al|together 2006 games

[mikey]

I can't find the new games not part of the 2006 5-pack.

It's been reported at visualnews, and it's AFAIK the only site you can get it. I don't know whether it's one of the games on Shii's list though. I guess time will tell. It's actually taking quite long. I hope the games make up for it though.
http://www.visualnews.net/doujin-downloads/#wanderer

EDIT: Looking at the translators, Wanderes is not on the list. So we have 4 more games coming up someday.

Regarding those free backgrounds... hehehehehe

LOL. No, really... what did you mean?

[DaFool]

Those backgrounds (especially the neighborhood) look awfully familiar...

I won't be using them, although I could think of a couple of people who might need them.

Locale is very important for me, even if I have to build each one from scratch.

[mikey]

Well, it had me thinking for a while, I'm also usually very much in favor if individuality, nevermind that it's lower quality. Me and my team sometimes use generic things, but I always want something specific built from it. Like free instruments, but an original song. Something like that. Something as complete as backgrounds that are used in many projects isn't exactly what I'd like. But simple free samples for sound effects or individually prepared 3D dolls or a well-filtered free photograph works fine for me.

OTOH the backgrounds are really wonderful. Maybe they'd be well suited for competitions (make a game from some provided elements - BGs, characters... in one month! ^_^)

[dizzcity]

But can someone please explain to me the end of Adagio? I really did like it without total comprehension because I

thought it was symbolic, referring to how the dancer only danced during the full moon. But what I'd really like to figure out is the two words he said to our hero(ine?) ... it nevers says, perhaps leaving it up to us to guess at it ... but when I played through the game again, it still didn't make any more sense ... but I did love it for the atmosphere it created, anyway.

A bit late, but for me, what I found significant was the weather symbolism and the fact that this was the very first time he performed with musical accompaniment (at least, to the audience it must have seemed that way). Remember how the narrator said that he always danced without music? But finally, in that last dance, music was added for the first time, and the dancer acknowledged it in front of the audience, and even smiled at the pianist narrator. It was a fitting gift, and the gift was received. He may have been hard of hearing, but I think he heard that last song after all, and understood the sentiments behind it. So maybe what he said was "Thank you," or "Well done," or "This is for you," or something like that.

As for the weather... well, this may be stretching it a little. The dancer is like the sun, which needs no light but its own, and lights up the stage of the sky. He, alone, can dominate the entire stage and inspire others with his light, and when he leaves the stage, the curtain falls. The pianist is the moon, which is inspired and gains light from the sun, reflecting his glory. It does not add to the sun, as the sun has no need of the moon's reflected brilliance, just as the dancer has no need of the pianist's music. But the moon's light is a gift to the sun, and the sun is able to appreciate it, even though he does not always show it. That's why the dancer dances only for that one person in the audience in the West Amphitheatre - the one who comes to see him when he is not performing officially. And every time he dances, he looks at the moon. Perhaps, after all, the moon is a greater inspiration to the sun than she thinks. And as the raindrops signal the end of the practice, so too does the audience's applause signal the end of the performance. The moon is obscured from the dancer's vision, the inspiration has stopped, and the curtain falls, signalling the end of the show.

Well, at least, that's my highly-liberal interpretation of the story.

-Dizzy-

[mikey]

dizzcity >> Wow, nice interpretation. That's the problem with those things, I hate to be creative when it comes to something other people say (or make, do, etc...), so I never want to imply that they thought what I think they thought. Well, some stories deliberately allow multiple explanations... but then there's this problem:

In one case the author thinks of (say) three different interpretations and so players are divided into three opinion camps, so to say. This kind of thing is something I acknowledge (if not particularly like, but it's perfectly fine).
In the second case the author just leaves things open and each player has his own interpretation (I seriously dislike this).

And so, for me, there's this thin line between being hazy enough to let the player come to a conclusion that makes sense, but specific enough to not slip into "think what you want"- territory. Because if that happens, how do you know what the author meant? Ideally, I'd like to be able to talk to the author about how I understood the ending and he should say yes, this was something I thought of when writing it. I don't really like to come to conclusions that the author never thought about. It makes me feel like I did something that I shouldn't have done.

But of course, when presented with an interpretation, few authors will deny it straight away - like saying that a certain viewpoint is not what he had in mind and that he doesn't even support it - kind of telling the player that he misunderstood. But I think it's fair, because if people misunderstand, then the problem is probably in the maker. At least according to my philosophy.

Actually you may want to try Kira Snowdrop, that was also a bit nebulous. If you want another challenge
http://altogether.insani.org/2005/resou ... -kira.html
I think visualnews has a HTTP mirror, but I can't get to their site now.

[DaFool]

Was Wanderers In the Sky supposed to have music? How come nothing played? There was a musician credited, and there's an arc.nsa which I really want to pick at, but otherwise no standalone music files.

[DrakeNavarone]

There's six midi files in the arc.nsa archive. The music played fine for me when I was playing the game. Does your computer have problems playing midi files?

[DaFool]

Lesson learned: "I shall not put midi in my own game "
Must be my very old soundcard. I should be able to play midi just fine.

[Watercolorheart]

I just played Wanderers ... what a curious little game, but quite enjoyable. I got the "thinking about the present" ending I believe, and I came to figure out who was who by the end.

I think.

Misora and Minori .... which one is the love interest??

[DaFool]

Wheee, the remaining 6 batch:

Collage
Midsummer Haze
My Black Cat
Night of the Forget-Me-Nots
Summer, Cicadas, and the Girl
The World to Reverse

I have yet to play them, but by the screenshots (and tiny download sizes), they look to be small-scale.

And I am reminded yet again how too ambitious I am and have to actually take more time to think projects through so that they could actually be completed, in, like a year.

[mikey]

I just played the World To Reverse so far, mostly because I can't have Japanese on my system, not even Applocale, since my Windows installation got corrupted and now nothing can be written into the registry, among other dysfunctions. So it's like a WinXP on life support, it permanently shuts down the hard drive, so much fun. Well, a reinstall is in order, but I still need another HDD for that, and I have it in a different country now ^_^.


World To Reverse
---------------------
This game is like a pint of cold beer - great thing, looks good, is refreshing, but since I don't drink - not for me. It's two psychedelic stories, and I suppose friends of the genre will be happy, as it has nice effects and a psychotic storyline. Well done, actually, also the layout and graphic design is really fitting. Not much more to say from my side though. I'm still looking for my Resident Evil side.

[Watercolorheart]

Hurrah!

[monele]

I played Collage yesterday and haven't finished it yet. It seems rather linear (dead end choices) but it's *really* good. Well... at least I liked it ? ^^;...
It takes place in a contemporary setting and is not just about one single protagonist : you'll follow the stories of (at least, so far) 3 characters. They're all linked together so you will see the same situations with different angles... and also new things that just can't be known by the other characters.

It wins points with its interface (still your usual VN, but it will take some time to realize it ^.^), its bold concept (multiple pov VNs... how many of these are there?) and its good ambience (humor, interesting story).

I haven't tried the other games but I can already recommend this one.

[mikey]

Alright, I started with summer games

So... Summer, Cicadas and the Girl I found to be enjoyable, with one comment to point out - the game is a linear VN, with a kind of a puzzle at the end - and the fact is, it was quite hard to guess from the clues...

- the watch wasn't contemporary and (I've checked this with a doctor), you can bascially use your cell freely inside a hospital - and as for disturbing people with it, all models have a "silent" option, so you can use it as a watch without any problems. The airplane example was good, but applying it to the hospital... not so very. Also one of the problems is that a proud player who doesn't want to look at the hints never sees the fifth graphical one. AND, the other trouble is, the preceding hints really make you believe this is a nicely elaborated thing, with explanations about logic etc.

So the final answer isn't really in the spirit of the buildup. It does make sense, and I wouldn't mind it being a cliche, but I'd say if it's simple, keep it simple. In many ways the story is okay, but the puzzle is just bit too hard. I'd probably allow the fifth hint to point the answer out very clearly, but then again, the answer is a sort of a surprise, so basically even...

seeing that hospital

... was already a spoiler - you could guess what will come and the feeling of giving the correct password in was more a case of "finishing the game" than "revelaling the ending". Despite this, I liked it, because there's just something about summer... and the dialogues were also nice, kind of the summer thing that I can never get enough of. A well done job, to be honest, but I understand that many won't be able to eat the soup because there's a... cicada in it.

EDIT/ADD:

And I just played Midsummer Haze

First things first - this game has 2 choices, but 3 endings. I took Choice 1 and got Ending 1. Then I took Choice 2 and got Ending 2. And I have no idea what to do to get the third.

Anyway, this is a very cute piece. And to be honest, I didn't even understand it properly. Was it about friendship? Well, it was nice. I don't need to understand everything. And I liked the character art - for the shortness of it, they were expensive assets. The game has a lot of heart, and I didn't really mind the third person narrative.

A drawback may be the other assets. They do fit, but BGs and music they're from those stock graphics sites, and feel a bit too generic and too samey. I'm not sure I like this putting together very much now - it's all nice in the first game you see with them, but then you have 5, and it's just not special enough - I would have been perfectly fine with photographs, if it would avoid this deja vu and loss of atmosphere.

---

Having played the games with "summer" in them, I have to say they are a bit too short for my liking. Nevertheless, I enjoyed both of them, and given my bias towards summer games, I'd say they were the best two of the new batch of alltogether 06 releases, even though I haven't played the other ones yet. Bias rules.

[monele]

Ok, an update to say I finished Collage two days ago and it was really neat ^^. Don't expect much interactivity since the game is from the "dead ends" category. Just save before a choice, just in case, and keep reading. After a while, you probably won't need to save anymore since most choices will be very logical ^.^.

I really enjoyed the original approach (at least for a VN, since I've seen this in movies already) and well... it's just a very positive story, which is nice when you want to relax. My only grieves with it are the fact they should really have made it into a kinetic novel instead of faking it... and that they have you run through some similar parts a bit too much in the beginning. But other than that, it's a really good piece of entertainment ^.^.


Onto Summer, Cicadas and... the Girl. Yes, that's the right order XD... Anyway, it was rather cute... and short. But the last puzzle had me searching for a while ^.^. Unlike mikey (maybe), I didn't mind the hints. They were cryptic enough not to be seen as spoilers (except maybe the last one if you managed to recognize something... which I didn't).
So yea, the puzzle is really what made it for me. I had to think and think... fail through choices that I think is those everyone go through... and finally get the answer.

Mikey, I think it's actually true that cellphones are forbidden in hospitals where I live (France). I don't know if it's for the noise or the fact it could mess up with instrumentations though... In the last case, there's no way you could avoid turning them off. If it's about noise, then yea, silent mode could be enough.
Ah well... I didn't think it was too far stretched. I enjoyed the little thinking ^^

Oh, and I also tried My black cat. It has three endings but I don't really feel like playing it again. Wait!... Not because it sucked. Actually it's because the ending I got felt so right to me that I don't really want to see another version of the story ^.^. Darn, I might have been tired, but the game got me crying at the end ^^;...
Anyway, it's a cute game. I thought I had figured it out right from the beginning, and it proved me wrong. Good stuff.