Daisoujou's Study Log - šŸ¤·

Another thing down! Finally finished ę®ŗäŗŗå‡ŗē”£ after that somewhat sizable break away from it. I definitely preferred ć‚³ćƒ³ćƒ“ćƒ‹äŗŗ間, but this was still good! Iā€™ve never been a big reader of shorts in English so I almost wonder if I just prefer the longer novel format, too. Tiny vague Natively review here to talk a little more about whatā€™s going on in it. Also a relatively easy read. I think Iā€™m going to want a little break from Sayaka Murata just for varietyā€™s sake, but someday Iā€™ll probably come back to try 地ēƒę˜Ÿäŗŗ or something.

Iā€™ve still got Flowers going, Loopers for a couple more weeks, and Dragon Quest 11 for an hour here and there. I donā€™t truly need to add anything else, though Iā€™m considering it. A book of sorts has been nice to have to pick up here and there. I saw the club here reading äŗŗé–“ę¤…å­ and had already been thinking about doing it so going after that a little late is an option, but it looks like itā€™ll be a really slow grind at my level and Iā€™m not sure if I want that at the moment.

Another option is 告ē™½, which Iā€™ve wanted to read anyway, but also my wife read that in English a little while back and wants to watch the movie (and for once the adaptation is allegedly really good, haha). I keep putting her off saying Iā€™ll read it in Japanese beforehand so I do need to get to that. Seems like it might be a step up in challenge too though, or at least at the beginning.

While I'm here, Flowers spoilers

@AzusaChan Iā€™m at the point now where Suoh and Rikka are in that blackmail relationship, heh. Just when I was thinking a lot better of the latter, this is uhh, a little much! Loved the portion where it briefly switched to Mayuri and Rikka perspective; wasnā€™t expecting that. Honestly I expected the way that itā€™s a religious school to come into play with the need to hide a gay relationship more, but Iā€™m totally down with skipping that stuff if it doesnā€™t go there. At the point where I am, Mayuri has just been off screen avoiding people for a bit now. Messy situation! Was nice to hear a bit more about what happened with her in the past. These characters seem to have quite a bit of depth.

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Flowers spoilers

That chapter was quite intense! I remember when I first read the series, as soon as I got to that chapter I marathoned the rest of Printemps that day haha. It was kind of an interesting twist but the fact that Rikka would do that kind of thing soured me on her for a while. I felt so bad for both Suoh and Mayuri. Especially Mayuri since at that point she was starting to open up more to them. Rikka more or less shot down to the bottom of the characters I liked in that game after that chapter :joy:

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Flowers spoilers

Yeah Iā€™m with you on everything! I think I am basically of two minds, like if I take it very seriously in a realistic way this is some terrible behavior and pretty much necessitates her being the worst here. But I do find her personality pretty charming at this point so in that ā€œas a media characterā€ way sheā€™s still likeable.

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Flowers spoilers

Yeah, thatā€™s reasonable. I think Rikka might be the most divided character in the series, a lot of people Iā€™ve talked to tend to feel very strongly about her one way or another. Like you said as a media character, I thought it made for a very compelling story arc, but as a person, I despised her haha.

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Was posting in the book club, but I finished äŗŗé–“ę¤…å­! Quite a big step up for me, having never read anything that old or difficult. Looked so many things up and really trudged through slowly, but itā€™s good evidence that my capacity for high difficulty has increased. Great story, too. Speed increases seem harder to come by than anything now, however, that aside I guess I canā€™t say Iā€™m not noticeably improving.

So I started on 告ē™½! Just a few pages for tonight; its opening is as odd as I was led to believe. For the vast majority it wasnā€™t even that difficult in grammar or vocab, just kind of vague and a little rambly, throwing you in without much to grasp on and structured so that itā€™s not immediately clear someone is speaking out loud. I briefly checked the English (which my wife has already read) because one ultimately incidental sentence or two stumped me, and wow, that version really more explicitly draws the connections and is clearer that itā€™s speech directed at others from sentence 1. Some of that is of course that Iā€™m less familiar with Japanese but I think itā€™s a necessary concession for a language that doesnā€™t handle vaguess in the same way too. This book might be a little tricky and slow but Iā€™ll probably be fine.

Flowers spoilers why not

@AzusaChan Let me know if getting pinged is annoying but I figured you wanted to hear as I progress in this VN.

Between Loopers time and various stressful events Iā€™ve been slow, but Iā€™m a little past learning about Yatsushiro being attacked! Thatā€™s a wild twist, and itā€™s really set up to make you think it was Mayuri who was hurt for a moment. I like how this VN does those small scale misdirects or quick cuts past an event to then rewind and explain, it keeps things exciting. Even though Iā€™m taking it in tiny chunks still, Iā€™m enjoying it a lot! Feeling pretty awful for everyone at this point haha, itā€™s become a downer. Considering if I want to go on to part 2 whenever the time comes ā€“ if I do I might have to try to hold myself to speeding up a little (/ spending more time per day), but weā€™ll see.

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Flowers spoilers

No worries, I always love to talk about Flowers haha

Those moments in the VN are really nice. I especially like all of the detective type scenes when Suoh solves it and explains everything (the OST for those scenes are lovely too!). Thereā€™s still a lot of good parts left and everyone I know who has read the series pretty much immediately moved onto the next game after. Once you get to the ending, you wonā€™t want to stop.

The Yuzu scene was intense too. Being familiar with other IG titles before hand, it almost made me think things were going to take a turn for the worst there when I saw that CG of her.

The one plus is game 2 is the shortest game in the series and considerably shorter than game 1 (think its something like 70k characters shorter per jpdb). Although on the flip side, I also hear its the hardest one jp wise. A lot of people love that one, most people seem to have game 2 or 3 as their favorites (game 3 for me but they are all great).

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Itā€™s so interesting to compare how translators adapt to their perceived target audience!
Weā€™re currently reading Eugenia in the Advanced Club, and that book starts with an interview. Nothing else, we just see the questions and answers. No other information given. And itā€™s only at the very end of the first chapter (35 or so pages later) that we understand who is being interviewed there. While the English version adds a title to that interview, stating who is talking there :woman_facepalming:

I found another interesting change in a translation, this time from English into Japanese, in ā€œThe Pillars of the Earthā€. The prologueā€™s very first sentence in the Japanese translation is
ęœć¾ć ćć®ę­»åˆ‘å “ć«ć‚ć‚‰ć‚ć‚ŒćŸć®ćÆ态čæ‘éš£ć®ę‚Ŗē«„恩悂恧恂悋怂
while the first sentence in the English original reads

The small boys came early to the hanging.

So while on the one hand the translator turns ā€œsmall boysā€ into ę‚Ŗē«„, thus strengthening the impression there a lot, he tunes down ā€œhangingā€ to ę­»åˆ‘å “ ! For me, especially for the second bit the impression is extremely different. Does the translator think the audience should not know about the upcoming event? :thinking:

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Figured Iā€™d check in, hope you all are doing well. I donā€™t have a lot of big updates on the Japanese front ā€“ getting that .0001% more comfortable with each day on my reading, and after taking anki back up my matures are finally starting to roll around. Had some days where I was out of town or whatever and couldnā€™t mine but Iā€™ve grabbed 585 words so not bad. Memory is holding up well so far.

This is partially just a life update cause I do that a lot, and since I spent a lot of time talking about when things are hard, theyā€™re pretty ok right now. Nice to get more positivity in here heh. Got some big things out of the way, like sending in the immigration papers (waiting on one document slowed us by several weeks) and getting a new car in the past week or two! Ready to relax some. My arm remains problematic but Iā€™m managing it and keeping it at a tolerable level. Seeing minor improvement at least in the short term with a new set of exercises I found so I hope they work for me more permanently eventually.

My actual time spent on Japanese has fallen off heavily again though. I get in a couple thousand characters of Flowers and sometimes thatā€™s it for the day. Thatā€™s simply because Iā€™m busy elsewhere ā€“ primarily my free time is feeding back into Splatoon (which Iā€™m approaching 300 hours onā€¦). On a whim I posted in a Discord sorta looking for team area just to see what happened and since then have been playing pretty regularly with a woman who has been pretty nice to hang out with and we seem to play well with each other in the game. Itā€™s made it a lot more fun having a reliable teammate to actually make calls with and stuff. Looking in the direction of finding 2 more for a full team but nothing concrete just yet. Actual competitive Splatoon has a really high skill floor at which most people get into it that I feel like Iā€™m sort of under, but weā€™ll see!

I did a little streaming in the past and that was only ever a thing a few friends stopped in to see but I recently got a capture card and thatā€™s been on my mind too that it might be fun to pick it back up for Splatoon. Viewers or not, I tend to like doing it. :person_shrugging: Iā€™m supposed to be running a club here soon so I need to somehow balance my time but thereā€™s always too much I want to do!

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Glad to hear a lot of things are cleared off the plate. Always nice to hear when things smoothes out a bit. It is never completely smooth, but sometimes the ride of life is very bumpy and sometimes less so.

Iā€™ve actually been gaming quite a bit myself, although several different games. Trying to find something to settle into, that also doesnā€™t bore me. Iā€™ve decided to be much tougher on whether I am enjoying something or not. Too many good games, books, movies, TV-shows out there to spend my time on mediocre stuff. Well, for the most part. Still sometimes some of those kinda sneak in. So Iā€™ve dipped my toes in a few different ones and bounced out just as quickly.

Gaming with friends is a lot of fun. :blush:

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Thank you! Yeah I know that feeling with the games. Hope you find something really good. Iā€™m half there with you and dropped out of things too, but I also have some favorites that really took patience at the beginning, so it can be a tough balance to make sure something definitely isnā€™t for you vs just having some upfront demands to adjust to. Thereā€™s a lot I want to check out right now (Bayonetta 3, Pentiment, Signalis, on and on) except instead I exclusively play more Splatoon 3 haha.

For sure! Iā€™ve missed this kinda thing. Years ago I ran some Team Fortress 2 teams for a few years. Always fairly low level but we had a pretty good time. The mode I played primarily there was for 9 player teams so it feels so nice to only need 4 people for a team, and if we ever move onto real scrims, to get 8 people in a match at once instead of 18 heh. I almost remember logistical and scheduling nightmares more than I do the gameplay itself.

Got some friends who are remnants from those old teams I play stuff casually with here and there, hand rarely permitting since the mouse hurts more (like Deep Rock Galactic). Excited to be working on improving at a game again and hopefully meeting a few more decent people here, after some time spent in games with random matchmaking where things are exclusively toxic. Overwatch is the worst and Iā€™m done with it heh.

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Splatoon is such a blast of a game. I remember getting super into it a few years back though I exclusively grinded solo queue, never really teamed up with anyone but still had so much fun. Solo queueing ranked and doing Salmon Run too, I donā€™t think I ever grew tired of any of the modes. I know that I would get super into 3 but itā€™s been a while since I gamed on the Switch, I donā€™t have neither the game nor the online service and itā€™s a heavy expense that I sorta donā€™t want to do right now (also my joycons acting funny nowadays so add a new controller to that, I wanted to get a pro controller at some point). Regardless itā€™s likely that if I ever get it Iā€™d be super into it again :smile: . No wonder youā€™re hooked, what a great game.

Love Deep Rock Galactic too.

I have a similar thing going on. Mostly because of personal issues but I guess itā€™s also kinda the result of getting older as time goes on, itā€™s pretty hard that a game or anything hooks me so so much nowadays. Perhaps I have other standards now, but I tend to resort to the same thing(s) that I know I like, like FFXIV and such, and eventually play new things I have interest in. But itā€™s fairly rare and I kinda miss the feeling of being so much into games. I still like them a lot, but sometimes I feel like Iā€™ve lost some small degree of spark. Might be that Iā€™m so much more selective nowadays. Eventually I find a gem and love every bit though, so ends up balancing out :joy:

Discovering VNs has been a welcome surprise in that sense.

Especially highly social games with cooperation and so on. Playing with others can be super fun and turn a mediocre game into a great one.

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I love the franchise so much! Got super into Splat 2 when it first launched, played a couple hundred hours, but then because they were out around the same time I ended up dropping it for Overwatch cause my motion aim was still sketchy (I mean even now itā€™s not where I want it) and I had so much more mouse experience. Terrible, terrible decision! I made it to S+ in every mode but those were early days pre X-rank and all that, and mostly pre clams which I never played enough to get beyond like B. Been learning to probably play clams now in 3. Just today made it to S+1 in Splatoon 3, but the ranking system in this game isā€¦ weirder and letters kinda mean less than they used to.

If you do happen to get it someday, you have to add me :smile:. Totally down for more chill games too.

This game gets so challenging though! Like I think people look down on it because itā€™s ā€œchildishā€ (more like just child-accessible at its core/theming) but the movement is pretty crazy and the pace of the game is legitimately beyond most other competitive games Iā€™ve played.

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When it comes to games for me, I think it is also partly that Iā€™ve figured out what is truly enjoyable for me. Like only good gameplay mostly doesnā€™t hold me. I can name the only game series I play regularly that doesnā€™t have story to hold my interest: Super Mario. I also love the aesthetics for those games, so that helps. I sure donā€™t play them for the riveting story.

Outside that, I kinda need story, unless it is a pure puzzle game. I do enjoy Tetris, and other puzzle games. But mostly Iā€™m a sucker for story.

I do enjoy the rogue lite genre quite a bit, but I need my rogue lites/likes with story, and not a bummer ending story (because that doesnā€™t make me want to replay it again, how to ruin a good replayable game). Like Hades was amazing. So good. Super fun to play and loads of story that felt meaningful.

Recently played Moonlighter all the way to the end. I personally shouldnā€™t have though, just not enough story and I didnā€™t find the gameplay that enjoyable. It was one of those games that did super cryptic stuff all the way through the game and then dump all the story at the very end. *le sigh*

As mentioned, I should have quit the game, because I didnā€™t find the gameplay fun enough, and the cryptic story bits just didnā€™t do it for me. I want story as I go, not a reward at the end, because then it feels pretty meaningless. I was so disappointed, but mostly in myself honestly. xD

It was after finishing that game that I was like: no more.

So tried to get into a game Iā€™ve started 2-3 times before and never played much off. Realized I found the controls kinda clunky, and switching control scheme wouldnā€™t fix it. And I realized I didnā€™t enjoy it. So that platformer that many people loved several years ago, well I guess I wonā€™t finish that or even get past the second ā€œworldā€. xD

So yeah, story with gameplay. Obviously VNs are just pure story, and I go for that too. Iā€™m a book nerd at the foundation, so just story is enough, good gameplay makes it *chefā€™s kiss*

I donā€™t currently play any video games with friends, but I for sure donā€™t need riveting story then either, because you know, Iā€™m playing with friends then. So the above mostly applies to solo gaming. ^^

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Fellow S+ :eyes: . I think I was actually playing around the time X was introduced, it does ring a bell but canā€™t really remember 100%. I think there was a mode that got you into any game mode in rotation? I donā€™t know, I donā€™t remember now specifically queueing for a certain mode but doing them all and ranking at the same time. I played them all cause I thought they were all awesome :joy: .

Yeah sure thing! :wink: I usually avoid voice chats these recent years cause I struggle with a bit of social anxiety but hopefully once I have a couple things resolved I can go back to it. Social anxiety is such a frustrating thing, I hate it so much playing online and itā€™s a big reason I sadly havenā€™t raided in MMORPGs in a while despite wanting to.

I donā€™t think Iā€™ve shared much in these forums on a personal level but Iā€™m really liking these study log spaces, they feel chill and safe. Iā€™ve thought about making one myself a few times over the years but havenā€™t bitten so far. I always end up thinking I donā€™t really have much to add, but I do want to get to know people a bit more, been here for a while after all ^^ .

Yeah no meme. Iā€™ve played a fair amount of competitive games over many years and Splatoon was super frenetic and chaotic, required reflexes and anticipation for sure :joy: . Itā€™s probably why I liked it so much, that it was so engaging despite giving a ā€œchildishā€ impression. Love the graphics regardless.

Now that I think of it, I think I was so much into ranked that I donā€™t think I ever did the story mode :joy: :joy: . My monkey brain took all control and never looked back.


@MissDagger Iā€™ve come to appreciate story much much more as time passed. Story is always nice to have but usually I was always mainly interested in the gameplay, if it didnā€™t have engaging gameplay it was hard that I kept playing a game. Nowadays I think I still go for gameplay more than I do story, but I do certainly care about it much more than I used to. Reminds me of what I said recently about VNs, a few years back I definitely didnā€™t think VNs were going to be a medium I saw myself getting into, and here we are :eyes: . I think now I ultimately go for something that can hold the game firmly by itself, whether thatā€™s an amazing gameplay, an amazing story or any great and original aspect it can bring to the table to keep my attention.

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Only have a minute but a couple quick things ā€“

While Iā€™d love to chat if you feel comfortable, I totally get that! Weā€™d probably need some method like discord of just sending messages in text to arrange when we want to play cause Nintendo sure doesnā€™t facilitate that well, but Iā€™m open to just playing without voice should the time come and you donā€™t feel like it, too.

I think itā€™d be nice if you did! Iā€™m bad about not making time and remembering to check others regularly but Iā€™d certainly try.

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Wanted to post a quick addition to the previous stuff just because I found this coincidence fun ā€“ at this point weā€™re pretty firmly a group of 2 for Splatoon, going out looking to round out the team. She actually knows a little Japanese, according to her only N4-ish but she lived there for a bit and was able to actually communicate with people so definitely speaking skills I donā€™t have. Last night we tried and had a rather good time with a third who might be joining us now, who it turns out is a professional translator for a couple languages, Japanese included! I go from no pre-WK friends who knew a word of Japanese to feeling like everyone I meet does, haha.

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Iā€™m hoping to get a little more regular with Japanese again soon, but I am moving very slowly due to Splatoon team stuff. Hours of that game most days. We are probably settled on the 3 of us ā€“ been testing out for that 4th but not sure yet. Nobody has really seemed like they werenā€™t a nice enough person or anything, you just sometimes donā€™t totally gel together, you know? Getting a bit exhausted with the rotating door of meeting new people though, haha.

Mostly posting here to make a small Flowers update @AzusaChan

Flowers spoilers

So Iā€™m in chapter 8! I think itā€™s the last? Been here for a bit. Itā€™s really nice. Iā€™m in this bit of lead up to the performance, with Suou having recently spoken to Mayuri about how Mayuri wants them to perform it together, and now itā€™s Suou sort of going around visiting various characters the day of it. Most characters have made good impressions on me by now, but above all else, I love that Erika has been a lot more involved in the later parts of this. I think sheā€™s written just about perfectly to be so constantly cynically mocking but not actually unlikeable ever. Easily my favorite so far. Looking forward to finishing this if I stop moving so terribly slowly soon.

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Flowers

Nice, youā€™re almost finished then! I liked that chapter a lot, although some anxiety inducing type moments from what I remember haha. I hope you like the ending, it definitely left a lasting impression for me.

Yeah her character is really nice. Some of those types annoy me in other VNs but I think they struck a perfect balance with her in Flowers. Erika can be very sweet too even if she doesnā€™t like to admit it.

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More Flowers spoilers

Yeah! By now Iā€™m in what feels like a bit of an epilogue past the whole climax. So hopefully in the next day or two I can finish this up and go through the bit for Rikkaā€™s ending. I do like this, and I havenā€™t put any thought into what else Iā€™d read, so I guess Iā€™m going to roll right into part 2 haha. Hope I can speed up a little if I get momentum with Japanese again. I still move slowly and tend to stop after 3000 characters or something, but I donā€™t really feel like Flowers is hard anymore? Itā€™s very readable, Iā€™m just sluggish.

Things were really sweet with Suou and Mayuri! Iā€™m quite happy for how this is turning out, and seeing them grow and change. Thereā€™s a very satisfying little arc there. Itā€™s interesting just how smoothly everything transitioned back to everyone being totally happy, good friends with Rikka following that chapter where she makes a mess of everything. It feels kinda in character for them to not push back that hard, but it definitely does lead to that being kinda glossed over with so little fallout. Annoyingly mixed feelings because most of the time she is just very sweet and I feel bad for her as well at this point, heh.

Also I think they were referencing the movie City Lights one time and thatā€™s awesome haha.

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Flowers

I love that scene with Suoh and Mayuri, they are so perfect together! Glad to hear that Flowers isnā€™t feeling as hard for you now too.

Yeah, Iā€™m not sure if Iā€™d call it a bad personality trait or not but Suoh does tend to be very forgiving. Even in an earlier chapter when the twins played that prank on her, I believe it was Suoh that ended up apologizing to them even though it should have been the other way around. I think it would do her well to push back in those moments.

They have so many references in the series, I think I probably missed a ton. Thereā€™s a Chinese fanbook for the game on the internet somewhere that lists them all but I donā€™t think thereā€™s an English equivalent yet. The Chinese fanbook is apparently crazy detailed from what Iā€™ve heard though, its well over 400 pages long :open_mouth: If I knew Chinese at all, I would give it a read haha

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