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Kinetic Novels


Damonkala

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What do you guys think about Kinetic Novels?

Personally I'm not really a fan of them, mainly because I think that one of the better parts of a visual novel is the ability to make decisions. For example, Juniper's Knot, on the app store, I was surprised to find out that there were no choices. Also these games make saves more like book marks.

I don't really know what I'm talking about,so, what do you think?

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It depends. It's just about story, really. If it's good, then all is fine. Higurashi, Umineko (there are choices in a part of the sequel, but from what I remember there are none at the first one) Planetarian, all of them have no choices and they're still awesome. I don't really care about whether it's a kinetic novel or not~

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well, the advantages of having choices is that you can have various kinds of stories in the same novel. You can write a dark route, a light romance comedy, and a route made of fighting all at the same time.

With kinetic ones, if you don't like the story, that's it.

For example, I can't stand any kind of tsundere. This is personal, but whenever a tsundere appears I'm always thinking "oh god, please, someone just kill her".

If a kinetic novel has a tsundere that appears too much, I'll probably end up rage-quitting it and forget about said novel. It's a flaw of mine that already made me quit some awesome novels. Whereas if there was branching, I could just skip said route and keep enjoying it.

Branching is convenient, but I wouldn't say that it's needed.

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Yeah, I agree with most people here. As long as the story is good, either option is fine. Often times, the choices in VNs aren't exactly dynamic or interesting enough to be considered a selling point in my mind. They're exceptions to this of course (Fate/Stay Night for example), but often the choices simply come down to what route do you want to read next.

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I don't realy see them as something bad. Just look at the phrase "Visual Novel" .

Visual due to the fact that it contains CGs and higher amount of artwork put into it.

And novel, as defined by the dictionary, and i quote:

"A fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters."

And as such the word visual novel kind of implies something you read that's visualy appealing. So the actual term would sort of mean a Kinetic Novel rather than a novel where you can alter the story.

The whole choice addition is a mere strategy to involve the reader into the story and make him/her feel like they're in the stance of the protagonist whereas in a normal novel you would be entirely reading about someone else's live through a narrator that can either be a character or not. It also offers you the possibility to create multiple stories with just one novel and that's why most people tend to like them and prefer them, however if you look back and just take the choices out you created your own kinetic novel.

Also since a Kinetic novel only has one storyline this is a bigger challenge for the writer to come up with an inovative and interesting story and this is what a Kinetic novel can have as its selling point.

If you're a real novel enthusiast I don't beleive that kinetic novels are a set back, they're just more literary when it comes to the term "visual novel", as long as the plot and the whole storyline is good it'll be a good read even without any choices.

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Kinetic novels have one huge advantage over other types of visual novels... freedom for the writer to focus on story rather than romance or heroines.  Some of the best vns out there are what amount to kinetic novels (Eden* from Minori, for instance) or would have been much better if they had been kinetic novels from the beginning (G-Senjou no Maou).  G-Senjou suffered greatly in quality because of the irritation factor from irrelevent heroines and side-paths that didn't make much sense in the greater context of the story. 

 

On the other hand, there are many VNs who create stories that are enhanced by having the opportunity to take different paths, but the advantage to kinetic novels as a storytelling medium is not to be underestimated, nonetheless.

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I love kinetic novels :)! Narcissu was my first game and still one of my favorites to this day. I feel like kinetic novels have the potential to have less fluff and get straight to the point. When visual novels brag about how many paths and words it has, it just worries rather than impresses me.

 

I've never played a VN where I loved every single (or even most of the) route available. It's usually one or two great ones, then tolerate the reset to unlock the true ending. Speaking of which, though, the feeling of unlocking the true ending does feel pretty special. That's something kinetic novels are unable to replicate.

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I read Visual Novels because they combine a whole bunch of other media into one. They're just a really immersive way of delivering a story. Choices are good if each route is done well, but I would much prefer one really focused story than 5 half-assed ones.

 

One of the benefits of choices though is that they give you an opportunity to get to know characters a bit better. You see them in a variety of situations rather than just the route where you end up with them. 

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My favorite type of story structure is where the branches of the story are at the beginning or where it is decided from beginning to end.  In the case of the former, it is because it creates more distinctive paths that aren't basically an alternate ending for the common route (most moege have that flaw), and in the case of the latter, you get what I think of as VN in its purest form, where the story is told using all the elements of presentation without the unecessary intervention of the player.  If I want freedom, I'll play an Elder Scrolls game, lol.

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Well...since I don't demand any epic story, really...all I see when I look at a kinetic novel is Oh boy, only one girl to end up with.  Definitely prefer the feeling of being surrounded by many heroines in the multi-route approach.

Supposing I find myself not the mood for a standard visual novel.  Then, instead of a kinetic novel I'd actually rather go the opposite way and play a dating sim, where you choose what things to say to your heroine and get an immediate reaction of good or bad (like in Date-A-Live)

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Mmm... a lot of my attitude toward kinetic novels comes from the fact that I tend to obsess over plot, rather than characters.  Having a lot of heroines to romance is fine... if they have distinctive routes that are at least as long as or longer than the common route (longer being preferred, as I like a short common route and long individual paths).  Everyday moege got old for me long ago (around the time I played my twentieth one).

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You might think that kinetic novels translate to mere novels, but they're not really that. Great writers will use the visual novel medium to their fullest; it's just that they'd rather not write a route-based story. For example, Ryukishi07's Umineko no Naku Koro ni can't be written in any other medium other than the visual novel. Yes, there is a manga and anime, but its indescribable awesome can only be found in the sound novel. Why is this? Because the elements of a VN are used to their fullest; R07 had a vision that couldn't be written in a mere novel. He used the visual and audio aspects to create characters and show battles that would have been difficult to describe on paper alone, and evoked intense emotions through the breathtaking and intense music. He had a vision that could have only been seen through the visual novel, but that vision didn't have routes in it. And thus, another kinetic novel was born. tl;dr I love Umineko.

 

Route-based/decision-based visual novels have their own charm; the ability to see different consequences is attractive (and it removes most fan fiction, not that FF is bad). It allows the writer to show what he can't otherwise. But, as I explained above, kinetic novels have their own functions. It's just that not many stories call for the kinetic novel. 

 

Writers need to carefully consider if their stories call for the VN medium. For nakige, you might argue that writers are bad if they have to rely on music to supplement their stories. I would argue that if your goal is to create a game that makes people bawl, then visual novels are the way to go. That is why there are stories like planetarian that can be written as novels, but are visual novels instead because their purpose is to be a crying game. 

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