General Visual Novel Topic

Off-Topic
#1

I was actually a bit surprised that there wasn’t one of these when the forum started, but I’d be more than happy to start my own!

It seems like most people here have played a few Key visual novels, but Key isn’t the only VN developer out there. What have you guys played outside of Key? What are you currently playing? What are your personal favorites? Anything you want translated? Post about these topics here.

Please use common sense with [spoiler] tags.

I’ll start off the conversation with what I’m currently playing:

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what I’m really looking forward to: (have to thank @minatahatsune for this one)

and of course, my personal favorite:

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#2

If you know me, you’ll know there’s three things I fanboy over:

  • Key.

  • Nintendo.

  • Umineko!

If there’s enough demand I’d love to get an Umineko thread going, but for now I’ll contain my hype here. I freaking love Umineko. Maybe even more than any Key game (HERESY! I did say /maybe/ though.) To me, it’s one of those VNs that stands on it’s own as a literary masterpiece. I’ve played through it’s episodes many many times, and I always find new things to discuss with friends. And like Key games, it’s changed my life in a positive way, strongly influencing how I think and view the world - and I know I’m not alone there. It’s one of those things that, even years after it finished, I still think about it every day. And it’s not going anywhere. I’ve written a few blog posts on how Umineko has influenced me on my blog, if anyone wants to hear me gush more :stuck_out_tongue:

But yeah, Umineko is amazing, and everyone should give it a shot.

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#3

I actually haven’t played Umineko yet, but its pretty high on my (way too long) list of VNs to play. I can see how you could rank a game higher than Key though. Honestly, I would put Aiyoku no Eustia higher than almost every Key game, and that’s saying a lot, because Key has really done a lot for me.

#4

I have three Visual Novels rated 10/10. Two of them are Key, (Kanon and Tomoyo After) but one lucky other managed to break through~
It was full of plot holes, a bit rushed, and felt like an unpolished Sharin no Kuni (A VN I didn’t like much)
Buuuuut, somehow this Visual Novel stuck with me. G-senjou no Maou is pretty amazing in my opinion~ It gets a bit of hate, and I doubt many would give it 10/10, but I have a weird taste ^^;
The main character was interesting, the side characters were interesting, the format of the routes worked really well, and as I am an ENTP with stupidly long hair, Usami Haru really stood out for me~ Ahaha~ I’m the type of person who rates a VN highly if I actually manage to like a character~
The main route was full of adrenaline and excitement, which is what keeps me interested and reading.
The soundtrack was a mishmash of all the famous classics, and it was wonderful to recognize little bits of inspiration within each track~ (Bach and Pachelbel <3)
The H-scenes are there… and creepy stuff like that always scares me away from a VN… but they are incredibly easy to predict! So just close your eyes, press the skip button, and wait for the BGM track to change! XD

Not a story that everyone will enjoy… and it can feel incomplete from what I’ve heard others say about it… but I love it~

I’ve tried Umineko a bunch of times, even finished it… But I never payed much attention to it.
CeciltheDarkKnight kept recommending it to me as he’s a biiig Umineko person, but it really takes effort to get invested in Umineko.

I ignored the anime because the few episodes I saw of it were definitely badly done in comparison to what I remember of the VN.

#5

Same for me, I gave 3 VNs 10/10, two of which were Key. Also, almost everyone that I’ve talked to that’s played G-senjou has loved it. (its actually in the top 10 highest rated VNs on VNDB if you didn’t know) I think that’s the first I’ve heard of the soundtrack though, which is really nice since the music is a large part of why I enjoy VNs.

#6

Oh wow, I didn’t know that. I never really check the rankings on VNDB ><
I haven’t heard many people praise it though… Maybe I look in the wrong places ^^;

I’m surprised Steins;Gate is second! O.o It was good… but it wasn’t amazing…

#7

Steins Gate has tremendous popularity in the west for some reason. I’m in the same boat. It was very good, but I wouldn’t put it that high.

#8

The first VN I played and finished was G-senjou no Maou and to this day it’s still my top favorite VN.
Next was Majikoi, I just ended up reading Chris’ route and stopped after that. I usually just like playing the true route as soon as possible but if there’s no true route I just stick with one heroine.
After that was Rewrite, at first I did what I usually do and pick one heroine and stick with her. First was Lucia, then I was interested in Akane so I did her route and Chihaya’s. After that I kinda lost interest (you have no idea how much I wanna go back in time and slap myself).
Then I played Aiyoku no Eustia since the first english patch was out at the time and it looked really interesting. I was hooked with the setting and characters. My favorite heroine was Eustia, if the patch was a full translation I probably would’ve went straight to her route (I’m guessing it works like G-senjou where each chapter branches to the next chapter or a heroine route and her route is the last true route). It’s a real shame the translator hasn’t updated their website for over a year…
A couple weeks back from now a friend of mine finished Rewrite and urged to me finish it so I did. Not finishing it back then and playing it in the wrong order became my 2nd biggest VN-related regret.

So yeah, I haven’t played many VNs. The next VN I’m playing for sure (when it eventually gets translated) is Angel Beats cause I haven’t watched the anime since around the time it came out so it’ll be somewhat fresh to me. By the way, my biggest VN-related regret would be not playing Little Busters before watching the anime.

#9

Hooray! someone else that actually knows what AnE is!! I haven’t played G-senjou, so I don’t know how its structured, but from what you say it sounds similar. AnE is set up with a hierarchy of character arcs, with each arc having the possibility to branch off into that character’s route, depending on your choices. Which means that in order to get to the true route (the second one based around Eustia) you would have to play through all of the other arcs first. Each route builds off the last though, so if you skipped one you would probably end up completely lost in the next one. Also, @Ixrec (if you didn’t know, he’s the one that did the Rewrite translation) posted on twitter: “There’s actually a (very slow) project for [Aiyoku no Eustia] already. If it doesn’t finish odds are I’ll do it myself someday.” so there might be some hope for it to actually get translated.

As for my next VN; it depends on how fast I finish Cocoro@Function. If it takes me a while to finish it I’ll just play HarukaKanata when it comes out, but if I can finish it fast enough I’ll probably try to squeeze in Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai and its fandiscs before the anime comes out.

#10

[quote=“AngelofDeath720, post:9, topic:108”]
Hooray! someone else that actually knows what AnE is!! I haven’t played G-senjou, so I don’t know how its structured, but from what you say it sounds similar. AnE is set up with a hierarchy of character arcs, with each arc having the possibility to branch off into that character’s route, depending on your choices. Which means that in order to get to the true route (the second one based around Eustia) you would have to play through all of the other arcs first. Each route builds off the last though, so if you skipped one you would probably end up completely lost in the next one. [/quote]

I see, that’s interesting. I personally prefer these kind of linear structures for VNs.

Wow, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day, thanks! I really can’t wait to play the whole thing. There’s so much more I want to know about the plot. I barely got to see any of Licia and Irene during Fione’s arc so I’m interested in learning more about them. I also love how the protagonist was voiced from the start, that’s something you rarely get in VNs.

#11

yeah, I think you get one scene with Licia and two with Saint Irene (though to be fair, you probably didn’t know that she was there in the second one) . All I can really say without spoiling anything about their routes is that Licia’s route gets really intense and fast paced toward the end and Saint Irene’s route is one of the most well written and structured arcs I’ve ever read in a VN. I think Caim having a voice was one of the coolest parts of that game though! It really helps develop his character (especially in relation to Sieg and Melt).

#12

I mainly read / play game-like Visual Novels, with my favourites being the Ace Attorney and Zero Escape (999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors / Virtue’s Last Reward) series.

#13

Have you ever heard of Eushully? They make some really good game-like VNs, but I think Kamidori Alchemy Meister is the only one that’s been translated. My current avatar is actually from one of their games.

#14

No, but looking them up they seem to make eroge novels and I’m not hugely into those, particularly guy-chases-girl ones (which is basically all of them). :confused:

#15

Can’t argue with that logic. Eushully’s slogan is basically: “if you can recruit it, you can fuck it.” And that includes, but it not limited to: tree people, mud monsters, and angels. The gameplay more than makes up for it IMO though.

#16

I’ve been kinda tempted to try some of the girl-chases-guy ones… you know… for science… but they’re pretty far and few between. I’ve also heard that close to all of them include rape which really upsets me because a lot of people close to me have been victims, and I just can’t bring myself to play something that includes it ‘for entertainment’ or whatever.

#17

There are some good ones, but it’s amongst a minefield of horrible stories, hatoful boyfriends, and stuff like The Second Reproduction…
It’s a weird genre.

While it is actually an RPG Maker game, the massively hyped Otome project “Cruel Miracle” has a lot of Visual Novel elements. Trigger Warning though, it is still a creepy Otome game if you make the wrong decisions.

#18

Thanks for the link, but I just never cross the rape line. It is completely disrespectful to those who have had their lives ruined by it, and also, by design, contributes to the idea of victim blaming because they’ve made it a result of your player actions (ie: you made that decision, it is your fault that you got raped). I can’t even begin to describe how dangerous it is to send a message like that.

#19

Oh no, I believe it is planning to be more mature about that. There is no hope of happiness. You could escape the rape, but get killed or eaten alive for escaping…

“The characters are all flawed and there are no happily ever afters”

Oh, and they explain the behavior from everyone’s perspective >.>

#20

Oh I see. If they intend to make a realist representation of rape / child abuse / other stuff they wrote there - rather than make it simply a punishment - then it does sound a lot more appealing. Probably would still be really uncomfortable to read, but if that’s the point then they’ve done their job properly.