Zenophilious Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I made a thread like this a while ago, but since it's been so long since I was active (excluding today, of course) that I thought I might make another thread asking for recommendations. I started getting into VNs with Katawa Shoujo, with my second VN being Fate/stay night. I have a few others downloaded but haven't started playing them yet, including Hoshizora no Memoria and Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo. The last two were recommended to me by someone in my last recommendations thread, so I'm not sure if they're in the same vein as Katawa Shoujo and Fate/stay night. Anyway, for the types of VNs that I prefer, I guess you could say that I like nakiges, as long as they aren't too depressing and have a decently good ending. Anything that ends badly tends to get me down, and I have a hard time coming out of funks, so, again, I prefer to keep my VNs not too sad. For example, Katawa Shoujo is pretty much ideal in it's lack of any material truly deeply depressing, at least outside of the bad endings. I can handle some slightly more intense content, but I'd prefer if it wasn't that common, or at least was spaced out throughout the story and not all at once. I like most of my VNs to have explicit content, but if the story is good enough, it's okay if it doesn't have any 18+ content. I do need them to be translated into English, since the only other language I can speak (brokenly) is Spanish. If I left anything out, feel free to ask! I'm a little new to VNs, so I might not be up to snuff with all of the lingo. Thanks for your time, and if you gave me a recommendation, thanks again! EDIT: I didn't expect this thread to get replied to after 12 days. I have more than enough VNs for now, so while your recommendations are still appreciated, I only have so much room on my Parallels virtual hard drive, and may not even be able to download them any time soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Well Key is essentially Nakige - The Company, so if you want a long VN you have Clannad and Little Busters, if you want a medium one there's Kanon and Air, and if you want a short, kinetic novel there's Planetarian. There's also Rewrite, but it's pretty different from what they normally do. Although I'm afraid I can't guarantee that none of the endings are heartwrenching, but if I told you which ones to avoid it'd be a pretty big spoiler. :/ I also really like to recommend Symphonic Rain alongside Key stuff, because it's very similar to what they do but made by other people. The ones you have downloaded are pretty good too, as well as Ever17 and Steins;Gate which are two of my favourites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TridentScythe Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hmm, do you like stories that involve parallel worlds or anything with fantasy or action elements in it? My first suggestion would be Soukoku no Arterial or "Arterial of Origins" in English. It is a story revolving around the MC and his friends and possible heroines getting stranded in a dimension called "Waibin Sekai" (not entirely sure if this translates to Corrupted World). One thing though, this is still not translated. Other suggestions would be Utawarerumono, Grisaia no Kajitsu, and G-senjou no Maou (The Devil on G-String). These are all English translated so don't worry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hmm, do you like stories that involve parallel worlds or anything with fantasy or action elements in it? Do I ever. Lets see...I've read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, the entire Ender's Game series, I played the crap out of the Mass Effect games. Those are the books and games I like that have to do with fantasy off the top of my head. Regarding parallel worlds...can't really say one way or the other, since I haven't had that much exposure to it as a plot device. I'll check out your suggestions. Well Key is essentially Nakige - The Company, so if you want a long VN you have Clannad and Little Busters, if you want a medium one there's Kanon and Air, and if you want a short, kinetic novel there's Planetarian. There's also Rewrite, but it's pretty different from what they normally do. Although I'm afraid I can't guarantee that none of the endings are heartwrenching, but if I told you which ones to avoid it'd be a pretty big spoiler. :/ I also really like to recommend Symphonic Rain alongside Key stuff, because it's very similar to what they do but made by other people. The ones you have downloaded are pretty good too, as well as Ever17 and Steins;Gate which are two of my favourites. Well, that's a coincidence. I was reading one of the Top 50 VNs list here on Fuwanovel and started downloading Kanon. I'll have to check out the other Key VNs, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Do I ever. Lets see...I've read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, the entire Ender's Game series, I played the crap out of the Mass Effect games. Those are the books and games I like that have to do with fantasy off the top of my head. Regarding parallel worlds...can't really say one way or the other, since I haven't had that much exposure to it as a plot device. In that case Steins;Gate and Ever17 will definitely be up your alley, as well as the Muv-Luv trilogy, if you can stomach Muv-Luv Extra which is important to understand the other ones, but nowhere near as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Oh, I've heard of Muv-Luv before, but wasn't sure if I should check it out. In what order does it go in? I tried to guess, but I failed pretty hard, and VNDB wasn't that helpful. Those two sound familiar...I think I've heard them mentioned. Two more on my list to check out :3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 A song of Fire and Ice is gritty, political, fantasy. You'll really struggle to find anything similar to that in VNs.You'll have more success with the science fiction stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Oh, I've heard of Muv-Luv before, but wasn't sure if I should check it out. In what order does it go in? I tried to guess, but I failed pretty hard, and VNDB wasn't that helpful. Those two sound familiar...I think I've heard them mentioned. Two more on my list to check out :3 I mentioned them in my previous post. Muv-Luv contains both Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited, in that order, and Muv-Luv Alternative is just that. Extra is a very generic slice-of-life that introduces the characters, Unlimited is where the fun starts and Alternative is the reason why people read the trilogy in the first place. In a slightly different vein Sharin no Kuni, G-Senjou no Maou and Grisaia no Kajitsu all have a high-school setting, but there's a lot of action and the protagonists are much more badass than the average VN protag. Basically, if you haven't read many VNs yet you can just go to vndb.org, sort the VN list by either rating or popularity and pretty much everything you see will be worth a read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 A song of Fire and Ice is gritty, political, fantasy. You'll really struggle to find anything similar to that in VNs.You'll have more success with the science fiction stories. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. There isn't a lot of realistic fantasy literature out there, so it'd be a logical conclusion that there wouldn't be many VNs of the same type. I mentioned them in my previous post. Muv-Luv contains both Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited, in that order, and Muv-Luv Alternative is just that. Extra is a very generic slice-of-life that introduces the characters, Unlimited is where the fun starts and Alternative is the reason why people read the trilogy in the first place. In a slightly different vein Sharin no Kuni, G-Senjou no Maou and Grisaia no Kajitsu all have a high-school setting, but there's a lot of action and the protagonists are much more badass than the average VN protag. Oooooh. Duh. Sorry about that, I thought that Extra was a separate VN from Unlimited. Herp derp. I really gotta look more carefully at the descriptions, I guess. Grisaia no Kajitsu sound intriguing. It's now on my list of downloads. That one's gonna take a while, since it takes me a few hours to download a 1 GB VN, and holy hell, Grisaia no Kajitsu is big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izuru Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Its A Worth Of It Download Cause Grisaia No Kajitsu Is A Good Vn ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookwormOtaku Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 If you don't mind character death then Kara no Shoujo's worth a play. I haven't finished it, but from what I've heard of them the ef games might be what you're looking for (and I think I've seen enough episodes of the Twilight Zone to guess how Yuuko's story ends). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hairybumslapper Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Check out Kaguya's top 50 vn list here if you haven't already done so. I'm sure you will find something of interest to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 To put it simply, the Japanese generally don't write that kind of story. The Song of Ice and Fire, Stephen Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, and Glen Cook's Black Company series don't really have analogues in Japanese literature. For complexity, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes anime series is a good choice, being one of the best space opera of all time. However, I've yet to come across any stories on the same scale as those books in VNs. Not to mention that the more violent the story in Japanese, the more likely it is to be full of melodrama and somewhat exaggerated action. The kind of down to earth, violently abrupt twists you see in those books quite simply don't show up that often in otaku mediums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otaku1612 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 This may seem like it's a bit childish, but if you haven't checked it out then the Galaxy Angel Trilogy is pretty good. Kind of like a VN of Mass Effect for children, very loosely of course. Gameplay is a little simplified, but you do need to be careful not to be caught off guard by it TOO much, and it does really pick up in Eternal Lovers in terms of choice affecting gameplay. You might not like it, but it's probably worth a try given what you seem to like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albedo Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 You should really give the Muv Luv trilogy a shot. Yeah, Extra, the first part, is nothing to write home about but Alternative is AMAZING. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkshine Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Currently playing Kanon and it's pretty moving if you ask me, now I can see why Key is so popular. You should check it out if you want a good nakige. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Currently playing Kanon and it's pretty moving if you ask me, now I can see why Key is so popular. You should check it out if you want a good nakige. As a happy coincidence, I already have it downloaded :3 I checked out the list of top 50 VNs someone here posted, and thought it looked interesting. Thanks for the suggestion, though! It might be a while until I get to it, since I have around 10 VNs to read, not including the Muv-Luvs :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TridentScythe Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 . I started getting into VNs with Katawa Shoujo, with my second VN being Fate/stay night. Oddly enough, I remember getting into VNs the same way, cause my friend recommended those as a starting point for VNs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Oddly enough, I remember getting into VNs the same way, cause my friend recommended those as a starting point for VNs. That's a big coincidence. I just found Katawa Shoujo on the internet while I was screwing around, then joined Fuwanovel after that. Tay recommended Fate/stay night to me; I'd never heard of it before, so I wouldn't have downloaded it otherwise. I don't have any friends that play VNs, so it was great to find this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izuru Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Grisaia No Kajitsu Try It~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Grisaia No Kajitsu Try It~ I'm actually playing it right now. I didn't expect this thread to get another post, since it was made 12 days ago. I'll edit the title to reflect that fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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