Just looked at all the keyboards above and all of them have three small keys to the right of P and only two small keys right of L. Iād need those numbers switched. Two beside P and three beside L to be the same as a Swedish one. (Enter key is also there and I prefer the two row high enter key, because Iām used to that.) And the last row with letters and such are missing one small key too. Swedish have 11 keys between the two shift keys, while normal qwerty seems to have 10.
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@AzusaChan Took a little Flowers talk here so I figured you might want to know, heh. Iām painfully slow but itās a good VN!
Sometimes I use this thread to talk about Japanese! Crazy idea, right? Normally I posted my thoughts on what I was up to in the x every day threads and Iām sure no one would run me out, but I dropped off the face of those for a bit so Iām just gonna throw some thoughts here. Iām reading Loopers when the time comes each week but Iāll just keep that in the club mostly. The short of it is I consider the VN probably just decent but I do like how itās pretty laid back in difficulty and weāre doing it in relatively small chunks. Itās approachable.
Flowers - Significantly less approachable, but I can read it, heh. Keeping to about 3000 characters a day. Not a pace Iām happy with, but Iām mixing in other reading so itās fine. This is the only thing Iām reading that regularly gets tiring right now, and itās full of fancy words Iāve never seen elsewhere. The VN itself is good though! With more time the characters are developing further and itās kind of just nice how unlike most VNs it is. Thereās a certain elegance it holds itself to that this medium rarely has, outside of personal preferences about pacing or stakes of the story developments, thereās really nothing here that I think someone has to overlook to appreciate it.
Some spoilers
Iām at the point, following the resolution of the disappearance of Ichigo, where Suou has agreed to play the piano. Poor girls has some traumas huh. There isnāt much detail on what exactly the step mother did ā I can intuit a general idea but I think itās been pretty sparse on committing to talking about it. Not sure if thatāll change or not. Hope my bad feeling about her performing in a big event like this is nothing 
By now Iāve come around to finding Rikka a lot more likeable as the story fleshes people out through their reactions to everything. Flawed, but in a pretty relatable way. Still a fan of Erika, though sheās pretty sidelined. Seems like sheāll have more to do in later games. The twins balance really well on the edge of obnoxiousness while still being funny such that theyāre possibly my favorites at the moment.
ę®ŗäŗŗåŗē£ - Read a little more to get to 48%. With any sort of concerted effort this wonāt actually take too long to get through, but weāll see. Still on the first story since it dominates the collection. Itās decent. Takes its premise (people who give birth to 10 children get to murder 1 person legally) very seriously and I can appreciate that. I get that as a short you kind of have to focus on the point but something feels a little weird about how this system is the center of everything happening. Like as normalized as it is it would be a little more background in your life, yāknow? Hard to subtly do that while staying focused but thereās this artificial feeling of sorts. Iām not quite loving it, though Iām interested enough. The writing is nice and easy and I totally appreciate that.
Dragon Quest 11 - Threw in a few more sessions of this too. While I look up a word here and there, itās pretty relaxed reading. If I ever get through this massive game, I think relaxing with some videogames that have furigana would be a good way to make the language feel a little more second-nature. Just things that arenāt so much big projects when I take them on, simply a way to chill and passively learn a little more.
As for the game thoughā¦ ehh? I run into little events that entertain me here and there but it feels a little too āclassic RPGā such that I mostly have the feeling Iāve done it all so many times before. Iām on default combat settings without the modifications, and it feels pretty mindless in gameplay too. Which I half appreciate because I donāt have to wade through figuring out what items are often or worry excessively about the skill tree since reading all that takes some commitment. Still, kinda feels like Iām just waiting for fights to end. Really needs more music and some that doesnāt blare so loudly, too. Calm down here and there, sheesh. Enemy designs are fun though, and the characters get into just enough amusing situations that I donāt think Iām going to drop it so far. Iām just not seeing what it is people adore in the series compared to so many other RPGs that I think have either more interesting systems or more personality.
On the listening side, Iām still sort of looking for what I want. Throwing on a few podcasts here and there but nothing is jumping at me too much. Occasionally I try to watch this Japanese Splatoon playerās guides and stuff but I wish he would slow down a little.
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Iām glad Iām not the only one to have come away with that opinion on the games. I tried one of them back in the PS2 era because my friends raved about the series (canāt remember which oneā¦ main character had a red bandana, and one of the companions was a frog guy who I think was the original king of the country before an evil magician/jester-looking-guy turned him into a frog guy, other companion was a short, heavyset bandit type, if that means anything. 
), but ultimately only got a ways into the game before deciding I wasnāt enjoying it that much and dropping it. Like, itās not bad, but I just felt like I could spend my time playing other games that were better. 
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That video is sped up, no? Sounds very unnatural to me. When I turn it to 0.75 speed it becomes his natural speaking speed, I would say. So donāt fret 
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11 is the only one Iāve played, but that sounds like 8 I think? Thatās one people seem to particularly love, too. I was always more of a Final Fantasy kid growing up (well and deeper cuts, loved Lunar and Star Ocean and stuff), and despite it being another similarly huge famous āclassicā RPG line, I respect how much they seem to experiment between entries, changing up some core systems and going for totally different aesthetics. FF9 actually keeps coming to mind as something I want to go do in Japaneseā¦
Anyway yeah glad to hear it actually because I swear 11 gets almost unanimous praise so it feels like Iām missing something, heh.
Youāre probably right! Itās definitely unnaturally fast but I just assumed the script was rehearsed/recorded in tiny chunks he could take at absurd speed. Either way, I should actually just attempt listening to it slowed down later and see how that is. He has other videos of him playing in longer form with off the cuff commenting and thatās definitely at a more normal speed, though has the usual challenges of natural unprepared speech so itās a mixed bag for me.
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Same, though Iāve kinda been touch-and-go with Final Fantasy for the most recent additions (not big on MMOs, so FFXIV Online isnāt great for me and FFXV, while not bad, was not my favoriteā¦ I didnāt care for the magic system much). I do hear good things about the FF7 Remake, and got it for free as part of PS+, though, so I think I want to try that one sometime soon, possibly in Japanese.
I also really like the Tales series. Arise was tons of fun, though I admit to missing the more āanimeā style cutscenes as opposed to using the 3d models. Characters felt more emotive in previous entries ā though the voice acting (for both the dub and sub, surprisingly) ā was excellent and did an amazing job of making up for that lack of emotive capability in the art style.
I played First Departure on the PSP and loved it, but have not played any of the other games in the series, as it seems like it is hard to find. well, probably not so much now if I looked, but back then, seemed difficult.
I love 9! 7, 8, and 9 are my favorites for Final Fantasy (nostalgia factor definitely plays a role, Iām sure). That would be a great one to play in Japanese.
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Sorry to disappoint, it seems that you canāt change the language to Japanese unless you bought it in Japan, the voice can be changed but not the subtitles or interface 
(or do something to the PlayStation but I donāt know too much about that)
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Ah, thatās a shame. But since I got it for free, anyway, I wouldnāt be opposed to just buying a JP copy if necessary in the end. Thanks for the heads-up!
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Iām glad to see youāre still enjoying Flowers! I think the really soft art + music in that one does a great job of building that type of atmosphere. I hope the VN is getting a little easier as you go on, I know the beginning getting used to a writerās style is usually the hardest part. Iām reading a different Innocent Grey VN right now (Caucasus) and they love to use a bunch of obscure/irregular kanji in there too.
I think based on your spoilers youāre getting close to my favorite chapter in the first game of Flowers. I always like to see what people say about that chapter so Iāll look forward to when you get there
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Actually, same exact thoughts on that series. I say I love Final Fantasy but I basically fell off it after 10 and am just living in the past, haha. Iām someone who actually really likes turn based combat, though stuff like SMT has made me pickier about the systems having proper stakes over time, cause I know I tolerated tedium more in the past. Same exact picks for favorites, though I was growing up through PS1 era and played them then so itā s probably some nostalgia for me too. 9 was always my top I think.
I tried to jump in at Berseria some years back, but it really wasnāt managing to grab me and I dropped it. Should probably give it another try. I think I might prefer dipping into the older ones.
Another series I want to get into is the Legend of Heroes stuff ā I tried Trails in the Sky for a while also some years ago and bounced off but I hear so much good about the story and world there; I think I just didnāt last quite long enough to see where people get hooked. But now I want to do it in Japanese and there are both an overwhelming amount of games (donāt want to make them take longer right now), and Iāve heard their writing is relatively challenging, since they apparently go pretty deep into politics and the like.
Itās funny, my experience was the exact opposite because back on the PS1 (I think) they only brought over The Second Story, so that was what I had. Sometimes that game was dumb; it had some of the goofiest voice acting Iāve ever heard, but I loved it to bits. I actually started it in Japanese a while back, though I never made much progress on thatā¦
Thatās such a shame; itās regularly so hard to access the Japanese versions. Had to go well out of my way in buying DQ11 to get the Japanese-only version too.
Thanks! Iāve at least adjusted to the style because sentences certainly are framed in a unique way (or maybe just pile more descriptors on a noun than Iām used to haha), and the difficult parts come and go, but itās still probably the hardest thing Iāve read since its supply of uncommon new words is inexhaustible. Thereās something about the way things are left implied that makes me lose the thread of the conversation more than normal, too, but thatās really only a frustration a time or two per session. Canāt know how Iāll feel when the time comes to think about my next VN, but itās possible Iāll go ahead and keep my momentum with this writing style and continue. Who knows.
Very excited to see what chapter youāre talking about anyway 
Hope you enjoy Caucasus by the way! Someday Iām probably going to read Kara no Shoujo, but likely not any time soonā¦
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I had a similar experience when I was reading MariMite which Flowers is heavily influenced by. Not sure if it was just because of the setting or cause all the girls were very much ć嬢ćć¾ but they had a crazy amount of uncommon words in there. There were a lot of words I saw in that manga that I havenāt seen anywhere else in my jp reading, Iām guessing Flowers might be similar
Caucasus is pretty fun so far! There are some parts in it that I think could have been removed entirely and itād make it better but without going into spoilers the story itself is pretty good despite that so far.
Kara no Shoujo was one of the first VNs I read way back when I was first getting into the medium in English. I remember not liking it too much but I hear the other two are really good and the series did get remastered so I might try it again but with how long the series is, it probably wonāt be any time soon for me too
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I actually never played SMT until after I picked up Persona 5 (which is easily in my top turn-based JRPGs. Itās just so stylish and fun), but I did love SMT5 as well. I put wayyy too much time into it when it came out, though, so I definitely understand what you mean about tolerating tedium.
Symphonia is a great one, and is getting a remaster next year, I believe.
Same! And I have the same troubles as you as well: I want to play it in Japanese because like, I can now, but also, the time investment in English was already a turn-off, so itās been harder to pick up. I want to pick that one up, and the Cold Steel series, since apparently itās all amazing. But thereās so many games.
Iām told Second Story had a PSP release as well ā but I never could track it down. Of course, the time I was looking, I lived in middle of nowhere, Idaho, so I suppose thatās not a huge shock.
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I think I entered with Persona 4 cause everyone gets into SMT that way, but I actually prefer the mainline and other side series stuff now, though 5 is still great. Honestly what I meant by tedium more is that in a lot of SMT (especially the likes of Nocturne, Strange Journey, etc) the fights demand your attention because they can almost always go bad and kill you suddenly in a turn or two. So a lot of RPGs that treat their fights as background noise bore me now.
Tangent but I actually really hate the idea of messing with the frequency of random encounters, it alone pretty much completely turns me off from games like Bravely Default, and itās always touted as such a nice feature. It makes it all feel pointless to me, truly turns it into grinding for the checkpoints. Games like Nocturne or even Person with the SP and calendar system are nicer to me, where the random battles wear you down by attrition too so the rate feels meaningfully selected.
Thatās one I had in mind for sure!
Yeah it doesā¦ as someone too attached to the original I think it has a few changes Iām iffy on, and loses that exact voice acting I adored, but still, worth it probably.
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I have yet to go back to play Persona 4 (though, I have it on Steam ā which is a common thing youāll see from me ). I want to check if Iām able to play it in Japanese, because it seems like a good kinda game to do it with, with the slice-of-life-y aspects that Persona has.
Ahh, gotcha. I thought you meant the tedium of randomly losing a battle because of one bad roll or something. That would be my only frustration while playing SMT ā ā95% chance to hit; if I hit, this is over. If I miss, I die. Oh. I missed.ā (Similar frustrations re: XCOM).
But yeah, I definitely feel you on pointless grinding. That feels asinine and un-fun entirely. At least SMT remains fun through the frustration. 
A shame it loses the voice acting you adored; I mostly just want a way to play it. I suppose an emulator is always an option, but they can be a bit tedious to set up, which makes it even harder to convince myself to go through with playing a game (something I have a hard time committing to, to begin with).
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Iāve watched a bit of someone playing P4, and I really donāt think it seemed very bad! Youāre probably going to be fine. Itās not as flashy or polished as 5, but itās hard to see someone who liked it not enjoying 4 as well. I think the only significant warning is the past games had much more repetitive dungeons. In 4 they are just long slightly maze-like corridors, and theyāre wrapped in nice aesthetics, but every dungeon is quite literally just hallways with a lot of 90 degree turns. 3 is a step even worse by only having one enormous dungeon so itās designed similarly but they donāt even change up the aesthetics much beyond color swaps. Worth it since the combat is still good and everything else in the story and whatnot is comparable, but 5 was a huge step up in keep dungeons interesting and fresh.
Yeah SMT is pretty strategy-heavy and I defend it a lot as a franchise that more or less never needs grinding if you know what youāre doing, but most games arenāt without their somewhat bullshit points. Despite Nocturne being my favorite, a few of them are particularly bad. Thereās a boss in that game with a move that gives it more turns andā¦ occasionally it just doesnāt stop using it lol.
Yeah honestly I think the remake is fine when youāre new to the game. My complaints are very particular and not something someone new to the game would notice or even consider bad. And said voice acting is well into so bad itās good territory so itās not like they were wrong to find real voice actors haha. Still not a fan of what Iāve heard from the English version on that front, but in Japanese itās probably fine.
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Iām in the mood; letās talk a little more about two things
Flowers -
This game is cute! The picture was going to be all you got outside of spoilers, but I realized when it comes to characterization, even this is kind of a spoiler if anyone ends of checking this VN out. So this part of the post is entirely secrets, oops. Better safe than sorry. Didnāt expect to be bringing this up again so soon but big things are brewing. Made it through 5000 characters today which is a nice improvement for this VN.
Spoilers
So I just passed the point where Mayuri was selected for the čęÆå½¹ over Rikka, and that bit where they have the conversation with Rikka about jealousy and who you like more. Sheās really won me over a lot, though I feel like thereās more to Mayuri (who is still quite likeable too) that Iām curious to learn about. Must admit I did look at how the routes work and I know I have to pick green choices and start with Mayuri, so Iām doing that.
On that note, @AzusaChan , if you donāt mind, how long are the individual routes in this game? I definitely intend to go get Rikkaās ending as well, but Iām just wondering how much extra to expect the replay to entail for the sake of my expectations and planning.
Weāre here getting into the good stuff, and Iām increasingly finding that Iām pleased to know there are more games to further flesh people out. I think they have other main characters but I honestly know so little about the sequels I donāt even know who the protagonists are, and Iām kind of excited to keep it that way and see as I go. I think I remember one heavily featuring Erika in the poster? So maybe her one time? But thatās all I barely know.
Listening - Still nothing huge, but I had a rather nice thing happen. Yesterday I watched ććć¤ (2005), with some friends so there were English subtitles, but thatās such a great film. Highly recommend it if you like horror, itās one of the creepiest movies out there in my opinion.
The point is, I started discovering various featured celebrities on fake variety shows and stuff were sometimes playing themselves, one being this comedy duo called ć¢ć³ć¬ć¼ć«ćŗ. Looked up a video out of curiosity and I canāt say I loved their skit or anything, but I found that I understood close to everything they said. That doesnāt usually happen, and felt even better as a coincidental discovery. The dream of just coming across Japanese and getting it, yāknow?
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Reply to spoilers
The individual routes in the game are pretty short. I read the series in English but Iād say it took me maybe 20 minutes to do each individual route after I finished my first one. So once you finish Mayuriās route, youāll be able to finish everything else pretty quickly. Since its a 4-part series, there is a canon route in each game and Iām guessing thatās why they didnāt go extreme and make the what-if routes long.
The bad ends are really short too and usually end right there. I donāt recall them being essential in the first game (it might be needed to unlock the 4komas) but youāll need to do all of them in the other titles to unlock some extras that are considered important.
I wonāt spoil you on the future games (and if you care about spoilers, I highly recommend not looking up anything about the other games, I spoiled myself when I first played that way ) but the sequels do a great job of building up all of the other characters! My favorites from the start of the series definitely changed a lot by the time I finished the final game
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Spoiler reply
Oh thatās good to hear, thanks! Itās nice to know when I hit the end Iāll be just about truly finished.
Good to know, thanks. I do all routes usually, assuming Iām enjoying the VN, but Iām normally not one to seek out bad ends unless itās important. Iāll see how the later games go; maybe Iāll have to check in with you about those extras if itās not obvious.
Iāll definitely keep any info about the future games to the minimum as well. Iād like to be surprised. Let me just ask, are the routes/choices done similarly or do they change the system? I know the flower blooming thing is kinda specific to Suou but I think they could redo the aesthetics or something. Just curious.
If thereās anything else that would be good to know (like how some VNs are best to just know the route system and plan ahead) I suppose Iāll take that info when the time comes, though with Flowers VNs being on the smaller side and you were saying bad ends are short, Iām assuming thereās nothing like that.
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Spoiler reply
Yeah, I usually skip bad endings too but I did them in Flowers since they were needed to unlock extraās. The bad endings are all short and easy to complete if you save at all of the āmysteryā choice scenes and then just choose one of the incorrect answers as the solution to the mystery.
The system is pretty much the same throughout. Green choices = true end and the flower blooms, yellow choices for other routes etc. Only difference is in some of the sequels there is a semi-forced playing order (canāt get true end on the first playthrough for some of them).
I donāt think thereās too much planning ahead needed in the Flowers series. I always play VNs with a guide just because its easier and I donāt like to backtrack more than I need to lol but Flowers is simple enough where youāre probably fine without it. The only one where you might need it is in the final game to save some confusion.
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Spoiler reply
Great to know. I have a habit of saving at every choice anyway, been doing that on Printemps even while I know it doesnāt matter haha.
Very relatable, Iām more or less the same. Depending on the VN, sometimes Iāll give it a first blind playthrough with my own choices if it has me in the mood for it.
The color coding makes all this super easy though. I guess Iāll see about the final game whenever Iām there, eventually.
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