The Visual Novels Discussion/Recommendation Thread

[Frenetic]

Hey guys,

Anyone into visual novels? Some of my faves are Famicom Tantei Club part II: The Girl in Back, Narcissu, and Fate/Stay Night. I find they are a great compliment to shmup playing hehehe. Would there be interest for a visual novel podcast/show? Or do you guys have any recs for any visual novel podcasts/webshows?

Thanks,
--the F-man

[MX7]

Still pretty inexperienced with regards to visual novels, but so far have played and enjoyed

The Girl Who Cries Love At The Heart Of The World: YU-NO (God-tier amazing and ridiculously obtuse)
Saya No Uta
Katawa Shojo
Phoenix Wright (all of them)
999
Policenauts
Snatcher

Being a teacher means I've got absolutely no time for games for months on end, followed by several unbroken weeks of free time. Playing STGs seriously has kind of gone out the window. During term I just want to play guitar and watch Buffy and spend my weekends in a drunken stupor. When the holidays come round I'm too shit to really enjoy shooting games due to lack of practice. But visual novels are great to really immerse yourself in, can be finished in one obsessive burst and then that's that.

Going to be monitoring this thread for info and recommendations.

[soprano1]

I liked Ever17: Out of Infinity and Remember 11: The Age of Infinity.

[KAI]

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (technically a Sound Novel)
Awesome music, Awesome Story, Awesome mystery. Play it with headphones for a better experience.
Here's the Demo of the first chapter if you want to try it.

[iconoclast]

I've only played handheld VNs: Ace Attorney 1-4, 999 & Virtue's Last Reward, and Danganronpa 1 & 2. There's also Ghost Trick, which was written & directed by the Ace Attorney guy, but that's more of an adventure/puzzle game. Still has a great story, though.

[Ruldra]

Genuinely enjoyed Katawa Shoujo, Narcissu & Narcissu 2nd and Saya no Uta. Only read the first episode of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni and thought it was amazing. Check out the link in KAI's post if you haven't seen this one already.

Currently trying Long Live the Queen, didn't spend too much time with this one yet. VN with a theme of medieval politics, the queen was murdered and you, as the princess, needs to survive the year to become queen yourself and ensure your kingdom is in good shape. So far I'm playing as a just and fair leader, but I already pissed off a few nobles so I might have some assassins after me already. There's a demo available for this one.

And yesterday I was checking out the demo of Analogue: A Hate Story. Might pick up this one. Anyone familiar with it?

[Ruldra]

By the way, I really hope this becomes a discussion thread too. Part of the fun of VNs is discussing the story and characters with other people. Go ahead and say what you think of a story or character of a particular VN if you feel like it.

[Tamagon]

I've read a bit of Higurashi

[BIL]

Not really into VNs but I just popped in to say, some of Saya no Uta's soundtrack is amazing. I occasionally like to blast "Schizophrenia" really loud after getting home at the end of a long day.

[drauch]

^Hell yeah. Been playing Saya no Uta myself recently. That song is killer.

My all time favorite is Swan Song. Suuuuuper depressing survival story that's quite long. Everything else I've played hast just been super sexy and pretty low brow, so I probably won't recommend those.

Really need to pick back up YU-NO. As mentioned, it's amazing and very well written. Really wish more classic VNs could get translated. I need that classic PC-98 sound and aesthetic!

Anyone pick up that Nitro Steins;gate release awhile back? Got it and promptly shelved it because I wasn't in the mood by the time it finally came out. Hope they keep it up; they've had a lot of titles in limbo for years now.

[Ruldra]

Not really into VNs but I just popped in to say, some of Saya no Uta's soundtrack is amazing. I occasionally like to blast "Schizophrenia" really loud after getting home at the end of a long day.

If you can look past the sex scenes and the loli, I think you'd enjoy Saya no Uta. The story is pretty good, if downright grim.

Anyone pick up that Nitro Steins;gate release awhile back? Got it and promptly shelved it because I wasn't in the mood by the time it finally came out. Hope they keep it up; they've had a lot of titles in limbo for years now.

Heard nothing but good stuff about Steins;Gate and I plan to get it. My backlog of VNs is quite big at the moment and want to finish them before I get new ones though.

In other news, Higurashi was greenlighted and will be on Steam in the future (no release date yet). Hope to see Umineko there one day too.

[Lord Satori]

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (technically a Sound Novel)
Awesome music, Awesome Story, Awesome mystery. Play it with headphones for a better experience.
Here's the Demo of the first chapter if you want to try it.

Hell yeah! Really love that series. Incredible soundtrack, too. The anime would be good as well if they made the entire thing instead of just the first part...

edit: so after reading a few comments and descriptions of Saya no Uta, I think I'm probably going to be forever hesitant to try it out.

[Skykid]

My eyes. Can't believe educated people recommending Katawa Shoujo. *sheds tears for human race*

Snatcher, Space Adventure Cobra, Gyakuten Saiban 1 - 3, Policenauts - greatly enjoyed them all, Snatcher still being best.

[MX7]

Looks like I'll be playing Space Adventure Cobra next. And I've got a holiday coming in 2 days :O

Stiens Gate sounds like an awesome concept but the art style puts me off. Same for a lot of modern VNs. There's something about PC-98 graphics and sound that's just perfect when it accompanies long chewy exposition.

[soprano1]

The DS has some nice stuff besides Ace Attourney, like Jake Hunter: Memories of the Past, of the Tantei Jinguuji Saburo series.

[Skykid]

Looks like I'll be playing Space Adventure Cobra next. And I've got a holiday coming in 2 days :O

Enjoy! It has a strangely poor reputation, but aside from a few obvious and often bewildering quirks that could have been handled better, it's a super 80s sci-fi adventure that's thoroughly engrossing. Worth noting while Cobra retains all his playboy charm, the tone is less slapstick and more serious than the TV series, making him more a Han Solo-alike. But it works very well tonally.

[manatworks]

hmmm? how about Planetarian? I like the set up ,also "my first VN"

Saya No Uta got really interesting set up/concept (providing that you can get over many stuffs in that one, including "we're fucked anyway" on both endings)

I really like Steins;Gate novel (the book) but didn't get around to play the game yet. it seems that i don't have that much time to sit down and read VN at Clannad's length anymore

Clannad is ok-ish on some arc ,some of them are downright annoying to read while some of them are really heartbreaking. I spend 120 hours reading the whole goddamn thing but not quite sure if i can recommend it to you guys here.

[amdiggywhut]

Game of Thrones fans should check out the two Dunk and Egg graphic novels:

The Hedge Kinght
The Sworn Sword

[Ruldra]

hmmm? how about Planetarian? I like the set up ,also "my first VN"

Didn't particularly like that one, mainly because I don't like the kind of character that is Reverie. Plus I don't think a hardened scavenger running out of supplies would hang around in that city for long. Once he realized there was nothing for him to loot in the planetarium, I like to imagine that he left and never came back.

I guess it's an "okay" VN, but nothing I'd go out of my way to tell people about.

Funny enough, the thing that caught my attention the most in that game was the save system. Each save is color coded, indicates which chapter you're in, date and time played, you can also drag and drop to switch save slots, and the chapter list has colored bookmarks to indicate which save corresponds to which chapter, changing accordingly when you switch save slots. Someone spent a long time coding that system and did an amazing job at it.

[Rob]

Stiens Gate sounds like an awesome concept but the art style puts me off.

Yeah,



Listening to the voice talent is even worse.

I was led by some to believe I was going to get a good story with Steins;Gate, but only saw snippets of anything between the nonstop wackiness and in-jokes.

Sakura Taisen kind of fits in here, I think. 3 was somehow enjoyable.

[cj iwakura]

Steins;Gate is a masterwork. Ignore any spoilers and dive in.

It's probably my favorite. Very well paced. Umineko's payoff is great, but boy does it take a while to get there.

Fate/Stay Night is the same way. Most VNs have mad pacing issues.

I still hope we get Robotics;Notes translated some day, even if it isn't as good as Steins. Not the same artist, either(which I consider a big step back).

And for Halloween, if you want short and spooky and wonderful, Phenomeno.




Download
http://www.nitroplus.co.jp/game/phenomeno/

English Patch!
http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.org/tag/phenomeno/


Re: Analogue, definitely a must-play.

[Ruldra]

And for Halloween, if you want short and spooky and wonderful, Phenomeno.

I tried getting the game from their site but the file is over 800 MB and it stops downloading halfway through. In the end I found a torrent link at Fuwanovel, english patch included: http://fuwanovel.org/novels/phenomeno

And thanks for the recommendation. I checked out a number of freeware VNs in the past but this one completely escaped me.

[Teufel_in_Blau]

Did I see a link to a torrent site? I'm sure I saw a link to a torrent site.

[soprano1]

Did I see a link to a torrent site? I'm sure I saw a link to a torrent site.

It's freeware...

[Teufel_in_Blau]

I know, it's just a joke. Since the banning of mjclark (RIP), I can't help to think about this avatar whenever I see somebody linking to a torrent.

/e

Well, to add a little to the discussion. The only VNs that I played were Chaos; Head (which I actually enjoyed), Girlfriend of Steel (a NGE VN) and this Katawa Shoujo thing, which I found actually quite good, especially for something that came out of 4chan. I own I''s Pure for the PS2, but my knowledge of Japanese is not good enough to really enjoy it, maybe one day. I also 'played' some of those highly pornographic VNs, but I would rather not say their titles...

[drauch]

I also 'played' some of those highly pornographic VNs, but I would rather not say their titles...

LET'S HEAR IT.

[BryanM]

I also 'played' some of those highly pornographic VNs, but I would rather not say their titles...

We're all weeaboo here. You're weeaboo. I'm weeaboo. Let's be weeaboo together.

[Frenetic]

Oh btw, Kazamatsuri.org (a sort of STGWeekly of Visual Novels, they're focused on Key's Visual Novels) Has done a podcast on Planetarian, which is available on Steam. They started a book club some time ago so be on the lookout for the next one!

http://kazamatsuri.org/kazamatsuri-org- ... -bookclub/

--the F-man

[Frenetic]

I got to attend the Sekai Project panel at PMX and ask them some questions about insani/Daitoshokan.

Clannad got funded in one day. However, if you missed the early bird they said they'll release more on Black Friday:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/se ... sh-release

Something is happening in the world of visual novels.

--the F-man

[Ruldra]

Something is happening in the world of visual novels.

With Planetarian, Higurashi and now Clannad coming over, it does feel that way. Good to see they're realizing there's a big market for VNs in the west. Hopefully we can see some of the obscure JP ones coming over in the future (namely, White Album 2).

With that said, I tried Clannad for a while and didn't like it one bit. The anime is a good adaptation so watch a few episodes to see if it's your thing, but it definitely didn't appeal to me.

By the way, I was checking out the VNs on Steam and World End Economica caught my eye. Worth buying?