Forum - View topicHave you ever played a Key Visual Novel?
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
anime racket
Posts: 314 |
|
||
|
Have you ever played a visual novel made by Key? If so were you
happy with it? Which system did you play it on? Was there any language barrier? etcetera, etcetera. As for me I just recently placed an order at Yesasia for Air on the psp. From what I've heard the psp doesn't have region barriers like the other systems and as such is the ideal system for importing games. I don't know japanese so I'm planning to use a walkthrough. If this works I might import Kanon. So with that, commence posting! LOL |
|||
|
|||
Moonsaber
 Posts: 343 Location: USA |
|
||
|
How did that work out for you? The PS3 also does not have region barriers, I know, but without a translation I don't know how enjoyable playing one of those games could go.
I have played Key's Clannad via a fan regioned version on the PC, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I'd love to have a crack at Little Busters or Kanon. |
|||
|
|||
|
anime racket
Posts: 314 |
|
||
|
So far I don't know how well it's going to work out. This is just
an experiment on my part. I figure that I'll be able to understand it without knowing any japanese by making use of my near word for word memorization of the tv series, a walkthrough I found, and trial and error. Wish me luck! |
|||
|
|||
|
Moonsaber
Posts: 343 Location: USA |
|
||
|
I would expect the game would have more depth and scenarios, you are not finding that true? I would, myself, hope there was a better end out of the choices than was used in the anime, but that might have been the best of the ends.
Did you finish it yet? |
|||
|
|||
|
Ringking
Posts: 338 |
|
||
|
I have. It was the Key Visual Novel anime adaptations that got me into VN's in the first place. To date I've played 4 of keys 9 games, started with Kanon, then Little Busters, then Kud Wafter, and recently gotten started on Rewrite, which was released on the 25th of last month.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of the Key visual novels. Even if Key have a bit of a habit of skimping on the CG in their games, the story and the telling are always excellent (so long as you dont try to over-think the supernatural bits) and made all the better if you allow yourself to 'be' the main character on your first play through and let their persona guide your decision making, as opposed to shooting for a specific route from the very beginning. I find i have a weird problem when i do that though. Not just for Key's games but for pretty much every VN I've ever played. I always end up on the route for the character i like the LEAST first. go figure. As for regional issues, I've never had any issues with those. I play all mine on the PC, and the only PC game thats ever given me regional trouble (aside for having to reconfigure my computer for Japanese non-unicode, but you have to do that with every program from Japan) was Rewrite. For some reason, Key decide that they were going to add a regional lock onto both the game and the 'Chihaya rolling' stress test program so that they would only work on Japanese copies of windows. Kind of pointless really, since a patch to evade these measures (appropriately called 'gaijinhack') became available only a few hours after launch. Language barrier. Given that most of Keys games are, like most VN's, told almost entirely with the text, having some grasp of Japanese is more or less essential to play the game without some form of assistance. As Moonsaber said, the games generally go alot more places than the anime do, so even if you follow the game the same way the anime does, it will differ at times. Without some way to actually read the text, you might as well have just downloaded the CG images, since any aspect of the 'game' is lost. In this situation , you have two options (both of which only really work with the PC was far as i know). There are plenty of translation groups out there that create unofficial patches which turn the in game text and menu's into English (and legitimatly so, since you need to have the original game to use it). There was a patch in the works for the PC version of Air, but i think that project was canned. I know that there are full patches for Kanon, Clannad, Planaterian and an almost complete one for Little Busters. In the absence of a full english patch, your best bet is Anime Games Text Hooker (AGTH). Its a program that grabs the text out of the game your playing, sends it to online translators or offline translation programs, then groups all the results onto one window for you to interpret. The translations are never great and it cant handle character names/kanji all that well, but its better than nothing at all. |
|||
|
|||
|
anime racket
Posts: 314 |
|
||
I haven't actually started it yet. I placed an order for it at Yesasia.com and it won't arrive until July 14th at the earliest. Also @ Ringking: could you please explain to me indepth how I could go about setting up Kanon, in english, on my computer? |
|||
|
|||
|
Ringking
Posts: 338 |
|
||
|
Gladly. Its all pretty simple but its essential knowledge if your going to play non-localised VN's.
The first thing you need to do is configure your PC to handle Japanese text, which you do through the control panel menu. Go to Date, Time, Language and Regional Options (or whatever the equivalent is on other version of windows), go to 'regional and language options' and tick the 'install files for east Asian languages' box. The other thing you have to do is change your system for Japanese non-unicode. You do this in the same menu area, go to the advanced tab and change the dropdown box under ' language for Non-Unicode programs' to Japanese. chances are you wont even notice a change to your PC, I leave mine in Japanese locale pretty much all the time and it only affects one Non-Japanese program. This is based on XP's menu's. After that comes installing the game, its a pretty simple affair even if you cant read a word the installer says, since the buttons are in the same place that they always are on an english installer so its very easy to guess. In the case of the Kanon installer, just keep clicking the button on the left. After that, you need to install the patch. Ide link you to it since its a bit of a nightmare to find, but im not sure if im allowed to do that or not. For some reason, Key's realalive engine games (all save for Rewrite) like to install their files into their own folder on the C: drive rather than put it in the regular program files folder. Put the zip file containing the translation patch into the Kanon subfolder, extract it (replace all files when prompted) and double click the file entitled realalive-patch. Im not sure what it is, but some anti-virus programs (such as AVG) take issue with these patches and report them as trojans. They aren't though, so im not sure why it does that. so that said, temporarily disable your anti-virus program before installing the patch. Last thing to do is configure the text. When you start the game you will be presented with a box of text options. The patch folder includes a text called DejaVuSansMono, so I assume thats the one your meant to use, but I've found that pretty much any regular text works. Last edited by Ringking on Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
|
||
|
No I have not played any of them.
However I did briefly try some software that came in a grab bag. It was some "Witch" game with little girl witches, I think it was supposed to be adult-oriented, but I think the version I had was the edited US version. I can't even remember what it was called, but I did get pretty far with the first girl (there was a brief bath scene with her in a towel). |
|||
|
|||
|
anime racket
Posts: 314 |
|
||
|
Thank you Ringking! It looks a little complicated but I think I can
figure it out sometime. I better not use the family computer though. If I messed something up... P.S. Could you p.m. the link to me and MoonSaber? |
|||
|
|||
|
anime racket
Posts: 314 |
|
||
|
Got Air in the mail today. First impressions are that it's going to be
a little harder to play than I thought. I hope that walkthrough comes through for me. The visuals are nice. So is the music. There are some new story details and images so the whole game should be worth the effort. |
|||
|
|||
|
Moonsaber
Posts: 343 Location: USA |
|
||
|
I hope it has more plot/endings then the anime did. I found that the Kanon VN was rather.. ah.. different.. then the anime. In some good ways and bad. The character designs were the same as the ones for the original TV series.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group