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Poll for What You'd Like to See in a Visual Novel


oliviaisinspace

Your Opinions on VN Gaming  

66 members have voted

  1. 1. What matters MOST to you in a visual novel game?

    • An interesting or beautiful art style/direction
    • Gameplay other than just clicking through a story
    • An engaging, awesome story and/or characters
    • Room for customization
    • All are equally important
  2. 2. What is the ideal platform for a visual novel?

  3. 3. What would be the ideal packaging for a VN game/game series?

    • Multiple episodes posted separately according to a schedule.
    • One big fat finished game all at once, possibly a sequel if I want one
    • A 2-3 part series of games that follow similarly to a trilogy of books
    • Multiple short episodes made more frequently, with the devs constantly reaching out to fans for suggestions
      0
    • Other

This poll is closed to new votes


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1) Story is the most important thing to me. It doesn't have to be awesome or epic - it has to serve it's purpose. So, VNs with gameplay or nukiges can get away with a more simplistic plot, but it's still important even in those cases. VNs are novels after all.

Art is important in eroge, other titles can get away with so-so visuals as long as they have a well written storyline. Many OELVNs have absolutely abhorrent artwork though, something that bad can be game-breaking.

 

2) PC master race. :P

 

3) I only start reading/watching completed VNs/manga/anime/whatever, almost without exceptions. I wouldn't really mind any kind of episodic format, but it means I probably won't touch it until it's finished, or check out first episode and never go back to it if it won't be good enough.

 

As for multiple protagonists (or rather - selectable ones), it's not that weird and some VNs do offer such choice. Ever17 did this right (just like this epic title). But yeah, it can be quite hard to do without making subsequent playthroughs boring and repetitive.

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Story is obviously most important, but I voted gameplay due the fact that there are many VNs I still replay to this day even though I have seen all their content because I love the gameplay. If you're capable of adding gameplay with the story, why wouldn't you? 

 

The PC vs Flash vs VN engine thing is pointless, of course people are going to prefer a stable PC game engine over flash... it seems like it would be more trouble to develop a full game in flash than with a proper game engine, or even better a VN specific engine. If you're having gameplay, then use a game engine like Unity or develop your own, otherwise there is no reason not to use a VN engine.

 

The last question seems similarly pointless, as the way you release the story depends on the type of story you intend to tell. If the focus is on one major plot arch then it is best to have it all developed at the time of release, if you feel it is much work for one release you can split it into a trilogy. If it is a character based story you can tell it in an episodic format, and your release schedule for episodes depends on you.

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A few conventions you might want to ignore when making your VN.

 

1.  Make sure you voice your protagonist/s if you voice the other characters.  The 'faceless and voiceless' protagonist thing only really suits really bad moege and nukige well.

 

2.  I have to be against what kratoscar said on naming protagonists.  I'm not interested in pasting my own identity over a character.  I want a character that is himself, not an aspect of myself.

 

3. Again, customization is not something you see in good VNs.  I don't want to customize the appearance of a protagonist in a story, and I certainly don't want to customize his personality.  If I want customization, I'll play an MMO or a western rpg.

 

4.  Basically avoid anything that dehumanizes the characters.   There is nothing worse than a round character turned flat because you just had to allow excessive player intervention.

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2.  I have to be against what kratoscar said on naming protagonists.  I'm not interested in pasting my own identity over a character.  I want a character that is himself, not an aspect of myself.

 

3. Again, customization is not something you see in good VNs.  I don't want to customize the appearance of a protagonist in a story, and I certainly don't want to customize his personality.  If I want customization, I'll play an MMO or a western rpg.

 

 

 

Luckily for you im in the minority according to the pol i guess. I still fail to see what you have agaisnt people having an option.

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Luckily for you im in the minority according to the pol i guess. I still fail to see what you have agaisnt people having an option.

There are still VN-makers that give options for character customization and character naming... but their games tend to be low-quality or dating sims, rather than a straight VN.  There is literally only one good Japanese VN made in the last five years that let you name the protagonist, and that was Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai from last year.  The simple reason is that allowing you to name the protagonist does one of two things: 

 

1.  Increases costs massively in order to allow the creation of a 'voice database' to let the characters say the protagonist's name (Hoshi Ori)

 

2.   Lowers storytelling quality by creating 違和感 (a general feeling of something wrong/out of place) that prevents engrossment in the story by either using the protagonist's last name at all times or by using variations on 'you' in voiced parts.  It just isn't workable.

 

As for visual customization... to be blunt, most people can't get emotionally engaged with a character they were allowed to customize too much.  About the limit is maybe changing their clothing style... and even that limits what the author can do as for using clothing as a plot tool.  The problem is that when you are creating a VN story, the visual, spoken, and written aspects have to come together to create a harmonious whole.  Allowing customization complicates execution and places limits on what the author can write.

 

That's fine with something as uncomplicated as a dating sim, a nukige, or a low-end moege... but if you get much more complex - story-wise - than that you end up creating a mess by allowing customization in most cases.

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[large post]

 

When talking about VNs, I'd agree with most of what you say. Conventions like character customization aren't even helpful outside of pure RPGs, where players are meant to identify with their PC and act on the gameworld through that avatar. I always find it silly to see VNs and even manga containing faceless/voiceless protagonists as if they are writing in a format where the viewers identifying with a particular character is important, and there are many other illogical conventions many otaku writers follow that really leave me confused about otaku culture.

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There are still VN-makers that give options for character customization and character naming... but their games tend to be low-quality or dating sims, rather than a straight VN.  There is literally only one good Japanese VN made in the last five years that let you name the protagonist, and that was Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai from last year.  The simple reason is that allowing you to name the protagonist does one of two things: 

 

1.  Increases costs massively in order to allow the creation of a 'voice database' to let the characters say the protagonist's name (Hoshi Ori)

 

2.   Lowers storytelling quality by creating 違和感 (a general feeling of something wrong/out of place) that prevents engrossment in the story by either using the protagonist's last name at all times or by using variations on 'you' in voiced parts.  It just isn't workable.

 

As for visual customization... to be blunt, most people can't get emotionally engaged with a character they were allowed to customize too much.  About the limit is maybe changing their clothing style... and even that limits what the author can do as for using clothing as a plot tool.  The problem is that when you are creating a VN story, the visual, spoken, and written aspects have to come together to create a harmonious whole.  Allowing customization complicates execution and places limits on what the author can write.

 

That's fine with something as uncomplicated as a dating sim, a nukige, or a low-end moege... but if you get much more complex - story-wise - than that you end up creating a mess by allowing customization in most cases.

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