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Top 5 Yuri Game Jam VNs (free)


Plk_Lesiak

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Hello Ladies & Gentlemen!

The western visual novel market, unlike the high-budget JP scene, thrives mostly through amateur passion projects and products of small, indie development teams. While this causes most of the Western VNs to be of relatively poor quality, it also promotes creativity and good stylization over huge word-counts and high production values, which are simply unattainable with highly limited budgets and manpower. This philosophy is further supported by various events oriented towards indie developers, such as NaNoRenO and Yuri Game jam – and while most games produced there might be extremely simple and rather forgettable, there are important exceptions to this rule. And, what’s probably worth mentioning, the rare, memorable games coming from these contests are still just as free as all the other ones.

Today, I’m presenting you a list of top 5 Yuri Game Jam VNs – although short and often minimalistic, these games will provide you with enjoyable and creative f/f romance stories, without asking for anything more than a few hours of your time (you can download each game for free through the links in the titles).
 

The Sad story of Emmeline Burns

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The Victorian drama by Ebi-Hime is the best know and probably most-appreciated Yuri Game Jam entry - and not without good reasons. While short and, as a kinetic novel, following a purely linear formula, this tragic story offers excellent writing, emotionally impactful storytelling and a great aesthetic, all way above the level you would normally see in a contest like this. It also doesn't rely on shock value or leave the reader with a depressing conclusion - with all the titular sadness still in place, it's a hopeful, touching story of love cut short by fate and a great reading experience - one which might have yuri romance as its main theme, but offers much more than just that.
 

Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet

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While extremely sweet when it goes to artstyle and even the main theme (candy), Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet by Nami is a wonderful short story about prejudice and friendship, that delivers much more than its cutesy exterior might suggest. With well-written dialogues, charming atmosphere and cast of quirky characters it’s a great casual experience – in many ways a polar opposite of The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns, but equally worth reading. Also, with romance being implied rather than in any way explicit, it can appeal to anyone looking for a funny, warm story, rather than just fans of the genre. 
 

Once on a windswept night

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Once on a Windswept Night is most likely the most ambitious Yuri Game Jam VN, with an intricate meta-narrative and multiple mysteries for the player to uncover. With two touching romance stories, multiple hours of content and very solid writing, it delivers much more than you would normally expect from a free game. The visual side of things suffered slightly from the relatively short development cycle, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a very creative and in many ways unique experience and, for a game jam entry, an impressive artistic achievement, in many ways on par with Ebi-Hime's commercial projects.

 

First Kiss at Spooky Soiree

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While not as interesting and brilliantly-written as Syrup…, this tiny VN has a lot of the same charming artstyle and heart-warming mood as the previous Yuri Game Jam game by Nami. Even if it’s too short to offer a comprehensive story of any kind, it works great as an amusing distraction between “serious” readings, with some great lines and creatively-designed characters. Closer to what you would typically expect from a game jam entry, it’s still a pleasant, worthwhile experience.
 

To Libertad

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This story of a runaway slave and a warrior who saves her life and leads her to a safe haven of Libertad is a pretty standard, but well-written fantasy tale with mild f/f romance added on top of it. The author’s focus on the main characters’ journey and fight for survival, and the bond that forms between them during that struggle effected in something rather universal, that should prove appealing not only for fans of yuri VNs or love stories, but anyone looking for a solid, short adventure tale.

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Once again, I hope you’ve found this list interesting and if you want to see more recommendations for short VNs, that are too small to offer material for full reviews, but are still worth looking into, please let me know by liking this post or sharing your thoughts in the comment section below (as YouTube'y as this might sound, I'll be really thankful for feedback).

Have a great week everyone!

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1 hour ago, SeniorBlitz said:

YAY, more short gems for me to read, and SHOUJO-AI is also a big plus for me!

Hope you'll enjoy them. :3 In March I'll put a few more yuri-themed posts (I read more Shoujo-Ai than anything else really, so they pretty much have to show up a lot), but for now I want to work on that Otome Month thing I previously planned for January. ;)

43 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

More short free gay things for me to consume. The Emmeline one sounds pretty sweet.

Syrup is also great if you look for something to cheer you up - that basically goes to most things Nami does, I'm working on a separate post about her work, although if I don't change my schedule it will show up somewhere in late March. :)

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I agree that all of these are great VNs, and the developers all deserve to be on it, but I would have preferred a little bit more variety, especially for such a short list. It's a little harder to get away with being on the list twice when there are only 5 spots. Loan Wolf by Rumblebee, and Plain by Fablesoft, for example, are two that I personally enjoyed and think could have potentially competed with the others on this list for a spot. Some others that I haven't played myself but have heard good things about are Blossoms Bloom Brightest, Girl Crush, and Love on the Peacock Express.

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2 hours ago, Zelan said:

I agree that all of these are great VNs, and the developers all deserve to be on it, but I would have preferred a little bit more variety, especially for such a short list. It's a little harder to get away with being on the list twice when there are only 5 spots. Loan Wolf by Rumblebee, and Plain by Fablesoft, for example, are two that I personally enjoyed and think could have potentially competed with the others on this list for a spot. Some others that I haven't played myself but have heard good things about are Blossoms Bloom Brightest, Girl Crush, and Love on the Peacock Express.

Well, you're right in a way, although even now, when I've played more YGJ games than when I wrote this post I still think there's little that compares ebi-hime's and Nami's work when it goes to overall quality. I also come from the idea that I can always write another list if I find more games and developers worth recommending - I try to pick them carefully because JP VN fans (that are the main audience here on Fuwa) are used to really high quality, high-budget VNs, so they might not survive the cultural shock when approaching some of the indie stuff. ;)

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Having read one route of Plain, I would recommend against it - if you're not starved for choice - on account of bad prose and lukewarm plot. For busy vn devs: read the first scene then ditch it; the mode of presentation is interesting, though probably only surprising because VNs put so little effort into it a lot of the time (those versed in Fapanese can try みにくいモジカの子 or something instead).

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