I’m trying to imagine Joshua otokoyaku style now Idk, I don’t feel like I can fit him into the usual androgynous or boyish female character archetypes
Are you talking about in English or JP? I don’t really hear a huge difference btwn his JP VAs in 2011 vs 2025, and think they both sound excellent. I see he has a female VA in English too - that’s definitely a surprise.
For Estelle I prefer her 2011 VA, but have acclimated at this point, and think they both did a great job
I loved her from the start, and yes she really is
If you say so… But the number of かっこいい and キュン moments I keep having… Well half of that is his fighting style. I kinda have a thing for 二刀流使い (dual sword wielders) tho
I haven’t played Chrono Cross unfortunately, but so much of this reminds me of the Sword Art Online games for w/e reason (maybe just bc they’re the JRPGs I’ve played the most). That said the gameplay in this hits a perfect balance btwn having some complexity, but being simple enough that a simpleton like me can enjoy it, even on Normal (I did have to put one fight on Easiest tho)
I think it’s really just that I didn’t like the child voice at the start.
And I think Joshua at the very beginning just doesn’t seem to have nearly as much dialog as Estelle and we don’t really know anything about him. It seems like Estelle is the main character and they didn’t try much with Joshua, like he is just there as a self insert for male players. He even looks like a generic light novel MC (like Kirito from SAO). Estelle is also the playable character at the start.
I never played the 2011 version. Though the cute loading animation kinda makes me want to consider it.
In that case I don’t see why him having a female VA is bizarre. Plenty of iconic male characters do, and his original VA was female too.
Yeah I also wasn’t super into it at the beginning, but I figured that was in part from knowing what she used to sound like. Here’s the beginning of the EVO (Evolution) version, skip to 10:33 for their normal voices:
Depends on the era - these are the older designs. I really love the original designs, but that version doesn’t have voice acting, and there isn’t a patch for the native version (there is a fan-made patch for the localized one, ironically)
I thought the 2011 voice of Joshua from the clip you provided sounds brighter and more boyish to me. The 2025 voice makes me think he is supposed to sound cool.
Mm most of her photos that come up on Google are very androgynous looking.
TIL there’s a trans character in Skip to Loafer… Are they prominent, or just like a minor side character?
Agree re: the different impressions of 2011 vs 2025 Joshua. And clearly the latter worked convincingly for me - tho I already thought he was cool from before
She is the aunt of the protagonist. She lives at her place in other to go to school in the city. So she is her guardian. Not as prominent as her classmates, but pretty important at times.
I’m playing through 逆転裁判2, currently ending the second case (the one about 霊媒師). After playing through the first one last year, this game started easy, but this case got me stuck for months.
Lots of specific vocabulary and people with ways of speaking that differ from the standard made it more difficult that I though ot would be. I’m happy I’m at the end at least, I learned a lot!
I was thinking about playing through 999 (Nonary Games #1) or Danganronpa next, but i’m not sure how difficult they are compared to 逆転裁判. Did you try them?
And any suiting 推理games recommendations are welcome!
I played a bit of 999 but eventually got a bit bored with the game mechanics. I started Danganronpa and it looked amazing…just not got back to it yet. Difficultly wise, I can’t really say.
I recently bought Dragon Quest III Remake (currently on sale), and I’m having an absolute blast. It looks absolutely gorgeous all the time. Furigana is available but there’s still more hiragana that I would like - せいすい instead of 聖水, for example.
Thanks for the reply マイク! I already played Nonary Games and Danganronpa (at least three games of each series) in english, and mostly was worried about the japanese language. Specially since they feature descriptive language that i’m not that used to.
Danganronpa is a blast, I really like all three I played. Its over the top, japanese style whodunnit. The murders are crazy and the resolution isn’t always fulfilling but they are super fun.
I will try out Dragon Quest III! I’ve seen the youtube channel Game Gengo recommend other entries of the series, so it seems a good choice. The hiragana is an issue though, I dropped Ni No Kuni for that reason last year (and for the kansaiben character, to be fair, I didn’t understand a thing back then). I hope is not too bad!
Unfortunately it was so long ago I played those games, I cannot compare the level of Japanese to 逆転裁判.
I have Danganronpa on the PS Vita, so I really must get round to playing it properly…( Steam backlog )
Speaking of Game Gengo, he comprehensively covered the intro to DQ3:
Ni No Kuni also frustrated me for the same reasons. The DQ3 Remake has options for hiragana or kanji, and with/without furigana which is nice but despite rechecking last night, there’s no “give me just kanji, no hiragana” that I really want. I think the hiragana is mainly used for the items/magic/menus though. Anyway, I’m building a list and it is forcing me to get better at the readings, so there’s that.
Its nice, simple if you played any rpg, but the dialogs were fun and its incredibly charming. The original game in Japan came out with a physical magic book you had to actually use to learn spells. Its hard to find nowadays, but fortunately the new versions included the full book ingame and did a great job.
So an instruction manual? Jokes aside, that’s awesome
Interesting. I’ll be curious to see what that’s like. I realized a few months back: I don’t really like in-game tutorials, and miss instruction manuals… I think I’d even take a PDF over in-game screens 笑
It was a 300 something page book with patterns for spells and hints that were crucial to play the original jp nds version. The ps3 version is the base of what we can play nowadays, but the nds jp version was really something unique!
Tunic did something similar with its instruction manual “lately”, and its a fantastic game I can’t recommend enough.
Thats so cooooool!! I’ve apparently looked up Tunic before (idrc when). But apparently wasn’t interested enough to buy it. Will keep in mind for the future tho
Speaking of the Kansai-ben character, I watched a bit of a YouTube playthrough. He’s particularly on the harder side to follow, imo - b/c his speech style is both こてこて Kansai-ben and 役割語 (role speak), and generally on the faster side. Like I can keep up, but I have to actively be concentrating on it
Personally the “too much hiragana” is actually starting to be appealing to me (in like a “this is also something I should get good at” way). Kansai-ben uses it a bit more heavily, in part b/c
Ok, having gotten much further into the game now (just got to ルーアン), I’m inclined to agree with you… like they keep throwing stuff about his background being mysterious (or like he’ll be spacing out about something on his own), and I like him a lot, but he’s not really very developed at this point.
Finall caved and bought the Fate/Stay Remaster, because I was feeling reading a VN. Having a lot of fun with it and the language used can be quite flowery. Works amazing with the steam deck.
Adding like 40 anki cards a day so we’ll see how this goes . Determined to add every unknown word; first route probably gives me about 1k+ (looking at the stats gotten from jpdb).
Also played some Blazblue Code:Embryo, which is a great quite easy fully voiced VN consisting pretty much of only dialogue.
Finished 空の軌跡 the 1st (2025 remake). That was a really incredible experience! I especially appreciated that the antagonist had actual meaningful, intelligent (though misogynistic) motivations that didn’t just boil down to “delusional megalomania”. That was some very nice storytelling. Also I totally didn’t see any of those end twists coming
Anyway watching the story scenes for SC (yes I know about the reading club already). I was surprised Kevin speaks Kansai-ben (and the lines & voice acting are both solidly done). Nice treat for me
I can see why they changed the voice actors for the remake. The original ones have a rustic(?), folky(?) charm that I really, really like (and that voice acting style is very nostalgic), but the new ones fit the remake in a way I’m not sure the original actors would have… The games have kinda a different vibe/polish to them imo.
Anyway, glad to be finished with the gameplay, cuz I’m not very good about regulating my time, when I get into a game.
Now that I’ve finished the game, and started the next one, I get the sense they were intentionally saving a lot of his development for SC (second chapter). In any case, Estelle is certainly the MC.
As Estelle and Joshua go, I wasn’t totally sold on the romance writing, but it was good enough. And that parting scene definitely had the intended effect
I recently finished a DS game called ココロノココロン. It’s an “errand” game as I’ve started calling them. A non-violent adventure game where you go around, talk to people, and usually get certain items to give them to continue the story. I thought this was great reading practice. A wide range of vocabulary, old man speech, some speech flourishes, and a lot of katakata (for style).
I also have a Play Asia order coming in today with SpyxFamily: Operation Diary and the Fushigi Dagashiya game. I’ve toyed around with getting the SpyxFamily game for quite awhile. It’s very BokuNatsu adjecent to me. It was $31 on Play Asia at the time and literally went back up to $51 that afternoon. I haven’t read the Fushigi Dagashiya books, but I have read similar ones, and I needed to get free shipping sooo. I won’t be playing these this year probably, since I’m doing a spooky game marathon until Dec 1st. But it’s exciting nonetheless.
Idk, I don’t feel like I can fit him into the usual androgynous or boyish female character archetypes
)
Jokes aside, that’s awesome
. Determined to add every unknown word; first route probably gives me about 1k+ (looking at the stats gotten from jpdb).
I won’t be playing these this year probably, since I’m doing a spooky game marathon until Dec 1st. But it’s exciting nonetheless.