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This Week in Anime - Visual Novels Aren't A Joke

Same, and that's why, despite my transparent griping about it just before, I still have yet to play Doki Doki Literature Club. I'm sure it's a perfectly fine game, but upon its release, it was kinda maddening to see all this praise directed at its "deconstruction" of visual novel tropes. I mean, a cute story turning evil is practically a cliche in the medium, yet fans and critics suddenly declared DDLC to be the hallowed One Good One. A single Higurashi chapter would melt their brains.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

but honestly, Tim Rogers of Action Button does a better job outlining all of that in his 6 hour (!!!) review of Tokimeki Memorial than what we could probably accomplish here.

I only know what I've seen in that six-hour Tim Rogers review, but I don't see how TokiMemo can be considered a "visual novel". The term "dating sim" has been disparaged in the last decade or so, from what I've seen, but it seems like the exact right one for TokiMemo.

My own experience with visual novels is more on the mystery/SF end -- Danganronpa, Zero Escape, Raging Loop, Ace Attorney, secondhand experience with When They Cry -- which I gather traces its ancestry more to YU-NO than Leaf games. Also I've played Muv-Luv, which I guess is a hybrid, though I haven't yet gotten to Alternative, which seems to be considered the franchise's main course. (Never actually played Steins;Gate, though I saw the anime back in 2013.) I have seen all three of KyoAni's Key adaptations, though the end of After Story gives me the sense Clannad's VN might draw a bit from the YU-NO stream too.

I enjoy myself a good visual novel, though generally speaking the sorts I've gotten into over the years are technically adventure games (typically with some element of mystery solving). Recently I was in a cyberpunk mood, and decided to finally play the classic Sega CD game Snatcher. While certainly derivative of the genre story-wise, I still found it a solid read, and it was interesting to see a game that old have such top-notch presentation (even the English translation and dubbing were overall quite good—something I didn't expect of a 1994 release). But perhaps what I appreciated most, was that the game didn't waste my time much. It's more of a ten-hour experience than a fifty or hundred.

For me, the biggest hurdle for visual novels (speaking generally here) is the wordiness of it all—what I personally call "visual novel disease." So many of the more famous releases are in such desperate need of an editor. I'd honestly pay extra to have the "Redundancy Removed" patch applied to some of these bigger works, which easily could have a third of the words removed and lose nothing at all in terms of story, character development, and even pacing. I have to give up on a visual novel if I go through too many screens that feel like The Super Dictionary. ("I want to be in a play. I want to be in a show that tells a story. Come on, you are good in plays. You can play Superman. You can pretend to be Superman. You have played him before. And I'll play the piano. I'll make music on the piano.")

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Same, and that's why, despite my transparent griping about it just before, I still have yet to play Doki Doki Literature Club. I'm sure it's a perfectly fine game, but upon its release, it was kinda maddening to see all this praise directed at its "deconstruction" of visual novel tropes. I mean, a cute story turning evil is practically a cliche in the medium, yet fans and critics suddenly declared DDLC to be the hallowed One Good One. A single Higurashi chapter would melt their brains.

I'll just throw out that I was in the same boat as you, thinking DDLC was nothing more than "shock value" and in no way worth all the hype. But I finally gave it a read last year just to see what all the fuss was about... and found myself very pleasantly surprised. The writing is actually good, and the story goes in directions I didn't expect despite all the discussion and memes I inevitably glimpsed over the years prior. To me, its quality is much more in its prose than in its gimmick. It also avoids my aforementioned "visual novel disease," moving along at a steady pace, never wasting my time. (And from what I've been able to tell, the creator of DDLC has also avoided the whole "my game isn't like other visual novels!" spiel that so many other Western devs use to promote their releases, and genuinely loves the medium. There's a heartfelt message at the end of DDLC that implies such, at least.)

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PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

I bought this but still need to play it. I've only ever heard good things, so hopefully I can find the time for it. (Perhaps this October?)

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but honestly, Tim Rogers of Action Button does a better job outlining all of that in his 6 hour (!!!) review of Tokimeki Memorial than what we could probably accomplish here.

I'll second this recommendation! And I'll note that about half of the video is a couple sped-up playthroughs of the game, for those frightened by the "6 hour" there. (It is still a long review... but it's well worth the watch, if you have any interest in the history of the medium.)

I personally have no interest in Type-Moon games, but I've been playing quite a few visual novels, both Japanese and OELVNs, professionally made and indie. I agree that the format really shouldn't be treated as a punchline, and many VNs are 18+ rated dating sims, many VNs have evolved from those origins. I've played a lot of good visual and kinetic novels that are genuinely good and would highly recommend to anyone who wants to get into the medium. It does help that Key/Visual Arts' portfolio is finally getting translated into English, especially their early ones. Kanon in particular is pretty significant (Where's that Switch patch with English text?!), and I can only hope Air gets that treatment soon after.

Its been 24 years since I played FSN