Maybe… maybe not but totally peaceful with Two yandere on the loose
@Pepe
I see the anthology is included in the Steam summer sale, so I may just go ahead and try it out, plus with the first and second being free it’s a nice way to give a reward back to the devs.
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The guys behind Narcissu deserve everything they get and more. Kataoka, GP and Agi (plus Haeleth rip) are big reasons as to why VNs became popular with English readers.
I’ve gone a bit mad with the summer sale but have gone for one of the Narcissu Anthology (Sumire). I’ve also bought:
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning
G-senjou no Maou
Symphonic Rain
Zero Time Escape Trilogy
If LB! does come out any time soon I shall be massively over my games budget for June and July!
With Higurashi 1 - 5 already in my library I now have the dilemma of which to play next…
EDIT: having now enjoyed Himeko’s Epilogue in Narcissu I went for the whole anthology after all.
Symphonic Rain is an absolutely amazing visual novel. I’m so happy (and shocked) it got a proper steam release, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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Finished the Narcissu 10yr Anthology stories which was about 30 hours reading on top of the 8 or so for 1st and 2nd. Very good, very enjoyable but sad of course. Definitely worth going for the non-free content IMO if you enjoy the two free ones.
Iris: It’s not a similar story but being a GoT fan I couldn’t help but think of Arya and The Hound for a good part of it!
Zero: Lovely story-telling again giving the origin of the 7th floor setting.
Sumire: TBH I struggled for a long time making sense of Akira’s chapters until I got that it was blurring fantasy / reality , but it does make sense to include it. As for Sumire itself, well again it just draws you in and doesn’t let go right to the end.
I suspect the Narcissu series will be amongst my favourite VNs no matter how many I read through. Ranks just a little below Clannad and Steins;Gate but a clear 3rd in my rankings as of now.
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Yeah in order to understand Akira’s story I really had to go into figuring out the original VN she was from (also called Sumire) and knowing the existence of that (I just read the plot blurbs on VNDB) kind of really connects Akira’s story to everything. I won’t say her route is well-written or anything like that, but as a supplement to the Sumire story it really adds more making it a perfect culmination to the series
Plus Akira is totally my favorite character in the entire Narcissu series, not gonna lie
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So I’m preeetty sure you can’t even spell your favorite character’s name correctly. It’s either Akari or I’m crazy.
I think Yuka is actually my favorite of the series. I mean, I guess it helps that she is one of the few characters who isn’t sick/dying/dead but seeing her development and changes across the series and how connected she truly is so many of the characters and how her interactions carry great meaning because of her past relationships was just really powerful to me. I feel like she is the character we can learn the most from.
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Ha, the misspelling was my fault! I do that swapping vowels thing with Japanese names a lot 
I agree with what you say about Yuka but I don’t really have a favourite as such though possibly Himeko edges it.
Yes you are indeed correct.
I shall go hide under my rock now 
(also I totally do not push the blame on @BotanRugbyBall; forgetting my favorite character’s correct name is my fault and mine alone!)
Oh man, Yuka in Sumire was just amazing! Totally did not expect that comeback from her at all. But it makes sense, and I am glad they found a place for her in the grander narrative of Narcissu.
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I’ve been reading Ginharu for a while (slowly, though). I did try Hoshi Ori, but the heroines didn’t appeal to me. As for Ginharu, I’m liking it so far. The cozy winter theme, the middle school setting (which, I believe, takes most of the common route. I still haven’t left middle school…), the heroines, all appeal to me. The differential of this VN is how it doesn’t restrain itself to high school (like most do), but covers the protagonist’s life from childhood until adulthood. I hope it’ll be a fun ride. Best girl so far is Mizuha.
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As a side project and distraction from LB! not releasing, I decided to pick up a game by one of the Summer Pocket writers as to get a feel for what to expect. I ended up getting Hatsuyuki Sakura directed and written by Niijima Yuu. It’s obviously not enough of a sample size, but it’s something.
The most unique part of the writing was the exposition in that there was barely any of it. I’d describe Hatsuyuki Sakura as a thriller/mystery thing, and most of that comes from the characters knowing so much more than they tell you. Most of the game is dialogue, so you don’t learn anything that the characters wouldn’t tell others. For an example, we have the character Ran. For the “prologue,” which is maybe 5 hours long, you don’t learn anything about her other than her being a loli who lives in MC’s house; she also regularly beats him up for being a fucking alcoholic. The game is very dreary, and this lack of information always make the characters seem distant. I could see this atmosphere being fitting for the pirate hunt or something.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the comedy… The comedy is by far the weakest part of the writing; I’d say it works maybe 30% of the time. While it’s not as far as I thought it would be, HS definitely goes into generic trash eroge territory a lot of the time. Its main form of comedy, however, is word play. This seems like the writing aspect most likely to make it into SP, though the awful puns pretty much only come from the protagonist and main heroine, so maybe it was just meant to be their thing. Anyway, we’re talking physically painful puns here, but when the word play was good, it was really good. I would feel really bad for anyone tried to translate this game. If Kai could manage to filter away the 70% of bad word play, Niijima’s writing in SP could be really cool because I love good word play.
I’m not sure how large an influence Niijima would have over the plot of SP since he’s not the director, but apparently he has a thing for tragedies. Hatsuyuki Sakura is definitely that and supposedly Natsuyume Nagisa too. I also really like how HS handled the cancerous token loli. She had a really dumb comedy schtick, but her route was interesting. It was very funny how the MC doesn’t actually have sex with her as a loli. The only loli sex scene is her in imagination, and it’s hilarious because her only reference to how sex works is a manga. She calls her vagina “The Spring of Happiness,” while imagination MC’s dick is “The Elephant” complemented by him making elephant noises. SP is probably not gonna be 18+, but a sarcastically written loli route is always welcome.
In general, Hatsuyuki Sakura was okay. It lacked emotional impact a lot of the time; I’m not sure if it was the writing or the music or what. I’d have to re-read it to figure that out.
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Around 3 days ago I started Soukoku no arterial in japanese and I’m really enjoying the history. Someone here already read it?
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I started reading Island several days ago, and I have just started the winter route. It is an amazing story. I am looking forward to the anime of Island.
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This has most likely been asked before, but do you guys prefer reading your visual novels with or without voice acting? I personally dislike voice acting, as I feel it slows my reading down, so when I read planetarian, I turned it off. Then again, I come from having visual novels without any voice acting at all.
Forgive me if this has been asked before, or it it’s improper to place a poll in a post other than the opening post. I did take another look at the code of conduct just to be sure, and also tried using the search function. I could not find a thread on opinions of voice acting while reading visual novels specifically, but I am sure it exists somewhere, so I did not want to potentially create a duplicate topic…
- No to voice acting
- Yes to voice acting
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Can’t stand VNs without voice acting. Very few manage to keep me interested without it, and the ones that have are also very short. Voices don’t slow my reading down because I usually move onto the next line before the voice completes the sentence, but the initial approach to voicing the dialogue is enough for me to imagine the rest of the line while I read.
Some visual novels are also pretty dependent on voice over. Kanon for example tells a lot of its story through voice-over, and playing it without voices would lead to you missing a large chunk of story.
Oh, and for reference, I’m the kind of person who thinks books/manga are a complete waste of time, so voice over is a big reason as to why VNs aren’t the same.
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Interesting!
The reason I say voice acting slows my reading down is because I can’t stand to interrupt the lines, so I feel like I have to wait for the voice to catch up.
I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone who things manga and books are a waste of time, so that’s certainly a new outlook for me. Is it the voice acting specifically that catches your interest?
VNs with voice acting all the way. I wouldn’t discredit a VN if it didn’t have voice acting, but I think voice acting can only benefit a VN. Even if you don’t understand what they’re saying, voices give more life to the character and make some scenes have more impact. Tone of voice in particular can give you a different perspective on something someone says that is done better than having a line of text. Voice acting in general is a benefit that VNs have over normal books along with music and visuals, so I prefer it when VNs take advantage of it.
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I wouldn’t say it catches my interest, more that it is a requirement. I’m not all that interested in Visual Novels nowadays, but I much prefer them to books.
If I’m reading, I also have to be listening; I can’t do a task without audio. If the thing I’m listening to isn’t a good match, I just get distracted by the music. If there’s no music, I just do something more involving.
It isn’t all on audio though—voice acting, visuals, music—I look for anything that takes away the paragraphs of monotonous description and gives me something relevant to listen to. A Visual Novel feels much more alive than a simple paper print. A terribly written VN such as Shuffle has a better chance at keeping me engaged than the best that paper has to offer, because a VN has so much feedback.
It doesn’t matter if you draw as well as Ito or describe as well as Hemingway, I can’t appreciate it until you inject life into it. I understand the charm of written word is the promotion of imagination, but man, I don’t wanna put in the work to bring someone else’s story to life; I want my entertainment to be as effort-free as possible.
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I see. I agree with several of the points you’ve made here! Voice acting certainly can add to the feeling of a story. While I personally will turn off voice acting if I can, I understand how it can be beneficial and expand upon the world presented! Thanks so much for your input! 
I found your response quite interesting to read.
@Takafumi
You’re an interesting person, in my opinion. It may be because I find your opinions very different from my own, and I can’t say I’ve ever encountered them before. But exposure is a good thing, and I’m very thankful to have you as part of this discussion! I agree with you when you say a visual novel feels much more alive than simple print, but that doesn’t discourage me from enjoying solely printed works. I can appreciate the strengths of both types of media. I personally enjoy paragraphs of description - anything that sets the scene with extreme clarity, though this is probably because my favorite visual novel, Umineko, has filtered images as backgrounds and thus must make use of descriptions to really set the feel. I think it’s very tastefully used, either way. I very much appreciate your response because it shines a light on a view point I’ve never even considered before; that entertainment can also be enjoyed as effort-free as possible. That’s a really interesting way to look at things, and I’ll definitely ponder over it for a while.
I thank you both for your contributions to this discussion! It’s mentally stimulating.
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