mikedo2007

You're not wrong about what you said. I mean I understand your assessment and I'm incline to agree, but from my POV, I still considered Gabriel Knight to be a visual novel. YU-NO may be visual novel to you (and I agree with you on that). But I still would consider Gabriel Knight a visual novel. Visual Novels may have evolved from text adventures game, but when visual novels start adapting FMVs and gameplay including point & click, and narrative adventure into it (and that extend to implementing RPGs), it completely blurs the line and that's where people like me would wondered if Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, & Night Trap should be considered as visual novel given the Grandfather clause.

Well, what would you called Plumbers don't wear ties, and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers? They don't have anime but it sill play like a visual novel. So according to your logic, 428: Shibuya Scramble is not a visual novel because it uses non-anime pictures, am I reading that correctly? Also what happened if a Japanese visual novel developer decided to create a live-action FMV visual novel that is like Her Story, Night Trap, or Double Switch but implement a multiple-perspective concept found in 428: Shibuya Scramble, is that still a visual novel? I view Plumbers don't wear Ties, & Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers on the same level as 428: Shibuya Scramble when it comes to classifying visual novel. Other then a wall of text, visual novel plays like any interactive film/game like Dragon's Lair, & Night Trap, That's why I would view both of these games as visual novel.

Sorry if I confused you, I'm just using Time Gal as an example before Erogamer brought up VNDB's Grandfather Clause and now Time Gal is back into play when it comes to if it should be a visual novel or not. You're right about the other types of game that used animated or live-action FMV that is not visual novels. I mean I would classified Scene of the Crime, Night Trap, and Double Switch as visual novels predecessor. But I will not classify Corpse Killer, or Sewer Shark as visual novels. I'm glad you brought up Plumbers Don't wear Ties (another game that I didn't know existed) because: 1. That would be classify as a visual novel under VNDB's Grandfather Clause and their definition of visual novel given this game came out in 1993/1994. 2. This game is getting a re-release this year for current-gen consoles. Would I classify this game as a visual novel? Probably a yes. If I was a visual novel gamers, I would probably check this out for historical purpose. So yes, because of the grandfather clause that would make me consider putting Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Night Trap, Double Switch, Plumbers don't wear Ties, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, The 7th Guest as visual novels.

OK, so if a Japanese company decided to make a visual novel which consist of live-action FMV video reminiscent of Her Story, Late Shift, Night Trap, & Double Switch, then it could be the first in the near future I hope. I wondered why no Japanese companies didn't take any inspiration from those recent FMV games that came out in the last few year to make a live-action FMV visual novel. Also the link you gave me to visual novel database, this one got my attention: So according to this rule and this logic, several early interactive film games and several early 90's FMV interactive games may qualify as visual novel. I mean I got chance to read the history of visual novel, and I found out that Portopia Serial Murder Case from 1983 was the precursor to today's visual novel, so this means it could be classified as a visual novels. That game may have also pre-dated Telltales games like The Walking Dead, and CSI point & click game. Hideo Kojima's Snatcher even pre-dated visual novel games. So according to VNDB's rule about the Grandfather clause, that means Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Night Trap, Double Switch, The 7th Guest, and Phantasmagoria (probably) could qualify as visual novel according to what's written on the section. That means Scene of the Crime (a 1986 interactive prototype for Night Trap) could qualify as a visual novel: All of these pre-dated visual novels, and may have influence gameplay in visual novels one way or another. I wonder if the Gabriel Knight series could qualify as visual novel too since it pre-dated visual novels and like visual novels, it made use of wall of text like visual novels:

Not sure why you bothered to reply back to me if you didn't bother to answer my question nor give a good analysis of why these games I mentioned should or shouldn't be classified as visual novels. I see. So in order for a interactive movie game to be classified as a visual novel, it has to have a wall of text. Am I reading that correctly? So from what you said, Time Gal (a interactive laserdisc FMV game from Japan that was released on arcade, and SEGA CD) wouldn't qualify as a visual novel despite being made in Japan and fully animated: If you said Time Gal is not a visual novel, then I guess Dragon's Lair and Double Switch wouldn't count. But I do have 2 questions about visual novel I would like to ask: You said visual novel must have wall of text, and it has to be static images to be classified as a visual novel. What happened if the visual novel was a live-action or animated FMV but still have a wall of text, does it still qualify as a visual novel? Has there been any case of a visual novel games using live-action or animated FMV but is still considered a visual novel?

Hi, I wanted to revived/revisit this 2014 thread about games like Telltale's The Walking Dead label/count as visual novel genre. I know it's been 9 years since it's been last talked about. But there's been a lot of well change of views on what counts or classified as visual novels. What has changed over 9 years since the 2014 topic: The popularity of Her Story (2015), even though it's live-action it plays a lot like a visual novels. It's not even made in Japan and yet it was able to gain mainstream popularity that no visual novels games from Japan was able to do. After Her Story, it led to a wave of revival of FMV games, and more of narrative adventure choice-making games like for example Life is Strange, The Bunker, Late Shift, etc... The popularity and re-release of retro video games from the 80's & 90's has led to re-release of early 90's FMV video game like Night Trap (yes, the cheesy FMV game that led to the creation of the ESRB), Double Switch, and earlier FMV games like Dragon's Lair, and Space Ace (both created by former Disney animator Don Bluth). Now I know that click & point interactive games can sometime blurred the meaning/definition of visual novels. If that is the case then does that make Her Story a visual novel, I mean if any of you played the game you can probably may classified this as a visual novels. So going back to the 2014 topic of classifying Telltale's The Walking Dead game as a visual novel. If 428: Shibuya Scramble is classified as a visual novel: Then should Her Story, and these games be classified as visual novels too: If you played Her Story, and/or Late Shift you can see characteristic of visual novels in them. Should these 2 games be re-classified as visual novel given the gameplay is neither RPG, first-person, third-person but it plays like a choice-making pathway found in visual novels. Does that extend to She Sees Red? Again, does the gameplay in She See Reds now make it a visual novel? What about early 90's FMV games like Night Trap, and Double Switch? Can they now be classified as visual novels by today's definition. What about Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, can these be classified as visual novels too? Do you think these games I mentioned from your POV should be given visual novels classification?