Red Shift

[Watercolorheart]

Has anyone else played this game translated by insani?

What were your thoughts about it?

It can be acquired here: http://www.insani.org/redshift.html

I played through to the end and

I felt that the ending was kind of ambiguous. The sister says "that patient will no longer be requiring my care" yet that could mean that 1) Mikoto is dead or 2) Mikoto is recovered.

Yet, the end, listening for the sound of passing bells - does that mean that the protagonist is hoping for Mikoto's presence, or does he not know the answer either and wonders if she's made it fully to the Redsshift?

Unfortunately, it didn't specify the tone the sister said it in (relieved, sadly) so I don't know ...

What are your impressions?

[Alessio]

Liked it very much (although some parts were a bit dragging... as if the author was writing text just to make time), and the drawings were gorgeous. *sigh*

I guess the end meant Mikoto made it... but then again, how could she have gotten there so fast?

[Watercolorheart]

Having tried to write a longer script with lots of scenes "just to make time", I can tell you that it's no easy task ... in fact, it's harder than important scenes - to give this idea of time passing.

And, really, isn't the whole game about little meetings not the big things?

[lordcloudx]

well... since I like to leave some of my own stories open-ended (wings), I thought it
was nice that there was a little bit of mystery left near the end.

Definitely not for someone looking for a more definite conclusion.

[Watercolorheart]

well... since I like to leave some of my own stories open-ended (wings), I thought it
was nice that there was a little bit of mystery left near the end.

Definitely not for someone looking for a more definite conclusion.

Red Shift is light-years ahead of Wings in terms of story-telling, and a much more satisfying ending ...

A good ending can be ambiguous, as long it's clear what's happening!

I didn't "get" Wings at all. I felt like the author was just falling to "artistic interpretation" to make their work something more than it really was.

It never explained anything, while in comparison, Red Shift eventually explained the mystery of

the headaches, about Mikoto actually being a ghost, and the Red Shift.

[lordcloudx]

hehe I don't know why you felt the need to say that. Too bad you think of my story that way.

but I was talking about Red Shift when I said "I thought it
was nice that there was a little bit of mystery left near the end. "

after all "care" as used in Red Shift could stand for something more than the immediate care that would usually come to mind.

A good ending can be ambiguous, as long it's clear what's happening!

that's relative

[mikey]

RedShift was very beautiful with the colors. Really contributed to the atmosphere. Artwork... really wonderful as well.

It's hard to point anything out, except that I needed some tampering with the source files to customize my gameplay, a bit inconvenient, but it doesn't really have much to do with the game as such.

I'd even agree that despite being open-ended, as a whole it doesn't really leave any critical points open, at least not storywise, so that's a plus in my book, too.

But for the taste of someone who doesn't like fantasy or sci-fi, it's still too supernatural, so I can't consider myself the perfect audience. I don't really like to come to my own conclusions while playing, I will prefer things that are less flexible for interpretation.

Red Shift is light-years ahead of Wings in terms of story-telling, and a much more satisfying ending ...

What I liked about Wings and RS didn't have this, was emotion. It's probably a difficult thing to explain and it doesn't necessarily make immediate sense, because RS is in fact so much more professional, so you might say How can you like that more than RS? But somehow, when Wings ended, it left me with more emotion than when RS ended. It was specifically not because it had an open ending or because it was about a very nebulous term, but it had more personality than let's say Narcissu or RS and that's why I liked it.
I'll stress it once again, none of these is really my favorite type of games - I'm more into the Abigail/Kykuit/Katherine -type of stories.

[lordcloudx]

aiiyah! Well... y'knw I'm not really trying to compete with these japanese doujin circles, after all I write for myself and if someone likes the story that's a plus. (Nope I'm not being a hypocrite that's my philosophy in writing and if someone can't accept that, hell do I care?)

Anywayz, back to red shift, I don't know why but it somehow reminds me a lot of AIR. Maybe it was the interjection of the comedy scenes in an otherwise serious story (that cat thingy was fun) or just Kouya's personality which reminds me a lot of Yukito, again don't snap if I say this, I'm not saying that they're completely alike.

Also, the bgm used is wonderful. I especially love that one violin track

[Watercolorheart]

I'm sorry, it's just my opinion. Perhaps I should have stated that. As such, take it with a grain of salt.

[lordcloudx]

No offense taken BCS. Everyone has their own way of seeing things.

...although if it was "me" from a few years ago I would have started a flame war.

but enough of that, another thing I liked about red shift was.... the blinking cursor! hehehe actually it's more like a swinging cursor and it looks like the one used in "plain song" too must be a default nscripter thingy or something.