Recommendations

[Clephas]

I figured that we need a thread for those just beginning to play VNs in Japanese to get recommendations, if only to avoid the danger of hitting a kusoge or five along the road. Basic rule is, recommend between three and ten non-english patched VNs that you think are worth playing, along with one or two sentences for each on why you think they are worth playing and are playable for beginners.

1) Draculius- This game is hilarious and interesting, but more importantly it has the advantage of being relatively easy to read for a beginner at playing VNs in Japanese.

2) Tayutama- Like most moege, Tayutama has very little in the way of difficult phrasing or unusual word choices (save for that involving the mystical elements) and it also happens to be one of the better works by Lump of Sugar.

3) Konata yori Kanata Made- The single best utsuge I've ever played and also a relatively easy read for beginners.

4) Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu- Though this game is not as easy as the choices above, it has the advantage of being one of the best VNs of all time, with a great set of characters and a well-written story.

5) Tiny Dungeon Series- Overall, this series is hilarious, has strong emotional appeal, and is very easy to read. For these reasons, it's ideal for beginners.

6) Yurikago yori Tenshi Made- A darker choice inserted for people who want some decent bloodshed without most of the the incredibly complex and melodramatic word choices that generally characterize the chuuni genre most of the time.

7) Tasogare no Sinsemilla- While not precisely an 'easy' choice, it's easy enough that most people could handle it after playing through a half dozen or so easier ones.

Sakura Iro Quartett- For mimikko lovers, this is a great choice, inserted specifically for that type. The story is serious enough to keep it out of the 'pure' moege list, and the setting is interesting.

9) Toppara- My recommendation for youkai lovers who have just moved into the pure Japanese VN scene. All but one of the numerous heroines are youkai, and the story is good enough to set it above the average moege.

10) Evolimit- After you've gone through a few others, you might want to try this game. Propeller is one of the most consistently good action/VN makers and this game is a worthy addition to anyone's list.

[Snowtsuku]

Thanks for this one. I was actually looking for something like this

[Bolverk]

Great idea Clephas. I have tried looking around for a good thread about this but found none. :DLet's make it here then.

1) Flyable Heart- Lots of humor, moe, moe. It's pretty long though, so reading it will take quite some time if your slow. Though the language is pretty simple. (My first native read VN, so take it with a pinch of salt.)

2)Hoshizora no Memoria(It's translated) - Supposedly pretty simple language, though I haven't tired it. Alot of people liked the Translated version.

I wish I could list something more constructive but my knowledge is limited XD

(So to help I added links to your list from VNDB)

1) Draculius

2) Tayutama

3) Konata yori Kanata made

4) Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu

5) Tiny Dungeon Series

6) Yurikago yori Tenshi Made

7) Tasogare no Sinsemilla

Sakura Iro Quartet (Seems you Made a typo with Quartet't')

9) Toppara

10) Evolimit

[Ryoji]

Hmm nice idea. Ill compile a list later when i have time

[SakuraFreak]

-Viper Series: Old design, animated, moe, and the dialogs are veeery easy to understand.

(recommended>M3, M1, GTB, GTS[DVD], V8R, V6R, V16R, RSR)

ATTENTION, be aware that some titles have rape/monsters... inclusively RSR.

-Fullani: Fully animated, cliche dialogs, no subtitles but good to pratice your listening (need to know how to play mahjong though)

-ShinyDays: Fully animated+subtitles, lolis, and no autodiegetic(protagonist narration)

-Keitai Shoujo: Is soooo cute, not hard at all but not recommended for Beginners lv. 1, lv.2 is possible i wonder.

-Yuurei ha Doukyonin!?: is funnny, partially animated, old design, the main character is soo moe, plus the story is simple to understand

-Princess Maker 2 refine: This game.... no comments, is veeery addicting and easy to understand

-Rance Series: the protagonist is derp, don't wait any hard kanji from him. if you didn't understand the text don't worry, the protagonist didn't understand too. oh, the protagonist is Waay sexist, is prett funny.. (walktrough recommended on the first games)

-Maruko-chan DS Maruko's Town: Lol if you know Maruko-chan, there is no need to explain.

(DS have a looot of easy ADV games to play, very worth)

[zhurai]

I can't find rui wa tomo easily...

I had it on my old hdd but I don't have it anymore tt

[Bolverk]

I can't find rui wa tomo easily...

I had it on my old hdd but I don't have it anymore tt

Generally you have to search with the japanese name for untranslated VN's, which in your case of tomo is: るいは智を呼ぶ

The torrent maker will properly add the creator name as well, for you I am guessing: [Works] (something..)

Quick search on Nyaa:

I am guessing that should be right, though I don't know for certain XD

[zhurai]

Generally you have to search with the japanese name for untranslated VN's, which in your case of tomo is: るいは智を呼ぶ

The torrent maker will properly add the creator name as well, for you I am guessing: [Works] (something..)

Quick search on Nyaa:

I am guessing that should be right, though I don't know for certain XD

>_>

totally forgot to use sukebei/that ruiwatomo was an H game

oh well ok

[Kotomi]

2)Hoshizora no Memoria(It's translated) - Supposedly pretty simple language, though I haven't tired it. Alot of people liked the Translated version.

This is going to be my next VN. I heard it was really good. I love Romance/Love stories.

[Tief Blau]

Ever17 - Seems simple and straightforward at first, great storyline, and an interesting plot twists

[zhurai]

Generally you have to search with the japanese name for untranslated VN's, which in your case of tomo is: るいは智を呼ぶ

The torrent maker will properly add the creator name as well, for you I am guessing: [Works] (something..)

Quick search on Nyaa:

I am guessing that should be right, though I don't know for certain XD

actually that's a fan disk

realized this after dling it..

T_T

(and the search continues... >>)

[SakuraFreak]

actually that's a fan disk

realized this after dling it..

T_T

(and the search continues... >>)

Tips:

http://hashdb.com/ (Winny and Perfect dark Hash)

http://bt.orzx.co/ (chinese torrent search engine)

Found this ones

http://bt.orzx.co/view.php?id=25787 (Akabeisoft2 collection)

http://bt.orzx.co/display.php?id=13972 Rui wa tomo wo yobu (First Edition)

[zhurai]

Tips:

http://hashdb.com/ (Winny and Perfect dark Hash)

http://bt.orzx.co/ (chinese torrent search engine)

Found this ones

http://bt.orzx.co/view.php?id=25787 (Akabeisoft2 collection)

http://bt.orzx.co/display.php?id=13972 Rui wa tomo wo yobu (First Edition)

how safe is this bt.orzx.co anyways o_o

though, dling one and thanks I guess o_o (I can't read Chinese though. oh well)

[SakuraFreak]

how safe is this bt.orzx.co anyways o_o

though, dling one and thanks I guess o_o (I can't read Chinese though. oh well)

Is safe safe, and better than Nyaa. (there is no torrent spam there)

Btw most announcers there are only from known forums in China like 9gal, sumisora, tsdm etc.

[mooingmage]

AAAAH I've been looking for something like this!! *u* What great suggestions~!

Hm...are these games like around N5-N4 level? QoQ

Like Flyable Heart? If you were to rank it from N5-1 what would it be?

[Guest]

clephas dont put ruitomo...

and are u sure those are the easiest of the easiest? those dont look easy at all!

it looks more like your top 10 list than top 10 easiest VNs...

[mooingmage]

AAH this was discussed on the rtk forums but there isn't really a large selection

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=6593

; u ;

[Clephas]

Aaeru, almost all my real top ten are beyond beginners' ability to read. These are entry-level in comparison. Also, the top two are most definitely easy ones. To be blunt, you don't get any easier than that without being a completely vapid moege or a nukige. Ruitomo and Tasogare are both somewhat hard, but only do in a middling fashion. If you've played three or four of the other games, you will be able to handle those two. Evolimit... isn't especially hard save for the specialist terms relating to artificial intelligence and the like. For one thing, I chose these games because they use terms that are mostly picked up correctly by Jparser and edict in combination so you can easily make out words without having to guess or pull out a kanji dictionary. Ruitomo's word choices aren't that unusual for the most part. It's just really wordy, thus making it a hard sell for people who aren't readers by nature. Tasogare is similar in that fashion. If I listed my personal top ten favorites, I'd have to add Dies Irae and Jingai Makyou, as well as a few other nightmarishly hard to read games to the list.

Edit: When I made the list, I assumed most people would be relying on jparser and edict to one extent or another. Digging into untranslated VNs without a working knowledge of Japanese grammar is not something I can recommend, to be honest. Vocab can be picked up as you go and unusual sentence structure can generally be figured out from that base of grammatical knowledge. However, the knowledge of common tenses, particles, and sentence structure that make up Japanese grammar is a necessary precursor to fully enjoy any VN in its original language. Machine translations are still a joke, after all.

Edit2: For reference, my permanent top 5

1- Evolimit

2- Ikusa Megami Zero

3- Devils Devel Concept

4- Draculius

5- Jingai Makyou

The lower five periodically switch out or switch places, depending on shifts in my tastes or the appearances of new gems. Currently, Yurikago, KonaKana, and Dies Irae occupy spaces in those lower five, but Ruitomo is a pretty constant 13-16 and Tasogare is somewhere around 50-60 depending on my mood. It's pretty hard to get into my top ten, and it usually involves being part of my favorite genre. The main reason Evolimit is #1 is that it combines great music, great music use, good visuals, awesome characters and character interactions, good action, and a truly epic story with strong emotional impact, not to mention a lot of hilarity when outside the action. In other words, it hits all my buttons without being junk food, like Yurikago is (Yurikago being a flagrant appeal to chuuni addicts)

Edit3: Also, save for Yurikago (which as I said before, is genre-addict junk food and a bit too much for people who don't like bloodshed, weird characters, and strange worldviews) all those games have pretty wide appeal, which is pretty important when choosing a game to recommend to the general public, while also being readable and generally mid to high quality. No point in introducing someone to a kusoge or a generic moege for their first outing. I would have added Uruwashi no to the list, but due to times when it suddenly becomes high-difficulty (economic terms, unusual terms, quick-pace with rapid events and twists that can be hard to follow if you can't yet grasp the language well) toward the end of the individual character paths, I had to cross it out.

[Zalor]

Wait, on this thread we can only recommend non English translated VNs? I haven't played any non English translated VNs since I don't understand an inch of Japanese. =/ Judging from the activity on this thread though, it would seem I'm in the minority. I wish they taught Japanese when I went to High school, but the only languages they offered were Chinese, Spanish and Latin. =(

[Clephas]

No, we are the minority. We are just an obsessed and addicted minority that makes a lot of noise. The limited number of translated VNs makes recommending them rather pointless, in any case.

[Zalor]

No, we are the minority. We are just an obsessed and addicted minority that makes a lot of noise. The limited number of translated VNs makes recommending them rather pointless, in any case.

Your totally correct, I think the reason this thread was as actively discussed as it was, is because people get tired of the limited amount of VNs in English. Learning Japanese is a great alternative; but it's an alternative unavailable to me. I've never really been good at learning languages. Out of 3 languages I was exposed to as a baby, I was only able to learn English. Further proof that's its a poor skill of mine is that is that 2 out of the 3 language courses I took in my life I nearly failed. I suppose I'm a bit envious of people on this thread for not only understanding some Japanese, but are capable of learning more. Good luck anyway. learning Japanese will open the gates for Visual Novel heaven.

[zoom909]

I'm at an intermediate, not an advanced level, and I can vouch for the readability of:

Flyable Heart

Lamune

D.C.P.C.

Nursery Rhyme

KanojoxKanojoxKanojo

Brighter than Dawning Blue

Kanon

Memories Off

Kanogi

those Miku VNs

But that question from Moo suddenly got me curious: what IS the corresponding level of these kinds of VNs on the JLPT scale? So I've been reading all the sample articles/stories on http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-great-library/ during my lunch hour etc. Also I'm curious to find out how high I can go before stuff becomes unreadable.

Well I can tell you that N5 is way easier than VNs. N4 is a little closer, but still not similar enough. Right now I'm on the N3's. Still seems too simple in comparison, but I've only read the first two. Now I'm anxious to see what N2 and N1 will be like...

learning Japanese will open the gates for Visual Novel heaven.

more like, it will open Pandora's Box

[Clephas]

True, it is Pandora's Box. I rearranged my life around VNs shortly after I played my first one in Japanese.

My 10 (on a scale of 1-10 with ten being the most difficult) would probably require a minimum of JLPT 3 to just barely comprehend the gist of maybe 50% things... and if you wanted full understanding, you'd need 2 or 1 (1 probably). Most VNs hover around JLPT 2 for full comprehension... without jparser. With Jparser, I'd say you might be able to handle things if you have JLPT 2... though a 3 or 4 might be able to puzzle them out. Still, go ahead and dive in, even if you've only managed 5. You'll pick things up along the way, as you struggle to comprehend. As long as you don't go using some stupid machine translator to create a facsimile of engrish to rely on.

Edit: One thing to be clear about, some obscure Japanese proverbs and sayings we simply don't have the background to interpret and have no corresponding saying in English. For this reason, even if you can read kanji straight up, you should still have Jparser on and ITH attached so you can get the meaning of new proverbs as you go. It saves the time of searching Japanese websites and lets you continue playing uninterrupted.

[zoom909]

Yeah, the mouse-over lookup approach is really fast, and is part of what makes Japanese VNs playable at a decent speed, but conquering VNs without the auto-parsing/text-hooking is the next step I should take. Because I want to play console VNs, and they have none. Of course, I'd be thrilled if a text-hooking feature were added to PCSX2. But that only postpones the problem...

But I'm not ready for that yet. I feel like I want to get even more reading speed and experience (with the JParser) first. Like another couple years' worth. Meanwhile, I'm testing the waters with manga w/o furigana. That's giving me experience in how to manually look up the information that JParser gives you.

[Clephas]

Mmm... personally I don't have much of a taste for console VNs. Most of them are rehashes of PC versions and those that aren't are usually anime-related (meaning the story is already well-known or it is a side-story tacked on like a fandisc). Those that are made exclusively for a console don't tend to be all that interesting (though part of that is because I hate anything made by Nitroplus after Muramasa except Phenomeno). Also, I'm essentially lazy, so I prefer to have Jparser at hand to give me obscure word and kanji meanings rather than taking the effort to bring them out of the depths of my skull. I have played a few console VNs... but Utawarerumono 2 was the only one I was obsessed enough with to actually enjoy. *Clephas fails to mention that he finds games that lack violence, philosophy (not pseudo-philo like you see in Steins;Gate), and ero to be boring*

Edit: lol, yes, I have been that corrupted by my time in eroge. If it lacks all three of those, I do indeed have trouble enjoying it... because my first loves are philosophy and violence. Also, truly great console VNs eventually end up on the PC for the most part, in any case.

Edit 2: Well, if the game has a particularly good protagonist - a rarity in moege, which make up the majority of console ports and the like - I am generally willing to play it. But if there is even the least hint of a PC release, I don't bother.