Are you looking for anything in particular? Well, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, Fate Stay Night and G Senjou No Maou are all good. Also Ever 17.
Insert witty title here
Yes and no. Come to think about it, I could play a VN at my computer at home and one (smaller in instalation size) at my netbook while I'm at the beach.
Maybe Ever17 at my computer at home and something else at the other one.
Higurashi has a small instalation size, without the graphic patches, but I kind of don't want to play without them XD.
奇跡の魔女
Add Sharin No Kuni to that list. And if you haven't played Umineko yet, you should play it after Higurashi.
MAL || vndb || Blog
Planetarian is another good work by Key and is small/short. Muv Luv/Unlimited/Alternative takes a looong time to get through all of the material but it's also good.
I have no idea.
Radical Moderate
Can anyone recommend a visual novel with strong heroine(s) who are the male lead's equal (rather than dependent on him)? Pretty open, genre-wise.
I've already seen Fate Stay Night, Ever17, Tsukihime, and G Senjou No Maou.
edited 2nd Mar '12 5:30:05 AM by BokhuraBurnes
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
奇跡の魔女
Rather than being the male lead's equal, I recommend Shikkoku No Sharnoth for a strong female protagonist. Plus she's voiced by Haru Usami's VA. You might also want to try the other work of G Senjou No Maou's author, Sharin No Kuni.
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just a medicine seller
Sharin No Kuni is amazing, but I don't know how independent I'd say the heroines are. Touka and Natsumi definitely aren't.
Spoony Bard
In My Magical Cosplay Cafe
, all of the characters are unique, independent individuals. Just keep in mind that this story was created for April Fools Day 2011...
Also, you might not know it before reading its tropes page, but the nameless woman who's the main character in Hatoful Boyfriend is portrayed as a badass. She is not relying on the birds for strength. Most of the game is Played for Laughs, but the narrative occasionally turns into drama.
Ded
Though i might be missing the point, somewhat, i'm looking for something with a lot of choices, and diverging paths. Cause i tried Katawa Shojo, and you only make choices in that VN once every blue moon. I might not be looking at it at the right angle, but oh well.
If you wanna PM me, send it to my mrsunshinesprinkles account; this one is blorked.
Well, there are a lot of stories that give plenty of choices, but you'll only find so many different routes. For example, FSN throws about a billion choices at you but you're set on a route very early with the only divergences being bad ends.
Clannad is probably your best bet, though I heard that Kara No Shoujo also has a lot of choices.
Personally speaking, it sounds like you're treating Visual Novels as Dating Sims, which isn't true.
Full Battle Mode
Ded
No, i'm not, waaaahhhh, meanie, booo!
Well, i know not all visual novels aren't dating sims. I just wanna VN with a story that gives you more choices.
If you wanna PM me, send it to my mrsunshinesprinkles account; this one is blorked.
What do you want those choices to DO though? Just be there? FSN has, let's see, 32 choices in the first route alone. They don't change what ending you get, though, they're just various bad ends, fluff and relationship points.
Ded
Forgive me if i sound like i'm too hard to please, so forget about the choices thing.
Alright...
How about a VN full of fun tongue and cheek humor?
If you wanna PM me, send it to my mrsunshinesprinkles account; this one is blorked.
Sengoku Rance is my favorite that has that though that's more gameplay oriented.
My Girlfriend Is The President is probably the one that fits your needs the most.
Others include Family Project, Yume Miru Kusuri, Monster Girl Quest, and Princess Waltz. At least out of the ones I can remember.
Full Battle Mode
Well it doesn't sound like an unreasonable request.
I'm going to say Clannad still.
It's roughly two choices a day on average I think. You probably won't find more than that, but you might be surprised at all the different things you can do.
edited 7th May '12 12:20:17 AM by UltimatelySubjective
Stuff by Akabeisoft2* is full of tongue in cheek humor. However, most of my favorite VNs contain a lot of humor of various sorts, even Higurashi and Cross Channel.
Not Actually Indie
I'm looking for some new visual novels to get into. So far I've played Katawa Shoujo Fate Stay Night, Tsukihime, Kira Kira, and part of Family Project. I enjoyed Katawa Shoujo, F/SN and Kira Kira a lot, thought Tsukihime wasn't bad but I got irritated with the protagonist a lot and wasn't really sold on the relationships, and I have no interest in finishing Family Project.
Preferences:
Main character should be a distinct character rather than a cypher, but I also want it to be someone I can respect, not This Loser Is You or a Villain Protagonist or a Ridiculously Average Guy. Also, I demand at least decent judgment from the protagonist; characters can be stupid, but I don't want to follow a viewpoint character who cannot avoid acting like an idiot.
I have a very limited tolerance for melodrama, and I can't abide Purple Prose unless it's confined to the sex scenes (I don't like it in sex scenes either, but so many people write bad sex scenes that I've developed an attitude of bemused tolerance as long as it doesn't leak into the rest of the story.)
The cast should be original and not easily reduced to a set of Stock Characters.
I expect much higher standards from stories with bittersweet or downer endings than ones with happy ones.
Suggestions?
...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.
奇跡の魔女
Obligatory Akabei Soft 2 stuff: Sharin No Kuni, G Senjou No Maou. Other stuff with distinct protagonists would be Cross Channel and Shikkoku No Sharnoth (both CC and Sharnoth have somewhat unusual prose, though). You can also try Higurashi or Umineko No Naku Koro Ni.
If you develop a tolerance for very long stuff, get into the Muv Luv series. It starts out as a painfully generic harem but it genre-shifts into mecha in the second part, and the third part is one of the most highly-regarded translated VNs. The protagonist has one of the more believable developments I've seen.
edited 13th May '12 9:33:57 AM by LiberatedLiberater
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Hmm, Cross Channel is kind of close to villain protagonist though. More of a Byronic Hero, though. Anyway, what he said.
If you go for the When They Cry series, I'd pick Higurashi before Umineko if I were you. It's not required, but it works out better.
Not Actually Indie
Sharin No Kuni sounds like a decent prospect. I'm not sure about G Senjou No Maou though. I mean, it's got Villain Protagonist right there on the trope page. Maybe the main character acts mostly good on screen, and the bad stuff he does as a major figure in a yakuza family is kept mostly out of focus, but I have no tolerance for Protagonist-Centered Morality.
...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.
@feotakahari and @raso: Aoishiro!