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Recommendations for VNs with good (or at least mainly good in a way it doesn't leave a sad aftertaste) endings


sarkasmus

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First of all: Sorry if there already is a thread like this, I seem to suck at using the search function.

Since finishing Chaos Child two days ago (where even the best endings were kind of sad) as usual the bad mood is sticking on me, so I'm searching for a good VN with good/happy endings. (the story can have it's sad or depressing moments, it's just a good or happy ending I'm searching for. So it doesn't have to be a pure comedy VN or something like that, though I wouldn't mind that either).

While I'm fine with any kind of genre in terms of story, I'd prefer soething similar to Katawa Shoujo or Koichoco in this case, so nothing too fantasy- or action-heavy since I read the latter kind of VN very much lately I would like to read something different for a change.

Oh, and it should be obviously story focused so no kind of Nukige or similar stuff please.

I don't care if it's a 18+ or all ages VN as long as it's not a version censored specifically for the western market, or in other words I'm fine with both as long as there's an identical original japanese version.

The plattforms I'm fine with are: PC, PSP, PSV, PS3 and PS4

 

(btw I won't be able  to look at the thread for the next few hours, just in case you're wondering why I don't respond)

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Grisaia no Kajitsu https://vndb.org/v5154 and Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa wo Hirogete https://vndb.org/v9093 would fit the bill. Both are high school slice of life affairs with romance and comedy. Both are censored for western releases, but both have patches to restore the censored content (Grisaia unrated version can be bought directly from Denpasoft too). Both have +18 content.

Kono Oozora is the more light hearted of the two, and it doesn't even have any bad endings (the sudden cutoff ending where you fail to flag a route doesn't count). Some of it's scenes and music are breathtaking (it is a game about flying afterall).

Grisaia is very well written, has endearing characters, and has somewhat over the top comedy ..... at first. Things get rather serious when diving into the backstories of the heroines. The good endings are good though.

 

I don't have any other suggestions, as those games (and Katawa Shoujo) are the only VN's I've played so far.

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There are a lot out there but I do have a few personal recommendations

Canvas 2 seems to have a lot of mixed opinions but it has a solid story, with even the protagonist getting some development in each route, and I for one absolutely loved it.

The Da Capo trilogy is one of my favorites, with a solid story and very likable characters that seem to make an impact even on future entries, even if indirectly. My favorite entry by far being Da Capo II

Hoshizora no Memoria is my favorite VN of all time and a very solid slice of life story.

Kira Kira doesn't really have the school setting for a majority of the story but it has some great characters that get a lot of development, though it does have one very depressing ending.

Shuffle is a VN that seems to have very divided opinions, and while I didn't absolutely love it, I liked it, at least enough to recommend giving it a shot.

And finally is To Heart 2, which I absolutely loved even despite the protagonist being dumber than a rock at times. It has a lot of heroines and routes of varying quality, most of the routes ranging from good to great, but I feel like with the sheer number, there's something there for everyone.

Edited by Kabu
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There's good VN out there, but I think Wagahigh, HatsuKoi, and Yoake would be good for you considering that those three were pretty much normal charage without some supernatural element. About Yoake, while it was censored actually it was already is from the Japanese version itself, so it's not censored for English release there. If you want more, then there's Dracu Riot and Noble Works. Hope it could be help for your recommendations.

Edited by littleshogun
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15 minutes ago, Kabu said:

And finally is To Heart 2, which I absolutely loved even despite the protagonist being dumber than a rock at times. It has a lot of heroines and routes of varying quality, most of the routes ranging from good to great, but I feel like with the sheer number, there's something there for everyone.

I second this. The endings on every single route (and there are 9 of them) are happy, and all but one epilogue is even happier.

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2 hours ago, r0xm2n said:

Grisaia no Kajitsu https://vndb.org/v5154 and Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa wo Hirogete https://vndb.org/v9093 would fit the bill. Both are high school slice of life affairs with romance and comedy. Both are censored for western releases, but both have patches to restore the censored content (Grisaia unrated version can be bought directly from Denpasoft too). Both have +18 content.

Kono Oozora is the more light hearted of the two, and it doesn't even have any bad endings (the sudden cutoff ending where you fail to flag a route doesn't count). Some of it's scenes and music are breathtaking (it is a game about flying afterall).

Grisaia is very well written, has endearing characters, and has somewhat over the top comedy ..... at first. Things get rather serious when diving into the backstories of the heroines. The good endings are good though.

 

I don't have any other suggestions, as those games (and Katawa Shoujo) are the only VN's I've played so far.

Kono Oozora was heavily altered for the western release though, aside from the H-content and (please correct if I'm wrong, if there's a full rastoration patch that would be great) the restoration patch doesn't fully restore it espacially the translation issues. I have it in my backlog as the japanese PSV-version, but I currently don't have the time or energy to read a whole VN in Japanese (i still need more practice in reading japanese, sorry should have mentioned that I'm looking for translated ones).

Played Grisaia already, it's one of my favorite VNs.

Now that I think about it, I should have mentioned which I already read, sorry again I was in a hurry when i opened the thread.

 

2 hours ago, Kabu said:

There are a lot out there but I do have a few personal recommendations

Canvas 2 seems to have a lot of mixed opinions but it has a solid story, with even the protagonist getting some development in each route, and I for one absolutely loved it.

The Da Capo trilogy is one of my favorites, with a solid story and very likable characters that seem to make an impact even on future entries, even if indirectly. My favorite entry by far being Da Capo II

Hoshizora no Memoria is my favorite VN of all time and a very solid slice of life story.

Kira Kira doesn't really have the school setting for a majority of the story but it has some great characters that get a lot of development, though it does have one very depressing ending.

Shuffle is a VN that seems to have very divided opinions, and while I didn't absolutely love it, I liked it, at least enough to recommend giving it a shot.

And finally is To Heart 2, which I absolutely loved even despite the protagonist being dumber than a rock at times. It has a lot of heroines and routes of varying quality, most of the routes ranging from good to great, but I feel like with the sheer number, there's something there for everyone.

Canvas 2: Sounds good, but do I need to read the first game to understand everything. I'm always worried I might miss something if I jump into a series without knowing the previous ones.

Da Capo: How did I miss there was a second one? I played the first one a while ago if they're similar I'll give it a try. Thanks.

Hoshizora no Memoria: Played it already, not one of my favoirte Stories but the great soundtrack compensates for that in my opnion.

KiraKira: I don't really mind if the setting isn't in school, my examples were only supposed to show what kind of story i'm looking for in general because I didn't know if there's a specific term for it. The point with the depressing ending worries me a bit though I think I'll keep the VN in mind but play it at some other time.

Shuffle: I started it ones but stopped it after a short while, I don't even remember why.

To Heart 2: For some reason I always thought that was a SRPG, guess I confused it with another game. But here I have the same question as for the first one mentioned: Do I need to play the first game before for the full experience?

 

2 hours ago, littleshogun said:

There's good VN out there, but I think Wagahigh, HatsuKoi, and Yoake would be good for you considering that those three were pretty much normal charage without some supernatural element. About Yoake, while it was censored actually it was already is from the Japanese version itself, so it's not censored for English release there. If you want more, then there's Dracu Riot and Noble Works. Hope it could be help for your recommendations.

Wagahigh: it has an actual story, I stoped playing it after a short while because it the beginning lookid like the start of a H-manga.

Hatsukoi: never heard of it before, but the descriptions sounds intersting I'll give it a try.

Yoake: I'm not sure if that goes too far into the fantasy dierection, but I'll give it a try later.

I played 2 routes of Dracu Riot already, but it goes too far in the direction of the more action-heavy VN, that's not what I'm currently looking for. Noble Works' description sounds interesting though.

 

2 hours ago, Okarin said:

I was gonna say Kira Kira, but beware of the sad ending for one of the main characters.

Hoshizora no Memoria also has room for a lot of sadness, but all's well that ends well.

Shuffle is a-okay, but maybe you're not in the mood for H-scenes, also playing it in summer is where the fun is.

While I don't need them to enjoy a VN, I don't mind H-Scenes, I don't even think my mood can get bad enough to be opposed to them.

 

 

Thanks for the help, I think I'll start with Wagahigh (Now i really want to know how they turn that start into an actual Story, And it's the only one I already have).

 

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5 hours ago, sarkasmus said:

To Heart 2: For some reason I always thought that was a SRPG, guess I confused it with another game. But here I have the same question as for the first one mentioned: Do I need to play the first game before for the full experience?

No. To Heart is set in the same universe but To Heart 2 is a standalone plain VN only (unlike the first To Heart.) I released it less than 2 months ago.

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13 hours ago, sarkasmus said:

Wagahigh: it has an actual story, I stoped playing it after a short while because it the beginning lookid like the start of a H-manga.

Well the MC was working as romcom ecchi manga though, so I think it make sense that you remind of H-manga when you play Wagahigh lol - perhaps it was deliberated there. Have fun for playing Wagahigh there.

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Recommendations in bold~

You will probably like Key VN's. They start out happyish and slice of lifey, go into the problems in the routes, and end on a happy note. Clannad, little busters and rewrite were good. Misuzu's storyline in Air was good. Avoid Kanon.

Grisaia series is also what you want. Moves away from the school themes later on. WHile the good endings are nice, some of the bad endings are absolutely incredible. The new Phantom Triggers are also half decent. These are action heavy towards the routes, so you may not want to pick these now.

Majikoi also seems to fit what you want, maybe more than any other. Really light hearted. These have action, but it is more geared towards development.

Pretty much anything by Overdrive. (Deardrops, Dengeki Stryker and Edelweiss). KiraKira has an ending that I guarantee you won't be feeling happy about. Avoid this, if you want only happy endings. Dengeki Stryker has fantasy overturned (plenty of it), but it is intentionally over the top, not something you would read too much into, and a really enjoyable read.

My girlfriend is the President is mostly comedy, though some of the routes do have a decent plot. A lot of fun references, and a very enjoyable read.

Probably in the above list, Key VN's are what you are looking for as they don't have much action or fantasy, have good endings and are generally good reads. They have a lot of funny moments as well.

Edited by Akshay
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On 30.10.2017 at 8:40 PM, ittaku said:

No. To Heart is set in the same universe but To Heart 2 is a standalone plain VN only (unlike the first To Heart.) I released it less than 2 months ago.

Good to know. So the first one was a SRPG? That might explain why I thought this one were.

And what about Canvas 2?

 

On 31.10.2017 at 3:49 AM, Deep Blue said:

Narcissu XD

Maybe yume miru kusuri, general theme is not very happy but the endings are (this is kinda spoiler but since you are asking :gasp:).

 

Why's there a "XD" behind the recommendation? (sorry, I'm not good at noticing jokes or sarcasm in written text so I thought I better ask)

 

 

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1 hour ago, sarkasmus said:

Good to know. So the first one was a SRPG? That might explain why I thought this one were.

And what about Canvas 2?

 

Why's there a "XD" behind the recommendation? (sorry, I'm not good at noticing jokes or sarcasm in written text so I thought I better ask)

 

 

narcissu is a depressing game, so yeah that was a joke.

Yume miru kusuri has happy endings, they are not bittersweet they are pure happy endings. The game on the other side in general is a bit on the melancholic or sad side.

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On 11/1/2017 at 8:09 PM, sarkasmus said:

Good to know. So the first one was a SRPG? That might explain why I thought this one were.

And what about Canvas 2?

The Canvas series from what I can gather are set in the same timeline and whatnot with very loose references but completely separated stories.

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On 4.11.2017 at 5:04 AM, Kabu said:

The Canvas series from what I can gather are set in the same timeline and whatnot with very loose references but completely separated stories.

So it's similar to as it's the case with the stories of the different Kiseki-series' ? (like Sen no Kiseki (aside from the 3rd game) and the Sora no Kiseki series or the crossbell games)

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*approaches creepily from behind*

My friend, are you maybe into yuri? Isn't yuri just the best thing? I'm happy you agree! I have some right here...

So, if you're looking for something with a happy conclusion, I could recommend A Little Lily Princess (https://vndb.org/v19420), Starlight Vega (https://vndb.org/v16817) and Love Ribbon (https://vndb.org/v20027). All of them short, fairly cheap on Steam - obviously western stuff, so it's quite different from typical Japanese VNs, but all of them very good if you don't mind the themes and won't take you a few weeks to fully read through. :)

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5 hours ago, sarkasmus said:

So it's similar to as it's the case with the stories of the different Kiseki-series' ? (like Sen no Kiseki (aside from the 3rd game) and the Sora no Kiseki series or the crossbell games)

Sort of, yeah. No prior knowledge is really necessary.

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