Bay 12 Games Forum

1.  The usual "EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING TOO FAST"
2.  I hate when series kill characters before I can even remember their names.
3.  MORE GIRLS THAN THE ORIGINAL MUV-LUV
4.  The animation is off model almost constantly plus CGI TSFs and BETA.  I miss my pseudo sprite animation.
5.  The opening:
a) It's wuba wuba as fuck.
b) It's...just scenes from episode 1.  I'm guessing that episode 3 onward will have an actual OP right?

It's just really laughable the BETA end up feeling like total goofballs and not the ominous threat in MLU/MLA.  I would play the VN for comparison but it's not in Engliiish and it doesn't have the greatest ratings on VNDB either though.

I will say the end of episode 2 with the tank class was pretty nice albeit the heavy censoring and Yui and dead person screaming way too corny-ly.  "UWAAAAAAAAAAAAH om nom nom"  The earlier scene with the soldier class was laughably bad.  Laughably...bad.

Also when the girl who went "I SURVIVED 8 MINUTES"--cut in half by a destroyer class.  Yare yare   

OH THAT'S RIGHT

WHAT THE FUCK WHY ARE LASER CLASS DROPPING TSFs WITH ONE LITTLE BURST OF LASER?



FIVE SECONDS

FIVE SECONDS NOT A FUCKING LITTLE BURST IT'S SUPPOSE TO BE A FULL BEAM TOO

AND WHAT WAS WITH THAT "ANTI-LASER SMOKE" SHIT THAT DIDN'T EVEN WORK??  IT'S SO--ARGHHHHHHH


I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO ANGRY BEFORE


The first two episodes are in 1998 mainly I think and take place three years before MLA.  And since I read MLA I knew their defense against the BETA on Japan wasn't going to work (they didn't really show America fleeing, just...helping kind of).  Of course then they come back with G-Bombs with the Americans but that's another story.  Episode 2 ends with it jumping to 2001 but it's probably the beginning or middle of the year otherwise having MLA:TE and MLA going on at the same time seems...strange.  I would love to see MLA animated so I could secretly like it mock it.  Or better yet have an MLA adaption by Ufotable for 50 episode about a Takeru bad ending and then second impact happens and the Angels and BETA team up while NERV and the UN work together and every episode is two hours long with movie budget and international political intrigue sliders sliders sliders  ____ 

Continuing Chapter 5/Usami Chapter-


DIE HARD
(the only movie that ever gets referenced in any VN)


ALL HAIL BRITANNIA (I'm sorry I have to make these jokes after learning Kyouhei has Lelouch's VA.)


Kyousuke has eyes!!!

I feel like Hashimoto's constant appearances were pretty...odd.  Same for Iwai.  Frankly this final arc was surreal.


IT KEEPS HAPPENING


And now for my favorite scene in the entire game:



MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOU

I was thinking 'Maou' wouldn't blow himself up like that that's so stupid what the fuck

but then

AHAHA

I AM THE MAOU

I POSSESS ALL THE VIOLINS

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

(Yeah I actually teared up at Maou's slyness even if it was all extremely silly)



LET ME PLAY THE VIOLIN UWAAAAAAAAAAAH



credit roll

My thoughts at this point:

"Wow so Maou just up and dies?  That's so stupid argh this game.  Oh hey an Epilogue sequence this looks borin--"



MAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOUU





But then he died so it didn't matter, ohohoho screw this game playing with my emotions




Kyousuke gets arrested, the end.

His mother dies for no reason off screen, his father dies for no reason off screen, he kills his brother for no reason and god dammit Maou I didn't even get to hear Usami play her evil violin.


Being in jail is hard

Let's talk to my heroines in order, yep.


No Maou?  ;_;



This is just for keepsies.  Gotta collect the title screen changes.


Anyway, as for Chapter 5 and the Epilogue itself...sigh I don't know.  It was all over the place.  Some scenes were awesome (and even that varied between oh shit yes and what the fuck am I reading) well the rest was like...what are we even doing here.  I am very disappointed Saijou didn't show up after so much Hashimoto but at least 'Maou' managed to steal my heart.  It was a pretty fun read for the most part but I was in no way moved at all and couldn't help but behave like a...sports fan I guess?  Shouting on the sidelines for something really stupid to happen, and there was no shortage of that.  Quite a lot of CGs were there as well.

During the credit scroll I was pretty discontent and the Epilogue opening had me hoping I was trolled which was true in a sense because when I got the Fin card I was still discontent after a short reprieve.

The writing was way better than Sharin no Kuni I feel...I mean it still wasn't amazing or anything but I found the back stories to generally at least be something even if a lot of elements introduces felt very very underplayed which of course leads to disappointment.

'Maou' was my favorite character, as you'll find out in the end of this post I didn't even know he was voiced by Lelouch until I finished (I watched the dub anyway sue me) but that's still hella awesome.  Know why?  The main antagonist in Sharin no Kuni is basically Housuke and his VA is Lelouch's Dad.  Talk about...strange connections.  Akabesoft like their villains being from Code Geass.

Another large compliant is that G-senjou no Maou follows the Akabesoft character molds almost to a tee.  It does development differently but having the "snarky dick MC, eccentric male virgin friend, three heroine girls, main heroine girl, and big bad antagonist (although Gonzou later turns out to be faux with 'Maou' being the true one really).  So in the end you get a very small character cast and even a lot with sprites don't even matter which in the end leaves like three or four fucking characters that do anything.  And out of them only one is actually likable enough to like.  I can't care for Akabesoft MCs...

That's about it.  I mean, I could talk about what happens but it is what it is.  Maou's history was interesting (that letter by his Dad at the beginning of Chapter 5 was quite good too).  A lot of elements they introduced I feel they handled really poorly.  I didn't like very many characters.  The music was good.  I liked all the NVL scenes and it was certainly better than Sharin even if the big twist was quite clear which was probably part of the point.  Nothing made any sense.

6/10 (Decent)

CHAPTER 5 IS THE USAMI CHAPTER

That makes me happy.  No more branching shit.  And as predicted the start of the chapter was a well-written flashback scene.  It's not surprising because Akabesoft always do this.  Although the major plot twist is weaker I actually care for this more for being overall cooler.


NAME LABELS

And they will be staying from now on.  Why we didn't do this early?  Because we had to hide if the perspective was Kyousuke or Kyouhei!

I wish Akabesoft wrote a larger character cast, they never get over like...8 sprites.  If that.


Hey MAOU




I could complain that this still wasn't amazing or anything but at the very least this has so far been readable and that has stayed true since the heroine branch split in Chapter 4.  I mean I've been pretty much dead set on giving this a 6/10 so far and that hasn't really changed.  Unless something blows my fucking mind it won't.

I dig the music that plays on Chapter Titles though.  Just hold back all that music for the last 1/5th of the game right?

You know, okay time to criticize.  G-senjou no Maou needs to cut the fluff and actually just have the game take place during the flashback scenes.  Instead of living in this present getting flashbacks when it was dramatically appropriate they should have just had the game actually build up everything in the flashbacks as the game itself which (I'm not a romance fan) would create a stronger connection between the characters.  Akabesoft generally write really good flashback scenes, but (especially in Sharin no Kuni) a lot of either nothing or nonsense happened in the present.  It's really what makes the difference in quality between a 07th Expansion work and an Akabesoft work.

Gonzou's death was kind of strange.  I don't feel like it happened at all.  And it really clashed with his character, he was clearly protecting Kyousuke there.  He may have stayed true to money in the end there, but getting yourself killed wouldn't have made the debt to the Azai Corp. matter due to the Azai Corp. almost certainly falling due to your death Gonzou.  Go eat your neckbeard poor man's Housuke.  You aren't even Lelouch's Dad or General Rabhobidhadnad.

They spend all this effort writing an actual coherent story, in other words, they aren't just creating a setting for sex, but they really need to go all the way with this.

Obviously the answer is time loops.  Time loops solve everything.  DIDs, Sliders, murder, family strain, mecha, space aliens, war, conspiracy, witches, madness, mystery, paranoia, clones, battle of wits, competent art design (unless it's really bad so we can laugh at it), VOICED PROTAGONIST(S), godlike music, BONUS TURNBASED STRATEGY GAME

BONUS REALTIME STRATEGY FIGHTING GAME


No we should write a story where nothing happens and every moeblob "heroine" has ZZZ-cups.  Because that will be what I am doing

ZZZing

And and after we enter their route she will suddenly have feelings for me if she didn't have them already and her character won't make any sense and then nothing will happen and ctrl ctrl they had sex the end five years later we got to draw older sprites for them so I can hate them I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hateyouhatouotuouououooooooo

I have nothing to say about the Mizuha Chapter except that if you ever play Maou just fucking skip the heroine chapters.  I still have Usami's but at least she's the main heroine and the options shows she has less H scenes although that probably means she just doesn't have a bad ending.  :[


See even the editors don't care.


Surprisingly, the latter half of Chapter 4 after the heroine branch is surprisingly decent.  It was engaging and lasts for quite a while.  Sure it isn't great...but it's readable.  Way to go Akabesoft.


LUP*N OF THE THIRD?!


YOU ARE THE HEADMASTER


kill kill kill

Probably the best scene(s) in the entire game so far.

Chapter 1 didn't really have anything but introductions and that goofy detective scene.
Chapter 2 has the chase scene which was okay, kind of fatigued you.  And the hostage just gets dropped back off (I HATED THAT KID)
Chapter 3 had Saijou, 'nuff said.
Chapter 4 has Yuki doing here thing and it's ridiculous.  It was done okay.  Not amazing or anything but the ending was pretty...surprising.

UWAAAAAH MURAOKA

Yeah I haven't even taken any images since getting out of the prologue.