Not enough of you kids play Visual Novels, so I’ve summed down the glorious history of the genre into a single post, complete with examples, to raise a little awareness around here (Click the title of each game to download it).
Saya No Uta:
This is my FAVORITE video game. Let’s look at the three basic points of a visual novel, and how Saya conquered them all.
Art: Just look at it. It’s gorgeous.
Story: I loved the story so much, I actually went out and bought an anthology of Lovecraft’s stories (Which supposedly inspired this game). Don’t get me wrong, Saya still had better writing.
Sound: Uh, I dunno. I don’t really pay attention to this sort of thing. But I’m sure it was BOSS HOG, like everything else.
Boss Hog is appaled by my Guro VNs.
Just a word of warning, never ever play Saya when there’s other people around. EVER.
One:
I would like to give you Kanon or especially Air, but interestingly enough, One is the only Key work that has been totally translated (Edit: I stand corrected, Moon was also translated about a month ago). Well, I’ll tell you right now that this doesn’t really matter, because if you play one Key game, you’ve played them all. Seriously, they all involve a guy coming back to his hometown, or a town in which he lived as a child, and meets/remeets:
The Terminal Sick Girl: Misuzu (Air), Shiori (Kanon), Nagisa (Clannad)
The Ghost: Michiru (Air), Ayu (Kanon), Fuko (Clannad)
The MILF: Haruko (Air), Akiko (Kanon), Sanae (Clannad)
And a cast of other standard characters. He then proceeds to learn more about each girl one by one until he’s solved all the problems in their life, and learns more about his past which he’s totally forgotten about for some reason.
Ect. ect.
Tsukihime:
VN fans tend to fall into one of two groups, Type-Moon fans, and Key fans. Guess which one I am. Tsukihime was the first “real” VN I ever played, 3 months later, I’m still playing it (I’ve beat both Arcueid routes, both Ciel’s, both Hisui’s, and all I have left are both Akiha’s, and Kohaku’s). I’d like you to take a look at something. This. That’s the Tsukihime flowchart, which shows all the potential paths you can take in the game (Don’t worry, it doesn’t spoil anything). Take note, each of those boxes is a scene, not a line of text or a choice, it’s a whole scene. It’s a long game.
Bonus Content:
Umineko No Naku Koro Ni:
A new up and coming visual novel producer is the two man team of 7th Expansion. First gaining fame for his breakaway hit, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, he then proceeded to create Umineko. The art is god awful, but 7th Expansion is more famous for their suspenseful writing.
Note: Umineko is only partially translated. Oh well.
MOON from Key is also fully translated. And Kanon’s patch is in it’s final stages.
Saya no Uta IS really good, yeah.
I’ve played part of Key, Saya no Uta, Yume Miru Kusuri, part of Wanko to Kurasou and that’s it.
Oh, forgot, sorry, and Planetarian. But that is a kinetic novel.
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/20556/Kanon+English+Patch+Completed.html
do you consider this not fully translated?
just little typos leftover, so the experience should be clunky, but its still there
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Saya is terrifying. Just beat it and feared nightmares for the first time since RE:4 about getting chainsawd’d by the baghead man.
Well, it seems that the patch came out the same day as this post. Obviously they’re just out to make me look like an idiot.