ChaosRaven

Every now and then pops up a new list of 'starter' VNs. Like Katawa, like G Maou, like Majikoi.
But to get entranced into that you must have at least some knowledge about anime/manga, to get those tropes, to not get them to totally surprise you.
Also - even if they're neat/good/great for us, would they be as good for people, who are completly new to a genre and have no connections to anime, besides maybe Dragon Ball?

Let's make a list of VNs, which might not only get new people accustomed to a genre, but to really impress them.

To use the VNs I mentioned:
- Katawa is bland, simple charage. Nice, but nothing 'wow', and filled with not really exciting SoL.
- Majikoi is a porn game, so major turn off. It's comedy gold, but probably mote to people really accustomed to usuall japanesse tropes and cliches than to a 'normie'.
- G, even without porn is still trope'y and have a lot of SoL, but actually it might be closest to 'make impression' on people of them three.

So, what would you recommend?
Which VNs are so good, that even people who usually read books and watching tv series would really enjoy?


I'll start with those:
- The House in FataMorgana - it's like multimedia book. Great story, great read impressive presentation. Probably closest thing to 'not typical VN' I ever seen in this medium.
- Phenomeno - I know it's short, but it's probably as best as this genre can be used. Really immersive, really scary, really tensionfull. Whish to see more horrors, but oh well. If something is going to impress a normie, it wouild be a good, short, compact scary story. Still a few typical JP tropes though.
- ...Steins Gate? It woulkd be really hard to chew on chuunibyou protagonist at start and get through all those cliched characters...but maybe not? People not used to anime pouldn't know about those tropes so those characters might be fresh to them. And story is probably the greates one ever.


and maybe those:
- Umineko? Never read them, so don't know.
- Danganronpa? Hyperactive VN with gameplay. Would interest many people, but would it really impress anybody? Especailyl people who are not into video games, and infantilization of characters might turn them off?
 
Post your propositions below!

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

People usually have the wrong view of learning Japanese for visual novels:
You don't learn Japanese so you can read untranslated visual novels. Instead you read untranslated visual novels as an excercise for learning Japanese.
So you don't waste your time on reading porn light fiction anymore, you spend your valuable spare time for something useful and educational and still have fun at the same time.
Hint: Might also help to convince your parents to buy you tons of eroge... 

People usually have the wrong view of learning Japanese for visual novels:
You don't learn Japanese so you can read untranslated visual novels. Instead you read untranslated visual novels as an excercise for learning Japanese.
So you don't waste your time on reading porn light fiction anymore, you spend your valuable spare time for something useful and educational and still have fun at the same time.
Hint: Might also help to convince your parents to buy you tons of eroge... 

Okay, I guess that means we can expect your review of Kara no Shoujo 2 at friday then. 

Maybe it should be also considered, that just because title X from a certain genre didn't sell well, doesn't necessarily mean that title Y from the same genre also won't sell well.
For instance, Yuzusoft's moege Senren x Banka probably sold 'slightly' more copies (> 44.000) than Frontwing's moege Corona Blossom in Japan.
And Tokyo Babel is not only an older title than Sorcery Jokers, but was also neither as well received nor as highly rated than Sorcery Joker's.
Just saying... 

wouldnt call what meru-tan wrote about sakura shrine girls a review per se, more like a testament of utmost incapability paired with greed-ish behaviour and contempt for its customers aka literary genocide - its happening!

Does that really count as a feel good moege? I thought that one had quite heavy themes like bullying, drug abuse, etc.

Does that really count as a feel good moege? I thought that one had quite heavy themes like bullying, drug abuse, etc.

The Shuffle series consisting of Shuffle!, Tick! Tack! and Really? Really! is also still a solid choice for simple feel good moeges.

Welcome to the forums. 
Impressive diagram you have there. You should give Yu-No a try some day since its walkthrough looks like this.
Provided you don't succumb to madness midway, it might be right up your alley.
Admittedly, I didn't play it myself, but the walktrough still doesn't cease to impress me... 

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

I like that they are so honest with it. Actually, I don't really think they did something particular wrong here, the situation has simply changed. The same thing is happening on Kickstarter too.
MangaGamer has already reported several times now that since the whole Steam hype started, they got a lot of new account creations, most likely from Steam customers. So the Steam customers who were really interested in VN's have already moved on and went to the retail sites of the big VN publishers like MangaGamer and Jast. It tells a lot that the several year old nukiges Eroge and ImoPara are almost permanently in the top five for ages now. And the Steam users who didn't really get warm with VN's are less likely to buy another one. So the 'Steam only' customer group got much smaller either way.
And while newer VN customers are now happily digging through MG's and Jast's game libraries, the older VN veterans just don't get enough from a short and simple title like Corona Blossom, especially with so many quality titles released by MG and Sekai. In principle, it happened what most people wanted, quality and a known and popular brand matters now much more than before.
Or in short words: Welcome to the world of competition!

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

Go to VNDB and click on show 'Random visual novel' on the left side!
Sorry, I couldn't resist... 

You should be a bit careful with this statement.
According to StGB 184a you can end up in prison for up to three years if you're distributing porn containing violence. And according to the juristic interpretation in Wikipedia, this includes fictional content:
It's allowed to 'own' it however in contrast to child porn which is defined in StGB 184b. But 184b shouldn't affect eroge much because of its manga art since it explicitly restricts it to 'real' or 'realistic looking' media.
The BPjM also doesn't just have a list of harmful media for young people (< 18) in list 'A', it also has a list of prohibted media in list 'B' which isn't allowed to be distributed by the criminal code for everyone. You can find some more information about that here.
Naturally, it's a grey area with a lot of room for interpretation and Germany is certainly one of the more liberal countries if it comes to eroge, but throwing out a statement that all fiction is legal in Germany is clearly wrong.

I like that they are so honest with it. Actually, I don't really think they did something particular wrong here, the situation has simply changed. The same thing is happening on Kickstarter too.
MangaGamer has already reported several times now that since the whole Steam hype started, they got a lot of new account creations, most likely from Steam customers. So the Steam customers who were really interested in VN's have already moved on and went to the retail sites of the big VN publishers like MangaGamer and Jast. It tells a lot that the several year old nukiges Eroge and ImoPara are almost permanently in the top five for ages now. And the Steam users who didn't really get warm with VN's are less likely to buy another one. So the 'Steam only' customer group got much smaller either way.
And while newer VN customers are now happily digging through MG's and Jast's game libraries, the older VN veterans just don't get enough from a short and simple title like Corona Blossom, especially with so many quality titles released by MG and Sekai. In principle, it happened what most people wanted, quality and a known and popular brand matters now much more than before.
Or in short words: Welcome to the world of competition!

It's worth mentioning that Winged Cloud has made a name for itself churning out mediocre low-priced VNs for the Steam audience.

TBH if I wanted an episodic VN for 10 bucks, my first inclination would be to skip over Corona Blossoms AND Supipara and get this instead:
 
 
The screenshots by themselves generate a wonderfully visceral atmosphere, I can feel it coming off the screen, and the description emphasises their primary hook - choice and consequence. 

I like that they are so honest with it. Actually, I don't really think they did something particular wrong here, the situation has simply changed. The same thing is happening on Kickstarter too.
MangaGamer has already reported several times now that since the whole Steam hype started, they got a lot of new account creations, most likely from Steam customers. So the Steam customers who were really interested in VN's have already moved on and went to the retail sites of the big VN publishers like MangaGamer and Jast. It tells a lot that the several year old nukiges Eroge and ImoPara are almost permanently in the top five for ages now. And the Steam users who didn't really get warm with VN's are less likely to buy another one. So the 'Steam only' customer group got much smaller either way.
And while newer VN customers are now happily digging through MG's and Jast's game libraries, the older VN veterans just don't get enough from a short and simple title like Corona Blossom, especially with so many quality titles released by MG and Sekai. In principle, it happened what most people wanted, quality and a known and popular brand matters now much more than before.
Or in short words: Welcome to the world of competition!

I like that they are so honest with it. Actually, I don't really think they did something particular wrong here, the situation has simply changed. The same thing is happening on Kickstarter too.
MangaGamer has already reported several times now that since the whole Steam hype started, they got a lot of new account creations, most likely from Steam customers. So the Steam customers who were really interested in VN's have already moved on and went to the retail sites of the big VN publishers like MangaGamer and Jast. It tells a lot that the several year old nukiges Eroge and ImoPara are almost permanently in the top five for ages now. And the Steam users who didn't really get warm with VN's are less likely to buy another one. So the 'Steam only' customer group got much smaller either way.
And while newer VN customers are now happily digging through MG's and Jast's game libraries, the older VN veterans just don't get enough from a short and simple title like Corona Blossom, especially with so many quality titles released by MG and Sekai. In principle, it happened what most people wanted, quality and a known and popular brand matters now much more than before.
Or in short words: Welcome to the world of competition!

I think the main story is the same but there's New Game+ content with new quests and characters.
I think you need two play-throughs of the same heroine to get all her scenes. 
Regarding your other questions, I just played Serawi's route so I unfortunately don't know the details of Yuela's route.