What are you playing

What's going on? Why is Tsumihoroboshi suddenly so much better than all the previous Higurashi chapters?

Weird jump in quality...

[Message]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's going on? Why is Tsumihoroboshi suddenly so much better than all the previous Higurashi chapters?

Weird jump in quality...

You're not seriously expecting an actual response when you throw around a random, unfounded statement like that, are you? o__O

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's going on? Why is Tsumihoroboshi suddenly so much better than all the previous Higurashi chapters?

Weird jump in quality...

It just means that certain characters and events push your buttons more. Objectively speaking, there's no great difference in writing quality (same strengths and weaknesses, and there are plenty of both) between any of the chapters.

Originally Posted by Message

You're not seriously expecting an actual response when you throw around a random, unfounded statement like that, are you? o__O

I think the writing is a lot more interesting. There are some new things in this chapters that weren't in previous chapters, for example the narrative switches between protagonists and third person narrator which kept things fresh. In general I thought that there were less points where the story "dragged". Even in my second and third favourite chapters (Tatarigoroshi and Himatsubushi) I felt there were a few points that got boring, where I just wanted the story to hurry up and get to the mystery. I did not get that in Tsumihoroboshi, I felt the writing in general was of a higher quality than the previous chapters.

The new character pictures introduced this chapter are a lot better than the new ones introduced in Meakashi (image in spoiler, new sprite on the left)

Spoiler

The side characters' pictures finally look as good as the four main girls'.

There are some new effects used in the action scenes in this episode that were not in previous episodes: zooming, backgrounds warping and cut in images flying into the screen that help make them more exciting.

Most of all, it's the superior writing. This route focuses more on Rena, and though she is not my favourite character I'm enjoying it a lot more than the route that did focus on my favourite. In some previous chapters it just felt like you were sometimes wasting time before Watanagashi, it dragged a little, but in this chapter I've enjoyed every bit of Ryukishi's writing.

I hope it keeps up through the last two chapters.

[Moogy]

Okay, finished Steins;Gate. Got a bit delayed with some other stuff.

Let's just say it lived up to the hype. Not the best game I've ever played, but it certainly did not disappoint.

[Asceai]

I decided to not bother with steins;gate until the game is patched to a reasonable level of stability, since all the patches seem to break save compatibility each time.
Besides, lots of other stuff to play in the meantime

[Moogy]

Eh, I didn't encounter any fatal crashes from the game 演出 itself, like a lot of people seemed to. Maybe I just got lucky, though. Certainly could have been a better port, in any case.

And for what it's worth, you can just copy the saves over from the old directory. Check out %appdata%\Nitroplus\STEINS;GATE, they'll be in separate directories for each version of the game. Nitro+ was probably afraid that they'd break something, but they appear to work fine between versions anyway.

[Nox]

On a completely unrelated sidenote, the president of 5pb mentioned in an interview on Kotaku JP that there will never be a PS3 port of Steins;Gate. He says he doesn't believe PS3 owners buy any games - they just use it to watch bluray.

[fujifruit]

Originally Posted by Nox

On a completely unrelated sidenote, the president of 5pb mentioned in an interview on Kotaku JP that there will never be a PS3 port of Steins;Gate. He says he doesn't believe PS3 owners buy any games - they just use it to watch bluray.

I found that hilarious. XD

[Asceai]

well, watch bluray or play MGS4, that sounds pretty right. Clearly Leaf feels otherwise though, since they appear to be giving up on the PC in favour of it (look at how they've completely dropped the ball on production values in WA2-- clearly they don't give a damn about the game. It's especially a shame because it's written by the best writer Leaf have EVER had)

[Nox]

Aksys Games will bring Steins;Gate to the Western Market if their DS game 999 sells well. Go - buy it - now!

999 Demo – http://www.aksysgames.com/999/pages/demo

Originally Posted by Nox

Aksys Games will bring Steins;Gate to the Western Market if their DS game 999 sells well. Go - buy it - now!

Maybe when hell freezes over. 999 is one thing, but S;G represents an additional set of challenges.

As for 5pb, the real reason is that Xbox360 development is simply cheaper, and the Japanese industry has established it as a niche platform. If you were to look at unit sales alone, X360 software does no better (mainstream stuff naturally sells much better on the PS3, niche otaku stuff sells about the same between the two platforms but is much more expensive to make on PS3).

Originally Posted by Nox

Aksys Games will bring Steins;Gate to the Western Market if their DS game 999 sells well. Go - buy it - now!

999 Demo – http://www.aksysgames.com/999/pages/demo

In case anyone has any doubts about it's quality, 999 was written by the same scenario writer as Ever17 so should be pretty good.

[Asceai]

I never got why Chunsoft games (including 999) don't go on erogamescape. Surely they're at least as much of a VN/eroge as, say, Touhou games are.

[NTX]

^You're treating the exception as the standard.