kamiwakai

In my experience, I actually got addicted to reading -after- playing visual novels. There is a study that says people who read many visual novels tend to develop speed-reading (read faster) and have better text analyzing skills. This is so true. When I first played a visual novel, i didnt like it much. I would rather watch anime because it would give me more content in less time, and because I would just listen (and thus get less tired and bored than when I was reading). However, when I actually got used to reading visual novels and had fun with then, I began having a taste for reading. At first it was tiring to read, but now I was listening and reading (so when I got tired of so much text, characters would appear and start speaking, so listening to them would be the -break- between the novel side of it, as voice-acting with tachi-e resembles anime). After finishing some VNs, I realized my reading speed improved. Part of it was because I was bored of fillers (which made me develop a technique of text skimming to avoid the boredom but still retain content), and had a lot of curiosity (I wanted to know "whats next" so soon I found myself reading in auto-mode in full speed). After some time, I realized I was too used to some character styles and voices, and i found myself cutting some voices and having enough pleasure just reading the text (which was waay faster). After that evolution, I got more and more into light novels (something I could not stand to read more than 1 hour a day), reading them voraciously. Getting used to raw text and not having to wait for character voices, nowadays I even click a lot in VNs because even in auto-mode it gets slow (mainly when you can sense what the next lines are going to be). So what I can say from my experience is that, VNs are a great middle-point between anime (audio-visual) and novels (text-only), and transformed me from a formerly 100% visual person to a bookworm. After reading some studies, I believe many high-school students here in Japan have been experiencing the same (starting with gyaru-ge for fun, and end up reading light novels spontaneously). So Visual Novels are great to connect both mediums and you can feel how much you can improve as a reader.

The best recommendation I have is Amnesia. Its scenario is really unique and innovative, with super-well written suspense, and lots of choices. Its BGM, dialogues and scene transition blend incredibly well and make of it one of the most immersive and dense games I ever played. I found it randomly when I didnt even know what Otome game was. I found waay later that there was romance with guys, but surprisingly I didnt felt awkward because I was reading from 3rd person (observer of protagonist, instead of becoming it). It had no silliness/fillers that all other VNs have, and also had an innovative story-telling with a tone that you will find nowhere else. The art itself is also unique. After finishing Amnesia, I learned one thing: Otome games are unusual and will show you great stories that you will never find in mainstream visual novels.

lol i used to read in auto-mode only, but now I let it auto for important scenes and press enter/click several times while skimming through the text when I sense a filler that will do no good other than steal my precious time.

Finished the entire Ley Line trilogy in golden week. Tomorrow is the last day off... (sob) The first game is kinda shallow, the second gets revamped, make you laugh and blow your head with tons of new discoveries, then the third... But has nice ending and wrap of story, and the second game was a lot of fun.

I never had anyone to talk about visual novels after moving, so I was looking for a place where people were passionate about VNs and had fun discussing about them. I was quite impressed not only about the number of people actually reading them in the west (be it in English or Japanese), but also about the number of VNs that they are reading (some lists are quite long, I was astonished). Im also happy there are many Key fans over here who voraciously read (almost) all of its VNs and have life-changing experiences with them. My master (who introduced VNs and taught how to read them in a smart way) "graduated" from VNs (he played nearly everything since 2000s to now), and is almost graduating from light novels too, so we dont talk that much anymore LOL. But yeah, folks here are nice and hope to have a good time discussing VNs in Fuwanovels.

Finished Ley Line 2, and now playing the last one.

Yup.

Yes, after playing some VNs and watching tons of animes, you just get too used to their voices and what they are supposed to say. There were times I did mute some character voices because they were annoying and their filler scenes were just too long to listen through (as you said, listening takes a lot more time than reading). And I am mixing terminologies here. I say "skip" but the more appropriate term would be "speed reading".

I would like to join, not sure if my japanese cellphone is gonna be found though (friends from a different country could not add me ><)

Hi there. What is your favorite visual novel publisher/developer and why? Mine are Unison Shift Blossom (Nanatsuiro Drops, Ley Line, Flyable Heart) and KEY (Clannad, Air, etc.) KEY always express themes in such a visceral and deep way (friendship in Little Busters, Family and warm feelings in Clannad), so much that it feels like drawn from first-hand experience of the writers. As for Unison Blossom, I like the cute art blended with innocent plots and the way they separate the content in episodes (instead of a long run where you dont know where you are or how things are connected) https://vndb.org/p1386 https://vndb.org/p24

Nice. Short ones are great to relax after a long run. Is there any you can recommend?

@KosakiFag Yeah, i joined last week. Nice to meet ya. @Kiriririri Mainly Ageha route is a big waste, but I can understand as the purpose is fan service. But I loved the other routes (Amane being my favorite), and the concept of the game itself. Also backgrounds are outstanding and vivid. But when all the characters hang out together, it gets really annoying. It has good examples of bad written fillers that dont respect your time.

Well, judging from your VN list, you played some classic hits like Fate and Higurashi, so I can understand why you dont like skipping. Some works are just too good to skip even a line. But then again, it depends on what you play, how much time you have, mood, etc. So people choose whats best for them. I just see many vn gamers complaining that its all too long and boring, while there are many ways to save our time (while still retaining the content) and kill the boredom that makes the process less fun. We all know there are many fillers that are badly written and are just a waste.

As I said, there are some titles I cant just skip, because even the filler is a lot of fun. However, for many other titles, its not worth, so I save my precious time for other works that better deserve my attention, like Clannad