Your first VN experience

[Katatsumuri]

The first VN I ever read was (if you discard some forgettable nukige I once read) Fate/stay night.

I was home due to an ilness, and was just browsing, tvtropes, when I suddenly got the urge to play an "anime-ish" game. I looked, around through some random examples, and I somehow ended up at the Tsundere page. One of the examples caught my mind and more than 1.5 years later, here I am.

[SkySound]

My first VN is Little Busters! , i dont know why i played VN that time and when i wanted to try LB , i kinda hesitate. Because i thought that VNs are mostly boring (many text and sometimes contain mini games).

but in the end i tried and it was pretty impressive (even i cried in the end of refrain and it's truly change my life) 

[Intrinsic]

The very first visual novel I tried was Ever17. It was boring, and eventually, many boring hours of reading later, I just drowned under the ocean. The whole scenario presented in the game felt like you couldn’t escape, and even if you could I didn’t want to slog through the multitude of questions to figure out where I went wrong because the content before the end was very boring.  So, one unsatisfying bad ending after a boring play through, I was done with that game. I was also done with Visual novels for a long period of time after that.

 

I usually just tell people my first visual novel is Saya no Uta, as it was the first visual novel I found that I liked. After reading this VN I’d confirmed my suspicion that there must be good VNs out there, and now I’m a VN addict.

[neromercer]

I'm kind of a new VN user here, so I haven't played all that much, but if I need to say... then I think that was Rewrite, but that was just because it was the first on my list of downloaded xD!, though... I think it was a good choice there I made , after all, right now I'm listening to Philosophyz >=)

[Flutterz]

I'm kind of a new VN user here, so I haven't played all that much, but if I need to say... then I think that was Rewrite, but that was just because it was the first on my list of downloaded xD!, though... I think it was a good choice there I made , after all, right now I'm listening to Philosophyz >=)

Philosophyz is nice, but I like the ending songs more, especially Beyond the Darkness.

Also your avatar made me lol

[neromercer]

Philosophyz is nice, but I like the ending songs more, especially Beyond the Darkness.

Also your avatar made me lol

Well, I do love Love Letter and Beyond the Darkness, though that's because I listened to them so much that even if I didn't get bored of them, I still want to listen to the other songs xD!

About the avatar, that's because I made a cover, but that's not something I should be saying (or else I would be promoting myself, which I don't want)

[roninmedia]

I was into the the text based flash games in middle school. There were plenty of flash dating sims that were anime-style in terms of art.

 

My first visual novel would be Love Hina Advance ~Shukufuku no Kaneha Narukan~ back in 2002. If we want to get more technical about it, we could consider that more of a dating simulation than a visual novel since the gameplay is certainly like that was hearts on-screen accumulating so it was very easy to get the route you wanted.

 

First one that wasn't so dating-sim was Private Nurse.

[DemonicViolinist]

"My visual novel virginity was given roughly to Emi in Katawa Shoujo (The fastest thing on no legs.)."

[meru]

I've "played" VN on and off for years, even before I could read Japanese when playing just involved clicking through really fast to look at the pictures XD I haven't read them seriously until recently though. Anyway my first experience would probably be Kanon and also the BL games Gakuen Heaven and Silver Chaos. I remember DLing these off an IRC channel back in the day and being so excited to finally play them. *wipes away a natsukashii tear*

 

Though I'd always had this weird interest in eroge. It started when I was 11 or 12 and was part of roleplaying communities where we used anime style CGs, so I found out about titles through the art I'd use. At the time my computer only had like 2GB of storage (?!) so I could never download games, and then for years I never tried anything on my Mac. So instead I just LOOKED at a lot of games and retained a lot of knowledge about various titles without actually playing them myself??

 

Ahaha I did this too XDD

[meru]

I actually hated reading my entire life, have never read for school so I always had bad grades for languages except English.

So I downloaded Katawa no Shoujo, didn´t know what it was, but I thought it was something else and not a book... (Only because it was a high seeded torrent on thepiratebay ) 

I wanted to stop reading as soon as I discovered it was a sort of book/novel, but I just kept on with it because it looked kinda nice... And that´s what got me into VN´s

 

That's actually really interesting! It would be fun to see how many other members felt the same way, or if many of us already enjoyed reading to start with. Perhaps I'll create a topic..

[Merricat]

I used to read lots when I was younger but stopped around highschool because I was lazy, reading Visual Novels has actually got me back into reading books in general.

 

My first VN was probably Phoenix Wright but I didn't realise it was at the time, but the one that started me properly was Higurashi, I didn't realise it was as long as it was so I kinda threw myself in at the deep end. 

[ShaunVMA]

I first discovered visual novels on Eroge Download when I finished watching Kai or Rei in Higurashi and I didn't quite understand certain aspects of certain arcs. If I remember correctly I think it took me several days after downloading it to realize there was a PS2 graphics patch on the site as well.  Even after somewhere around three and a half or so years later I still haven't finished reading all 8(11) arcs of the visual novel(to date I've completed 1-3,5-7).

The first visual novel I completed 100%(except the unlockable 3rd choice which I didn't discover until this year) was the next one I downloaded, Swan Song. It would've been at the time when it was on the main page of Eroge Download and I really enjoyed the translator's writing style and the whole atmosphere of the book. It got me wanting more from the medium, when I finish a few other visual novels in japanese I definitely intend to read it raw.

[Hentai Meido Sachi]

Hmmm, this has been bugging me for a while because I don't remember my first VN. I do, however, remember that the first two VNs I played were Sharin no Kuni and Katawa Shoujo. Just can't recall which one I did first. I think I, to an extent, played both VNs at the same time.

[ValenKnight]

My first visual novel was Clannad, but I wasn't a super big fan of the anime. I was mainly interested in Tomoyo and couple other characters but when I first played it, it definitely wasn't a very fun expirience, not too sure what it was but I deleted it and stopped playing Visual Novels altogether for a couple of years. It wasn't until 2013 that I somehow stumbled upon a review of Yume Miru Kusuri and read about Nekoko's character and was genuinely interested, so I played it and overall had a pretty good expirience with it. From there I started playing some small games since I'm rather picky, but once I played Majikoi my VN craze just went nuts. I was playing VN's day n night with no rest, and yes I did eventually go back to Clannad and got through most of it but didn't quite finish it all because of how freaking long doing 100% was. I've tried introducing my brother to Visual Novels but the damn fool just won't listen, well it's his loss I suppose.

[Jiharo]

My first VN was Kanon. 

 

I started getting to know about Visual Novels when my Japanese friends spoke about them. I've decided to go over to his place and after a while, I got rather absorbed into the story. As I do love reading besides watching anime etc....I find myself being more interested in VNs since they were mostly text so it kinda felt like reading a book, but with music and visuals. 

 

When I bought my first VN(Kanon), I was so impressed with the story that I decide to follow KEY. Meanwhile, I went to seek recommendations and friends began to share titles which I would hunt online for synopsis to read it before deciding to buy it. Ever since then, I've been following the VN industry pretty closely and have found myself a few companies that I like.

 

Time flies and I have bought close to 50 VNs but haven't been able to complete reading all due to time constraints. I do hope to finish the rest someday and hope for more wonderful VNs to come out every month.

[meru]

My first VN was Kanon. 

*high five*

And I feel your pain about not having time to play everything

[Guest]

*high five*

And I feel your pain about not having time to play everything

 

I second this.  *Forms the, "regrettably too busy for fun" group*

[Jiharo]

*high five*

And I feel your pain about not having time to play everything

Am surprised your first VN is Kanon. Not many people read Kanon as their first VN. Glad to have found someone

 

What made you chose Kanon as your starting VN? 

 

I second this.  *Forms the, "regrettably too busy for fun" group*

Yea. As we grow up, we have to shoulder more responsibilities. Gone are the days where one can have fun without caring how the world turns.

 

.

[GoldenSorcerer]

My first visual novel was Fate/Stay Night. A friend of mine recommended it to me, and since he was so fascinated about it (he'd spend the whole day saying Saber, I thought he had gone mad or something until he explained what it meant) I decided to give it a try. I really liked it too, and right after I finished it I watched Fate/Zero, I really like Fate. Time passes and I've read more visual novels, now I'm the one who recommends him some VN's (but he hasn't played a single one yet).

[coldblood2345]

I can not Believe that the one VN that startred it all for me was Divi dead! I just remember that I play it so much back in the day that I even made a walkthrough for a friend, And I got all three endings. Sad to say I never did figured out how to get the music to work. XD But in a way just hearing the sounds and the voice's was well enough to build up the atmosphere.

 

[Mizore Man]

My first Visual Novel was Shuffle!, which the only reason I gave a try was because I got bored one day and happened to watch the anime for it on Netflix, and in the Netflix description stated it was "based off of a video game". One thing led to another and BAM. I got hooked on Visual Novels (One's that I could read at least). I have to say, as a guy who absolutely hates reading books, Visual Novels make reading actually interesting, mainly as it really doesn't FEEL as if you are reading a book. My favorite books as a kid always were the pick your path books, and I honestly missed those. Visual Novels brought back the pick your path part of reading that I so missed, and combined it with my interest in Japanese culture and Otaku-culture. Best of both worlds if you ask me!

[MottainaiVN]

"Which was your first VN?"

"what you thought about it?"

"how you got into VN's?"

 

clannad

It was super long but well worth it

i was told that the story was deeper than the anime so i tried it out. was not disappointed

[Newt]

My first vn was..well..Katawa Shoujo, I found it while wasing time on "YouRather" when a question had a question had something about being with Shizune but having to cheat on her with Misha, I saw this and thought "hmm, this is really specific, to google!" I enjoyed it  so much that I looked for more thus I am here.

[Cherry]

How i first got into vns turned out really weird. It was just when i was about 13-14 years old, i was just looking through anime vids at youtube, then i somehow came across the Little Busters! OP. And i loved it so much, not just the song... how all the chara looked so nice, this 'group of friends' image, difficult to explain but i really loved it, i felt like i knew 'this thing is damn awesome' eventhough i knew nothing bout it. So i watched even more LB vids, amvs and vn gameplay vids eventhough i didnt knew what it was about. I also took a liking to that baseball mini game. So then some month/year later i kinda came across LB vids again and saw that there is a english gameplay vid on it. There where many engl gameplay vids from it, and i kinda watched a bit and still didnt knew what LB really is, it didnt really didnt looked that much like a 'game'. Then also for the FIRST time i googled Little Busters and readed through the info bout the game and the charas on wikipedia, but found out that it was only in japanese (or i just gave up on it) but i still had hoped that one day it would be tled that i am able to play it. Then 1-2 years later when i was 16years old, i kinda came across LB vids on youtube again, and then googled it again...and found out that it was TRANSLATEED! That was maybe the best moment of my life and it kinda felt like FATE DESTINY! that i found LB again. I actually didnt minded that it was in english (since my native langauge isnt english but german) becuz i always liked english lessons in school. I searched then download links, at first it was fucking confusing how to do this mounting thing and how it everything worked and and i began to play it and also needed to look SOO MAANY TIMEEES into english dictionary (becuz there where quite many words i never knew or heard before). best thing ever XD

[threepwood007]

Shuffle! was my first. I checked it out on the sole basis of: I saw Mangagamer's booth at Otakon and was intrigued. There was literally no other reason. I had heard of visual novels before, though at the time I knew them only as eroge, and I decided I would give Shuffle! a try.

 

The rest... is history. I fell hard and fast for the medium and before I knew it I was grabbing them left and right.