Visual Novel

paradice

Hello ^.^, i see alot of threads about manga and anime but i never really saw a thread for vn... I know it's not a popular thing compared to anime but most of the anime actually comes from vn eg. fate stay night. So yea does anyone read them? any favourites? anyone doing the NaNoRenO for March?

cocoshovel

Ive read two. I generally cant be bothered to play more than 2 routes, but its kinda like that with all games for me. I lose interest fairly easily.
So far Ive only played Yume miru kusuri, Aeka route 100% and then a bit of the nekoko route before I reinstalled my os and never bothered to go back to it. It was good but had a pretty un-fulfilling ending imo. The title was also fairly misleading, or maybe I just didnt play it enough to find out.

The other one I played was that Katawa Shoujo one from a few months back. Over all fairly meh. I did the Emi route (yawn) and the Rin route which was slightly interesting. I wanted to do the hanako route, but once again I couldnt be bothered to sit through all that reading again.

Next ones I plan to play are True Love, To Heart 2 and Saya no Uta as recommended by others. Im sure Ill get around to them some day.
Also, whats nanoreno?

paradice

Oh yea thats an event where people from amateurs to pro try to finish a visual novel within the month of March. I only read about this like a few days ago and was just wondering if anyone is doing it.

That's pretty cool, you played a few ^.^, yea i tried katawa shoujo before but the artwork just didn't do it for me but in terms of writing it was very good. i didn't finish any of the routes. I'm currently reading Kara no Shoujo and it's different then the usual ones i guess. At first it seems a a mystery detective thing but after playing abit it turns pretty messed up lol. Yea i read fate stay night also but didn't finish any. The whole thing in word count is actually longer then the lord of the ring trilogy so yea i wnt finish it. I think zero was much better then fate stay night.

Konata

I played Katawa Shoujo a bit but I felt there was a lack of choices in it. It was really cool to see something about people with disabilities though - it's not something that's broached very often in anime/manga/games so it was definitely interesting. I only did Emi's route but I'd like to go back and do the others at some point.

I was playing Clannad up until recently but am taking a break at the moment. I've seen the anime and it's one of my favourites but something about Tomoya's character in the VN annoys me. He comes across as a bit of a díck in my opinion - in the anime you can clearly tell that he's harmlessly joking when messing with the girls but to me it feels like he's more serious in the VN and thus comes across as a bit nasty... I dunno, it's kinda ruining it for me

A question actually for those who play VNs regularly - how do you play them? Do you prefer to pick your own choices and potentially end up completely wrong or do you follow a walkthrough and just enjoy the story while it sends you in the right direction? I'm just curious as to how others play VNs.

paradice

hm well i usually play until get to an ending, if i keep on getting bad endings then i look for walkthrough. I like choosing the paths myself first. I think it's very interesting to read all the routes. I usually press the auto button and just sit and read making the occasional choices. What about you?:)

cocoshovel

Oh I also played some of Alice Parade, but seeing as I couldnt understand most of it I got bored pretty quickly. I also really didnt like the animation in it, despite that being one of the main selling points for many people seeing as its the same artist who did Haruhi or something.

Konata wrote: »

A question actually for those who play VNs regularly - how do you play them? Do you prefer to pick your own choices and potentially end up completely wrong or do you follow a walkthrough and just enjoy the story while it sends you in the right direction? I'm just curious as to how others play VNs.

I play and save a new file at each decision point, if something goes wrong or it seems to be going down a route I didnt want I go back and load it where I think it may have gone wrong and try again from there.

Burkie.EXE

The only one I've read is Umineko. It didn't have any routes, so it was more like a regular novel in a different medium than a typical VN. I liked that since rereading VNs to get different routes sounds like a chore.

The plot revolves around a series of murders on an isolated island (at least for the first arc, after that it also gains a meta-component where the murders are being discussed as they occur). Although there isn't any interaction aside from advancing the text, you're challenged to come to your own conclusions about the crimes, specifically, whether or not they were possible to be carried out by humans (and if so, how and by whom) or whether they could only have been carried out by magic (most of the crimes are seemingly impossible, like people being killed behind locked doors or crimes where everyone has an alibi). It's not all mystery either as there's a fair bit of action and philosophical discussion (which is interesting and acts as a hint in the form of new ways of considering the mystery)

The art isn't much to look at (although I've come to like it over time), so most of the atmosphere is built through the music (which is fantastic). Songs like this and this really add to the experience, which is cool since it takes advantage of the medium in telling what is otherwise a normal, linear story.

The VN was what originally got me into eastern media and from there, anime. It's still a definite favourite of mine and I really can't recommend it enough. There are 8 arcs (they've all been translated) and you could probably get through each one in a day or two. Adding in the time spent thinking about it and I couldn't even guess how long this thing has kept me entertained for.
(1st arc is free to download- here.)

paradice

cool it sounds really interesting, i always liked the mystery trillers ones. i'll definitely give this a go, thks for reminding this vn to me. i watched a few episodes of the anime before so it'll be nice to read it instead.

K.O.Kiki

The problem with discussing most of the popular VNs is that they contain porn (sometimes for silly reasons), so it's hard to hold a straight face talking about it.

THAT SAID:
I'm gonna try out the old-school YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world as soon as I get it running stably.
And maybe finish a route in Katawa Shoujo.
And finish the final UBW route in Fate/stay night.
And stop getting Bad Ends in Tsukihime! :pac: