Visual Novels?

[sparkykandy]

Anyone play/read them?  Any recommendations?  Have any favorites that you can't help but gush about?

I played a few: Katawa Shoujo, Cinders, and Nameless.  I have yet to play any that's made in Japan though, even though I know visual novels are less niche there.

 I really enjoyed Nameless and now is thinking of getting Dandelion sometime down the road.  (They're made by the same company.  Only problem with Dandelion is that's a dating sim, and I read that the stats raising gets tiresome.)  I ended up buying the Nameless drama CD shortly after finishing Nameless.  It arrived today, and now I sort of want more after reading the English script.  I'm pretty happy that it takes place after the events of the game, since the game's ending was kind of abrupt.

Nameless Drama CD plus goodies

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The only thing I actually bought was the drama CD which came with an English script.  Everything else was a freebie from Chertiz.  The freebies were a nice touch, especially considering the cost of shipping. 

[ringwraith10]

There are a few I've played, but I intend to explore the genre a lot more. I like some of the ones by Winter Wolves. Then there are a few games that people call Visual Novels but they're really not (like "Long Live the Queen", which I LOVE, but it isn't a VN).

But this is also a topic that could get touchy here on the kid-friendly arena, since so many VNs are NOT kid friendly (and even the really innocent, sweet ones are sometimes mistaken as belonging to the other category...).

I think I'll go home and replay "Always Remember Me" -- I only played it once but, of course, there are lots of potential endings!

[Violet CLM]

But this is also a topic that could get touchy here on the kid-friendly arena, since so many VNs are NOT kid friendly (and even the really innocent, sweet ones are sometimes mistaken as belonging to the other category...).

Exactly my thought. Katawa Shoujo is wonderful but would be very hard to discuss here.

Visual novels are a genre I'm currently in the process of getting into, so I can't name a whole lot, but Voices from the Sea should be totally kid-friendly. There's also Narcissu 1st and 2nd, which isn't sexual at all and may take you in some interesting directions involving things like "feels." It's very stylized, too, with its odd letterbox screen.

I keep wanting to make a VN about some of the background characters from Equestria Girls, but there's always some other project to work on first. Oh well.

[sparkykandy]

Didn't even think about the adult only visual novels. D'oh!  (I am kind of curious about how many visual novels out there are non-adult only now...)

After playing Nameless, I kind of wanted more that was like it.  (As in an otome game with compelling characters, pretty artwork, and has plenty of funny moments.)  Chertiz is definetly on my radar of developers to keep on eye on.  I know that they're coming up with a new game called Mystic Messenger though I'm kind of confused as to how it will play.  (The website mentions that it's a storytelling messenger game, and I don't know what that is.)

I did like Cinders when I first played it, but I think prefer visual novels that have multiple paths rather than one path that changes based on your choices. 

[BlackCurtains]

Yeah, the only ones I've played are uh, of the 'other' variety

[sd_dreamcrystal]

Visual novel is a new one on me, I work in a library and we have what is called Graphic Novels.. which is like Mangas only not backwards

What are Visual novels exactly?

[Violet CLM]

What are Visual novels exactly?

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The archetypal visual novel looks like that. They're digital software (desktop-based, browser-based, phone-based, whatever), and most of the time the screen contains a background, one or more characters, and a large text box at the bottom. There may be some additional UI--save/load buttons, etc.--but that's all you really need. You press some key to advance the story, and maybe a character says something else, or someone else says something, or there's a bit of narration instead of dialogue, or the scene changes altogether. Whatever.

Some are closer to scripts than novels, since most of the text is taken up by dialogue, which is presented script-style instead of with "x said" tags or anything. Others are more narrative. Either way, the defining feature is that the screen has an image as well as words, and the image will change at various times as the story progresses, though usually not as dramatically as a full comic book. Often each character will only have one or two separate poses, maybe with some variations in expressions, in the whole game.

Gameplay consists of pressing continue and sometimes making a decision in the same way as a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Some have lots and lots of decisions, others ("kinetic" visual novels) have none at all.

After that, people are free to put in pretty much anything they want. Some VNs have animated sequences. Others have fully animated characters and/or backgrounds. Many have voice actors for all the lines. There may be times that other sorts of gameplay are injected, however temporarily, like playing a card game to determine how the story branches or selecting somewhere on a map for the protagonist to go next. But the core bit is pressing continue to see the next line of dialogue or narration, together with whatever accompanying changes to the background or characters.

[Lore-Lei]

Oh I LOVE visual novels. I've read almost all of the Sono Hanabira series, as well as Kud Wafter (Safe version).

Once I learn how to draw digitally too, I'll totally make my own. I already have RenPy and know the basics of it.

[kaoskat]

Not really my thing. I hope you can find some you like!