Visual novels

[Sean]

Eroges, dating sims, whatever you want to call them - visual novels are the types of games that don't get a whole lot of exposure out of Japan. And understandably so: who would want to load their PS2, grab their controller, and sit down with a nice cup of cocoa for hours of reading? Not to mention the genre as a whole has gotten plenty of rep for all those crazy, kinky sex scenes that us BAKA GAIJIN would never understand. Well for those who do not mind delving in the realm of the niche and obscure, visual novels are games that provide the entertainment of, well, a novel, but engage the player with pretty pictures, music, and sometimes branching paths. An exceptionally well-written one will pull you in for hours. They're usually called dating sims, but it's a misnomer considering there are plenty of titles that don't feature any sort of romantic simulation whatsoever.

There are a lot of visual novels to be found out there, but because of their obscure nature (and the fact that not many are translated), it might be hard to figure out where to begin for someone who's interested in trying some of them out. I'll start off by listing two freeware, English-translated visual novels that are legal to download so you guys can get a taste of what this is all about. There is no sexual content to be found in them, so they are free to play for all ages.

Narcissu is the soft-spoken, minimalist story of two young people dying of an unspecified terminal disease. They decide that they don't want to die at the hospital they're staying at nor at home with their families, so they leave and drive off into the unknown. Along the way, they forge a friendship of sorts while becoming at peace with their fates, and eventually they decide on a destination they want to go to, if only on a whim. It sounds wretchedly depressing, but the novel goes out of its way to not lean so much on either side of the emotional spectrum. The story is not designed necessarily to make you emphasize with the characters, but as a message that regardless of what your fate is to live or die, you can still find happiness in the unlikeliest of places and time spans.

English translation website: http://narcissu.insani.org/

Link to download: http://www.neechin.net/narcissu2/140/narcissu-2-download-page (includes both Narcissu and Narcissu -Side 2nd-, the latter which is a prologue to the first game)

Suicide has become the leader in mortality rates around the world due to an acute type of depression that eats away at the person's emotional psyche. Mnemonicides are people with special powers who have the ability to treat patients (known as Guests, who reside with them as part of their treatment) by eliminating memories that negatively affect their emotional well-being. This is the story of Blackiris, a quiet and hardened Mnemonicide with a complicated past, and his Guest named La, a young girl who is not all she seems. True Remembrance is quite humble, yet highly sensitive about what it means to hold onto memories. It starts out as a sweet story about a doctor treating his patient, but with every chapter that passes, new layers are added to the story and characters that make this one of the most emotionally charged storylines I have experienced as of late.

English translation website: http://trueremembrance.insani.org/

Link to download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7C8CN91F (download on main site doesn't seem to function properly)

If you feel like it, share your experiences about any other titles you've played, if any. Oh and no Ace Attorney faggotry plz. (They're not entirely part of the genre.)

[GameFarnsworth940]

And here I thought visual novels was just a fancy term for PSP Digital Comics.

Anyway, this genre of games always seemed the most... odd, in my opinion. Not to say that they're the only odd games out there, they're just the ones I would associate with the term more.

I'm going to be honest, it's kind of tough to talk about this genre. Most of the time, it's kind of hard to choose the right words to work with, ya know?

Edited July 23, 2010 by GameFarnsworth940

[-Mark-]

My only real experience with visual novels is Umineko no Naku Koro ni, since my brother is a fan and ordered the official disc with the first four games on and downloaded an English patch.

I quit after the fifth game, really. I know what my problem with them is, really, which is a shame, because they can be great.

Basically, I hate doing something at my laptop/ PC unless it absolutely requires it. Gaming? I'd rather console. Videos and DVDs? DVD player, or at a stretch, hook my laptop up to the TV with TV-out and watch it on TV comfortably in my room. In other words, unless it's web browsing, MSN, or something that blatantly needs a proper computer or laptop to do it properly, I'd rather not use a computer for it.

I just hate the medium of visual novels. I hate sitting at my laptop for hours at a time, just... reading with music. It's why I wish there were English iTouch versions (there are in Japanese), because for me, iPod Touch/ iPhone is the ideal medium for them. Small and portable, retaining the 'take anywhere, read anytime' nature of actual books, yet also having the necessary visual/ audio aspects that only a digital medium can provide. For things like books, I much prefer to lie down and read them, and hate having to sit at my laptop for them.

I have found they can be a bit slow-paced and long-winded, though. Well, that and yeah, most of them are kinky stuff. Like I said, all I've played are the first five Umineko games. I can't really be arsed to carry on with them beyond that, nor to go back and play Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, either, even though I own the first four of those legally, too. If they ever get round to doing translated versions in the iTunes store, I'll definitely be up for those.

Edited July 24, 2010 by Mahzes

[TheGerkuman]

Oh and no Ace Attorney faggotry plz.

Then you obviously have no sense of taste.

[Sean]

You must have missed the part where I'm a fan of Ace Attorney!

They're really more like adventure games than they are visual novels. Hence, I kind of wanted to keep discussion of that series out of here, lest everyone just ends up thinking only of Phoenix Wright.

[Frozen Nitrogen]

My sig is from Tsukihime, a visual novel game where the player character goes completly insane halfway through most of the paths and your job is essentially to distinguish which of his gibbering, feverish nightmares are imaginary and which aren't.

The genre is basicly that of the "choose-your-own-adventure" gamebooks of the early '90s, but with more depth. As such, they're amazing. Just steer clear of the JApanese fetish for pornographic ones, and you're all set for the most erudite of gaming experiences!

[TheGerkuman]

They're really more like adventure games than they are visual novels. Hence, I kind of wanted to keep discussion of that series out of here, lest everyone just ends up thinking only of Phoenix Wright.

Then I apologise. I think that they're a cross between visual novels and an adventure game, personally.

Do you count Hotel Dusk as a visual novel? I enjoyed that one, although it's a bit slow to get going.

[SuperStingray]

While it's been a phenomenon in Japan since the days of the Dreamcast, the Nintendo DS has shown great success for the medium of visual novel. If you're not familiar with the genre, think of them as cutscenes with some gameplay rather than the other way round. I'm sure that's not exactly an attractive concept, but it's really more a medium that should be judged parallel to books and films rather than to games, even if they incorporate interactive elements and multiple paths.

At first, I was indifferent to them, but I tried a few, and the interesting stories a lot of them have have been really engaging and I've been starting to look for more. After trying Ghost Trick at PAX last year, I was intrigued by the concept and decided to buy it recently. The story kind of gets about on par with Inception in terms of complexity and bizarreness, with branching and rejoining timelines, but the rules are established clearly and the story moves at a good enough pace that you shouldn't get lost. It's basically about a guy that looks like Johnny Bravo if he were a gangster who was killed one night and has until the next morning to solve the mystery of his death. He has the power to jump between and control inanimate objects and change the fate of those who died. Above all, the characters are just brilliantly designed and written. It kind of has a dark yet somehow lighthearted wit with a "don't fear the reaper" tone. The graphics and music are great too.

Next, I decided to pick up a little gem called 999: Nine Doors, Nine Persons, Nine Hours. You can probably guess the arc number recurring throughout the game. 9 people were kidnapped and put on an ocean liner and are expected to play something called the Nonary Game: Each is given a bracelet with a number from one to nine. There are nine numbered doors hidden through out the ship. They must split into groups of players whose designated numbers form a digital root equal to each door. (i.e. Players 5, 6 and 8 can enter door 1 because 5 + 6 + 8 = 19, 1 + 9 = 10, 1 + 0 = 1) You are player 5, Junpei, and your goal, along with the others is to escape from the ship within- you guessed it- nine hours, and solve the mystery of their capture. It's a long game with interesting Crimson Room-like puzzles and multiple endings, but I've been hooked on it for the past few days and let me say that it's a great story. It's kind of annoying that you have to skip back through the beginning of the game to where it splits to other endings, but I can forgive it because of how well written it is.

I'm also looking into others of the genre like Hotel Dusk, but does anyone here recommend any good ones? And if you haven't played them, I certainly recommend these.

[Sean]

My topic got like no love man, NO LOVE.

Merging the two topics. As for my experiences with the genre, two of my favorites are recounted above. They're recommended, obviously. I haven't played Hotel Dusk or 999 yet, though.

Incidentally, I have yet to play a visual novel with branching paths. I think the last game I played (and finished) was Song of Saya, like really.