Dreamysyu

Thank you for the recommendations, what i meant by 'realistic' was not necessarily about vns with no sci-fi elements at all, which is why i used the quotation marks   i was pretty much asking for a well done plot. I don't like any weak plots in VNs, for example: a man gets stabbed in the heart yet he 'magically survives, stuff like that. as long as the vn gives me considerable explanations i am ok with it. Although Clannad had sci-fi elements in it, i don't remember any instance where i felt the vn forced something on me and i just HAD to believe it for the heck of it. the illusionary world was very mysterious and i liked how they explained it at the end. you want an example of what i don't like?
In Grisaia in Michuru's route
 

So, I (finally) finished episode 1 of Himawari. And my reaction for it is... mixed. It's definitely too early to judge the whole VN, because basically, from what I understand, I've basically finished the common route, and I heard that it's worse in quality than the rest of the game. Still, there are some things that make me extremely cautious at this point. On the other had, there is more or less an equal number of things that make me intrigued, so I hope for the best.
The protagonist is my least favorite part of the game so far. He is just a stupid sexually insecure coward, and I wouldn't really want to follow his perspective throughout the whole game, but we get what we get. Aries is another character I really don't like, but she got me intrigued at the end of the chapter, so, I don't know, I'm giving her a chance. Ginga is fine. Well, if we forget that he is ~16, looks like he is ~25, and acts like he's 10. In a more or less realistic scenario he would probably be considered mentally ill, but for a VN such character is nothing unusual, so I don't care. Asuka is ok. Aqua is the only character introduced thus far that I liked, though she also shows some signs of being not totally ok with her head.
The sci-fi elements so far don't seem as good as I hoped before starting, but it's too early to judge that. On the other hand, it's take on the theme of space travel is quite interesting. From what I understand, this VN takes a more pessimistic approach to it, and it's a plus. Because, space travel today doesn't really seem like it's going to develop much further in the near future. <rant>I know that there are still some new project in development, like Falcon, but all of them are directed to the near surroundings of the Earth. On the other thing, people haven't been further in the space when they were in the 70's. Far space travel just doesn't have any applications as of yet, and even fully automatized stations like New Horizons require serious money investment. Manned flight to Mars would probably be too much. And nobody even knows what to do with the radiation in space, so it could also be physically impossible.</rant>
Another thing, despite all the flaws I mentioned, the first chapter still works somehow. It's nothing amazing, but it was still kind of enjoyable to read, when I tried not to notice all those flaws. So, I don't know, I hope that the 2nd episode is better.
5-6/10 so far.

Apparently an upcoming VN this month. Kinda interested since it's in a setting I like with science.
Does anyone heard of this company? 
Laplacian
http://laplacian.jp/newrin/
They only made 1 other VN and I'm wondering how it did.
 
Also Twintail Lolis are always a plus
And yeah.... since I'm a phycicist ( studying to be one still D: ) This caught my attention.
 
 
Yeah who am i kidding the Loli got me first
 
 

Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight.

One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two races to erupt.

The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayo's fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart.

* * *

Hi everyone ! I want to share with you my next project, The Last Birdling:

http://birdling.invertmouse.com

The site contains links to a demo, so I hope you can check it out! All feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Here is a link to the trailer:
 
There is always a special touch to announcing projects on Fuwa. I started this VN journey with Unhack, which I like to think grew up alongside this forum. When I look back, I realize it has been five years since this all began. Maybe a random like me has no right to boast about a five year anniversary project, but The Last Birdling is exactly that. Thank you for sticking with me through the years.



This project originated from a short story I wrote in around 2006 named The Last Dragon. Back then, a common feedback was my narrative contained too much dialogue. As a form of training, I wrote The Last Dragon to see how it would feel to write a story with no dialogue at all. This rule has been abolished in The Last Birdling, plus I have deepened the plot, and now here we are.



The Last Birdling has been in the works for over a year alongside Unhack 2. Today, I finally get to show it to you. Thanks to your years of support, I am able to fund this game without Kickstarter. While a funding campaign can be used as another source of promotion, I want to show what a difference you have made to my life. Thank you so much.



That said, the journey can be rough. Recently, I have been tempted to take options that may lead to people calling me a sellout. I love money as much as anyone else. That, plus all the hate against western projects, too. Truth be told, I almost have nothing left to give. I wanted to get all dramatic and claim the "last" in The Last Birdling means this is my final project. That was the original meaning, but I have changed my mind since then, as the love is too deep. Let's see how much longer I can be me.

To finish off, I would like to leave you with this:



Thank you everyone !

 

For me it is the opposite.  I have no trouble starting a story or thinking of things in text form.  I actually have to take the effort necessary to picture something visually, which is why I'll never be a visual artist. 
First, do you read?  Other than manga, LNs, and VNs, that is.  The first step to learning to visualize a story in text form is to read, in order to understand all the tools available to you.  If you can't think of a written scene that touches your heart or your mind from something you've read in text form, then you are out of the question as a story writer. 
Some people choose to write an outline first.  Others brainstorm settings and characters.  Yet others jump into the story with no preparation except a vague idea.  I've done all of them. 
My advice to you is that it is actually easier to write something if you can bring it up in your mind visually and understand how pictures can be represented in words.  I tend to think in terms of cause and effect, expanding from there.  However, there are some people who basically plop a character into the middle of a situation with no explanation and fill in details from there on whims.  Both can work.  It just depends on you, ultimately.
Also, comprehending basic literary terms and actual examples of how they work (metaphors, similes, allegory, allusions, repetition, foreshadowing, etc) is important even if you prefer to use a nearly purely informative tone when describing.  You don't need to be a poet to create beautiful prose, but understanding how a poet does his work definitely helps (please don't mistake this advice for saying you need to rhyme... I actually had someone do that to me once).
Edit: Incidentally, I suck at ending stories... I can put down a thousand pages of text, describing events and the like.  However, since I usually start from the setting and characters or a single scene or concept I want to use, the ending is the one part I usually have trouble with.

Huh. The art looks very generic, but everything else looks interesting on a first glance, so I'm looking forward for this title.

Chuusotsu - 1st Graduation is getting a western release by Fruitbat Factory! We have a Prefundia page up for the upcoming Kickstarter project.
It's a new all-ages visual novel by Studio Beast (NSFW link), the circle that made J.Q.V Jinrui Kyuusai-bu ~With Love from Isotope~. Chuusotsu is an HD wide-screen title and it's getting a dual language release (English and Japanese).
This is our first Kickstarter project and we welcome all feedback with open arms!
Here is some art from the game:


More Art (spoilered for brevity):
 

I'm sloooowly an quitely crawling through Tokyo Babel.
MAN... This a pian to read... so much pointless brawling... the setting and concepts behind the plot vaguely reminds me of SMTII and Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki (unfortunately that manga was mile above this mess).
I hope Pygmalion is better than this.
(I can't understand why the fighting scenes here are considered to be good, maybe those scenes just don't connect with me anymore...)

As for that matter, I don't think G.O. himself was real life scientist although I wouldn't be so sure about that. What I knew is that to find out that Himawari was good or not, it's up to you to decide later.

Please dont go there.
 

Currently multi reading Da Capo 3 and Pygmalion...
I didn't really understand the purpose of the Da Capo 3 prologue, since it felt more like a trailer for Da Capo 2 just with cheaper and more slutty heroines,
Considering Pygmalion, the prologue reminded me a lot of Tokyo Babel: Clueless girl, thrown back and forth between the real and an imaginary world, and no attempt to give even the most basic of explanations.
 

Aiyoku No Eustia (https://vndb.org/r24024)
A fan transation project by Eustia Translations
Partial Patch is out! https://mega.nz/#!no0DyQza!DZShSFgME_-iW6vaEdYy3oek-794a1yiuiW48U05dBQ Covers up to Eris' chapter (Chapter 2).

 
Opening Movie:
Description (modified VNDB description):
Personal words:
Translation Video Sample:
Team:
Project Lead/Translator/TLC: eplipswich @eplipswich
Head Editor: Desertopa
Head QC: Angeldeath
Reserve/Former Members:
Translator (Reserve): TakoRin @TakoRin
Editor (Reserve): kumada
Translator (Former): goodluckmyway/Be Water @goodluckmyway
Editor/QC (Former): Vermillio @Vermillio
QC (Former): Esham @Esham
Progress:
You can check out detailed real-time progress update at the following link: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AhHDq_NSwaAqgSnImaDDLTME-lmi?e=ai9dey
----------------------------------
You can follow me on Twitter: @eplipswich
Job Opening(s):
None at the moment, but feel free to PM me if you feel you can contribute to the project.

It seems to me to be a mistake to approach a new storytelling medium by asking yourself what you want from it, rather than what it has to deliver and how it delivers it.  Visual Novels are not Novels, Short stories, poetry, film, TV or Opera and none of these things offer the same thing as each other and neither have they claim to.  The way that Visual Novels are designed, written and created is not the same and not trying to be the same as Shakespeare, or Citizen Kane or Hemingway.  It’s a different time, culture, form, experience –  as has been mentioned already, choosing 3 VNs from now and deciding if you like the form based on that is as relevant as picking, say, 3 hollywood blockbusters and declaring film a terrible form because it doesn’t do provocative and thoughtful.  It does, you’re just not appreciating either the intent or the constraints or the purpose of the particular cinema you just watched.  Now, I happen to love Hollywood cinema, especially when it’s Star Wars or marvel superheroes … but it’s not literary in the Orson Welles sense.  I’m ok with that because I like the things that are done well and I appreciate to some extent how they are done well.
But the thing I keep reading is criticisms of how the text is “not-literary” and I guess this is frequently put alongside, say good prose of literary novelists or whatever and seen wanting.  Now, as a big fan of Opera (as well as well written Victorian doorstep novels) I think I have a little  sense in how different types of language can be used in different contexts and different forms.  I think people too often go into VNs expecting them to be “Novelistic” (except for the people who expect choose-your-own-adventure books) and are maybe disappointed, instead of considering that VNs are a marriage of words, image and music as coincidentally is Opera.  Now the two forms don’t share much in common culturally or in content or style but I want to point out that in Opera language is, whilst not subservient, it’s different and, on the surface, not as directly important as the music.  You can happily put on an Opera CD and enjoy arias or incidental music etc but few people read Opera librettos without the music, for fun.  Why?  Because the language is tooled in such a way that it works in that musical context and only that context.  Sometimes the symbolism can be heavy, such as in Wagner or Strauss, but even then the symbolism is expressed more directly through musical themes than by what the characters are saying, and in other great operas I find the dialogue to be quite trite at times even when a librettist is highly regarded.  Except for where the composer is the librettist, the librettist rarely gets billed as anyone other than “that guy the composer collaborated with”.  Mozart is well remembered as a name, his great librettist Da Ponte is not.
My drawn out point is – neither the form or the culture surrounding VNs expects or demands dense and elaborate prose in order to tell the types of stories currently being told through the medium.  That doesn’t mean it is not good writing, it means that the writing is being used to push the story content in a clear, direct and accessible way.  It’s like schools of thought on how quick edits should be in movies – an artistic movie director may favour long takes, more establishing mood shots etc.whereas a Hollywood blockbuster will favour quick edits, more crosscutting and pithier dialogue.  Neither is wrong or bad per se(except, y’know, Quantum of Solace), it’s just what is appropriate and correct for the story being told and the audience is designed for.  One can and ought to debate  greatness within the boundaries of what something is trying to achieve, but to call it out for not being something else entirely seems very wrong to me.  I haven’t read many VNs yet, I’m still a noob, but I did read Planetarian and felt it a masterpiece – and what struck me about it was precisely the way that the simple prose and the simple images actually formed together to create a very large sense of the world and a strong connection to two characters.  It was non-fussy and that’s partly where it draws its power as a story from.  I think the VN form is powerful – as one previous poster hinted – because it takes a lot longer for connections to be formed with characters through smaller incidents it enables for smaller plot points to be imbued with heightened drama and meaning.  I don’t think it’s the case that these stories can’t be told any other way, but I imagine that the experience of watching the Planetarian anime is markedly different from reading the VN.  Hopefully, still good but the different mediums will bring out different qualities in the story, I’m sure.

With statements like this one, I'm sure it'll be mutual.
But then again, I don't take anyone else's opinions seriously regardless of the language(s) they choose to consume media in, so... it's nothing personal.

For me, it's simple. 
VNs are easier to read and more attractive. Not just superficially. Like everyone has said, Vns are a different medium altogether, so by making comparisons to other forms of media, you shot yourself in the cock. 
The mistake majority make, is not even understanding the execution or scope of VNs. How? 
When judging a VN, most categorize by Art ( Sprite CG), Music (BGM) and writing (prose). It's sad when people judge/appraise an item by 50% of it's quality. Vns are not based on those few criteria i mentioned, but alot more. Consider the Visual Effects used (if any), consider the SFX, the GUI, the directing (post-programming). Once you base your judgement on all of these, your review becomes more complete. Excessive? Unnecessary? If you feel appraising with all these is too much and not worth it, then don't appraise at all. Half-baked appraisals hurt other people's drive (creators).
The moment you said you dropped the Vns, you moved the gun to your backside and shot yourself there as well. I in particular ( and my general view) feel that someone who is unable to completely consume a product, has no right to appraise it. The saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover" didn't pop up because someone was trying to sound cool. In the same sense, your current representation to me, based on what you said, is "I dropped it because i didn't like it, so it is shit", as opposed to the more appropriate mentality "I dropped it because i didn't like it, so it's not my thing". in the latter quote, the consumer understands and respects the fact that his personal tastes do not judge the product as a whole, as there are hundreds of other opinions to the contrary.
TL;DR: I am not pointing out pros and cons of VNs. I am showing you how to "Open-mindedly" assess the pros and cons of VNs. 
I think you should pick up some of the recommendations in this thread and keep the points i mentioned above in mind. You must always remember, that your opinion is one out of many and unless the majority share your opinion, it's only singular. Like my shitty opinion i just explained. 

I've been an avid reader for most of my life and i've found that there is great value in any story as long as it connects with the reader based on their preference in themes, genre and focus among other things. Visual novels are interesting to me,  everytime i read one, i delve into new worlds with new characters, sounds and settings. It's just like reading a new book, its just different in that it creates these things for you rather than you helping create those worlds with your imagination. You can simply lie back and pick your own road to take. Most visual novels are simple and direct with their delivery, but that doesn't take anything away from it. Stories don't have to be elaborate masterpieces to have value, to be enjoyed.
So for me, the appeal of visual novels is simple, its merely another way for me to pursue stories. Its delivered in its own unique way, with voices, colour, music and design. It's so fun to read! 
Books, Manga, Visual novels, Anime, Magazines etc. I don't mind any of them, as long as there's something in them that i can connect with, i'll enjoy it. They all have value to me.
 
“Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas-abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken-and what could be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created.” 
― Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

VNs with some amount of literary merit exist, but they're the very rare exception, and they are by and large not very popular, especially in the west (when we even get translations of them...). Visual Novels are an entertainment medium, first and foremost, and it shows. That's neither a bad nor a good thing; it doesn't make sense to knock entertainment media for doing its thing. I like reading literary stuff every now and then, but in most of my leisure time I'm just looking for some good entertainment, and VNs often deliver that for me. But like Ariurotl said, they're not even at the top of the entertainment game for the most part: when the newest Brandon Sanderson book or Brent Weeks book comes out, I have a lot more fun reading top-notch genre fiction than I do reading VNs.
Judging by the two I've read, as ChaosRaven pointed out, even games from the steampunk series, often acclaimed as some of the more thoughtfully-written VNs, have a bare minimum of really blatant symbolism, basically no subtext, and, when the dust settles and the rationale behind everything becomes clear, they have extremely straightforward plots. I love them dearly anyway, in large part because of the juxtaposition of the ultimate simplicity of the underlying motivation behind the entire plot and the vast resulting impact the events have on the world. But the fact remains: large, complex worlds; simple texts.
The more I read it, the more I realize Majo Koi Nikki has a surprising amount of subtext and symbolism woven throughout certain sections of it. But I won't kid myself: that makes up maybe 3% of the writing, at most. There's probably as much time spent on sex scenes as there is on developing and building the underlying themes and messages, and this puts it in the far high end of literary focus I've detected in VNs I've read (though I'm quite sure a lot of this is simply a result of the sheer amount of time I've spent re-reading Majo Koi Nikki).
Since they aren't subject to the same market conditions and thus don't suffer the innovator's dilemma to nearly such an extent as the entrenched Japanese VN makers, non-Japanese VNs may perhaps have a better chance at breaking the mold and telling at least somewhat different stories. VA-11 HALL-A is, in some ways, a more interestingly-told story than any other VN I've ever read, because it makes the unusual choice of putting the point-of-view character on the fringes of conflict, only relating snippets of the lives of the characters closer to the core by means of their conversation with the bartender narrator. I can't imagine any Japanese VN doing this; they're too stuck pandering to an audience requiring self-insert characters who are the most important person in the story.
That said, if anything, non-Japanese VNs almost universally do an even worse job of it than Japanese VNs, since they try too hard to emulate a formula, and often even emulate the setting along with it. Every time I see another OELVN project about a bunch of people with Japanese names, I roll my eyes, and I'm worried I'm about to go cross-eyed over here.
Anyway, maybe time to summarize: there's stuff out there that's more like what it seems you're looking for, but not a lot of it, and even then it's not a primary focus, because your expectations are probably a bit out of whack.

I presume it's mostly because the writing WILL differ between vn's and standard books. VN's have often more common with screen plays, rather than typical prose writing. There's a lot of dialogue, especially within ADV-centered games and descriptive writing often falls onto second plan. On the other hand, this is reversed with NVL games, which focus mainly on descriptive writing and prose, rather than character interactions; they are still there, but look and work in a way, which is a lot more "accessible" to someone, who's used to reading books.
I'd say, the OP should give a try a few more mature titles, which often make use of NVL-styled writing, instead of adventure game-esque presentation. Games like Hanachirasu, Saya no Uta, Cartagra, Narcissu, Planetarian, True Remembrance. There's a lot more, of course; one of the fun things about vn's is that you are 100% sure to stumble upon something that will suit your fancy. You only need to keep diggin'.

I personally enjoy the combination of visuals and music in addition to the text in VNs, which makes them more enjoyable than normal books for me, where all I have is the text alone. It makes it easier to visualize the story, and the music + sound effects usually help setting the mood/ atmoshpere in the scenes without any "effort" from me as I read, and in turn makes me feel more immersed in the story.
You comment a lot on the writing and such in the VNs being terrible, and personally just straight up disagree with this. I can't really say much about that particular point to be honest, as I don't really understand specifically what you thought was so terrible compared to "normal books". If anything I find the writing in most VNs I have read quite enjoyable. (And as an avid book reader, I see little difference in quality when comparing "normal books" and VNs in my mind.)
The choices in VNs was another one of the things that drew me to the genre. A book where I as the reader get to make choices that impacts the ending of the story is an incredibly cool feature. This is certainly one of the most appealing things about VNs to me, even in pure love stories where the only real choices is choosing a heroine. Just the fact that I can somewhat choose where the story will be going is tons of fun.
The combination of "mature content" and serious stories utilized in eroge was another reason I got interested in VNs. Games that can actually utilize 18+ scenes in the story well are quite enjoyable to me, as creepy as that might sound. I mostly read untranslated VNs nowadays, but one translated example would be Euphoria.
Lastly, I guess just having been a fan of manga, anime and light novels since I was a kid has made me enjoy the artstyle and storytelling in these mediums, which in turn makes me enjoy VNs quite a lot, as VNs utilize a lot of the same stuff you find in other otaku mediums.

100% Funded:

 
Hipsternovel – Make Visual Novels Popular in the West So We Can Whine About How Popular They Are!

This gal in my Cultural Geography class (I pretty much only took it to bump me up to a full time student) is getting one my and everyone else's nerves. First off she is one of those people that feels like they have to answer EVERY question, like even if it is another student asking the professor something or when the professor specifically asks another student. That's bad enough, but she also has some sort of speech impediment or some mental impairment that causes her to slur her words and essentially yell whenever she speaks.
You know what, if that was  all I could swallow it, it is annoying as fuck.... but it's somewhat understandable. However, she is a hard right nut and spent a good portion of a class period earlier this week trying to convince everyone that planed parenthood clinics were mainly baby murder factories. She claimed that a member of her church called a clinic and was told that they only did abortion. Yet, she didn't claim this a proof that the clinic was focusing on abortions, instead she claimed that the person who answered the call somehow knew the caller was a "Christian" and fed her bad information so the caller would tell other people to damage the reputation of Christians....... fucking what? 
Today she tried to connect a biblical story with the lecture on migrating languages and the professor told her, rightly, to lay off. I don't really remember the exact wording, but he essentially said that he wanted to focus on the science in the class and while there is nothing wrong with believing whatever you want, it is his job to teach the hard facts on the subject and not mix in religion. I swear to God if I get roped in as a God is Not Dead 3 extra, Ima going to print out pages of snuff hentai and tape them all over the campus walls. 

https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2017/03/08/the-shadows-of-pygmalion/
Seriously, though, that one kiss scene was hotter than the sum total of all the H scenes in a few eroge I've played.

Oh I had no illusions that this wouldn't get funded pathetically quickly, there are endless examples of games being successful simply because they have name recognition.