ACT SIM [アイリスフィールド] 素晴らしき国家の築き方 (RJ219681)

[JustLurksHere]

On that note: how exactly does building relationships work ?
It seems to be mostly based upon battles fought together, yet certain pairs seem to be stuck at lvl 1 (at least in one direction), despite participating in a few dozen battles (sometimes even if the other direction is at lvl 5).

 

[Harleyquin13]

I'm not 100% certain, but the reason some pairings are one-sided could be due to the following reasons:

1. Pairings are bugged (which is very possible).
2. Players pair characters in squads but heavily lean towards controlling one character over the other. The controlled character's relationship level is higher vs. the other one working as a NPC.
3. Plot-related reasons. They may fight together, but one party in the relationship has a grievance/grudge against the other which makes it difficult to build an equal relationship.

 

[yc4ever]

how do i unlock the other set of cgs for goddess? she seems to have a different form

 

[Harleyquin13]

Finished first playthrough. Missed a couple of scenes in part 2 which I can unlock via an older save. The final series of battles on normal mode with the latest patch has a level above pushover but well below something resembling a challenge. The true end of this game is only possible after playing the game at least two times, so pushing forward and expecting another 50+ hours of entertainment.

If this game removed all of the 18+ elements, it can still sell because the world setting established through the past two games gives it a storyline which endears. Creator has after many years got the art of telling an overarching story through different perspectives and flashbacks down pat. His grand plan is to finish this fantasy world in seven games, and three of them have now been released. I don't know how long it will take IrisField or if the full set will ever see the light of day, but if it does it'll be a huge achievement especially if he continues to improve the game systems, plot and storytelling.

 

[JustLurksHere]

I in part agree, in part disagree with Harleyquin13.

For all the smokescreen, this game is actually a visual novel. What's worse, far over 80% of it are omakes.
I mean, given what two people claiming to know Japanese said, if it were in English, it would likely be puntastic, but it ain't and it's still just an VN with very little plot.
If you know the language, it's likely quite funny, if not though,...

The reason, why I see it as one, is because if you took enough time to completely grind the tree after first battle (granted, it took about 24 hours, still...) and sprinkle some item world grind for initial equipment, all the battles (at least on Normal) become trivial (except for the ones that are unwinnable by design). Even that early hard boss (that is supposedly giving you a pass even if you fell to it) falls quickly. What's more, there doesn't seem to be an in-game feature to track which specials originate from which weapons, not that you'll need them on Normal, given above.

Also, all the H elements seem to be added with no plot reasons at all, besides perhaps a Pokemon one.

Just for completeness: any chance that early boss is the true end switch ?

 

[Harleyquin13]

Second hand information based on hearsay would give the above conclusion, however wrong I think it is. No, there is a plot and it's not full of puns to waste reader's time. I said in my opening post that players really should know Japanese to earn the right to discuss aspects like the plot, and it is posts like #45 which prove the assertion.

24 hours to grind the melee tree just to beat Nadie is an absolute waste of time. Just playing the game normally and using healing specials correctly during that battle would give the same result. Item field is useful to develop character relations and I didn't do it for every item, just the ones I wanted specific Spiria for and to bring down source costs for the unique relationship items.

And the key to the true end is a time limited scene requiring entry of a specific word. Reading all of the character events makes it brutally obvious what that word is, and someone who clearly doesn't speak Japanese gave the answer on this thread earlier on without understanding why.

 

[alan0n]

Anyone know what engine this is running on? Was going to cobble together at least the tech tree mtl. As it is now I cant bring myself to play it, theres just too much stuff that means nothing at all to me.

 

[JustLurksHere]

..OK, let me rephrase it: without knowing Japanese, this game doesn't feel as if it had any real plot (at least any with a notable depth).
Even without knowing the language, some of the titles here still manage to feel like having at least a moderate depth (or at least well thought out and not contradictory world building, regardless of relative sanity of added elements) - this one does not.
Many of non-H SNES JRPGs have managed it, after all.
...well, maybe comparing it to pro-level titles isn't quite fair, I still consider that the point stands...

Also: Nadie ? I was talking about that monster boss...can't recall its name, but almost certainly it wasn't Nadie.

 

[Harleyquin13]

..OK, let me rephrase it: without knowing Japanese, this game doesn't feel as if it had any real plot (at least any with a notable depth).
Even without knowing the language, some of the titles here still manage to feel like having at least a moderate depth (or at least well thought out and not contradictory world building, regardless of relative sanity of added elements) - this one does not.
Many of non-H SNES JRPGs have managed it, after all.
...well, maybe comparing it to pro-level titles isn't quite fair, I still consider that the point stands...

Also: Nadie ? I was talking about that monster boss...can't recall its name, but almost certainly it wasn't Nadie.

In your own words, you said "that early boss". The first boss is Nadie and the second monster boss you referred to is Granburg. To answer your question, the boss is a deadline, not the key.

Without knowing Japanese, I find it laughable you can claim this game lacks the depth of storytelling found in other titles discussed in this forum. Talk is cheap and people will believe what they want, but reviews on DLsite and elsewhere compliment the strength of the storytelling, not that it matters to someone who judges the title based on gut and machine tools. Easily on a par with Lilipalace, Lilitales and Isetan.

 

[JustLurksHere]

Harleyquin13, you're missing my point.

I'm talking about my personal impression. Also, who said anything about machine tools ?
I do use Google Translate...to get item descriptions, quests, skill descriptions, etc.
I throw parts of the dialog at it pretty much only when I get stuck with a quest that doesn't have a separate description.
(well, that's mostly limited to RPG Maker games, as getting strings from those is quite simple, otherwise I'm usually limited to what I figured out of Japanese from those cases then extending it with creative guesses)
Its results are just tend to be too horrible to consider them for anything more.

Also, there's pretty much no such thing as an objective measure of plot depth / story telling quality / etc.
As for "I find it laughable you can claim this game lacks the depth of storytelling found in other titles discussed in this forum.",
I definitely didn't claim that for a majority of the titles here. In fact, the subset is quite small, yet not empty.

 

[Arythazin]

Really bad with voices, but I can't really tell who is is talking in the bad (?) end epilogue, where some people say they are going to declare war on the alliance that the three main girl leaders were heading. Anyone have hints?

Edit: Actually, are they even characters in this game or another game? I thought the one that was giving the report was the ninja but I could be wrong, and I have no idea about the other voices. Only partially played first game and didn't touch second, so I can't remember if they were voiced or not.

 

[Harleyquin13]

Yuki is giving the report, the one listening is the one who sold herself to the Southern Empire in exchange for supplies to keep her friends alive for as long as possible.

Spoiler

If the above hint wasn't obvious enough, it's Yuusha.

 

[Arythazin]

Yuki is giving the report, the one listening is the one who sold herself to the Southern Empire in exchange for supplies to keep her friends alive for as long as possible.

Spoiler

If the above hint wasn't obvious enough, it's Yuusha.

Finished the ending after you find the mastermind, so a lot of things are explained now, still a lot of things I'm trying to figure out though.

Spoiler

For one thing there seems to be two endings for the "kill the storyteller" section of the game, where I got the second ending, which seems to give a lot of different individual endings. What do you have to do for the first ending? I also 'cheated' and looked through a lot of the CGs, one of which is a 4P by the looks of it between first three girls you meet, but I have no idea how you get it. Edit: Wait nevermind it's just more individual endings. Also just a small nitpick, but I'm pretty sure they said that Yuusha was supposed to compensate everyone for all the deaths that occurred during the war, which could take 40 years (could have read that wrong, was speeding a bit), but then in her epilogue she seems to be adventuring while still pretty young. I still feel like a lot of people got off really easy despite all the deaths and etc they caused. People got too easily forgiven, which kind of made me prefer the doom and gloom first ending.

 

[grenzelinie]

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[Arythazin]

The Malice story after the ending is pretty much the best part of the game.

Spoiler

Turns out the big bad was the best girl all along

Who are those two girls staring at the light at that picture near the end though?

Where do you get these numbers from? Actually, it says where the codes are from but where was the Malice code, was I supposed to be looking out for numbers during the credits or something? Also what is the reward for that supposed to be?

You mean the twin-tail blond right? Not surprised, I thought she was a little bit too prominently featured after the princess disappeared and she was likely the little girl the MC meet as a kid. I even thought she might be the real main heroine.

No, the big bad is pretty much the feature presentation of the story when you finish the 'game' and then read through all of the last extra scenes on the title page under "MALICE".

 

[Cupio]

So nobody has a save with everything unlocked?

Spoiler

Turns out the big bad was the best girl all along

You mean the twin-tail blond right? Not surprised, I thought she was a little bit too prominently featured after the princess disappeared and she was likely the little girl the MC meet as a kid. I even thought she might be the real main heroine.

 

[IC_21]

this game just released around 3 weeks ago and already have 2 episodes anime, what the heck lmao

 

[Harleyquin13]

60 hours plus play time plus the extra unlockable story later, and I've finally digested all of the plot and its multiple threads.

Nowadays, there's no way a professional 18+ game studio can come up with an overarching story the way this game has. It's precisely because this is a Doujin work that it can take its time and the personal resources of the creator and his collaborators to reach fruition. The true end seems straightforward, until players finish the extra story and realise the depth this game universe has. Hats off to the writer, if he can top this in the franchise's future works he's talented enough to work for a professional studio or make money in the publishing field.

Odds are good that the next Irisfield work will focus on Scarlett, the leader and the others mentioned in the extra story. Moon yellow is the title, but it could be misleading. What's definite is the presence of the Society in every game that is released henceforth, Cordelia in her own way gets the last laugh over everyone except Berna (who is spending her days as an observer until all seven of the studio's works are finished).

If this game gets a mini-scenario like the second game did, the odds are good it's going to focus on the Prince. Casco gets her little bonus in the latest update for the second game, but the Prince will get his extra story later since the creator needs time to focus on a good story that will put him in the spotlight and somehow rope in all of Avon's Supporters as well.

Taking advantage of the opening sale and the last month before Japan's GST hike kicked in saw the game go over 18000+ downloads from DLsite within the first twenty games. Count in the number of pirates and the pool of potential players is probably double that. Creator won't lack input nor fans for the foreseeable future, I hope he makes full use of it to deliver an even better experience for future works.

If the same game engine is used for the rest of the planned games in this universe, English-speakers can forget about a quick and easy machine translation. Just as well it's the Japanese core market that's happy with the plot, the amount of misinformation on this thread regarding the plot written by script kiddies overwhelms the only accurate summaries given on the first two thread posts.

 

[Cupio]

this game just released around 3 weeks ago and already have 2 episodes anime, what the heck lmao

That's what I said. Though it is likely that the anime was created at around the same time as the game was released so it was intended to be made despite how the game would perform. The game did sell really well though, even if it's not really my kind of game. I mean it's alright but the H is rather meh and I doubt the story can compete with more proper;y story-oriented visual novels.

 

[JustLurksHere]

...the amount of misinformation by people who think they know something about programming isn't perhaps staggering, yet it's still significant.

I may not rate a professional programmer, yet my grasp on the basics is good enough.

Putting strings in fixed sized blocks, then embedding that into the executable, even if it seems to simplify retrieving them, is wasteful.
What's worse, it forces you to recompile for any string changes.
Also, while the block size is quite large for Japanese (due to kanji), if you were to translate it into a latin language, there's a good chance you'd run out of space.

Coding something meant to be translated is hard, sometimes even damn hard, but this thing here seems to be done to fuck over any potential translator.

Also, factually wrong - the retrieval of most of those strings is actually quite easy to brute-force (here the way those were embedded actually makes things more simple), it's putting them back that's at very least tedious.