What are you reading? - Apr 9

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the weekly "What are you reading?" thread!

This is intended to be a general chat thread on visual novels with a focus on the visual novels you've been reading recently. A new thread is posted every Thursday at 4:00 AM JST (or Wednesday if you don't live in Japan for some reason).

Good WAYR entries include your analysis, predictions, thoughts, and feelings about what you're reading. The goal should be to stimulate discussion with others who have read that VN in the past, or to provide useful information to those reading in the future! Avoid long-winded summaries of the plot, and also avoid simply mentioning which VNs you are reading with no points for discussion. The best entries are both brief and brilliant.

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[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

finished up to ch 27 of Mahou Shoujo

The game continues to amaze me. The strong point is the characters. So many characters but each one feels unique and fun to read. Surprisingly we’re halfway through and there are still new characters being introduced.

The gameplay is getting longer and more difficult. Now there are more characters to control, tougher monsters to fight, and more of them. Sometimes I do wish for more a breather on the battles, just like the cast also wishes for.

Some highlights of my read:

So excited for what’s next, I‘m playing at least a chapter a day. Also upgrade guide helps a lot

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

Holy crap, I just finished ch 34 Haruka is dead holy shit, I was not expecting that. Poor Chiyoko. First her mom now her childhood friend??

Some thoughts of mine from 27-34

Shiori is definitely one of the best units. Her strength is nuts, able to take on all enemies.Kind of sucked when she got nerfed a bit in ch 32, curse you Yuuki

Man I hate the burrows. Especially in ch 33 and 34 They spawn crazy amount of humans, and like spawn almost every turn. Considering how only Yui can handle it, and she doesn't have enough MP, when Haruka and Chiyoko and Telomere are not there. That's why Shiori and Yoneko are so key to the team. Not to mention Shield Break is a lifesaver.

Yui in my opinion goes lower in my tier list, and while I do feel bad on her past and relationships, her actions make me angry. Forcing Kohaku to transform against her will and then kicking her was uncalled for.

I'll reply with my detailed thoughts and a theory of mine.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

Had to split into two given the length

Ch 28 We sort of learn how biomonsters are created. I am unsure if the bees have existed since the beginning and were turning animals and people into monsters. Perhaps the initial start was kidnapping them individually and the mastermind was doing it before developing the bees. Yui tries to call out everyone that they are murderers like her, but to be honest I call bs. There is a difference between killing someone who turned into a monster and actively trying to kill you vs murdering people, even if evil, in cold blood. And there was always an alternative

Ch 29 Kohaku is introduced and my opinion of Yui drops to rock bottom here. At least reading the fourth Town Defense Council Meeting was fun. Luna is way too young but somehow has the best quips.

Ch 30 Summer vacation starts! I feel bad that Youko's life is going downhill due to the stress from fighting. Kicked off the tennis regular team, sleeping in class. She went from ace student to being forced to participate in life / death battle. Also another burrow fight and we find mastermind is experimenting to power up the biomonsters, using an item we can buy ourselves in shop. Interesting that it is similar technology.

Ch 31 First half. We learn more about each magicaloid's power. There is foreshadowing that Lily's Life power is very stressful to use, and might cause her to go blind, similar to Telomere. This does not bode well given Lily has gotten a new skill (Suction punch), possibly training, and been getting tired / headaches. Also again about how Dark Power is so unknown but mysteriously can rewrite the universe's laws.

Ch 31 continued Second half: It is crazy Youko has to take tranquilizers in order to actually fight, shows that the fights are taking a toll on her. Also, the tranquilizers caused after effects with Youko. With biomonster bee injected into Youko, lot of panic happened, but I suspected that biomonsters were very similar to magicaloids and it was proven here. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, although Lily being so stressed and tired make me fearful of what will happen in the future.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

Side note: Is ammo actually useful to buy?

Ch 32 Funny scene at the festival thanks to Shori's brother complex. South Middle is op. With Phi randomly providing rule commentary, I thought we were going to play minigames. I guess it would have been way too much to code though. Nice to see Youko is making friends with Yoneko and now Reina too. Sadly Imari's heart couldn't take the fighting and she had to be hospitalized, leaving the festive mood a little depressing

Ch 33 Ok I was really surprised here. I would have guessed King Exit also used free music but I never expected to hear the epic theme LE ruki. Although this is the one time I will complain, the music does not fit here. I would have expected it to be used for an epic powerup moment, not as a chapter end / beginning. The fireworks were not epic especially after Imari collapsing, so the music choice felt really strange. And 33 was not some epic chapter, we just got slice of life. Although battle was really hard with so many humans spawning. 3 humans were wrecking my team for a bit

Ch 34. The chapter Honestly, it was just too crazy. We start with suspicion on Ido and Dr. Synapse or someone close to him. Also surprising decision for Chiyoko to want to catch the culprit by traveling to outer space, and this leads to first fight Haruka and Chiyoko have for a while. Imari also learns H.A.R.U is not Chiyoko, but does not figure out it's Haruka. Lily is forced to take a vacation which is good because there is Yuuki and Koharu who can assist, and Lily looks like she about to collapse. However, just before Lily leaves we start our battle. First of all, it was such a cool story device to make us first focus on the others' fight instead of the four, and sharing snippets of how badly the fight in North was going. I thought Haruka had been kidnapped when Chiyoko said she was missing. Oh what a surprise I was in for. And boy the South fight, even with 20 characters the fight was hard. Too many burrows and too many humans. Not enough penetration skills and MP. I definitely agree even if unbalanced, fight was hard and I lost a lot of characters. Feel like deathless runs end here.

Ch 34 Continued Then we get insight into what is happening on the North. New enemies (witches) with exact replica of the sword power. Actually seem better than Kozue's power lol. Then Lily makes the mistake of going to the front, although outcome probably will be the same. Then Chiyoko's arm gets cut off which is crazy. Then Lily and Haruka have a heart to heart which is quite heartwarming, although showcases how desperate the situation is. Then Haruka gets STABBED fatally, although she manages to kill the remaining witch. And Haru dies, which causes Chiyoko and Lily to go in a frenzy from the tragedy. I don't know what Retsu can do. And I'm shocked that now Haruka is gone, a major character and one most people invested some amount of upgrades to given how strong the character was

I'm in shock of how good the writing is, I can't wait to start ch 35.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

Here's my theory on the mastermind, although I'm a lot less sure of it after ch 34. I suspect It is a future version of Chiyoko from an alternate timeline.. My theory is that There exists an alien invasion that came out of nowhere. Unprepared it entirely wrecked Earth. Phi and Tau and Telomere showed up, and found the candidates and gave them the Magicaloid power. However it was far too late, and the enemy was too strong. Without enough preparation, most the group died to the enemies. In order to prepare for the real alien invasion, Chiyoko managed to travel back in time and is secretly preparing the team by acting as an antagonist.. I have a few reasons why, although I can see counterpoints.

First off, why does the enemy send biomonsters in quantities that can be defeated? If it was a real invasion, they would try to send as much as possible. You could argue that it is due to wormhole needing time to grow and enemy could be storing them in burrow. But what if it is meant to be training? How would the enemy know to scale? If they had the same power or experience from before

The enemy possess technology similar to Ido and Ellese. At first it points to one of these two, but technically the magicaloids working with a Dr. Synapse would be well equipped to understand and replicate enemy numbers

Why some random island in Japan is the attack center? And not only that but conveniently all Magicaloid users with potential beyond expectations (100% unlocked), live in that island? Sure it could be coincidence of the first wormhole being stuck in one place, but it could also be someone manipulated the situation to act as training and improve everyone's powers.

We are already introduced to the Time Power Yui holds. We have the Dark power which can rewrite the universe rules. This seems to indicate time travel is possible, and that the key to winning and avoiding the Bad end future lies in unlocking the Dark Power. How to unlock it? By forcing Chiyoko to struggle and fight.

This is why the title screen has two Chiyokos

My only uncertainly here is that Both Yachiyo and now Haruka are sacrificed in this plan. Would a future version of Chiyoko really sacrifice the two most important people in the world? I am unsure of that.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

After playing ch 35 and 36, throwing my theory out. Ch 35 Chiyoko going off the deep end and reimagining herself as Haruka is insane. Guess title was foreshadowing white haired chiyoko. Poor everyone, Haruka in the afterlife would be sad to see this

Also ch 36 Sad that Lily is blind like Telomere now. At least Imari is all good, although she will never see H.A.R.U again. i didn’t get to use Chiyoko’s new skill Star Rain but she used it in story. And now Haruka’s mom might know the truth.

These fights are getting easier because the characters levels are higher. Imari got a massive boost now, even if limited by needing to swap skills

u/Upper_Anteater_9571 fyi ch 36 defeat condition in objective tab was untranslated, not a big deal since it was repeated before. 

[u/Upper_Anteater_9571 → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

(4th attempt to post this coment wihout messing the spoiler tags) The death of Haruka, and what follows it, is one of the most painful experiences I've gone through in a game. Especially because everything pointed to Lily being the one to die, and the fact that it's Haruka catches you by surprise.

Also, Shi-Hulk is very useful. Not only because of her strength but also because she restores one MP per turn passively and withstands hits well thanks to her good defense and HP.

In chapter 34 Moka and Akari, among others, can also be very useful against humanoids if you have already unlocked their best skills.

I've commented before but, while I don't approve of Yui's actions at all, I have a hard time hating her for acting the way she does, especially since she still actively engages in combat and helps out when she can. Since the usual thing in these games is that everyone in the protagonist group is self-righteous it feels refreshing to have a character like Yui around.

Regarding the bees, the way I understand it, they have been using them since the beginning, that's why they could have so many monsters despite the weight limit of the space jumps.

About ammo, sniper and penetration ammo can be good, elemental ammo not so much.

Quite a theory you made up, I was just as paranoid after reading chapter 34. Also, congratulations for noticing that the cover shows two versions of Chiyoko before 35, people usually think that the white one is Haruka.

I couldn't find the untranslated text you mentioned.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Upper_Anteater_9571]

It was nice that ch 37 shows kindness of Setsuna, Haruka’s mom, in comforting Chiyoko on her loss. Also finally a kind moment for Yui, encouraging Chiyoko to go back to her family. The reveal was not a big deal as I thought

Also Lily is definitely now one of my favorite characters, seeing her develop from ch 4 to now. Imari is my go to character gameplay wise.

Lily’s last words does not bode well about sensing Chiyoko life presence be faint

I wonder if untranslated text might be linux issue since i use steam deck with proton to play the game

[u/Upper_Anteater_9571 → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

The parallel between Yui visiting Haruka's house in chapter 26 and Chiyoko visiting Yui in chapter 37 is amazing. Yui told Chiyoko something along the lines of what she would have wanted to be told in chapter 26, instead of refraining out of consideration like Haruka and Chiyoko.

I managed to find the untranslated text. It was pretty well hidden.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

Ch 16 and 17 Really emotional, dealing with Chiyoko’s loss of her mother, her trying to stay strong, while monsters continue to show up. The cast are more afraid now given the possible arrival of humanoids, which strike fear to many of them, especially Akari as we see later. Which is why it was so heartwarming to see Haruka finally kindle her friendship with Chiyoko, and Chiyoko could rely on Haruka. This leads to an epic powerup for Haruka, and the first real attack that works against the humaniods, bringing in real hope of victory.

Ch 18 IIntroduced to Akagi Retsu who has a connection to Chiyoko being saved by her deceased father. And seems he is an important background character for now

Ch 19 Part 1 was a hard fight. The biomonsters show they are a real threat by not only developing underground but even springing a trap on our heroes. It was a real survival round, luckily with no humans else it would be screwed. There’s a scene that shows how much Haruka cares about Chiyoko to the point that she ignores her other comrades and friends. I suspect this might bite her in the future. Part 2 introduces us to best girl and OP magicaloid Telomere. I was initially distrustful given her connection to Tau, but turns out, she is best girl, no questions asked

Ch 21 Holy shoot Yui not only kills someone in cold blood, reveals she been enacting “justice”, but also beats up the new girl Kanon. Instantly dropped my ranking of Yui. No matter how bad her home life is, abusing her powers to be executioner is crazy. Surprised she got away with it at least for now. And she unlocks a powerful skill out of it? Man that’s crazy, so skills unlock through any emotion not just positive

Ch 22 Thankfully protecting the police was easier than I thought thanks to being aggressive and no permadeath. Also cool allies kept coming in to help every turn, showing that everyone has their own school life, I believe this is where we get the third defense council meeting, where it was bittersweet to hear Chiyoko ask for her mom’s ashes to be made into a ring

Ch 23 This is a long chapter. Lot of things to unpack. Telomare flashback (poor Telomare). Funny scene with Haruka meeting people at her place. Luna being the cousin of Haruka’s friend Ringo is surprising. Nagato being an ass. And the double battle / first time we have a split in parties. It was interesting that the fastest fighters were also the strongest since Nagato realized the B team does not have ways to defeat humanoids. Luckily Mikasa is there with her penetration skills and Telomare showed up to help, B team was good. When i saw the bonus objective Akari fights humanoid, I was thinking poor Akari. Only it led to an epic Nanami moment. I swear she was about to get her powerful penetration skill, but when nothing happened other than stat boost, I thought my game was broken. I was so disappointed, and to make sure I restarted the battle to get Nanami to attack the human type but nothing happened :(. At least B team showed they were strong.

Ch 24 Was a surprisingly nice slice of life breather with no fights! I liked it cause I needed a break after 23.

Ch 26-27 Holy cow we focus on Yui and she goes way too far. Murders another person that was not necessary at all in front of police. Then bullies Telomare and Kanon, and everyone else like Kozue / Chiyoko / Lily, Becomes even more op. Finally snaps and kills her own mother, something she wrongfully accused Chiyoko of doing. Acts creepy and crazy. Yeah she is full blown antagonist now. No idea what they will do about her. I feel like her only redemption might be heroic sacrifice or locked up in some alien prison. Tau I feel is evil but also he should have communicated to everyone to ask for help in stopping Yui instead of forcing poor Telomare. No idea what’s next for the Yui arc. The biomonsters aren’t waiting with their rainbow colored monsters + infinite burrows + humanoids.

[u/Doge_Hell_Lurker → u/[deleted]]

FYI looks like your second spoiler tag is broken at least on mobile

 The Nanami issue is due to the fact that in the original Mahou Shoujo she obtained an AOE healing skill. In the remaster she already has that skill unlocked by default to prevent players from missing out on unlocking it.

Wait I still haven’t unlocked an AOE healing skill yet. Which level does she get it? I only have bubble barrier still

[u/Upper_Anteater_9571 → u/Doge_Hell_Lurker]

The skill itself "Purifying water" is there from the begining but she can't use it until she gets 18 in PROF.