Topic: Visual Novel Thread

How ironic that I'd be the one to make this thread. Anyways, while I'm still not a fan of books, I am a proponent of good stories. Since good VNs are pure storytelling, I figure they good use their own thread. Anyways, this is a thread for discussing any VN you've played or are currently playing, as well as a place to ask for recommendations.

I'll start by talking about some good ones:

999: 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors - The biggest VN in the west right now, and for good reason. It weaves a very complex and compelling suspense story, with a bunch of endings and the most real gameplay I've ever seen in a VN. It's popularity is not unfounded, and I'm glad to hear it has a sequel on the way, which has recently been announced for release in North America.

Melty Blood - A VN mixed with a fighting game engine. The story tends to drag a bit, but overall the story does a pretty good job of getting you invested in the characters, and the fighting game sequences are fun.

Katawa Shoujo - I had a long talk with a friend over this one. 4chan's eroge game turned out to be quite an interesting treat, and I urge anyone interested in VNs to give it a try. It is free after all. Please note that the sex scenes are optional and the game doesn't really focus on them.

Higurashi - This one was pretty interesting, kind of like a weird anime or manga. It's also free, albeit on the iDevices, so I recommend giving it a shot.

Fate/Stay Night - It has a surprisingly large following in Japan, though I ersonally did not enjoy it. I only got so far in the second story branch before I simply could no longer stand the interactions between Rin and Archer - they spent way too much time butting heads while randomly doing nice things for eachother, then butting heads about that. It was simply infuriating. Still that was the only major problem I found with it, so if you can get past that, I'm sure it would be worth looking into.

I want to talk about Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom and Ever17, but I'm not really familiar with them. Anyone know about them that could fill me in?

I've got Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. It starts off a bit slow IMO — you'll learn a lot about various Japanese terms and politics of the era — but it just started picking up here in Chapter 2. It's definitely an otome game, though — there's meters you can check for your 'romance' level with the guys in the game depending on the choices you're making. if the idea of romancing a dude bothers you, try another game :3

I freakin' loved 999 when I first played it. It was my first visual novel, and it pretty much sold me on the genre.

You're lucky you have friends that you can discuss Katawa Shoujo with. >.>
As tasteful as it might have been, I know NO ONE who has even heard of it, or who would be willing to even talk about it...

I've only played one visual novel so far, and it was Katawa Shoujo. Despite my initial reluctance at its premise, I still downloaded it and played it and I'm glad I did. If I hadn't, I might've missed out on some great, heartwarming stories, not to mention Rin...

Phoenix Wright general? Phoenix Wright general.

I beat through the first game and was absolutely amazed by how great it was. Everything about the first Phoenix Wright game was just amazing. The second one was great, but nowhere near as exceptional as the first, although I really liked the addition of "Psyche-Locks" which I thought was a refreshing addition to the original formula. I'm currently on Trials and Tribulations and I just randomly stopped playing for some reason. I guess I just need some motivation to get back into the amazing series.

I knew I forgot something: Phoenix Wright is an adventure game, in fact, I don't see how it can be considered anything else. All the elements are there, it's just a little more story oriented than usual.

@theblackdragon

Thanks. I don't mind the premise, so I might give it a shot. I actually just read a review of it that made it sound like it's really good, too.

@BleachFan

I have odd friends, admittedly, but yeah, it's nice to be able to talk to people about it. This friend in particular left the sex scenes on (I turned them off), since he felt they add to the game (though he also said some of them were awkward).

@Rin_Tezuka

Yeah, the story turned out to be very interesting, much better than anyone would've expected. Rin was such a great character, too.

@GundamMac: I was also told that the sex scenes added to the story. Being a pretty open-minded person, I decided to give the game the benefit of the doubt and I left them on. Unfortunately, I think I fell for some kind of joke or something.

The sex scenes didn't really add all that much to the story, and the images made the characters seem like "trophies" for a job well done making the right choices. It kinda reduced my attachment to the characters, which put a damper on the overall experience.

So yeah, I guess you made the right choice in keeping them off.

I certainly don't regret my decision, that's for sure.

@GundamMac I've got a friend who LOVES Ever17 and its one of his favourite games ever. I remember him saying that its set in an underwater theme park but that's pretty much it. I do remember liking the look of it when he showed me some screens of it but he said its extremely hard to find and was unable to find it for a good price and ended up getting it by 'other means'.
I haven't played any VNs myself yet but I'll probably import 999 at some point.

@Mac: yeah, that's why i picked it up — it sounded interesting, and the reviews i'd read made it sound great. i can't really say that they're wrong yet, either; the game seems to go out of its way to help you make your way back to branch points in the story when you get a Game Over, you've got an Encyclopedia to help you with new or unfamiliar terms, you can quick-save and load said quick-save at any time (provided you're in the middle of a game, not at the 'press start' screen), and you can even rewind the story (to an extent) if you forget what you were doing (e.g. fall asleep while playing, that's always my problem with VN games) or if you want to go back to a decision point real quick to see if something else gets you a better result. the only fault so far is with the story, which as I said starts off pretty slow but picks up with a quickness in Chapter 2.

btw, you said specifically that you wanted to talk about it, so was there something in particular you wanted to know?

I suppose I should ask how the characters are. I know you're not far enough in yet to talk about development, but how are your first impressions of them so far? That's pretty important to me.

Yeah, I'll likely have to get Ever17 through other means, too. I wanna wait until Never7 gets translated first so I play the series in order, though.

@Mac: after a bit of trial and error (getting through Chapter 4 was a pain in the a**), i'm up to Chapter 8 now. the characters are pretty interesting, but having to focus on only one or two out of the bunch, i'd imagine i'll learn more about the other guys in subsequent playthroughs. this time around i focused on the commander of the group you're hanging out with, the Shinsengumi. the game kinda goes through the 'introduction' phase via the prologue and Ch.1, which is why I said it started to pick up in Ch.2 — that's when something happens to put the focus back onto the protagonist a little, and after that the guys start to interact with her a bit more personally, giving you the chance to make more choices involving them. i'm kinda wishing the protagonist was stronger, more of a take-charge sort of woman (this wishy-washy passive stuff doesn't really do it for me, even though i understand why it is that way); i'm finding myself wanting to know more about her than everyone else, because she's got a buttload of potential that hasn't been tapped yet. maybe if i made different choices, more of her personality would come forth, so i'll definitely be giving this a few more run-throughs once i've gotten this guy's ending :3

it's a pretty engrossing story... kinda starting to wonder how long this game is.

@theblackdragon

Sorry for the late response. Thanks a lot for the info. It sounds like good stuff. Who are you working on so far?

as of this point, i've gotten Hijikata, Okita, and Kazama's endings, and i'm working on Saito's. I will say the story is better the second (or third) time through, once you're already familiar with everything... now it's just the tedium of waiting for the game to fast-forward through the early choices so that you can get to the better choices later (with new conversation paths to tread), lol.

Yeah, that's what I like about VNs, they get better after multiple playthroughs, tedious parts aside. It allows you to delve deaper into the story and learn about different parts you didn't know before.

EVE Burst Error is getting a re-release thanks to MangaGamer. No indication of the format, though. One can only hope it'll get a Steam release at some point.