NookGaming Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 (edited) We've just posted our annual Top Visual Novels Of 2022 / Upcoming Visual Novels Of 2023 list As always, we're curious what everyone else thinks. What did you think of our choices? Keeping in mind the proviso: the list is subjective and based on the games that we have personally played. There's also potential for recent releases to be added in later, like Witch on the Holy Night, which we haven't played yet. What would your choices be for the top visual novels of 2022? It's not been an amazing year, but there have been some great titles. Which visual novels are you looking forward to in 2023? Edited December 17, 2022 by NookGaming Formatting/Typo ChaosRaven, Shiawase_Rina, LanThief(HUN) and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HataVNI Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 This year was so goddamn strong... really gotta think what are the most reasonable picks. I didn't play too much honestly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanThief(HUN) Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Thx for posting this NookGaming 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosRaven Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Nice list of top five VN's. I also like that the previous years are linked. Would be nice to also have an addendum with all English release of that year - just to know the competition. Reminds me that I still have Hello Lady installed. Was a bit hit and miss for me. Interesting protagonist, but the heroines felt more like side characters. Tamao's route was pretty bad, so I stalled the VN for a while. Still have to pick it up again. Just have to find the motivation. Maybe next year... Currently I'm reading Amatsutsumi, but it seems a lot weaker than Chrono Clock or Hapymaher so far. Pretty much nothing happens at all - just pure slice of life. I'll probably just play Mana's route and call it a day. Besides that, I'm also reading Flowers 4 from this year, which feels rather... low effort so far. Half the characters of the previous titles are gone and none were added, which makes the experience rather boring. Not counting Japanese titles, the best English VN for me this year was probably Summer Pockets. Though that wasn't a release from this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NookGaming Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: Would be nice to also have an addendum with all English release of that year - just to know the competition. I'd love this too and was actually considering it briefly, but I think it'd be too much work practically. Listing all the VNs from JAST, NekoNyan, MangaGamer, Shiravune, etc might be doable, but there's tons of OELVNs out weekly. Looking at our recent news post. this last week alone has had Wrapped With a Kiss, The Elevator Game with Catgirls, Where the Stars Brought Us, and Morris Heart (and I've probably missed several). 3 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: Reminds me that I still have Hello Lady installed. Was a bit hit and miss for me. I think Hello Lady (and Chaos;Head) will probably be hit or miss for a lot of people. They're certainly strong in what they do, but what that is won't be for everyone. IMO this year has been quite weak overall from what I and the rest of the team who wrote it played in comparison to years like 2020, where there were a ton of great titles. 4) and 5) probably wouldn't have made the list in better years or perhaps if we'd tried certain other visual novels. 3 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: Besides that, I'm also reading Flowers 4 from this year, which feels rather... low effort so far Reminds me that I need to catch up on that... Really enjoyed Flowers 1. Wasn't a huge fan of Flowers 2. Haven't played 3 or 4 though. But sounds like 4 might not be worth it from what you've said. Edited December 19, 2022 by NookGaming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosRaven Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 1 hour ago, NookGaming said: I'd love this too and was actually considering it briefly, but I think it'd be too much work practically. Listing all the VNs from JAST, NekoNyan, MangaGamer, Shiravune, etc might be doable, but there's tons of OELVNs out weekly. Looking at our recent news post. this last week alone has had Wrapped With a Kiss, The Elevator Game with Catgirls, Where the Stars Brought Us, and Morris Heart (and I've probably missed several). It's actually good to hear that a lot of stuff is coming out. But yeah, I can see that it can get a bit too much to list them all. Though, it might be a decent compromise to list 20 nominees or so and then pick the top five of them. That should usually cover all major releases. Just an idea though... 1 hour ago, NookGaming said: I think Hello Lady (and Chaos;Head) will probably be hit or miss for a lot of people. They're certainly strong in what they do, but what that is won't be for everyone. Certainly true for Chaos;Head - the protagonist is rather... unique to put it mildly. It's actually one of the rare cases I liked the anime more than the VN, since the time you have to endure him in his pathetic state is much shorter. I didn't have that endurance in the VN. 1 hour ago, NookGaming said: Reminds me that I need to catch up on that... Really enjoyed Flowers 1. Wasn't a huge fan of Flowers 2. Haven't played 3 or 4 though. But sounds like 4 might not be worth it from what you've said. I liked Flowers 3 by far the most. Though, Yatsushiro is my favorite character, so I might be a bit biased here. Regarding Flowers 4, I like how Shirahane has developed and Rikka is certainly a lot more bearable than she was in part 1. But the episode was supposed to bring back more of the mystery elements and so far I've seen nothing of it. That said, I'm eagerly awaiting the annoucement of Kara no Shoujo 3 for a western release. And I don't really care if MangaGamer, Jast or any other publisher is doing it. NookGaming 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 5 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: Nice list of top five VN's. I also like that the previous years are linked. Would be nice to also have an addendum with all English release of that year - just to know the competition. Reminds me that I still have Hello Lady installed. Was a bit hit and miss for me. Interesting protagonist, but the heroines felt more like side characters. Tamao's route was pretty bad, so I stalled the VN for a while. Still have to pick it up again. Just have to find the motivation. Maybe next year... Currently I'm reading Amatsutsumi, but it seems a lot weaker than Chrono Clock or Hapymaher so far. Pretty much nothing happens at all - just pure slice of life. I'll probably just play Mana's route and call it a day. Besides that, I'm also reading Flowers 4 from this year, which feels rather... low effort so far. Half the characters of the previous titles are gone and none were added, which makes the experience rather boring. Not counting Japanese titles, the best English VN for me this year was probably Summer Pockets. Though that wasn't a release from this year. Amatsutsumi definitely is more slice-of-life focused. The only route that is a real exception is the Hotaru route. I really suggest you play the complete edition of Hello, Lady (including the materials from Superior), as it contains a non-heroine true route that is excellent. Also, the extra routes for Hishia and Mitori are worth playing simply because Mitori's provides a lot of insight into some of the background noise of the other paths and Hishia's path gives you more background on Shinri. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosRaven Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 11 minutes ago, Clephas said: I really suggest you play the complete edition of Hello, Lady (including the materials from Superior), as it contains a non-heroine true route that is excellent. Also, the extra routes for Hishia and Mitori are worth playing simply because Mitori's provides a lot of insight into some of the background noise of the other paths and Hishia's path gives you more background on Shinri. Yeah, I'm reading the Steam version which should be the Complete Edition. Though I'm playing it without the 18+ patch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 3 hours ago, ChaosRaven said: Yeah, I'm reading the Steam version which should be the Complete Edition. Though I'm playing it without the 18+ patch. Looks like it might not contain the contents from Superior. It does contain Mitori and Hishia's routes though. Superior is a non-heroine path that branches off the events of Saku's path. ChaosRaven 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAsuka Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 I would like to point out a few others that were pretty good but were missing from the list 1. The final title in the Clockwork Ley Line series, Flowers in the Morning Mist - Concluded the story very well, engaging from start to finish and didn't overstay its welcome 2. Alpha Nighthawk - Excellent worldbuilding, solid characters and a well written short story by liarsoft, although the ending seems a bit unfinished 3. Summer Pockets REFLECTION BLUE - Maybe a bit of a cop-out since the original was already released, but I think reflection blue adds a lot to the lore and backstory surrounding the central mystery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NookGaming Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, LAsuka said: 2. Alpha Nighthawk - Excellent worldbuilding, solid characters and a well written short story by liarsoft, although the ending seems a bit unfinished On this one, it was assigned to me to check out (the others I've not personally tried). I liked it and considered it for the list, but the sudden ending was why it didn't make it. It really felt like they ran out of time or money or something when making that one. I really should check out the Clockwork series at some point when I've the time to invest. Edited December 20, 2022 by NookGaming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.