Zenophilious Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Just wondering, since the few VNs that I know are originally written in English are Katawa Shoujo and Starswirl Academy (and SSA isn't even out yet). I know that VNs were pretty much a Japanese thing, and that they're still not that popular in western countries, but you'd think that there would be a few more out by now. It's probably because of my recent introduction to VNs that I don't know that many, but still, I haven't heard of more than a handful. Are they usually any good, or is KS a rarity in its high quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosebleed Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 There are plenty actually. But they don't get nearly as much coverage or popularity. And a lot of them end up being in other platforms instead of full PC releases. And overall just lack in many many aspects http://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0.olang-en;o=d;s=rating According to this there are 1051 english VNs Halfway through the first page the rating is already 6/10 so you can clearly see they're not popular although fairly large in quantity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ServeTheServant Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 There are definitely a few... I've played some by Christine Love (Digital: A Love Story, Analogue: A Hate Story), then there's Dysfunctional Systems and a really short (but good) VN by the same company as that, Juniper's Knot. Long Live the Queen probably counts as well, though it's a bit game-y for a VN. I feel like KS was a standout in terms of quality, but I did enjoy the others I listed above as well. Shaward 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosebleed Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Long Live The Queen isn't actually terrible but the gameplay element is rather annoying. There's so many stats and stuff to level up it sort of ends up drifting away from the story and you end up just spending half of the novel leveling up the princess. I've never been a fan of the whole leveling up and boost your stats thing. That's for pokemon not Visual Novels in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 There are plenty actually. But they don't get nearly as much coverage or popularity. And a lot of them end up being in other platforms instead of full PC releases. And overall just lack in many many aspects http://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0.olang-en;o=d;s=rating According to this there are 1051 english VNs Halfway through the first page the rating is already 6/10 so you can clearly see they're not popular although fairly large in quantity. Yeah, I've seen a few for the DS and 3DS (apparently Phoenix Wright is classified as a VN), but that makes a little sense, seeing as how Nintendo is fully aware of their customers' appreciation of Japanese culture and games. Wow, the ratings sure nose-dived fast. I guess that's why I never heard of a lot of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Long Live The Queen isn't actually terrible but the gameplay element is rather annoying. There's so many stats and stuff to level up it sort of ends up drifting away from the story and you end up just spending half of the novel leveling up the princess. I've never been a fan of the whole leveling up and boost your stats thing. That's for pokemon not Visual Novels in my opinion. It seems to me that levelling the princess is the whole point of the game, whatever story you get based on your choices is kind of secondary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 It seems to me that levelling the princess is the whole point of the game, whatever story you get based on your choices is kind of secondary. That...that sounds a little dumb... Then again, I'm used to the VNs I read focusing on plot and character development, not gameplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 That...that sounds a little dumb... Then again, I'm used to the VNs I read focusing on plot and character development, not gameplay.That's why I wouldn't even classify it as a VN. It certainly has VN elements, but they're not the main focus of the game. Shaward 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okami Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Most of western made VNs are amateur work "Fan-art" and from what I know very little of them are any good. The reason for the popularity of Katawa Shoujo is that it is a very rare thing for western VN to be that good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Quality english VNs are hard to come by (Hanako Studios puts out some good otome ones, and Cinders is good as well. Cinders is quite a step up in quality from Katawa Shoujo.) That being said, if what you're looking for instead is a sim or a RPG/VN hybrid, the English language have some good ones. There has been no translated sim from Japan that can touch what Black-Chicken Studios puts on the table, and in terms of depth of gameplay, it'd beat the pants of most, if not all, untranslated sims from Japan also, and I'm inlcuding True Love in that list (Persona is a sim/RPG hybrid which is a bit different). Academagia is extremely hard-core with an incredibly amount of depth, and Scheherazade simplifies it a tad and wraps that incredible sim experience in a nice VN exterior. Shira Oka is decent as well, if you're looking for a run of the mill dating sim. Hanako Studios put out a fairly decent Princess Maker type game. If you want RPG/VNs, head to Winterwolves. Planet Stronghold has a laughable story, but it has deep RPG gameplay which is pretty rare in the VN realm. Outside of Strategy RPGs, that is. Tons of stats to fiddle with, bliss for old-school RPGers. Loren the amazon princess has had the gameplay simplified but makes up for it with the story (which is heavily influenced by Dragon Age. But I had more fun playing Loren than I did Dragon Age 2, so make of that what you will.) In terms of Katawa Shoujo, it gets its popularity for being a decent quality and being free. It's very inconsistent and oscillates rapidly between interesting and tedium the entire game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 In terms of Katawa Shoujo, it gets its popularity for being a decent quality and being free. It's very inconsistent and oscillates rapidly between interesting and tedium the entire game. I think KS's subject matter is also a big factor in why it's so popular. I know I most likely wouldn't have found out about it if it wasn't "a game where you date disabled girls". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supah Kawaii Weeaboo Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 There are plenty of gamebooks in English, which are pretty much visual novels in trade paperback form. And in the last few years, there's been a number of commercial and indie video games with some adventure gameplay, but which feature story above anything else. As of 2014, creating visual novels in English is a business for a few brave indvididuals, and a hobby for just about anyone else. If you want to create your own VN, get software such as Renpy, create a Lemma Soft account, and start writing. Use whatever art, themes, style, settting, and characters you want. Understand that you probably won't become internet famous. And if you choose to sell it, understand that you won't make millions. I wish I knew more about visual novels created by people who speak other languages. I know that Korean fans created Tears 9, 10, which was a great read. Russian fans worked on a VN called Everlasting Summer which was recently finished after years of work. I remember that StudioGU talked about making an English version of Angel's Tale, but that it was quietly dropped. I'd like to find out what French-speaking and German-speaking fans are currently working on. Most of western made VNs are amateur work "Fan-art" and from what I know very little of them are any good. The reason for the popularity of Katawa Shoujo is that it is a very rare thing for western VN to be that good. As a young proud anime fan, I found it a bit frustrating to see how vaguely aesthetically similar comics and cartoons got a lot of attention, while Ranma 1/2 and Fushigi Yugi were seemingly ignored. It took me a while to admit that I'd inherited a "respect my imported shows, dammit!" attitude from older fans. And it took a bit longer to realize that I'd been rather snobbish about the pop culture media that I liked. Growing up, about 2/3 of the video games that I enjoyed originated in Japan. Sure, most of them had sloppy translations, embarrassing rewrites, and/or egregious censorship, but I liked them regardless. Since about 2007, I've felt pressured by fellow fans to believe that the only good current video games are originally written in English. Furthermore, just about any recent game that gets publicity seems to be incredibly bleak, thoroughly violent/horrifying, and allegedly mature. While I haven't completely abandoned fandom, this has caused my interest in video games to decrease. Funny how there's such divides among fans. I wish this situation was not so. Until then, keep writing, and see what sort of stories you can tell, and what sort of games you can create. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Furthermore, just about any recent game that gets publicity seems to be incredibly bleak, thoroughly violent/horrifying, and allegedly mature. While I haven't completely abandoned fandom, this has caused my interest in video games to decrease. I'm the opposite. I haven't been this excited about the video game industry for a decade or so. Great time to be alive for RPG and strategy fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 There are some quality English VNs... RPGfan has actually reviewed a few of them, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 There are some quality English VNs... RPGfan has actually reviewed a few of them, lol Cinders got a better score than Eve Burst Error and Narcissu, and almost the same as Ever 17 on that site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beato Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I haven't read Cinders yet but the art in that game is beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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