Adventure Gamers - Forums

Siddhi - 04 December 2013 02:53 PM

Tad - 03 December 2013 07:39 PM

Keep seeing LA Noire on offer. Worth the pick up? Dunno why, I just ignored it when it came out. Must of been playing something else I guess…

Wait for the steam winter sale at the end of this month. It will be under $5 at that time.

I just recently finished the game. I liked the game and the story, but it is a console port and the controls are made for a gamepad. I found it quite frustrating with keyboard and mouse. Also there are quite a few action sequences and fights, which may or may not be your cup of tea (nothing too difficult though). I found the interrogation mechanic quite nice, and the graphics (especially of the people) is unbelievable. Puzzles themselves are fairly straightforard.

I’d say if you play FPSs and dont mind a hybrid action-adventure type detective game then it might be good fit for you. If you are more of a pure point-and-click gamer who likes challenging puzzles and dislikes action sequences then this is not the game for you.

I do like adventure games like Shenmue or Deadly (wish we had more in this style) so I think I might give this a go. I’ll wait for the sales then thanks.

Adventure Weekend @ FireFlower.

The Last Express is on sale for Android at Google Play, 0,89 euro cents.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dotemu.thelastexpress

Dark Fall - The Journal is $4.99 on Steam

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (iOS) is going away for a mere $0,99 (IAP; you can download the first two chapters for free).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ghost-trick-phantom-detective/id489113377

Not sure if there are (many) people here who know Japanese, but Chunsoft’s iOS/Android ports of 428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de, Kamaitachi no Yoru, 999 and Imabikisou are all going for just 500 yen now!

428 is probably the best sound novel _ever_, with fantastic script and characters, excellent use of a character zapping system and many, many hours of gameplay. Kamaitachi no Yoru is a very influential mystery sound novel (originally released on the Super Famicom/SNES), where you try to solve a murder (seemingly committed by the titular kamaitachi/‘sickle weasles’) in a ski lodge; make the right choices and you solve the murder, make the wrong one and you might get killed yourself). 999 probably doesn’t need any introduction anymore. I haven’t played Imabikisou yet, but it’s a horror sound novel.

Depending on where you are and what you think about the subgenre, they might mean the same or not. Chunsoft (Spike-Chunsoft nowadays) pretty much created the subgenre with Otogirisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru, calling them sound novels (and copyrighted the term!). But like Sony’s Walkman, people in Japan started to refer to all similar games as sound novels (despite the copyright).

The term visual novel in comparison is more often used to refer to similar games, but with adult themes (sexual themes), i.e. dating sims. But there is no clear line and they’re not mutually exclusive terms.

In the West however, people seem to prefer the term visual novel, and don’t use the term sound novel. So it lacks the connotation of adult themes it has in Japan.

(And then you have the people who call every adventure from Japan a visual novel, like Jake Hunter, Phoenix Wright or Portopia Serial Murder Case, which are usually called (command-style) adventures in Japan and considered something completely different from sound/novel novels) use of the terms.

There is a slight difference in the terms in Japan and here, but a lot of people don’t notice it (and to be honest, most of the times, it does not really matter, but still, it can be a source of confusion because people don’t realize the terms don’t neccesarily mean the same in different geographical gaming cultures).