Metropolitan Blues - Released

[mikey]

If I made a guide, it would pretty much be a copy-paste of the scoring system used in the game. This may be more info than what Taleweaver may be planning to give, so we should wait until he gives his opinion on the matter.

Well, there's a detailed walkthrough for E8, also describing the game system as such, but it's in German. I suppse then it's not that secret?

[Taleweaver]

As MetBlues has been "out there" for quite some time now, I'm perfectly fine with having walkthroughs and "strategy guides". If Kikered wants to, he can give it a shot.

[rioka]

Metropolitan Blues FAQ now available! =)

[Watercolorheart]

Went through the FAQ, finally got the "True" ending (hallelujah!) after giving up on that game nearly 2 months ago ... not that I didn't enjoy it immensely, just got sick of being banished all the time ...

The little omake section mentioned other unlockables ... ne? I played the game again through the "True Ending" but nothing different happened ...

What did I miss?

[Kikered]

There's an unlockable for getting one of the "Good" endings (excluding the "True" ending), and there is another one for getting all endings. Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the conditional that allows for Omake access on any ending.

[Ren]

So there's two unlockables?
I think i found only one(wich i really liked)but i'm not sure, i got so caught into this wonderful story that i got almost all endings in one nightO_O
And i just can never remember to write down wich endings i got or wich choices i madeT_T

"Anyway i'm gonna remember it this time"...yeah, sureXD

This is by far the best, in my opinion, RenAi i found in the arcuìhives!
I'm on a slow connection and i can't download them all like crazy at once, but i'm pretty sure it will be hard to push it down in my favourites list.

The story is just too original and well written, some of the themes are so close to my view on things.
It's even hard to describe with words how much i liked and on how many levels>_<

And the art didn't make me realize that i could see only one character in the whole game for a lot of time(when most games have a lot of characters), probably it was the combination of art and story made me so caught up into the game.
Some things would have been weird in another game, though everything was so perfectly fit in it's own place.

TwT So i'm gonna build a shrine and dedicate it to MB, huhuhu!

PS:Forgive me if i didn't make any sense or if i wrote anything weird, my English is horrible and sometimes i just can't be as descriptive as i would be writing in Italian;_;


*builds a shrine for Rio's art as well*

Edit:Just took a peek at the FAQ...TDT i'm missing the last unlockable, i knew i didn't have them all, dangit!

[Taleweaver]

By the way, I'm so proud that I finally got a decent review on download.com:
http://www.download.com/Metropolitan-Bl ... 28619.html

[Blue Lemma]

Geez, that first guy has bricks in his head

[musical74]

I'd say the first guy didn't understand it, and therefore decided to give it a bad review. Still, saying *this game's lousy* without saying WHY it's lousy doesn't say anything outside of *I didn't understand it and therefore it must be a bad game*. In other words, BL's right on the money....the first guy has bricks in his head. The more recent review was much more objective, and - in my mind anyway -shows that he played the game, saw things that he liked, saw things that he felt needed improvement, and gave it an objective score. Myself, if I don't understand a game, I'll comment that I couldn't understand the game and in what way I couldn't understand it. Game developers are looking for feedback that tells them *OK, we need to work on this* or *people really like it BECAUSE (whatever)* and in doing so they can make better games in the future. I liked MetBlues, myself =) I thought the story was interesting and liked how everything was put together.

Wow this post sure went longer than I expected...just feel that if you are going to wriote a review, make it a whole lot more objective than *This game's lousy!!* or *This game's great!!* because neither really says anything outside of the person's feelings towards the game.

[mikey]

Well, I'll be just a bit opposed. I mean it's just five sennteces, not really a review, so I see nothing wrong with being emotional and not rational. If you look at my encyclopedia, it's the same story, I'll call them terrible, even though they aren't if you take *everything* into account.

So I like to be biased at times and it's okay. I won't be insulted if someone decides just to say: hey that "game" like totally sucks. withot any reason.

Just yesterday I was showing my girlfriend Call Of Duty 2 running on the new XBox in a store, asked her what she thought about it and she simply ignored the smoothness, the realistic textures and all that, because to her it looked like "Doom-ish stupidity with prehistoric graphics" (and it sounded even better in the original language in which she told it to me).

And she doesn't have bricks in her head, in fact I found that comment to be cute, kind of showing that even if you achieve mastery in one area, there will still be those to which it won't mean a thing. And the same goes to me and fantasy/RPG. To be completely honest, to me it's not even interesting, no matter what the story says.

The thing is you *can* be objective all the time and say "this is so and so in respect to the specific genre and type" and be correct in all the replies and evaluations. But I think one should also be able to see things from another pespective and even laugh at the very serious ones.

I mean I truly love Gakuen Redux, I really really do, and it cannot compare to any of my games, but I see nothing wrong with treating it with humor. It depends on how you feel about your game, and "bad" reviews shouldn't make a difference if you respect and love your work, especially when you know it's not the reviewer's thing. Plus, I have to say not everyone is looking for constructive criticism all the time, sometimes you just want to know how that made people feel, in one way or the other.

Wow this post sure went longer than I expected...

You said it...

[dizzcity]

I know this is very late, but seeing as I have just come across Ren'ai games a month ago and only just played through Metropolitan Blues now, I thought it was worth it. I registered on these forums just to leave my comments on this particular piece of work.

Overall

I loved this. After suffering through half a dozen low-quality games and visual novels which didn't seem to have a plot, purpose or raison d'etre, I was planning on making Metropolitan Blues the last game I played before I gave up totally on the genre. Thank goodness I played it. Now, I feel that there is new hope after all. The integrated level of artwork, storytelling, and direction (can't comment much about programming since I am not familiar with RenPy) are all so far in advance of the other ren'ai or VN out there that I am simply amazed.

It is the only visual interactive novel (I don't think it's really a ren'ai game) I've tried so far that I am able to recommend to friends as an artistic, highbrow example of the genre.

I got the True Ending on my first try, and then messed around to get both the Good Identity Ending and the Banishment one. I'll probably explore more another day.

Storytelling

Beautiful. Being a writer myself, I was enraptured by the thematic explorations of loneliness, identity and purpose, rather than just a straightforward plot. The philosophical mood was set forth very clearly in the beginning, and drew me in immediately. What was even better was that it was maintained throughout, instead of degenerating into a simpler pseudo-romance disguised as philosophical musings. The endings tied back strongly to the beginning, and that was important.

I also liked how each plotline was distinctly different from all the rest, even though there were shared plot points at the beginning of each chapter. Every choice was meaningful, and shifted your perception of how the story was told. It was so clearly different from other games which forced you along a certain plot path even though it was not congruent with your mindset or the previous buildup of choices.

And I was very impressed at how the themes shone out clearly through the writing. Whether it was a search for identity, or absolving the narrator from his/its sense of loneliness, or searching for a purpose, the self-reflective nature of the piece really caught at me, and painted a good portrait of modern urban life, I felt. I think I spotted a minor typo here and there, but for the large part the grammar, spelling, and pacing was very good. The slow-revelation nature of the medium (one or two lines at a time) fit very well with the philosophical pacing of the tale.


Art & Music

Of course, there are more colourful, highly-detailed and flamboyant pieces of art found in other ren'ai games. However, I'm actually impressed by the artistic choice of black & white and grey and find it more suitable than anything else I've seen so far. For the first time, I am conscious and aware of the fact that art contributes substantially to the mood of the entire work. Because of the greyness and yet highly-detailed nature of the sketches of Tokyo, I was able to emphathise with the perception-but-meaninglessness viewpoint of the narrator. Colour would have detracted from the mood, which was one of bleakness and drabness. Furthermore, the black & white artwork reinforced the sense of difference between the viewpoint of a spirit and the viewpoint of a human. It helps to bring across the alienness of the narrator - he/it is truly viewing life through a different set of lenses, and yet not... at the same time as the reader.

The music was excellent. Even though it was just a simple piano piece with not much else, it suited the mood perfectly. The simple chordal melody played over and over again with high notes being hit after every iteration really gave off a sense of both repetitive drabness punctuated by lonely stabs of emotion every now and then. A not-exactly-depressing piece, but one that serves to put the reader into the right frame of mind for self-reflection and philosophy very nicely.


Direction & Programming

The choice of having just a head, and placing it in the center of the screen right above the text was a move I applaud completely. Very often, when playing ren'ai games, I found that the changes in the graphics and facial expressions distracted me from the text. I kept on having to disconnect and switch between 'viewing the change in expression' and 'reading the script'. But by placing the face right next to the text, the disconnect is minimised, and instead of detracting from the story, it actually adds to it. The changes in expression are no longer at the corner of your eye, but right in the center, so are both easier to perceive and less distracting.

I also loved the layout shots of Tokyo City and the clear separation of chapters into three story arcs. The best point where I can truly say that I was incredibly impressed by the direction was after the last choice of "Her Novel" of the True Ending, beginning from "In the morning, I am everywhere". The imagery of Tokyo City in conjunction with the revelation of the narrator as the delocalised spirit of the city really combined to make a strong visual and storytelling impact which I felt was a very fitting climax of the entire True Ending story.

With regards to interface design, I'm happy to see you kept it simple, with just clicking on the text and changing-colour text choices upon mouseover. No complicated buttons, or useless artifacts/icons that distract from the clean and clear style of the piece. The fadeouts and fadeins were also very smoothly done.


Concluding Remarks

In short, Metropolitan Blues is the first Visual Interactive Novel that I will remember clearly. I'm actually considering recommending that my university professors (who are studying new forms of Interactive Media) have a look at this piece and perhaps conduct some academic reviews or critiques of it.

A job very well done. Please continue to make thematic pieces like this in the future. It lifts the genre to a higher level and makes it more acceptable to the common people. I have hope for the future of visual novels and ren'ai games once again.

-Dizzy-

[DaFool]

wow, talk about lasting impact.

No ones ever given such review treatment to professional JP VNs like Wind or DaCapo. Yay this community is more sophisticated!

I better bump MB up my queue of to-play games (damn you GR for taking up so much time )

[Taleweaver]

I know this is very late, but seeing as I have just come across Ren'ai games a month ago and only just played through Metropolitan Blues now, I thought it was worth it. I registered on these forums just to leave my comments on this particular piece of work.

*snip*
Now wait a minute...
Wow. I'm impressed you actually registered here in the forums just to tell me your opinion. I mean, I KNOW that MetBlues is unique, and I'm very proud of it, but I would have never thought I'd get THAT kind of response.

Overall

...

I got the True Ending on my first try, and then messed around to get both the Good Identity Ending and the Banishment one. I'll probably explore more another day.

Do you know what that means? You probably understood MetBlues, or rather, my intentions with it. Or you were just being lucky ^_^ Anyway, try to unlock all endings for an additional little bonus in the Omake section, accessible by the True Ending. (I hope you didn't know that already - even one Good Ending gives you an additional Omake element, and all endings unlock the final secret.)

Storytelling

...

I think I spotted a minor typo here and there, but for the large part the grammar, spelling, and pacing was very good.

Sorry about that. I'm not a native English speaker. I'm German.

Art & Music

...

Because of the greyness and yet highly-detailed nature of the sketches of Tokyo, I was able to emphathise with the perception-but-meaninglessness viewpoint of the narrator. Colour would have detracted from the mood, which was one of bleakness and drabness. Furthermore, the black & white artwork reinforced the sense of difference between the viewpoint of a spirit and the viewpoint of a human. It helps to bring across the alienness of the narrator - he/it is truly viewing life through a different set of lenses, and yet not... at the same time as the reader.

That was the point of a b/w art, and I even had discussions with Rio about what KINDS of grey to use in the character art. While I "greyed out" the original Tokyo photographs myself, I left her the task of finding a character art that fit the rest, and she did a splendid job on it.

The music was excellent.

I agree. Would you be surprised if I told you that it was written by a Scottish composer who now lives in New Zealand and originally wrote the title piece in celebration of his child's birth?

Direction & Programming

The choice of having just a head, and placing it in the center of the screen right above the text was a move I applaud completely.

My idea. ^_^

The best point where I can truly say that I was incredibly impressed by the direction was after the last choice of "Her Novel" of the True Ending, beginning from "In the morning, I am everywhere". The imagery of Tokyo City in conjunction with the revelation of the narrator as the delocalised spirit of the city really combined to make a strong visual and storytelling impact which I felt was a very fitting climax of the entire True Ending story.

Kikered's idea. ^_^ In fact, he was the best director I could hope for. Did you notice the little jest he put into the game the first time you see the typewriter? It's these little touches that made the mood.

In short, Metropolitan Blues is the first Visual Interactive Novel that I will remember clearly. I'm actually considering recommending that my university professors (who are studying new forms of Interactive Media) have a look at this piece and perhaps conduct some academic reviews or critiques of it.

A job very well done. Please continue to make thematic pieces like this in the future. It lifts the genre to a higher level and makes it more acceptable to the common people. I have hope for the future of visual novels and ren'ai games once again.

-Dizzy-

My next project Foxtaile will probably disappoint you. It's much more ren'ai than philosophy, and while I think the plot itself is solid, it's hardly as special as the one in MetBlues. You might want to play it anyway, though. It's my first cooperation with EsperKnight, who's a really good programmer and overall nice fellow.

The project AFTER Foxtaile, though... you're going to love that ^_^

Thanks for your encouraging words. I'll do my best to keep up the good work.

[mikey]

It was hard for me to stay polite and not answer immediately, but I believe such a wonderful response deserves to be answered by the staff first...

Anyway, now that I'm free to post... I think this just shows the power of a pure VN, and it happens to come at a time when we were talking (a bit offtopic) about hybrids in the o3 thread. And I just think that you could never have done this in this way with a hybrid gameplay... the end.

It's definitely harder to find "players" or people who can appreciate a VN (by that I mean multichoice) - and its key elements - but when you do, when you hit the exact spot, it's more personal, more emotional and more memorable than any movie, any game and any book that may try to work with the same topic. Well, that might be a bit absolutistic, but you get the point.

[Taleweaver]

I already mentioned that my next project will be a hybrid, though I'm sure even VN purists are going to like it. The medium by which a story is told is irrelevant; all that matters in my eyes: is it a good story? MetBlues was one, O³ certainly was one, and my next project is a story I'm really looking forward to tell. We'll see whether it will be worth it. ^_^

In my eyes, there is no such thing as "the power of VN". If the story is good and the presentation doesn't entirely suck, any additional elements of gameplay beyond experiencing the story are just the cream on top. Did I mention that I like cream? ^_^