Visual Novels

[TheRapingDragon]

Over the last year I've started playing a few of these so I thought I'd start a thread to see what others thought, maybe get a few suggestions of more to try.

I started with 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors on Nintendo DS and loved it. Ended up finishing every arc and getting the true ending. Moved on to Virtue's Last Reward and, although I liked it enough to finish it once all the way through, it didn't grab me as much as 999.

Over the last couple of months I blazed through Danganronpa 1 and 2 and thought they were amazing. There was a couple of times in 2 when its logic went into old-school Sierra territory with making no sense (looking at you, class trial #2) but the storytelling and writing were brilliant.

Now I'm playing through Steins;Gate with Krissy and enjoying it so far (only on chapter 2/about 5 hours in), though I have to admit the terminology is thrown in thick and fast in the first couple of hours so I could see it putting off a fair few people.

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Visual Novels

I'm guessing (hoping) most of those you mentioned come with English patches and are easily purchased somewhere that's not a full-on Japanese site?

Looking through your list I realise I've also played Hotel Dusk (in truth I don't remember much about it) and Katawa Shoujo (only finished one route).

[AutotelicBrown]

Re: Visual Novels

Steins;Gate is a good pick and so are the ones you already played.

Anyway, considering translated only some suggestions would be Saya no Uta (short read, pretty much a classic), Rewrite (if you are in any way familiar with anything from Key, I'd say it's their best work), Sengoku Rance (less reading oriented though, but gameplay and soundtrack are A+), YU-NO (really old, but is an interesting read), Umineko no Naku Koro ni (at least the first 4 chapters), Kara no Shoujo, Ever17 and World End Economica (e c o n o m i c s, available on steam). If you consider it a VN, phoenix wright (any of the games) is always a good pick as well.

At least those I think have somewhat wider appeal, but I could recommend some more niche stuff as well.

[RyogaTELB]

Re: Visual Novels

The Muv Luv Trilogy is one of my top picks. Takes place in the same universe as the infamous anime Rumbling Hearts (Kimi nozo ga eien). It starts with Muv Luv:Extra (Starting point), Muv Luv: Unlimited (The game will let you know when it's time to move on), then finish it off with Muv Luv: Alternative (No route choices, just a very long true ending path).

Do not youtube anything. Do not look for a summary. Go into this story as blind as possible for a good time.

The only hint I'll give is the real story starts after you do the two main girls stories in extra.

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Visual Novels

Thanks for the suggestions. Will probably be a while until I get around to these but I'll let you know when I do.

With only being able to play Steins Gate at the weekend due to both of us working, I can see it lasting a good couple of months before it's finished. So far I'm enjoying it enough to feel that I'll play through it more than once to go for the inevitable true ending.

[roundbox]

Re: Visual Novels

Yoooo didn't see this thread

Here's my vndb profile: https://vndb.org/u100626/list

You'll probably like Ever17, but be aware that it's incredibly long. Steins;Gate is also good but the text messaging system for branching paths was so confusing for me at first. It's really subtle and threw me off the first few times through.

[DaBackpack]

Re: Visual Novels

The Muv Luv Trilogy is one of my top picks. Takes place in the same universe as the infamous anime Rumbling Hearts (Kimi nozo ga eien). It starts with Muv Luv:Extra (Starting point), Muv Luv: Unlimited (The game will let you know when it's time to move on), then finish it off with Muv Luv: Alternative (No route choices, just a very long true ending path).

Do not youtube anything. Do not look for a summary. Go into this story as blind as possible for a good time.

The only hint I'll give is the real story starts after you do the two main girls stories in extra.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes ye eys

[DaBackpack]

Re: Visual Novels

MLA is widely regarded as the "best" VN ever made, and you should totally read it eventually, but I actually don't know if I'd recommend it to you yet. You should probably get some other VNs under your belt first --- I read the game over a year ago and I haven't completed any other VNs since. In a sense I'm glad I read other stories beforehand.

Good starter picks are Ace Attorney, Saya no Uta, Ever17, and Fate/stay night.
My favorites are MLA, CLANNAD, Umineko, and Little Busters! in that order, so you should check those out too (CLANNAD has an arguably superior anime adaptation so you can watch it instead of reading it).

EDIT: But finish Steins;Gate first. It's also really good (way better than the anilme)

and here's my list https://vndb.org/u35419/list?c=all;v=0;t=-1;o=d;s=vote

[DaBackpack]

Re: Visual Novels

I'd say that if you haven't read CLANNAD yet then hold off on reading it for the time being. The TL that's out now is pretty shoddy (some of After Story is machine-TL I believe) and a new one is supposed to be out pretty soon...or maybe it already is and I'm behind on the times.

True, I think the latter half of After Story is most machine TL

the new TL is slated for a November release iirc

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Visual Novels

Finished Steins;Gate. The first third was tough to get through in all honesty but after that it was great. We played it for around 5 hours today finishing it and it was heart-rending. I was letting my wife make all the decisions so ending wise:

Got Suzuha's ending where you don't send the D-Mail at the end of Chapter 6. I had to explain after the two dozen hints to send a D-mail that the game was giving her a choice and just shouting at Okarin that he was making the wrong decision wasn't going to change anything...

After a quick look at a guide for the other achievements during the game, we'll play through it again to see the bits we missed, get the other endings, then fly through it again for the true ending.

[DaBackpack]

Re: Visual Novels

absolutely need to do the true ending~ it's the high point of the game imo

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Visual Novels

absolutely need to do the true ending~ it's the high point of the game imo

Finished Steins;Gate and got the platinum trophy. Also saw that the anime was on Netflix so started watching that. Regarding the true ending of the game:

Parts of it dragged in all honesty. The speech from future Okabe was the worst piece of writing in the entire game. It was as if they wanted an inspirational speech but didn't have enough to say, so instead they repeat the same few points 4-5 times. I definitely feel it was inferior to the non-true ending path with Mayushii.

Also played Starless: Nymphomaniacs' Paradise. The writing wasn't bad (ignoring the errors expected from a translated game) but the sex scenes dragged on for far too long and many of the same scenes were repeated numerous times (almost verbatim at times) until I was just skipping them through boredom. Also wasn't a fan of the art style.

[RyogaTELB]

Re: Visual Novels

played Starless: Nymphomaniacs' Paradise...


...the sex scenes dragged on for far too long and many of the same scenes were repeated numerous times...

I'm not sure what anyone else would have expected.

[RyogaTELB]

Re: Visual Novels

Bumping this thread to let people know that, IT'S HAPPENING!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...?ref=discovery

[Jogan]

Re: Visual Novels

Been trying to get into Visual Novels, just can't download any on my comp right now due to lack of memory. But ive finished multiple visual novels, the most recent being Katawa Shoujo. I didn't really enjoy it that much, but it was entertaining to see something so different