite if anything. But anyway, since the game isn't finished, I can't exactly say if I liked it or not yet. It depends a lot on how it's concluded.
...not much more comes to mind to be honest. Most games I play I don't like. Maybe it's a me problem. I'm not sure if I should be making a list of the games I didn't like too, I'm bound to insult someone. Except japanese visual novels, you all probably hate those too, so... Actually let's not name them individually either, naming the subgenre is enough. And before you point it out, about the girl in my profile, the anime/visual novel I took that from is also bad, but the girl is cute enough, and the story was good for like the first 10% of it, so I just assumed the rest of the story doesn't exist or is up to interpreation or whatever, hence enabling myself to grab that screenshot. Though it would probably be easier to just change my pfp. What do I even replace it with anyway? I should have just left a meme or something. Welp.
That said, I dropped Omori and HC so there's a big difference in our tastes, though given your bias towards ****** up plots by unhinged indie devs I would still echo the Slay The Princess recommendation someone else in this thread posted, and add Pathologic 2 to the pile.
Much of the start of Omori is indeed mainly about puzzles, battles, exploration, and light-hearted conversations with friends. Most serious themes start to take precedence only much later in the game. Personally, I didn't mind the former too much, but the best parts of the game are indeed the serious ones later on. Unlike in doki doki, here the light-hearted parts indeed both overstay their welcome, and don't necessarily serve too much of a purpose to the later themes either... Dropping it at the start is understandable.
I'm assuming you downloaded Hello Charlotte demo/episode 1, since the steam uploads are a little confusing, it was initially uploaded on itch.io, it's more clear there. Out of all of etherane's games, HC1 is the only game that I have understood almost completely nothing from. I can't tell if it's my fault, or the game is just not as good as the others, also considering how it's the dev's very first game and all. Either way, when I mentioned liking etherane's games/Hello Charlotte, I was actually referring to everything except episode 1. So... I think the same about that one, yeah. I considered dropping it after episode 1 too. On the other hand, episode 2 is the least abstract and most sensible one of all games. What I'm trying to say is... If you haven't finished episode 1, you can drop it. Regardless of who is at fault for it between you and the dev, you won't miss out on much. However, maybe give episode 2 a try before dropping the series as a whole. It has a much faster payoff than Omori, and makes much more sense than episode 1. And if you don't like that one either, you can drop the author completely with no regrets.
I have already played slay the princess. The serious parts of the story are meh, while the funny parts are absolutely godly. I have no idea what to rate it.
Hi again. As I mentioned the last time, I'm genuinely not sure if I've understood anything at all from episode 1. As I've lamented on this thread before, I don't enjoy all the games I play, and it's entirely possible that I just wasn't yet sure if this one was going to be any different and worth my full attention. Firstly that, and secondly, episode 1 had a bit more puzzles than I prefer. I usually find them distracting rather than fun, and the game was hard enough to make sense of even without such obstacles. But it's also probably the case that episode 1 was simply a little shorter than the others, even without accounting for having more puzzles, so it just contains less things to understand I suppose.Valter wrote: ↑ June 11th, 2026, 01:31I have to say Hello Charlotte grew on me. To be honest the biggest roadblock was getting over the RPGMaker systems which I find to be archaically unfriendly, an aversion that developed into an automatic avoidance mechanism whenever I learn that a game is built on it. But I gave it another try and the game managed to pique my interest, so I just pushed on despite the engine.adad wrote: ↑ July 5th, 2025, 01:07The first 2 episodes as a whole of Andy and Leyley are indeed merely okay (...at best) story-wise. I did mention I wanted to drop it after finishing episode 2. Episode 3 however is a visible increase in quality, especially relative to episode 2. If you got through the first two ones, you might as well play episode 3 too. Though the story is more serious and less comic than previously, so if you prefered the comedy, maybe not. Or maybe it isn't, I don't know. I was paying more attention to the serious parts to be honest.Valter wrote: ↑ July 3rd, 2025, 04:39
I liked DDLC but that was however many years ago, and Andy&Leyley is merely okay story-wise, though I haven't played the latest chapter, but it tended have good comedy so I like it too.
That said, I dropped Omori and HC so there's a big difference in our tastes, though given your bias towards ****** up plots by unhinged indie devs I would still echo the Slay The Princess recommendation someone else in this thread posted, and add Pathologic 2 to the pile.
Much of the start of Omori is indeed mainly about puzzles, battles, exploration, and light-hearted conversations with friends. Most serious themes start to take precedence only much later in the game. Personally, I didn't mind the former too much, but the best parts of the game are indeed the serious ones later on. Unlike in doki doki, here the light-hearted parts indeed both overstay their welcome, and don't necessarily serve too much of a purpose to the later themes either... Dropping it at the start is understandable.
I'm assuming you downloaded Hello Charlotte demo/episode 1, since the steam uploads are a little confusing, it was initially uploaded on itch.io, it's more clear there. Out of all of etherane's games, HC1 is the only game that I have understood almost completely nothing from. I can't tell if it's my fault, or the game is just not as good as the others, also considering how it's the dev's very first game and all. Either way, when I mentioned liking etherane's games/Hello Charlotte, I was actually referring to everything except episode 1. So... I think the same about that one, yeah. I considered dropping it after episode 1 too. On the other hand, episode 2 is the least abstract and most sensible one of all games. What I'm trying to say is... If you haven't finished episode 1, you can drop it. Regardless of who is at fault for it between you and the dev, you won't miss out on much. However, maybe give episode 2 a try before dropping the series as a whole. It has a much faster payoff than Omori, and makes much more sense than episode 1. And if you don't like that one either, you can drop the author completely with no regrets.
I have already played slay the princess. The serious parts of the story are meh, while the funny parts are absolutely godly. I have no idea what to rate it.
I actually quite enjoyed how personal and obfuscated the story was, and how it made you work to make any sense out of its endless allegories and metaphors. I would also agree that Episode 2 was the highlight, especially regarding how well paced it was and how cathartic the climax was, with Episode 3 going a bit off the rails in terms of story coherence. I would even go as far as saying that each episode feels like it was made with no intent of having a sequel (aside from that final question in EP2), a virtue I appreciate in stories. While Episode 1 was definitely the most barebones, it yet felt more coherent than Episode 3, but then again that might have been due to my own interpretation of the events as they were presented, completely disconnected from the overarching lore that later entries spawned in order connect them all. EP1 I initially interpreted as a critique on modern technology and entertainment systems, in tandem with drugs and the global population's growing aversion to independent thought, hence the discordance between God Hunters and God Worshippers. That said, I do agree that it's much more opaque than EP2, so maybe some things still went over my head. What did you think of it?
Was quite pleasantly surprised by this little series of games, so thanks for that. Might give Omori a try sometime soon
Yeah I also feel like the puzzles mostly just get in the way, even if they're used to make some kind of point I often feel like there was a better way to go about making it. This seems to be a habit RPGMaker devs by and large always adopt, so I was glad to see etherane adopt Ren'py for her latest Hello Charlotte part: Heaven's Gate. Honestly my only big beef with the engine itself, not the devs, is that it reduces all my windows to its diminutive size so I have to constantly maximize them again every time I tab out. Not sure if you have a fix for that seeing as you're more comfortable with it. My other issue with is more with the typical dev that uses it to make a combat-free story but also feels the absolute need to implement chores or puzzles of some sort that have you walking around. These works often could have instead been very succint and high quality stories on another beginner-friendly engine like Ren'py or another one that escapes my mind right now. Is there some particular reason I'm missing for these devs to make an RPGMaker game instead of Ren'py one?adad wrote: ↑ June 13th, 2026, 18:13Hi again. As I mentioned the last time, I'm genuinely not sure if I've understood anything at all from episode 1. As I've lamented on this thread before, I don't enjoy all the games I play, and it's entirely possible that I just wasn't yet sure if this one was going to be any different and worth my full attention. Firstly that, and secondly, episode 1 had a bit more puzzles than I prefer. I usually find them distracting rather than fun, and the game was hard enough to make sense of even without such obstacles. But it's also probably the case that episode 1 was simply a little shorter than the others, even without accounting for having more puzzles, so it just contains less things to understand I suppose.Valter wrote: ↑ June 11th, 2026, 01:31I have to say Hello Charlotte grew on me. To be honest the biggest roadblock was getting over the RPGMaker systems which I find to be archaically unfriendly, an aversion that developed into an automatic avoidance mechanism whenever I learn that a game is built on it. But I gave it another try and the game managed to pique my interest, so I just pushed on despite the engine.adad wrote: ↑ July 5th, 2025, 01:07
The first 2 episodes as a whole of Andy and Leyley are indeed merely okay (...at best) story-wise. I did mention I wanted to drop it after finishing episode 2. Episode 3 however is a visible increase in quality, especially relative to episode 2. If you got through the first two ones, you might as well play episode 3 too. Though the story is more serious and less comic than previously, so if you prefered the comedy, maybe not. Or maybe it isn't, I don't know. I was paying more attention to the serious parts to be honest.
Much of the start of Omori is indeed mainly about puzzles, battles, exploration, and light-hearted conversations with friends. Most serious themes start to take precedence only much later in the game. Personally, I didn't mind the former too much, but the best parts of the game are indeed the serious ones later on. Unlike in doki doki, here the light-hearted parts indeed both overstay their welcome, and don't necessarily serve too much of a purpose to the later themes either... Dropping it at the start is understandable.
I'm assuming you downloaded Hello Charlotte demo/episode 1, since the steam uploads are a little confusing, it was initially uploaded on itch.io, it's more clear there. Out of all of etherane's games, HC1 is the only game that I have understood almost completely nothing from. I can't tell if it's my fault, or the game is just not as good as the others, also considering how it's the dev's very first game and all. Either way, when I mentioned liking etherane's games/Hello Charlotte, I was actually referring to everything except episode 1. So... I think the same about that one, yeah. I considered dropping it after episode 1 too. On the other hand, episode 2 is the least abstract and most sensible one of all games. What I'm trying to say is... If you haven't finished episode 1, you can drop it. Regardless of who is at fault for it between you and the dev, you won't miss out on much. However, maybe give episode 2 a try before dropping the series as a whole. It has a much faster payoff than Omori, and makes much more sense than episode 1. And if you don't like that one either, you can drop the author completely with no regrets.
I have already played slay the princess. The serious parts of the story are meh, while the funny parts are absolutely godly. I have no idea what to rate it.
I actually quite enjoyed how personal and obfuscated the story was, and how it made you work to make any sense out of its endless allegories and metaphors. I would also agree that Episode 2 was the highlight, especially regarding how well paced it was and how cathartic the climax was, with Episode 3 going a bit off the rails in terms of story coherence. I would even go as far as saying that each episode feels like it was made with no intent of having a sequel (aside from that final question in EP2), a virtue I appreciate in stories. While Episode 1 was definitely the most barebones, it yet felt more coherent than Episode 3, but then again that might have been due to my own interpretation of the events as they were presented, completely disconnected from the overarching lore that later entries spawned in order connect them all. EP1 I initially interpreted as a critique on modern technology and entertainment systems, in tandem with drugs and the global population's growing aversion to independent thought, hence the discordance between God Hunters and God Worshippers. That said, I do agree that it's much more opaque than EP2, so maybe some things still went over my head. What did you think of it?
Was quite pleasantly surprised by this little series of games, so thanks for that. Might give Omori a try sometime soon
One thing I can tell with relatively high confidence though is that the author's critiques are less about actually criticizing and more about lamenting the absence of somewhere or someone to turn to for help and guidance, given the state the world itself is in. Though again, these are probably my thoughts in retrospective after finishing the whole series rather than after episode 1 alone as you mention. As an example, I find these "critiques" very similiar to the scene where Charlotte and C try to escape in episode 2; after being confronted with the state of affairs outside, neither of them is so much worried or saddened by the state of the world itself, as they are by the inherent implication that there is no way out.
Maybe I would be able to discover some more things if I replayed a little, but I just don't feel like doing it. It's a fairly niche game, and those who do know about it are mostly leftists in censored spaces anyway (they have taken over everything after all). There's kind of no point I suppose. Humans being social creatures or whatever. I mostly just stay on instagram these days. It's usually fun enough now that they've loosened the censorship, as clueless as I still am as to why they did it.
Well again, I can probably tell that Charlotte is suffering, but that's likely the only thing I am certain about, and the details are very fuzzy. I suppose you could just treat it as abstract art, i.e. something that transmits emotions even without being understood. Much of art does indeed function like that, though narrative is usually an exception. Regardless, the game indeed probably succeeded at that if nothing else.
In any case, I'm glad you liked the game. A game must indeed be really good in order to be liked even without being fully, or even mostly, understood. I could give you my two cents on episode 3 if you want to, though I don't understand all of it either and some of what I do understand might be wrong, and it's entirely reasonable if you just want to call it a day instead. If you don't like rpgmakers, you could give Mr Rainer's Solve-it Service a try. It's short and the author has gotten even better at writing in the meantime (though also at obfuscating). Though I would probably need to understand what parts of rpgmaker in particular you dislike? If it's the emphasis on puzzles and random encounters, or the relatively unpolished battle system when present (spam the strongest skill), or just not being too sure of where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do in general, I likely feel the same way in that regard, though some games lean into these mechanics more than others. Omori's battle system is unusually polished for an rpgmaker though and honestly fun enough on its own, even for someone like me who doesn't usually like combining story and gameplay as I've mentioned. Though you might eventually need to look it up online if you want to know all the details.
In my defense, if the puzzles are numeruous and hard enough that I need to alt-tab frequently, I am usually already annoyed enough to stop playing before the screen size resetting has become a big issue. I suppose the puzzles are at fault either way. Unless there's some other reason (aside from opening walkthroughs) to alt-tab a lot that I'm not thinking of?Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49Honestly my only big beef with the engine itself, not the devs, is that it reduces all my windows to its diminutive size so I have to constantly maximize them again every time I tab out. Not sure if you have a fix for that seeing as you're more comfortable with it.
My best guess would be the butterfly effect and inertia, though I'm neither knowledgable nor old enough to confirm it. It is probably the same reason why most animes feel so similiar to each other, why most japanese vns are a set up for porn, why most movies last specifically between 1.5 and 2 hours, and so on. People create a concept in their head (insert any genre) and learn to associate things with it and compare things against it. Is there any reason why a novel needs to have 300 pages instead of 50? Probably not, but you wouldn't be able to call it a novel anymore, and people are less familiar with the concept of a novella. Could it have been the other way around? Maybe. Either way, becoming part of an existing space is safer than creating a new one. And rpgmaker has simply been around longer than renpy. And most rpgmaker players would probably look at you funny if you made an rpgmaker game with no puzzles at all, so you have an incentive to include them even if you feel neutral about them. Your own game contributes to the situation, and the cycle goes on. The popularity is self-reinforcing, and the cycle becomes rather hard to break out of even after otherwise superior alternatives become available.Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49My other issue with is more with the typical dev that uses it to make a combat-free story but also feels the absolute need to implement chores or puzzles of some sort that have you walking around. These works often could have instead been very succint and high quality stories on another beginner-friendly engine like Ren'py or another one that escapes my mind right now. Is there some particular reason I'm missing for these devs to make an RPGMaker game instead of Ren'py one?
Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49who was the red-eyed person that knocked out Charlotte in the hallway in order to apply the mindreading drug?
Maybe I will sometime. To an extent, I feel like lingering on to it is similar to refusing to break Charlotte's television in the end of ep 3, especially given that beyond a certain point, decrypting the obfuscation becomes more tiring than what the ability to discover what is hidden is worth, even considering this is probably the best story I've ever read. You also tend to understand less things from replays than from the first play, since many things you already know. I suppose it's not out of the question, but maybe a little later...Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49That said, even if I understand your point of these storyfag games being more active in censored spaces (wtf happened to Instagram?), don't let that discourage you from enjoying a replay just for your own sake. I myself feel like replaying the series sometime soon, 'cause man there's a lot up for reinterpretation. And it's pretty short all things considered.
I honestly don't know, ****'s insane. They're not just racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/antisemitic, they're genuinely creative too. They actually make you laugh. I ******* hate twitter in comparison, all the posts there are either "the leftists are actually the racist ones" (no ******* **** ***** where the **** have you been living the last 20 years?) or some kind of extremely low-hanging fruit like "I hate *******" (you don't ******* say?????). I really can't explain the difference in words, but back when I used to watch them, @Solaire's memes were hilarious (I assume they still are). Instagram is something like that. The comments are hilarious too, often even better than the actual post. Luck is also a factor though, the algorithm isn't good all the time. I generally only go on twitter when the instagram algorithm is worse than usual. Furthermore, I am aware that Zuckerberg is jewish and am also aware that instagram used to be just as rulecucked as everywhere else until like 2 or 3 years ago. I have absolutely no idea why he allows it.
Hmm... I'm not sure if auto-translation is very good just yet, and I usually prefer to play visual novels myself instead of watching their playthroughs so that I can skip to the next text as soon as I'm done reading it. But thanks. And yeah, beyond a certain point, the digital art of indie games does indeed get repetitive. Not because it's digital art, but because it's clearly being done only because everyone else is doing it. Taking a look at the art can be an unexpectedly good way to judge a potential game quickly. Better than reading reviews from leftists anyway...Gastrick wrote: ↑ June 18th, 2026, 17:43A good horror VN I know of that has you visiting each prefecture/province of Japan and hearing or going through a supernatural story from that place; real-life photos give these a charm and atmosphere that's hard to pull off otherwise and which is really lacking from all those overy-polished digital-art VNs. These youtube videos are the only way to experience it in English (playlist):
adad wrote: ↑ June 20th, 2026, 18:20In my defense, if the puzzles are numeruous and hard enough that I need to alt-tab frequently, I am usually already annoyed enough to stop playing before the screen size resetting has become a big issue. I suppose the puzzles are at fault either way. Unless there's some other reason (aside from opening walkthroughs) to alt-tab a lot that I'm not thinking of?Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49Honestly my only big beef with the engine itself, not the devs, is that it reduces all my windows to its diminutive size so I have to constantly maximize them again every time I tab out. Not sure if you have a fix for that seeing as you're more comfortable with it.
My best guess would be the butterfly effect and inertia, though I'm neither knowledgable nor old enough to confirm it. It is probably the same reason why most animes feel so similiar to each other, why most japanese vns are a set up for porn, why most movies last specifically between 1.5 and 2 hours, and so on. People create a concept in their head (insert any genre) and learn to associate things with it and compare things against it. Is there any reason why a novel needs to have 300 pages instead of 50? Probably not, but you wouldn't be able to call it a novel anymore, and people are less familiar with the concept of a novella. Could it have been the other way around? Maybe. Either way, becoming part of an existing space is safer than creating a new one. And rpgmaker has simply been around longer than renpy. And most rpgmaker players would probably look at you funny if you made an rpgmaker game with no puzzles at all, so you have an incentive to include them even if you feel neutral about them. Your own game contributes to the situation, and the cycle goes on. The popularity is self-reinforcing, and the cycle becomes rather hard to break out of even after otherwise superior alternatives become available.Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49My other issue with is more with the typical dev that uses it to make a combat-free story but also feels the absolute need to implement chores or puzzles of some sort that have you walking around. These works often could have instead been very succint and high quality stories on another beginner-friendly engine like Ren'py or another one that escapes my mind right now. Is there some particular reason I'm missing for these devs to make an RPGMaker game instead of Ren'py one?
I ended up writing a very general answer that is in no way limited to videogames. In few words, people tend to prefer what's popular, either because they don't know any better, or because they want to fit in.
In even fewer words, rpgmaker has existed for longer. I could have just left it at that...
Regarding the game, I am glad you mentioned Heaven's Gate (I assume you've played it?), because I believe it is the core to understanding almost everything else in the series (assuming my reasoning is correct that is). If you've played it, you might be aware that the paid/steam version has an extra "diary" section that is not present in the free version in itch.io. If you haven't encountered it, you can read it from here, or here if you want to know how it looks. The game version has white text on black background, but that's about the only difference. It's just text.
The core premise of my understanding of the game is that the diary is maybe the only place where the author speaks only the pure, unfiltered, and unobfuscated truth, and all symbolisms of the game derive almost exclusively from the diary alone. My reasoning for believing in the former part of the previous sentence is... Well, you would have to read it for yourself if you haven't already. I'm not sure if I can put it into words. It's like being able to spot when someone is straight up lying, or making things up (it is fiction after all), or speaking straight from the soul.
This thread initially started because I was looking for something similar to Doki Doki. What I didn't mention (because I felt it might be excessive to go so deep into the details, though I honestly may have been clearer if I had) is that for all the praises I have for the rest of the game, it still doesn't come close to Monika's monologue. For some context, I had followed Sayori's route all along. Unlike some other players who rightfully believed Sayori killed herself because they rejected her, I have been aware for the entirety of act 2 that Monika had killed her. The biggest, if not the only reason I played the rest of the game, was to hear why she did it. Needless to say, I completely despised her.
And then came the monologue. I couldn't really point to one sentence or one thing in general or in particular that made me believe her. And yet I did. Even after spending the whole game hating her to death, I was fully convinced that every single thing she was saying was true. I felt pure hatred radiating from her, but I could swear on everything I hold dear that there was not a single hint of lying. It was formidable in a way that I have possibly experienced almost never again. Heaven's Gate's diary, is something like that.
And so it is decided that the diary is almost certainly fully true. It is also decided that it is the most personal piece written by the author through any of her games, and it logically follows that it is this piece from which everything else is derived from, not the other way around. In other words, the diary is the core summary of the story, and everything else exists to complement it through details, symbolisms, and of course, obfuscation. Another thing worth noting is that while the entire game's narrative is obviously very personal, the diary is even more so. In other words, I do not believe the events of the diary are fictional. Everything has actually happened in real life. That is, etherane herself is the author of the diary.
The diary, aside from a striking sincerity that is unheard of from etherane, tells a straightforward story. A girl that suffers at first, then changes her actions in previously unthinkable ways, which however ultimately only has a miniscule impact, if any at all, in reducing her suffering. Somewhere along the line she meets a guy who she believes is, beyond first appearances, eerily similar to her, and as such might be able to reduce her suffering. She is very wrong, and the guy eventually kills himself.
The events of the diary are very similar to the events of the real world in episode 3 (which include Charles before his death and the real-world version of Anri). The implication would be that the diary is written by the real-world version of Anri. Another implication would be that etherane herself is represented in the story by the real-world version of Anri. I sometimes refer to her as etheranri. Great work Kojima. Anyway.
While the diary contained exclusive details of Anri's experience, the real world parts of episode 3 contain exclusive details of Charles's experience, as well as adding more details on things that both of them experienced together.
Aside from the connection with the diary, the real world parts of episode 3 are fairly free of obfuscations and symbolisms, so there isn't much else to decrypt. The main thing that needs to be analyzed is the world that gets created after Charles dies. If taken literally, my statement that the story is symbolic rather than fictional would be jeopardized. Obviously humans aren't known to do that after they die in real life. So we will instead continue deducing implications from the same line of thought and try to decode the symbolisms of the false realm instead.
As I have previously said, ep 1 is one of the parts I do not know much of, and what little I do suspect I only started to later on, so... we will jump to episode 2 instead. While episode 2 is self-contained enough to be able to exist on its own without any other games, some connections between it and some parts of what we know (diary + real world of ep 3) must be made in order to understand the rest (false realm) of ep 3.
In short, I believe Charlotte of ep 2 symbolizes etheranri, and C of episode 2 symbolizes Charles. Episode 2 is basically a Charlotte who has some issues but is otherwise somewhat hopeful for the future, until everything goes downhill when C offers her the pills. And yeah, both versions have pills.
The only difference is how Charlotte is nicer than etheranri. She is only representative of etheranri's good side. Etheranri's bad side on the other hand, is represented by... well, by Anri. The diary even explicitly mentions a girl-girl kissing moment (unless you chose not to promise Anri a vote on the roof in episode 2?).
Another thing worth analyzing is the trial, or more importantly, the vote. Voting for C would have meant sacrificing herself, and likely for nothing, as C(harles) would have killed himself regardless. Voting for no one, beyond the flowery afterscene (which has similar vibes as the scene where you decide to actually take the pills), would have been ******** to such an extent that I would have no longer felt any remorse for her. Noteworthy is how after both of these decisions, Anri is seen getting angry, but also crying seemingly for no discernible reason, further confirming the theory that Anri is just another side of Charlotte and merely trying to escape their collective suffering in her own way. In any case, in retrospective it is clear that Charlotte ultimately decided to vote for Anri.
That leaves us with the false realm of episode 3. I once again believe this to be another extended retelling of the diary, except this time the roles are flipped; Charlotte (or Q84) is the one who is ****** in the head and Anri is the one who is nice (Q84 and ep 2 Anri have very similiar sprites btw; the smile is literally copy-pasted, and probably not out of laziness). This Anri is probably even more meek than the Charlotte of last episode, which makes sense given Q84 is so insane that even ep 2 Anri would have held herself back if she knew the full extent of what she was doing. Regardless, the situation isn't stable. The more time passes, the more increasingly evident it becomes that neither the tenants nor Scarlett will just let her be. Not only out of general good will, but also because Anri in particular becomes increasingly more of a target of Q84's destructive ideology. The tenants almost killed Q84 the night after she embarassed Anri in front of her school friends, and Scarlett who would have otherwise quietly ignored Q84 and all her destructiviness (including all previous executions), interfered and stabbed Q84 three times when she was about to execute Anri specifically. Anri's existence in particular is the cancer that doesn't disappear no matter how much Q84 wants it to, and it causes everyone to end up killing each other over it.
If it wasn't evident by now, the tenants are indeed another part of etheranri, and in particular, her own relationship with herself. Something to keep note of is how when Charlotte was about to kill herself with scissors after bullies cut her hair in episode 2, it was precisely Aiden who came in and didn't let her, and the rest of the tenants who made her feel good enough to fall asleep afterwards. The very stark contrast in episode 3 is that precisely the tenants are the ones who are trying to kill Q84. Ep 2 Charlotte is getting torn by the outer world as the tenants try to hold her together, while Q84 is destroying every part of the world (gray ending of episode 2 by the way) as the tenants themselves tear her apart from within. There is truly no escape regardless of what etheranri does.
Of course, if I wasn't clear enough, the tenants, Scarlett, and even Q84, all care about Anri precisely because she is a part of them, as all of them represent one and the same person (etheranri) in the end. Anri's suffering isn't isolated, it is physically reflected on and shared by everyone.
In this context, I believe Scarlett to be a more direct and present extension of the tenants. And yes, even Q84, beyond all belief, cares about Anri. She is visibly shaken (as much as she physically can anyway) when Anri starts crying, and even awkwardly offers her chips to make her feel better. Even when she attempts to execute Anri the next day, it is precisely because she is trying to get rid of a source of misery in her life that is impossible to get rid of otherwise. Of course, a monster like her does not know of a different way to do it, and in her defense, none of the other versions have been very successful either (she's literally sitting on top of a pile of Charlottes in the main menu). She probably doesn't even really hate Scarlett that much lmao. When she used mother's wish to kill Scarlett, it was more about killing herself than killing Scarlett. It's beyond hilarious that she failed at both.
Even the "spin-offs" seem to confirm my theory. Hello Charlotte Delirium in particular seems like the kind of world Q84 would have ended up with (and was likely aiming for) if Anri had agreed with her ways. Neither the tenants nor Scarlett would have been an issue whatsoever. Though I'm not sure if any of the details of the game beyond this have meanings that I have missed other than pointing at the general idea I discussed. On the other hand, Heaven's Gate (minus the diary) seems like the kind of world that ep 2 Charlotte was aiming for and would have achieved if C and Charless didn't kill themselves instead. Here too, I am not certain if the specific details of the game have any further meanings or not.
Scarlett's character too, beyond rising as a pushback against Q84, is not clear to me. I am not sure what her part of ep 3 (after Q84 is dead and before she is revived) means, even in a generic sense. There are a lot of references to past Charlottes that I neither understand nor even remember anymore, and, regrettably, also a whole lot more puzzles more usual. This is a part I would have to pay extra attention to if I decide to replay.
Episode 1, as I have mentioned, is also largely opaque to me. The umbrella man's role is also unclear. It is possible that he is just an omniscient observer without much direct role in how things play out. A Frei with less good will if you will. But I won't swear on it either. The role of Seth and puppeters in general is also not completely transparent, though if ep 3 and delirium are to be taken literally, the puppeters are likely just a metaphor for a moral compass. But I won't swear on this either.
The ending of episode 3 is also important to look at. In one of the endings Q84 decides to leave Charlotte be in the commercial. I believe there are also some hints that Q84 uses Charlotte's story to have white society "do a good thing for once". Which would mean Q84 indeed wrote the story, and that etherane does indeed see most of her audience as a bunch of ******* which she is nevertheless forced to coexist with. There's also a small sentence somewhere said by V19 if I remember correctly (a Charlotte variant) that readers only give a **** about what is happening because the characters have porn potential (and she is almost certainly referring to female readers, which make up most of the almost fully censored internet anyway). As a small spoiler for beyond, both games etherane has written after Hello Charlotte are almost completely devoid of female characters.
In any case, the ending is a very temporary solution. Charlotte's former existence is still eating at everyone. Destroying the television is the only way anyone can move on. Not because Charlotte deserved it, but because whether she deserved it or not is irrelevant. If everyone keeps lingering on about how they were wronged, they will never be able to achieve anything other than kill each other and themselves (which they all nearly did) (and "they" are all obviously etheranri by the way). They cannot move on if they linger on about what should have happened instead of focusing on what actually has indeed happened. To do any of this, they need to admit that Charlotte, regardless of how much she was wronged, is a relic of the past, and her memory, other than as a cautionary tale, must be destroyed. And this is precisely what happens in the other, final ending. Etheranri's story from here on will continue on her next 2 games. I believe those ones to be just as non-fictional, and as such, technically sequels. If you want a small generic spoiler, etheranri falls back to a camouflaged existence, which is precisely what I actually had in mind when I told ep 2 Charlotte to vote for Anri instead of whatever the **** Q84 was. Though that may have been overly optimistic of me.
One thing my theory struggles to explain is why characters like Charlotte and Scarlett in the false realm are representative of the true realm version of Anri rather of Charles, despite the true-realm version of Charlotte and Scarlett being associated with Charles rather than Anri. In my defense, Charlotte is just an avatar, she doesn't even exist as a person. In a way, she is "free for grabs". A similar situation is present for Scarlett. In the true realm, she exists only as Charles's schizophrenia, and her behaviour in the false realm is very different from how it was in the true realm too. Aditionally, if we believe the story to be real, the author cannot have been Charles, as Charles is dead.
Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49who was the red-eyed person that knocked out Charlotte in the hallway in order to apply the mindreading drug?
If I remember correctly I believe the game makes it clear that the person who knocked Charlotte was Scarlett. It wasn't the only time either after all.
Maybe I will sometime. To an extent, I feel like lingering on to it is similar to refusing to break Charlotte's television in the end of ep 3, especially given that beyond a certain point, decrypting the obfuscation becomes more tiring than what the ability to discover what is hidden is worth, even considering this is probably the best story I've ever read. You also tend to understand less things from replays than from the first play, since many things you already know. I suppose it's not out of the question, but maybe a little later...Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49That said, even if I understand your point of these storyfag games being more active in censored spaces (wtf happened to Instagram?), don't let that discourage you from enjoying a replay just for your own sake. I myself feel like replaying the series sometime soon, 'cause man there's a lot up for reinterpretation. And it's pretty short all things considered.
I honestly don't know, ****'s insane. They're not just racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/antisemitic, they're genuinely creative too. They actually make you laugh. I ******* hate twitter in comparison, all the posts there are either "the leftists are actually the racist ones" (no ******* **** ***** where the **** have you been living the last 20 years?) or some kind of extremely low-hanging fruit like "I hate *******" (you don't ******* say?????). I really can't explain the difference in words, but back when I used to watch them, @Solaire's memes were hilarious (I assume they still are). Instagram is something like that. The comments are hilarious too, often even better than the actual post. Luck is also a factor though, the algorithm isn't good all the time. I generally only go on twitter when the instagram algorithm is worse than usual. Furthermore, I am aware that Zuckerberg is jewish and am also aware that instagram used to be just as rulecucked as everywhere else until like 2 or 3 years ago. I have absolutely no idea why he allows it.
Regarding Tiny Bunny, I've actually given it a short try before (15 minutes?). Obviously I cannot judge it with certainty with only 15 minutes of playtime, but from what little I did play, it kind of seemed... like generic horror. The kind where the story does not actually have much of a purpose beyond setting up jumpscares. Are you saying it isn't actually like that? I suppose most stories with a lot of fantastical elements usually end up being like that. Ends up being more of a setup for jumpscares, or for fights in action, or things like that. But I could give it another try if you think it was actually good.
I've also played Ib. I mean, the story and the art was... I suppose it was alright. But the game was like 60-70% puzzles and 30-40% story... I'm not sure if I'm looking for something like that... Unless Witch's House or something else from the list has fewer puzzles and such? Oh yeah, I've also played End Roll. I mean, it was Omori but worse. Some parts were fine, but I don't think it held its weight overall. The main character's development wasn't very sensical. I don't think anything significant enough happened to make the character develop. The character was more interesting at the start if anything... Maybe because his story still made sense.
I've also heard about Fear and Hunger, I just assumed it would be a bad fit since I've heard it has a lot of gameplay parts and they are pretty hard too. So it probably wouldn't be a very good storyfag game, unless...? I've also, just like you mentioned, grown to avoid things like rpgmaker and non-pure visual novels in general. Well, some gameplay I can tolerate, but it is usually a lot, and there is no way for me to tell for sure without playing myself exactly how much it is, so I usually just skip most of them...
Oh yeah, and sorry for taking a while to answer. I've been busy (though I haven't gotten much done) and tired (though the feeling is a little too chronic to be called that) and lazy. And gathering my thoughts on Hello Charlotte took a little longer than I thought too. Well it was supposed to be only episode 3, but it happened to be interconnected with a lot of other things which in turn needed their own explaining... holy autism I guess.
Hmm... I'm not sure if auto-translation is very good just yet, and I usually prefer to play visual novels myself instead of watching their playthroughs so that I can skip to the next text as soon as I'm done reading it. But thanks. And yeah, beyond a certain point, the digital art of indie games does indeed get repetitive. Not because it's digital art, but because it's clearly being done only because everyone else is doing it. Taking a look at the art can be an unexpectedly good way to judge a potential game quickly. Better than reading reviews from leftists anyway...Gastrick wrote: ↑ June 18th, 2026, 17:43A good horror VN I know of that has you visiting each prefecture/province of Japan and hearing or going through a supernatural story from that place; real-life photos give these a charm and atmosphere that's hard to pull off otherwise and which is really lacking from all those overy-polished digital-art VNs. These youtube videos are the only way to experience it in English (playlist):
Tiny Bunny is not something I remember for the "jumpscares" at all, but rather the atmosphere and the mystery. I still wholeheartedly recommend it, but resonating with your comment about how much one can tell from a game's visuals, I agree that first impressions and gut feeling are excellent guides. If you tried it and it didn't grip you, that's that.
Witch's House and Fear & Hunger both have a high focus on, respectively, puzzles and combat/exploration, so if you're really looking for a story-only game those probably won't fly. Still, there's nothing like just giving them a try if you ever feel like it.
Another that might fit your criteria is "The NOexistenceN of You AND Me". I personally found it to be merely okay, not great, in large part due to my familiarity with the subject matters addressed in it, as well as how crudely the points were being brought up. Too often I'd be like "Yeah, I've seen this line of thought before, it's not as groundbreaking as the game is making it out to be."
This visual novel might have been more memorable had I played it a several years ago when I was less experienced. But it does have no gameplay and employs an unfiltered style that addresses the player directly, so you might enjoy it, who knows.
There's a lot to unpack in your interpretation of HC. I will come back with a more thoughtful response a bit later, but will quickly say that I did not interpret Charlie to be the loss etherane was talking about, but rather his mother. And how crucial her body was to the world of Hello Charlotte, as seen at the end. I intepreted that Charlie was the stand-in for the game's author and that letting go of the HC world was also letting go of the mother's death.
I see value in your interpretation, especifically regarding where in the story that diary from Heaven's Gate fits. Though I feel like that doesn't explain why C and Scarlett are so important to the plot, and yeah Scarlett herself being Charlotte as well is also something that I haven't wrapped my head around either.
Valter wrote: ↑ June 20th, 2026, 22:51Tiny Bunny is not something I remember for the "jumpscares" at all, but rather the atmosphere and the mystery. I still wholeheartedly recommend it, but resonating with your comment about how much one can tell from a game's visuals, I agree that first impressions and gut feeling are excellent guides. If you tried it and it didn't grip you, that's that.adad wrote: ↑ June 20th, 2026, 18:20In my defense, if the puzzles are numeruous and hard enough that I need to alt-tab frequently, I am usually already annoyed enough to stop playing before the screen size resetting has become a big issue. I suppose the puzzles are at fault either way. Unless there's some other reason (aside from opening walkthroughs) to alt-tab a lot that I'm not thinking of?Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49Honestly my only big beef with the engine itself, not the devs, is that it reduces all my windows to its diminutive size so I have to constantly maximize them again every time I tab out. Not sure if you have a fix for that seeing as you're more comfortable with it.
My best guess would be the butterfly effect and inertia, though I'm neither knowledgable nor old enough to confirm it. It is probably the same reason why most animes feel so similiar to each other, why most japanese vns are a set up for porn, why most movies last specifically between 1.5 and 2 hours, and so on. People create a concept in their head (insert any genre) and learn to associate things with it and compare things against it. Is there any reason why a novel needs to have 300 pages instead of 50? Probably not, but you wouldn't be able to call it a novel anymore, and people are less familiar with the concept of a novella. Could it have been the other way around? Maybe. Either way, becoming part of an existing space is safer than creating a new one. And rpgmaker has simply been around longer than renpy. And most rpgmaker players would probably look at you funny if you made an rpgmaker game with no puzzles at all, so you have an incentive to include them even if you feel neutral about them. Your own game contributes to the situation, and the cycle goes on. The popularity is self-reinforcing, and the cycle becomes rather hard to break out of even after otherwise superior alternatives become available.Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49My other issue with is more with the typical dev that uses it to make a combat-free story but also feels the absolute need to implement chores or puzzles of some sort that have you walking around. These works often could have instead been very succint and high quality stories on another beginner-friendly engine like Ren'py or another one that escapes my mind right now. Is there some particular reason I'm missing for these devs to make an RPGMaker game instead of Ren'py one?
I ended up writing a very general answer that is in no way limited to videogames. In few words, people tend to prefer what's popular, either because they don't know any better, or because they want to fit in.
In even fewer words, rpgmaker has existed for longer. I could have just left it at that...
Regarding the game, I am glad you mentioned Heaven's Gate (I assume you've played it?), because I believe it is the core to understanding almost everything else in the series (assuming my reasoning is correct that is). If you've played it, you might be aware that the paid/steam version has an extra "diary" section that is not present in the free version in itch.io. If you haven't encountered it, you can read it from here, or here if you want to know how it looks. The game version has white text on black background, but that's about the only difference. It's just text.
The core premise of my understanding of the game is that the diary is maybe the only place where the author speaks only the pure, unfiltered, and unobfuscated truth, and all symbolisms of the game derive almost exclusively from the diary alone. My reasoning for believing in the former part of the previous sentence is... Well, you would have to read it for yourself if you haven't already. I'm not sure if I can put it into words. It's like being able to spot when someone is straight up lying, or making things up (it is fiction after all), or speaking straight from the soul.
This thread initially started because I was looking for something similar to Doki Doki. What I didn't mention (because I felt it might be excessive to go so deep into the details, though I honestly may have been clearer if I had) is that for all the praises I have for the rest of the game, it still doesn't come close to Monika's monologue. For some context, I had followed Sayori's route all along. Unlike some other players who rightfully believed Sayori killed herself because they rejected her, I have been aware for the entirety of act 2 that Monika had killed her. The biggest, if not the only reason I played the rest of the game, was to hear why she did it. Needless to say, I completely despised her.
And then came the monologue. I couldn't really point to one sentence or one thing in general or in particular that made me believe her. And yet I did. Even after spending the whole game hating her to death, I was fully convinced that every single thing she was saying was true. I felt pure hatred radiating from her, but I could swear on everything I hold dear that there was not a single hint of lying. It was formidable in a way that I have possibly experienced almost never again. Heaven's Gate's diary, is something like that.
And so it is decided that the diary is almost certainly fully true. It is also decided that it is the most personal piece written by the author through any of her games, and it logically follows that it is this piece from which everything else is derived from, not the other way around. In other words, the diary is the core summary of the story, and everything else exists to complement it through details, symbolisms, and of course, obfuscation. Another thing worth noting is that while the entire game's narrative is obviously very personal, the diary is even more so. In other words, I do not believe the events of the diary are fictional. Everything has actually happened in real life. That is, etherane herself is the author of the diary.
The diary, aside from a striking sincerity that is unheard of from etherane, tells a straightforward story. A girl that suffers at first, then changes her actions in previously unthinkable ways, which however ultimately only has a miniscule impact, if any at all, in reducing her suffering. Somewhere along the line she meets a guy who she believes is, beyond first appearances, eerily similar to her, and as such might be able to reduce her suffering. She is very wrong, and the guy eventually kills himself.
The events of the diary are very similar to the events of the real world in episode 3 (which include Charles before his death and the real-world version of Anri). The implication would be that the diary is written by the real-world version of Anri. Another implication would be that etherane herself is represented in the story by the real-world version of Anri. I sometimes refer to her as etheranri. Great work Kojima. Anyway.
While the diary contained exclusive details of Anri's experience, the real world parts of episode 3 contain exclusive details of Charles's experience, as well as adding more details on things that both of them experienced together.
Aside from the connection with the diary, the real world parts of episode 3 are fairly free of obfuscations and symbolisms, so there isn't much else to decrypt. The main thing that needs to be analyzed is the world that gets created after Charles dies. If taken literally, my statement that the story is symbolic rather than fictional would be jeopardized. Obviously humans aren't known to do that after they die in real life. So we will instead continue deducing implications from the same line of thought and try to decode the symbolisms of the false realm instead.
As I have previously said, ep 1 is one of the parts I do not know much of, and what little I do suspect I only started to later on, so... we will jump to episode 2 instead. While episode 2 is self-contained enough to be able to exist on its own without any other games, some connections between it and some parts of what we know (diary + real world of ep 3) must be made in order to understand the rest (false realm) of ep 3.
In short, I believe Charlotte of ep 2 symbolizes etheranri, and C of episode 2 symbolizes Charles. Episode 2 is basically a Charlotte who has some issues but is otherwise somewhat hopeful for the future, until everything goes downhill when C offers her the pills. And yeah, both versions have pills.
The only difference is how Charlotte is nicer than etheranri. She is only representative of etheranri's good side. Etheranri's bad side on the other hand, is represented by... well, by Anri. The diary even explicitly mentions a girl-girl kissing moment (unless you chose not to promise Anri a vote on the roof in episode 2?).
Another thing worth analyzing is the trial, or more importantly, the vote. Voting for C would have meant sacrificing herself, and likely for nothing, as C(harles) would have killed himself regardless. Voting for no one, beyond the flowery afterscene (which has similar vibes as the scene where you decide to actually take the pills), would have been ******** to such an extent that I would have no longer felt any remorse for her. Noteworthy is how after both of these decisions, Anri is seen getting angry, but also crying seemingly for no discernible reason, further confirming the theory that Anri is just another side of Charlotte and merely trying to escape their collective suffering in her own way. In any case, in retrospective it is clear that Charlotte ultimately decided to vote for Anri.
That leaves us with the false realm of episode 3. I once again believe this to be another extended retelling of the diary, except this time the roles are flipped; Charlotte (or Q84) is the one who is ****** in the head and Anri is the one who is nice (Q84 and ep 2 Anri have very similiar sprites btw; the smile is literally copy-pasted, and probably not out of laziness). This Anri is probably even more meek than the Charlotte of last episode, which makes sense given Q84 is so insane that even ep 2 Anri would have held herself back if she knew the full extent of what she was doing. Regardless, the situation isn't stable. The more time passes, the more increasingly evident it becomes that neither the tenants nor Scarlett will just let her be. Not only out of general good will, but also because Anri in particular becomes increasingly more of a target of Q84's destructive ideology. The tenants almost killed Q84 the night after she embarassed Anri in front of her school friends, and Scarlett who would have otherwise quietly ignored Q84 and all her destructiviness (including all previous executions), interfered and stabbed Q84 three times when she was about to execute Anri specifically. Anri's existence in particular is the cancer that doesn't disappear no matter how much Q84 wants it to, and it causes everyone to end up killing each other over it.
If it wasn't evident by now, the tenants are indeed another part of etheranri, and in particular, her own relationship with herself. Something to keep note of is how when Charlotte was about to kill herself with scissors after bullies cut her hair in episode 2, it was precisely Aiden who came in and didn't let her, and the rest of the tenants who made her feel good enough to fall asleep afterwards. The very stark contrast in episode 3 is that precisely the tenants are the ones who are trying to kill Q84. Ep 2 Charlotte is getting torn by the outer world as the tenants try to hold her together, while Q84 is destroying every part of the world (gray ending of episode 2 by the way) as the tenants themselves tear her apart from within. There is truly no escape regardless of what etheranri does.
Of course, if I wasn't clear enough, the tenants, Scarlett, and even Q84, all care about Anri precisely because she is a part of them, as all of them represent one and the same person (etheranri) in the end. Anri's suffering isn't isolated, it is physically reflected on and shared by everyone.
In this context, I believe Scarlett to be a more direct and present extension of the tenants. And yes, even Q84, beyond all belief, cares about Anri. She is visibly shaken (as much as she physically can anyway) when Anri starts crying, and even awkwardly offers her chips to make her feel better. Even when she attempts to execute Anri the next day, it is precisely because she is trying to get rid of a source of misery in her life that is impossible to get rid of otherwise. Of course, a monster like her does not know of a different way to do it, and in her defense, none of the other versions have been very successful either (she's literally sitting on top of a pile of Charlottes in the main menu). She probably doesn't even really hate Scarlett that much lmao. When she used mother's wish to kill Scarlett, it was more about killing herself than killing Scarlett. It's beyond hilarious that she failed at both.
Even the "spin-offs" seem to confirm my theory. Hello Charlotte Delirium in particular seems like the kind of world Q84 would have ended up with (and was likely aiming for) if Anri had agreed with her ways. Neither the tenants nor Scarlett would have been an issue whatsoever. Though I'm not sure if any of the details of the game beyond this have meanings that I have missed other than pointing at the general idea I discussed. On the other hand, Heaven's Gate (minus the diary) seems like the kind of world that ep 2 Charlotte was aiming for and would have achieved if C and Charless didn't kill themselves instead. Here too, I am not certain if the specific details of the game have any further meanings or not.
Scarlett's character too, beyond rising as a pushback against Q84, is not clear to me. I am not sure what her part of ep 3 (after Q84 is dead and before she is revived) means, even in a generic sense. There are a lot of references to past Charlottes that I neither understand nor even remember anymore, and, regrettably, also a whole lot more puzzles more usual. This is a part I would have to pay extra attention to if I decide to replay.
Episode 1, as I have mentioned, is also largely opaque to me. The umbrella man's role is also unclear. It is possible that he is just an omniscient observer without much direct role in how things play out. A Frei with less good will if you will. But I won't swear on it either. The role of Seth and puppeters in general is also not completely transparent, though if ep 3 and delirium are to be taken literally, the puppeters are likely just a metaphor for a moral compass. But I won't swear on this either.
The ending of episode 3 is also important to look at. In one of the endings Q84 decides to leave Charlotte be in the commercial. I believe there are also some hints that Q84 uses Charlotte's story to have white society "do a good thing for once". Which would mean Q84 indeed wrote the story, and that etherane does indeed see most of her audience as a bunch of ******* which she is nevertheless forced to coexist with. There's also a small sentence somewhere said by V19 if I remember correctly (a Charlotte variant) that readers only give a **** about what is happening because the characters have porn potential (and she is almost certainly referring to female readers, which make up most of the almost fully censored internet anyway). As a small spoiler for beyond, both games etherane has written after Hello Charlotte are almost completely devoid of female characters.
In any case, the ending is a very temporary solution. Charlotte's former existence is still eating at everyone. Destroying the television is the only way anyone can move on. Not because Charlotte deserved it, but because whether she deserved it or not is irrelevant. If everyone keeps lingering on about how they were wronged, they will never be able to achieve anything other than kill each other and themselves (which they all nearly did) (and "they" are all obviously etheranri by the way). They cannot move on if they linger on about what should have happened instead of focusing on what actually has indeed happened. To do any of this, they need to admit that Charlotte, regardless of how much she was wronged, is a relic of the past, and her memory, other than as a cautionary tale, must be destroyed. And this is precisely what happens in the other, final ending. Etheranri's story from here on will continue on her next 2 games. I believe those ones to be just as non-fictional, and as such, technically sequels. If you want a small generic spoiler, etheranri falls back to a camouflaged existence, which is precisely what I actually had in mind when I told ep 2 Charlotte to vote for Anri instead of whatever the **** Q84 was. Though that may have been overly optimistic of me.
One thing my theory struggles to explain is why characters like Charlotte and Scarlett in the false realm are representative of the true realm version of Anri rather of Charles, despite the true-realm version of Charlotte and Scarlett being associated with Charles rather than Anri. In my defense, Charlotte is just an avatar, she doesn't even exist as a person. In a way, she is "free for grabs". A similar situation is present for Scarlett. In the true realm, she exists only as Charles's schizophrenia, and her behaviour in the false realm is very different from how it was in the true realm too. Aditionally, if we believe the story to be real, the author cannot have been Charles, as Charles is dead.
Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49who was the red-eyed person that knocked out Charlotte in the hallway in order to apply the mindreading drug?
If I remember correctly I believe the game makes it clear that the person who knocked Charlotte was Scarlett. It wasn't the only time either after all.
Maybe I will sometime. To an extent, I feel like lingering on to it is similar to refusing to break Charlotte's television in the end of ep 3, especially given that beyond a certain point, decrypting the obfuscation becomes more tiring than what the ability to discover what is hidden is worth, even considering this is probably the best story I've ever read. You also tend to understand less things from replays than from the first play, since many things you already know. I suppose it's not out of the question, but maybe a little later...Valter wrote: ↑ June 14th, 2026, 22:49That said, even if I understand your point of these storyfag games being more active in censored spaces (wtf happened to Instagram?), don't let that discourage you from enjoying a replay just for your own sake. I myself feel like replaying the series sometime soon, 'cause man there's a lot up for reinterpretation. And it's pretty short all things considered.
I honestly don't know, ****'s insane. They're not just racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/antisemitic, they're genuinely creative too. They actually make you laugh. I ******* hate twitter in comparison, all the posts there are either "the leftists are actually the racist ones" (no ******* **** ***** where the **** have you been living the last 20 years?) or some kind of extremely low-hanging fruit like "I hate *******" (you don't ******* say?????). I really can't explain the difference in words, but back when I used to watch them, @Solaire's memes were hilarious (I assume they still are). Instagram is something like that. The comments are hilarious too, often even better than the actual post. Luck is also a factor though, the algorithm isn't good all the time. I generally only go on twitter when the instagram algorithm is worse than usual. Furthermore, I am aware that Zuckerberg is jewish and am also aware that instagram used to be just as rulecucked as everywhere else until like 2 or 3 years ago. I have absolutely no idea why he allows it.
Regarding Tiny Bunny, I've actually given it a short try before (15 minutes?). Obviously I cannot judge it with certainty with only 15 minutes of playtime, but from what little I did play, it kind of seemed... like generic horror. The kind where the story does not actually have much of a purpose beyond setting up jumpscares. Are you saying it isn't actually like that? I suppose most stories with a lot of fantastical elements usually end up being like that. Ends up being more of a setup for jumpscares, or for fights in action, or things like that. But I could give it another try if you think it was actually good.
I've also played Ib. I mean, the story and the art was... I suppose it was alright. But the game was like 60-70% puzzles and 30-40% story... I'm not sure if I'm looking for something like that... Unless Witch's House or something else from the list has fewer puzzles and such? Oh yeah, I've also played End Roll. I mean, it was Omori but worse. Some parts were fine, but I don't think it held its weight overall. The main character's development wasn't very sensical. I don't think anything significant enough happened to make the character develop. The character was more interesting at the start if anything... Maybe because his story still made sense.
I've also heard about Fear and Hunger, I just assumed it would be a bad fit since I've heard it has a lot of gameplay parts and they are pretty hard too. So it probably wouldn't be a very good storyfag game, unless...? I've also, just like you mentioned, grown to avoid things like rpgmaker and non-pure visual novels in general. Well, some gameplay I can tolerate, but it is usually a lot, and there is no way for me to tell for sure without playing myself exactly how much it is, so I usually just skip most of them...
Oh yeah, and sorry for taking a while to answer. I've been busy (though I haven't gotten much done) and tired (though the feeling is a little too chronic to be called that) and lazy. And gathering my thoughts on Hello Charlotte took a little longer than I thought too. Well it was supposed to be only episode 3, but it happened to be interconnected with a lot of other things which in turn needed their own explaining... holy autism I guess.
Hmm... I'm not sure if auto-translation is very good just yet, and I usually prefer to play visual novels myself instead of watching their playthroughs so that I can skip to the next text as soon as I'm done reading it. But thanks. And yeah, beyond a certain point, the digital art of indie games does indeed get repetitive. Not because it's digital art, but because it's clearly being done only because everyone else is doing it. Taking a look at the art can be an unexpectedly good way to judge a potential game quickly. Better than reading reviews from leftists anyway...Gastrick wrote: ↑ June 18th, 2026, 17:43A good horror VN I know of that has you visiting each prefecture/province of Japan and hearing or going through a supernatural story from that place; real-life photos give these a charm and atmosphere that's hard to pull off otherwise and which is really lacking from all those overy-polished digital-art VNs. These youtube videos are the only way to experience it in English (playlist):
Witch's House and Fear & Hunger both have a high focus on, respectively, puzzles and combat/exploration, so if you're really looking for a story-only game those probably won't fly. Still, there's nothing like just giving them a try if you ever feel like it.
Another that might fit your criteria is "The NOexistenceN of You AND Me". I personally found it to be merely okay, not great, in large part due to my familiarity with the subject matters addressed in it, as well as how crudely the points were being brought up. Too often I'd be like "Yeah, I've seen this line of thought before, it's not as groundbreaking as the game is making it out to be."
This visual novel might have been more memorable had I played it a several years ago when I was less experienced. But it does have no gameplay and employs an unfiltered style that addresses the player directly, so you might enjoy it, who knows.
There's a lot to unpack in your interpretation of HC. I will come back with a more thoughtful response a bit later, but will quickly say that I did not interpret Charlie to be the loss etherane was talking about, but rather his mother. And how crucial her body was to the world of Hello Charlotte, as seen at the end. I intepreted that Charlie was the stand-in for the game's author and that letting go of the HC world was also letting go of the mother's death.
I see value in your interpretation, especifically regarding where in the story that diary from Heaven's Gate fits. Though I feel like that doesn't explain why C and Scarlett are so important to the plot, and yeah Scarlett herself being Charlotte as well is also something that I haven't wrapped my head around either.
Yeah, I remember trying The NOexistenceN of You AND Me one or two years ago (1 or 2 hours?), and I wasn't very impressed by it. It's a funny exception because I actually really liked the visuals and still do, but the story itself... I'm genuinely not too sure what it was even attempting, let alone whether it succeeded.
It felt too awkard for a slice of life, but also too eventless for something deeper. The most notable events I can recall are making cake, playing an rpg, and going on a playground or something...??? I understand that sometimes important questions like "what is even going on, who are you, who am i, where are we" sometimes get delayed for whatever reasons, but... Baking cake...? Alright, I can take it for a while, but how much longer will we do this...??? Why...? Is the plot even going anywhere...? Spoil me I don't care, genuinely what was the game even about??
And yeah, I was also quite conflicted on what to make of Hello Charlotte when I was done with it (minus the spin-offs). One incredibly serious thought was that the author has just been spewing nonsense all along and I just fell for it. It is more fitting to say that I raged through the spin-offs than that I played through them lmao. That's why the diary had a big impact on me, it was the only place that gave me the feeling that I can actually trust the author on everything he's saying and that maybe the entire series had not been but one big pile of ******** after all.
I suppose the true realm still makes sense if Anri isn't the author (though it would be a little weird that the diary's writing style is so personal, even regarding details of Anri's childhood long before she met with Charles...), but I would have to reconsider nearly everything about the false realm...
But yeah, by all means take your time.
