ChaosRaven Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 (edited) The question in the title and the one in the post are actually two different things. Regarding the question in the title about the best looking title, this is actually a highly subjective thing. For example, Fata Morgana is regarded by some as a very good looking title because of its unique art style, but its production values are actually quite low. The backgrounds are just blured photographs, its not even voiced and only the main characters have sprites with very little variations. So what title looks best to YOU is hard to answer because it's so subjective. The best advice I can give you is to check out some titles from some of the most popular VN artists: Popular artists with cute moe art: - Kobuichi & Muririn (Yuzusoft) - Moe art with highly dynamic sprites - Nishimata Aoi (Navel) - Very popular moe art - Hatozuki Tsumiki & Mitsuki & Yakuri (Eushully) - High quality fantasy manga art more on the moe-side - Koku (Purple Software) - Good combination of moe and erotic art Popular artists with more mature characters: - Komori Kei (Ricotta) - Very good erotic art with more mature characters - Iizuki Tasuku (Hibiki Works) - Famous for the Lovely & Cation titles. Very good erotic art with more mature characters - Amasaka Takashi & Kaneusu Tato & Kazuma (Clip Craft) - Very good erotic art with more mature characters - G Yuusuke (Light) - Specialized in very stylish chuuni art - Kagami (Lilith) - Infamous artist specialized in erotic fetish art with more mature characters Popular artists with a more realistic art style: - Suigina Miki (Innocent Grey) - Very good mixture of realistic art with manga art and more mature and realistic looking characters - Sei Shoujo (Empress) - Infamous artist specialized in erotic fetish art with more mature and realistic looking characters - M&M (Astronauts: Sirius) - Very good erotic art with more mature and realistic looking characters The question about the production values is somewhat easier to answer since it allows a more objective point of view. In general, titles with high production values usually have the following characteristics: - Lots of event CG's - Lots of character sprites - not only for main characters but also for side characters - Even background actors are drawn (Very rare nowadays, but older titles like Clannad, Shuffle or Ever17 put a lot of effort into those) - All characters voiced, including high profile voice actors - Backgrounds are drawn and not cheaply produced blured photographs - Usage of high profile artists - Usage of special effects like animation - High profile writers and composers Titles with huge art content are hard to realize with just a single artist. For that reason titles with high production values usually have multiple artists, or one artists who gets several years time for it, like Komori Kei with Walkure Romanze or Sei Shoujo with Starless. Background art in particular can also be bought by an external company without having to bother your main artist with it. Since older titles usually have rather old fashioned art styles by todays standards, I'll split the answer in older and newer titles. Amongst older titles, I'd say the highest production values probably had MuvLuv Alternative, followed by Fate/Stay Night and Ever17. If it comes to newer titles, the top contenders are probably Eushully titles, because they also have a fairly high quality J-RPG included. Minori is famous for expensive high quality art but they usually have few characters and I'm not sure if their newer titles stand out as much as their older titles. I personally liked the character designs of their older titles ef, Eden or Supipara more than their newer titles. The Koihime series from BaseSon is also infamous for their high production values because their titles are extremely long with millions of voiced characters. MangaGamer still couldn't afford to bring over any of their newer titles. Innocent Grey titles also have very high production values even if they seem to be a lot cheaper than BaseSon titles. Otherwise MangaGamer wouldn't have been able to afford them - cheaper voice costs I guess. If I should make a personal pick of a title I played with the best combination of high production values and good looking art the it would be probably Kamidori Alchemy Meister from Eushully. The content was just insane and I really like their art style. In my subjective view, there are two companies which have an even better character art style - Ricotta and Clipcraft - but neither of those can deal with the pure mass of content of an Eushully title. Edited April 8, 2018 by ChaosRaven Dreamysyu, Testarossa, Zhyareth and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canicheslayer Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) 22 hours ago, Happiness+ said: What visual novel is the highest production values? I am talking about instant eyegasms galore. Three wonders come to my mind 1/Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate Spoiler 2/ ef - a fairy tale of the two. (OR minori, for all of its work) Spoiler 3/ Kara no Shoujo 2 Spoiler Edited April 9, 2018 by Canicheslayer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhyareth Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Not gonna lie im love with rewrite and little busters style. But for really nice drawings i guess Palette's style is really nice for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happiness+ Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 On 4/7/2018 at 10:27 PM, solidbatman said: Air I remember when I got this game from the pirate days, but I streamed the anime back when I was like 12. I thought "Well, since I watched the anime. Won't this be the same thing but with porn?" Till this day, it sits on my netbook. I am sure if I want to read it because I love anime so much. I watched the series during a time in my life when I learned, "Wow, there is more to anime than just the stuff on toonami!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happiness+ Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 On 4/7/2018 at 10:34 PM, tymmur said: Looking through all the titles mentioned here (or the majority. There are a lot already), I can say one thing: the replies seems to be fairly subjective. While the majority are good looking, it seems that some people have managed to point out "the best" and then mention a title where I simply do not like the drawing style and consider it ugly. I will predict that as time passes, even more titles are mentioned (a number while writing this) and we will never agree. I think it's fine. People are diverse. That is what makes us human. However it makes it kind of pointless to talk about "the best" as it highly depends on who you ask. Yeah, I know. That's the whole purpose of the discussion. The reasoning behind this post is that after reading phenomeno. I was like, "Damn. It looked good. I wonder what other people's thoughts on VNs that look good." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happiness+ Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 6 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: The question in the title and the one in the post are actually two different things. Regarding the question in the title about the best looking title, this is actually a highly subjective thing. For example, Fata Morgana is regarded by some as a very good looking title because of its unique art style, but its production values are actually quite low. The backgrounds are just blured photographs, its not even voiced and only the main characters have sprites with very little variations. So what title looks best to YOU is hard to answer because it's so subjective. The best advice I can give you is to check out some titles from some of the most popular VN artists: Popular artists with cute moe art: - Kobuichi & Muririn (Yuzusoft) - Moe art with highly dynamic sprites - Nishimata Aoi (Navel) - Very popular moe art - Hatozuki Tsumiki & Mitsuki & Yakuri (Eushully) - High quality fantasy manga art more on the moe-side - Koku (Purple Software) - Good combination of moe and erotic art Popular artists with more mature characters: - Komori Kei (Ricotta) - Very good erotic art with more mature characters - Iizuki Tasuku (Hibiki Works) - Famous for the Lovely & Cation titles. Very good erotic art with more mature characters - Amasaka Takashi & Kaneusu Tato & Kazuma (Clip Craft) - Very good erotic art with more mature characters - G Yuusuke (Light) - Specialized in very stylish chuuni art - Kagami (Lilith) - Infamous artist specialized in erotic fetish art with more mature characters Popular artists with a more realistic art style: - Suigina Miki (Innocent Grey) - Very good mixture of realistic art with manga art and more mature and realistic looking characters - Sei Shoujo (Empress) - Infamous artist specialized in erotic fetish art with more mature and realistic looking characters - M&M (Astronauts: Sirius) - Very good erotic art with more mature and realistic looking characters The question about the production values is somewhat easier to answer since it allows a more objective point of view. In general, titles with high production values usually have the following characteristics: - Lots of event CG's - Lots of character sprites - not only for main characters but also for side characters - Even background actors are drawn (Very rare nowadays, but older titles like Clannad, Shuffle or Ever17 put a lot of effort into those) - All characters voiced, including high profile voice actors - Backgrounds are drawn and not cheaply produced blured photographs - Usage of high profile artists - Usage of special effects like animation - High profile writers and composers Titles with huge art content are hard to realize with just a single artist. For that reason titles with high production values usually have multiple artists, or one artists who gets several years time for it, like Komori Kei with Walkure Romanze or Sei Shoujo with Starless. Background art in particular can also be bought by an external company without having to bother your main artist with it. Since older titles usually have rather old fashioned art styles by todays standards, I'll split the answer in older and newer titles. Amongst older titles, I'd say the highest production values probably had MuvLuv Alternative, followed by Fate/Stay Night and Ever17. If it comes to newer titles, the top contenders are probably Eushully titles, because they also have a fairly high quality J-RPG included. Minori is famous for expensive high quality art but they usually have few characters and I'm not sure if their newer titles stand out as much as their older titles. I personally liked the character designs of their older titles ef, Eden or Supipara more than their newer titles. The Koihime series from BaseSon is also infamous for their high production values because their titles are extremely long with millions of voiced characters. MangaGamer still couldn't afford to bring over any of their newer titles. Innocent Grey titles also have very high production values even if they seem to be a lot cheaper than BaseSon titles. Otherwise MangaGamer wouldn't have been able to afford them - cheaper voice costs I guess. If I should make a personal pick of a title I played with the best combination of high production values and good looking art the it would be probably Kamidori Alchemy Meister from Eushully. The content was just insane and I really like their art style. In my subjective view, there are two companies which have an even better character art style - Ricotta and Clipcraft - but neither of those can deal with the pure mass of content of an Eushully title. Thanks for the high quality post. I intended this post to start a discussion on "OMG that looks good!" VNs. Even though, I am looking for games that do have those high production values. I thought they would be somewhat synonymous. I wanna see how AAA visual novels can be these days. 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Toranth Posted April 12, 2018 Share Posted April 12, 2018 Tony Taka (Ciel, etc), Carnelian (Root), and Yamamoto Kazue (Studio e.go, Debo no Su) deserve a mention. Some of the games by these folks have wonderful art (and some... don't). Tony Taka is popular enough that he actually published at least one large artbook of non-erogame art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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