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Your Tips to Finishing VN's


mitchhamilton

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yes, tell me your secrets while hide my true intentions in this thread, that being receiving all your suggestions while i benefit from them and contribute nothing in the process. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :nico:

 

but really, i have 2 tips of my own to finishing vns and not procrastinating.

 

1) this is a big one, DO NOT READ MULTIPLE VNS THINKING YOULL BE MAKING PROGRESS DOING SO!! its common thinking when reading to think that while taking a break from one vn that you should start reading another. this usually leads to a lot of vns that youve started but havent finished. then as you look upon the piles of vns that remain in your backlog you see the monster you yourself created. you are frankenstein while the vns are your monster. GET OUT OF THERE! RUUUUUN!! dont do that.

 

B) dont skip through vns all the time. yes pressing that ctrl key is tempting to get through some redundant dialogue, some boring drawn out parts, BUT doing it too often can lead to a bad habit. getting your pinky finger ready on that ctrl key will lead to you just doing it for mundane reasons and then youll find the story boring. get invested! take breaks if needed! but dont skip all the time. maybe nukiges. :rimu: 

 

alright, theres my secrets that i hope help you out. got any of your own? disagree with mine? FITE ME! :reeee: what are your thoughts? :sachi:  

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This seems like visual novel talk to me, so moved.

 

I agree with both of your tips, tbh. Using the CTRL key too much makes it easy to just skip through shit if you're bored, and you end up spoiling yourself just enough with CGs that you lose whatever shred of interest you had left, while not being able to enjoy the story. Definitely not a good idea. Taking a break to clear your head is definitely better than skipping and totally killing your interest in the story.

Trying to read several VNs at once never ends well for me either. I do it all the time, and it's always when I stall all but one and focus on a single VN I actually finish stuff. Then I always start reading several again next time, and the loop continues. :vinty: 

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Here are mine:

1. don't read two at the same time

2. do not look for your next vn until you are nearly finishing the current

3. ctrl over h-scenes (unless plot related)

4. take mini breaks, where there's a good spot like an intermission/end of chapter, stop, take a 2-3 min break, then back to it. Helps with going through slow SoL sections which tend to be written this way.

5. Don't read at auto mode, voice acting is great during interesting spots but it really slow you down in reading during the uninteresting spots.

6. Give yourself a mini goal especially after the intro if the vndb blurb is too vague (eg/ see a particular character smooching the protag, or try to predict how the story will play out) - sometimes i find myself enjoying the vn to the point where i didn't care about the original mini goal (theses I tend to give good scores on vndb)

7. Most important of all, pick a vn you are interested in from the vndb blurb

It's worked for me so far from my vndb listing so maybe I might be onto something here.

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Most of it will probably repeat what other people said already, but here goes:

- Pick VNs that your attention span can handle.

- Try to read only one VN at a time. If it's long, you can break it up here and there with shorter ones, but be careful not to overdo it.

- Take breaks. Nobody can stay interested forever.

- Read because you want to, not because you "have to". If you push it, you'll probably lose interest completely.

- Be a completionist by nature. I know it can't be helped, but if you are, you're in luck (?).

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I don't think I'll ever not read multiple VNs at the same time. Personally, I'm more likely to stop reading a VN if I'm only reading one or two stories at the same time because of the lack of variety. For someone whose attention span is as bad as mine, I simply can't stand sticking to one routine for a long time. More often than not, I stopped reading VNs, watching anime, or playing video games because I was seeking something else more interesting, because I was getting that bored of the same scenery. So in order to keep myself interested, visiting six different worlds of different genres at the same time seems to be a more efficient method so far working for me.

If I had forced myself to read The Labyrinth of Grisaia in one go (instead of splitting it up between my reading of other VNs), I think I would have dropped it long ago. Same with The Fruit of Grisaia. As fun as the comedy was, as great as the story might be, the lack of variety is the killer of interest for myself.

Edited by LemiusK
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40 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

I was seeking something else more interesting, because I was getting that bored of the same scenery.

Interesting. I'm kind of opposite. If VN manages to capture me with its characters and atmosphere, then I'm totally drawn in, and can read it even for 5-6 hours a day (basically, whole afternoon & evening ;) ). I felt it quite strongly with Princess Evangile and Majikoi for example - I just enjoyed staying in that world and spending time with the characters. Now I'm rereading PE, and it's as enjoyable as it was then, and they're like good old friends. I was all like "Ah, Rise, Chiho, Ayaka, Ritsuko, everybody - nice to see you again :)"

I tend to stick to one VN at any given time - the current exception is having Hanahira as kind of side-read, but that's more for JP learning. I just jump into it for an ~hour, read a scene or two, and put it back.

Edited by adamstan
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Seriously though, I don't see much sense in trying to make yourself to read something that you don't want to read. VNs are entertainment, not job. In my opinion, sometimes it's better to take a short break and to switch to something else entirely for something else and to come back for that VN later. There's a chance that you'll enjoy it a lot more if you do that.

One thing I recommend to avoid overall is starting a long at a very long VN when you don't have enough free time to finish it in a month. Even the best stories start to feel boring if they take more time to finish.

About reading two or more VNs at the same time time: this usually doesn't work for me. I usually just end up dropping one VN and switching to the other one entirely. I'm trying to experiment with that again right now with Dies and Aselia, since I probably won't have enough motivation to finish either of these behemoths in one go, so we'll see how it goes. :amane:

Edited by Dreamysyu
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I'd be lying both to myself and to you guys if I told you "do this do that" because I can never do things exactly like that. but, I can share my thoughts.

vn's are like books so, reading 5books at the same time of course would be impossible to finish. unless you're someone who can focus on something for a long time...which I'm not, like LemiusK said;

2 hours ago, LemiusK said:

Well, I'm a bit of an anomaly. Like I said, my attention span is short, possibly even to the extent of ADD, so my case is not exactly the normal kind of behavior most people would exhibit.

I get bored easily and need new entertaintment because my brain is curious and doesn't like rushing or being just too slow on things. and since i'm a multitasker I can't bring myself to do only one thing cause it just feels plain boring&tiring mentally.

Anyway, I dont' mean to talk about myself here but give the message. which is doing things that is compatible with your personality and brain can be a good idea. Like, I have tons of games to finish but although I ramble how I can't finish them all... to be honest, I just don't wanna lol. my pace is slow, so going with your pace and having fun is great.

Edited by cykaki
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56 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

One thing I recommend to avoid overall is starting a long at a very long VN when you don't have enough free time to finish it in a month. Even the best stories start to feel boring if they take more time to finish.

I think this depends on the story. It took me a whopping three months to finish the first ChusinGura game in Japanese, but I loved every moment of it. (Actually wanted it to be longer by the end, lol. Luckily it had a fandisk :P) The way I see it, if you enjoy a VN, its length shouldn't matter. Even if you only have an hour or so to read a day, you'll at least have fun reading for that hour.

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Don't farm MMORPG's while you are reading;

Don't farm Mobile games while you are reading;

Don't farm at all.

Most of the times after the first hour playing I already know if the vn is finishable or not and just drop what is utterly garbage (like 100% of giga titles not named Baldr).

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34 minutes ago, Zakamutt said:

>finishing a vn within a month
what are you, a wizard?

{I guess it's possible if I read in english wwwwwwwwwwwwww}

Actually, I miss the time when i had enough time and motivation to do that. :vinty:

 

23 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

I think this depends on the story. It took me a whopping three months to finish the first ChusinGura game in Japanese, but I loved every moment of it. (Actually wanted it to be longer by the end, lol. Luckily it had a fandisk :P) The way I see it, if you enjoy a VN, its length shouldn't matter. Even if you only have an hour or so to read a day, you'll at least have fun reading for that hour.

Yeah, it makes sense. I noticed with myself that when it takes me more than that to finish something, I usually start to want some variety, no matter how much I enjoyed that VN at first. At the same time, if I take short breaks to read or watch something else, it becomes a lot easier to keep myself motivated. I read the first Grisaia this way, and even though it took me about three months to finish it this way, and I definitely still liked it overall and never really got bored.

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4 hours ago, Jartse said:

2. do not look for your next vn until you are nearly finishing the current

I've realized that this is extremely important, at least for me. It hasn't made me stop reading a VN, but it has taken away a lot of the enjoyment because I start looking forward to the next one.
Most recently, this happened with Ever17. I liked it a lot at first, but then I read a bit about Swan Song and wanted to find out for myself why people consider it depressing/disgusting/whatever, so I started thinking "I want to finish Ever17 as soon as possible so I can start reading Swan Song" and that made me unable to enjoy Ever17 as much as I should have.

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13 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

I've realized that this is extremely important, at least for me. It hasn't made me stop reading a VN, but it has taken away a lot of the enjoyment because I start looking forward to the next one.
Most recently, this happened with Ever17. I liked it a lot at first, but then I read a bit about Swan Song and wanted to find out for myself why people consider it depressing/disgusting/whatever, so I started thinking "I want to finish Ever17 as soon as possible so I can start reading Swan Song" and that made me unable to enjoy Ever17 as much as I should have.

Yeah, I understand that feeling. On a related note, Swan Song is a better read than Ever17 for me right now, even though I only just started with the former. The better artwork is certainly one of the factors for my enjoyment, but the characters and the depressing situation they're trapped in certainly felt more interesting than the more slice-of-life feel of Ever17, what with those kids fooling around in a comedy setting.

Personally, I don't mind looking for my next VN before finishing my current one, because I tend to worry more about my source of entertainment depleting at some point, so I'm always looking out for more. At times, I do rush into a new VN that looks more fun than the current one I'm reading, but I can't say that bothers myself too much. If the VN I'm reading is that boring and fails to keep me hooked, then I shouldn't force myself to indulge in it just because it's some highly-acclaimed kamige like Muv-Luv Alternative or even Umineko. Like Dreamysyu said, it's an entertainment, not a job. It's a bit of a waste, I suppose, but I could always come back years later and give it another chance, just to see what all the fuss is all about.

I'm doing such abandoning of VNs far less often nowadays because I have more spare time on my hands, but I still believe in such a principle. The world has much more great stories and entertainment out there waiting for me to experience them, many of which aren't even VNs, so I don't feel pressured to finish a VN if I'm bored.

Edited by LemiusK
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As others have already said and I agree, avoid picking up another VN. It's not that you shouldn't read more than one at a time, but rather, if you are switching because you got fed up with your current read, you're most likely never going back to it. What's more, you're probably also gonna eventually drop the new one, in an endless loop :leecher:

If you're dropping a VN that is of course fine, but be honest with yourself. 

My advice is, if you find yourself tired of reading, just do something else for a while, maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks. Take the time you need so you come back to it feeling that urge to read again and finish that story. 

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26 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

It's not that you shouldn't read more than one at a time, but rather, if you are switching because you got fed up with your current read, you're most likely never going back to it.

It depends on each person tbh. I personally did return to vns even after dropping them for a few months. For example, I actually dropped Tsukihime twice, the first time for about four or five months and then for about a month) and I still liked it overall. The first time I dropped it was because I wanted to read Higurashi instead.

The biggest problem here is that, when you stall a VN, you should probably see it the way that you just returned it to your backlog, and these tend to be pretty big, and there is a possibility that you will simply never return to it again.

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11 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

The biggest problem here is that, when you stall a VN, you should probably see it the way that you just returned it to your backlog, and these tend to be pretty big, and there is a possibility that you will simply never return to it again.

 There's also the problem of not remembering the story from when you last dropped it. This is a problem even with sequels like "The Labyrinth of Grisaia", where you might not remember what have happened in the first one.

When I dropped something like Umineko or Ever17, I didn't play them again for years. So to return years later, I either have to read up what I forgot through Google (meaning I'm exposed to spoilers), or I would have to skimp through the entire VN again. So yeah, it can be a pain. So one should be careful, especially with VNs that are plot-focused. Even charages too, since you'll have to remember their backstories to enjoy the VN.

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15 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

It depends on each person tbh. I personally did return to vns even after dropping them for a few months. For example, I actually dropped Tsukihime twice, the first time for about four or five months and then for about a month) and I still liked it overall. The first time I dropped it was because I wanted to read Higurashi instead.

Yeah I guess everyone is different, though if someone is facing the problem of having a huge backlog of dropped VNs, and is expressly looking for advice on how to avoid it, chances are this will hold true for them. 

3 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

So one should be careful, especially with VNs that are plot-focused. Even charages too, since you'll have to remember their backstories to enjoy the VN.

That's definitely one of the biggest issues. And even if you do remember everything with more or less detail, you probably still lost all emotional involvement. It's like reading an scene out of context vs reading it having all the background still fresh. The enjoyment is just not the same, and this is also a factor that makes it hard to go back to a VN you dropped months ago, since you know that in order to get the most out of it you should probably reread everything. 

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