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How old is "old" for a VN?


Dreamysyu

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For me, an old VN would be any that are non-HD, like the ones made in pre-2011 800x600 resolutions, and then the ones in 640x480 and lower are ancient tier

Terms of story I'd say VNs age pretty well, there's always potential to enjoy a good story. Technicalities though, i don't think many people would go out of their way to read an ancient VN with outdated graphics and whatnot unless it's one of the well known classics

Oldest VN for me is like Ever 17, whenever that was made.

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I usually classify my VNs to the overall design and resolution of the game. After adapting to the 16:9 widescreen ratio, I find myself hard to return to original 4:3 ratio even though monitors and TVs all used that standard back then. VNs that are not 720 HD sometimes follow the 4:3 ratio. Even though widescreen displays and monitors were becoming widespread around 2005, most VNs did not become widescreen until 2010. So basically, 2010 is my cutoff point between classic and modern.

Another feature I use to distinguish between older and current VN is the way the game is presented on my screen. My laptop screen has desktop scaling to accommodate the 4K resolution. Newer games disregard the scaling while older games will follow the scaling (a 720 HD VN in windowed mode will fill most of my screen). It feels to me that the newer game will have a better engine and interface that will allow more animation and effects.

As for art and design, I believe the differences and evolutions may be due to the resolution and graphic performance of the game. With higher resolutions, the lines become more crisp and it is possible to add more detail and color to the characters and BG. Compared to older games, it seems less smudgy and blurry. In the older days, computers were also not that powerful and people needed to consider that.

As for story, story never gets old. Heck, there are even classic stories that have important values that are still relevant today. However, dated graphics and interface will make the VN a hard sell since these are two items players will see at first glance. For sound and music, I really don't see how it can be improved since few people notice the difference using high resolution audio.

The main problem with VNs is that there's always a bunch of new releases every month. There are many VN studios in Japan and some studios have different divisions and subsidiaries meaning that they're working on three games at the same time. With limited space in the press, attention is usually focused on the latest titles. The western market has only seen a tiny fraction of all the VNs you can buy in Japan and it's usually the better titles that are handpicked by the translators and/or the fans.

Last note: I believe the issue applies too to video games. There are many new games that come out every month and the only element that gets heavily publicized appears in the media is the graphics and the interface. 

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1. I consider those not released in the 2000s old (and those in the 2010s new; anything released between 2000 and 2010 is considered the middle ground).

2. Not really but for some reason, I haven't played any vns released before 200. 

3. I've only read 2 VNs released before 2001: Never7 and Tsukihime. I did quite like the sci-fi parts in Never7, though it wasn't anything like the Steins Gate kind. As for Tsukihime, I liked it more than Never 7 so yeah

4. I can't really comment since I haven't played any vns released before 2000 

Edited by wei123
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1. 2004 or older

2. Wouldn't read anything <2000 :wahaha:

3. If 2001 itself doesn't count, then only Air. Hated the plot btw.

4. On the technical side of things, obviously not. Story-wise, in my experience, the closer it gets to the 2000 mark the worse it has aged. 2005 and above are generally safe.

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  1. To me "old" is pixel art so I guess pre-2000? I guess that low-res stuff of the first 2000s might look "old" to some, not to me tho.
  2. I actuallly like pixel-art if well done so no limits for me. Except they are a pain in the ass to play with modern pcs. 
  3. I've read many of them back in the day when I didn't even know of the "visual novel" term.
  4. Totally depends on prospective. I like old stuff but I can understand if a teenager finds something like Clannad or even G-senjou unplayable, at least graphic-wise. 
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I have no real age limit. Graphics can make a game feel older, but i've played enough indie games to desensitize myself to that.

I read the pre-2000 rance series games translated to english. Kichikou rance was a fun experience. The others not as much but still playable.

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Generally I didn't have much title from below 2002 in my HD, so I guess all VN that was created in 2001 and the years beforehand could be considered old. As for the VNs that I managed to read, I only read some and interestingly most of those that I completed were from Alicesoft (Kichikuou Rance and Mamatoto). For more elabration, I think those two were still relevant especially when we saw that Mamatoto gameplay is basically the crude version of Rance IX, and Kichikuou story was mixed into Eiyuu Senki. There's also YU-NO that still managed to get the good score despite it was from 1995, and get remake for PS3 recently. Also don't forget both of Tsukihime and Kanon, in which basically those two VNs did change the whole VNs scene to what we know now, especially more in regard of Kanon.

To answer the questions here:

  1. The oldest VNs to me was the VN that was created before 2001.
  2. I probably never read the VN that was created before 2001 in the future.
  3. For this question, I find both of Kichikuou and Mamatoto have quite good gameplay. Also I did try YU-NO, Never 7, and Tsukihime as well, although whether if I want to reread it or not my answer would be not because the walkthrough for those two were quite convoluted.
  4. As for Mamatoto, well it's pretty cliche. But for Kichikuou, I think it's still good if we saw from Eiyuu Senki story was basically have some element from Kichikuou. YU-NO was recently remade for PS3, so I guess it should tell enough that the story still good for modern standard. For Tsukihime, apparently there's a remake plan so it should be telling that there's many people who demanded the remake, and yet Type Moon was too busy with their FGO thing so much it still didn't happen yet.
Edited by littleshogun
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