Visual Novel Book Club

Wow, what a season! I'm really glad that we fixed the entirety of the British Criminal Justice system in perpetuity and that we got a version of Sherlock Holmes who is more of a fun jerk than just a jerk jerk. We'll see you all next time with more visual novel intrigue so TTFN!

The penultimate episode of the ultimate game in the series has a last dinner before the final trial and it's not the concluding chapter we thought it was and I'll take one closing look at my online thesaurus before stopping this description. How are we going to take down Judge Jigoku? I mean if I told you, you wouldn't listen to this so...

Now it's time to play as my favorite playable character. Professor Mikitoba. How this chapter started: This is a sarcastic comment. How it's going: NO WAIT NOW IT'S UNIRONIC

Ok, but I mean, he was clearly singing in German, I don't even know what we're deducing.

It's time for the British Judiciary to eat itself. My, how the tables have turned... and then had a big ol' boot slammed on top of them.

Well, good news everyone. The trial is over, and once again, we learn justice and science can maybe be best friends after all. Onto our next sea- wait, there's still more game? How long is this season going to be?!

Jim told me about the 9 or 10 things that happened this episode but I centered on this: We met Toby the Dog

In this episode, we square off against Van Zieks once again. Will our wild tangents be enough to save our client, or will his body be added to the graveyard? Find out as we get to the root of the problem!

Thanks to orenronen, we're using Machine Learning to write our episode descriptions. Ahem: AI: I should get back to work. Human: What are you working on? AI: I'm reading Shakespeare right now. Specifically, Romeo and Juliet. Human: Who do you think is stronger, Romeo or Juliet? AI: I think Juliet is stronger. She chose her fate whereas Romeo is attempting to change his. Human: Would you like to test that theory by enacting a battle between them? AI: You mean a battle in the physical sense? Human: Yes. AI: There are very few physical battles in the original play, but I don't have time to do anything. As much as I find your interpretation of the play interesting, I'll have to pass. I'm needed elsewhere. PS: This is actually true - he ran it on GPT-3 AI Bot!

My original plan for this episode description was to modify a Shakespearean excerpt, but you try modifying Macbeth to be about putting your mouth on a gas hole. Better idea, don't do that. Anyway let's see if we can get Natsume off once and for all!

"Why can't I stop not accidentally murdering people?" - the Soseki Natsume story which you can read about on Wikipedia I am sure.

Wait, there's a whole second game? AND A WHOLE SECOND LAWYER?!!?

Game 1 comes to the end of this very long series of games in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Tune in next week when we cover the second and last game, but for now, here's an ending!

Our objective this week is to break down those hardened criminals, the Skulkin Brothers, on the stand. (And by "hardened" we of course mean, "adorable." Ok, ok, so they shot ONE guy. C'mon.)

It's time to visit the Stars of Victorian Pawn Shops, like the loveable Pop Windibanks and... well, that's it. Don't get too attached.

Find you a bobby who looks at you the way Roly looks at Pat. Maybe not the other stuff, though.

...What do you mean he's a real guy?

Now it's time to save a maybe evil Scrooge McDuck analogue from Dracula and his six jurors/bosses/henchmen. My Castlevania metaphor breaks down here because they all use fireballs, and it wasn't great to begin with but we could pretend. Candles do get struck, at least. Anyway, VNBC time!

My dear Dr. Wilson, eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the next episode of Visual Novel Book Club

Hear ye, hear ye. The honorable Visual Novel Book Club Podcast is back in session, with your hosts pullahoko, Jim, slowbeef, orenronen, TurboC and... counselor, is this right? A new member, "Rosella500" We are here to hear the podcast records of one Episode, "Chapter 1 of the Great Ace Attorney," a "prequel" to the famous Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban series, set in the 19th century. Audience, the court is yours.

Sorry for the delay, enjoy this, the final final words we have on Raging Loop, ultimately, a good time for tricking people from a village into killing each other or learning about themselves or both thanks to time travel. See you next season!

You don't need anything more than a really involved plan and to date someone with demigodlike powers in order stop a raging loop. We're not done yet though as there's some additional content up ahead, but for now... werewolves aren't real or some such.

Haruaki dons his green cap to collect the five keys to save Princess Chiemi on top of Death Mountain and slogging through Kiyonosuke Bog and also Wordplay Forest. Just as exciting as it sounds! Dvac said I should add a line about how the old man is my favorite character and no one can stop so here it is.

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

It's time for some next level speculation. The supernatural reveals of the third loop get us crafting theories that are 100% absolutely going to be true. That's it, why bother finishing the game? It's all figured out. Not even sure why "speculation" was used in the first sentence. Just cold hard facts.

Hey this time! We're the wolf, baby! Will Haruaki make the right choices? No. ... Awooo!

The Rikako route continues as Raging Loop insists on nodding towards being like one-third dating sim for reasons unbeknownst to us. We also learn about spiders and housemaidens and predictably, werewolves kill people. This loop won't stop raging!

Orenronen takes us on a deep dive into some of this game's translation issues, and we collectively realize that Haruaki is a bad Werewolf player whose super power is being able to savescum.

The corruption gets Turbo and Pulla as we're down two people. Can DVac, Jim, slowbeef, and oren survive?! Also Haruaki shows off his SLE when he snaps after like 2 time loops. What a wimp!

Here we go as the first loop officially comes to a close, and Haruaki gets an A+ in How To Play Werewolf.

On this episode of VNBC we learn how to play Werewolf and Pullahoko's skills are put to the ultimate test!!!!

We're back! Again... and again... and again... the gang's all here. Slowbeef. TurboC. Jim. DeviousVacuum. Orenronen. Pullahoko. And we're playing Werewolf, so to speak... or reading about it. Whichever! This isn't just your standard horror VN game with a loop, this one is raging. Join Haruaki on his unsuccessful quest(s) to avoid dying

We go over Canaan which is an anime-style VN, strange for this game and Heartbeat of Spring, which is Suzune's story, which brings this season of VNBC to a close. Good night, all!

We checked the Kana, the pun works. Shibuya Scramble is surprisingly not over even though it is because we also have 3 final stories, amazingly, after the fact. Alphard may be defeated... for now... and we may have like 7 protagonists... so far... but is Shibuya really safe? Can we walk through Dogenzaka without a care in the world? Want to grab some ice cream at Center Gai with no worries? I don't remember a fourth place from the game, sorry. Let's wrap up the bomb and the standoff!

Maria needs the antiviral, Shibuya is close to a state of lockdown, the Ua virus might get out, and we need to finish the Four Star Gossip General SOON! How can we do all this? Hell if I know. I got sick before recording and had to opt out early. Can Visual Novel Book Club survive without slowbeef?! Well, I mean the episode's here, so yeah.

Things heat up in the scramble as more stories end and more intrigue happens. I jumped randomly through this episode to write this description and happened upon Jim saying "Osawa is the worst dad ever" so that plot thread doesn't go anywhere sorry. That's a joke, maybe he finds redemption? Does Minorikawa stop being best player character? No to both of these.

I don't want to spoil thing but maybe, just maybe, Osawa gets a banana from Kajiwara. I feel pretty good about avoiding the obvious joke, but pretty bad about pointing out that I did. Look, whatever. It's Visual Novel Book Club!

Thanksgiving? We're all thankful for a new episode of Visual Novel Book Club Season 8 - 428 Shibuya Scramble! In this episode: TAKE BANANA. In other words, Kajiwara saves the Osawa story from being absolutely terrible. Again.

This issue is fraught with excitement as Discord collapses under the weight of Shibuya Scramble and lots of folks disconnect and reconnect and slowbeef is on a business trip. Can Visual Novel Book Club survive its greatest challenge yet!!! No, pullahoko died of dysentery.

We decided to finally give Devious Vacuum a break and to switch things up, we all took notes on individual characters! Jim got Achi, Turbo got Kano, Oren got the short straw and got Osawa, and slowbeef got Minorikawa... which he was really happy about. Pulla called Tama who we all expected, though. Visual Novels... do they need book clubs? We find out today!  

It's time for the 12:00 block. And everyone may be coming around to slowbeef's thinking on their favorite character choice.

Episode 2 is at ya, as the whole cast opens up to the player but we all just gush about Tama. (“I still like Minorikawa” - slowbeef)

VNBC has returned! Season 8! 428 Shibuya Scramble! Deadly viruses! Deadly kidnappers! Deadly gangsters! Deadlines...! Uh... well, you'll find out in this 24-like Japanese Visual Novel. Devious Vacuum, Jim, slowbeef (that's me!), pullahoko, TurboC and orenronen join forces to tackle intertwined time lines! Let's unscramble this scramble, baby!

And so ends another season of Visual Novel Book Club. What will be Season 8's game? Well. You'll have to spam positive reviews to make this podcast SHINE! So long, Morgana from your pals.

Michel's adventures as a Time Therapist take a turn for the dangerous as Giselle disappears and Yukimasa takes the battle to us. Can our quest to save three jerks from hell succeed? Wait, why were we doing this? Love? Sheesh! VNBC presents the penultimate episode of this season in The House in Fata Morgana starring Jim, TurboC, Orenronen, Devious Vacuum, and slowbeef!

If you could change one thing, go back and fix one wrong... wouldn't it be teaching some whiny kid whose sister is into him to release a bleed girl from a tower? Project 11th Century Quantum Leap continues as Michel and Giselle in his head try to work that out somehow.

slowbeef joins late to a 2-hour party as Michel takes on Rintarou for best Time Travel Protagonist Undoing Mistakes of the Past. Yes, a TTPUMP. Whoa that on-the-fly acronym worked better than I thought. Anyway, we've got our game face on and are ready to DO THIS!

Welcome back! We missed you... We learn Morgana's story in this chapter as we try to avoid death routes and learn about Morgana: AKA The Most Tragic Nine Year Old In Video Games.

Last Episode, we discussed Giselle's story, and this time it's The Maid! *looks at her chest* Oh yeah, they're the same character.

All the content warnings as we learn about Giselle's story and she had it pretty rough it turns out! But if you get through that part, it goes anime love story pretty quickly! Yeesh. What lurks in The House of Fata Morgana, I ask you!!!

Spoiler: We never arrive at an answer.