alpacaman

To cite this post from a couple of years ago: Anyway, wasn't this type of discussion about semantics kind of big a couple of years ago when the western VN community was still relatively young and trying to define who and what did and didn't belong? Darbury for example wrote an interesting blog on the topic on here a couple of years ago in case you're interested in reasoning that goes deeper than "has mandatory gameplay segments so it's not a VN". By this metric you could exclude something like Totono from the category since it has a stat raising/puzzle section you have to clear in order to see the true ending. The video even acknowledges that in Japan where the genre originated from the term visual novel isn't commonly used but then goes on to argue that games have to be novel-like to qualify because it's in the name of the genre.

I totally get it. Lessons in Love at least has a really regular release schedule with one or two updates each month. It does probably work better though if you've started reading it when there wasn't nearly as much content. Then it feels more like an ongoing tv series where each episode has its own A and B plot while the overarching story moves forward really slowly until it culminates in the series finale. The next one introduces new threads and characters and so on. Once you've caught up you only need two spend one or two evenings each month to keep up to date.

At least in my opinion DDLC has enough qualities that set it apart from other titles, even stuff in a similar vein like Totono. I wouldn't say it's anywhere close to a 10/10, but I'd argue it holds an important spot in EVN history and has enough going for it to make the cut. Then again that's just my personal opinion. You're the one curating the list and I can't imagine the end product would turn out well if you included anything anyone mentioned in this thread. Personally, I find it kind of hard to grasp what you are going for. Or rather I kind of get it, but I think something like a testimonial format where the personal angle is obvious from the get-go would work better than a list with somewhat dubious criteria for what gets included.

I have a couple of suggestions, today I'll only add (my reasons why to the two I think any definitive list of this kind would be incomplete without because it's almost midnight where I live. Probably going to elaborate on the rest sometime later. 1) Doki Doki Literature Club: I know this one is kind of controversial in the community. It's still one of the titles that introduced many people in the west to visual novels. Yes, it's gimmicky, but what it sets out to do it does very well and doesn't overstay its welcome. Many people in the community saw the game as an attack on VNs as a whole, but I think it's more about player agency and the relationship between games and the ones playing them. 2) VA11 Hall-A: It's cyberpunk bartender action, what more could you possibly want? It nails the aesthetic with great visuals and BGM, has great characters, some actual depth to its themes without ever getting anywhere close to being pretentious. Also it has some of the best comedy in any VN I've read so far. Other: 3)Any Love Conquers All VN out of Analogue: A Hate Story, Hate Plus and Ladykiller in the Bind. The first is the most influential one, the second one the even better sequel, and the third one is really innovative for a porn game when it comes to mechanics. 4) Meeting in the Flesh: An inversion of Saya no Uta's themes, showing you can find beauty anywhere. 5) Lessons in Love: A work in progress that at this point is even longer than Umineko and according to its creator is the longest VN in existence, period (each update is about 30-60k words long and there's been about 50). Which shouldn't keep you from reading it. At least to me this one is more about vibes than plot and works very well despite its length.

https://kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com/2022/03/14/students-statistics-and-bloodthirsty-beasts/ I found this post about it. If Loop8 comes anywhere close to how amazing that one sounds it's a must-play for me.

Fixed it. Iwaihime is a confused mess. Anyway, Ryuukishi is an interesting choice for an interactive social game since his best/most famous works are almost exclusively kinetic novels.

Did I mess up the link in the op? Anyway, there's also a Chaos;Baby #2 and aparrently four Chaos;Queen games.

Is it recommended to read Chaos;Baby before Chaos;Child to not miss any important context?

Let the wall of beautiful noise blow you away. Anyway, I recently discovered that Japan might be the country with the best shoegaze scene around (at least after its first wave). J-rock typical chord progressions and its tendency for hymnic choruses work really well with a dreamy wall of noise it seems.

I played Meeting in the Flesh and absolutely loved it. I wrote a little about it on this forum back then.

This reminds me of what it feels like watching speedruns for Celeste. The world record has been broken five days ago and it's just insane seeing someone rush through stages in 2 seconds that literally took me several hundred times to beat.

It really is a great game. I loved how the game design and themes complement each other. Most character backstories deal in some form with learning to accept yourself and those around you as well as finding the right balance between self-expression and not intruding on others too much. Much in the same vein, the player's learning curve revolves around learning each character's peculiarities and finding your own way to work with or around them. You can't fundamentally change the other characters, only nudge them in the right direction or let them run into a situation where they are in over their heads depending on your goals and you have to so while learning what you are good and bad at because otherwise you only end up pissing them off. For example I had to learn that trying to lead discussion ended in me getting voted or killed off most of the times so I changed to a style where I held my head low and stuck to collecting information at first and only switched into attack mode once I had solid understanding of the playing field (e.g. once I caught several characters lying). If I had one major criticism of the game it's that I wished for more characters to get proper arcs. Something like each character getting a loop completely dedicated to them once you unlocked all of their notes would have been nice. The character who made life hardest for me was Shigemichi. Not because he was hard to deal with but because of him being a dumbass. He constantly self-sabotaged and got voted or killed off before I got the chance to see his character events.

So apparently AiD released a prequel to the prequel (which is in development hell) to the fault series (whose latest entry is in development hell) three months ago already without anyone noticing as there's only 20 reviews on vndb so far. It's called fault - StP - Lightkravte. Has anyone read it and can comment on whether it's any good?

Probably because she's married to a US-American who also produced a couple of her albums. It might also be the reason her English lyrics are less cringeworthy than those of most of her peers from the time period. Anyways, her album Communication is perfect 80s kitsch from start to finish.