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 This is a visual novel. It's a novel you read on your console/PC. Normally there is music and character voices to add immersion to the story, along with graphics to show characters and locations, but aside from those basic changes these are, more or less, Choose Your Own Adventure books that you 'play' on a system. Since visual novels have been popping up more and more frequently on Steam and in other places (as well as being absolutely everywhere in Japan) I figured it was about time to open a thread for folks to talk about them. Here's some basics before we get started: Why 'All-Ages'? All-Ages is a term used mainly in Japan when dealing with visual novels. It refers to the visual novels that have no adult content. This thread is for talking about All-Ages VNs, and we will be aggressively avoiding talking about the other kind. Thanks. Diversity It is a common misconception that VNs are 100% for lonely guys and are full of busty girls and dumb romantic comedy situations. While the great majority that come over to the West seem to follow this pattern, in reality there are quite a number of exceptions. In fact, there are tons of VNs in the horror, mystery and thriller genres, and tons more that shake up the normal 'high school romance/comedy' stereotypes. This is definitely the place to ask if you're curious what VNs have to offer that is new or interesting. There are also many VNs that include other gameplay types, such as VN/RPGs and VN/Strategy games. Often when these come out West they get panned for having too much reading compared to their gameplay. When you look at them from the perspective of being a book with gameplay attached rather than a game with a book attached it becomes a little clearer why they are the way they are. For VN fans, these games with added mechanics are refreshing when you want to do more than just read the story. Japanese Not knowing Japanese sadly severely limits your access to all the wonderful all-ages VNs out there. However, in recent years there have been quite a few that have come out in English (whether through official channels or otherwise) so there is still plenty for English-speakers to talk about. However, if you are learning Japanese I would heartily recommend trying out VNs for a good Japanese learning experience. VNs, especially recent ones for systems PS2 and newer, often have almost all their lines voiced. This makes it easy to read along in the Japanese while listening to the characters pronouncing the words. Almost 100% of VNs also have a system for re-reading/replaying previous lines, so you can hear a single line repeated multiple times. Anyone studying Japanese knows how much of a nightmare it is trying to learn kanji and read a book in Japanese, so having the voice-over to help you along is great. Think of how little kids learn English by listening to storybooks and reading along in the text. This is just like that, except instead of a children's book you're reading an interesting story aimed at mature audiences. For Girls VNs aren't just for lonely guys either! There is a genre of VN known as Otome which provide stories full of hot guys for the girls to read. These tend to be even more diverse than those aimed at guys, and many have stories that are interesting enough to give them a following among male players as well. Certain Games Even among All-Ages VNs there are ones that are just too creepy to be brought to light and talked about here. Please use your good judgment. Thread Title Refers to the fact that, of the current generation, the Vita is currently being swamped with the largest amount of visual novels. The PSP was much the same, and both systems were great for folks like me who wanted to take some of their favorite stories on the road. Before these handhelds the main bulk of VNs went to the Sony home consoles, and before that Sega had the majority of them on the Dreamcast and Saturn. Relevant Links The Dangan Ronpa Thread The (Current) Ace Attorney Thread The Virtue's Last Reward Thread More pertinent info will be added here if there's more anyone needs to know before diving in, but this is just such a wide subject area with so many possibilities it's hard to cover all the bases without the OP becoming unreadably long. Let's just leave it at this for now and jump right into the discussion. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Various Recommendations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VatkGGooKrI English Patch Available Here Little Busters! is a visual novel by Key, a company known for putting out some fine stories. It is the story about a group of friends who decide to celebrate their oldest member's final year at their school by, randomly, scraping together a baseball team. Rather than using his popularity to put the team together himself, the oldest member designates the two main characters, Riki and Rin, to go around gathering up members. This seems like an impossible task for the two incredibly shy kids, but over the course of the game many, many things will change and the small circle of friends will grow much larger and stronger. This game encourages multiple playthroughs, with subtle changes in the common route in each new playthrough. At first you may not notice as you restart the first or second time to see different routes, but as you clear more routes you will notice rather obvious changes to the way things play out. But, more importantly, this game is hilarious. The translation team was very rigorous in their checking of the translation to make sure everything made sense and that all the jokes would come across for English readers. There is no way not to have fun reading this VN. Best of all, the payoff is amazing. Unlike many of Keys other games which relied on miracles or magic to solve some of the problems in the story, in Little Busters the characters face their own problems with their own strength and a whole lot of Power of Friendship, and it makes the amazing conclusion all the more sweet.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtkM0Aza4qw English Patch Available Here Symphonic Rain is a musical VN with actual rhythm game mechanics. You play as a student at a music academy in a city where it rains pretty much every day. The rain is so common and daily that people just ignore it, most not even using umbrellas anymore. With final exams coming up, you have to find a partner to sing for you while you play your Fortell, a magical instrument that can produce complete orchestrations with only one person playing it. The Fortell draws on the power of emotion for its music, so forging a strong relationship with your musical partner will lead to a much better performance. Story-wise, anyway. Mechanically your performance depends on how well you can DDR on your keyboard. The music is one of the big highlights of this game, with most of it composed by Ritsuko Okazaki, a very influential anime songstress/songwriter during the 90s. Here try some: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg5vzHKP6OA The music, especially the vocal themes, will carry you through some of the (admittedly weak or frustrating... or rage inducing) heroine routes. Which is good, because the True End is amazing. Besides the music, the other thing that will carry the story is Phorni, the little musical fairy that lives with the main character who only he can see. If you find her endearing she will make reading through the game much smoother. If not I wouldn't recommend trying to force yourself through this game. There is, sadly, quite a lot wrong with most of the early routes and the game really doesn't shine until the very last route (though it does shine quite a bit then). But, it's a short(-ish), simple VN with a fun mechanic if you like rhythm games. And hey if you're a Precious Moments or Final Fantasy Tactics fan the art-style should be right up your alley! [From Junpei Hyde]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTGJz0fP2og Corpse Party for the PSP. It's a remake of an indie PC98 horror game. You play as a bunch of kids trapped in the haunted Heavenly Host Elementary School and have to find a way out. Unfortunately, the school won't make that easy for you, and it and the various ghosts inhabiting it want to put a kibosh on that by gruesomely murdering you in manners that are very lovingly narrated for your late night viewing pleasure. Half the fun is in getting all the bad ends. It also uses binaural audio, so headphones are a must (as is playing the game at night, you wuss.) Unfortunately it's a remake of a game made in RPGmaker and it shows in the presentation, however the sound design is phenomenal. Also, it's pretty anime but hey this is a VN thread anyway. I think the PC version's being released on steam this year but I think that version had original Higurashi tier art. Still a personal recommendation of mine. Also, you should inspect every toilet in the game and obey every sign, nothing bad will happen. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 10:07
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Both of the Kickstarter VN localization projects I've had my eyes on lately (Grisaia and Clannad) had physical copies as rewards for pledges but I'm not sure if either of them is going to get a physical release outside of the rewards. Still, that's 4 awesome VNs (plus a few side-story games) headed West.
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Mar 12, 2015 10:23
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Speaking of Higurashi Sui, which is one of the main reasons I'm buying a Vita again (along with a few other VNs both already out and forthcoming), the new opening for it is pretty sweet. It has quite a few spoilers for those who know what they're looking at, but I figure people who don't know the series won't be able to see any real stuff beyond the ridiculous amounts of red herrings the series throws at you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVLKN7Q8iA0 Edit: No seriously it's to the point where you'll be halfway through the series before you even realize which mystery you're supposed to be solving.
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Mar 12, 2015 10:59
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Luceid posted:VNs are cool sometimes. I should finish Umineko but the game by this point (early in the final chapter) feels like it's way up its own rear end. I shouldn't have read the interviews with the creator I guess. I also recall hearing something vaguely like the ending is a mega-downer so after all this way I don't know if I can be bothered!! I really, really liked Umineko so I can't really give an objective review of it, but I can at least tell you that that thing you spoilered is only true if you make the dumb choice by ignoring all the hints the last game beats you over the head with as to which choice you are supposed to make. Then again, if you are the kind of person who would naturally pick the wrong choice then I'm not sure the ending you get by picking the right one will appeal to you.
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Mar 12, 2015 12:11
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Volt Catfish posted:Play Ever17. It's Uchikoshi's (same guy who wrote 999 and VLR) magnum opus. Alternatively, if you can read Japanese, buy the (roughly) $100 four-pack of the whole Infinity series (Never7, Ever 17, Remember11 and 12Riven) and play them all! (I feel deep shame that I have yet to do this despite being able to)
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Mar 12, 2015 12:48
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It probably sounds silly but one of the things that really excites me about the Vita recently is that it got ports of some August VNs. Now August made some great stuff like Brighter than Dawning Blue that got ported just about everywhere, and they had a port of Fortune Arterial (which is the greatest name for a vampire story ever) planned for PS3 before suddenly canning it. Now on the Vita we've got ports of Aiyoku no Eustia and Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (bizarrely both are ported by different companies) and they've done decently well so I'm hoping maybe they'll take the chance to finally give us an all-ages version of Fortune Arterial. In the meantime that's two more games for my rapidly growing list of Vita VNs I need to pick up.
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Mar 12, 2015 13:18
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Sure. If you have recommendations write up a little blurb and find a pic and I'll copypasta them into the 2nd post. I'll probably write up a few of my own eventually but I haven't played Steins;Gate (yeah yeah I'll get to it) and, I know I'm going to get burned at the stake for this but, I didn't really like Narcissu. Just wasn't my cup of tea. Edit: Also, is it  to mention that a VN has a fan-translation available without telling people where to get it? Shouldn't it be fine as long as we're only talking about games without an official translation available or planned? I have one or two recommendations I can make if so...
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Mar 12, 2015 13:44
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Liquid Penguins posted:I'm gay and I like gay anime bois, what is the v/n for me? I have a vita and a steam compatible computer in my abode. You could get Hakuouki and pretend the girl you play as is actually a very effeminate boy.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:31
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Junpei Hyde posted:This thread just made me remember that Zero Escape 3 is probably never happening and now I'm sad. Dangan Ronpa 3 is though, so it's not all bad. Also I just realized when looking through the patches at the Translation Wiki that both Never7 and Remember11 have 100% English patches now. I guess it really is about time for me to read the Infinity series. V Oh, okay. Guess I'll just stick to playing my big stack of new Vita VNs instead. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 00:20
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Well I`ve got a strange game to recommend for anyone who can read Japanese. It`s one of the more bizarre VNs I`ve ever seen/read but it`s definitely enjoyable in its own weird way. I don`t want to put it up on the 2nd post as a real recommendation since it`s not really going to widely appeal to a ton of people but: Do you think learning is fun? Do you have a fondness for old nursery rhymes? Do you like spending dates talking about fascinating subjects? Well boy howdy do I have the game for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKXuADFsHdo Mother Goose no Himitsu no Yakata Blue Label/Mother Goose`s Secret Mansion Blue Label is a VN where you are drawn into your own bookshelf. Girls representing (indirectly) the old nursery stories you used to love so much are waiting for you in a mysterious mansion. Turns out you can`t go back to the real world until you have re-awakened in your heart the love for rhymes you used to have. How do you do this? Why, by taking quizzes on rhymes of course! Yes, this VN consists entirely of taking quizzes about nursery rhymes and getting rewarded with a little bit of story with whatever girl you pick if you can ace a quiz. The quizzes are incredibly random and hard, but you can (and are probably expected to) cheese them by accessing the rhyme database within the game at any time during the quizzes, allowing you to simply look up the answer to any question you don`t know right away. The collection of rhymes is... exhaustive, containing 203 rhymes along with a brief explanation about who wrote them or some of the subtle, hidden meanings in a lot of them. All the rhymes include both an English and a Japanese voice-over and the game even goes so far as to have a playlist/favorite option for you to listen to a bunch of nursery rhymes in English or Japanese whenever you want. The included rhymes are everything from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to weird math riddle rhymes to that one about the girl who killed her parents with an axe. Each rhyme is also accompanied by a piece of art. The art styles and images are just as eclectic as the rhymes, with some being very beautiful and some being creepy (in a good way) or bizarre. So how about the actual VN part? Well... I hope you like learning. This is definitely not a game very interested in romance, except for the love for knowledge. My first two dates with the girl I randomly picked to go for first involved us bird-watching and talking at length about species of birds, and then strolling along a town street talking in-depth about European architecture. Yeah. There really isn`t anything else quite like this VN (except for the version without `Blue Label` in the title, which is an otome version of the same game), and it tends to go for quite cheap since it`s a very niche thing even among VN fans in Japan, so if you can read Japanese and have a PSP I heartily recommend at least giving it a try.
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Mar 13, 2015 04:27
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Yeah, the maker Quin Rose usually does otome games so the first Mother Goose game was for girls. Blue Label, the one I played, is the remake made for guys.
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Mar 13, 2015 04:37
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Tamba posted:CV: Kugimiya Rie, Hanazawa Kana, Tamura Yukari, Toyosaki Aki, Itou Kanae Yeah most people in Japan who bought it bought it so they could listen to their favorite anime voice girls recite poems.
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Mar 13, 2015 08:40
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I hope the sales of the new Higurashi game (which seems to be selling pretty darn well) will lead them to consider porting Umineko to the Vita as well. It doesn't have quite the same level of popularity as Higurashi, but it would be nice if they consolidated the two PS3 titles and slapped them on the Vita like they're doing with the Date a Live games.
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Mar 14, 2015 03:37
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I'm only an hour or two in, but I'm really glad I picked Aiyoku no Eustia as the first VN to play on my new Vita. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tezWg3FSGY I'm not used to VNs having this good of pacing right off the bat. It really pulls you in with one thing right after another. It also doesn't dwell too long on any one thing, and is very good at keeping your interest by introducing new characters or concepts at a good pace to spark your interest in the plot as you go through the intro. I can't make any broad sweeping claims about it yet since I'm still just starting, but I wasn't expecting to be this hooked in right from the get-go. Also it's nice finally having a non-school setting for an August game. Their character designs all tend to flow together with the only difference being the school uniforms from game to game, so seeing their usual style applied to something more fantasy-like was refreshing. Anyway here's hoping enough people are buying this and Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai so someday they'll decide to throw us an all-ages version of Fortune Arterial. Edit: Though if anyone can explain to me what the heck 不蝕金鎖 is supposed to mean I'd be in your debt. I mean I get that it's a made-up mafia or something or other for the game but I don't get where they're going with that title. 'Un-spoiled Golden Chain?' 'Un-hidden Golden Chain'? I guess it would sound cooler if I knew what it was supposed to mean. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 09:59
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TheCoon posted:Un/Non-Corroding Gold Chain? I haven't played the game in ages and my Japanese is terrible but I think there's another gang that has "rusty" in the name and they're rivals or something. Yeah, Wind of Corrosion. Both names seem silly and remarkably petty but then again having met the boss of one of them I guess that's par for the course. Anyway I'm liking this game more and more. I love VNs with main characters who actually have style and personality. Playing this kind of makes me want to pick up Oretachi ni Tsubasa ha Nai R next. Or Grisaia. I need more cool customer mains in my VNs. V Bizarrely (though pretty common in kanji, unfortunately) the kanji has two completely unrelated meanings. One is eclipse and the other is having to do with corrosion or rot/decay. I wasn't sure if they were going for the eclipse or corrosion meaning myself until they introduce the rival gang and their name basically means 'wind corrosion' so I figured it had to be the corrosion meaning, which makes more sense for a golden chain anyway. Doesn't really matter though, kanji-salad BS organization names are like the bread and butter of Japanese fiction. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 13:25
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I was checking the latest releases for Vita and realized that Irotoridori no Sekia comes out this week. I hadn`t heard much about it before I looked it up today, but apparently it`s pretty big both among Japanese and English-speaking VN fans. The reason to bring it up is I`m really liking the current trend on the Vita of getting compilations of VNs slapped together in one game. So first we had Dangan Ronpa 1&2 together for cheaper than either of the games cost on PSP nowdays, and after that we`ve been getting one right after another of these compilations. Higurashi Sui (which consists of about 6-ish or more games, depending on how you count them), Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (3 games), Irotoridori (2 games) and soon we`ll have Date a Live (2 games). Date a Live is especially impressive since that`s not a PC port, that`s 2 full PS3 VNs getting released as a single Vita title. Also, with games like the Grisaia trilogy, the all-ages versions are consistently cheaper than the versions we don`t talk about. What I`m saying is the Vita is a great value for VN fans.
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Mar 17, 2015 05:21
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darth cookie posted:How many of those games/series you listed available on the Vita in English? None of them, sorry. And especially sad is that most of these have at least partial English patches but only for the icky versions. If you want to keep studying Japanese, though, all-ages VNs are a great source for listening and reading practice.
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Mar 17, 2015 05:53
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The first review for Irotoridori no Sekia on Vita (a VN that is very firmly on my `must buy` list) gave it one star because the reviewer has a severe milk allergy and in one of the scenes one of the characters drinks some milk so that ruined the game for him. amazon.co.jp.txt
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Mar 19, 2015 06:21
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Mr. Fortitude posted:Seems Chaos;Child is getting PS3, PS4 and Vita ports as well as an anime adaption. Sweet. They also have a dual pack with Chaos;Head and Chaos;Head Noah so now Vita owners can have the full trilogy. I've heard the games are much better than the anime, which was apparently pretty bad, thoughts?
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Mar 31, 2015 23:43
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Ibram Gaunt posted:I only read about half of Chaos;head but it was interesting. It apparently nosedives hard towards the end though. Eh, I'll probably just ignore them for now then. There are enough amazing VNs on the Vita that I don't have to bother with the just decent ones for a while.
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Apr 1, 2015 04:19
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Uh-oh. Pathetic mains are kind of my pet peeve in VNs so I might avoid it for the time being. I have quite a nice backlog of good stuff to go through so I don't mind pushing it down a few rungs on my wishlist. Right now I just finished the first route of Aiyoku no Eustia (the all-ages Vita version) and it was pretty amazing. Caim is an awesome, strong main character so I really want to continue reading stuff with guys like him. I know Grisaia has a pretty good lead so that's next on my list (after Higurashi, of course) and then after that I was thinking of dabbling into the Dies Irae/Kajiri Kamui Kagura series if I can handle the Japanese levels in those ones. I've heard they're nightmarishly hard to read. Edit: I was a little leery about trying my skill against these legendarily hard to read games until I saw the opening for KKK and become convinced that I needed to read this ASAP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLtf-1qnDY4 Getsuya fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 13:26
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https://07th-expansion.net/ The 07th Expansion homepage now hosts a teaser image of a new work. It was believed to be fake since it came out on April 1st, but then everyone remembered that April 1st is actually a fairly normal day to announce new VNs (since it is the beginning of the new fiscal year in Japan). Anyway the name of the new project is Trianthology, and it will be a cooperative effort from the Rewrite trio (Romeo Tanaka, Yuto Tonokawa, Ryuukishi07). The tagline for it is 'When three worlds become one, Alice will awaken' which, to me, suggests it might be structured so that there are three different worlds/stories being headed by the three different writers that will intersect as the crux of the story.
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Apr 1, 2015 23:46
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Nate RFB posted:It would be nice to like something by Ryukishi07 again given how boring Rose Guns Days was. Though it would've be nice I guess if he had kept the character designer from it given whatever the hell that girl is supposed to be in the teaser image. Oh I don't know, I think 07's drawings lend an endearing quality to his works. It's like watching a psychological thriller populated entirely by characters from an educational children's cartoon you would find on a public broadcasting channel. Though honestly I hope this becomes at least popular enough to nab a console release with actual artists working on it. As long as they get some music by dai I think I'll be willing to forgive a lot of things about the game.
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Apr 2, 2015 04:35
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mycot posted:I just found out the latest entry in Liarsoft's Steampunk series (Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning) is being localized, which is nice since I have a soft spot for the series. Does anyone know anything about Mangagamer before I get my hopes up? Are they that one company that's notorious for having series end up in development hell or is that another one. All I know is that they kind of botched the Higurashi release but are trying to make up for it now. Beyond that I'm in the dark. And while it's okay to talk about localization companies let's avoid talking about that particular game because it is 18+ and this is a thread for non-porn visual novels. Thanks.
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Apr 2, 2015 09:39
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Finished Aiyoku no Eustia: Angel's Blessing except for the bonus stories that I'll get back to someday. The entire game was really amazing and solid up until the last chapter which completely sucked. I ended up skipping through the bulk of the last chapter to the end, which was at least pretty good and wrapped everything up nicely. They must have gotten someone else to write the last chapter or the writer must have choked or something because it's on a whole different level from the rest of the game. Still, that's only about 5 hours of an otherwise stellar 50 hour game, and the rest of the story is definitely worth reading. Now I just need to figure out what to get next. I want something a little shorter since holy cow I never realized how long reading a 50 hour game could take. (it takes 50 hours, for those wondering)
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Apr 18, 2015 13:20
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Speaking of Steam VNs, The Fruit of Grisaia is also going to be available on Steam by the end of the month.
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May 16, 2015 06:38
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It's also written by the guy who wrote Spice and Wolf, an anime that made economics fun and interesting, so the guy knows his stuff. It got some rough reviews when it first came out because it was one of the early VNs on Steam and people didn't really know what it was supposed to be, but from what I understand it's supposed to be pretty good. Alternatively, now is the perfect time to grab a bunch of the cheap VNs and try them out so we can get some reviews up to help future generations out.
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Oct 13, 2015 01:48
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The more big successful VN Kickstarters, the more companies in Japan will finally be willing to take the plunge. I just wish they would hurry up and get Clannad out so everyone can buy it and Key can decide it's about time to give us everything else they've got to offer. It still pisses me off that they decided to test the waters with Planetarian of all things since it's nothing like any of their other games.
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Oct 17, 2015 13:16
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Speaking of Kickstarter and Clannad, according to an update on the Clannad Kickstarter they're planning to release it in November of this year. I almost feel like buying 2 or 3 copies and gifting them to make up for not having helped out with the Kickstarter since I had no good way to pay for it when it was getting funded. Maybe I'll do a contest or something. I've been kicking around a funny LP/audience participation/contest idea for a while that's VN related.
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Oct 17, 2015 15:55
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I started up Fault Milestone One and I am really enjoying it. I was a little worried when some of the translation in the opening bits seemed a little flat, but it really picks up as it goes along and the intricate world is very immersive. I would almost call this Anime Mistborn, with its deep world setting and weirdly-complex-yet-easy-to-understand magic system. Voices might have made it a bit better, but then again the music is pretty spot-on so I don't really mind that much. In other VN news, Key has announced a 3rd novel of theirs for Steam, namely Harmonia. Like Planetarian, Harmonia is a kinetic novel so no choices and probably much shorter than a choice-based VN. Hopefully between this and Clannad, which will also be coming out soon, Key sees enough sales through Steam to try for some of their other titles. The fact that Visual Arts now has a US branch is heartening since now there is some poor soul whose job it is to make sure they have relevance over here, so keeping a steady flow of games porting is that guy's job security. I'll pick up Harmonia though I'm not sure how excited I am for it since I know basically nothing about it, though to be fair nothing they've made since Clannad has disappointed me so I'm definitely willing to give it a shot. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvAU1WmwF7o Edit: Though the fact that one of the characters has no emotion (or so it says in the trailer) sets off a few warning bells. Every other time Key tried to play the 'no (normal) emotions' card (Planetarian, Air) I didn't really like the end result. Little Busters was is my favorite work of theirs because each of the characters is bursting with personality and all of them are folks I would love to hang out with. That's just me though, and maybe they'll do something with the concept this time to make it a little less forcefully painful. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Oct 21, 2015 |
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Oct 21, 2015 03:30
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If My Heart Had Wings is currently on sale on Steam for $5.99. If you're not totally pissed off by them taking sex out of the game then you should definitely pick it up, as it is a very highly rated VN.
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Oct 27, 2015 02:03
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Junpei Hyde posted:How many people actually care about the porn though? Isn't it just usually completely superfluous? It was mainly split between people who thought any censorship at all was a crime against the game and people who thought Mangagamer took it too far by doing stuff like censoring some references to characters' breasts and having a character bathing alone while wearing a towel to censor what was a nude scene.
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Oct 29, 2015 00:41
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Volt Catfish posted:I'm pretty sure most visual novels in japan only have porn so they sell, and then it gets stripped out when the visual novel later gets a name for itself It'd be interesting to look into the difference between the PC and console VN market in Japan. There are a lot of titles that go from porn to all-ages when they want to make a console version, but there are also tons of console-only all-ages titles that come out (though recently they've mostly only been anime tie-ins) and there's also apparently a much bigger market for otome games on console than on PC. I was mostly a console VN gamer so I never paid much attention to the porn game market.
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Oct 29, 2015 00:59
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Cho Dengeki Stryker is also on sale for half off on Steam, so if over-the-top superhero VNs are more your style it wouldn't hurt to pick it up.
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Oct 29, 2015 12:59
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/383460 Sound of a Drop Fall into Poison is out and slightly discounted for the Halloween sale. Most reviews that have popped up for it say it is a good horror experience, though it is not voiced and has no method for keeping track of what choices you have made already or not. Sounds like it's worth it if you want a horror VN and have already played Higurashi. Speaking of Higurashi, it's going to be a decade before we get them all at the rate they are going. Hopefully with Umineko they can just use the Witch Hunt translation mostly as-is and get the chapters out faster.
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Oct 31, 2015 01:34
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Time for a bombshell: https://www.facebook.com/VisualArtsUSA/posts/1507390016245822 Tomoyo After AND Little Busters are coming out in English. Also, according to this post: http://tlwiki.org/index.php?title=Little_Busters Little Busters, at least, will be released on Steam. I don't know anything about Tomoyo After beyond it being a spinoff alternate universe sequel to Clannad that was panned for having fetishy sex-scenes that didn't seem to fit in with the sqeaky-clean Clannad image at all. It also had a dungeon-crawler RPG built into it. I imagine the US release will be the clean non-adult version so maybe it'll be good? I don't know. Haven't heard much about it. Little Busters, on the other hand, is absolute gold. I actually worked on the fan translation that they're using as a base for this release (I translated one of the character's routes) and I think it was a really solid translation. But beyond that it's just such an amazingly good VN. The thing that really sets it apart is the characters. Instead of being about one lonely guy and his harem, it's about a group of friends who have a much more complex and interesting dynamic than most VN harems have. You'll find yourself falling in bromance with the guys just as often as you fall in love with the girls. The plot has some great twists and turns, but the best thing is watching the two main characters change and grow over the multiple routes. I'm so happy Key finally decided to answer years and years of requests and bring some of their big hits out over here. Hopefully they'll like what they see with the sales and also bring out Rewrite and Angel Beats. The fact that Visual Arts now has a dedicated US branch is heartening, since that means someone's job now depends on being able to keep their stuff relevant in the West. Anyway, let's celebrate! Little Busters out west! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLDI9QuukGU
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Oct 31, 2015 19:51
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Nate RFB posted:If it's the ME version (why wouldn't it be, I guess?) I'll probably get LB!. It's alright. Not my favorite Key thing but it was solid enough. Thing is, between getting Clannad and LB (and Tomoyo After I guess) I think there's a good chance of us getting some of their other stuff if the sales are alright. I don't know if they're going to want to work backward from Clannad, so Air and Kanon might sadly be out of the picture, but I'd love it if Rewrite and Angel Beats made their way over here. I never got around to playing Rewrite but it's supposed to be another really solid Key game, and Angel Beats (from what little I played of it) seemed like exactly what fans of the anime wanted: more Angel Beats.
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Nov 1, 2015 05:17
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Alder posted:Finally found the VN thread here I play otome games but I have never finished one and I have not played Code:Realize. I am interested in trying out Amnesia on Steam because from what I remember Idea Factory is as good at making otome games as they are bad at making any other type of game. If you have any good recommendations for otome games, English or Japanese, let me know since I've been meaning to get into the genre more seriously.
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Nov 3, 2015 01:51
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 04:57 |
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The Devil on G-String is out on Steam. $13 for non-voiced, $27-ish for voiced. I once dismissed this game just by the title because I assumed they were using the modern slang meaning of 'g-string' and that it was just some mindless porno with a lot of g-strings but actually it's apparently a very intelligent and gripping thriller/mystery story and is very highly rated. According to this list: http://www.gamefaqs.com/top10/2781-the-top-10-visual-novels-as-voted-by-the-r-visualnovels it is apparently better than all the Key games and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. I'd have to see that to believe it (Umineko is still my bid for best VN) but that's a pretty strong recommendation, and it's nice to have more mystery/thriller VNs.
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Nov 6, 2015 01:38
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