Visual Novels - Your Favorites

[Nz17]

Whether you consider them "true" video games or not, what are you favorite visual novels? Please only list those which you have played.

Back in the day, I completed quite a few which were published in America by Hirameki International. I wish I would have kept Ever 17 if only for the fact that these days it sells for about $200 while I sold it about a decade ago for only... $20.

What can I say?! I completed the stories and I was ready to part with it! How was I supposed to know its future price/rarity/demand would be like it is today?

[Aussie2B]

I like all kinds of visual novels, but my favorite sub-genre is otome, and of those, my favorite is Diabolik Lovers. Its cheesy name belies both how well-written and fascinating it is (on the whole, a couple routes could be a bit better; the later releases in the franchise are even more hit and miss) as well as, honestly, how f'ed up it is. It's not something I recommend easily, for the latter reason. It's most definitely not for everybody. Its developer, Rejet, is my favorite VN developer in general, and most everything they do is interesting. None of their games have ever been officially released in English, though, so that's another reason why I hesitate to make recommendations. As for my favorite localized otome VN, I'd probably go with Sweet Fuse. I've enjoyed a good number on PC and Vita since then, but none have topped it.

Outside of otome VNs, I'm a big fan of Key (the developer). They're the king of the galge sub-genre, as far as I'm concerned. I still gotta play some of their more recent localizations, though. Harmonia is still in my backlog, and apparently Little Busters finally just came out in English.

[Cornelius]

I don't think I've ever played one, so what does it take to be a Visual Novel? Would 999 count, because I have played that. What about something like Professor Layton? I'm guessing those may be too simple(?) to rise to novel status, and the puzzles might put them in a different category, too.

[jb143]

What about the Ace Attorney series?

[Aussie2B]

The lines are kinda blurry because visual novels are just one of the many, many sub-genres under the wide "adventure" genre. Professor Layton is considered a puzzle adventure series. I've never heard anyone call them visual novels. Ace Attorney, 999, and other similar series like Danganronpa are contentious. Some say they're not visual novels at all, others argue that they're hybrids. A pure visual novel won't have any gameplay/interactivity beyond selecting text choices, though. Either way, all these games, even if not considered visual novels by some, are close siblings, and their popularity has definitely helped the growth of pure visual novels in the West too.

[Cornelius]

Okay, good to know about the text choice only definition. I probably could have googled it, but discussion here is better. I don't remember 999 having anything besides text choices, but I'll go ahead and infer that another difference can be definite right and wrong choices. 999 definitely had text choices that were wrong. Might also be that it wasn't just dialogue choices, too, but I don't remember after a few years.

[Gameguy]

I would say Policenauts is excellent, I've never played Snatcher but I want to. The Ace Attorney games as well are excellent, I've personally played through the first three. The main thing with visual novels is having a menu based interface, all choices and actions are controlled through a menu system. You don't have direct control over the movement of your character through a controller or mouse, or a text parser to type in commands or actions.

I would say hybrids count as long as the main game style is visual novel. It's like a graphic adventure having arcade sequences, they still count as graphic adventure games.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, it gets fiddly with all the details that separate different adventure game sub-genres. If it's pure text + a text parser, you've got a text adventure. If it's images + a text parser, you've got a graphic adventure. A visual novel has predetermined text choices, and there's typically no player-controlled navigation/exploration, though you can have stuff like that included as a mini-game aspect or to make a hybrid. And if you've got what is essentially a romance visual novel except with stat grinding, then it's a dating sim.

[Mayhem]

Portal on the C64 was definitely one of the first.

[Nz17]

Most of the visual novels that are "well-known" in North America are those with more game-like elements such as Sakura Wars (highly recommended) for PS2/Wii, Ace Attorney for DS/3DS, and the Zero Escape series for DS/3DS.

The Cherry Tree High Comedy Club series (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/54623/) for Windows is very fun and humorous - you are trying to recruit funny people to create a comedy club at the local high school and keep it running.

I'd count Konami's game Time Hollow and Killaware/Marvelous's Lux-Pain for DS as VN's that are worth playing. (I know in 1985 Enix released Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken for the Famicom in Japan.)

Personally, I think that without the puzzles, the Layton games would count as visual novels - it is a matter of opinion if they are VN's as they currently are, though. In my heart, they count, even if they don't technically count.

Cornelius, VN's definitely can have "wrong" choices too. They can even get your character killed. For example, there are many different conclusions to Ever 17 and Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken, and some of those see your character killed/murdered.

These days, there are actually a lot of visual novels cropping up on Steam. This is thanks to Western-developed VN's, Kickstarter/Indiegogo crowdfunded official commercial translations, and of course, unofficial fan translations.

Here are some articles about visual novels' history in the West and East:
---
2016 - http://www.denofgeek.com/us/games/video-games/255200/the-rise-of-the-western-visual-novel
2014 - http://www.usgamer.net/articles/visual-novels-in-america
2011 - http://www.siliconera.com/2011/02/17/visual-novels-a-cultural-difference-between-the-east-and-west/

[Cornelius]

I needed a new portable game to start, and because of this topic I popped in Pheonix Wright. I'm not sure it'd be my thing through multiple games and spinoffs, but good so far. Do most VNs let you save at any point like this one does? I'm curious in the cases where you get killed if it is typically a start over thing, or just go back to the last choice?

[Nz17]

Do most VNs let you save at any point like this one does? I'm curious in the cases where you get killed if it is typically a start over thing, or just go back to the last choice?

Most VN's allow saving at any point and saving to multiple spots. Usually, you also can speed through the text you've already seen, even skipping the lines from the paths which you have seen from the "failed" attempts. A few visual novels will even let you rewind to past branching points/choices, I imagine.

With the Ace Attorney games, it is a good idea to save every time before you take a chance or guess at how to progress so you don't collect too many "health" penalties and eventually lose the case.

[jb143]

I needed a new portable game to start, and because of this topic I popped in Pheonix Wright. I'm not sure it'd be my thing through multiple games and spinoffs, but good so far.

I'm a big fan of mystery type games and the Phoenix Wright games always intrigued me, but the idea of being in the courtroom sounded like it'd be a bit boring, I was more interested in the adventure game parts. After playing though, it was the adventure game parts that I liked the least and couldn't wait to get in the courtroom. If you'd be interested in a game that's more along the lines of a traditional mystery story/game though, 'Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth' is quite good...though possibly the least "Visual Novel" of the bunch.




These days, there are actually a lot of visual novels cropping up on Steam. This is thanks to Western-developed VN's, Kickstarter/Indiegogo crowdfunded official commercial translations, and of course, unofficial fan translations.


It could also have something to do with the free or cheap visual novel toolkits that are available for the various game engines...letting you create one without writing(or even knowing how to write) a single line of code.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, OELVNs (Original English Language VNs) really exploded with the availability of Ren'Py and such. Personally, I still mostly stick to industry-made Japanese VNs. Most indie VNs are too amateurish for my tastes (in the art, music, interface, etc.), and the Western game industry seems to have little interest in VNs, preferring to make other types of adventure games. Sometimes I dabble in doujin VNs, as they're often fairly polished.

[Nz17]

Is it worth completing Sweet Fuse?

[jb143]

And speaking of mysteries, are there any visual mystery novels? Other than the hybrids, that is? I guess for some reason when I'd hear the term "visual novel", I'd always picture a dating sim.

[Nz17]

I'd say Ever 17 might qualify as being a mystery.

[Nz17]

Here are some detective/mystery games/VN's I thought I could mention:
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past (DS, $15)
Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (DS, $15)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS, $20, technically not a visual novel, by the creator of the Ace Attorney series)
Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~ (3DS, $6, download-only, short)
Parascientific Escape ～Cruise in the distant seas～ (3DS, $5, download-only, free demo available)
Parascientific Escape ～Gear Detective～ (3DS, $5, download-only)
Parascientific Escape ～Crossing at the Farthest Horizon～ (3DS, $5, download-only)

[Aussie2B]

Sweet Fuse is excellent and definitely worth completing. It's also a good entry point for people who have never played an otome VN, even more so for Ace Attorney fans, as the artist behind Sweet Fuse also did art for some of those.

From my experience, most non-romance VNs are mysteries/thrillers, whether they're hybrids or not. There's a lot of overlap too, since a lot of romance VNs are also mysteries/thrillers (like the above, Sweet Fuse).

[Gameguy]

Here are some detective/mystery games/VN's I thought I could mention:
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past (DS, $15)
Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (DS, $15)
Those are both the same game. The only difference is that Detective Story contains an additional 3 cases and has better english translation than the Detective Chronicles version. There's no reason to bother with Detective Chronicles at all if you can find the other version.

[jb143]

I'll keep an eye out for the DS games. Ghost Trick I was aware of, of course(see my Avatar), but I'd classify that as a puzzle game with a story. I don't think it even had any adventure game aspects.