Come visit Mobius Space whereand post Type-Moon stuffquite rarelytranslators gather
Welcome to the thunderdome.
When you publish something, you make it public. This means it is open season to praise, criticize, mock, etc.
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"We", he says. :P
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Oh god all these posts wasted on stupid bullshit about whether to read the vn or whatever.
Who the fuck cares it's not your problem. Take those soapboxes anywhere somewhere that's not here.
+1 to The Stewards of Gaia, by Rafflesiac.
Dimitri Thirioakis, a heretical magus who believes that all humans are worse than scum and a plague upon the earth, has discovered a way to rewind time: an ancient device inside of the Clock Tower that is in fact its namesake. (Use that as the summary.)
However, the device requires an extremely powerful source of energy. Therefore, Dimitri steals an Eastern Dragon Scale from a warehouse of the Bartholomelloi so that he can become a divine existence with enough power to use the Clock Tower. The story picks up from there.
Interesting magi powersets, original premise and a promising first chapter. Normally I wouldn't rec something so early on, but since it was one of the contest entries I know what he has planned for later and it sounds fun.
A more detailed look at my opinion of the first chapter and the outline here.
Last edited by Siriel; January 2nd, 2015 at 01:57 PM.
Ragnarok, come day of wrath
That fallen souls might bear our plea.
To hasten the Divine's return.
O piteous Wanderer.
Nah it's ok it means I get to skim more posts when I go around updating.
Now if only the talk weren't so stupid. Elf this is your fucking fault. That "Read the VN" soapbox came out of nowhere as far as I can tell.
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I won't take that bait because you didn't specify for how long do I need to keep up with the updates for the promise to count and if there's no time limit you'll just weasel through the loopholes.
I just realized I never recced Hill of Swords. So +1 to that.
Long story short, even with issues with characterization and canon things and misspelling "stake" as "steak", it's still a pretty damn fun story, that everyone here should at least try. Also, GB made me care about the ZnT cast, which is quite a feat.
Linger: Complete. August, 1995. I met him. A branch off Part 3. Mikiya keeps his promise to meet Azaka, and meets again with that mysterious girl he once found in the rain.
Shinkai: Set in the Edo period. DHO-centric. As mysterious figures gather in the city, a young woman unearths the dark secrets of the Asakami family.
The Dollkeeper: A Fate side-story. The memoirs of the last tuner of the Einzberns. A record of the end of a family.
Overcount 2030: Extra x Notes. A girl with no memories is found by a nameless soldier, and wakes up to a world of war.
I find it disrespectful to the original stories and their author for people to write really bad take-offs. And disrespectful to the readers who are then presented with them. So it's a two-way street.
Plus some of us put plenty of effort into writing critiques too, so two-way street once again; in fact, the effort of criticism often increases as the effort of the writer decreases. Someone who doesn't bother to do good spelling/grammar checking increases the amount of work I do in a review because I'll be correcting them - ditto poor characterisation, misused mechanics, and whatever other writing failures. I don't have to care anything like as much for a positive review, don't have to put in nearly as much effort, and can be generally a lot lazier.
On that note:
+1 to Bloble's Tomb of the Sun God.
Strong world-building, in a more subtle way than perhaps Aiden's works used to do it, for example (though they were trying for very different things, so this isn't a criticism of Aiden specifically). It plausibly extrapolates institutions more for a convincing background than foreground, which is a good skill for a 'fic writer. People typically get over-invested in the detail they've invented and clumsily push it, rather than letting it take its natural place.
Handles original characters well, which is important because it'd have dropped dead on the starting line otherwise. Not so invested in the main character, who is interesting enough in a sort of objective way, but is a touch generic in practice. (He shows his Indiana Jones/Dresden roots far too clearly for my tastes). I preferred the deuteragonists of Moriah and Lysander, who shared the lead's good writing - hinted details at a past without infodumping was a particular device I liked - while impressing me more as distinct characters.
The action was entirely serviceable, but lacked a little je ne sais quoi to get the blood really pumping. Perhaps could stretch to use more of the senses for depth in description - I think there might have been an over-reliance on sight.
Now that I come to it, the story did take a while to get around to more reflective character pieces, with fear and anger almost exclusively dominating the emotional landscape of the first several chapters. It was very strong when it got there - Moriah's scene looking back on the divining pool was excellent in an understated manner - so I wish some space had been made for this to appear sooner and more frequently. Obviously the action-heavy nature of the story to that point made certain demands, but I think there were opportunities here and there which were passed up.
Overall, sufficiently entertaining and readable to merit a recommendation.
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
Thanks for the advice guys! I'll definitely get VN downloaded when I get back from Vega-
*looks at rest of posts since my last*
Sweet, merciful, Iskander; what have I done?!
seikaaaaaaa
That review was everything I could ask for.
Thank you very much!
So I just found a Fate/Harry Potter cross and decided to give it a shot, despite the fact that it stars Shinji Matou, who I loathe.
I am glad I did.
Matou Shinji and the Philosopher's Stone. A Harry Potter/Fate Cross that is actually good (not great still to early to judge on that), and wherein the differences between the two magic systems are explained in a way that makes more sense then in most.
Shinji is still a little bastard but as he is a kid he is not on the level of Shinji in canon.
Last edited by KageX; January 2nd, 2015 at 05:02 PM.
Funnily enough, that's a CYOA being run on this very forum, in the RP section.
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http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread...HP-FSN-CYOA%29
Linger: Complete. August, 1995. I met him. A branch off Part 3. Mikiya keeps his promise to meet Azaka, and meets again with that mysterious girl he once found in the rain.
Shinkai: Set in the Edo period. DHO-centric. As mysterious figures gather in the city, a young woman unearths the dark secrets of the Asakami family.
The Dollkeeper: A Fate side-story. The memoirs of the last tuner of the Einzberns. A record of the end of a family.
Overcount 2030: Extra x Notes. A girl with no memories is found by a nameless soldier, and wakes up to a world of war.
BL CYOA are usually pretty civil at least from what I've seen.
People sure love counting votes though.
But arguments are a good part of what makes CYOAs fun.
We're not horrible to each other or something like that
Come visit Mobius Space whereand post Type-Moon stuffquite rarelytranslators gather
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.