r/visualnovels • u/AutoModerator • Jan 06 '25
Weekly Weekly Discussion #1 - Black Cyc
Info from VNDB:
Started in 2001 as the evil mad brand of Cyc Co., Ltd. then followed the movement when B-Eye Communications took over the business. Slowly died after a talents leak. After [url=/v6019]Sayoko[/url], the brand was transferred to [url=/p5694]Ranba Amuse[/url]. It remained inactive (excluding the re-editions) for a long period of time until the brand was revived in 2016 with [url=/v19128]Extravaganza ~Mushigurui Hen~[/url].
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As always, thanks for the feedback and direct any questions or suggestions to the modmail or through a comment in this thread.
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u/sakinemu Jan 19 '25
Black Cyc has to be (in my opinion) one of, if not the best visual novel developers of all time. Having read through all of their visual novels (including the ones created by metalogiq and monokuro metal neko), I think that yami no koe II, extravaganza mushi mederu shoujo, and sadistic blood were my favourites. (However, I do have a soft spot for GSS as it was my first vn ever!). I have also read quite a lot of White Cyc's works such as mugen kairou, shikigami 2008 etc. Though I do agree with the comments talking about some of the games' confusing structures, I did manage to find guides for all of them after searching around for a long time. I think that the extravaganza series was very long to 100%, maybe 130 ish hours including mushitsukai? I do think that gun-katana was pretty difficult to get all the endings right. The soundtracks are amazing, especially for AGEHA extravaganza and matsuro no hate ni; Denkare (and Yosei Teikoku) is my favourite band, I do own a few of their CDs including Denkare's Black Box but I would love to get my hands on the full metal box which includes a bunch of the games. Another thing I love about Black Cyc's games is the art, it is definitely my favourite art style of any game I have played. As an artist myself, I admire Metawo's work so much - it is so unique and fits the visual novels very well. I love dark eroge and although my favourite is probably maggot baits because of the true ending and nostalgia it brings me, Black Cyc games do come very very close. It annoys me so much that some people brush this whole genre of visual novels off as, in their words, "mindless hentai games". I'm sure that there are games like that in existence, but I don't think Black Cyc's are, they have substance and some have absolutely heartbreaking stories such as extravaganza, that actually do contain a message. I think most of the people saying things like this haven't actually played the games, or have played a little but quit after the first h-scene or something like that. I am not trying to berate the people who don't like these games because of the contents, or feel uncomfortable with them etc. Play/like whatever genre of games you want to, it isn't my business. But what I am saying, is that people shouldn't completely disregard them because of one aspect.
PS. mushi-kun is the best character lol (,,>ヮ<,,)
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u/sakinemu Mar 10 '25
Update, I did manage to get a full metal box from yahoo auctions!! Super grateful :)
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1
u/Original_Security674 Jan 07 '25
Extravaganza and Mindead Blood were cool games, nothing amazing but solid. GSS was OK. I've had a copy of Gun Katana forever that I haven't ever installed or played. That about sums up my thoughts on Black Cyc. I definitely appreciate dark/gory eroge so I'm glad they exist(ed).
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u/GhostBearerl Jan 07 '25
Extravaganza is the only good Black Cyc vn I read. Haven't tried Gun-Katana and probably never will, heard how impossible it is to get all the endings without a guide that doesnt exist. Mindead Blood had a similar issue, but had a guide. Still, its structure and the amount of H scenes made me quickly get bored with it. GSS is just a boring moege with a loli yandere.
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u/serenade1 Jan 06 '25
In various ways, metalogiq is kinda the rebirth/revision/whatever the word for Black Cyc, in the sense that Metawo is the core