General Visual Novel Appreciation Thread

Usually they're major Visual Novels; not the typical 4-5 routes eroge yaoi/yuri fodder you can get for free.

There are two primary advantages of the Visual Novel medium. A) You're inside someone's head. You think what they think and see what they see. Honestly, this isn't any different from any sort of prose from a first person perspective. B) You get to see the same events unfold differently by replaying the game and choosing different options. While you're generally limited to only a few major paths (usually corresponding to different love interests for historical reasons), Visual Novels have a built-in meta excuse for showing a bunch of different What If? scenarios that would feel very contrived and gimmicky in any other medium. The best examples play with this, and it's the primary reasons that it's hard to make a good anime adaptation.

edited 13th Feb '10 10:54:50 PM by Clarste

Well, I'll have to play more before I pass judgment, but that still seems a bit weak to me.

Oh yeah, that's Road Cone, ain't it.

edited 13th Feb '10 10:55:43 PM by Tzetze

You're literally seeing the protagonist's thoughts on the various actions he/she does in relation to the other characters.

Unfortunately, Tzetze, I'm not sure how many visual novels cater to your interests. Else I'd recommend a few, but I'm still pretty new to them myself>.>

^^As Clarste said, that's pretty normal for novels in general (my preferred medium by the way). I was referring to the Multiple Endings bit.

edited 13th Feb '10 10:58:44 PM by Tzetze

Most Visual Novels don't bother with justifying their Multiple Endings other than the basic fact that it's part of the medium.

That's where particularly Clannad went meta and turned Multiple Endings into a plot point.

Well, it's not just about Multiple Endings. It's about the complete picture. These things are written to be played through to the end, which means finishing every single route. If they're done well, this paints a complete picture that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. If done poorly, then it looks like a bunch of unrelated stories stuck together for no reason. I won't say that even a significant fraction of Visual Novels take advantage of their strengths, but when they do you can tell. I'd say just plow through Ever 17 and if by the end you aren't convinced then it's just not for you. Unfortunately, that takes quite an investment of time.

Edit: Clannad is actually a good example of what I mean.

edited 13th Feb '10 11:03:24 PM by Clarste

Well, Cast of Snowflakes and uh that one trope about everybody having their own stories are some of my favorite tropes, so that could be nice. Rather like a collection of interconnected short stories, seems.

Well, I FINALLY finished the main route of Hourglass Of Summer. And I have to say, despite it's many clichés, it has some AWESOME moments.

Don't really feel like finishing the other routes, though. The main route is the only natural conclusion, since all the other routes involve major Character Derailment.

1) Why does the narration describe the pictures? Is this normal? I mean, it goes on about the blue sky and clouds as I'm looking at a picture of blue sky and clouds. Rather redundant.

In Phoenix Wright and Umineko, no. Those relied on backgrounds and faces (instead of descriptions) for most things.

2)Is Purple Prose normal? Because, ew.

Only on the prologues or first chapters.

4) What's the advantage of making a VN over, say, an anime?

Because making Novels witch Music and Animations is: easy,awesome, timedelay=5sec: and you can mess up with the text.

edited 14th Feb '10 7:48:17 PM by SRC

Clannad <3 of course.

Have yet to find a translated version of Higurashi T_T. I've gone through FSN and Shuffle! though. I'm trying to find 11eyes and Ever 17 looks interesting enough for me to look for.

How is it awesome?

5) Why not an Adventure Game?

Easy. An adventure game works in a completely different way than a murder novel or fantasy novel.

You just cant take a book and add some point and click elements, and I can prove this.

Also, novel + music ==> your point and click unsolvable illogical soup can shit

edited 14th Feb '10 7:48:40 PM by SRC

Don't a lot of book authors make a songlist for each chapter any? You could just say that's what a visual novel, with a picture here and there.

Of course visual novels won't always translate to anime very well. Books are for dealing with more internal conflict things, movies and tv deal with external conflict.

So... Fate Stay Night, should I play it first or watch the anime first? And any tips for playing it?

Hey, adventure games aren't all soup cans.

Advice? I was always told this: "When in doubt, think to yourself: What would a cliche shounen hero do?"

Definitely play it. And walkthrough, yes; it's nigh impossible to finish without a walkthrough.

Don't a lot of book authors make a songlist for each chapter any? You could just say that's what a visual novel, with a picture here and there.

I've only heard of that rarely, but books to sometimes have pictures.

Books are for dealing with more internal conflict things, movies and tv deal with external conflict.

What.

Don't watch the anime at all. It's not well animated enough to be worth it for the action scenes, and it completely screws up a lot of the exposition and emotional stuff. Also, it kind of spoils you for the other two routes without giving any of the context that makes those revelations interesting. Well, I suppose you can watch it afterwards if you like.

Tips, well I'm not sure what you mean. Do you want to avoid bad endings, or collect them all? If you want to avoid them, try to play "in character". If you want to collect them, go look up a flow chart or something. There are a lot of bad endings.

On Fate Stay Night: Play it. And what Clarste said.

Also, please tell me that Tsukihime gets better than it is at the beginning.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:02:21 PM by Solstace

When's the beginning?

So... Fate Stay Night, should I play it first or watch the anime first? And any tips for playing it?

Doesn't really matter; anime's not bad, but FSN only really gets interesting once you reach the Unlimited Blade Words route, which get short shrift in the anime.

Also, a walkthrough is only essential if you want all the Bad Ends and all the Tiger Dojo stamps. To just finish it, it's not hard (it's much more intuitive than, say, Tsukihime). Just remember:

• Save before the game prompts you for a choice
• Always remember to stay in character (granted, not as easy as it sounds).
• SAVE!

Unlimited Ninja Works.

edited 14th Feb '10 8:05:49 PM by zeroplusalpha

The first meeting with Aoko and she chews him out for breaking the tree. About that time.

Well, yeah, it gets better, but...what was wrong with that scene, anyway?