Recommend me my first Visual Novel :)

[NewToVN]

Hi everybody!

 

I have been studying japanese for some time now. To further improve my japanese, i want to read/play visual novels. I have been looking around at vndb.org, but as im kinda picky when it comes to entertainment (books, games etc.), i`d like to find what fits me . 

 

To break things up for you, And to help me visualize what kind of games is being recommended, i have thrown out ALL the things i would like to see in a game. I have also given a maximum amount of STARS to each. Say mystery have 3 stars maximum. If your recommendation have no mystery it will get 0 stars, some mystery 1 star and so forth. Up to a maksimum of 3 stars.

 

 

One million cookies to the one who recommends the game with the most stars! No cheating

 

TECHNICAL

Short ☆☆☆

I would like the amount of time it takes to finish a game with true/best/good ending WITHOUT WALKTHROUGH to be relatively short. So if i need several playthroughs to FIND the true route, you should factor in this. TOTAL TIME  <15h ☆☆☆ <30h ☆☆  <50h☆

Easy Japanese ☆☆☆

All / Almost all text is voiced ☆☆☆

Replay voice button ☆☆

Since i want to use VNs to improve my Japanese, it would be great to listen to difficult sentences several times.

 

GENRE

Mystery ☆☆☆

Comedy ☆☆☆

Action ☆☆

LIGHT Romance ☆☆ 

 

GAMEPLAY / FEATURES

Interesting gameplay OR Choices that are NOT based on luck ☆☆☆☆☆

IF the game has srpg/rpg/action/adventure elements; This criteria is judged like you would any normal game. I prefer hard games btw:P

IF the game has the choices more often seen in VNs; Stars are given based on how much thought you would put into the choices etc.The choices should NOT be based on luck: e.g "You go through the forest, and the road splits in three, will you take route A, B or C ?" . Nor should they be "Which girl do you want?".  An example of more interesting choices could be a detective novel where you get presented with a number of choices, where only one is the "correct" one. To choose the correct one you would have to logically deduce it from what have happened earlier etc. Many VNs will get a low/zero score here even if they have many choices. So for a good score, the choices should be HARD but LOGICAL

IF the game is a kinetic novel (or just one or two straightforward decisions) the score will be 0.

"Easy" to choose different routes ☆☆

Making it easier for the player to know when/where the crucial choices are, for example by having a flowchart. (Maybe with the option of jumping around on the flowchart) OR having new game plus etc.

Possible to work  towards true/good ending. ☆☆

I would like the choices needed to get the true/good ending to make sense, and not be luck or Trial/Error

 

 

PRESENTATION

(I know this will be more subjective than the other things)

Nice Artstyle ☆☆☆

Good voicework, with few irritating voices. ☆☆☆

Few extreme H-scenes ☆☆☆

I dont mind if there are no h-scenes at all, or a ton of them, either is fine. But i dislike: AAA - girls (children), bondage, scat, violence/murder sex, tentacles.

 

Wow thats a long post from me. A thousand cookies to the ones who is bothered even reading it all. Here is a template: 

 

 

NAME OF THE VN

TECHNICAL

Short ☆☆☆

Easy Japanese ☆☆☆

All / Almost all text is voiced ☆☆☆

Replay voice button ☆☆

GENRE

Mystery ☆☆☆

Comedy ☆☆☆

Action ☆☆

LIGHT Romance ☆☆ 

GAMEPLAY / FEATURES

Gameplay / Choices ☆☆☆☆☆

"Transparent"  routes ☆☆

True/good ending NOT based on pure luck. ☆☆

PRESENTATION

Artstyle ☆☆☆

Voiceacting ☆☆☆

Few extreme H-scenes ☆☆☆

 

TOTAL :  00 x ☆

 

[COMMENTS]

 

 

I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope someone would take the time to recommend me a game or two. Just copy the template, and bold the stars the game does deserve

 

Thank you very much

[NewToVN]

OH BTW: 

 

I have already decided to play the following 3 games, when i get a little bit better in Japanese :

G-senjou no Maou

999

Ever17

 

Also, when i have watched their respective animes, i will look into playing : 

Steins;Gate

Fate/Stay

Higurashi

[Zodai]

Most of the VNs here are pre-patched into english, so I can't say much about whether the original is difficult or not.

 

But, regardless...

 

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

TECHNICAL

Short ☆☆☆  (50+ Hour game)

Easy Japanese ☆☆☆

All / Almost all text is voiced ☆☆☆

Replay voice button ☆☆  (Cannot replay voices)

GENRE

Mystery ☆☆☆

Comedy ☆☆☆

Action ☆☆  (Some 'action' depending on the use of the word.)

LIGHT Romance ☆☆ 

GAMEPLAY / FEATURES  (Has no choices whatsoever, according to the OP all of the stars are given here.)

Gameplay / Choices ☆☆☆☆☆ 

"Transparent"  routes ☆☆

True/good ending NOT based on pure luck. ☆☆

PRESENTATION

Artstyle ☆☆☆

Voiceacting ☆☆☆

Few extreme H-scenes ☆☆☆ (None whatsoever, so I think it counts...)

 

TOTAL :  26 x ☆  (With some technicalities)

[DrKleiner]

OH BTW: 

 

I have already decided to play the following 3 games, when i get a little bit better in Japanese :

G-senjou no Maou

999

Ever17

 

Also, when i have watched their respective animes, i will look into playing : 

Steins;Gate

Fate/Stay

Higurashi

I wouldn't recommend watching the animes before playing the VNs, they'll just spoil the story for you.

[Zodai]

I wouldn't recommend watching the animes before playing the VNs, they'll just spoil the story for you.

 

This.  The VNs are usually better.  Same goes for Umineko, which I suggested.  Although I will admit the Steins;Gate anime was good.

[garejei]

 

Gyakuten Saiban series (known in English as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney)

TECHNICAL

Short ☆☆☆ (medium length)

Easy Japanese ☆☆☆ (relatively easy)

All / Almost all text is voiced ☆☆☆ (nothing is voiced)

Replay voice button ☆☆ (no voice acting)

GENRE

Mystery ☆☆☆  (awesome plot twists)

Comedy ☆☆☆ (awesome characters/comedy)

Action ☆☆ (mostly courtroom drama/murder mystery, so...)

LIGHT Romance ☆☆  (only hints of it, but still no stars I'd say)

GAMEPLAY / FEATURES

Gameplay / Choices ☆☆☆☆☆ (requires paying attention and finding clues, very rewarding experience)

"Transparent"  routes ☆☆ (linear, no routes, so in that sense it's a plus that you can't get lost, I guess?)

True/good ending NOT based on pure luck. ☆☆ (You need to sovle the mystery yourself, so yeah, you have to work and consider all the clues/info to be successful)

PRESENTATION

Artstyle ☆☆☆ (good, but up to personal preference)

Voiceacting ☆☆☆ (no voice acting at all, other than a few sound effects)

Few extreme H-scenes ☆☆☆ (there are no h-scenes)

 

Total: 23

 

You could also look into non-VN games, your usual JRPG tends to use easier language, for example the Tales of series, or the two Shining games (Blade, Ark) on the PSP.

[NewToVN]

This.  The VNs are usually better.  Same goes for Umineko, which I suggested.  Although I will admit the Steins;Gate anime was good.

 

I will watch Steins:Gate with my sisters and parents in the christmas holidays, so im kinda saving it for that  . I thought of doing the VNs for Higurashi and FSN first, but since my japanese skills still isnt top notch, i dont want to potentially spoil BOTH a great anime AND a great VN, without getting good entertainment value out of it, if you know what i mean. But if it turns out i really enjoy VNs, i will do as you suggest then, and do the VNs first (need more jap. practice first anyway though).

 

Btw: edited my post to adress kinetic novels. It should get 0 in gameplay value, sorry . The criteria is there to score the fun in thinking about what to choose, or standard gameplay fun

 

Thank you both for your replies

[shcboomer]

I feel like G-Senjou no Maou is a good place to start. It is a great VN and has most of the elements you are looking for. In terms of Japanese difficulty, I'd say it is around easy to medium.

[Clephas]

Draculius http://vndb.org/v453

 

Length- Between ten and twenty hours, depending on your reading skills.

Difficulty- 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.  It uses a lot of common language, as well as more frequent utilization of hiragana than is common in games of the type.

Genre- Vampires, fantasy, science fantasy

[NewToVN]

 

You could also look into non-VN games, your usual JRPG tends to use easier language, for example the Tales of series, or the two Shining games (Blade, Ark) on the PSP.

 

 

Thanks for your suggestion. Gyakutan Saiban series def. looks interesting, and i will get the android ones . 

 

I will definitely do some traditional JRPGs etc as well. I love many of the shining games (Just thinking about Shining Force 1 and 2 makes me feel nostalgic ). 

 

The reason i want to do VNs first though, is :

 

- With an assisting program i could take out new vocab to learn it later. (Both audio and text if i want)

 

- More or equal focus on text than gameplay.

 

- More often/ a bigger part of the game includes voiceacting

 

- With frequent saving, i could read/ listen to difficult sections over and over. Some VNs even have backlogs, or repeat last sentence function.

 

- On windows (I always have my laptop handy, my consoles are stashed away in my parents loft back in my homecountry) 

[NewToVN]

I feel like G-Senjou no Maou is a good place to start. It is a great VN and has most of the elements you are looking for. In terms of Japanese difficulty, I'd say it is around easy to medium.

 

As ive never read a VN in japanese (or english for that matter), im just a bit intimidated, and am afraid to spoil what seems to be one of the best VNs out there. Since you say the language isnt too hard though, ill probably do it earlier than planned  Thank you

 

Draculius http://vndb.org/v453

 

Length- Between ten and twenty hours, depending on your reading skills.

Difficulty- 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.  It uses a lot of common language, as well as more frequent utilization of hiragana than is common in games of the type.

Genre- Vampires, fantasy, science fantasy

 

I`ve not heard about it. Thank you How does it fit with my other criteria ? Copy the template and try to win a million e-cookies ?

[Steve]

Game with most stars: Hoshizora no Memoria: Wish upon a Shooting Star

 

if you like stars, you will love this game and you will love Mare

 

 

TOTAL :  ∞ x ☆

 

 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[NewToVN]

Game with most stars: Hoshizora no Memoria: Wish upon a Shooting Star

 

if you like stars, you will love this game and you will love Mare

 

 

TOTAL :  ∞ x ☆

 

 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

 

-__-  Oh the terribad pun .

 

Thanks for the recommendation, though . The mains looked cute. Is it funny / is the comedy any good ?

 

 Would still love if you took 15 sec to copy the template though... pleease  

[Steve]

Hoshizora no Memoria: Wish upon a Shooting Star

 

TECHNICAL

Short ☆ - its pretty long

Easy Japanese ☠ - not always really (we are having some problems with the fan disc translation with few scenes), but it has English patch so you can read that so ☆☆☆

All / Almost all text is voiced ☆☆☆ - fully voiced except no protag voice (so you can immerse and its better)

Replay voice button ☆☆

GENRE

Mystery ☆☆☆ - yes, very much

Comedy ☆☆☆ - I cried many times from laughter

Action ☆☆ - something is there, yes

LIGHT Romance ☆☆ - yep, pretty much light romance

GAMEPLAY / FEATURES

Gameplay / Choices ☆☆☆☆☆ - easy, straightforward, after you finish a route, they are also marked so you know for which heroine from the ones you finished they are

"Transparent"  routes ☆☆ - yep, you don't even need walkthrough

True/good ending NOT based on pure luck. ☆☆ - true end is easy to get into, only good ends

PRESENTATION

Artstyle ☆☆☆ - beautiful

Voiceacting ☆☆☆ - Mare is considered to be one of the best characters (from all characters in all VNs ) partially for the insanely good voice acting, the rest are also really good

Few extreme H-scenes ☆☆☆ - no extreme, they are actually mostly really good and I return to some of them quite often even if its a year since I played it

 

 

so thats 36 ☆ if you read in english, 34 ☆ if you read in japanese since it not that easy so 1 ☆ for some of the parts.

 

And on top of that, there is infinite number of stars in Hibarigasaki

 

[Zakamutt]

^From what I heard (source is partially a moogy post, kill me ), the hoshimemo FD has significantly harder japanese than the original vn. I have no personal experience in this though, and the same physics-related stuff is presumably at least existent in the original.

[shcboomer]

^From what I heard (source is partially a moogy post, kill me ), the hoshimemo FD has significantly harder japanese than the original vn. I have no personal experience in this though, and the same physics-related stuff is presumably at least existent in the original.

This is most likely the case, if you read a few lines of the JP in Mare's route I'm sure you could come to that conclusion. However, that is because a lot of the basic concepts are explained in Hoshimemo, while some of the finer details are left for the FD.

[Clephas]

Hoshimemo in general ranges from a 3.5-4 difficulty in normal conversation to a 7 during conversations involving the mystical/scientific elements of the story.  In other words, it isn't something I'd recommend to a beginner unless he wants to take the Spartan path to improving his reading skills, like I did (my second in-Japanese VN was Jingai Makyou and my third Dies Irae, followed by Devils Devel Concept, lol)

[garejei]

Yeah, honestly, taking the Japanese difficulty into consideration should be your top priority right now, overshadowing all other aspects. I mean, a game can be amazing and all but it won't do you much good if you don't understand 90% of what's being said.

[Steve]

Well he can just choose something easy for JP practice and read Hoshimemo in English just for enjoyment as it is just too awesome to miss

And he likes star so he will love it even more

[Nosebleed]

Well he can just choose something easy for JP practice and read Hoshimemo in English just for enjoyment as it is just too awesome to miss

And he likes star so he will love it even more

I'm with Steve on this but i'm too lazy to fill out this form as it's 4am here ;_; Hoshimemo is definitely a good start to enter the visual novel world!

[NewToVN]

Hi guys, and thank you for the replies !  

 

I understand Hoshizora no Memoria gets a lot of love on these forums . I will definitely try it sooner or later. Maybe I`ll do a paralell run with both the English and Japanese version . 

 

So far it seems i should start off with Draculius or G-Senjou no Maou, though?

[Steve]

So far it seems i should start off with Draculius or G-Senjou no Maou, though?

 

Hm, didn't read any of them so cant tell, G-sen is supposed to be good, but more like serious.

But Hoshimemo is really great start, it is lighthearted comedy with romance and moe girls, great mystery story and great characters, what else can you wish (upon a shooting star) for?

[shcboomer]

G-Senjou no Maou is definitely on the more serious side of things. It does have themes of mystery and that of a thriller though.

[Nosebleed]

So far it seems i should start off with Draculius or G-Senjou no Maou, though?

You said you dislike murder and violence, honestily G-senjou no Maou has these themes quite present through out the routes since the protagonist is the son of the Mafia boss and he is present in a lot of crimes and pretty much every route involves a crime related to him although I don't think most end with a murder it was a bit too serious for me, i prefer light romance and in G-senj the protagonist often objectifies the girls he is with and doesn't appreciate anything around him, but the mystery is there for sure but the only route that explains everything is the true one, all the others don't. And ironically the true route is the one that takes the LONGEST time to get into. The 2nd chapter allows you to get to Tsubaki's route, the 3rd chapter allows you to ge to Kanon's route and the 4th Chapter allows you to get to Mizuha's route and only in the 5th chapter if you don't enter any of these routes, will you be able to reach the true route.

[shcboomer]

You said you dislike murder and violence, honestily G-senjou no Maou has these themes quite present through out the routes since the protagonist is the son of the Mafia boss and he is present in a lot of crimes and pretty much every route involves a crime related to him although I don't think most end with a murder it was a bit too serious for me, i prefer light romance and in G-senj the protagonist often objectifies the girls he is with and doesn't appreciate anything around him, but the mystery is there for sure but the only route that explains everything is the true one, all the others don't. And ironically the true route is the one that takes the LONGEST time to get into. The 2nd chapter allows you to get to Tsubaki's route, the 3rd chapter allows you to ge to Kanon's route and the 4th Chapter allows you to get to Mizuha's route and only in the 5th chapter if you don't enter any of these routes, will you be able to reach the true route.

I feel like reading the whole thing has its own merits. In terms of the true route being last, it usually is that way in VNs anyways. The theme of murder/violence is prevalent I guess, but it isn't really all that big compared to some other VNs. I think it helps that there are no real CGs for the majority of the violence and the story carries itself pretty well. The objectification of women is one of those touchy subjects, but the theme found in G-Senjou no Maou really makes a lot of sense. Especially considering how the rest of the story unfolds in each of the individual routes.