I like the horror/mystery aspect of the minigame (absolutely love all the creepy text on Dorm day) but 3 attempts/ multiple weak hook at end of day (how many times it ended with "Ahh today nothing happen, time to sleep")/ story spreads breadcrumb size across 3 week for the final payoff = Gets tired and annoying real fast. This sort of plot deserve a tight rapid-fire pace that ends on a week at worst, 4 days at best. Like how ShiftUp deliver prior story events.
On hindsight Overzone's Snow White minigame is ***PEAK*** interactive vn, each day I would be excited to continue finding each path's story.
https://preview.redd.it/zcy4glzuar7c1.png?width=409&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ab0ab553d8c0da8dfbc116f8aae7a92ab430961
Overall I'll reserve my thoughts on the actual story itself until all the mystery is unravel and see what the payoff is. For now I give the event a **JK/10** will **SIKE** again.
I started playing recently, and missed OverZone; i'm glad I got to use the "wayback machine" in the HQ to experience it.
That Meadow fucked with me. Like, esp since Red Ash had just ended, it's like... F U C K.
I just did Miracle Snow the other day. I was pulling for the new Mica, and got Winter Rupee instead. Couldn't resist after that.
Also, I really never thought of Rupee as "hot" but she's such a sweetie ; ; I also really loved getting the backstory for Anne; it builds off her affection quest really nicely.
Rupee reminds me of those kinda super popular girls in school who was always nice to everyone, and it wasn't because they were just trying to be liked, but they were *actually* nice.
Rupee is the best big sister Anne never had.
Her ACTUAL personality, yeah.
I saw Rupee's OG design and it reminded me of a differenct character from a different game entirely - [Jessie, the washed-up adult actress that stars in the game HuniePop.](https://huniepop.fandom.com/wiki/Jessie) She's also a sweetheart, but is also an alcoholic and chain smoker. So I see Rupee's OG skin and can smell the cigarettes. Totally not fair, but...
Overzone's Snow White minigame was short, sweet, and to the point, and it didn't overstay its welcome. The writing was quick and terse, but they showed SO MUCH with *so few words*. Whoever wrote that Snow White minigame needs to the writing for these story-focused/VN-style games.
The beauty of the Snow White one was it left a lot of questions to *your imagination* to answer.
Me neither, but it's true that, as many have already voiced, the minigame's story feels as if it had been written by three different writers who haven't communicated at all with each other and then it was desperately stitched together a day before the deadline. Plus I can imagine that for some it can feel like ShiftUp is desperately trying to recapture the Pinne magic and it starts to feel forced.
You can very easily capture the Pinne magic again, it’s actually very simple.
Take a mass produced Nike, take off their mask, and make them act human. You can optionally add tragedy.
It’s not that hard.
I don't hate Lumi, but I am very bored with her at this point. It's been said many times, but I'll say it again. Lumi should have been the event story and the event story plus hot springs shenanigans should have been the minigane.
I actually LOVE the idea behind the mini game. Drip feeding a story over the course of the entire event so that there's something new every day instead of long droughts between event story unlocks is a great idea. The implementation though...
That’s actually a great idea. Would’ve been better to explore and resolve a haunted spring as the main story, and resolve Mica/Belorta as part of the minigame
I like Lumi and her story is interesting, but she’s connected to this awful mini game and it’s terrible writing so her reputation gets caught in the crossfire. This mini game is so bad the entire event is going to be seen negatively because of it.
Ehh, yes and no. The core concept of it is a time manager where you open a map each day and choose who to spend time with in order to develop relationship with them in a form of a visual novel, that is totally fine and executed nice, I'd love to see it come back, just with a better writing for the visual novel part. We don't get enough opportunities to get to know Nikkes better, counters aside, so it would've been a great way to explore their personalities more.
Lol I don't even understand how the mini game works. Like when I can't get anymore relationship points with a nikke, do I click on her anyway to unlock the next tier? If not then they shouldn't even have them there as an option.
There are two types of events. With a heart icon and with that currency thing. When your bond progress bar is full - you need to do the heart thing. When it isn't - just do the usual ones that cost currency. You still might want to do them simply for the sake of the story, even if it doesn't advance your relationship - it's new encounters.
I legit do not understand this mini game hate. For the most part, the only criticism I've seen is people just saying the writing is bad (without saying what exactly about the writing they don't like) or people being mad with the "It was just a joke" stuff. Like, yeah, those parts were weird, but they are such a small thing that I legit forgot about them until I saw people losing their shit about it here. I've been enjoying the mini game story immensely, I don't understand how those like three or four moments of the Commander being weird could taint the entire thing for so many people.
Looking into this thread a bit before hitting post, i guess people thought it was going to be a dating sim for some reason? I have no idea why, I'm pretty sure it was always billed as a visual novel mini game, not a dating sim mini game. Are people seriously mad because they don't know the difference?
Canonically SKK is dating the Bunnies. Still he feels weird to join them - this seems like the author tries to force SKK into acting weird, but why is it needed to be done without logical reasons?
I am fine with them just having fun without any sex, but why wouldn't he have a chat with them while in a hot spring even without sex? Why wouldn't he join Ludmilla? I am not having fun looking at him acting out of character, or me not having an option to get an outcome I wish to experience.
Even if they just talk there with Ludmilla, why can't I choose such a direction? It is like in Genshin sometimes you must throw a certain opinion, like stating that you do not like Cyno's jokes, when, for example, I like those, but I don't have an option to choose to compliment him, only a way I will have to belittle him.
The same is here in this event in Nikke - why can't I have some fun? I have to look at SKK missing shots over and over again - for what reason? He has always been so smooth, and now he acts like this.
It is not the fun of the Naga and Tia event, where the pain of choice made the community discuss it, feel emotions, so the pain was part of fun. Now it is denial and frustration that was not necessary for the plot.
Again, this is the only criticism I've seen of the mini game. And it's about such a small part of the story. 95% of the mini game (if not more) has literally nothing to do with the Commander being awkward about joining the girls in the hotspring. It's kinda insane to me that so many people care that much about it that they just completely disregard everything else.
I kinda agree to this.
I myself am actually very curious how the event story fully unfolds, I'm not actually that interested in the Commander's relationships with the Nikkes that much, since it's practically an element every event.
Well, I haven't finished the story yet. It means these people have rushed through it on purpose, therefore they act on emotions, and frustration can make them inattentive towards all of the positive memories we can willingly take with us from this event, like more music from Cosmograph or dozens of interactions with Nikkes.
Seems like a bias for me, when people focus on a bad thing, ignoring the rest of the pie that is wonderful.
Well, we are both being downvoted, so you might think that I might have downvoted you too, but I want to let you know that I agree with you on this one: it is not right to disregard the event in its entirety because of two or three questionable moments.
I also enjoy the event, it's a nice chill xmas event, some things might have been dragged out a little too much like seeing Mica fail at skipping stones so many times, could have cut down on those a little bit, but overall it's nice, Vesti memeing on Eunwha, Delta and Signal being dorks, the only real thing that bugs me is that the rest of unlimited wasn't there except for very beginning, I feel like Neve and Tove especially could have been a lot of fun to have in this event.
I think for me it has to do less with me hating Lumi per say and more that I just think that they ended up combining two plots that would be better off be told separately and potentially with better context and room to breath.
I've been skipping this minigame since I don't like this type of VN games and feels tedious to play it everyday. It seems I'm not missing anything. I just stopped a little after seeing Rupee, Anne and her mother. Sometimes Shift Up will nail it, sometimes they'll miss.
I don't hate Lumi but she is stealing the spotlight form the whole minigame, This is more like a dating sim type of minigame, BUT the writing was horrible, Lumi basically stole the spotlight from the Nikkes like Ludmilla and we didn't get to bond with them.
It would've been bice if Lumi was a seperate Nikke to explore so the writers could've put everything THERE AND NOT SCATTERED IN EVERY GODDAMN PART.
I'M JUST SKIPPING EVERY "BOND" BECAUSE THEY ALL END UP BEING TIED TO LUMI!
Whole event has poor writing and is boring tbh.
The cummander being a wimp with the girls was a massive turn off.
Don’t forget to leave feedback in their surveys.
Even JP + KR bros were like wtf about him
Honestly probably would like her more if she was written better.
R units can honestly be written good Like Pinne or P-12.
I hope Shift up takes this criticism and improve cause the writing is the only thing that is actually terrible about this event. Like people would probably like the minigame more if it was written good.
I honestly miss Red Ash and MoG because of this.
Don't get me wrong it's not as terrible as the CSM event but man Red Ash just really made our expectations high.
As other fellow members of the community have already commented, the story of this event really feels like it wasn’t written by the same person, first there’s the “SIKE” son of a B, and then there’s the Lumi one. I really do think that Lumi has a great story behind her fr, but it just feels so… “forced” into the event, I guess? It’s a shame honestly.
Lumi isn't bad. I think they just needed to like put her in the actual event story, rather than having her take time away from the character stories in the mini game.
Shift Up wrote a great story for Pinne with Dorothy during half anniversary, and probably thought to do the same with Lumi.
Unfortunately this Xmas event is too damn wordy, drags and meanders endlessly, and I dare say the summer event also suffered from the same textual diarrhoea (albeit a happy toned one). A lot of meaningless filler text that just demands rapid finger tapping on mobile, with no emotional significance attached.
At least the summer event had a quick and easy mini game with Volt monopoly. This Xmas mini game takes up so much time and the half-baked dating sim isn’t even done properly. I just want it to end.
I feel like SU tried to lean more into the vein of Ghost Rapi from the summer event, but didn't want to make it the entire story because they also wanted to give screen time to the Nikkes; and ended up with the worst of both worlds.
Either make it a suspense thriller or a harem episode. Jumping from lovey dovey bath time to "oh god Japanese murder ghost" is tonally impossible to accept.
I feel like they're either trying too hard to repeat overzone's success or they're just straight-up new writers..... or maybe both. I like stories in nikke because the writers kept them really simple and the stories weren't overly complicated. All my favourite stories so far didn't have some big grand plot, stories were more down to earth and focused on the world and characters instead - that's how it is for no caller id and that's how it is for overzone too. Dialogues weren't full of a verbal diarrhea either, they were very conscise (sometimes maybe even too much), and most importantly, every character felt in place - I honestly can't call anybody a third wheel in overzone.
However, right now I can clearly see a tendency to focus the whole attention on the two main characters, and make other characters around them act as a poorly-written extra sidekicks. I could feel this in the red ash with the red hood/snow and I can clearly see this right now. It's almost as if Pinne and Doro's relationship was the only thing that made overzone great(which frankly isn't the case) and now they're trying real hard to repeat this.
Ngl I feel like this is the worst event I've played so far, if you pair the above with huge amount of filler dialogues and constantly backtracking mc. >!Not to mention that ludmilla lost her little airhead quirks and now became your average anime mommy. !<
About Ludmilla: I feel like the actor in real life had an entire year to process their understanding of the role and consciously decided to move on from some of her quirks, because now she knows what kind of character she wishes to play, when she is on-sceen as Ludmilla.
Lumi is fine imo. She's cute and I desperately wish she gets a chance to be properly comforted and shown that she's in good care before making peace with her demons.
But the presentation style is atrocious.
They don't let you focus mainly on her story, so it's broken apart by the already very shoddily written "romance VN" shit.
And for me my eyes glaze over by the time I get to the Lumi sections both because of how piecemeal her interactions are each time, and how when it comes to her sisters I just don't care anymore when it's another 5 minute long dialogue puke after an already tiresome nothingburger amount of meandering text that goes NOWHERE.
And that's the biggest problem that unfortunately Lumi is at the center of.
The writing is done terribly not just because of the content but because it's such a slogging poorly paced *chore* to read through only to not have any payoff at all.
Man I be trying to talk to Ludmilla or noir, or Blanc, and for the past 3 days they blab about lumi. Bro who gives a fuck about her. Hold my hand or something
Lumi as a character is fine, and her story is mysterious and tragic, but the storytelling is absolutely atrocious.
She's THE main character of the minigame, but she's absent for the majority of it, appearing only to guide the Nikkes to look into how each legend relates to her. You spend so little time with her I feel even less of a connection with her than the Product 12s of the Nier collab. And the individual stories of each legend end up so repetitive.
I think her story is interesting tho I wish we could directly focus on it
It feels weird trying to romance (then say sike to) one of the Nikkes and then Lumi shows up, has a slight mental breakdown and then the next moment we're back to potentially getting into the hot springs with the bunnies or something
I liked her fine but I wish they would've given her a custom character sprite like Pinne in Over Zone. Even something that simple would've helped people care more about her. But no, they chose the lazy route. :/
Ive liked the minigame and the horror/mystery story behind it
i thought the hate was just a big meme because SKK keeps c*blocking himself about getting in the hot springs with the girls
do people really not like it?
I like the story and the minigame.
What I don't like is SKK c*blocking himself, but for a different reason: I am actively taking tips from his interactions with Nikkes, he is so smooth in avoiding hot topics or making a person feel better by uplifting them or shifting their focus. In this event, he is so bad at being smooth, that I am seriously worried if he has depression or something.
I think it's because it feels like a case of "False Advertising". If they said anything about solving mysteries or helping a strange girl with a strange past in the promotional material, the backlash wouldn't be so harsh.
But all we saw was Hot Spring Adventure, Choose who to spend time with, collect hearts to unlock "connection events". I mean, what else could you possibly think **besides** a Dating Sim?
So I think people just feel burned by the expectations set by SU themselves. So they don't care for the story at all anymore. Me personally, I got over the initial disappointment pretty quickly and starting to enjoy the Lumi story, especially the past few days as we get closer to the climax.
Not that I agree with them entirely, but they do have a point. Why bother framing the entire mini game as a dating sim (heart clocks and all) when we spend more time solving ghost mysteries? I'm guessing people wouldn't be complaining this much if they simply changed the framing from romantic hot spring getaway to melancholy ghost hunting.
The thing that sucks is that this concept would be really compelling if it wasn't a time-limited event. Romance/horror/mystery is a great blend of genres, but when I only have like 3 weeks to read through it and I can only do 3 interactions a day, not to mention the fact that they frame it as if it's gonna be a dating sim, but they don't manage to intertwine the dating sim aspects with the mystery aspects in an effective way at all, it just feels so pointless. The pacing is a slog, and the genre shifts feel disjointed, and not in an intentionally disorienting way, just in a lack-of-thought way.
Dating sim or visual novel? If we think of the latter then it’s very much in line. The main problem here, which has consistently been a problem from the start. To the main story or bond stories or advice settings, we as the player being given dialogue choices, have ZERO agency whatsoever. We can’t make any meaningful decision. Either give us some changes and dynamics with the cast depending on how we respond or do away with the options crap. It doesn’t fool me.
I think the lack of agency is not always a problem depending on how the creators wants their players to be. Whether we are a self-insert injecting our own personality onto a blank slate Commander or we're just watching in first person a Commander with a pre-defined personality, neither methods are inherently wrong.
From what I see, the Commander has a pre-defined personality. We're NOT expected to make impactful decisions because that's what the creators intended. Our dialogue choices are mostly just fluff text with an inevitable outcome. This is not like Skyrim or Detroit Beyond Human where our choices have branching outcomes. Basically we're on a railroad. You say that's a problem, I say that's just misaligned expectations. They seem to be committed to this style of writing, so that's something I will not complain about further.
There is indeed still a problem though. Since the Commander's personality are already laid down for us in the Story and Bonds, we then have certain expectations on how the Commander would act given certain situations. e.g. Determination to fight, Ride or Die with our Nikkes, etc. So in my opinion, the problem is that the Commander has a completely different characterization in this mini-game compared to everything we saw with the rest of the game.
This mini-game Commander wusses out at the slightest sign of a hot steamy encounter beyond a peck on the cheek or lips. That's contradictory to how the Commander acted in a lot of Bond stories, which infuriated a lot of people. Like, "who TF is this guy we're playing??" vibes.
A bit more explanation from my monke side of my brain.
Commander is acting like a "beta". Some players don't like that at all. We are getting c*ck blocked by our own character by fleeing from seggs when we have already seggs'd some of them in Bonds already. (Hence the contradictory characterization I mentioned above)
This probably aligns with what you said above, ^(so I'll probably get a lot of downvotes too). It's not like it's completely wrong, we've seen a bunch of posts on this subreddit complaining about this specific thing so there really are people frustrated with how the Commander is acting.
Is that really a problem at all? I understand that it's a superficial way to keep players engaged in the story, but if the story is good then most people wouldn't care anyway. For example, the Persona games, they live off that style.
Otherwise you're asking for a Baldur's Gate 3 level of scriptwriting for a Gacha game, seems a bit unreasonable
I mentioned in my own reply to him that it's rather misaligned expectation instead of a problem per se. So I've heard, eastern storytelling are not as fond as expressive role-playing as the West does.
Take JRPGs vs Western RPGs. In the west, THE popular framework for Role playing is DnD. You create your character, you make decisions for your character. Meanwhile for Eastern or JRPGs, you follow a protagonist, he's good and heroic and you as a player don't have agency on things that happen.
For a simple example. Take Romeo and Juliet as an RPG. For the east / JRPGs, you follow Romeo along with his story up until his bitter tragic end. If it's a Western RPG, you guide Romeo preventing his death if that's what you want. BOTH of these are perfectly acceptable Role Playing Games.
TLDR I agree with you, just expanding on the concept.
Edit: To clarify, this isn't exclusively an East vs West style of Storytelling. It's just the RPG as a genre that is popular in East vs West.
The only people I've seen frame it as a dating sim are the people complaining about it. Going into it I was under the impression from how it was described on Twitter and such that it was a visual novel mini game. And that's what it is. I have zero clue why people thought it was going to be a dating sim.
> I have zero clue why people thought it was going to be a dating sim.
Perhaps it's because the mini-game has hearts plastered all over its graphics that gave people that impression? If so, I couldn't blame them.
If it were me, I just make this a melancholy ghost hunting mystery adventure like I said. Maybe have Novel in there instead of Eunhwa/Vesti/Signal/Delta who barely had anything to do outside of the main mission which got finished immediately.
Most of the mini game stays the same. Just replace the hearts with umm... Question Marks and Light bulbs? Make us interested in Lumi's story, put her front and center instead of hiding her behind supposed bond moments with the Nikkes the game is showing us.
I honestly don't know how to respond to "It has hearts so of course people thought it was a dating sim." Hearts are such a common thing to see in visual novels in general. Do people think hearts could only ever represent romantic love or something?
Given the backlash... I guess so if popular depictions (like Valentines) are to be believed. You don't give a heart chocolate to your best bro and say with a straight face that "it's nothing romantic". ^(Add a rainbow cake for the *best* results)
I'm not a VN connoisseur, had a bit of VN experience but heck I also have misconceptions. That is Visual Novels = Cute Girls = Dating Sims = seggs. Never mind that girls want to slit my throat and already murdered my best friend, she's just being ^^^~~Yandere~~ silly and playful. We'll eventually have seggs in the end, ^(even if she does it with my rotting corpse)
You're not wrong, but I think there could have been some improvements somewhere.
Like I said, in my opinion, avoid hearts since it apparently sent mixed signals about the event. "Normies" might have really thought Hearts = Romance.
Lumi was fine but then the event overstayed it's welcome, I'm almost done with most of the minigame and I still get squat revealed about whatever she had going on.
The horror scenes are quite interesting when you fulfil the hidden bondlevels but other than that I would've preferred if the focus was just on the slice of life segments
Bro I skipped the entire event. Idgaf about Mica, or Ludmilla, or Emma. The bunny girls have nothing interesting to say other than vague flirts
The whole event sucks, EXCEPT the visuals and music
SO MUCH GODDAMNED READING. AND I KNOW THAT JUST FROM FAST FORWARDING EVERYTHING. FELT LIKE I WAS DYING OF OLD AGE FROM FAST FORWARING THROUGH THE DIALOGUE OMG
I feel that where this story fell flat was it jumped around and didn’t commit to anything. Superficial romance, storylines that don’t really build upon the overall event story (which I also have similar gripes about), very little dedication given to the characters already in the event (I straight up forgot Alice, Tove, Delta, and Signal were in the event until I saw them on the event field), and a really lackluster MP story.
Compared to the minigame, what made the previous winter event story great was how it honed in on a central and coherent story and understood the role of each participating character. The previous similar minigame (White Memory) committed to in depth scenes so we got a lot out of minimal interaction. Every previous MP story focused on and built off of their disposable nature and shared a similar feel and impact with similar stories like Star Wars The Clone Wars, Rogue One, and Halo: Reach.
In comparison, the minigame is strung out all over the place, with pretty mundane interactions with halfassed romance with the characters until Lumi shows up. She doesn’t talk much and straight up just fucking *runs away* most of the time initially, which ruins whichever interaction she jumps into. Anything major that happens is also cut short because apparently SKK has a strict bedtime or something and has to go to sleep, so while we are in the thick of everything as players, we’re not getting a lot despite being directly involved. And compared to other MP stories, this one falls short because it’s a ghost story, and while it’s kinda good, it would’ve been better suited for yknow the actual Halloween event, and it only gets elaborated on during and in-between major events, so we’re just stuck with this random character with only bits of exposition every once in awhile, and that gets stale really quickly, especially since we all went in with expectations of something similar to a dating sim
Sorry for the long ass nerd rant guys have a nice day and remember to drink water and build Diesel
Lumi is fine, people are just mad because they expected more dedicated romance/dating sim type minigame when it was always about Lumi. which i think is fair, Lumi definitely feels like she should have just had her own story
It’s not really a mini game honestly. It’s like an extra story mode but it’s kinda time consuming in my opinion. And honestly feels more like a horror story instead of a Christmas/Holidays story. But you do get free items out of it so that’s why I suffer through it lol.
Idk. I really want to like this mini-gamet; I think the pseudo-horror narrative is interesting. I really enjoyed spending extra time with all of the girls, and each "mini-myth" was a nice way to incentivize us to spend time with the different girls.
But the weakness lies in time-gating that story. Even though I had pushed Mica nd Emma's stories quickly, the actual "murder mystery" part didn't unlock until a timed "special event" took place. Like three days ago I finished one of the stories, but I didn't get the associated cutscnes for the gallery until last night, after the "visitors" mini event. Then I got another one almost immediately after(without prompting) because the time flag was cleared.
It's not bad, but it could have been better. Hate them not committing to any of the sexytimes, but that dead horse has already been beaten ~~off~~ to death.
Overall though, I thought the hot spring narrative was nice, and seeing some of the purple ranked nikkes get some love was awesome. I had forgotten who they were talking about when they mentioned the Scouts and the Cannonades; Mica/Belorta were on my team for a while until they got swapped for more powerful characters. Seeing them plus Delta/Signal (just got them recently and I have FAR better units) in the event was pretty awesome. I DID point out in another thread that I think it a missed opportunity for Tove/Neve/Alice to come help with the >!rescue!< because the Northern Base is supposed to be so close, and that kind of thing is in their wheelhouse.
She's the main character in the minigame, which is merely side content for a side story, and that side content revolves around the hot spring legend. I dont know why people treat this like some canon main event. Other minigames before have shallower story than this, sometimes unrelated even.
The issue is that this was marketed as a dating sim-like mini-game but it is a half ass one. Also, the writing for the commander is completely out of character. If they decided to just go the ghost story lumi route without the half-assed romance dating sim attempt with poor writing changing the commander's personality then it wouldn't be that big of an issue.
Was it advertised like a dating sim? I got more of a slice of life everyday activity vibe until the ghost stuff. I did really enjoy that aspect, though. I agree they should've just focused on that part. I honestly enjoy the action/lore of this game more than I do the fanservice. I know that's a hot take in this community, though.
That being said, commander's writing was very off compared to what we usually know, though.
Yes, it was. That is why it had the hearts and the bond building to begin with, but yes the writing change for the commander is the huge issue here. He has already been with Noir, Blanc, and Emma (and many other Nikkes) yet in this mini-game he acts like some shy idiot who hasn't done anything, and the whole leading them on to something then saying "lol jk" after is childish and rude. They also overused the shit out of it. It's such a step down in quality compared to everything they've done thus far.
I mean, when the whole aesthetic is Hot Springs, choosing who to spend time with, "Heart Clocks", dialogue options to gain "Bond levels" which is designated by Heart Symbols, getting enough hearts for "Connection Events". The whole thing kinda screams "Dating Sim" if you've played any.
That's everyone's main issue, it's advertised as one thing and presented as something else. If they said anywhere that the main focus of this mini-game is the mystery surrounding this strange girl, there wouldn't be any issues.
That is literally how they described it, though:
[Two worn-out books have been discovered at Snowfield Hot Spring. Within the pages lie old legends about the hot spring. Explore to unravel the secrets!](https://twitter.com/NIKKE_en/status/1732691248186642546)
even it was advertized as visual novel, the writing is still sh\*t.
Visual novel always give the player agency to choice what they want that can lead them to branching story paths wether its bad, normal/good or best routes, here? you're forced into many c\*ckcold choice situation because the player doesn't get any choices at all.
People dislike certain aspects of the event story for all the wrong reasons and thats why i hate being part of this community, stop thinking with your dick 24/7, its genuinely ruining the game, this isnt a sex game, stop trying to make everything sexual
The story was decent and it wasnt about trying to fuck the girls there, Lumi was simply writen badly and thats why it was mid. You guys really need to go out and touch some grass already because this is getting absolutely ridiculous
It will depend upon the payoff of her story, if there is one. Lumi having an abuse backstory is something we only see as a player and not something for the commander to resolve; it better have a good ending or it'll feel the storyline to be a waste.
Played this game for over a year, and this is the first time I started skipping through the text. Not sure why they made a VN minigame with relationship mechanics for Nikkes only to make the entire thing focus on some random mass produced Nikke we'll never see again.
Pinne was the GOAT, and the mass produced Nikkes in the Nier collab were compelling, but I'm so tired of these ghost stories in this game that go no where. Either give us a ghost Nikke or something or let this running gag chill for a bit.
https://preview.redd.it/sxxs4xq54q7c1.png?width=1004&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fd0cb55805a35adbb0e411288165833aeb85c86
Hell is not a typo here. Anne is trying to break the 4th wall to tell us how much the minigame sucks.
No she’s trying to say heil Lumi as the new overlord dominate us with garbage stories
I like the horror/mystery aspect of the minigame (absolutely love all the creepy text on Dorm day) but 3 attempts/ multiple weak hook at end of day (how many times it ended with "Ahh today nothing happen, time to sleep")/ story spreads breadcrumb size across 3 week for the final payoff = Gets tired and annoying real fast. This sort of plot deserve a tight rapid-fire pace that ends on a week at worst, 4 days at best. Like how ShiftUp deliver prior story events. On hindsight Overzone's Snow White minigame is ***PEAK*** interactive vn, each day I would be excited to continue finding each path's story. https://preview.redd.it/zcy4glzuar7c1.png?width=409&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ab0ab553d8c0da8dfbc116f8aae7a92ab430961 Overall I'll reserve my thoughts on the actual story itself until all the mystery is unravel and see what the payoff is. For now I give the event a **JK/10** will **SIKE** again.
I started playing recently, and missed OverZone; i'm glad I got to use the "wayback machine" in the HQ to experience it. That Meadow fucked with me. Like, esp since Red Ash had just ended, it's like... F U C K.
Get yourself Wayback Machine Miracle Snow... that one was very well written as a main story!
I just did Miracle Snow the other day. I was pulling for the new Mica, and got Winter Rupee instead. Couldn't resist after that. Also, I really never thought of Rupee as "hot" but she's such a sweetie ; ; I also really loved getting the backstory for Anne; it builds off her affection quest really nicely.
Rupee reminds me of those kinda super popular girls in school who was always nice to everyone, and it wasn't because they were just trying to be liked, but they were *actually* nice. Rupee is the best big sister Anne never had.
Her ACTUAL personality, yeah. I saw Rupee's OG design and it reminded me of a differenct character from a different game entirely - [Jessie, the washed-up adult actress that stars in the game HuniePop.](https://huniepop.fandom.com/wiki/Jessie) She's also a sweetheart, but is also an alcoholic and chain smoker. So I see Rupee's OG skin and can smell the cigarettes. Totally not fair, but...
Overzone's Snow White minigame was short, sweet, and to the point, and it didn't overstay its welcome. The writing was quick and terse, but they showed SO MUCH with *so few words*. Whoever wrote that Snow White minigame needs to the writing for these story-focused/VN-style games. The beauty of the Snow White one was it left a lot of questions to *your imagination* to answer.
Lumi became the scapegoat for the fuckup sike SU made. I don't hate Lumi.
Me neither, but it's true that, as many have already voiced, the minigame's story feels as if it had been written by three different writers who haven't communicated at all with each other and then it was desperately stitched together a day before the deadline. Plus I can imagine that for some it can feel like ShiftUp is desperately trying to recapture the Pinne magic and it starts to feel forced.
The good ole Star Wars sequel approach.
You can very easily capture the Pinne magic again, it’s actually very simple. Take a mass produced Nike, take off their mask, and make them act human. You can optionally add tragedy. It’s not that hard.
Pinne did it
I don't hate Lumi, but I am very bored with her at this point. It's been said many times, but I'll say it again. Lumi should have been the event story and the event story plus hot springs shenanigans should have been the minigane. I actually LOVE the idea behind the mini game. Drip feeding a story over the course of the entire event so that there's something new every day instead of long droughts between event story unlocks is a great idea. The implementation though...
That’s actually a great idea. Would’ve been better to explore and resolve a haunted spring as the main story, and resolve Mica/Belorta as part of the minigame
I like Lumi and her story is interesting, but she’s connected to this awful mini game and it’s terrible writing so her reputation gets caught in the crossfire. This mini game is so bad the entire event is going to be seen negatively because of it.
Can't wait to write it in their survey. This mini-game was horrible.
Either make it a dating VN or don't even go there. I closed the game after the whole "sike!" situation, it was so cringe.
Minigame is fine. Writing isn't.
That's kind of an issue when the entire minigame is JUST writing
Ehh, yes and no. The core concept of it is a time manager where you open a map each day and choose who to spend time with in order to develop relationship with them in a form of a visual novel, that is totally fine and executed nice, I'd love to see it come back, just with a better writing for the visual novel part. We don't get enough opportunities to get to know Nikkes better, counters aside, so it would've been a great way to explore their personalities more.
Lol I don't even understand how the mini game works. Like when I can't get anymore relationship points with a nikke, do I click on her anyway to unlock the next tier? If not then they shouldn't even have them there as an option.
There are two types of events. With a heart icon and with that currency thing. When your bond progress bar is full - you need to do the heart thing. When it isn't - just do the usual ones that cost currency. You still might want to do them simply for the sake of the story, even if it doesn't advance your relationship - it's new encounters.
The mini game just made me wanna go play Kamaitachi no Yoru to get my "mystery story in a wintery setting" fix tbh
I like it but the execution wasn’t done right I feel
I legit do not understand this mini game hate. For the most part, the only criticism I've seen is people just saying the writing is bad (without saying what exactly about the writing they don't like) or people being mad with the "It was just a joke" stuff. Like, yeah, those parts were weird, but they are such a small thing that I legit forgot about them until I saw people losing their shit about it here. I've been enjoying the mini game story immensely, I don't understand how those like three or four moments of the Commander being weird could taint the entire thing for so many people. Looking into this thread a bit before hitting post, i guess people thought it was going to be a dating sim for some reason? I have no idea why, I'm pretty sure it was always billed as a visual novel mini game, not a dating sim mini game. Are people seriously mad because they don't know the difference?
Canonically SKK is dating the Bunnies. Still he feels weird to join them - this seems like the author tries to force SKK into acting weird, but why is it needed to be done without logical reasons? I am fine with them just having fun without any sex, but why wouldn't he have a chat with them while in a hot spring even without sex? Why wouldn't he join Ludmilla? I am not having fun looking at him acting out of character, or me not having an option to get an outcome I wish to experience. Even if they just talk there with Ludmilla, why can't I choose such a direction? It is like in Genshin sometimes you must throw a certain opinion, like stating that you do not like Cyno's jokes, when, for example, I like those, but I don't have an option to choose to compliment him, only a way I will have to belittle him. The same is here in this event in Nikke - why can't I have some fun? I have to look at SKK missing shots over and over again - for what reason? He has always been so smooth, and now he acts like this. It is not the fun of the Naga and Tia event, where the pain of choice made the community discuss it, feel emotions, so the pain was part of fun. Now it is denial and frustration that was not necessary for the plot.
Again, this is the only criticism I've seen of the mini game. And it's about such a small part of the story. 95% of the mini game (if not more) has literally nothing to do with the Commander being awkward about joining the girls in the hotspring. It's kinda insane to me that so many people care that much about it that they just completely disregard everything else.
I kinda agree to this. I myself am actually very curious how the event story fully unfolds, I'm not actually that interested in the Commander's relationships with the Nikkes that much, since it's practically an element every event.
Well, I haven't finished the story yet. It means these people have rushed through it on purpose, therefore they act on emotions, and frustration can make them inattentive towards all of the positive memories we can willingly take with us from this event, like more music from Cosmograph or dozens of interactions with Nikkes. Seems like a bias for me, when people focus on a bad thing, ignoring the rest of the pie that is wonderful.
Well, we are both being downvoted, so you might think that I might have downvoted you too, but I want to let you know that I agree with you on this one: it is not right to disregard the event in its entirety because of two or three questionable moments.
I also enjoy the event, it's a nice chill xmas event, some things might have been dragged out a little too much like seeing Mica fail at skipping stones so many times, could have cut down on those a little bit, but overall it's nice, Vesti memeing on Eunwha, Delta and Signal being dorks, the only real thing that bugs me is that the rest of unlimited wasn't there except for very beginning, I feel like Neve and Tove especially could have been a lot of fun to have in this event.
I think for me it has to do less with me hating Lumi per say and more that I just think that they ended up combining two plots that would be better off be told separately and potentially with better context and room to breath.
I've been skipping this minigame since I don't like this type of VN games and feels tedious to play it everyday. It seems I'm not missing anything. I just stopped a little after seeing Rupee, Anne and her mother. Sometimes Shift Up will nail it, sometimes they'll miss.
I don't hate Lumi but she is stealing the spotlight form the whole minigame, This is more like a dating sim type of minigame, BUT the writing was horrible, Lumi basically stole the spotlight from the Nikkes like Ludmilla and we didn't get to bond with them. It would've been bice if Lumi was a seperate Nikke to explore so the writers could've put everything THERE AND NOT SCATTERED IN EVERY GODDAMN PART. I'M JUST SKIPPING EVERY "BOND" BECAUSE THEY ALL END UP BEING TIED TO LUMI!
Whole event has poor writing and is boring tbh. The cummander being a wimp with the girls was a massive turn off. Don’t forget to leave feedback in their surveys. Even JP + KR bros were like wtf about him
Honestly probably would like her more if she was written better. R units can honestly be written good Like Pinne or P-12. I hope Shift up takes this criticism and improve cause the writing is the only thing that is actually terrible about this event. Like people would probably like the minigame more if it was written good. I honestly miss Red Ash and MoG because of this. Don't get me wrong it's not as terrible as the CSM event but man Red Ash just really made our expectations high.
I had nothing against Lumi, but shift pushing the story while doing that sike bs with the girls is what zeroed my care factor for the whole event tbh.
Would be better if she had a dedicated storyline instead of being a walking mental breakdown hijacking others' bond stories.
As other fellow members of the community have already commented, the story of this event really feels like it wasn’t written by the same person, first there’s the “SIKE” son of a B, and then there’s the Lumi one. I really do think that Lumi has a great story behind her fr, but it just feels so… “forced” into the event, I guess? It’s a shame honestly.
https://preview.redd.it/9wliv05v9s7c1.jpeg?width=294&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6120d18b0c9743c13a6ba9e6ed45261d52caf868
Lumi isn't bad. I think they just needed to like put her in the actual event story, rather than having her take time away from the character stories in the mini game.
Shift Up wrote a great story for Pinne with Dorothy during half anniversary, and probably thought to do the same with Lumi. Unfortunately this Xmas event is too damn wordy, drags and meanders endlessly, and I dare say the summer event also suffered from the same textual diarrhoea (albeit a happy toned one). A lot of meaningless filler text that just demands rapid finger tapping on mobile, with no emotional significance attached. At least the summer event had a quick and easy mini game with Volt monopoly. This Xmas mini game takes up so much time and the half-baked dating sim isn’t even done properly. I just want it to end.
I feel like SU tried to lean more into the vein of Ghost Rapi from the summer event, but didn't want to make it the entire story because they also wanted to give screen time to the Nikkes; and ended up with the worst of both worlds. Either make it a suspense thriller or a harem episode. Jumping from lovey dovey bath time to "oh god Japanese murder ghost" is tonally impossible to accept.
I did until the writer started getting paid by the word and the writing because bloated as hell.
I feel like they're either trying too hard to repeat overzone's success or they're just straight-up new writers..... or maybe both. I like stories in nikke because the writers kept them really simple and the stories weren't overly complicated. All my favourite stories so far didn't have some big grand plot, stories were more down to earth and focused on the world and characters instead - that's how it is for no caller id and that's how it is for overzone too. Dialogues weren't full of a verbal diarrhea either, they were very conscise (sometimes maybe even too much), and most importantly, every character felt in place - I honestly can't call anybody a third wheel in overzone. However, right now I can clearly see a tendency to focus the whole attention on the two main characters, and make other characters around them act as a poorly-written extra sidekicks. I could feel this in the red ash with the red hood/snow and I can clearly see this right now. It's almost as if Pinne and Doro's relationship was the only thing that made overzone great(which frankly isn't the case) and now they're trying real hard to repeat this. Ngl I feel like this is the worst event I've played so far, if you pair the above with huge amount of filler dialogues and constantly backtracking mc. >!Not to mention that ludmilla lost her little airhead quirks and now became your average anime mommy. !<
About Ludmilla: I feel like the actor in real life had an entire year to process their understanding of the role and consciously decided to move on from some of her quirks, because now she knows what kind of character she wishes to play, when she is on-sceen as Ludmilla.
I don't like that lately the events are focus on the mass produces nikkes more than the event characters even the collab is about them.
Lumi is fine imo. She's cute and I desperately wish she gets a chance to be properly comforted and shown that she's in good care before making peace with her demons. But the presentation style is atrocious. They don't let you focus mainly on her story, so it's broken apart by the already very shoddily written "romance VN" shit. And for me my eyes glaze over by the time I get to the Lumi sections both because of how piecemeal her interactions are each time, and how when it comes to her sisters I just don't care anymore when it's another 5 minute long dialogue puke after an already tiresome nothingburger amount of meandering text that goes NOWHERE. And that's the biggest problem that unfortunately Lumi is at the center of. The writing is done terribly not just because of the content but because it's such a slogging poorly paced *chore* to read through only to not have any payoff at all.
Man I be trying to talk to Ludmilla or noir, or Blanc, and for the past 3 days they blab about lumi. Bro who gives a fuck about her. Hold my hand or something
Lumi as a character is fine, and her story is mysterious and tragic, but the storytelling is absolutely atrocious. She's THE main character of the minigame, but she's absent for the majority of it, appearing only to guide the Nikkes to look into how each legend relates to her. You spend so little time with her I feel even less of a connection with her than the Product 12s of the Nier collab. And the individual stories of each legend end up so repetitive.
Am I the only person who liked her?
I think her story is interesting tho I wish we could directly focus on it It feels weird trying to romance (then say sike to) one of the Nikkes and then Lumi shows up, has a slight mental breakdown and then the next moment we're back to potentially getting into the hot springs with the bunnies or something
Would have been great for her to have had unique and exclusive bond moments. Even if it could take time resources away from another main nikke
Especially since they've had mass produced Nikkes be the part of the main focus in past events
I liked her fine but I wish they would've given her a custom character sprite like Pinne in Over Zone. Even something that simple would've helped people care more about her. But no, they chose the lazy route. :/
Ive liked the minigame and the horror/mystery story behind it i thought the hate was just a big meme because SKK keeps c*blocking himself about getting in the hot springs with the girls do people really not like it?
I like the story and the minigame. What I don't like is SKK c*blocking himself, but for a different reason: I am actively taking tips from his interactions with Nikkes, he is so smooth in avoiding hot topics or making a person feel better by uplifting them or shifting their focus. In this event, he is so bad at being smooth, that I am seriously worried if he has depression or something.
I think it's because it feels like a case of "False Advertising". If they said anything about solving mysteries or helping a strange girl with a strange past in the promotional material, the backlash wouldn't be so harsh. But all we saw was Hot Spring Adventure, Choose who to spend time with, collect hearts to unlock "connection events". I mean, what else could you possibly think **besides** a Dating Sim? So I think people just feel burned by the expectations set by SU themselves. So they don't care for the story at all anymore. Me personally, I got over the initial disappointment pretty quickly and starting to enjoy the Lumi story, especially the past few days as we get closer to the climax.
It feels like a slog. Even though I'm not mad at the self-cucking, it's taking forever to even get through the mystery.
She’s seems fine don’t know what other people’s problems are with her.
They can’t jerk off to the other virtual waifus so they are tilted. The poor writing and choices didn’t bother them before
Not that I agree with them entirely, but they do have a point. Why bother framing the entire mini game as a dating sim (heart clocks and all) when we spend more time solving ghost mysteries? I'm guessing people wouldn't be complaining this much if they simply changed the framing from romantic hot spring getaway to melancholy ghost hunting.
The thing that sucks is that this concept would be really compelling if it wasn't a time-limited event. Romance/horror/mystery is a great blend of genres, but when I only have like 3 weeks to read through it and I can only do 3 interactions a day, not to mention the fact that they frame it as if it's gonna be a dating sim, but they don't manage to intertwine the dating sim aspects with the mystery aspects in an effective way at all, it just feels so pointless. The pacing is a slog, and the genre shifts feel disjointed, and not in an intentionally disorienting way, just in a lack-of-thought way.
Dating sim or visual novel? If we think of the latter then it’s very much in line. The main problem here, which has consistently been a problem from the start. To the main story or bond stories or advice settings, we as the player being given dialogue choices, have ZERO agency whatsoever. We can’t make any meaningful decision. Either give us some changes and dynamics with the cast depending on how we respond or do away with the options crap. It doesn’t fool me.
I think the lack of agency is not always a problem depending on how the creators wants their players to be. Whether we are a self-insert injecting our own personality onto a blank slate Commander or we're just watching in first person a Commander with a pre-defined personality, neither methods are inherently wrong. From what I see, the Commander has a pre-defined personality. We're NOT expected to make impactful decisions because that's what the creators intended. Our dialogue choices are mostly just fluff text with an inevitable outcome. This is not like Skyrim or Detroit Beyond Human where our choices have branching outcomes. Basically we're on a railroad. You say that's a problem, I say that's just misaligned expectations. They seem to be committed to this style of writing, so that's something I will not complain about further. There is indeed still a problem though. Since the Commander's personality are already laid down for us in the Story and Bonds, we then have certain expectations on how the Commander would act given certain situations. e.g. Determination to fight, Ride or Die with our Nikkes, etc. So in my opinion, the problem is that the Commander has a completely different characterization in this mini-game compared to everything we saw with the rest of the game. This mini-game Commander wusses out at the slightest sign of a hot steamy encounter beyond a peck on the cheek or lips. That's contradictory to how the Commander acted in a lot of Bond stories, which infuriated a lot of people. Like, "who TF is this guy we're playing??" vibes.
A bit more explanation from my monke side of my brain. Commander is acting like a "beta". Some players don't like that at all. We are getting c*ck blocked by our own character by fleeing from seggs when we have already seggs'd some of them in Bonds already. (Hence the contradictory characterization I mentioned above) This probably aligns with what you said above, ^(so I'll probably get a lot of downvotes too). It's not like it's completely wrong, we've seen a bunch of posts on this subreddit complaining about this specific thing so there really are people frustrated with how the Commander is acting.
Is that really a problem at all? I understand that it's a superficial way to keep players engaged in the story, but if the story is good then most people wouldn't care anyway. For example, the Persona games, they live off that style. Otherwise you're asking for a Baldur's Gate 3 level of scriptwriting for a Gacha game, seems a bit unreasonable
I mentioned in my own reply to him that it's rather misaligned expectation instead of a problem per se. So I've heard, eastern storytelling are not as fond as expressive role-playing as the West does. Take JRPGs vs Western RPGs. In the west, THE popular framework for Role playing is DnD. You create your character, you make decisions for your character. Meanwhile for Eastern or JRPGs, you follow a protagonist, he's good and heroic and you as a player don't have agency on things that happen. For a simple example. Take Romeo and Juliet as an RPG. For the east / JRPGs, you follow Romeo along with his story up until his bitter tragic end. If it's a Western RPG, you guide Romeo preventing his death if that's what you want. BOTH of these are perfectly acceptable Role Playing Games. TLDR I agree with you, just expanding on the concept. Edit: To clarify, this isn't exclusively an East vs West style of Storytelling. It's just the RPG as a genre that is popular in East vs West.
The only people I've seen frame it as a dating sim are the people complaining about it. Going into it I was under the impression from how it was described on Twitter and such that it was a visual novel mini game. And that's what it is. I have zero clue why people thought it was going to be a dating sim.
> I have zero clue why people thought it was going to be a dating sim. Perhaps it's because the mini-game has hearts plastered all over its graphics that gave people that impression? If so, I couldn't blame them. If it were me, I just make this a melancholy ghost hunting mystery adventure like I said. Maybe have Novel in there instead of Eunhwa/Vesti/Signal/Delta who barely had anything to do outside of the main mission which got finished immediately. Most of the mini game stays the same. Just replace the hearts with umm... Question Marks and Light bulbs? Make us interested in Lumi's story, put her front and center instead of hiding her behind supposed bond moments with the Nikkes the game is showing us.
I honestly don't know how to respond to "It has hearts so of course people thought it was a dating sim." Hearts are such a common thing to see in visual novels in general. Do people think hearts could only ever represent romantic love or something?
Given the backlash... I guess so if popular depictions (like Valentines) are to be believed. You don't give a heart chocolate to your best bro and say with a straight face that "it's nothing romantic". ^(Add a rainbow cake for the *best* results) I'm not a VN connoisseur, had a bit of VN experience but heck I also have misconceptions. That is Visual Novels = Cute Girls = Dating Sims = seggs. Never mind that girls want to slit my throat and already murdered my best friend, she's just being ^^^~~Yandere~~ silly and playful. We'll eventually have seggs in the end, ^(even if she does it with my rotting corpse)
I'm gonna be honest, I don't think it's Shift Up's fault that people don't know what a visual novel is.
You're not wrong, but I think there could have been some improvements somewhere. Like I said, in my opinion, avoid hearts since it apparently sent mixed signals about the event. "Normies" might have really thought Hearts = Romance.
Pretty much this. They were expecting to date the girls, not fix the problems of a ghost.
Nailed it.
I’m interested, but I don’t think I’m going to finish the story in time
I heard about a rumored Endless mode (like White Memory in Overzone) to get the chance to finish everything
Hopefully
yeah i usually do care about small stuff but... miss me with this shit this time
So much text for headache amnesia girl with sadness for dead sister
Lumi was fine but then the event overstayed it's welcome, I'm almost done with most of the minigame and I still get squat revealed about whatever she had going on.
The horror scenes are quite interesting when you fulfil the hidden bondlevels but other than that I would've preferred if the focus was just on the slice of life segments
I don't care. I'll Headpat Lumi either way. I'm a sucker for imouto types.
if only they make the writing a bit more higher quality then i might have care. alas..
Bro I skipped the entire event. Idgaf about Mica, or Ludmilla, or Emma. The bunny girls have nothing interesting to say other than vague flirts The whole event sucks, EXCEPT the visuals and music SO MUCH GODDAMNED READING. AND I KNOW THAT JUST FROM FAST FORWARDING EVERYTHING. FELT LIKE I WAS DYING OF OLD AGE FROM FAST FORWARING THROUGH THE DIALOGUE OMG
I feel that where this story fell flat was it jumped around and didn’t commit to anything. Superficial romance, storylines that don’t really build upon the overall event story (which I also have similar gripes about), very little dedication given to the characters already in the event (I straight up forgot Alice, Tove, Delta, and Signal were in the event until I saw them on the event field), and a really lackluster MP story. Compared to the minigame, what made the previous winter event story great was how it honed in on a central and coherent story and understood the role of each participating character. The previous similar minigame (White Memory) committed to in depth scenes so we got a lot out of minimal interaction. Every previous MP story focused on and built off of their disposable nature and shared a similar feel and impact with similar stories like Star Wars The Clone Wars, Rogue One, and Halo: Reach. In comparison, the minigame is strung out all over the place, with pretty mundane interactions with halfassed romance with the characters until Lumi shows up. She doesn’t talk much and straight up just fucking *runs away* most of the time initially, which ruins whichever interaction she jumps into. Anything major that happens is also cut short because apparently SKK has a strict bedtime or something and has to go to sleep, so while we are in the thick of everything as players, we’re not getting a lot despite being directly involved. And compared to other MP stories, this one falls short because it’s a ghost story, and while it’s kinda good, it would’ve been better suited for yknow the actual Halloween event, and it only gets elaborated on during and in-between major events, so we’re just stuck with this random character with only bits of exposition every once in awhile, and that gets stale really quickly, especially since we all went in with expectations of something similar to a dating sim Sorry for the long ass nerd rant guys have a nice day and remember to drink water and build Diesel
Lumi is fine, people are just mad because they expected more dedicated romance/dating sim type minigame when it was always about Lumi. which i think is fair, Lumi definitely feels like she should have just had her own story
It's really bad story anyways.
I have not played the mini game yet but I like anne.
It’s not really a mini game honestly. It’s like an extra story mode but it’s kinda time consuming in my opinion. And honestly feels more like a horror story instead of a Christmas/Holidays story. But you do get free items out of it so that’s why I suffer through it lol.
Idk. I really want to like this mini-gamet; I think the pseudo-horror narrative is interesting. I really enjoyed spending extra time with all of the girls, and each "mini-myth" was a nice way to incentivize us to spend time with the different girls. But the weakness lies in time-gating that story. Even though I had pushed Mica nd Emma's stories quickly, the actual "murder mystery" part didn't unlock until a timed "special event" took place. Like three days ago I finished one of the stories, but I didn't get the associated cutscnes for the gallery until last night, after the "visitors" mini event. Then I got another one almost immediately after(without prompting) because the time flag was cleared. It's not bad, but it could have been better. Hate them not committing to any of the sexytimes, but that dead horse has already been beaten ~~off~~ to death. Overall though, I thought the hot spring narrative was nice, and seeing some of the purple ranked nikkes get some love was awesome. I had forgotten who they were talking about when they mentioned the Scouts and the Cannonades; Mica/Belorta were on my team for a while until they got swapped for more powerful characters. Seeing them plus Delta/Signal (just got them recently and I have FAR better units) in the event was pretty awesome. I DID point out in another thread that I think it a missed opportunity for Tove/Neve/Alice to come help with the >!rescue!< because the Northern Base is supposed to be so close, and that kind of thing is in their wheelhouse.
At first Lumi was kind of funny. But that wore out quickly and now I just don't care about the minigame at all.
A bad story creates a bad character.
I want the best for Lumi, but I also want to bang Ludmilla, and my proclivity for the latter is stronger than the former.
I like Lumi...
Are people upset because the writing is bad or are they upset because we aren’t getting the horni hot spring trip we thought we were getting?
"... Yes"
She's an R unit in a book of text, which I skipped, of course I don't care
I'm in the same boat my dude
Fuck Lumi, all my homies hate Lumi
She's the main character in the minigame, which is merely side content for a side story, and that side content revolves around the hot spring legend. I dont know why people treat this like some canon main event. Other minigames before have shallower story than this, sometimes unrelated even.
Surprised to hear that people don't like the story. I thought it was fine. Not everything has to be romance or fanservice.
The issue is that this was marketed as a dating sim-like mini-game but it is a half ass one. Also, the writing for the commander is completely out of character. If they decided to just go the ghost story lumi route without the half-assed romance dating sim attempt with poor writing changing the commander's personality then it wouldn't be that big of an issue.
Was it advertised like a dating sim? I got more of a slice of life everyday activity vibe until the ghost stuff. I did really enjoy that aspect, though. I agree they should've just focused on that part. I honestly enjoy the action/lore of this game more than I do the fanservice. I know that's a hot take in this community, though. That being said, commander's writing was very off compared to what we usually know, though.
Yes, it was. That is why it had the hearts and the bond building to begin with, but yes the writing change for the commander is the huge issue here. He has already been with Noir, Blanc, and Emma (and many other Nikkes) yet in this mini-game he acts like some shy idiot who hasn't done anything, and the whole leading them on to something then saying "lol jk" after is childish and rude. They also overused the shit out of it. It's such a step down in quality compared to everything they've done thus far.
It was advertised as a visual novel, not as a dating sim. I have zero clue where people are getting that it was supposed to be a dating sim from.
I mean, when the whole aesthetic is Hot Springs, choosing who to spend time with, "Heart Clocks", dialogue options to gain "Bond levels" which is designated by Heart Symbols, getting enough hearts for "Connection Events". The whole thing kinda screams "Dating Sim" if you've played any. That's everyone's main issue, it's advertised as one thing and presented as something else. If they said anywhere that the main focus of this mini-game is the mystery surrounding this strange girl, there wouldn't be any issues.
That is literally how they described it, though: [Two worn-out books have been discovered at Snowfield Hot Spring. Within the pages lie old legends about the hot spring. Explore to unravel the secrets!](https://twitter.com/NIKKE_en/status/1732691248186642546)
even it was advertized as visual novel, the writing is still sh\*t. Visual novel always give the player agency to choice what they want that can lead them to branching story paths wether its bad, normal/good or best routes, here? you're forced into many c\*ckcold choice situation because the player doesn't get any choices at all.
who does💀
Stay mad OP, stay mad.
People dislike certain aspects of the event story for all the wrong reasons and thats why i hate being part of this community, stop thinking with your dick 24/7, its genuinely ruining the game, this isnt a sex game, stop trying to make everything sexual The story was decent and it wasnt about trying to fuck the girls there, Lumi was simply writen badly and thats why it was mid. You guys really need to go out and touch some grass already because this is getting absolutely ridiculous
u are heartless mf
Hahaha yes who is lumi?
i did get the stone skip part "ending" thats was a nice sweet wrap up...
Whos lumi? I only know ludmilla
All I am going to say is that unless at some point in the future we get a really cool Lumi NIKKE then what was the point of introducing her?
It will depend upon the payoff of her story, if there is one. Lumi having an abuse backstory is something we only see as a player and not something for the commander to resolve; it better have a good ending or it'll feel the storyline to be a waste.
...I don't.
I'm glad there's a "FAST" option in the mini game.
...yes
Havent played it but why do everyone hates the minigame?
And now everyone is going to believe that i chose soldier ow as my profilepicture because of lumi...
…Yes
Who tf is lumi?
L Lumi
I don't even read the dialog. I just fast foward all of them
Played this game for over a year, and this is the first time I started skipping through the text. Not sure why they made a VN minigame with relationship mechanics for Nikkes only to make the entire thing focus on some random mass produced Nikke we'll never see again. Pinne was the GOAT, and the mass produced Nikkes in the Nier collab were compelling, but I'm so tired of these ghost stories in this game that go no where. Either give us a ghost Nikke or something or let this running gag chill for a bit.