/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

Hi, I am pretty new to visual novels, but so far I am really enjoying the medium. So I thought I would list the few ones I've read, say what I liked about them, and then hopefully from that maybe someone could help me figure out what to pick up next

Okay, games I've played and what I liked:

-Ever 17 - A friend lent this to me a while ago, and not surprisingly, this got me into the medium. Even though it was a little farfetched in retrospect, the story was incredible, especially at the end. I was not at all expecting how I as the player would be drawn into the plot. Among other things.

-Tsukihime - I did not finish this one. I finished Arcueid's story and got halfway through Ciel's and got annoyed with the mediocre writing, the story that didn't seem was going to go anywhere beyond generic fantasy (generic fantasy can be a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if I want to read apparently 30 hours worth of it), and most of all the really unappetizing and badly drawn sex scenes. Maybe I should give it another shot.

[Anonymous No.]

-Planetarian - More than anything, I think I enjoyed the language. The story was also nice, turned into quite the tearjerker at the end, but after playing the two previous games it was very refreshing to read something that felt like real literature rather than only adequately comprehendible engrish.

-Kana Little Sister - I also didn't finish this one, not even a single playthrough. While the titular character was really interesting, the frequent and obnoxious sex scenes with the childhood romance character didn't make me want to finish it. (Maybe I got on the wrong "path" or something and should try this one again too sometime.)

[Anonymous No.]

-Yume Miru Kusuri - the art in this one was beautiful, and the story was deeply involving on a more human level. I did not mind the sex scenes since they (mostly) fit with the story and were well drawn; in fact, I generally enjoyed the sex parts which surprised me.

-True Remembrance - I haven't quite finished this one, but I'm currently reading it. Just took a break from it right now to post this. I think I'm nearly at the end and I absolutely love it. The atmosphere is wonderfully cozy, and I really enjoy the language and characters. I think this might be my favorite of these games unless there's some sort of horrible ending. It's freeware, which is a plus, and I believe it was translated by Insani, the same group (person?) who did Planetarian - perhaps they have more novels up that are particularly good?

...and that's it, all the games I have played.

[Anonymous No.]

In general, these are what I like:
-A good plot, of course. If it takes advantage of the visual novel medium (like Ever 17) all the better, but it's not necessary.
-Good atmosphere and characters. While Planetarian didn't have a good plot or any sort of story at all really (man enters city, meets robot, spends a few days puttering around, the end), the characters and dialogue were top notch, and I love the atmosphere in True Remembrance.
-Good art, music, and interface. This isn't that important, but it's always a big plus. From my limited experience, I've found that visual novels that incorporate the art and music into the experience (Planetarian), rather than them being a sort of afterthought (Tsukihime, Ever17), leave a good impression on me.

What I don't like:
-Anime highschool bullshit. I am not a fan of the vast majority of anime, and usual anime trappings (e.g. stereotypical characters, huge sweatdrops, jokes that don't translate well, etc) in these novels make me wince a little bit. If the story is about one guy at highschool surrounded by a bunch of girls (with no real personality other than the Energetic Independent One, the Tsundere, the Shy Introvert, etc) then I'm not really interested.
-Sex scenes for the sake of sex. Not a huge problem if the story/art is good enough (like in Yume Miru Kusuri) since I realize this is a staple of the genre, but it's generally not my style.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594277
I suggest you try out Tsukihime again. Sure, the writing is a bit odd, but the second half of Ciel's route is great imo, and the routes afterwards are FAR different from the frist 2. Seriously.

[Anonymous No.]

HISUIS ROUTE IS EPICK WINNNN XDDDDDDDDD

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594292
>>-Anime highschool bullshit. I am not a fan of the vast majority of anime, and usual anime trappings (e.g. stereotypical characters, huge sweatdrops, jokes that don't translate well, etc) in these novels make me wince a little bit. If the story is about one guy at highschool surrounded by a bunch of girls (with no real personality other than the Energetic Independent One, the Tsundere, the Shy Introvert, etc) then I'm not really interested.

You've just eliminated 90% of all VNs out there man.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594310
>EPICK
>XDDDDDDDDD

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594317
LOL I TROL YOU LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Anonymous No.]

> mediocre writing
In before /tm/ throws a hissy fit

[Anonymous No.]

>-Tsukihime - I did not finish this one.

[Anonymous No.]

How about finishing the shit you start before you ask for more.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594346
but I really love the medium, not the contents

[Anonymous No.]

Despite what people will say about the character design, I recommend Crescendo for the stories. One of my favorite VNs of all time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594377

I thought the character design was quite hot once I got use to it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594277
Which one is this? It's about to become my next one.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594387

Use your resources, man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescendo_(visual_novel)

[Anonymous No.]

How about you play a MANLY visual novel like "Odious Manly Genuflection With Terrible Fury: Only True Lamentation"

[Anonymous No.]

>>-Tsukihime - I did not finish this one.

Inb4 Type-Moonfags explode.

But seriously, finish Ciel's route. You need to do it to realize why Roa has as many fans as he does.

Tsukihime's Nanaya is actually Roa. Nanaya in Melty Blood is from Kagetsu Tohya.

At least go back to it for the Far-side route, but if you really don't want to, it's okay. One of the big draws about Nasu's work is that it all connects into a single universe, so unless you also explore some of that and see Tsukihime as a stand alone novel, you might not like it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594414

And DON'T see it as a stand alone novel, I mean.

[Anonymous No.]

>>If the story is about one guy at highschool surrounded by a bunch of girls (with no real personality other than the Energetic Independent One, the Tsundere, the Shy Introvert, etc) then I'm not really interested

Have fun missing out on Sharin no Kuni, bro.

[Anonymous No.]

Myself, I've only done Ciel's route. I don't want to redo all that shit again. Have to read everything to make sure I missed nothing instead of just skipping to the parts I missed. I'm not for doing that again, when Ciel is much better than Arcueid.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594395
Hurr fucking durr. That's not Crescendo, shithead.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594455
Calm down; honest mistake.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594450
ahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahhahhhaaaa

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594455
He was trying to direct others to the superior VN, Prelate.

[Anonymous No.]

I enjoy h scenes. You can feel the two or more characters bonding (carnally), and, if Nasu and TakaJew DOUBLE TEAM is at the helm, get some great laughs out of it. But I will still take Narcissu any day.

[Anonymous No.]

Katawa Shoujo, when finished.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594440
That's set in highschool? Wasn't it about a totalitarian dictatorship?

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594971
The totalitarian dictatorship has highschools.

[Anonymous No.]

Ever17 is the worst VN I've ever played. And I've played Fate/stay night.

That's it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594450
>I don't want to redo all that shit again.
The routes diverge fairly quickly, so there isn't much repetition.
>Have to read everything to make sure I missed nothing instead of just skipping to the parts I missed.
There's an option to skip scenes previously viewed. The game keeps track so you won't miss anything.
>Ciel is much better than Arcueid.
If you've only played Ciel's route of course you'll think that. Play the other routes and you'll realize why everyone hates her.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594277
>-Tsukihime - I did not finish this one.

[Anonymous No.]

Despite all of the trolling it gets, Chaos;Head is actually quite nice and interesting.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596385
>Play the other routes and you'll realize why everyone hates her.

...not everyone ;_;

[Anonymous No.]

Try Clannad. Yes, majority of the story is in the high school setting but After Story deals with adulthood. Humor is good and the cast is awesome.

Also, Phantom of Inferno.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596406
it's interesting, certainly, but the story... well... there IS a story, but it's one about destroying the evil global conspiracy using magical swords, which isn't at all in line with the themes of the game, which as far as i can tell were roneriness and being a shitty person. i dunno.

[Anonymous No.]

Only got Arcueid's true ending so far in Tsukihime... yesterday someone here told me there was a Satsuki route. Is this true? (haven't checked wiki, and this is as far as I'm willing to go with spoilers)

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596451


no

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596451

Sacchin dies

[Anonymous No.]

Seconding phantom of inferno.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596474
what

[Anonymous No.]

>>1594277
Since I've only played Tsukihime and Fate Stay Night myself, I'd have to recommend Fate Stay Night, even though it sounds like you'd hate it. At least the multimedia is better-quality than Tsukihime's.

>>1594971
>>1594992
I lol'd

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596451
Not yet, but the upcoming remake of Tsukihime will have one.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596520
there is no tsukihime remake

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596520
Hopefully it won't be all ages like people have been claiming. A Sacchin route with no h-scene is not a Sacchin route at all.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596533
http://www.typemoon.com/product/next/tukihime.html

[Anonymous No.]

OP, you already played the best no-sex VN in English (Ever 17). If sex scenes make a game borderline unplayable for you, and you don't like slice-of-life settings, that pretty much leaves out everything I could recommend.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596562
>tukihime

oh wow

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596567
What? That's correct.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596557
What's wrong, not enough depth romance instead of shitty out of place sex for you?

[Anonymous No.]

If you don't like Tsukihime, don't bother with FS/N. Same meandering, mediocre writing and poor art. There's a decent story in there, but it's laden with so much crap that seems to exist only to drag it out.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596569
Why don't you use a REAL romanization system? Like Hepburn?

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596574
How To Improve F/SN :
Remove breakfast.
Add more actual fights with the other servants and masters in every route.
Ilya route.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596579
Because hepburn lacks consistency, makes no distinction between certain characters, and most importantly of all, is not how Real Japanese People type words in Japanese.

When a Real Japanese Person types 月姫, he will type T U K I H I M E.
So when a Real Japanese Person types it in romaji, he will type (guess what?) T U K I H I M E.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596574
>If you don't like Tsukihime, don't bother with FS/N. Same meandering, mediocre writing and poor art.

Definitely not true. I didn't like Tsukihime, but I quite liked F/SN. Nowhere near as good as Ever17, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Tsukihime was annoying for... a number of reasons.

[Anonymous No.]

Since it doesn't seem like anybody is willing to say it...

If you've gotten sick of Tsukihime, the Far Side of the Moon route will NOT be any better. Yeah, the plot is a hell of a lot more interesting than the Near Side's generic stuff, but it makes up for having so much intrigue by having long stretches of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENING. Each of the Far Side routes has a stretch where Shiki spends an entire week stuck in bed, and he narrates how tired and unable to move he is.

Every.

Fucking.

Day.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596570
Having a sex scene doesn't mean there can't be a good romantic relationship. The only out of place sex scene in Tsukihime was Ciel's, but that's because the whole romance with her felt forced.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596593
>Remove breakfast
But that's not healty.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596574 poor art
Hey, it got better. I like the style.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596593
>Ilya, Taiga, Ayako, Issei routes.

[Anonymous No.]

Mmm, breakfast.

[Anonymous No.]

You people just don't like Tsukihime because it has no voices in the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596646
Tsukihime didn't have enough ZOOOOOMAN.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596593
I endorse this.

The problem with FS/N is that it's full of Chekhov's guns that never go off. I think that comes from trying to combine--in my opinion, not too successfully--the dramatic conflict themes with hurf-durf adolescent romantic comedy.

Plus I could never figure out if Shirou was written to be incredibly stupid, or the author just screwed up.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596637

Shit, right?

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596593
>Remove breakfast.
No, a lot of the meal time conversation was actually entertaining.
>Add more actual fights with the other servants and masters in every route.
No, a lot of the fights were boring.
>Ilya route.
Yes.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596637
I agree with this.

... Fate Stay Night's sex scenes, OTOH, are blatantly tacked on. They probably intended to eventually make a non-H version all along.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596679
I'd rather have a threesome than CG dragons.

[Anonymous No.]

>No, a lot of the meal time conversation was actually entertaining.

YMMV. For me, the writing wasn't entertaining to read in and of itself, so unless it was in the service of furthering the plot, it was nothing but filler.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596679
well... the ubw one seemed pretty well-integrated to me at least

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596607

Yes, but you don't say 'tu', you(and REAL japanese people)say "tsu".

>>1596698

YMMV? What the fuck? Stop making up your own acronyms.

[Anonymous No.]

>YMMV? What the fuck? Stop making up your own acronyms.

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,230,000 for ymmv. (0.05 seconds)

[Anonymous No.]

I can't be the only one who actually enjoys "filler" scenes in my VNs. Most of the time I actually tire if the story has too many combat scenes in a row too. Usually only the outcome matters in a combat scene anyway so I find it boring if it drags too long.

Sure, if the combat scene has a character develop in some way then yeah I find it enjoyable but most of the time social interaction > powerlevel dickwaving

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596714
Wasn't it to establish a mana feed or something? In Realta Nua it was replaced with some sort of mind-meld spell (pic related).

>>1596717
Your Mileage May Vary. I've seen and used it too, so it's not made-up.

[Anonymous No.]

do it

[Anonymous No.]

>>1596717
They don't say "ru" either. Any romanization system is at best an approximation. To the average Japanese person, "tu" is pronounced with an s sound.

Besides, romanizing to be phonetic is retarded, because even then you have to learn the phonetics specific to that romanization system. Writing japanese words phonetically in roman characters won't stop people who don't know anything about the language from mispronouncing it every time.

All that matters in romanization is that you can tell what it is supposed to be, and things like "du," "si," "syu," etc, do that perfectly fine.

I doubt the average japanese person cares much about "official" romanization systems, because they get along just fine writing stuff however the hell they want. Romanization systems are for foreigners.

[Dust of Osiris !U4ZKgLjqPw No.]

>>1597469
>>They don't say "ru" either.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1597474
It's true, actually; the Japanese る is somewhere in between 'ru', 'lu', and 'du'.

[博麗 霊夢 !7Pljvd3evs No.]

>>1597469
D=

[Anonymous No.]

[Anonymous No.]

True remembrance is one of the best VN I have played, yet no one talks about it. Good to see someone else loving it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1597604
>no one talks about it
What? It gets mentioned tons. In before "shitty names"