OMGWTFOTL.

[Doppleganger]

I'm not sure who else here on UPN is into the visual novel stuff - I know Talon is a fellow reader of light novels, BBB an anime watcher (primarily) while Loki and BPK are partakers of all. In any matter, if anime is a sapphire, manga a ruby and light novels emeralds, visual novels would be the proverbial "diamond in the rough" - potentially the biggest payoff in terms of entertainment value by providing the colour, picture, music and sound of anime with the storytelling of a light novel and the artwork in the style of manga. Quite simply, visual novels are among the rarest form of English translated Japanese media and also brag one of the smalles fanbases I have ever seen - outside of TYPE-MOON's infamous stuff, there's practically nothing out there.

Most likely that's because visual novels are stereotyped as being homogenously eroge - which isn't really far off the mark, actually, but there are a few where that kind of mess isn't really the point of the novel and can be bypassed. What I'm playing right now is devoid of the nasty stuff.

Talon introduced me to (and I presume he played) Narcissu a [legal] novel about the journey of a boy and a girl in search of a beach (wow, what a bad summary). I've talked about Fate/stay night where Emiya Shirou gets drawn into a mystic war between heroes of mythology and monsters of legend and lore, and I'm sure everyone's heard of Porkslope Turkeyhandle...uhh, I mean, Tsukihime, the infamous "porn with a plot". :10

This whole introduction is off topic, but I'm serving it up to determine if people have read the visual novel I am currently devouring (not the topic title one) just so I can have the honor of lauding about how awesome it is all by myself while the unaware listen with great gusto.

Now, onto the main course.

...

OMGWTFOTL is in fact a visual novel (the backronym stands for "Odious Manly Genuflection With Terrible Fury: Only True Lamentation" and was originally �土下座地�, which has something to do with a man from heck...not far off actually) that was translated from Japanese by the famous visual novel group insani. It's...apparently funny, or at least it's mind-bogglingly hillarious to the few Japanese folk who played it. Frankly, I'm not sure how this kind of game got on insani's priority list, but suffice to say, it's strange.

More important than the plot is the fact that this novel is short. I finished it in ten or so minutes - it's that small. It is also seemingly legal. The previously mentined plot - or what exists of it - involves this nameless, hapless hero presumably at an academy or school in Japan facing off against this monster of a ruffian named "Osaka Bancho". Osaka is absurdly powerful (physically) and the novel starts with the hero in dire straights - he is (literally) given two options:

[...] GENUFLECT
[...] DON'T GENUFLECT

As it happens, choosing the former always leads to the same Bad End. But that's not all! After Osaka Bancho is defeated another Bancho (named Kanto I believe) who meets up with the hero as he sluggishy struggles home and they have a chat involving silly erotic plot scenarios, which make little sense. Finally the True End appears and I can't remember what it was...but it was weird, to say the least.

This visual novel is famous for the [X] GENUFLECT meme on Yotsuba and abroad, though few have played the original title or even know what it means to genuflect (bow down on one's hands and knees) - frankly, I doubt many people could figure this out anyway.

OMGWTFOTL has virtually no plot or sense of coherence, but there is good music and artwork (when the game doesn't go out of it's way to look ugly), so maybe if you lot are in for a headache (though not NEARLY as much of one as I got when I went to GaiaOnline two days ago...holy gosh, compare stubbing one's toe to getting one's head, arms, and legs ripped off and soul sucked by a hairy brown demon with horns and a proboscis) or just some random, weird stuff, you could try it out.

As far as visual novels go that I have played, my relative scoring is as follow (/10.0):

Narcissu- 8.2
Fate/stay night: Fate - 7.4
OMGWTFOTL - 1.6

[Talon87]

The intro on this post is huge. The main point is pretty small, and the conclusion could have been wrapped up in one word: "Don't play this game unless you have 10 minutes to kill. It sucked. 1.6 out of 10. " Okay, that's more than one word, so let me try again with a promise I can keep. Two words: "It sucked."

Btw, I've been meaning to play Narcissu but I never got past Chapter 2 on all the systems I started it on (Windows, Mac). I should try again. It's not that it was boring -- not at all! It looked very sweet and touching, and you and KV enjoyed it. I just simply put it down and never picked it back up. I might play it tomorrow. Maybe.

*doesn't want to make promises he can't keep; is currently watching Shana and replaying Wind Waker*

[Doppleganger]

Ah, KV played it as well? It was a sweet title, and one that I've been told (almost universally) is a good introduction to the visual novel world. FSN and Tsukihime are supposed to be "definitive" but what I'm playing right now (gone through two routes, will talk when I've gotten through all of 'em ) puts Fate to shame. I only played OMGWTFOTL after I finished the first route (Saturday or Sunday) because I needed a mental break...the second route took me from 4:00 PM to 1:30 AM non-stop, having played two to three hours of that route earlier. I've been at it since last Thursday.

And people were saying, "don't go to sleep, play it until you finish it!" -.-

As if I could finish ten plus routes in twenty four hours when ONE took that long...!

[Loki]

The only game I ever played from Japan for PC was Shuffle! and I got super lost cause I can't read Japanese. I just know I answered a bunch of questions and things didn't really happen.

I originally downloaded it to try and play Really? Really!, the second sequel to Shuffle! after Tick! Tack, but since I didn't even play through Shuffle! and you need knowledge of Shuffle! to play Really! Really?, I didn't even try downloading it.

*is sad that I can't play a pornographic Phoenix Wright*
*is sad that I can't have sex with long haired Asa-sempai*

[Talon87]

Afaik, there is no pornographic Phoenix Wright to play.

However, I do have (on two DVD-R's) "Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategic video games, except this time, every single male character has been transformed into a sexy female, and every single female (all four of them XP) has been turned into a male." I haven't gotten to play it yet because I still lack a private computer (Purdue requires admin status to install programs, and my home computer is used by friends and family). You can bet your bottom dollar that the moment I get a PC of my own, I'll install this game and play it.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Afaik, there is no pornographic Phoenix Wright to play.

There is, and it's in English, but it sucks*.

*double entendre.

[Talon87]

I don't get the double entendre unless you're going for the HORRIBLE pun of "it sucks" referring to a blowjob. Out with it, man -- what game is this you speak of?

[Doppleganger]

Horrible pun intended.

It's a rather worn, poorly-translate visual novel featuring the characters from Phoenix Wright with none of the courtroom candour. I haven't played it, but a fellow from Yotsuba did and created a website with virtally screen-by-screen analysis of the game's poor mechanics, with copious comments affixed to each "hillarious" image. There was a NSFW section and a SFW section - I chose the latter.

The first scene I remember is Phoenix wakes up, drooling/snoozing on a table, to a Maya (girl with black hair?) with an enormus bust. She's standing in front of one of those water kegs where people tap a handle and water comes out. Small talk ensues, then she goes, "Would you like to rape me? :3".

That was when I went "Uh-oh, looks like it's time to close this window."

[Talon87]

Hahaha, link please. I want to see the original Japanese (in the screencaps) for myself.

[Doppleganger]

Did try, cannot find, sorry.

Something intereting to note, though. Apparently, "OTL" does not mean "out to lunch" like I thought, but is in fact a Japanese emoticom. It's supposed to be a louder version of "orz", which depicts a person bowing down submissively. Ironically, this is exactly what it means to "genuflect"!

[Talon87]

OTL sounds new. orz and (my personal favorite, since it's easier to read) _|¯|O have been around for ages. Though I must admit, I only realized the connection between orz and _|¯|O this year. Always learning ...