Milky House Memorial on its way

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#21
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
The thing is, Evangelion did have a lasting impact on giant robot shows in general--it moved them from either being...well, Gundam or in the same vein as Voltron--formulaic toy vehicles. Evangelion really did completely change things, and now the Eva formula has been incorporated into mecha shows.


Argh... please don't reduce Gundam to a toy selling vehicle... yes, I am aware of its origins as such. But writing off the whole saga as that is insulting.

I would say Eva's big contribution to anime had nothing to do with giant robots. Indeed, the first half of the series is nothing but a typical mecha show. It had an ominous undertone, and hinted at other things... but it wasn't until much later that the show changed gears and became really unique. Then it became a psychological character dissection. And it was even semi-academic about doing it too. The fact that there were giant robots involved at that point was almost coincidence. It's influence has primarily been picked up by giant robot shows, but lots of non-mecha anime have shown its influence, normally to better use. I think Lain is a good example of this.

Anyway, I'm already doing exactly what I said I wouldn't... analyzing anime. So, to summarize, yes I liked Gasaraki (and while it's animation wasn't great, I couldn't imagine calling it that bad??) though you are of course entitled to your opinion. And I'm still sketchy on Fruits Basket... but I'll give it a shot.

#22
quote:
Originally posted by Faust:

Argh... please don't reduce Gundam to a toy selling vehicle... yes, I am aware of its origins as such. But writing off the whole saga as that is insulting.

I said "Gundam" _or_ a vehicle for selling toys. I was referring to simplistically written shows along the lines of Voltron.

#23
quote:
Originally posted by Faust:
Anyway, I'm already doing exactly what I said I wouldn't... analyzing anime. So, to summarize, yes I liked Gasaraki (and while it's animation wasn't great, I couldn't imagine calling it that bad??) though you are of course entitled to your opinion. And I'm still sketchy on Fruits Basket... but I'll give it a shot.

You must not have been paying close attention during the parts where it was bad. I'll admit it wasn't always bad. But there were too many poorly-animated scenes for it to be written off.

The worst offender that comes to mind is easily the press conference sequence. At one point there is a press sequence, literally full of reporters and the like stuffing microphones into a general's face. And NOTHING is moving onscreen _at all_ except for the bare minimum of the general's face that they had to animate to move his mouth.

#24

My mistake about the gundam remark… wasn’t quite sure how you were phrasing it. And as far as animation quality goes… you must only watch really high budget shows. Scenes where almost nothing is animated are pretty common in most anime. As I said, I’m not gonna say Gasaraki was beautifully animated, but it was definitely mediocre at least. It did have a problem of uneven animation. Like Eva, and numerous mecha shows, most of the budget went to the combat scenes, so they had to save money in other places. Then again, if you don’t like a show, it’s easier to pick out problems with it.

#25
quote:
Originally posted by Faust:
And as far as animation quality goes.... you must only watch really high budget shows. Scenes where almost nothing is animated are pretty common in most anime. As I said, I'm not gonna say Gasaraki was beautifully animated, but it was definitely mediocre at least. It did have a problem of uneven animation. Like Eva, and numerous mecha shows, most of the budget went to the combat scenes, so they had to save money in other places. Then again, if you don't like a show, it's easier to pick out problems with it.

Well, almost any anime is going to be like that. The problem was that Gasaraki did it so much that, for me, it was a real detraction. The big problem, for me, was that they poorly concealed the lack of movement--scenes that should've been bustling with activity were instead almost completely static. This was jarring enough to me that I'm docking the show for it.

I actually try to not let animation quality be a factor. Otherwise I'd never have started watching Akazukin Cha Cha, one of the all-time best anime.

#26
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
I paid like $30 to sponsor the first volume from Slow as Hell, because the intro/opening theme were cute. Cute. Really cute.

Ah, the power of a cute song. It can be used for good, or for evil. For instance, I picked up the single for "Sugar, a Little Snow Fairy" with the opening and ending songs and played the "exciting cute" version of "Sugar Baby Love" over and over at work. I've never received so many death threats before... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

#27

Has anyone received their JAST USA or Milky House Memorial collections yet? I got email notices that they were shipping a week ago, but still haven’t received anything. Adding to the confusion, an order I placed less than a week ago has already been shipped and received. Here’s a chronology of the two transactions:

“in stock” order

  • 3/19 USPS San Diego items received
  • 3/16 “Your order is shipping now” (from our office in Japan)
  • 3/14 "Items shipping from San Diego"
  • 3/14 "Waiting for credit card processing"
  • 3/14 "paid, ready to ship"
  • 3/14 "Your J-List Order (received)"
  • 3/14 order submitted

Memorial Collection Preorder
  • 3/19 nothing received yet
  • 3/13 "Items Shipping from San Diego"
  • 3/12 "paid, ready to ship"
  • 3/11 "Waiting for credit card processing"
  • 3/11 "awaiting items, not charged yet"
  • 2/28 order submitted

I’m not worried yet, but it looks like someone at J-list may have spoken too soon. Have others had a similar experience?

#28

The Jast USA website claims the titles are not yet shipping. At least, it did yesterday, when I checked.

#29

I received the same email that my order was shipping last Wednesday. The game still hasn’t arrived, and I would have figured that today would be the latest it showed up. I’m not really worried yet, either, but I am curious, as the JastUSA web site says the game is still a pre-order while J-List says the game is now shipping.

#30
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
The Jast USA website claims the titles are not yet shipping. At least, it did yesterday, when I checked.

Obviously, they have updated their website in the meantime. It says right now that the memorial collections are in stock and shipping.

#31

It’s always a bit odd when you go to a company’s site and they still say something’s in preorder but it’s already out. I know of two other companies that regularly do this. You would think they would try to keep their own website current to their own releases…

I’m starting to wonder if these were sent through media mail or something. Hmm, I’ve heard from a few people saying they already got their copy but I don’t think they were ordering it through the JastUSA or J-List websites. shrugs Don’t know.

#32

I got mine today in the mail. Can’t wait to play Noctural Illusion. And my old saved file (Memory.dat) for May Club still works when I replace the newly installed May Club. Can’t wait to play Nocturnal Illusion :slight_smile:

#33

Got mine as well, also noticed the package wasn’t even postmarked until the 18th of this month. Would explain why it took so long to get here.

#34

Haven’t played those games yet .Just wanted to ask if it’s worth the money so i can decide to buy it or not

[This message has been edited by RedHell (edited 03-20-2003).]

#35
quote:
Originally posted by RedHell:
Haven't played those games yet .Just wanted to ask if it's worth the money so i can decide to buy it or not

I don't know the new versions of these games either. But at that prices, I would at least recommend the JAST memorial collection without second thoughts. Each of the games in this collection is worth the price for the whole collection itself.

However, it may depend on what you expect of them. For example, they have told that the graphics were retouched, but I don't think that they would now have a similiar quality as in currently new games (TCI for example). But the storylines in these games are recommendable (even though I didn't like "Runaway City" as much as the other two).
EDT: I wouldn't expect them to have voice-acting at that price either.

I wouldn't recommend the MILKY House collection with the same enthusiasm, but still they are both at least worth their money IMHO. If you don't have the original DOS/Win95-versions, you can't go wrong with buying the memorial collections.

[This message has been edited by Unicorn (edited 03-20-2003).]

#36

Hmm, I recommend both collections without hesitation, though I do think the JastUSA one has more overall value than the Milky House ones. I feel Season of the Sakura and May Club (in there respective collection) by themselves would justify the price.

Really can’t wait to get my hands on them. It’s been so long since I played any of the games included in the collections, it’ll almost be like playing them anew. Hmm, I do wonder if they did something about that “random” factor in Nocturnal Illusion that had you wandering around the place for minutes and minutes in real life.

#37
quote:
Originally posted by ekylo:
Hmm, I recommend both collections without hesitation, though I do think the JastUSA one has more overall value than the Milky House ones. I feel Season of the Sakura and May Club (in there respective collection) by themselves would justify the price.

Really can't wait to get my hands on them. It's been so long since I played any of the games included in the collections, it'll almost be like playing them anew. Hmm, I do wonder if they did something about that "random" factor in Nocturnal Illusion that had you wandering around the place for minutes and minutes in real life.

What's the "random" factor that you speak of? I know I had to pull the same stuff I did in Desire, just basically walk around until I meet someone, and then it seems to open up a bunch of other possibilities, sometimes it seemed to make obvious sense and sometimes it seems just shoehorned in, not really any attempt to follow a pre-assigned path. I like the whole occult/mythology/fairy tale elements in Nocturanl Illusion, the BGM was also quite entrancing. Despite the lack of multiple paths, I enjoyed playing this horror story game.

#38
quote:
Originally posted by bokmeow:
What's the "random" factor that you speak of? I know I had to pull the same stuff I did in Desire, just basically walk around until I meet someone, and then it seems to open up a bunch of other possibilities, sometimes it seemed to make obvious sense and sometimes it seems just shoehorned in, not really any attempt to follow a pre-assigned path. I like the whole occult/mythology/fairy tale elements in Nocturanl Illusion, the BGM was also quite entrancing. Despite the lack of multiple paths, I enjoyed playing this horror story game.

The wandering-around thing. That's really what is meant; that you have to just blunder around at random to do ANYthing in that game.

Quite honestly...it's got good ambience, and a novel idea and interetsting characters...BUT. It has a lot of issues, none of which will come close to preventing me from getting it.

Nocturnal Illusion was a good game that could (and probably should) have been much better. If the blunder-around part was, I dunno, an actual gameplay mechanism instead of just a gimmick. The game should have had tons more nonlinearity. The game's setting, music, etc would have worked very well with a TCI! kind of setup -- where you go affects who you meet, which in turn affects what happens.

Instead, you have a fully linear story that is, well, interrupted by forced exploration--but the exploration serves no purpose; at any given time there is only one way to advance the story, and usually only one interaction that is possible. A few times, you can interact with a character at a location that DOESN'T advance the story, but it is very rare and ubersimple anyway.

The game was also not well served by having such a strong story, and then undermining itself by throwing in the gotta-undress-em-all, one-at-a-time plot structure. I have never liked that one, and forcing Nocturnal Illusion to be like that...just...detracted, a lot.

#39
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
The game was also not well served by having such a strong story, and then undermining itself by throwing in the gotta-undress-em-all, one-at-a-time plot structure. I have never liked that one, and forcing Nocturnal Illusion to be like that...just...detracted, a lot.

I'm behind your opinion 100% on that. Sometimes it wasn't aimless wandering since certain characters appeared more often in certain locations than others, but otherwise I'm just walking about the rooms, checking each one to see what's up. The game would certainly have benefited from a multi-path implementation ala May Club, instead one just frees up one lost soul after another in some preordained order. Regardless, the story was strong and I really enjoyed the additional ambience of sound effects when there was rain, storm, footsteps, water splashes and so forth. Very sexy character designs too ^_^

#40

I finally got MH MC yesterday and JAST MC today. Took nine days to cross the state from the time they said it was shipped, but it’s here and I’m happy.