aliciarune

So, I read someone's thread and even responded to them about what to read since they were down. Now it got me thinking about how I may need some things to read. I'm planning soon to read Higurashi and/or Umeniko, but would like some more visual novels of what I should read. Basically I suffer from depression and certain visual novels are good for escape. I haven't read many, nor have finished many, and really only know certain ones, but I'm opening to anything with a good story, characters, and art. I'm fine if it's yaoi, yuri, otome, or BxG. I'm fine if they are light hearted visual novels or drama. Any genre is fine. Not really wanting 18 titles though, but if they are good I will give it a read. I'm a slow reader, so this list will take time. 
So yeah, I'm looking for a list of visual novels to read over the next two months or so. They don't have to be super happy and can even be sci fi and mystery. I just need something to help with my anxiety and depression for right now. Been a bad month or so for me.

To be honest, I think that when it comes to VNs being mainstream, mobile otome games have the better chance of pushing them to the mainstream than traditional PC or console games. For one thing, they're everywhere and their advertising is very on point. A lot are free, some are pay-per-route and it targets its intended audience very efficiently with pretty art, pretty boys, and romance. It's also often the entry point for a lot of players to the better VNs out there. Personally, I got into VNs with mobile otome, and a lot of people in the otome community can say the same. Also, otome players don't necessarily read just otome forever. Some of them, like me, also get drawn into more plot-based VNs like Fata Morgana, When They Cry, or liar-soft's steampunk games.
Also, there are a lot of indie otome/bl/moege devs who are doing good work and I've noticed that the number of them are growing and getting better. Like, some devs I've followed for years and you can really see their growth when it comes to art style and writing quality.

I was so excited that I wanted to share this because Inuyasha was a huge part of my childhood and the reason I got into anime in the first place that I wanted all of you to know so I'll be posting the video on here that is reliable when it comes to anime news. Hopefully there's a lot of Inuyasha fans on here!
Inuyasha Sequel Manga in Progress!

Unfortunately, from what I know, there aren't many boy's love visual novels translated, especially high school boy's love. There is heaven.neo-romance translation group. But it may not be easy to find the games anymore (and note these aren't official translations.). These are likely exactly what you want, but like I said it may be hard to get them. As for boy's love visual novels, I have some that you may like that are mainly romance. Sadly, they aren't high school. 
 
Seiyuu Danshi
https://meyaoi.itch.io/seiyuudanshi
Doesn't have high school guys and is more of a dating sim, but I like how the creator handled the romance. I think the romance is decent and really love the main character. There are five main guys, and two sub character to go for. The sim aspect may take a bit to get use to, but it's worth is. Also, the game if pretty fluffy and not super dramatic. It is 18+ though. 
 
Camp Buddy
https://www.blitsgames.com/news/
Not high school setting, but a camp setting. The art is a bit better than Seiyuu Danshi and there is a sort feminine look boy characters option. This game, like Seiyuu Danshi is quite good and long. Has a little bit more drama. There are five guys to date and the romance is good. Frankly, both these games are good if you want romance and mostly fluff. I have others, but it seems what you're looking for is more romance based. Camp Buddy is a pure visual novel, not dating sim elements, but there are two mini games. 
 
A Hand in the Darkness 
https://ertal-games.itch.io/a-hand-in-the-darkness
This is a EVN and a nice one. It is actually a high school setting. Problem is, I'm not sure if you'd be okay with playing an EVN. Down the line, you may want to give EVN's a try because a decent amount of yaoi games are being made from people outside of Japan. There's also a small sequel for this. 
 
Mention
https://herculiongames.itch.io/full-service
I myself do not like Full Service very much due to how barren it feels. It's shallow compared to the previous three in my opinion. But if you like muscular guys, and simple gameplay, you may like it? Try it out if you want. The romance between the guys isn't very good though...
 
Anyway, there are a few others I know, but these seem to fit what you may be looking for (sort of). I'm sorry that there aren't many high school boy love games yet. Heck, even boy love games are rare. However, some are still being made and they look great. Also, the others I know off are good but you may not like because romance isn't the main point though.

Looks great, I only wish they would ditch the touch pad. And why are the buttons colorless.

Reading news at first (when this all began), through February. Even now, I stay with the news to a degree, but don't check it often anymore. At this point, I've become very tired...Sleeping is something I do the most sadly. This may be because I have severe depression, and since this began, it's been worse. Suicidal thoughts have remain prevalent recently as well. It's been hard to focus on anime, video games, reading, and writing, along with keeping active. At the moment, I am playing some video games though I hope to read some visual novels, along with watching anime during the nights. Still, it's hard and my depression won't go away. Honestly, if anyone can suggest a good anime and/or visual novel I'm up for it. I'm fine if it's dark a well and read all pairings. It's good to see others doing okay though, or at least finding things to do to calm them and pass the time. For myself, I worry more about my mental state. I am trying though to keep busy.

Assuming the first letter is the protagonist, my first choice for visual novels is GxG and my second choice is BxG.  I don't play the other two types.  I'm a straight male, but I don't need to see guys in games.  I typically turn the male voices off when that option is offered.  In the games, I don't speak much to the male side characters unless I have to.  When I play roleplaying games with romantic possibilities, I check online to see which option gives me more female romances to choose from and pick that option for my character.  If they are equal, I'll play as a female character and go with a GxG route.

Maybe... tbh, with me, it is all about the genre.  I would never play a shounen ai or yuri romance, because I have no interest in either... I got that out of my system relatively early on.  I have problems with otomege because almost all protagonists in otomege are damsels in distress (which ups my blood pressure).  However, I'll at least try any fantasy or sci-fi action if the romance doesn't distract from it, lol.

While I'm fine with yuri on occasion, my preference is for the standard relationship types (female dominant or male dominant is fine).  Generally speaking, I don't have a strong attachment to romance as a plot element in general, though... so if there are no h-scenes, I can even play shounen ai, lol.

Holy fuck, the incelspeak is strong with you. Steam is pandering to SJW? You think that's where child porn laws are coming from? That's fuckin' delusional. 
Western ideas about porn and the general idea of porn and art/serious entertainment incompatible with each other are possibly the biggest factor keeping VNs niche. Those have nothing to do with SJW positions. You can blame the "leftist culture" strawman as much as you want, but you'll be just deluding yourself.

Man, I was just tryna be a good socialist and advocate for living wages for translators. Now we here 

DOWNLOAD: https://djnostyle.itch.io/nothing-is-beautiful
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v26715
This is the story of a girl who loves whales and a boy who eats too much candy.
"What will happen to us in the summer?"
A simple question from a simple girl -- but one that Yuu is unable to answer. 
Cursed with a severe case of psychosis at birth, Yuu sees and hears things that no one else can.  
These delusions, which come in waves brought on by the weight of God and past traumas, turn his daily life into an endless struggle toward normalcy. 
The game takes place over a two-week period at the end of high school. 
Please live a beautiful life.
God is watching.
Amen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, everyone! Please check out Nothing is Beautiful.
It's a psychological drama I'm writing and producing entirely on my own.
Every asset in this game is royalty-free and, as such, the full game will be free as well upon release.
Right now, the demo covers the first day of a two-week period.
Please be advised, this game does have several dark themes and deals heavily with the impact of religion on the human psyche.
If you have an issue with that, I completely understand and hold nothing against you.
I do, however, hope that those of you who aren't put off by this enjoy the world I have created.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEROINES: (All designed by Liah)
Saki

Your childhood friend and source of free food and laundry.
She is very kind and loves whales.
Please be nice to her. She is very sad.
Reina

Your classmate.
You used to be close, but you stopped hanging out with her for some reason.
You don't know why.
Her three sizes are 89/61/88 and she loves horror movies.
Miu

Your kouhai.
She will act brave. She is lying.
Do not love her until she learns to love herself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no planned release date for the full project as of yet, but I'll continue working hard to 
deliver a very memorable experience. Thanks for reading!

Yeah, I already have heard about Mac doesn't have much VN. :/
I miss some games i used play like Shuffle and Divi Dead. Also cuz i could find them in Portuguese(I am Brazilian so it's much easier for me)
But I will search for this that you recommended for now. Thank you very much!

Sorry to say this, but sadly mac doesn't have many Japanese visual novels for it. In fact, the system itself isn't too good for gaming, especially now with the new update. (However I myself with always stick with mac and love it). One JVN that's pretty good that's on mac is DC Capo 3. You can buy it at Mangagamer's site and steam. Another is the 07 expansion games. These are good stories, but unlike DC Capo, don't have much romance. Also, Fatal Twelve, which is a yuri game is good. I'm sure there are some others, but sadly not many are for mac in terms of JVN's. I believe there may be some more, but DC Capo is a big one alnog with 07 expansion games, which are Higurashi and Umeniko 

Sadly, I'm not sure this is a good site for you. Many here play BxG and GxG even, but not many play Yaoi games. Though it's fine if you update here cause there are those who will like the info. As with forums, can't think of many too active honestly. Fuwanovel and Lemmesoft are the ones I know, though the latter is not as active. I suggest maybe joining a Boy's Love Reddit or make one of your own. Also, follow also Yaoi creators on twitter maybe? But yes, do have a twitter and try to promote it through other Yaoi focuses places. Forums now are harder to sponsor games on.

Hello guys!

We are a Japanese company called Abradacadabra Inc., and we work with different yaoi games, promoting and translating them.
Now we are working with a hardcore yaoi game, made by a company that is known for its dark, gory and traumatic themes.
Do you know of any other sites or forums that would be interested in this news?
Hope you stay tuned for more updates!
Here you can check our games!
https://www.facebook.com/AbracadabraGamesOfficial/

What I can say is that I can understand if you didn't find Little Busters is not compelling for you, because after all each people did have different tolerance in regard of continuous slice of life and apparently your tolerance is quite low. However it's not very nice to say that Little Busters 'is for 12-14 years old' and then say that 'you have to be low IQ enjoy it', because it mean that you indirectly look down on the children (I hope you just trolling by said that). Other than that, your word here is really looking down to the team production which while it might be intended seeing that you dislike it, it still came off as rude. You also need to know that the team is composed of adult, and seeing that KEY is formerly adult VN company, their mindset for Little Busters should be to be enjoyable for adult.
For the topic, I try a bit of Ginharu and what I can say is that the common route here is more or less like HatsuKoi in that you just start the new school term. Also while the VN motive itself is winter, turned out that the time setting is at April although the place setting is at the coldest town in Japan so at least it's still count as the winter VN (For a note I did a bit of research and find out that Hokkaido in April usually still have snow even though it's supposed to be spring).

I can agree with you. Yuri games, though good with the ones I've played, don't have many routes. But have you tried Nurse Love Syndrome? There's six routes in that game and it's one of the longest Yuri titles I've played. Also, Nurse Love Addiction has four routes, though I think the former is a bit better. If you haven't played them, maybe give them a try?
Also, what kind of Yuri games are you looking for? With what you listed, it seems you like titles with a good story even if you may want fan service. Also, if you don't want a high school one, maybe go to Star Light Bega. Though I admit, it only has 3 routes, but it is a good story. 
I myself am doing a Yuri visual novel with more than seven love interests and even had a decent KS. I also have another game in the works with six love interests. Problem is, I've been sick for a while, so they have been hard to finish. But yeah, I made these games because I wanted more routes, though i know it's a lot.
Anyway, I really think Nurse Love Syndrome is a good fit for you, if you haven't read it yet and even Starlight Vega. 

This is my impression of what the state the industry is in right now (some of this is repeated from previous posts I've made here on the forums).
Just to get this out of the way, the VN industry (non-nukige) is currently in the process of contracting and changing priorities.  The industry has long relied charage/moege to keep sales up, which has ironically led to most of the writing talent fleeing to other mediums.  This wasn't really a problem until the last six years or so.  Why has it become a problem?  Because my generation in Japan has less money for spending on high school nostalgia than it did back in 2014.  At the same time, the younger generation of otakus in Japan is far less interested in standard charage (high school situations, predictable romances, etc), so this means that the industry is not set up to compensate for the demographic changes in its consumer base.
To be blunt, more and more VN consumers want something with an actual story.  Unfortunately, due to the trends of the last decade, writers who can actually produce what they want are in short supply.  As a result, the VN industry is contracting as companies find they can't replace the talent they abandoned during the charage boom as easily as they could the random ero-writers they've been using up until now. 
A few pieces of evidence (that don't involve hearsay).  The relative number of plotge to charage made in the last two years (regardless of quality) has tipped toward plotge significantly... though most of those are of lower quality than in the pre-2015 years due to the aforementioned lack of talented writers.  Navel and the other major names in particular are aggressively testing the waters, as is evidenced by their releases in the last few years (fewer FDs, more new IPs, resurrection of IPs with a differing atmosphere than previously seen, etc). 
A few hiccups:  Overcompensation... the fondness of the younger generation for the consumption of escapist material has led to a string of low-quality fantasy VNs in the last couple of years (Digination being the source of many of them).  This would normally be a good sign, but it is troubling that the new writing talent that is emerging isn't leaving much of an impression on someone who is as much of a fantasy addict as I am.  The flow of money into these 'experimental' games (lol) has diverted funds that probably would have normally been pumped into charage developing, which has caused the actual number of non-nukige VNs released to fall overall. 
A key statistic drawn from my experiences over the past decade...  Until the last two years, it was normal for 6 or more non-nukige VNs to be released each month on average.  However, increasingly we are seeing months where only three or four releases are seen... and those releases differ significantly in nature from previous years (and are even spottier in quality). 

I get what you mean with the adult content. It is a reward in away and with me when I read BxB I do sometimes want adult scenes. I don't mind all age versions though or adult. Actually, Yuri titles may be able to do sex better? I've heard some people say that. As for the nurse series, I think you'll like it despite not having adult content. Though, for me, I did love Nurse Syndrome but sadly the mc may get on your nerves a bit. 
And it's good to see you say that about the building relationship parts. I like that too. Doesn't have to be a dramatic story but I like when characters actually grow closer during time. Problem with SOL is making the events interesting enough X'D. 
But thanks so much for the encouragement. I know a few Yuri developers like me are around, so that's good. I hope though, we can make bigger games with Yuri. I feel like Yuri can be quite romantic 

ah, right. nurse love addiction series. weeeeeeell, like with regular vns, i rarely read stuff thats all ages.  
 
idk what it is but i just rarely do it. maybe i see the sex scenes as some kind of reward at the end of it. despite me saying that, im not a fan of just fan service stuff. grew tired of the sakura games i played very quickly for their large amount of fan service. read a vn in japanese that kind of played out as a yuri nukige but kind of got bored of that as well. i want some build ups! i want meeting characters for the first time and slowly spending time with them until you or the other girl confesses her feelings to you! 
 
but hey! thats great to hear about your upcoming titles!  wish you the best of luck and hope you feel better!  

I can agree with you. Yuri games, though good with the ones I've played, don't have many routes. But have you tried Nurse Love Syndrome? There's six routes in that game and it's one of the longest Yuri titles I've played. Also, Nurse Love Addiction has four routes, though I think the former is a bit better. If you haven't played them, maybe give them a try?
Also, what kind of Yuri games are you looking for? With what you listed, it seems you like titles with a good story even if you may want fan service. Also, if you don't want a high school one, maybe go to Star Light Bega. Though I admit, it only has 3 routes, but it is a good story. 
I myself am doing a Yuri visual novel with more than seven love interests and even had a decent KS. I also have another game in the works with six love interests. Problem is, I've been sick for a while, so they have been hard to finish. But yeah, I made these games because I wanted more routes, though i know it's a lot.
Anyway, I really think Nurse Love Syndrome is a good fit for you, if you haven't read it yet and even Starlight Vega. 

Click here to be taken to it!
                                                         
                                                                     Demo download links:
                                                            Windows --- Mac --- Linux
 

 
2016.

Inre Island.

A seemingly idyllic, modern island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A constant tranquil breeze along a mild climate, and a well-off society embracing a harmonious way of life. Its citizens often refer to the island as their very own miracle, counting themselves lucky to have been born on it. Tourism is low despite Inre being a highly desired travel destination, and for good reason. Not only is it a trip only the rich can afford, a rigorous regime means a special visa is required for entry.


2018.

Over a course of six months, a lethal biological attack claims a significant amount of lives. While tragedy occupies people's minds to the brim, a controlling governmental plan is constructed and put into motion. All to prevent such attacks from ever occurring again. The following years, Inre Island's citizens face unexpected change from their usual ways. On a sombre day – damp, dark, and horrifying – the internet is shut down, leaving the island disconnected from the world around it.


2020 - present.

After a long internet-less spring tinged with uncertainty, a new system to replace it with is introduced. A new "internet" along digital setbacks result in major changes to everyday life. Unable to adapt, many find themselves spiritually stuck in a world that no longer exists.

Suddenly, the island appears shrouded in mysteries. The closed hearts are many. A select few want a way out. But most want to reset and forget.

People who never would've met, meet.

People who never would've loved, love.

An island that had never known sadness, knows it now.

Cerulean Days is set in 2020, and follows two outliers of society – mellow Michael and competent Séverine – as they discover the true effects of 2018. Amidst tragedy of lost friends and family bonds are grown, solace is found, feelings blossom, truth is discovered, and conspiracies are seemingly unraveled.

Hearts in need of mending await you. Welcome to Inre Island.
 


Séverine - A creative and intelligent girl working as a professional pastry chef in a luxurious mall. Due to strict schooling and an arduous upbringing, she has a habit of setting a high bar for both herself and those around her. She has a bold side to her, but typically only lets it show around people she's comfortable with. Her past is filled with loneliness, but found comfort in chatting with like-minded people online. Due to the changes to Inre Island, and their effects on the social landscape, she is put in a position she's unfamiliar with. And she does not like it.
 


Grace - A kind-hearted and bubbly woman working at Inre City High School. For three years, she was Michael's homeroom teacher. After a tragic personal crisis of Michael's, Grace offers him all the support a grieving one could wish for. Since that day, they've lived in harmony under the same roof. Since that day, they've found solace in each other's company. Since that day, they've been an uncommon "family".

Rose - A cheerful full-time streamer meets an internet-less society. Confusion about life ensues. Her online community – her everything – is forever gone. Rose is lost, and knows not how to get out of the pit she has been put in. And her stubbornness makes everything all the more difficult! Will she adapt? Or will she remain stuck, holding onto fragments of her past?
 




Greetings, Fuwanovel!

I'm Leaf, and I like to create stories in my favorite medium: visual novels! This is my third project, and it has been titled Cerulean Days. And I come bearing a demo! A great deal of effort has gone into it, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on both the demo and the game as a whole! The download links are at the top of the page, but I'll put them below as well. A Kickstarter campaign is also running currently – please give it a look if you like what you see on this page!

 Windows --- Mac --- Linux
If you have any other thoughts or questions – let me know!

- Leaf

Your story and writing are going to make or break your vn more than your art.  As long as you maintain a consistent art style, what you have should be fine.

I like it but you should go for making a VN even if people didn't like it. Make what you want to make and do what you want to do.