Visual Novel Recommendations (with filters)

Off-Topic
#7

It’s pretty hard to find anything if you make too many demands.

Also, please explain what exactly your definition of horror-ish is. A real possibility of characters dying? Gore and/or detailed descriptions of deaths and suffering? Scary pictures? Fear-inducing narration?

Yes, Symphonic Rain is a wonderful recommendation. Depending on your definition of horror-ish, Ever17 would be an excellent choice as well. It’s 30-50 hours in length.

If you can disregard the length restriction completely, there’s Narcissu and Narcissu Side 2nd. They’re both very short and I personally found the first one a bit underwhelming while Side 2nd was certainly good.

For >50h, there’s Umineko no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru, but they’re very horror-ish.

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#8

Yeah, that’s what I mean by horror-ish. Things that center itself around scaring you and it’s primary purpose is to creep you out, not like LB refrain but like chaos;head and higurashi.

#9

That means Umineko is definitely out (it’s written by the same guy as Higurashi) while Ever17 should be ok for you.

#10

Katawa Shoujo is a good pick. It’s pretty long, but there’s no true route.

True Remembrance is also good, but a bit shorter. And yeah Narcissu, but really short.

#11

I started reading Katawa Shoujo and finished Hanako but then the H-scenes came which really ruined the entire novel for me.

#12

I swear I remember hearing about a way to turn them off in KS.

Also, while I guess it’s not my place to pry and I can totally understand H-scenes being jarring and frustrating, does it really totally ruin a novel for you? I’m interested to hear your stance on H-scenes in the discussion thread.

#13

Oh shoot sorry, I totally forgot about those. You can turn them off with an option in the menu.

However, it only removes the CGs. Nude character images still appear even when this option is selected (learned this the hard way… lol)

#14

I was thinking of contributing to that thread but the last post was oct 20 so I think it’s dead. And you can turn them off in KS but it is part of the novel and thats basically like ripping pages off a book. I just think that if they decided to put H-scenes in them that means they have plot development and its something that has to be read. I don’t think people would randomly put H-scenes just for the fun of it.

#15

In general, yes, but KS was written such that the H-scenes have absolutely no bearing on the plot at all. (Word of god from the authors)

Anyway, other than KS, I can’t think of any other high-quality Key-type VNs. An similar one is Grisaia no Kajitsu… but H-scenes galore…

#16

Necro-posting is welcome on Kaza. If you comment on a thread, people will come back~

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#17

Right now, there’s at least two people in this topic who would join you if you posted in the H-scenes thread, so go ahead.

Actually, they kinda do. We discussed that in the H-scenes thread as well.

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#18

Oh god, I read up to the first H-scene with Makina, it really disgusted me when Makina was cry and depressed that the store blew up and instead of Yuuji consoling Makina, he just has sex with her. It just ruined the entire VN for me. It really sucks reading the top quality VNs by Key and then knowing that no other VN will top what you already read and its only downhill from there.

#19

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss all visual novels as worse than Key stories without even reading them. H-scenes don’t always detract from a story, in fact, I’d implore you to read something like Cross Channel whose tone (to me) was greatly aided by those scenes. Although I don’t think you’d enjoy it from what you’ve said thus far.

This is getting away from the main topic, though. I guess the point is that there aren’t a ton of visual novels that fit such a tight criteria so it’s probably in your best interest to try not to let a short scene completely ruin the rest of a great story. It’s just an unfortunate part about the medium.

#20

+1 Ever17

I thought Katawa Shoujo was good, but it was also like my second VN, so you know, nostalgia and crap. Can’t argue with the OST tho.

If you want the journey, read Fate/Stay Night. Don’t know if you’ve watched any of the anime, but the Fate franchise is probably my favorite after Key. And, with many thanks to Jacktheinfinte and all his hard work, there is a patch for Realta Nua that lets you pretty much customize what components of all the versions of the game you want to play with. So H-scenes or H-alt-scenes, what OPs play, etc.

#21

I’m open to test the waters and things alike but the short scene is either, in the small amounts of VNs I’ve read, put in the climax of the character’s storyline, or there’s multiple H-scenes within that one part. If you know some VNs that have very minimal H-scenes, i’m open to try it. Yeah i’m definitely going to read ever17. But with Fate/Stay Night, I was looking around and apparently you have a 3 way with rin and saber which is just unattractive. But with that patch, that game looks a lot more appealing. Will definitely read it with the patch, thanks!

#22

Beep beep. H-scene hater coming through~

I couldn’t even start the Makina route. She started getting pretty creepy as the common route went on… (I thought Grisaia was pretty bad though, so I didn’t really want to get into any of the routes at all.)

Eww, Ever17. Eww Cross Channel.
Quick notes on Cross Channel. I did like… 5 routes in that VN (first five weeks of course) and wasn’t aware I even did the first route until the H-scene came up because I was skipping through so much rubbish. It hurls you right into it, gives you a really early H-scene, and then gets really repetitive and confusing. Struggled to keep an interest in it at all. Youko route was fairly interesting, but it was nothing special.

Do you have a VNDB list so I can see what you’ve read? (We should really make a topic for that.) I’ll give you some recommendations anyway, but a list would help find VNs you might like. Oh, Key isn’t the best at VNs, so don’t just stick with them. They do great work and have a solid structure for their VNs (usually) but there are some amazing stories out there that are just better overall. Staying with Key is limiting your genre choices too, which isn’t ideal. Stepping into new territory is refreshing~
All of the fanmade patches I bring up are patches I’ve personally checked to assure they don’t remove anything important or sentimental, so don’t worry about losing anything~

First up: G-Senjou no Maou. One of my favorite VNs~ This isn’t natively all-ages, but there is a patch by the people who did the english translation called the “Nudity-free patch.” It still includes suggestive text and imagery, but explicit content is removed. You lose some comedy moments, but I’m not big on comedy, so that’s fine. The H-scenes in this VN aren’t badly written though. There are things added to not make them just awkward money-grabbing inclusions, but it is perfectly fine without the explicit content~
To get the best experience from this VN, there is a specific route order to go through, so a guide is recommended. You will unfortunately miss out on things if you don’t. The VN isn’t very well organized with it’s routes, but the story is so hypey and great.

Second: Coμ. A recently translated VN that comes with on option in the menu to turn H-scenes off. The H-scenes in this game are totally pointless, and there is enough leading up to and following from each H-scene for you to fill in the blanks without being shown it. Now, I want to note something before I recommend this… ratings wise, I gave this a 6/10, which is a high average to me, but I imagine most people would think higher of it. It’s a favorite for a lot of people. I found the overall experience to be underwhelming, but I enjoyed every moment of it. There’s a bunch of great characters, a great soundtrack, good world-building and hours of content to invest yourself in, so there’s really no reason to think negatively of it.

As mentioned above, Narcissu is great. Whenever Narcissu is brought up, I make sure to recommend Moonshine and Tokoyo no Hoshizora. They aren’t as good as Narcissu, but they are worth reading. Christine Love’s Digital and Analogue are really interesting too.

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#23

Yeah, personally I quite enjoyed Analogue. It’s a short and unique experience, plus it’s not hard to pick it up on Steam. That said, it’s not a traditional visual novel, though, so know that going in.

#24

Well all these Visual Novels should keep me busy for a year or so. Also never thought about having a VNDB account, I have a MAL account and all but not VNDB, thats something to add to the bucket list.

#25

I will definitely definitely recommend Symphonic Rain. Sure, it isn’t epicly long, but it will surely take you on a journey :wink:

#26

Necro posting is very much encouraged here on Kaza. We don’t have too many new topics created around here, so discussion in old topics is usually pretty welcome.

That said, the H scene thread is probably the only thread on here that should remain dead. Things tend to get pretty heated in that thread, and nothing ever really comes from it.