Monthly Madness (Formerly known as FYLTBE) [OLD THREAD]

[ladynadiad]

42 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

 

I want to put a line in the sand here. Just because visuals are hand drawn instead of CGI, doesn't make them automatically artistic. That's the kind of reasoning people used in reverse to discount CGI movies like Toy Story as not being as artistic as movies that were drawn by hand.

 

I also feel like many visual novels out there barely count as a game, just having text and images to click through - literally novels, just with pictures. Now I checked and this one actually has a couple of dialogue choices to make and reading through one playthrough should take a couple of hours, but going by people unlocking all trophies within two to five minutes it seems that it's basically a free easy 100%, like many visual novels on steam, unlike "full" novels like the ones on the Vita which can take countless hours to get through.

 

That's because they either skipped all the dialog or just used a cheat tool like SAM to unlock them all.  I'm leaning more towards SAM because there was enough text that you aren't skipping it all in two to five minutes.  That is indeed a large problem on Steam, though PSN isn't immune to cheaters.

 

However, if you are going to do the whole visual novels aren't really games thing, then I think we should stop the discussion right now because at best all we can do is agree to disagree.

12 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Honestly, the only kind of VN without any choices I've come across so far would be Actual Sunlight, which counts as a game for different reasons. 

 

You're speaking of a Kinetic Novel and there are some good ones out there.  The Higurashi/Umineko games are actually a great example and make use of sound to add to the overall creepy atmosphere being set by the story and they wouldn't succeed nearly as much at what they do if they were just written and didn't have the backdrops and sounds.  The medium used by visual novels works for it even if there aren't choices.

 

Actual Sunlight is actually an RPG Maker game that runs more like a point and click than an RPG, unless the PSN version changed it a lot beyond adding more trophies.  A far better example of that sort of game would be To the Moon, though the PSP Corpse Party also is an example since it was originally done in RPG Maker.

Edited March 30, 2017 by ladynadiad

[crimsonidol38]

11 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

I personally haven't seen a single VN that didn't have at least one choice to make within the game, leading to different endings

Here's the WIkipedia-bot, again.

 

You haven't read many VNs yet? (me neither about 10 or so). At least on Steam you can find a whole bunch of Kinetic VNs which have no single choice. Some famous examples are various VNs by Key/Visual Arts (Planetarian, Harmonia) or the narcissu-series. Others that come to my mind are the World's End Economica-ones (IIRC), fault, Nekopara or the infamous Sakura-series (the only art here is the fact that the devs released 10+ games in ~1.5 years and people still buy this solely for some really horrible anime tiddies).

 

[xFalionx]

6 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

I've played a few free ones on Steam to try out the concept but most of the ones I played were basically text to read through and nothing more, no different endings or choices of any sort.

To be honest, I've got no clue about the free VNs on Steam, but I was reminded of the existence of Kinetic Novels in the later posts. I'm not really sure if I'd classify those as games, it's a bit like mushrooms in the way that they can't really be classified as plants or animals, so there's a different category entirely for them. 

 

You should also be mindful of all the crap that's been pushed onto Steam by Greenlight, since there's a whole bunch of really crappy games that were voted to be on Steam by the general public.

 

3 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

You're speaking of a Kinetic Novel and there are some good ones out there.  The Higurashi/Umineko games are actually a great example and make use of sound to add to the overall creepy atmosphere being set by the story and they wouldn't succeed nearly as much at what they do if they were just written and didn't have the backdrops and sounds.  The medium used by visual novels works for it even if there aren't choices.

 

Actual Sunlight is actually an RPG Maker game that runs more like a point and click than an RPG, unless the PSN version changed it a lot beyond adding more trophies.  A far better example of that sort of game would be To the Moon.

Right, I've heard that term somewhere before. Wait, do Higurashi and Umineko count as kinetic novels? I didn't play them yet but I've always thought they had choices.

 

Yeah, it's an RPG Maker game, but it was closest to a VN in my opinion. In the PS version you basically run around and interact with objects and people to read through stories from your memories. That's about it, so I wouldn't really think it's that much like a point and click game. :/

 

1 minute ago, Crimson Idol said:

Here's the WIkipedia-bot, again.

 

You haven't read many VNs yet? (me neither about 10 or so). At least on Steam you can find a whole bunch of Kinetic VNs which have no single choice. Some famous examples are various VNs by Key/Visual Arts (Planetarian, Harmonia) or the narcissu-series. Others that come to my mind are the World's End Economica-ones (IIRC), fault, Nekopara or the infamous Sakura-series (the only art here is the fact that the devs released 10+ games in ~1.5 years and people still buy this solely for some really horrible anime tiddies).

 

I've read exactly 6, 2 of which were the ones on PS+. The one with the fewest choices I've read was Saya no Uta which had 2 choices and 3 endings. Of the ones you listed I've only heard of Narcissu, Nekopara, and the Sakura series so far. I have pretty unusual tastes though (see Saya no Uta which is my favorite VN so far), so I usually just end up looking for things similar to what I've already read and some of the top stuff on VNDB.

[crimsonidol38]

12 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

To be honest, I've got no clue about the free VNs on Steam, but I was reminded of the existence of Kinetic Novels in the later posts. I'm not really sure if I'd classify those as games, it's a bit like mushrooms in the way that they can't really be classified as plants or animals, so there's a different category entirely for them. 

 

Just learned something new. Always thought they were plants.

 

13 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

I've read exactly 6, 2 of which were the ones on PS+. The one with the fewest choices I've read was Saya no Uta which had 2 choices and 3 endings. Of the ones you listed I've only heard of Narcissu, Nekopara, and the Sakura series so far. I have pretty unusual tastes though (see Saya no Uta which is my favorite VN so far), so I usually just end up looking for things similar to what I've already read and some of the top stuff on VNDB.

 

You should give Narcissu a try. It's more or less a either you like it or hate it-series but the first two ones can be read for free:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/264380/

IIRC they will be retranslated in the next few months though due to the successful Kickstarter for the followup entries (which will also come to Vita ).

 

Never heard about Saya no Uta but that doesn't mean a thing as I'm not really a person that invests much time in looking up and finding new media to consume.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

50 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

That's because they either skipped all the dialog or just used a cheat tool like SAM to unlock them all.  I'm leaning more towards SAM because there was enough text that you aren't skipping it all in two to five minutes.  That is indeed a large problem on Steam, though PSN isn't immune to cheaters.

 

Didn't you also unlock the achievements in a matter of minutes though, playing the game for about half an hour?

 

50 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

However, if you are going to do the whole visual novels aren't really games thing, then I think we should stop the discussion right now because at best all we can do is agree to disagree.

 

Nope, not doing that thing and we can agree that different people have different opinions about what they want from a game.

 

I will say though that a visual novel that doesn't give you any choices at all, nothing to do yourself except read the text and click "next" then that is not a game - a game needs some form of interactivity, however minimal. So yeah visual novels where you have choices to make, however minimal, are games. I've played through Amnesia and while I did not exactly like it, it's definitely a game. I guess I liked Emily Is Away, would that be considered a visual novel? Best visual novels I ever played is the Ace Attorney series. Really cool idea, lots to figure out yourself, very cool games.

 

However, a visual novel that just offers text to read through without any form of interactivity, that can't be called a game. That's reading at your own pace with added pictures.

[xFalionx]

27 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

Just learned something new. Always thought they were plants.

Yay, I managed to successfully teach something to our Wikipedia-bot.  

 

Quote

You should give Narcissu a try. It's more or less a either you like it or hate it-series but the first two ones can be read for free:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/264380/

IIRC they will be retranslated in the next few months though due to the successful Kickstarter for the followup entries (which will also come to Vita ).

 

Never heard about Saya no Uta but that doesn't mean a thing as I'm not really a person that invests much time in looking up and finding new media to consume.

Yeah, I might give it a try. I had actually already downloaded the bundle of the first two ones when I saw them for free on Steam.  

Not now though, I'm not really in the mood right now.

 

Saya no Uta is pretty much a hidden gem, I don't even know how I found the game in the first place. It's basically a cosmic horror VN about a high school boy in a normal life with girlfriend and friends, who has had an accident, and as a result of that needed to undergo brain surgery. The chance of success was very slim and so the operation ended up as a failure. Thanks to that he's ended up with brain damage causing all of his senses to be really messed up, and he can't really tell anybody about it because he fears that he'll just end up being put into an insane asylum since there isn't anything that can really be fixed anymore after the failed surgery. Through the story you see the world through both the MC's eyes as well as his friends who don't really know why he's behaving so different ever since the accident. The VN does a truly great job at telling the story from both perspectives as well as providing the right atmosphere for the MC's condition.

It's not for the faint of heart though, since the game has a lot of really messed up themes and some story related sex scenes as well. 

 

If you want to have an example for the brilliant atmosphere and the general looks of the game, here's the first part of a random LP I found on Youtube. The thumbnail alone should be enough to see what I'm referring to when I say that everything the MC senses in general is really damn messed up.

Spoiler

 

 

Also, the soundtrack is another thing that's really damn great about this VN. Here's a track that I still listen to every now and then.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 30, 2017 by xFalionx

[Edunstar84]

Small update:

 

Just need to collect 7 Stray Beads and raise over 800,000 yen before I can continue with the story. Acquiring 2 of the Stray Beads will definitely slow me down though, and it sucks because I can't skip them and just beat the last boss. 

 

 

[SyIaris]

Nice, that'll certainly be easier to pin down. Think 3/4 of my backlog is either 3+ words or "game name #" type stuff.

 

On 3/28/2017 at 3:11 PM, xFalionx said:

Well, can't really allow it to count as artistic for the artstyle alone, especially since it isn't that new with Sly Cooper introducing the cell-shaded artstyle in the PS2 era. You could always use a skip or maybe find a way to explain it as artistic besides the artstyle. Maybe the creative weapons could be the key here? The only reason I count the telltale games as artistic is their way of putting a different spin on other franchises, not because of the artstyle or at least only to a small degree.

 

Anyways, good luck with whatever you choose to do.

 

Fair enough, just figured it was worth asking. The only other game I've finished this month was Iron Man 2, and that is just... not good. Don't think the weapons tend to be all that creative for the most part; you just wind up with elemental effects or such on some of them.

Oddly, I've never noticed that Sly has a similar style before. Guess it isn't as jarring with cartoons.

 

Going to have to use a skip for March, there just hasn't been much time for gaming.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

52 minutes ago, SyIaris said:

Fair enough, just figured it was worth asking. The only other game I've finished this month was Iron Man 2, and that is just... not good. Don't think the weapons tend to be all that creative for the most part; you just wind up with elemental effects or such on some of them.

Oddly, I've never noticed that Sly has a similar style before. Guess it isn't as jarring with cartoons.

 

Going to have to use a skip for March, there just hasn't been much time for gaming.

 

Wait @xFalionx, after all the stuff that's been allowed like Color Guardians and three minute visual novels, you're going to block a Borderlands game? Art does not need to be classy, and the Borderlands devs certainly took their time creating alien races...

[crimsonidol38]

16 hours ago, xFalionx said:

It's not for the faint of heart though, since the game has a lot of really messed up themes and some story related sex scenes as well. 

 

If you want to have an example for the brilliant atmosphere and the general looks of the game, here's the first part of a random LP I found on Youtube. The thumbnail alone should be enough to see what I'm referring to when I say that everything the MC senses in general is really damn messed up.

 

So it's definitely not my cup of tea. I'm rather faint of heart and I'm more into down to earth stories that have some extraordinary elements in them but I don't like these extreme ones.  I know for sure that I wouldn't feel comfortable reading it.

[xFalionx]

15 hours ago, SyIaris said:

Fair enough, just figured it was worth asking. The only other game I've finished this month was Iron Man 2, and that is just... not good. Don't think the weapons tend to be all that creative for the most part; you just wind up with elemental effects or such on some of them.

Oddly, I've never noticed that Sly has a similar style before. Guess it isn't as jarring with cartoons.

 

Going to have to use a skip for March, there just hasn't been much time for gaming.

Yeah, when I first played Sly4, I felt like the artstyle was oddly familiar. It's not as obvious since Borderlands has more realistic visuals while Sly has more cartoony visuals with vibrant colors and less details, it's still the same technique though.  

 

Sure, congrats on your platinum rank for March. You've got one more skip left.

 

14 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

Wait @xFalionx, after all the stuff that's been allowed like Color Guardians and three minute visual novels, you're going to block a Borderlands game? Art does not need to be classy, and the Borderlands devs certainly took their time creating alien races...

I allowed Color Guardians because the plot revolves around restoring colors to the world which is pretty much literally art, and I'm allowing a three minute visual novel for the premise of being able to see the red string of fate that connects people to their soul mate which is artistic in my book. I'm not gonna allow Borderlands 2 for the artstyle alone, just like I'm not allowing that three minute VN for its hand drawn art alone. 

 

Oh, and while we're on that topic, congrats on your new golden star in March, @ladynadiad

 

4 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

So it's definitely not my cup of tea. I'm rather faint of heart and I'm more into down to earth stories that have some extraordinary elements in them but I don't like these extreme ones.  I know for sure that I wouldn't feel comfortable reading it.

Yeah, like I said earlier, I'm an unsuasual guy with unusual tastes. I just personally find most normal things boring and the more extraordinary it gets, the better.

Edited March 31, 2017 by xFalionx

[ladynadiad]

@xFalionx - I would like to request to be removed from this event.  Sorry, but I can't be a part of something where people's tastes and choices in games are going to be insulted in this manner because that accomplishes the exact opposite of this event's intention in my eyes.

[xFalionx]

1 hour ago, ladynadiad said:

@xFalionx - I would like to request to be removed from this event.  Sorry, but I can't be a part of something where people's tastes and choices in games are going to be insulted in this manner because that accomplishes the exact opposite of this event's intention in my eyes.

Wait a moment, please tell me when and how I insulted peoples tastes and choices in games. I didn't intend any of this to happen at all since it is my honest intention to make this event a fun way to tackle your backlog, and this really is the opposite of what I wanted.

 

Without feedback I won't be able to change these things into something better and sadly I don't really get what's going on right now because I'm just not that great in terms of social skills. Is this about me, the whole event, or only this month? Because when my feedback turns from this is fun and effective to I can't take this anymore, get me out of here, there truly is something wrong that needs to be addressed.

[ladynadiad]

53 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Wait a moment, please tell me when and how I insulted peoples tastes and choices in games. I didn't intend any of this to happen at all since it is my honest intention to make this event a fun way to tackle your backlog, and this really is the opposite of what I wanted.

 

Without feedback I won't be able to change these things into something better and sadly I don't really get what's going on right now because I'm just not that great in terms of social skills. Is this about me, the whole event, or only this month? Because when my feedback turns from this is fun and effective to I can't take this anymore, get me out of here, there truly is something wrong that needs to be addressed.

 

I'll PM you on this, but no it's not you.

[MortalRikku]

Update:

 

Competed Tearaway Unfolded, such a lovely quirky game.  Have not got the plat as will need to rerun to get collectibles.

 

Looking forward to a fresh new month 

 

Stats: only change is my completion as no plats this month 41.26

 

My game for next month is going to be The last of us as I have been itching to play it again! Feel like I have really struggled this month gaming wise, hopefully this will spark it back as I love this game. 

 

Also would Resident Evil Biohazard be accepted for this month as that's it's retail name? If so, I will be starting that next month also as it's been sitting sealed for a few months. ?

 

Edited March 31, 2017 by MortalRikku

[Edunstar84]

YES!!!! Managed to win the race again Kai (lame) and defeated the last set of the Devil Gate trials (not as bad as I thought it would be), which leads me to...

 

I finished the story for Okami HD. It's definitely artistic: watercolor graphics, traditional Japanese tunes and myths

[xFalionx]

Finally got the thread update for April ready. I've basically spent most of today preparing this, especially since I've had to manually replace more than 600 broken trophy images, so I hope you people will like what's coming up in two hours.  

 

1 hour ago, MortalRikku said:

Update:

 

Competed Tearaway Unfolded, such a lovely quirky game.  Have not got the plat as will need to rerun to get collectibles.

 

Looking forward to a fresh new month 

 

Stats: only change is my completion as no plats this month 41.26

 

My game for next month is going to be The last of us as I have been itching to play it again! Feel like I have really struggled this month gaming wise, hopefully this will spark it back as I love this game. 

 

Also would Resident Evil Biohazard be accepted for this month as that's it's retail name? If so, I will be starting that next month also as it's been sitting sealed for a few months. 

Congrats on your silver rank.  I'll update the OP at midnight.

 

Man, I wish I had The last of us, I've heard much great stuff about it. Have fun with that. Also, RE7:B is gonna be fine. It's not an edition name and even if it was, the 7 counts as a word.

 

4 minutes ago, Edunstar84 said:

YES!!!! Managed to win the race again Kai (lame) and defeated the last set of the Devil Gate trials (not as bad as I thought it would be), which leads me to...

 

I finished the story for Okami HD. It's definitely artistic: watercolor graphics, traditional Japanese tunes and myths

Yay, you made it.  Congrats on that silver rank. Same as above, I'll update the OP at midnight.

[Hemiak]

OK, end of April stats update. 

 

Plats - 114

100% - 32 (I hadn't been counting Super Stardust HD because I won't spend 10 dollars on DLC for a game I bought for $.99. I do however have the original base game complete so I believe that counts.)

Completion - 71.8%. This might go up slightly tonight but not enough to really matter. It also might drop if I manage to get a trophy in Xillia 2 (unlikely). I earned my first trophy in Xillia 1 after about 15 hours of play time, which I definitely won't reach tonight. 

[Kent10201]

21 minutes ago, Hemiak said:

OK, end of April stats update. 

I didn't know that this month was April .

[MortalRikku]

1 hour ago, xFalionx said:

Finally got the thread update for April ready. I've basically spent most of today preparing this, especially since I've had to manually replace more than 600 broken trophy images, so I hope you people will like what's coming up in two hours.  

 

Congrats on your silver rank.  I'll update the OP at midnight.

 

Man, I wish I had The last of us, I've heard much great stuff about it. Have fun with that. Also, RE7:B is gonna be fine. It's not an edition name and even if it was, the 7 counts as a word.

 

Yay, you made it.  Congrats on that silver rank. Same as above, I'll update the OP at midnight.

The last of us is so good! I should have no problem getting the plat for it this month as only need one more playthrough on grounded mode and getting collectibles.

 

YAS! For RE7:B woot woot! Not sure I will be as excited playing it tho haha! 

 

 

[xFalionx]

Falion's Year-long Themed Backlog Event enters the month of April!

 

April's theme:

Hardcore requirement: 6 or more words

Allowed are all games that have a title consisting of 3 or more words. Special Edition titles like "Game of the Year Edition", "Definitive Edition", "Imperial Edition", "Remastered", "HD", "Plus", "Golden", etc. can be ignored. Numbers will count as words for this theme but a string of numbers can only be counted as one word. If any version of a game has a name that qualifies, you may play another version of that game.

Example: Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

 

 

If you didn't manage to complete your latest March game, you still have 24 hours from the time of this post to finish your game and post about it in the thread. You can, however, already earn ranks for April as of now.

 

Also, as always, I'm not a robot and while I don't like to admit it, I do make mistakes from time to time, so be sure to have a look over your section in the OP and make sure everything is as it should be.

Since this is the 24 hour mark, I'll send one last reminder out to the folks @DrumKing294, @Lucas and @Pixel-DRAGON-, who are still stuck with a bronze rank. 

 

New things in April:

• We might not need to switch to straw polls after all, I might be able to get the polls to work again.
• I've fixed 600+ of the little trophy emoticons that were messed up by a previous site update.
• I've added a new Available skips line in each participants' section of the OP and linked their names to their profiles.
• New banners for April's theme and the OP.
• The Hardcore challenge has now been introduced. If you find that the monthly theme is not strict enough for your tastes, you can give this challenge a try. For each month there will now be a secondary theme that might range from a random genre over a stricter version of the theme itself to a whole second theme entirely. Good luck.  
• The DLC challenge has now been introduced. This only requires the completion of all DLC trophies of a themed game, completely disregarding prior or present completion of the base game. A game only counts once for this challenge though, so you won't be able to get another star if there's more DLC added to a game you already finished for this challenge. 

[Lucas]

@xFalionx I'm unfortunately going to have to resign from this event. I really liked the idea of the event and I think you're doing a great job running it but it just doesn't really fit my schedule at the moment. I wish everyone who's still participating good luck throughout the rest of the year and have fun !

[Kevvik]

Okay, stats update. KYC has knocked down my overall completion rate this year so next month will be about fixing that as well so I guess the event worked.

 

I like the introduction of the hardcore challenge as well. I have a game in mind already which will also qualify for a game I wouldn't have played right now if not for this event. Bonus!

 

So, event stats:

 

Platinums: +11

100% games: +2

Completion rate: -1.34%

 

Time to hit that completion rate next month.  Keep up the good work everyone.?

Edited March 31, 2017 by Kevvik

[Abbey97]

Can't believe we are into April already?. It doesn't seem like five minutes since it was Christmas?

 

No new updates from me, but just wanted to say that the new challenges look pretty interesting and I shall be looking to complete those for sure. 

 

I have my April games planned out as I'm going to do:

Spoiler

Tomb Raider: Legend

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

and you guessed it, Tomb Raider: Underworld

I'll also see if I can do a forth but I shall have to see?

 

I know this is probably a little early but I like to get organised?, so I've planned at least one game for each element so I'm ready for whichever one wins.

They are:

Spoiler

Air - Gravity Rush - perfect fit for this element and the only I could see working in my backlog.

Water - Rune Factory Oceans - again another great fit as most of the game is spent in the water looking for the story.

Earth - LEGO Worlds - just the same as Minecraft really only LEGO. Hopefully the Billionaire trophy will become less of a grind before May.

Fire - Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor - this is the one that I could see being a good one for this element plus I really do need to finish this.

 

Heres to another great month!?

Edited April 1, 2017 by RizzleAbbey12

[Enma8910]

I'd like to add another game in March, Everybody's gone to the rapture, due to the gorgeous details done in that game. And both plat in March counts towards the plat pyramid event of PSNP.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Enma8910