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[JoshuaFH]

I finally got around to playing Doki Doki Literature Club... I went into it already thoroughly spoiled on the sensitive and dark things that happen in it, so I was already mentally prepared to not get shook... But what I wasn't prepared for was how SHORT it was! I was so reluctant to start it up because I thought it was going to be a whole-ass visual novel, like the kind that stretches on for dozens or hundreds of hours, but no, it wraps up everything, alternate routes included, in like a couple hours. While I did enjoy the experience, I was finally ready to actually sit down and read a whole-ass visual novel, but right at the point where DDLC starts picking up steam in terms of character building, it aborts it all entirely for the sake of the genre subversion that it's known for. Then it rubs the aforementioned DARK shit in your face for a little while longer, before finishing up with a little blunt, maybe too blunt, on-the-nose fourth wall breaking ending.

I know I'm late to the party, I always am, I just wanted to state for the record that yes, I am blue balled. I wanted to engage more with my potential waifus before they were so unceremoniously ripped from my hands for the sake of the game's fundamental premise.

[Egan_BW]

Well, if you want the edgy shit but really long instead, you could pick up just about any random VN.

[voliol]

Well, if you want the edgy shit but really long instead, you could pick up just about any random VN.

I haven't thought about it much, but is that how DDLC stands out? By being short and getting to the "point" quickly, and thus approachable to non-fans of visual novels? As I gather now it isn't that subversive, since edginess has been a part of visual novels from the get-go. Not that I know much about visual novels, but I know influential stuff like Higurashi is... Higurashi, and bad ends are a staple elsewhere (that's what School Days is infamous for, afaik, for adapting one of the bad ends).
But when DDLC first came out I didn't know that, and it felt novel to my "a visual novel is a dating sim" expectations.

[heydude6]

DDLC stands out for a few reasons:

1. It was created by a popular Super Smash Brothers player and it was free. It's like if shaqueil O'neil made a video game. It's gonna get an audience no matter its quality.
2. It was most people's first introduction to a visual novel and their tropes. We westerners like to think we're above pandering Japanese shit, but having a girl say she loves you hits hard no matter how real she is. The Doki's were many people's first introduction to a real waifu. I'd be ashamed of how deeply the game affected me if I didn't care.
3. It's "ironic" 
4. People have a weakness for 4th wall breaks
5. Sayori's "bulli-ing" was very well-done. I mean you've seen it, I doubt I need to elaborate.
6. People with depression were moved by how accurately the condition was portrayed

Since reasons 5 and 6 are the only things that actually make the game stand out, a lot of people who hopped on the hype train late found the game disappointing.

[TamerVirus]

Man, I remember when Katawa Shoujo and Grisaia were considered the entry VNs.
My first VN was Tsukihime...

People always talk about the wall break, but those into VNs know that Totono (Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi) did it way earlier and always compare the two

Random fun fact, more than a decade ago, Dan Salvato went to the same summer camp I did and created a dance for the Dr. Mario Fever theme. Which then became a tradition of sorts

[JoshuaFH]

I didn't expound on it, but I do think DDLC was extremely close to true greatness. In the game's finale,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

you have to actually go into the game's file folder out-of-game and delete a file that represents the main villain Monika... which to me opened up meta strategies to actually avoid all the dark, horrible shit by restarting the game and playing god by deleting Monika right away or maybe other meta hijinx... but no the game isn't that awesome to include a "Good" route like that, though it does give you a nonstandard gameover as an easter egg. You're trapped in the "Bad" ending that the developer intended, and there's no other route. Gotta say I was extremely disappointed, but I guess I can't say I was cheated since it's free to begin with.

My only other VN has been Katawa Shoujo, and I'd say that was a very memorable and enjoyable experience, so I don't know why I've waited so long to try to pick up another VN.

[Micro102]

Doesn't DDLC have a "good" ending where you replay it and write all poems for each girl?

Also: Give me manga recommendations. Anything you consider pure gold and anxiously await new chapters of.

I'll throw in a few of my own: The skeleton soldier who couldn't protect the dungeon, The omniscient reader's viewpoint, and SSS Class suicide hunter. (Yes I like Isekia)

[JoshuaFH]

That's a secret ending, though all the carnage is unstopped so not necessarily a good ending.

Not a manga but an anime: I've been really enjoying Paripi Koumei, or It's Ya Boy Kongming! About ancient chinese strategist Kongming from the Three Kingdoms era being Isekai'd (effectively) into the future where he ends up in Japan, and then quickly allies himself with a young singer, and vows to make her dream of becoming a star songstress into a reality. It's very fun and has good music.

[Frumple]

I'm not even sure if there's still chapters showing up, but "The Dragon, the Hero, and the Courier" is pretty good for a laugh. It's a manga about a mailelf going about their life working for a post office during the early years of the concept even existing, mostly, with a major focus on playing around with ideas on how fantasy-stuff could have realistically-ish interacted with historical medieval/early renaissance life.

[Loud Whispers]

That's a secret ending, though all the carnage is unstopped so not necessarily a good ending.

Not a manga but an anime: I've been really enjoying Paripi Koumei, or It's Ya Boy Kongming! About ancient chinese strategist Kongming from the Three Kingdoms era being Isekai'd (effectively) into the future where he ends up in Japan, and then quickly allies himself with a young singer, and vows to make her dream of becoming a star songstress into a reality. It's very fun and has good music.

I hope they isekai one of his rivals with a rival singer like Sima Yi


Also in rather unexpected news Spice and Wolf is getting a reboot 2024.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They're going for a different style which has already awoken the usual bitching but frankly I'm just grateful someone is trying to do something for Spice and Wolf. People need to chill; if it turns out to be a soulless reboot sure get bitching but it's far far far too soon to get the pitchforks. Now I don't know how much you can judge from the trailer but the trailer definitely seems more quaint and positive, compared to the original's constant atmosphere of "love but constant unease" Lawrence and Holo had in the original. All in all... Hopeful, and reserving judgement.

Also Heavenly Delusion: having watched most of it now, I can say it is definitely a strong recommend. Might be AOTY, but fair warning, first few episodes lure you in with a light hearted adventure but it just gets darker and darker emotionally and content wise. Definitely a unique one worthy of a watch, post apocalypse scifi monsters and road trips and mysteries in a season otherwise dominated by isekais

Fog Hill of the Five Elements is also getting its S2 release this July! If you haven't seen the first Fog Hill stuff again, super strong recommend. Passion project made by a bunch of independent Chinese animators operating on a budget of nothing. Except with S2, they actually have a budget now!

[MCreeper]

Also: Give me manga recommendations. Anything you consider pure gold and anxiously await new chapters of.

Touhou singles by Yakumi Sarai. 

[JoshuaFH]

So apparently Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is getting a long awaited remake/sequel?!

https://youtu.be/G-T6sA_EGXM

I never expected P&S w/ G to ever get anything ever again. It just had one of those Gainax endings that was a legendary final meta joke of how Gainax properties never get proper endings.

[Loud Whispers]

So apparently Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is getting a long awaited remake/sequel?!

https://youtu.be/G-T6sA_EGXM

I never expected P&S w/ G to ever get anything ever again. It just had one of those Gainax endings that was a legendary final meta joke of how Gainax properties never get proper endings.

At this rate we'll get a HL3 and run out of "released in X" jokes

[JoshuaFH]

I spent the last few days powering through the Dr. Stone manga, and I was really pleased with it. From what I can tell the adaptation from manga to anime was almost perfect, with the anime throwing in a dash of extra Minecraft that wasn't present in the manga. It's very interesting to have a protagonist whose only superpower is that he's apparently an expert in... ehh.... everything? Yeah, he's a savant in almost every single topic imaginable, which is outrageous, but this is a universe that is populated exclusively by Danganronpa characters who are all superhumans in some way or another.

My only complaints would be that the plot is so blisteringly fast at points that it's actually hard to keep up with what is actually happening. Also, at around the halfway point I think, Gen and Chrome pick up very obnoxious verbal ticks that get quickly run into the ground and slam my ass out of my immersion every single time they come up. Which is often. I would also say the villains' philosophies and motives are shallow, or stupid, or both, and immediately crumble at the slightest inspection. This extends to the very final villain, where even the characters are like "Wait... what? That doesn't make any goddamn sense." and while the finale was kinda cool, that final climax felt kinda silly.

[Loud Whispers]

Undead Murder Farce is turning out to be pretty interesting so far. MC is a severed head who basically tours around europe with her stooge solving Sherlock Holmes murder mysteries if they were about gothic monsters