12-24-2022, 12:14 PM | #1 |
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Mahoutsukai no Yoru
Mahoutsukai no Yoru (魔法使いの夜, Night of the Magic-Wielder), a.k.a. Witch on the Holy Night, is a visual novel by Type-Moon which tells the origin story of Aozaki Aoko, the wielder of the Fifth Magic. Debuting to general audiences in the visual novel Tsukihime, Aoko is the mysterious benefactor of the story's main hero, Tohno Shiki, providing him with priceless gifts and lessons that give him the strength to carry on. Audiences were intrigued by Aoko, a self-proclaimed witch with plain white tee, blue jeans, and striking red hair. Over time, Type-Moon built a mythos around Aoko, with subsequent works and interviews suggesting that Aoko is a rather big deal in the world of Type-Moon's narrative works. And, after much hype, the team released Mahoutsukai no Yoru on April 12, 2012 and shared with the world the story of how Aoko became "Blue". When Mahoutsukai no Yoru (or Mahoyo for short) was first announced, Type-Moon had two critically-acclaimed VNs under their belt. The first was Tsukihime (2000), which tells the story of a young man who can trace the "death-lines" of any object he touches and a princess of the Moon who enlists his help. The team's second hit was Fate/stay night (2004), which tells the story of a battle royale between seven magi who, summoning the spirits of seven heroes to do battle on their behalf, vye for possession of a magic chalice that can grant any one wish. Through their use of illustrations, music, and computer coding, with Mahoyo the team hoped to create a transformative experience which would elevate the medium and redefine what a visual novel could be. The team released a trailer showcasing sharp visuals with vibrant colors and special effects. Audiences were excited to see "the next big thing" from Type-Moon -- the Kara no Kyoukai movies were wrapping up, Fate/Zero was airing on television, and Carnival Phantasm had recently released to much acclaim. The fandom was pumped -- for the first time since Fate/stay night, a brand-new Type-Moon work neither a prequel, sequel, nor a spin-off to either Tsukihime or Fate/stay night was about to come out. The game launched on April 12, 2012 for Windows PC, with a price point of Ľ8000 before tax. Originally advertised as the first in a three-part series, development on future Mahoyo titles stalled as focus shifted first to Tsukihime 2, then to a remake of the original Tsukihime, then to the popular mobile game Fate/Grand Order. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Type-Moon redoubled their efforts on several of these projects, first publishing half of the Tsukihime remake (2021) and then publishing a much lighter remake of Mahoutsukai no Yoru (2022). Where Tsukihime got a much-needed facelift in graphics, music, and even story and characters, Mahoyo was deemed to already be in great shape -- the only thing it was missing was full audio voice acting for every line of character dialogue in the game. Re-released on December 8, 2022 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, Mahoutsukai no Yoru is the first Type-Moon visual novel to be released internationally and with multi-language support. Featuring Japanese audio and Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese text, the game is available for digital purchase in all regions. Limited-edition physical purchase was also made possible in Japan and North America. Official Japanese site Official English site Japanese teaser trailer (YouTube) Japanese trailer (YouTube) English trailer (YouTube) (There are also character preview trailers, but I don't suggest you watch those until you beat the game! Several of them were made with returning players in mind.)
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12-24-2022, 12:16 PM | #2 |
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Mahoutsukai no Yoru - Characters
Aozaki Aoko: A Magician who lives in the modern world... though she is still an apprentice. Until middle school, Aoko lived a life uninvolved in the world of magecraft, but she was named her grandfather's successor once she entered high school. Otherwise, she is a normal high schooler. Thankfully, her strength of spirit and never-give-up attitude allowed her to adapt to the life of a mage. She is a reliable, big-sister sort of person who always sticks to her beliefs. She's a girl you can find anywhere, special in her own way. (Voiced by: Tomatsu Haruka) Kuonji Alice: A Witch hiding amidst the modern world. The last of her kind. Alice is a genuine witch who has lived in the world of magecraft her entire life. Owing to certain events in her life, she moved away from her homeland of England and settled in a provincial Japanese city. Currently, she attends the prestigious Reien Girls' Academy for the elite. Because she is quiet and avoids getting involved with others, she feels most comfortable living on her own. She is a secret romantic who keeps her beliefs close to her chest and an icon of a girl who seems special in her own way, but not as much as one might think. (Voiced by: Hanazawa Kana) Shizuki Soujuurou: A young boy from the countryside, introduced into the modern world. In a sense, he is a relic of another time. Soujuurou becomes an ordinary high school student, slowly adapting to his new life while being amazed by the abundance the city offers. With that forward-looking attitude, he is nothing if not stalwart. While a boy of few words, he is amiable enough that he gets along with most people. A down-to-earth boy who speaks little of his beliefs. He isn't special, but ... well, you wouldn't say he's normal, either. (Voiced by: Kobayashi Yuusuke) (All character bios taken from the official site, with a few small tweaks. For more character information, feel free to check out the official site's character bio page!)
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12-24-2022, 12:18 PM | #3 |
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Mahoutsukai no Yoru - My History
Eleven, almost twelve years ago, I sat on the floor of one of the university's chemistry research buildings, waiting for our inorganic lab proctor to unlock the door and let us into the lab. I surfed the Internet on my iPhone 3, loading UPN, Anime News Network, YouTube .... I navigated to Type-Moon's webpage -- they had recently announced a new game, and I wanted to view the pretty webpage again, listen to the pretty BGM, and see if there was any word on a street date. Afterward, I navigated back to YouTube and listened to the game's ending theme song, Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni, sampled in the game's trailer, and then when it finished I listened to another supercell song that Yuki had recommended to me, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari. The character in the word matataku, 瞬, was also the shun that was the name of one of the kingdoms in The Twelve Kingdoms that I was watching and discussing with UPN at the time. I studied the strokes, learning how to read and write the character, while listening to supercell and wondering when Nasu and Takeuchi would give us a date... Mahoutsukai no Yoru has been on my radar since literally almost Day One. While I'm far from the biggest Type-Moon fan I know, it's fair to say that I was deep, deep into Type-Moon love when I sat on that cold hallway floor looking over my lab reports while listening to supercell. At this time already, I had:
In the years after Fate/Zero's and Prisma Illya's releases, Type-Moon didn't really put out anything for me to consume. I was disinterested in their PlayStation content. We didn't have the likes of Fate/type Redline or Fate/Requiem yet. I would say I went through an "absence phase" until late February 2020, when let down by Pokémon Sword & Shield I decided to try and rekindle an old friendship by downloading Fate/Grand Order and playing it with a friend from school. It didn't work -- the friend dropped the game a few months later -- but now here I was, with a tether to my first promises of a genuine Type-Moon experience since Urobuchi Gen guest-wrote Fate/Zero. We'll save Fate/Grand Order (FGO) discussion for another day, but suffice it to say, this was my "lifeline" back into the Type-Moon fandom. On December 31, 2020, Type-Moon fans were greeted with a remarkable New Year's gift from Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi -- for the first time in over ten years, work on Tsukihime's remake was underway in earnest! :o The game would come out some time in 2021, stay tuned! Wow... :o If any game was in need of a facelift, it was Tsukihime. As a storyteller, Nasu felt he had improved. As an illustrator, Takeuchi had markedly improved. And as a lore lynchpin, there were many problematic contradictions in Tsukihime that hadn't been contradictions in 2000 when it first came out but which had become contradictions over time as more and more Type-Moon works piled on. Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- was released on August 26, 2021. I pre-ordered my copy and imported it from Japan. I popped it into my Switch and ... *insert Emperor's New Groove Pacha "just right" meme here* It's honestly one of the most impressive visual novels I've ever seen. The illustrations? Each a masterpiece. The score? One of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a video game. Several pieces are true 10/10s. (One piece in particular blows me away at how well it does what it's trying to do, 当主様の優雅なひととき, but I'll save that discussion for another time.) But above all else? The writing. O_O Nasu's often said in the lead-up to TsukiRe that he felt he's grown as a writer and that he was unhappy with the writing in Tsukihime. Given what I had seen of his story contributions in Fate/Grand Order, I honestly wasn't persuaded. It wasn't until I was actually reading TsukiRe for myself that I was just amazed by Nasu's prose. Some of the things he writes are so poetic it is truly moving. Many of the things he writes are masterful displays of "To the newcomer, this will read like Object A; but to the veteran who knows the plot already, this will read like Object B coyly posing as Object A," and it's just so impressive how coyly he does it that I can't help but to be impressed. Some of his metaphors and similes have been so good I've been like, "Wow," because I normally either don't notice a simile or I have a low opinion of it. It's rare for me to encounter a simile that makes me stop and go, "Wow, that was good. :o" I could go on and on, but this isn't really the time or the place for a TsukiRe gush. All I'm trying to say here is, with TsukiRe Part I under my belt, I was primed for any further VN announcements the team might make in the near future. I didn't have to wait long. Less than four months after I began playing TsukiRe, New Year's Eve 2021 was upon us. Fans waited with anticipation to see if Type-Moon would outdo themselves last year. And I mean, how could they!? Last year they had announced the most heavily anticipated Type-Moon remake of all time. How could they possibly top that? A Mahoyo re-release. Okay... it's a start... A Mahoyo animated movie by ufotable. Okay, now we're talking... :o But it still isn't enough to-- The Mahoyo re-release is going to have on-board English subtitles!? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?!?!? It was happening. It was finally happening. We were getting an official Type-Moon release with an English language translation. The only problem for most people was, it still seemed like this was going to be a Japan-only release. If you wanted to play Mahoyo in English, you were either going to have to import the physical game from Japan or else figure out how to download Japan-only software from the eShop to your Switch. And most people were not about doing that. Too much hassle. Too much expense. Too scary. No, we still needed a Western release of this game. On July 3, 2022, the head of the localization team for Fate/Grand Order, Albert Kao, introduced the American market's trailer for Mahoyo and confirmed that we would be getting access to the game in some form. We still didn't know if we'd be able to get the limited physical edition that Japan gets or if we'd have to settle for digital only. The latter seemed more likely. Melty Blood: Type Lumina had been released in the West but was digital only. Lots of otaku media are released that way. What makes Mahoyo any different? In November 2022, it was confirmed that North America would in fact be getting access to their very own version of the limited edition physical release. Unfortunately, it wouldn't release until January 27, 2023, putting it almost two months out from the Japanese street date of December 8, 2022 -- but a Western physical release is a Western physical release! This was historic. Not Fate/stay night, the most successful of the franchises. Not Tsukihime, the one that started it all, the one that only just one year prior had gotten its exquisite remake released. No -- it would be Mahoutsukai no Yoru that would be the first mainline Type-Moon visual novel available for purchase in the West. I'd decided New Year's Day that I would be likely purchasing this game twice. I was confident it would eventually be released in North America, given the English-language inclusion in the Japanese release. But I was not confident that we would be getting our own limited edition physical deluxe copy. I figured I would pre-order the Japanese game first, the same as I did with TsukiRe, and then I would purchase the American release digitally to show my support for the franchise. But now with an American physical release also confirmed, those plans were upgraded. I'd get the Japanese physical release first, and then to show my support for more Type-Moon localization efforts I would get the Western physical release second. On December 12, my package arrived from Japan. Pokémon Scarlet had just released less than a month prior, and while the rest of the community was getting started on the postgame, I was still wrapping up completion of two paths and the final act. I didn't want to delay Mahoyo too late -- I wanted this thread to go up as soon as possible -- but I also didn't want to make Yuki wait for eagerly-anticipated reactions to the Scarlet/Violet endgame. Much patience from her later ='3, I ended up completing Scarlet's main story the night of December 22, and last night we caught the vast majority of the Pokémon that can only be found in the endgame area. While she's still very much eager to hear my thoughts on a certain history teacher, I decided that that's gonna have to wait for another day. ^^; =') After eleven years of waiting, and with the "Holy Night" upon us, it was finally time. I hope that this thread can serve as a time capsule for future fans seeking Mahoyo thoughts and reactions. And I hope that this can be a fun community experience for all of us UPN VN players. Mahoutsukai no Yoru: Witch on the Holy Night can be purchased for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. For more information, check here: Mahoyo English site Nintendo Switch Sony PlayStation
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12-24-2022, 08:29 PM | #4 |
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12-25-2022, 12:01 AM | #5 | ||
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It would be funny if a character voiced by Subaru turned out to be a stoic badarse. That's so against typecast. Quote:
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12-26-2022, 11:12 PM | #6 |
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12-27-2022, 01:17 AM | #7 |
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Cats like fish, so Soujuurou preferring grasshoppers wouldn't mesh with the cat theory. I'd also point out that dragons also dislike dogs, per the Chinese zodiac, and Kuzuki being a "snake" might pair with Soujuurou being a "dragon".
Also, I don't have all the details, but I don't think Nasu is big on social commentary. Historically, this is not his forte. I would surmise the double standard is more that Aoko was destroying someone supernatural, and someone at the school knows that, whereas Tobimaru is just a normal person who really can't hurt any of these supers.
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12-27-2022, 11:20 PM | #8 |
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After players complete Chapter 01, two things unlock -- Chapter 02 in the main story (from whence the game will continue by default if you ask it to) and then a bonus Chapter 1.5 that is tucked away in what is called the Archives, a chapter log accessible throughout the game that allows you to go back to specific chapters and re-play them if you like. Yuki hadn't noticed they existed until she had already started Chapter 02; I had noticed but had decided I wanted to press on to 02 first and then would circle back around to 1.5 later; in both cases, we are happy with our outcome. Yuki had said that Chapter 02 does a better job of introducing several new characters who are also featured in Chapter 1.5. I strongly agree -- Chapter 1.5 is clearly written with the assumption that you already know who Kinomi and Tobimaru are, and it does not introduce you to them in that typical "introductory way" that Chapter 02 does. While I think 1.5 is so ordered because it chronologically takes place in between Chapters 01 and 02, I think most players will find themselves better served if they read through Chapter 02 in its entirety first, then go back and read Chapter 1.5. But hey: you do you. =') This chapter comes in four discrete portions. I'll be referring to these as Chapters 1.5.1 through 1.5.4, and discussing them in three separate spoiler boxes below. Chapters 1.5.1 & 1.5.2 Spoiler: show Chapter 1.5.3 Spoiler: show Chapter 1.5.4 Spoiler: show
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12-30-2022, 08:24 AM | #9 |
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12-30-2022, 11:03 AM | #10 |
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Spoiler: show We're four chapters in, and one thing I want to discuss are my impressions regarding the game's script and how I think it compares to Tsukihime ~a piece of blue glass moon~'s, the Tsukihime remake's. Mahoyo in a lot of ways is an eye-opening transporter that has taken me back to 2012, to a world where Nasu had not yet written multiple scripts for Fate/Grand Order each the length of the Fate path in FSN, a world where he was nine years greener than he was when Type-Moon published TsukiRe. The eye-opener is not so much about the fact that Mahoyo's script is beneath TsukiRe's in quality, but instead is about how remarkably similarly Mahoyo reads to Fate/stay night. :o Reading this book, I am transported back not even to 2012, but to the Summer of 2007, when Doppel had bbb and I play through FSN. This book reads remarkably similarly to how FSN reads. The entire time I'm reading this, I'm like, "Oh yeah -- this is written by the author who wrote Fate/stay night! ほら, look! See? It sounds just like him!" Sounds just like him indeed -- this has Nasu Kinoku (circa 2012) written all over it. :o It is, on the whole...a little clumsier in its construction than TsukiRe is. ^^; There are chores here or there, where TsukiRe has practically none. TsukiRe introduces twice the number of characters that Mahoyo does in the same amount of time played, and the characters TsukiRe introduces are two times more developed than the Mahoyo ones in this same window of time. And the poetry of Nasu's writing in TsukiRe is conspicuously absent here in Mahoyo. But, all of that stated ... It's a fun, pleasant, curious adventure.
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12-30-2022, 12:08 PM | #11 |
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12-30-2022, 03:37 PM | #12 | |||
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The answer why Aoko and Alice are living together despite all the hallmarks of an adversarial relationship is very simple.
It's yuri. You know it to be true. Aoko must find Alice as irresistible as I do so it's a clear case of Head: No. Heart: No. Body: I'm so horny right now. Quote:
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This isn't even uncommon with isekai novels where editors actually ghost write a significant portion of the novel during adaptation to print to give scripts the pop they need to sell. Then you compare it to TYPE-MOON which has significntly more resources than a third-rate label buying the rights to a high schooler's naroukei, and it's not surprising at all. Watching Fate/Zero today, it doesn't feel like a TYPE-MOON work. It feels like a Gen Urobuchi work since his fingerprints are all over the character thought process and tone. F/Z feels like it has more in common with Gen's later work than it does with TYPE-MOON's earlier work, or Mahoyo here.
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12-30-2022, 10:51 PM | #13 | |||
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So if Nasu has all of this guest writing talent at his disposal, then why don't I think you're right about the ghost writer? Well ... 1. The non-Nasu writers' writing tends to suck. ^_^; Not always! But the overwhelmingly popular opinion in FGO communities is that Camelot and Babylonia are light-years ahead of the other Part I chapters and that Avalon le Fae is the best thing Nasu has ever written. (A lot of these folks have never played TsukiRe, while I have yet to play Avalon le Fae, so we'll just have to wait and see on that one.) It wouldn't make any sense for TsukiRe to be so much better than Nasu's past writings if he had tapped someone to write it whose present-day writing is widely received so poorly! 2. All public indicators suggest that Nasu toiled very hard on TsukiRe, to the detriment of his personal health and concern from long-time friend and cohabitant Takeuchi Takashi. 3. Nasu has gone on record publicly stating that with TsukiRe he really wanted to show the world how much he has grown as a writer. Takeuchi said much the same about his illustrations. In both areas, TsukiRe demonstrates remarkable growth by both men -- and growth that you can chart over time. 4. There are hints of the writer Nasu would become in 2021 present already in Mahoutsukai no Yoru. For one example, I was discussing it with Yuki earlier this morning, there is simile in one of Chapter 05's scenes that I found very striking and poetic. It stood out to me much the same as the ones in TsukiRe have. 5. Nasu is notoriously supervisional of the guest writers' writing. All of the names listed above, they were simply the primary writers. They still had to submit all of their scripts to Nasu for supervision. 6. Nasu is notoriously possessive when it comes to "his waifu" characters! He literally will not allow the guest writers to write the scenes for certain characters. He says, "You can write the rest of the chapter, but I will write this bit!" It is therefore highly unlikely that he would allow a ghost writer to write TsukiRe, which is so important to him and stars his wife second only to Aozaki Aoko, Arcueid Brunestud. 7. TsukiRe shows a perfect understanding of every single character in the game. Without exception. Not only are the characters excellent, but as a separate matter the author's understanding of these characters is so excellent. These characters truly come alive, and I think a big part of why that happens is because your brain appreciates on a subconscious level how everything each character says and does lines up perfectly with everything else they have ever said or done. Respectfully, there are really only two possibilities for TsukiRe. The first is that it was written by Nasu Kinoko. The second is that it was written by somebody else, but that that somebody else is also the hidden genius behind Tsukihime and Fate/stay night. And at that point, there really wouldn't be any difference to us -- "Nasu Kinoko" is just our shorthand way of saying, "The guy who wrote Tsukihime and Fate/stay night." Quote:
EDIT: I was so honed in on when you said "ghost writer" that I completely missed the part where you said "or editor". Uhhhhhhhhhhh, I will absolutely concede that he may have hired (a) a new editor from who he had back in 2004 or else (b) an editor period if he was previously going it alone. He probably also has a much more robust peer review circle of friends he can trust with early drafts. My bad.
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Last edited by Talon87; 12-30-2022 at 10:58 PM. |
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12-31-2022, 02:14 AM | #14 | |||
我が名は勇者王!
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Remakes tend to have a better track record. Did you know that Re:Zero basically copies the same plot/character arc for 70% of its run? You heard me right, "Natsuki Subaru falls into a trap of people who know the future, suffers, and has to learn to trust others" has been repeated three times, with Arcs 4, 3, and 6. Arc 4 was the first written and is just monkey butts. Arc 6 ended up the best written by far, but was the third attempt at that character arc, and was 7 years in the making. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Tsukihime remake is better, if the author is still passionate and in a mindset determined to improve on it. Contrast this with Hideaki Anno and his Evangelion remakes; Anno isn't the same man he was when he did the original, and indeed has some resentment towards the original work, so he can no longer properly "remake" his magnum opus. Quote:
What I mean is today, when I watch F/Z, expecting say Lord of the Rings, all I see instead Warcraft: Reign of Chaos. Characters are far oversimplified, there's a purveying theme of nihilism throughout all the plot threads and the epic fights overshadow FSN's own, making the senior work seem...quaint? By comparison. It doesn't feel like a TYPE-MOON work at all despite looking and sounding like one. Quote:
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01-01-2023, 02:30 PM | #15 |
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01-05-2023, 04:17 PM | #16 |
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Tsukihime ~a piece of blue glass moon~ does not allow you to take any screen captures after the opening movie file. It's disappointing and frustrating, and seems borne out of misguided intentions. So I was quite delighted to see that Mahoutsukai no Yoru's re-release on the Nintendo Switch changed course, allowing players to take screen captures in all but a very select few spots. It turns out, this was not the case: Mahoyo is very deliberately programmed to allow for a "teaser" period that covers all the way through Chapter 05 Part 2, and then it switches into a more "media blackout" mode from Chapter 06 onward. This is true regardless of whether you play on the Nintendo Switch or the PlayStation 4. So ends our run of posts filled with lovely pictures. I'll try to keep posting at least one banner picture per post that is chapter-appropriate, but even sourcing this picture exposed me to some spoiler risk. (Nothing I didn't already know, but something that would have been a spoiler for someone who has gone in blind.) We'll see. ^_^; Spoiler: show
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01-09-2023, 12:28 AM | #17 | |||||||
我が名は勇者王!
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Also, of all the Fate media, I think Shirou's passive-aggressive mansplaining is what finally gets Saber to start feeling like a woman for the first time ever. Shirou is charming in the same way a dog is, unabashedly opinionated and none too intelligent but hopelessly loyal and dedicated. Quote:
I think what lends orgels to the mono no aware feel is that normal Andante-style minor music can evoke a reaction of fear rather than melancholy. Quote:
1. Allows the author to avoid having to address the romance directly whereby they might be exposed as being unable to properly write male love 2. Drags out the shipping moments well beyond what would be a normal resolution point Something I didn't understand about myself for a long time is why I liked romances in the context of adventure stories while disliking melodrama like in stuff like...Tora Dora or Golden Time. I had zero tolerance for melodrama. And the reason for that is plot/setting/adventure sidesteps the need for the author having to sort through complicated emotional dynamics. With "bigger fish to fry" in the form of plot, it's much easier for characters to have more practical and less complicated relationships. -Shiki Tohno is a pretty gregarious guy, but without the events of Tsukihime he wouldn't have been able to bed Arcueid. -Rin x Shirou could have still happened through proper school channels but the nature of their relationshp would be more shallow. Now, in Fate and HF, Shirou is all about sorting through his feelings for the heroine. So I don't think Soujuurou is like this because Nasu is afraid to write romance from him. It's Aoko having a crush, and Nasu not ready to gearshift that romance into a full blown relationship. Quote:
The mentality in Japan is to not want to share something you paid exclusive access for. So this is just a formality enforcing to the de facto custom. Quote:
Aoko can now threaten Alice to contact the Mage's Association if she doesn't take Soujuurou in, since her fingerprints are all over the destroyed home and damaged amusement park. Alice can keep watch over Aoko and Soujuurou if they blab since she knows where they live (with her). The distinction is that without a public scene linking the destruction to Soujuurou, it's easy to simply remove him so he can't talk. One can't draw a distinct link between damage at an amusement park and a missing person. But with his house destroyed it's easie to draw that connection and harder to hide the evidence. Quote:
Magecraft only looks weak compared to the mythological era where true magic was more common. Medea's high speed words are the most powerful form of magecraft and she doesn't even use magic circuits, yet compared to the figures of her day she is horribly weak. Quote:
Not a chance! =p
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01-09-2023, 01:28 PM | #18 | ||||||||
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For what it's worth, if I were to answer a Plinkett Test challenge for Shiki, my answers based only on the first three days of Tsukihime's story would include that he's "paradoxical, polite, private, not one for formalities, and sometimes scornful, even sardonic." While this passes the Plinkett Test, it also requires more defense and represents a much more abstract, much less fundamental character trait list than the ones just explored above for two Hanazawa Kana characters. Quote:
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But even were it a more traditional VN -- say it were Katawa Shoujo, modestly simple in its assets -- I would not expect anyone to argue in good faith that screen capturing the entire game, down to the last period of the last sentence, would produce a reasonable replacement for the game itself. It might produce an unreasonable replacement, for misers and the poor! Again, this feels like an argument in bad faith -- if not from you, then from Nasu himself. I can go out and screencapture the entirety of The Wizard of Oz, subtitling it for dialogue, but no one in their right mind is going to say that "Because he can do that, he can jeopardize Wizard of Oz sales; so we must prevent him from doing that; and to do so, we must therefore prevent him and anyone like him from taking any pictures of The Wizard of Oz period. Not for use in news articles, not for use in news blogs, not for use in social media -- nothing! No screenshots of Oz!" Ridiculous. The fact that literally every other game on the Switch lets you take photographs, and that the feature is even built into the base console and advertised as a feature, as a perk ... It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous to think that some screenshots are going to hurt sales. The sort of person who is going to settle for a 5,000-picture photo album of Mahoyo was not going to buy it in the first place, and may be persuaded to buy it now. NO ONE who was going to buy it in the first place is going to decide to save their $40 and replace it with a photo album of crude screenshots that bit by bit show you every line of dialogue in the game, sans music, sans visual effect. Quote:
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I think the same thing is true for your point of confusion here. Yes, it's true that a family's Magic Crest (theoretically, and in most practical cases) gets stronger over time as it is passed down through the generations from one inheritor to the next. That's true on a local level -- on a local level, this family's magic is getting stronger/more efficient/both over time. But like a little fish swimming 5 mph upwards against a river flowing 20 mph in the opposite direction, that family's efforts exist within a world whose magical potency is over time declining. As time approaches infinity, science replaces magecraft -- that is one of the central tenets of Nasu's writings, as I understand it. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. This is something he visits frequently in Fate/Grand Order, and it's showing up again here in Mahoyo.
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01-10-2023, 02:19 AM | #19 | |||||||
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A pessemist might say the Plinkett Test also is a measure of if it's a character or a caricature or archetype (since caricature pass the Plinkett Test 100%). The test is biased towards characters who emote more or are dominated by a handful of character traits. Qui-Gon and Nute Gunray ae indeed terrible characters in the films because their personality has to be imagined by the audience. They do not emote so what they are feeling at times is vague. It's Lucas' responsibility to communicate what type of character they are through action, inaction and dialogue and he fails or causes contradictions. Both Shirou and Rin are hard working and loyal. Rin might be even more so! But hard work and loyalty are more closely associated with Shirou since it's informed by his origin story (a talentless magius trying to preserve the tradition of his father, the man who saved his life). Rin's traits have a more tenuous or...dramatic? connection to her goal of bringing glory to the name Tohsaka. The more personal the motivation the stronger it tends to be (with Shirou being very personal, while Rin's being on behalf of her clan). The Tsukihime cast is far more multifaceted and understated than the FSN one. That might make for a better read, but it's a challenge to bring to the big screen without losing some dimensionality. So yeah, Shrou's chauvinism definitely works into his favour, as far as needing a big character trait for the audience to latch on to and understand his personaity quickly. It also invites clash with Saber to complicate the plot. Quote:
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Shirou has other women in his life pre-HGW (Taiga, Sakura, Ayako) but he doesn't force them into gender roles. iirc Ayako being a tomboy is actually one of the reasons he's not into her, but is into Rin. Recognizing Sakura as literal perfect waifu material who just fell into his lap is the entire premise behind HF. Shirou also doesn't know Saber's identity until after Rider is killed, he's able to deduce she's a knight but I think he and/or Rin speculate she's Joan of Arc. He doesn't know she's a king and has absolutely no compulsion to treat her as one. By the time they get a breather to sort through Saber's backstory it's post-coital. I think the magic crest gave Shirou a boldness towards Saber akin to what we see in isekai with transmigrator owners and female slaves - he's able to, perhaps subconsciously, live out some of his deep-seated fetishes now that he has control. And that fetish is that women shouldn't be tomboys. Taiga and Ayako are both, arguably, tomboys with major unfeminine red flags. But with Saber he can actually impose his worldview somewhat, and his lack of boundary due to the weird circumstances and his ignorance is why he can press that view. For Saber's case, her actually tolerating Shirou's insolence and stupidity shouldn't happen...except that Shirou also checks off a lot of fetishes on her side too. Self-sacrificing, self-isolating idealist? Check. Intimate noble confidant who she can express her inner thoughts to without getting ridiculed (Merlin, Iskander, Gilgamesh)? Check. Exotic hunk close to her physical age? Check. Quote:
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Solo melody = isolation, and at lest for me, I associate isolation with forboding or fear. "All or None" is probably a poor example now that I think about it. I wanted it to show that it opens with isolation, then transitions to sadness, but listening again during the bell segment in the opening before the piano takes over, there's a clear harmony, so that argument falls apart. Quote:
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01-21-2023, 11:33 PM | #20 |
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01-22-2023, 02:39 PM | #21 |
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After you complete Chapter 07 and it's added to your bookshelf, this fourth subchapter never before seen is snuck in. I decided to make a separate post for it for that reason, since Chapter 07 technically ends (and you can technically proceed directly to Chapter 08) without ever reading this. That stated, it would be a big mistake to miss out on "Martha". So let's dive in, shall we? Spoiler: show
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01-26-2023, 08:43 PM | #22 |
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So we just going to pretend that Talon didn't just come back?
You killed upnetwork by leaving!
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01-27-2023, 01:56 AM | #23 | ||
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Soujuurou's comment there has me thinking this character is poorly written. Soujuurou by Aoko's assessment has below middle school education but inabiity to distinguish between different parties of humans is literally toddler intelligence. Being an alien or a mountain man isn't a good enough excuse for this one. He completely misses the point of the conversation and then asks a question that's beyond basic. I'm fairly certain this guy is like Kuzuki. Aliens, mountain men, you know what actually has child-like social-moral intelligence? A gun. What I'm saying is that he's a robot. Like, literally. Quote:
bruh.
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02-02-2023, 02:17 AM | #24 |
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02-02-2023, 03:43 AM | #25 |
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It sounds like Nasu just retconed away any romance between Aoko and Soujuurou and is shipping the young man with Alice instead.
I remember reading about what makes Re:Zero's Rem such an endurng character with such a strong romance with Subaru, and it boils down to where she started. Rem hated Subaru and tried to kill him at first. When her opinion flipped positive, then super positive, it's fueled in part due to a very deep desire for atonement. Rem realizes that her initial treatment of Subaru hurt him and now that she's legitiately infatuated with him, that guilt just seasons the eagerness and willingness to please through an escape from acknowleding that guilt. Sound familiar? Alice is checking off all the boxes. And I approve, she's cuter than Aoko anyway.
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