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Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Visual Novels Aren't A Joke
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Stampeed Valkyrie
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Its been 24 years since I played FSN, and longer since I played through Tsukihime. I was able to get through most it on my own, and had some help from friends who could translate the words outside my comprehension at the time. Played through numerous Key VNs, and many of the VNs that were genre defining from the late 90s and early 00s.
Hirameki was the first english VN publisher, and through them discovered Ever 17, and the other VNs related to it. Manga gamer came about and translated titles like Higurashi, and Navel titles like Shuffle. VNs aren't for everyone, and all but a few early ones were Eroge, Most of it could be skipped without detriment to the plot. Most modern VNs no longer have that "H" element, but then again most modern VNs don't have the impact that earlier ones did either. I am happy to read that older titles are finally getting a proper english release, I hope that they leave the content be, revisionism and adapting for "modern" sensibilities generates garbage. |
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Cho_Desu
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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.")
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.)
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?)
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.) |
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Joe Mello
![]() Posts: 2290 Location: Online Terminal |
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I can't look at the title without thinking of that old Topless Robot trope of "Bang! Pow! Comics Aren't Just For Kids" referring to (I think) mainstream press was talking about manga and anime.
While I don't disagree with our columnists' takes on how Americans viewed Japanese VN's, it certainly felt that Japan was starting to feel the same way. I could easily be misremembering the time-frame, but the mid to late aughts felt like peak "Only 2-D Girls" hysteria, and there were plenty of media starting to emerge like "The World God Only Knows" that featured protags who would be told to "touch grass" in today's parlance. |
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FireChick
![]() ![]() Posts: 2458 Location: United States |
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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 while 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.
Last edited by FireChick on Thu Aug 22, 2024 9:20 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Shay Guy
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I'll repost what I wrote when TWIG covered VNs earlier this month:
Although reading a bit more after that, it seems like the Leaf/Key stream is descended in large part from YU-NO too. I've also finished Ghost Trick since then, which has at least some VN elements, and absolutely fits into the "mystery, SF with time shenanigans, miscellaneous WTFery" mold I described as the VN stereotype someone would come up with based on what I've played. Also the genre's penchant for player-identity twists, as once described on Reddit by a former Twitter mutual of mine. (…Yeah, he gets pretty ponderous. I haven't talked to him in almost two years; I wonder if he still considers SubaHibi the greatest work of fiction ever.) You know, considering that Rance is a documented influence on Mushoku Tensei, somebody more familiar than me could probably write a decent piece about Rance's influence on Japanese webnovels as a whole. |
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JustMonika
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I've been a visual novel fan since 2021 and already plowed through nearly 100 of them. Technically thr first one I actually played was Hideo Kojimas masterpiece Snatcher back in 1995. I'd say Island from the God's at Frontwing is my all-time favorite though.
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JustMonika
Posts: 1102 |
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Yeah, I experienced Snatcher on Sega CD back in 1995 and it's still my favorite classic game of all time but it was more precisely DDLC Plus back in 2021 that made me an actual visual novel fan. How do you like the Grisaia series? I'd say the hidden gems of the genre would be Island, Bokuten, Seven Days and Shining Song Starnova. All very life changing experiences. |
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JustMonika
Posts: 1102 |
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I heard rumblings that the Switch version of Kanon will be getting an English update this year. Now on the reverse since we're talking about Key, wheres the English Steam release of Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild? There's been a physical copy with English available on Switch for months. Even more alarming is that Atri: My Dear Moments for Switch has English text but has never been released on any eShop outside of Asia, lol. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 120 |
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Mystery Visual novels have always been the best for me, action/romance/ect all seem grossly padded- when really, adding visuals should allow you to be more punchy than a book. I think thats part of why Ace Attorney (ok, hybrid with adventure games) was a global hit.
Personally, I think Raging Loops was fantastic, and Remember 11 (available in fan translation) has absolutely propulsive pacing. The mediums got a reasonable offer even if its without choices, but I feel like the works that integrate a little interactivity well can really achieve more impact. Digital: A Love Story remains, IMO, Christine Loves best work, simple but a great job of evoking the period, and its free. |
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whiskeyii
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Ah, I need to get back to Remember11; that and Never7 are the only Uchikoshi games I haven't played.
I'm also uninterested in eroge games. As both a female gamer and an ace person, those aspects always seemed tailor made to actively drive me away--it just made it doubly hard for me to connect to the characters, which had the knock-on effect of not much caring about the story. And even nowadays, where VNs and otome games are much more varied, I still prefer ones that lean much heavier into plot than romance. The only problem is, I'm also a huuuuuge scaredy-cat! >.< The only reason I devoured 999 in a single night was because it kept its gore to narrative descriptions only; Paranormasight sounds right up my alley, except I can't gauge whether it has visual depictions of gore or not--Does the Dog Die and Common Sense Media only tell me that body horror exists, but not how, which is frustrating. But the overlap of horror and mystery in VNs is doubly frustrating as I'm a major fan of mysteries--428 Shibuya Scramble was one of my favorite games to play with the VN formula, and I still need to play through The Centennial Case, which I've only heard good things about. |
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FlamingFirewire
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Kotaru Uchikoshi always deserves more praise! Ever17 is still one of my favourite pieces of fiction, and really exemplifies why mystery VNs done right are so much fun. A shame no one has re-released it in English since the Hirameki days. And both Ai games are brilliant from him - give those adventure games a spin if you loved 999.
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Zimmer
Posts: 195 |
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EB01
Posts: 28 |
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Katawa Shoujo recently had a Steam release?
Sweet, that is some good news. |
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager
![]() Posts: 499 Location: PH |
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Ngl, I was not a fan of VN games either, up until a friend of mine mentioned that she was part of a dev team for a VN game (which they launched on itch.io). She asked me to play it (and stream it) and I got interested!
VN is definitely not for everyone, but imo, this game category is a huge pool of creativity and creatives. There are a lot of independent gaming dev team who start with this, and they are the ones that also find raw talent, especially on VAs for characters and BG artists. Other than that, they are usually a tight-knit group. As a player, I'd say another great thing about VNs... is the "collecting" part of the game (let's say key art or cinematic scene), you can replay it, and well.. for me, if you're studying Japanese, it's one of the ways to learn too! ![]() |
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b-dragon
Posts: 487 |
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I'm a gamer with a focus on RPGs, so visual novels often ended up as an adjacent form of media that I'd often dip my tones into. Like with the Utawarerumono series- yes, theoretically there is an SRPG there, but I'd argue that its far more interested in the VN elements at play.
On the more "pure" VN front, though, I'd highly recommend The House in Fata Morgana. I'll not say too much about it for fear of spoiling, but I found it to be extremely good. |
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