10 Official Localized Visual Novel at 2000's

[littleshogun]

First time I made a thread in Recommendation, and I wonder if this is the right place or not. But I want to made this for a long time, so might I create it now. Sorry if I made some mistake here.

Visual Novel localization right now was quite a boom, especially with many surge of all-ages release at Steam. And of course, there's bound to be some controversy in regard of originally 18+ VN released on Steam, especially in regard of H-Content cutting just like Moenovel case. Before Steam boon, there's also fan translation boom which we got many Visual Novel fan translated, especially Fate and G-Senjou for more famous one here. At fan translation boom we also had site like TL Wiki which host many translation project there. And finally the main topic here would be translated VN before fan translation boom.

As we know, visual novel translation was already there for a long time. And we could trace it back to around 2000 or so if we look at VNDB in regard of VN translation. To be honest, most of classic translated VN were nukige, which to said it lightly had some controversy here although there's a good one like Sagara Family. As for the bonus, because I only recommended 10 VN, I'll add the VN opening video here.

10. Private Nurse (VNDB average score 6.49, Bayesian score 6.41) - G-Collection

The premise was our protagonist here was suffering some kind of terminal disease that apparently more on psychological. In order to cure the protagonist sickness, his mom decided to hire a nurse with name Maria. Although Maria of course had good intention, apparently protagonist didn't trust her and watch Maria with some conflicting emotions. In regard of the title, it might be give some nukige vibe though, seeing as there's some porn that associates with nurse (By the way, I remember that in regard of Nurse Love Addiction our Decay tweeted that the title was something like AJ Tilley game title). The opening here was quite calming and soothing.

9. Figures of Happiness (VNDB average score 6.52, Bayesian score 6.43) - G-Collection

Back at 8 years ago, I'd find that the opening song for this game was quite good. Anyway, the premise here our protagonist (Ryo) was already had the girlfriend. But he was approached by the spirit of the death girl who had some unfulfilled wish (Minamo). As the good guy there, Ryo decided to fulfill Minamo request there. Although the request was had some slightly bad consequence for Ryo, namely Ryo will wondering around as a spirit. From ther our Ryo was trying his best to help Minamo to fulfill her wish, while making his previous girlfriend grieving because Ryo's body was in comma. One last info, the main heroine for this VN here would be Minamo, although this is charage and of course you'll free to choose which girl you want to date here.

8. Brave Soul (VNDB average score 6.85, Bayesian score 6.77) - Peach Princess

The premise here was like any old RPG to be honest. In fact the premise was very suitable for this VN because Brave Soul was more like RPG with some sex scene here and VN style story telling. I remember that back at 2007 I quite a little taken aback with the existence of H-RPG. Although back when around time it was released this game would be unique there, nowadays this would be appear just outdated because the gameplay was more like '90 RPG. In fact you could only control one people (Our protagonist) and let the other party member controlled by AI. The combat was only by clicking to enemy in order to attacking iirc. And for one more info, this is Sanahtlig favorite game.

7. Hourglass of Summer (VNDB Average Score 7.08, Bayesian Score 6.74) - Hirameki International

Japanese name for this game was Nanatsuiro no Sunadokei. The premise here was our protagonist Koutarou fall in love at the first place with the popular girl from his school, Serizawa Kaho. And after so many thing happened to Koutarou, suddenly he found out that he was capable of doing time travelling and found out that he was already had the girlfriend and she was passed away because of the accident (By the way, Koutarou's girlfriend was Kaho). From there, Koutarou must doing everything that can to prevent his girlfriend death with help to Time Patrol Policewoman Lee Jane. In regard of seiyuu, this VN had Nana Mizuki who compared to her lover from Nanoha (I mean in regard of seiyuu that Nana Mizuki play Fate and Yukari Tamura play Nanoha) she had much lesser role in VN.

Additional note - This VN had run on very stupid system with the name DVD Player. The problem with that is it was very complicated to made it play on PC, and of course most people nowadays should be had PC instead of DVD Player ie DVD Player was already obsolete technology there. By the way, if some of you want to know of how to play this, mod Beliar from VNDB write the guide of how to play it on PC here.

6. Snow Sakura (Yukizakura) (VNDB Average Score 7.08, Bayesian score 7.04) - G-Collection

The premise for this classic charage was our protagonist Yuuji was stay at Hokkaido with his uncle while his father had some business trip at Hawaii. At Hokkaido he was reunited with his tsundere cousin Saki and of course he also attend the school at Hokkaido. The interesting heroine here would be Hiyama Kozue who her attitude and appearance should remind us with Daidouji Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura fame. Oh, and we also had some sort of main heroine here just like Koichoco and Yoake, Souya Misaki (Who voiced by Rina Satou). By the way this is not a part of Sakura series by Winged Cloud.

5. Princess Waltz (VNDB Average Score 7.10, Bayesian score 7.07) - Peach Princess

This VN had reputation for had the main heroine copying Saber of Fate fame. The premise here our protagonist Arata was dragged to some sort of royale battle which involved 6 princesses in order to had the right to became the prince's wife (Or future queen of some fantasy country). Arata was dragged there because his new friend Chris was supposed prince there, and therefore there's a chance that Arata will be dragged. Or to be exact he was already involved in the battle royale because he was somehow turned into one of the princesses after linking hand with Chris. This VN had the card battle gameplay, although it was not as good as Soukoku no Arterial here ie only involving number (Although it was quite addictive though). The main draw for this VN here should be the assistant writer himself Higashide Yuuichiro which as we recall the main writer of Ayakashibito and Tokyo Babel (Forgot to said that this VN premise was like Fate Stay Night, and Higashide was also Fate writer iirc). Oh, and the developer for Princess Waltz was Pulltop, which mean that this is their first attempt going west (Their 2nd attempt was controversial Konosora translation by Moenovel).

4. Family Project (Kazoku Keikaku) (VNDB Average score 7.34, Bayesian score 7.28) - G-Collection

The best VN back at 2007 iirc, and written by Tanaka Romeo. The premise is there's some people (Obviously mostly woman here) who had some sort of trouble that wouldn't allow them to be at their house, and decided to find a home in order to live together by helping each other. The problem that the refugee face was quite heavy, although the most obvious one here would be mafia problem there.

3. Crescendo (VNDB Average score 7.43, Bayesian score 7.37) - G-Collection

First info that I would remember in regard of this would be there's some rumor that the composer for Crescendo here was Scott Joplin here (Of course I knew that the OST was probably inspired by Scott Joplin or remix it like back in G-Senjou). The premise here is like the protagonist here was almost graduating from high school, and he was having many flashback from high school year, especially in regard of his relationship with many woman.

2. Kana Imouto (VNDB Average score 7.56, Bayesian score 7.50) - G-Collection

Quite controversial VN if I must said, especially with so much focus in regard of intimate relationship with blood sisters back at the time when it's release (Although it's quite normal though if we looking at VN like Grisaia and Soukoku no Arterial if we talking about relationship with blood related sister). Okay, as for the premise our protagonist Taka must take care of his terminally ill sister Kana. And of course as any VN with ill girl tell us, the ending for this VN might be either depressive or bittersweet here. For more info, Kana also written by Tanaka Romeo here and JAST released translated version for the remake here. For the opening video, I'll using PSP version here.

1. Phantom of Inferno (VNDB Average Score 7.99, Bayesian score 7.79) - Hirameki International

This VN was written by Gen Urobochi, and the premise was very unusual here, because we had protagonist kidnapped after he became eyewitness of some murder and he was trained to became an assassin. In training, the protagonist was given a code name Zwei. And since Urobochi write this, you better expect that the story of Phantom here will be dark. Although this is the highest score VN here, the translated version suffered from some bad translation and more importantly some Hirameki founder apparently got some stupid idea to release this in DVD player format, which of course had same problem as Hourglass of Summer earlier. Although DVD player format might be seen as advance back in 2003, nowadays it's very obsolete since once gain most people would using PC to play DVD instead of using DVD player here. And since finding the opening for old PC version was quite hard, I'll using XBOX 360 version instead. Oh, and this is the first translated Nitroplus games here.

That's all for some recommendation VN here, and once again sorry if I made some mistake in regard of info here. Feel free to correct me if I had some detail wrong, and hope it'll help to some people who want nostalgic VN here.

Edited January 11, 2022 by littleshogun

[Tyr]

4 hours ago, littleshogun said:

To be honest, most of classic translated VN were nukige

Not sure if true. I thought there was always a good balance. Some nukige, some charage and some serious games. Like today.

If you don't mind, I will give my own opinions about your recommendations. Let's make this an old school eroge recommendation thread!

Private Nurse:
Interesting premise, but awfully paced execution. The game is simply too long for its own good. At first, the game tells you it will only span a week. And by the end of the week, it's already really boring. But then it will extend its time period to a full month! In the last weeks, every day is literally the same. (And with literally I really mean "word for word" the same.) And the ending was also a punch in your face.
I really wanted to like this game, but I couldn't.

Figures of Happiness:
Probably the first eroge which really offended me. This game is simply rage-inducing from the first minute on. And it will never get better. It may make you think that there will be a pay-off in the end ... but there will be another twist which makes everything even worse. Horrible, horrible game.

Brave Soul:
I had fun with this. For me still the best officially released HRPG in English. Characters are fun, gameplay is fun, it's just good fun.

Hourglass of Summer:
Mediocre, I guess? Well, I liked that everything was voiced, even the narration. But it really couldn't live up to its potential, I think. Not really bad though.. just not really good.

Snow Sakura:
Mediocre again, I guess? It's full of anime and otaku references which I found quite funny back then, but newfags probably won't get them nowadays, lol.

Princess Waltz:
Haven't played that. I stopped reading English translated eroge when it came out.

Family Project:
Haven't read it either. Or rather I stopped after the OP or something. It was funny, but it couldn't really hook me.

Crescendo:
Red and Green route were quite good. Whore route was lulz. Sister route was cringy. Teacher route simply bad. ...hidden route actually really good. Liked it.

Kana:
Now that one is awesome. Of course only the original version. Not the disgusting Okaeri-remake.

Phantom of Inferno:
Haven't played it because some guy standing right before me in line bought it before I could. Bought Hourglass of Summer instead. Not sure if that was the better option, lol.

[Mkilbride]

Brave Soul was a ton of fun.

[ittaku]

There's some pretty meh VNs in there. Is this a list of the only 10 VNs you know from that era? There's quite a few I wouldn't recommend there. Echoing what Tyrosyn said about some in particular, Private nurse was boring as batshit, Figures of Happiness was awful, Snow Sakura was subpar and Family Project was uninteresting.

[Mkilbride]

4 hours ago, ittaku said:

There's some pretty meh VNs in there. Is this a list of the only 10 VNs you know from that era? There's quite a few I wouldn't recommend there. Echoing what Tyrosyn said about some in particular, Private nurse was boring as batshit, Figures of Happiness was awful, Snow Sakura was subpar and Family Project was uninteresting.

Figures of Happiness wasnt bad.

 

But Family Project to me, is definitely Legendary status. Right up there with Kana ~ Little Sister.

[littleshogun]

To answering Ittaku here, of course not. In fact, I also knew that Ever17 and Yume Miru Kusuri was 2 of the best localized VN here. But what I thinking when I made this recommendation is I will not list VN that had featured in mod Kaguya list, and those 2 were already included as 2 of 50 VN that you must read before died (Kaguya's recommendation list). And speaking about translated VN from 2000's, I forgot to add Nocturnal Illusion here (7.30 VNDB Average score and 7.11 Bayesian score). If I add this, maybe it'll be at the 4th place. Also there's good BL VN from Hirameki here (Animamundi), but I'd decided not to add that earlier because my list here was more oriented to boy and girl relationship here (Just my principle here, okay). Oh, and otome game from Hirameki (Yo-Jin-Bo).

For clarification about nukige, I think only Hirameki had the balance here (Because all of their release were all age), while both Peach Princess and G-Collection was had some good games, from my observation at VNDB their list was mostly nukige like Sagara Family or the worst one was Water Closet. Although there were some mix up though like Raidy. Feel free to add more here, because I only knew that there's only Hirameki and JAST (Peach Princess and G-Collection) that did official localization VN back at 2000's.

[Infernoplex]

Maybe it will seem like I am reposting but anyway, I decided to copy my message here too since it's relevant to the thread, and to give my opinion on the matter.

10. Private Nurse - Finished it already several months ago, it's one of those older bishoujo titles that are rather casual and peacuful, I quite frankly liked it in the sense that it wasn't boring as some other VNs I have read and it was generally a nice read but nothing to really grind my gears if you know what I mean, I actually enjoyed only Maria's route, Ayano's route was kind of mediocrish to me and nothing special overall, I gave it 6 on VNDB ...

9. Figures of Happiness (Shiawase no Katachi) - Played it twice, once in 2011 and in the beginning of 2016 ... Sadly, my opinion of it was better first time I have read it xD The second time I went through it I found it preety mediocrish, it actually had good premise, but some rather slow plot developments and overall slow pacing of it were kind of hard on me, and one of the two major heroines in it was so annoying I wanted to hit the monitor everytime she spoke ... And I had to go through mental torture there playing her route (Mio's route) first because you can't play the ending with the other heroine (Minamo) until finishing off that ... Considering that it's also the longest G-Collection game (30-50 hours), I found it quite boring at times but maybe it's just me, I don't know, sometimes I like comedy, sometimes I don't, this VN particularly didn't manage to interest me that much aside from some other interesting heroines and paths that were generally more interesting, and I rated it also a 6 on VNDB because at the end I did manage to find something I like though I would have liked it more if it wasn't that long, there was no need for so much slow-paced stuff and generally boring day-to-day conversations ...

8. Brave Soul - Tried playing it back in the day, I actually liked the concept of H-RPG, but in all honesty, this one didn't click for me, I dropped it soon after because of reasons and couldn't really play it any longer, there are some other far better looking H-RPGs released by JAST that I do plan to play ...

7. Hourglass of Summer - Oh, don't get me on this one, I tried these Hirameki International VNs back in 2013 I believe, it's not just that they cut H-content, it's also a pain in the ass to play these VNs, I think only Ever17 is the normal one amongst VNs licensed by them, all others have DVD type of playing which I disliked very much because of many reasons and so I dropped all of their titles, except Ever17 which I still didn't play and plan on doing it in the future (yeah, yeah, I know, it's going to be the best read ever, I can already sense that, that's why I saved it for later ^^) ...

6. Snow Sakura (Yukizakura) - This is the real deal I didn't put it on my VNDB that I have read it yet, this VN was my second VN that I have read, I have good memories of it, I want to play it for the second time and that's why I didn't put it on my VNDB yet because I want to remember everything about it and why I liked it back then, as a romance-the-girl type of VN it's in my opinion far better than Private Nurse and Figures of Happiness, I liked it very much and I think the heroines were all done well here ...

5. Princess Waltz - Haven't played this one yet, Peach Princess didn't release that many VNs, I remember that they released only this VN and some other racing type of VN, I intend to play all of them at some point in time, maybe when I finish all G-Collection stuff ... JAST now owns the rights to all G-Collection and Peach Princess Stuff (if I am not mistaken, these two were actually its subsidiaries) ...

4. Kazoku Keikaku (Family Project) - I haven't played this one and I am on my path to play it soon because I am now trying to clear all G-Collection VNs But I have heard only praise about it so I am guessing it's going to be a very good read ...

3. Crescendo - Also want to play it, I have heard only good stuff about it and I can't wait to go through it ...

2.  Kana Imouto - Same like Crescendo, didn't play it yet but I have heard only good stuff about it ...

1. Phantom of Inferno - Another Hirameki International gem ... I actually were recommended this one and back then when I tried playing it, I had DVD problems and couldn't really get into it ... I think at the end somebody helped me fix the problem but still, the annoying DVD replaying format on PC just wasn't for me and I didn't like that way of presentation so I ditched it altogether, I know the VN is considered a masterpiece by Nitro+ but I simply can't play it like that, so I don't intend to bother with it, there are many others that work just fine without all the annoying DVD replaying stuff ... xD

By the way, when you were making the list, did you go for VNs originally developed in the 2000s or you meant officialy localized in the 2000s? Some good VNs were released in the late 90s and then officialy localized in 2000s so that's why I am asking ... If someone wants to look for officially localized 2000s VNs, he just needs to browse the VNDB page of G-Collections and he would be on the right track xD Though there are several other VNs like Bible Black which weren't localized by G-Collections and were released by Kitty Media, they also belong to the 2000s (original Bible Black was released in 2000 I think and it was translated to English in 2006 or 2007 if I am not mistaken) ...

Anyway, a good list overall, though I do believe some more titles should be up there, but that's just my opinion, there's many ways to create a "top 10 VNs of 2000s" xD

[littleshogun]

Oh, thanks for Kitty Media mention beforehand. About Kitty media, well to be honest I created the list with intention to show good VN with low or if possible didn't had sex scene because I thought VN release from 2000's mostly had high number of sex count. Since both of Kitty media releases (Bible Black and Discipline) had many sex scene, I decided not to add Bible Black there (Although I realized that Bible Black score was higher than Private Nurse and Figure of Happiness). As the result, my list above was comprised of low sex scene story VN, but you still may think that Bible Black was good VN here of course. Well, in the end those list was only my opinion anyway. Oh, and about DVD here I agree that was very annoying system there.

To answering which angle that I used to made the list (Developed or localized), it should be obvious that I choose localized angle here because if we talking about good VN that developed around 2000's or even 90's, there's a lot of that obviously (One of the example here would be YU-NO if we based VNDB score). About Peach Princess they also released good Yume Miru Kusuri VN there (The reason I didn't put it in the list was not because VNDB rating was low, but rather I purposely didn't made same list as mod Kaguya here). If you run out of old VN in the future, once again I could recommended Yume Miru Kusuri there even if for some people the sex count was slightly higher than usual there. Hope I could answer all of your question clearly here, and if it's still not clear just ask me again.

[Infernoplex]

No need for additional explanation, I understand everything now And yeah, I forgot, they also released Yume Miru Kusuri, but I always think of it as a JAST release, but you are right, Peach Princess is the actual company that released it, now the VN is in JAST store I think, haven't played it yet but I do intend to do sometime in the future, right now I am still at one of those high sexual content VNs that were released in the 2000s, called Sensei 2, and after I finish that, I am either going to pick up "Let's Meow Meow" or perhaps "Come See Me Tonight 1" ...

Since this is a thread about older VNs, I thought about mentioning this though I don't know if it is a right place to discuss about it but anyway ... I found that in technical terms, a bunch of these old VNs are a pain in the ass to read them xD I mean, I can look at the art (Background CGs, sprites, Event CGs, Sex CGs) of G-Collection's VNs just fine, there isn't any real abominations that I have encountered yet (which I can't say the same for YU-NO, you mentioned it in your post, that VN simply makes my eyes bleed) but what really bothered me with some of these VNs that I have read recently is that they are technically badly developed xD I have realised that newer VNs had much better design choices by introducing better font for text like MangaGamer did, or simply convenient UI interface which I liked very much ... There are some good VN examples out there, that simply look astonishing in the terms of design and technical choices, I am mentioning this because some of the VNs on your list are problematic to play ...

You did mention the problems with Hirameki International VNs, their so called DVD format which is a real shame because I think I would have gladly played some of their VNs if they were in a normal PC format, even without H-scenes, some of these VNs look like they could have a decent plot ... But I would just like to mention for those that might be interested in playing some other VNs from the list, for example "Private Nurse" ... Now this VN has a real problem, it's a technical clusterfuck, I had problems with it and some of the unpleasant stuff simply couldn't be fixed due to its really old engine, for example, the BGM music used some kind of a special codec that was only available on older Windows OS, so you had to grab sime shady files of the net and put them into system directory and what-not, you also had, due to the rather old Securom DRM, to have the disc always put inside or mounted in order to hear the BGM playing ... and that's not all, I think at random times the sound was simply going on and off, looping problems and it made me quite annoyed really ... And there's more, this is one of those old VNs where you can't press "Enter" to go through text, you had to keep clicking on the mouse and it was always kind of slow to me ... So I tried fiddling in the settings, and even with auto-mode, I can't set it the way I want, it either goes to fast or to slow, so it was preety much badly designed ... Now somebody can say "well, it's an old VN, what did you expect?" - I know that, I didn't expect a masterpiece in technical terms at all but I think I should just mention it here, for those people who decide to embark on the adventure anyway, honestly, I like to read visual novels and I find it as an interesting entertainment but for those that started playing VNs with serious titles that had much better technical design, they might find these VNs rather hard to go through, and often they might think that these older VNs are just shit, not just because of the whole plot but mostly because of un-appealing technical design, bad UI interface, low resolution, bad translation or typos (which I have found that many of these VNs have to some degree), etc. ...

I still have a lot of G-Collection VNs to go through, once I finish them off I will pickup better titles with much more pleasent technical choices ... Somebody might say that I just want to experience bad VNs so I can know how to apreciate the good VNs ...