I played 8 hours of the Steins;Gate VN and it started out really interesting but after a while it just became aggravating to no end.

Like holy moly does this VN hate women. It feels like it was written by a fucking pick-up artist.

Mayuri is an immature, borderline infantile 16-year-old girl and Rintaro treats her like shit. He constantly puts her down, dismisses what she says and uses food she buys (which she cares about a lot) for whatever he wants at the moment. There was that one scene where he literally made her cry by eating some of the food she just bought.

And the consequences? Nada. Next scene she's back to "Okarin :D". Throughout my entire playtime there was not a moment of consideration for how Rintaro's treatment of her would affect her in the long-term. No matter what he says and does, she loves him and forgives everything basically immediately.

Kurisu is almost even more infuriating, she's leagues more competent and capable than Rintaro is yet he constantly puts her down, calls her nicknames she doesn't like, literally molests her the very first time they meet and what is her reaction? The most generic tsundere behavior I've ever seen. At one point he literally shouts at her to the point of tears and again, exactly zero consequences. She falls in love with him because I assume this was written by a redpill dude who believes that the more you treat women like shit the more they will want to have sex with you.

It's incredible. Not one, not a single moment of consequences in EIGHT HOURS. If you want a protagonist who's an asshole, fine, but show that you acknowledge that what he's doing is bad. Don't fucking reward him for it. Fucking Rick & Morty manages to do this.

It's just baffling to me that it has so many glowing reviews, especially cause the "mystery" sucks ass. After reading the synopsis there are exactly 0 plot twists, it's all exactly what it seems like on the surface. Yes, there is a secret organization. Yes, it is time travel. Everything is the most obvious explanation you could think of. Who lives and who dies is decided by who the protagonist wants to fuck the most.

I'm super disappointed because I was really intrigued by the first chapter and how the plot shaped up to be. But then the trashy behavior of the protagonist just kept going, and all the other characters just kept putting up with it. And like, if it has not been adressed at all in the first 8 hours I have no reason to believe it ever will be. Fuck this shit.

Edit: Also shoutout to the future dystopia being a communist regime which abolished railroads. :yea:

Edit 2: Oh I forgot to mention how Rintaro and Daru keep Kurisu in line by blatantly sexually harassing her and making her uncomfortable until she folds, and this is framed as a clever tactic.

  • KelquunDotre [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    What makes the VN format uniquely suited to high intensity misogyny :yea:

  • KiaKaha [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I really enjoyed Umineko when I was a teen.

    I have not gone back to replay it. It will stay a rose tinted memory.

      • KiaKaha [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You have no idea how happy that makes me.

        How has the discourse developed since? I remember people being a bit miffed at the ending and the reveal, but it feels like it might have aged better, like the original Evangelion ending.

  • LibsEatPoop [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I saw the anime waaaaay back in the day and loved it. Rintaro was soooo cool, Kurisu was soooo hot and Mayuri was the cutest! The anime was so much fun, the plot was epic, the time travel was soo clever, the secret organization and everything was sooo fucking sinister, and it had such deeeeep themes and characters.

    As you might've guessed, I was a teenager and this was one of my first anime.

    Looking back at it now, I can definitely see how your review of the VN (which I haven't played) is probably very accurate. Most of these VNs, LNs, manga and anime appeal only to teens. You gotta find stuff that's aimed at people who're older, I guess.

  • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Read The House of Fata Morgana if you're looking for good progressive visual novels, it's honestly one of my favorites. Although I will admit it's kinda weird teenage drama and torture porn for the first few arcs but otherwise they make some really good decisions.

    There is maybe a little bit abuse apologetics, but it's not sexual abuse apologetics and even then it still goes out of it's way to make you understand that the character is in the wrong for being abusive even to the level these characters are doing so while you end up a little sympathetic for their feelings you certainly understand that wow they're all kinda fucked a little aren't they.

    • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'm playing this rn, on chapter 3 rn

      I actually kinda liked the weird teenage drama, the 2nd chapter really sucked tho

      And the abuse apologia in chapter 3 so far is indeed kinda uncomfortable, but I agree ideologically as it highlights that italians are the worst

      • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah the third chapter is kinda the worst in terms of that off my memory. The second one I had enjoyed though but granted I'm a fan of gorey horror in general so that's probably why.

        • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          The end of chapter 2 just really left me like ??????

          spoiler

          So Yukimasa was a psycho killer who torturted and killed the innocent seafarers for his own enjoyment, then he gets washed up on the island and called a beast because he's Asian (?), then Javi's parents deny him water as he's dying of thirst (again, because he's Asian I guess), he kills them to survive and that is what haunts him? And what eventually causes him to accept himself as a beast to cope? Also he fucking ate people?

          It just left me kinda confused. I really thought it was supposed to be some heavily metaphorical fairytale and then it's just like "ah no you see we didn't tell you that he was actually just a psycho before and that's why he enjoys killing", which just didn't mesh at all with anything we had seen up until then imo, unless I missed something

          • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Yeah Yukimasa was already sadistic but the maid and white haired girl was trying to reform him. The racism against him from the village however and his fear of others being violent in response (due to his own inclination towards violence) pretty much ruined all the progress he made and killed his own love from it.

            • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
              hexagon
              ·
              3 years ago

              fwiw I'm on the final chapter now

              chapter 5 was really really good and then chapter 7 had me like

              oh

              oh

              • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
                ·
                3 years ago

                Yeah the ending is where it starts to get really into it, the interesting plot twists and how Michel/Giselle dynamic is very nice and very sad.

            • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
              hexagon
              ·
              3 years ago

              The racism happened before his attempted reformation though, didn't it?

              I feel like the whole story would've worked so much better if it hadn't been for those psycho flashbacks. He killed Javi's parents out of desparation and felt guilt because of it, the village hates him because they're racist and, you know, he killed people, so they attack him and he keeps killing in response, ultimately starting to believe that he is a beast.

              Him being revealed to be completely, explicitly remorseless is a really strange decision when his entire arc is around remose.