The presentation and atmosphere is outstanding in Swan Song. I've yet to read something that's topped it. Every high production VN should aim for that level of polish.

I really liked Swan Song for the first half, maybe even the first three-quarters, but then it started getting worse and worse and at the end I pretty much hated it. So although I enjoyed it overall it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I liked it. Brace for the normal ending OP.

It is very good indeed. It's my favorite utsuge among all I have played translated. Very artistic, I really immersed myself in their world. If it wasn't for a certain character's development I'd have loved it completely. But maybe that's just because I don't tend to play this kind of VN.

I've reached the point where Hida gets murdered and they try to frame and then "punish" Tano for it. This is getting pretty depressing.

I wound up pretty disappointed. A sad ending is fine, but the whole thing was just too bleak for too much of the story.

It didn't help that Takuma became what felt like a plot device to make bad things happen to the remaining good characters. Seriously, why have such a villain type character in a realistic setting like this?

Post edited on 15th Jun 2011, 6:02pm

>>607
I thought that he was very realistic, and even the most likable character.

What they did to him at the end, with the whole redemption theme, was terrible though.

I've finally played it the last couple of days. Was really depressing, especially the normal ending. The good ending at least, was relieving. Overall it's one of my favourite VNs.

Wow. I'm reading this right now and just got to the Intermezzo (intermission? so I guess it's the halfway point.) There have already been an absurd amount of tragedies, even for a disaster situation I've been chased by/pursued murder/rapists on three separate occasions now, and the head doctor of the hospital was burned to death by looters. And it's been over a month and there's no sign of helicopters or rescue people or anything. Maybe there's some kind of plot reason for it I haven't quite gotten to yet, but this is a little hard to believe in a first-world country with top-notch services like Japan. Is it really going to get worse than this?

The writing is good, though, I guess. And the characters are interesting, especially Takuma.

Done with the normal ending. Well, that was pretty awful. To be honest, I didn't feel like Takuma's development in the third and fourth acts was that realistic. I get what they were going for, the loser-type character finally getting some power and going completely nuts with it, but it got over the top. Also, the igloo guy is my favorite character.

Still very good, though. Not the best VN I've ever read, but I liked it a lot. Looking forward to what's hopefully a less depressing "good" end.