The Visual Novel Thread

Finally completed my first run through Steins;Gate. To my surprise, I got Suzuha's ending. Kind of a bittersweet note to end on, but I think I appreciated it all the more for being that way.

It's tempting to go back and start again straight away, but given that I've had problems with the game crashing during choice-events, I might just wait for the official English release.
 
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Professor Irony said:
Finally completed my first run through Steins;Gate. To my surprise, I got Suzuha's ending. Kind of a bittersweet note to end on, but I think I appreciated it all the more for being that way.

It's tempting to go back and start again straight away, but given that I've had problems with the game crashing during choice-events, I might just wait for the official English release.
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What did you think of Okabe's descent into insanity to the point of considering raping Suzuha? I was rather surprised it happened. Felt quite disturbing.

You going to try another ending any time soon?
 
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Yeah, that rather shocked me. Certainly, it wouldn't have surprised me in Chaos;Head, with the often sleazy nature of Takumi's delusions. To some extent, I even thought of Okabe as a more likeable, comic version of Takumi, with his madness played mainly for laughs, but after Okabe admitted that he knew his outbursts were nonsense, I'd never have expected him to sink to fantasies of rape and murder.. As much as there's little connection between the plot of each game, I feel Steins;Gate did have moments where it was very reminiscent of Chaos;Head, and that was certainly one of them.

I'm keen to go back and have another go at it, but I think I might try and watch the anime first. We've been threatening to do a podcast on it for ages now. I started G Senjou ages ago and never finished it, so I'll see if I can crack on with that next.
 
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Just remember to keeping pushing on with G-Senjou if you feel bored after the first few hours. It takes a while to get going. However, I would recommend you try Sharin no Kuni; Himawari no Shoujo since that's by the same company and a better visual novel.
 
I'd recommend skipping the side-routes in G Senjou and only reading the true route. Unless you actually like one of the side heroines. Even then it's probably not worth it.
 
I did struggle a bit when I started G-Senjou, now that you mention it. Also I think I'd be hard pushed to actually remember the side-heroines at this stage...

On a vaguely related note, apparently this is now a thing:

3pQs9pA.jpg


The name makes it sound like a straight sequel to Chaos;Head, but the description suggests otherwise. Either way, I'm not keen on the art. [link]
 
Hi Guys, I'm after some help I guess you could say, please. I really want to get into Visual Novels. I've done some Googling and some looking on UP1 and the kind I'd like to start with are ones like these:

https://www.up1.co.uk/Details/C2048-If+ ... me+Windows
https://www.up1.co.uk/Details/Y0517-Sch ... dows+Adult

I guess my first question about the above is, are there only english subtitles versions of these? The first link, there's nothing on UP at all so I don't even know if that has subtitles!

I'm an English Dub fan for my anime but I'm willing to give the original Jap Dub a chance seeing as I'm pretty sure most are released solely this way.

I did stumble on the name Katawa Shoujo which is apparently English language as it wasn't made in Japan? If so, do you lot happen to know of anymore English language ones please?

I guess I'm just after suggestions for a mixed batch of English and Japanese dub ones but English Subs are a must for the latter.

This will potentially give me a chance to pull my PC out of the attic as it's an old PC with a brand spanking new hard drive going to waste aha.

Thank you :D
 
-Danielle- said:
Hi Guys, I'm after some help I guess you could say, please. I really want to get into Visual Novels. I've done some Googling and some looking on UP1 and the kind I'd like to start with are ones like these:

https://www.up1.co.uk/Details/C2048-If+ ... me+Windows
https://www.up1.co.uk/Details/Y0517-Sch ... dows+Adult

I guess my first question about the above is, are there only english subtitles versions of these? The first link, there's nothing on UP at all so I don't even know if that has subtitles!
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Yes, those both have English text. Personally, I wouldn't touch If My Heart Had Wings because the licensor, Moe Novel, removed the "adult scenes" and changed the script. In fact, they outright removed any hints of fan-service, and even kissing or even altered the CGs (special images used for certain scenes). Regardless of the sex scenes being well written or not, I'm an advocate of keeping things intact.

-Danielle- said:
I'm an English Dub fan for my anime but I'm willing to give the original Jap Dub a chance seeing as I'm pretty sure most are released solely this way.

I guess I'm just after suggestions for a mixed batch of English and Japanese dub ones but English Subs are a must for the latter.
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Visual novels never get dubbed. If the visual novel has voices it'll have Japanese voices. It's a very, very niche genre of video games.

-Danielle- said:
I did stumble on the name Katawa Shoujo which is apparently English language as it wasn't made in Japan?
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Katawa Shoujo is called an OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) which means it was originally made in English. It was actually an idea that started on 4chan, so it's pretty much a western take on Japanese visual novels.

Since you're looking for suggestions, I don't know if you're aware but the majority of Japanese visual novels have sex in them. I'll be pretty limited in what I can recommend if I don't know if you're at least 18 or how you feel about sex scenes in your video games. Also, maybe some genres (Sci-Fi, Horror, Slice-of-life, etc) you are particularly interested in will also help.
 
There is a fan patch for If My Heart Had Wings, and it does the following:

- Restores all sexual content, including censored CGs.
- All censored scenes outside sex scenes were restored to original and translated from scratch.
- Reasonable editing and QC (fixes most Engrish).
- Routes edited. Common route half way.
Click to expand...

And a second one is being worked on:

- Fully Edit MoeNovel’s script to natural English. (and some light TLC).
- (stretch goal) TLC moenovel's scripts completely, re-translate sex jokes and modified text.
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School Days is excellent but be aware that it's animated. You'll want to make sure that your "old" PC meets the minimum requirements first.

I would, as always, recommend Kara no Shoujo (nsfw) for its beautiful art, well-developed cast, and compelling mystery story - with the caveat that it gets pretty dark and disturbing at times. Kotaku(!) review.

For something non-adult, Steins;Gate will be out very shortly and will surely be amazing.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
There is a fan patch for If My Heart Had Wings, and it does the following:

- Restores all sexual content, including censored CGs.
- All censored scenes outside sex scenes were restored to original and translated from scratch.
- Reasonable editing and QC (fixes most Engrish).
- Routes edited. Common route half way.
Click to expand...

And a second one is being worked on:

- Fully Edit MoeNovel’s script to natural English. (and some light TLC).
- (stretch goal) TLC moenovel's scripts completely, re-translate sex jokes and modified text.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
The first patch has bugs so it's not really worth the bother. It's better to just wait for the v2 patch.
 
Maxon, I am 26 next month so I am completely fine with adult scenes and the like and that stuff doesn't bother me at all and I'd be fine/happy with playing stuff with that in. I'm becoming quite the "perve" in my old age ;) :p

Thanks for the heads up about them both having English Subtitles, it's a shame about all the original premise of If My Heart Had Wings but I'll research that fan patch and add both to my list.

Do you know anymore kinds of OELVN ones?

fabricatedlunatic thank you for the suggestion, I will check it out for sure :D

Erm genre wise, I think I'm pretty flexible so long as the gameplay or whatever you call it remains the same, you know like how you get to pick what you say and do etc. That's what I'm after most. A few on UP sounded just like regular RPG's you know fighting and levelling up your character? Well those ones, I stay interested in for less than a week as I get bored of levelling up just to progress so any like that would be a no no.
What's "slice of life" exactly please?

Sad as it may sound, I've always been in the background interested in visual novels as I used to play negotiation games on zap media and then watching The World God Only Knows has returned my interest.

As you've said, most tend to have s*x so they're not going to be exactly like the dating sims on TWGOK but admitting my perve-ness here, I've done a couple of "meet n f*ck" on Newgrounds way back when so I'm sure it would be on par or maybe less than that which I can handle. My bf may worry though, or either push me off to play himself :p

Final question/s:

do you know any other websites that are good to buy these from that will work on remotely old pc's? I think I have Vista/XP on my PC and either 1 or 2 up from that on my laptop.
Also, any legally downloaded ones....do they have the capacity to be burnt onto a disc? Basically I'd have to download at my mums on my laptop and I'd want to play them on the PC i aim to move to my house (which doesnt have internet so i couldnt download directly to that). I suppose I could always move it to an external hard drive??
 
If you have PC that can run Vista you'll be fine. Visual novels aren't very resource intensive. Also, the only other OELVN I'm aware of is Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~. I don't know if they're common or rare.

I'm not sure how many commercial visual novels give you the actual ISO. From what I've seen they give you a folder with the game files and the required .exe or they just give you a single .exe to install from. If you're that worried about taking stuff with you, you can always get an account with MEGA (50GB free) or Dropbox and upload stuff to them. Of course, there's the memory stick option too.

As for commercially available stuff, I recommend:
Demonbane (Super robots in a Lovecraftian setting)
Steins;Gate (Sci-Fi drama with time travel)
Saya no Uta (Horror with Lovecraftian elements)
Kara no Shoujo (What Fabio said, although it suffers from being a bit unfair and having too many bad ends)

That's about it. The good stuff is either out of print in Japan and/or Japan only. If you're OK with finding other ways to get them and applying fan patches, then I have much more to recommend.

Ever 17 (People trapped in underwater amusement park; lots of mystery and drama)
Clannad (Drama and romance with a hint of magic; the visual novel is looooooooooooooooooong)
Little Busters (Same as Clannad but not quite as long)
Rewrite (Again, lots of drama and romance, but also a very large emphasis on magic)
MuvLuv Extra/Unlimited (Extra is a harem romcom, but is actually good, Unlimited is more of the same but it changes the highschool setting of Extra dramatically)
MuvLuv Alternative (Final part of the MuvLuv trilogy. Not explaining this one because of spoilers. It's my favourite VN.)
Sharin no Kuni; Himawari no Shoujo (Another VN with drama and romance but also has a lot political things to consider)
G-Senjou no Maou (Like Sharin no Kuni but with emphasis on crime rather than politics)
Tsukihime (Magic, supernatural beings, drama and romance. Atypical Type-Moon fare)
Fate/Stay Night (Same as Tsukihime)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Murder mystery with supernatural elements)
 
Yes I'm fine with others ways of finding them :) How would you apply fan patches please?

Unfortunately you're talking to a girl who couldnt burn a dvd with a menu screen on it despite the file being on her pc to be able to do so haha. That poor NIN film from the 90's is still just on my hard drive :(

Thank you so much for all the recommendations, I may invest a weekend soon to get the OELVN one and the 4 you've first listed and wait for the rest when I finally get some time off work. Then my pc will once again be in use! :)

Excited now. Gives me stuff to do when tv isn't cutting it. I'm lacking on friends atm as they're just not bothering with me so it'll be nice having stuff to take up my time :)

Still wish I could bag ones like these on a console like the PSP ot DS (proper TWGOK style ;)). Think I'd be a mad obsessed woman if that happened though! :p
 
The DS and PSP have a few games with Visual Novel elements too that are worth checking out. I highly recommend the Ace Attorney series as well as Hotel Dusk and its sequel Last Window all on DS (with Ace Attorney 5 on 3DS). The Zero Escape series is a great one too, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on DS and its sequel Virtue's Last Reward on 3DS/Vita.
 
Hehe I have Hotel Dusk and my Brother has the Ace Attorney's and I believe 3/4 or maybe even 4/4 of the Zero Escape ones you mentioned so this is perfect! :)

Didn't know Hotel Dusk made another! I will add that to my Birthday list along with the Professor Layton's for the 3DS hehe.

Thanks all. It's a big help for me. I need to always try and keep my mind busy and this will definitely cut it :)
Not to mention that I'm so bringing my 3DS to Rome with me in May mwahaha. Hmmmmm would I be allowed to play the 3DS on the plane though i wonder *ponders*
 
-Danielle- said:
Yes I'm fine with others ways of finding them :) How would you apply fan patches please?
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I'm afraid I can't tell you that in this thread because fan patches have differing methods/steps for installing. You usually get instructions on how to install them though, so you should be fine. If you do have problems just PM me.
 
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