FatEdenshaw

I thought this VN was great, the art is amazing and the music is great (although they overuse certain tracks alot). Best of all it's not focused on poorly written romance like 95% of VNs and the characters are not 12 years old. The endings though are where this game falls apart for me. The only real satisfying ending is the Bonds of Marriage one where Even that ending has it problems. Other endings include one where Others include

Right now I'm playing Maji de watashi ni Koi Shinasai. Have finished Miyako - Mayucchi and yesterday Chris routes. This game is truly SoL heavy + set in high school + shounen elements so in other words not my cup of tea however I really like the characters and setting and find the comedy really funny for the most part. Really like this game overall. Miyako and Mayucchi routes were really great however I felt Chris's route wasn't as good. Truly slow pacing for my taste and too little of interest happening. Also how Yamato "gets with" her is truly stupid and creepy. Still would recommend the game so far. I usually hate the high school "drama" and setting and comedy in anime is usually abyssmal in my opinion but even so I love this game.

Thanks everyone for welcoming me here! I'll definetly hit up the recommendations section.

Hey guys! Just thought I'd say hi since I just registered yesterday on fuwanovel. Though most likely I will be mainly a lurker here. I'm a 28 year old from Sweden, been a fan of Japan and Asia for pretty much my entire life, games, anime, movies, music, language, culture, you name it. Lived in Tokyo for a year and will most likely move back next year, amazing city. For some reason I've not played all that many Visual Novels in the past. Recently though I've started exploring them more and I like what I've uncovered so far, but I'm still a newbie. So far I've played Danganronpa 1-2, Psycho Pass, Root Letter, Leviathan Last Day of the Decade, Ever17 and Dengeki Stryker. Tried a few others here and there but can't remember which ones it was. Right now I'm playing Majikoi since it's been highly recommended to me. Also playing the first Ace Attorney game however I don't feel it's quite a visual novel but more of a point and click/investigations type of game. Anyways I hope to see you around!

Thanks alot for everyones thoughts. I get a clearer picture now of what is considered "finishing" a visual novel. Looks like to most people, completing all routes is a must. This is what I thought and also what frustrates me about VNs. Since VNs are classified as games, for the most part, I would certainly include them there, at least if there is player input, for instance making choices. But there are many other games that have choice making and different endings and with those people consider making your own choices and "shaping your own experience" to be the important part, and when you get "your" ending you have certainly completed the game. Games like The Walking Dead, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Exist Archive, Atelier series etc etc. However it seems that is not the case with VNs (talking about the ones with player input). You can make your own choices but it feels like many games require you to choose like the game wants if you wanna get the "true end" aka the true experience. I'm not necessarily coming down on VNs, I love many of them and their way of storytelling can be amazing. I just find this aspect a bit frustrating. And I'm talking about VNs where you get choices of your own. If there is no player input, there is only one ending and also it's debatable if it's really a game or not.

So I haven't played many VN, in fact the medium has always felt really difficult to "get into" for me. In part I feel like it's because a visual novel feels like such an undertaking, with many requiring several playthroughs to reach a satisfying end. What I'm wondering is, what is considered "finishing" a visual novel? Is it only getting the true end, if there is one? Finishing ALL routes? For instance I played Ever17 and the ending I got was pretty bad in my opinion which made me not like the game. I know there are other endings but since the first playthrough invoked nothing interesting I feel no incentive to go back to it. Can I still say I finished the game and give an overall opinion on if the game is good or bad? What do you think at fuwanovel? How do you "finish" a visual novel?