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Probably not that far from time that I should get this ready for you all. I finally got back to it today and read a lot of Door 2. I’ll probably finish it tomorrow or sometime soon like that?
That’s really impressive! I’m just getting started on the setup leading into Door 4 at the moment.
I just wanted to comment that seeing them go for らせん階段 is shocking given the way this VN is written generally. 螺旋 is kanji I’ve seen used elsewhere in works whose writing was nowhere near this “extra” about kanji forms. Come on, lemme practice!
I’m impressed!! Same as Daisoujou for my part, I’m chipping slowly at the setup leading into door 4 at the moment. Enjoying some good piano music. Gonna have to find those sheets when I’m done playing!
I read a little more and want to share with you all that there are secrets in door 4
Spoilers up to early in the door when the maid interjects, taking your hand again --
I figured you all might miss this stuff because text hooking makes you less likely to need the backlog, but if you check the backlog at various times in this door, interesting things are happening. I took screenshots of the ones I noticed so far (unfortunately some of the messages are literally 1-3 lines longer than the backlog shows at once so I had to duplicate with it scrolled slightly
I’m probably halfway through or something? I’ve probably idled the game a little more, but I’m at the point in playtime where if this was English I would’ve finished the whole VN. I really hope I can speed up my reading before too long.
A few more screenshots of secrets for those who want to see, up to the accessory part
Yeah, sometimes when I get hooked on stuff I can’t put it down. Like that one time I spent probably over 10 hours in a single day reading umineko hahaha.
At the start, we find out the maid is gone, and we talk to a talking painting. This painting tells us that we should not believe beautiful tragedies.
We then walk around the mansion, seeing various fragments of the past in each part, including yet unknown characters in the bedroom, if we choose to take the key from the painting. I really enjoyed this part, seeing the characters we’ve come to know whilst also adding some to the mystery.
Then we have the maid leading us to the 4th door and the 螺旋階段.
Wow crazy! Must have been a nice day hehe.
So have you finished Umineko? That’s a super long one. How about Higurashi? Curious to know what else have you read? Sorry for all the questions, I’m very curious and even more when it’s about a shared hobby x)
Yup, those days were pretty fun, just getting completely lost it in the atmosphere. When that happens, I tend to think about the story too much when I go to bed, and sometimes can’t fall asleep xD
Yup, I sure did. Took me from about beginning of august (I think) to start of december last year. Helped me with improving my Japanese a lot for sure, and I would totally place it amongst my top 3 (though I haven’t read that much yet).
As you can probably tell now from my updated PFP, I did read higurashi and loved it (Rena is an absolute angel). Took me from about start of january last year to the half of may. Though since my japanese was nowhere near as good as it is now, it took me over and around 330~ hours to read it (triple the average time lol). Umineko after that ‘only’ took me about 200~ hours, about 1.5 times of the average. For higurashi I played with the 07th mod, and umineko with the switch version. Regardless, these two VNs are the solo reason I was able to nearly ace the N2 :D.
What comes to mind is The devil on g string, I really enjoyed the twists in that one (was my actual first VN, probably, way before learning Japanese.) Also really enjoyed the horror atmosphere of Saya no uta.
Other than that, some titles like Aokana or some yuzusoft titles. And ofc DDLC.
As you could probably tell from my long block of text, I am more than happy to talk about it :D. Wouldn’t mind you sharing some of the stuff you’ve read too.
Amazing, thanks for the thorough answer glad to get to know you a bit more! Now with a PFP too hehe, beginning to feel like a real person
Makes sense that you had a great score at the N2 after both Higurashi and Umineko haha.
Oh I recognize also Saya no Uta from your list and see you gave it 10. I absolutely loved it too!! I actually didn’t know you could make a list on VNDB, gonna have to check that out.
I haven’t played Higurashi or Umineko myself yet, they are up there on my “those are really good, let’s wait that my JP is better” shelf. For now I am still almost always using crutches (Yomichan) when reading, only read one physical novel so far. About 200 manga and 10 novels otherwise, and this is my second VN all in Japanese (my first one was ISLAND and I had a blast with it), but I have read about 10 others in English with JP audio (complete lists here for books and here(at the end of the first post) for VNs)
It’s not the first time I hear about Aokana, it actually has a 52% discount right now, but I’m resisting the urge to buy it due to already having a huge backlog of things bought on sale and not yet read/ played!
Love it, Rena’s my favorite too. I read Higurashi in English a while back, and I’m perpetually in the midst of Umineko with another person on the forums, very slowly heh.
I finished door 4! Cutting it off here now cause the follow up is significant.
Many, many more hidden bits to share late in the chapter
I’m excited to see your all’s reactions, but I find door 4 harder to talk about in isolation with my vague memories of the overarching story and how the doors tie into that. The end is pretty sad but it’s obviously the shortest and simplest we’ve seen yet, no big twists and where it proceeds to is pretty much what Michel said would happen from the very beginning. Doomed love.
Yup, I for sure had to look up the english translations/ switch to english quite often at times to confirm my understanding.
Same here, without textractor + nazeka (basically a yomichan alternative) reading all that would’ve been an absolutely herculean task. Now using JL (which floats over your game window, which is super helpful).
Interestingly enough, reading so much using these crutches makes me almost always recognize a few of the kanji and vocabs in each level of WK, so I guess it helped in making studying kanji not such a hurdle.
I have bought a few physical novels, and they’re waiting in my shelf for my japanese to get better. Sort of a motivation I guess :D.
Quite impressive! I’ve pretty much been a VN reader only for now, but if you got some novel or manga recs, I’d be happy to check em out .
I totally get that, my reading backlog for VNs is full at least a year if not two ahead
(Rena is an absolute angel). Took me from about start of january last year to the half of may. Though since my japanese was nowhere near as good as it is now, it took me over and around 330~ hours to read it (triple the average time lol). Umineko after that ‘only’ took me about 200~ hours, about 1.5 times of the average. For higurashi I played with the 07th mod, and umineko with the switch version. Regardless, these two VNs are the solo reason I was able to nearly ace the N2 :D.
glad to get to know you a bit more! Now with a PFP too hehe, beginning to feel like a real person 
