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A guide for visual novel terms & genres, Charage, Moege, Plotege... Etc


SweetMonia

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Hihi~

I just made a guide that explains all the -ge visual novel terms. I am aware there are many other guides for that out there, and many of them were discussed before, but I tried to make mine more detailed and easier to understand. Specially for people new to visual novel who came from Anime world (and they are many). 

Hope my guide is to your liking, and it's the definite guide I want it to be, and of course, any feedback about it is welcome. 

Here's the link for my guide:-
https://SweetMonia.com/The-Lost-Konpeitos/a-guide-for-visual-novel-terms-genres-charage-moege-plotege-chuunige-ichaicha-kamige-kusoge-nakige-utsuge-eroge-nukige-lolige/

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Might want to take the 'e' out of plotge.  *smiles dryly*

A small correction on moege vs charage... moege is a generalized term for all games that carry the 'stylized cuteness' that is 'moe'.  As such, similar to charage, it is closer to an umbrella term than an actual genre.  If one were to show a family tree, it would show that charage and nakige both come from moege but sometimes edge themselves out of the larger umbrella.  Charage are a product of the mid-2000's, whereas moege and nakige first began to appear just before the turn of the century as they dragged themselves out from the nukige muck.  Charage are essentially an evolution of moege born of the fans wanting deeper characterization and character interactions (as opposed to the purely surface-level interactions that were common early on).  

Tsukihime created the chuunige genre, though most people consider Dies Irae the flagship game of the genre as a whole (as in, the one that went the farthest off the deep end, lol).

One stipulation about utsuge and nakige... the greatest difference between a nakige and and utsuge lies in the endings.  Nakige almost always have happy endings (there might be a bad ending or a normal ending, but these are exceptions).  Their purpose lies in catharsis born of release from stress and joy in renewal.  Utsuge, however, are essentially games with similar (but darker) themes that don't end well for the characters in general. 

There are supposedly two different 'levels' of utsuge, 'soft' and 'hard'.  Soft utsuge tend to focus more on sorrow and loss, and they don't necessarily drive the characters off the edge, though the endings are sorrowful and/or bittersweet at best. A few examples of a soft utsuge are Konakana and Tapestry, both of which are focused on a protagonist with a terminal illness as he tries to come to terms with his inevitable death and what it will do to the people around him.  'Hard' utsuge are focused more on despair and extreme suffering.  Swan Song is an obvious example of this 'level' of the genre in English, whereas Houkago no Futekikakusha is an ideal Japanese-only example.  Even a 'hard' utsuge might have one ending with a certain level of salvation, but it usually comes at a massive emotional cost for both the reader and the characters involved.

 

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3 hours ago, Clephas said:

Might want to take the 'e' out of plotge.  *smiles dryly*

A small correction on moege vs charage... moege is a generalized term for all games that carry the 'stylized cuteness' that is 'moe'.  As such, similar to charage, it is closer to an umbrella term than an actual genre.  If one were to show a family tree, it would show that charage and nakige both come from moege but sometimes edge themselves out of the larger umbrella.  Charage are a product of the mid-2000's, whereas moege and nakige first began to appear just before the turn of the century as they dragged themselves out from the nukige muck.  Charage are essentially an evolution of moege born of the fans wanting deeper characterization and character interactions (as opposed to the purely surface-level interactions that were common early on).  

Tsukihime created the chuunige genre, though most people consider Dies Irae the flagship game of the genre as a whole (as in, the one that went the farthest off the deep end, lol).

One stipulation about utsuge and nakige... the greatest difference between a nakige and and utsuge lies in the endings.  Nakige almost always have happy endings (there might be a bad ending or a normal ending, but these are exceptions).  Their purpose lies in catharsis born of release from stress and joy in renewal.  Utsuge, however, are essentially games with similar (but darker) themes that don't end well for the characters in general. 

There are supposedly two different 'levels' of utsuge, 'soft' and 'hard'.  Soft utsuge tend to focus more on sorrow and loss, and they don't necessarily drive the characters off the edge, though the endings are sorrowful and/or bittersweet at best. A few examples of a soft utsuge are Konakana and Tapestry, both of which are focused on a protagonist with a terminal illness as he tries to come to terms with his inevitable death and what it will do to the people around him.  'Hard' utsuge are focused more on despair and extreme suffering.  Swan Song is an obvious example of this 'level' of the genre in English, whereas Houkago no Futekikakusha is an ideal Japanese-only example.  Even a 'hard' utsuge might have one ending with a certain level of salvation, but it usually comes at a massive emotional cost for both the reader and the characters involved.

 

Wow, that was such a rich feedback. I so love it. I have made edite to the article based on those (including fixing the e in Plotge XD). The only part that's still the same is the "moege vs charage" part, since I need to rewrite few parts to add the details you mentioned. I will do that tomorrow.

Also, I credited you in the article for the info you provided, since you clearly made it better (along with other feedbacks of other visual novel fans made). Thank you so much <3

Edited by SweetMonia
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On 6/23/2020 at 4:58 PM, Zakamutt said:

I prefer this brief guide Oz7dEEr.jpg

What's the name of this VN if you don't mind me asking? :sachi:

On 6/23/2020 at 12:22 PM, SweetMonia said:

Hihi~

I just made a guide that explains all the -ge visual novel terms. I am aware there are many other guides for that out there, and many of them were discussed before, but I tried to make mine more detailed and easier to understand. Specially for people new to visual novel who came from Anime world (and they are many). 

Hope my guide is to your liking, and it's the definite guide I want it to be, and of course, any feedback about it is welcome. 

Here's the link for my guide:-
https://SweetMonia.com/The-Lost-Konpeitos/a-guide-for-visual-novel-terms-genres-charage-moege-plotege-chuunige-ichaicha-kamige-kusoge-nakige-utsuge-eroge-nukige-lolige/

looks pretty neat and well-detailed! I can see you really pour some effort onto the guide! Job well done! :mare:

And nice website you got there! Keep up the good work!:mare:

 

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4 hours ago, Templarseeker said:

What's the name of this VN if you don't mind me asking? :sachi:

looks pretty neat and well-detailed! I can see you really pour some effort onto the guide! Job well done! :mare:

And nice website you got there! Keep up the good work!:mare:

 

I am so glad you think so. I wanted it to be a definitive guide, so I hope I managed to make it close to that :3

Will do my best! Thank you for your kind words~ <3

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