Each week, we will aim for approximately 25K characters. Some most weeks will be longer or shorter, depending on appropriate breakpoints! Check this section in each weekly thread to see the stopping point. There is the possibility of some mild spoilers some weeks, so be aware!
This section will have the list of choices that you should select if you are following along exactly with the book club. While you of course can read the VN however you like, it will be really difficult to contribute to the discussion threads if you are reading a different arc than the club, so please keep that in mind!
Choices
Choices:
条件を飲む (SAVE 1)
Discussion Guidelines
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
And with that, this is the final week I’ll be able to run the club.
@polv, if you are still willing to take over from next week on, that would be much appreciated. I’ll still be around if you have any questions about running the club or anything, and of course, if we decide to opt for the last half of it being a bit less scheduled, that’s always an option too. Whatever the group feels best about!
I have opened up the home thread as a wiki as well, so it can be updated as needed!
For the next week, if I remember correctly, the little planning I had started for that week meant that we actually hit Bad End 1 during that week, but the character count was too low to make that a single week, so we would have to start back from Save 1 and read up to wherever the next reasonable stopping point within the character count is (excluding what has already been read from the count, since there is overlap and shared scenes between the routes that I assume most will skip through)
I think I like how this VN is developing its characters overall. I mean they might be a little much, we’re still dealing with literal terrorists and baby hostage-takers and whatnot, but it seems committed to giving them all a better side and presumably some motive, however twisted. I like Yuu’s backstory drifting vaguely political with the divide between rich and poor countries – obviously he misses a lot of the point, but driving out the thoughts of people suffering for some luxuries is pretty real all the same.
The VN maybe goes a step too far in making them extremely good at everything and seemingly nearly all-knowing when it calls for it, but I have to say I think I find the villain-types the more interesting part of the story? I’m happy to have a week hanging out with Odette and Alan.
So, I sat down and read like half of week 11’s section today, and I think I figured out the guide and used it correctly. No promises I can keep up every week, but since @polv seemed a little unsure about finding the end points, if needed, at least for now I think I can provide screenshots to add to the threads?
@polv Yeah, if you don’t have the character counts, that’ll be tricky. For now, if you don’t mind making the threads that would be a big help, but I’m happy to provide you with screenshots if I can keep up.
Here is a suitable endpoint for week 11, 24.1k characters by my count
Edit: right, what I just posted was about week 11 lmao, I’m tired today. I’ll delete and save that. If I’m going to do this I have to remember which week it is I’m talking about.
I’m struggling quite a bit with understanding this VN, so take everything I say with a big lump of salt.
I am enjoying the character development quite a bit. I am particularly surprised by Odette - I kinda expected her to become your run-of-the-mill antagonist, but the game is doing a great job to give her a lot of dimensionality. Alan also has some interesting moments, and his philosophical musing about what part of the Goddess Selection is a sin seemed pretty interesting despite its briefness - is killing something that should be dead, really killing?
This trio of Alan, Odette and Rinka feels like the most unexpected of combinations, so it’s pretty fun seeing them work together.
I concur with Daisoujou that the fight scenes don’t seem to fit very well in this VN. Description-wise I like them better than 9-nine fights, but they certainly placed very low effort in giving them a sense of dynamism - even the sound effects for the gunshots and knife stabs feel sort of cheap. The only sense of “movement” we have is basically the still of Odette doing a kick in mid-air.
Looking forward to see what the incoming bad end looks like exactly.
I used Textractor x86 with default (?) settings just fine, but it overly pickup rewinding (backlog) – not sure how to remove that.
Also, Textractor overly remove repeated 嫌だ… (of Week 11), but I don’t think it really matters.
@anon99047008 I took the liberty of setting the Week 11 thread. Not sure if I do it right.
Not sure if it is possible to figure choices of the Week before reaching that point myself, but then, I wouldn’t be able to get the last screenshot of the Week, nor the character count, anyway.
F11 is toggling window-fullscreen mode. F12 is screenshot. I think I’ll continue to play fullscreen
Yeah, it does that with a lot of VNs. All you can really do is manually delete the lines, or if you anticipate you’re going to be doing that sort of thing, toggle the clipboard inserter off beforehand. That’s usually how I handle it.
The chill cafe m* usic starting up when Rinka makes coffee for Odette seemed weirdly out of place. Odette doesn’t seem like a ‘chill cafe music’ kind of person.
Aran asks Rinka to not use keigo with him, which makes me wonder how her keigo was being translated to him in his native language. If his native language doesn’t have a keigo-equivalent, was Rinka’s speech just made to sound artificially formal or stilted or something?
I appreciate that we got more of Yuu’s backstory, though it’s a bit of a weirdly long exposition dump for him to livestream in the middle of it all. I mean, it’s probably not out-of-character or anything, it just seemed like a questionable decision.
Still wondering who the mysterious dream man is… we haven’t seen him in a little while. I forget who mentioned that there might be something up with Rinka’s cat and now that has me wondering if the weird dream man is Rinka’s cat somehow.
starting to catch up after a big break while I was on holiday, but still quite a long way behind… This week’s choice felt like it was pretty clearly signposted “This way to the Bad End!” I agree that the character-combo we see in this chapter is interesting and unexpected.
also has some interesting moments, and his philosophical musing about what part of the Goddess Selection is a sin seemed pretty interesting despite its briefness - is killing something that should be dead, really killing?
I agree that the character-combo we see in this chapter is interesting and unexpected.