LiquidShu Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Firstly if this is not the right spot for this post then I am sorry http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/02/24/an-entry-guide-to-visual-novels.aspx?utm_content=buffer15638&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer How do you guys feel about this article and the games they mentioned? Some of them I am not sure if they are considered "visual novels" as they focus more around the game play with the story thrown in (i.e P4A). Others like Steins Gate though are must reads and it is (?) considered one of the best VN's of all time. And I mean "Sorcery! and Lone Wolf" really? It may be considered one, I do not know, but it feels off. Then with things like Grisaia coming to the west and VN's that are already translated and on JAST/Mangagamer I feel like they could have done a little better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakamutt Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The Man doesn't want people to know about fan translation~ But yeah every single article that comes out seems to have something deeply wrong to it. Depressing. LiquidShu, Suzu Fanatic and Kurisu-Chan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurisu-Chan Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The Man doesn't want people to know about fan translation~ But yeah every single article that comes out seems to have something deeply wrong to it. Depressing. pretty much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuki Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 ...Does this guy really understand what visual novel is? And those recommendations though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinovaA Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 There are only a few good suggestions on there, but as an entry guide it kinda fails. Kinda meaning completely of course. Edit: Isn't it a good thing there are articles in the first place? That is true. We should be very glad there is some kind of publicity. I guess it makes sense that there are only licensed titles, however they could have picked some better entry level VNs that are also licensed. LiquidShu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurisu-Chan Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 hey, some of those recommendations are good, don't even say the opposite. But yes, they just recommended legit VNs, and not fan-TL ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidShu Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 hey, some of those recommendations are good, don't even say the opposite. But yes, they just recommended legit VNs, and not fan-TL ones. Yes, some of them are good and people should definitely read then. But then there is P4A and Sorcery! and Lone Wolf, which I am sure those are not VN's. I feel like he saw a lot of text and was like "yep its a visual novel". May be biased here but I feel like Katawa Shoujo is probably one of the best starter VN's and its free (legally). He may want to stay away from anything that has content 18+ though so its understandable. Also what about "Planetarian"? It is on steam and seems to be one of the highest regarded VN's around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoom909 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Articles like this one serve to reinforce my perception that what I like to play is definitely not visual novels (except in the purely technical sense of the term). In fact, I've come to loathe the term "visual novel." Those people in Japan that play the kind of games I play rarely refer to themselves as "visual novel fans", and so neither will I. I'm opting out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XReaper Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 though its nice to have more publicity regarding visual novels in general, i for myself think that this whole article is nothing more than a big load of rubbish. heck the guy speaks big at the beginning about "old" titles and didn´t mention one. i´ve seen many many better article sout there, with real content in it. SaintOfVoid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidShu Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Articles like this one serve to reinforce my perception that what I like to play is definitely not visual novels (except in the purely technical sense of the term). In fact, I've come to loathe the term "visual novel." Those people in Japan that play the kind of games I play rarely refer to themselves as "visual novel fans", and so neither will I. I'm opting out. What do you refer to them as? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookwormOtaku Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I've read worse VN related articles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoom909 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 What do you refer to them as? I think 美少女ゲーム covers it pretty well for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 ...Does this guy really understand what visual novel is? A good portion of the people experienced in the genre don't even know what a visual novel is Coverage is coverage though, can't be picky. I think 美少女ゲーム covers it pretty well for me. Categorising games by content is something I would never get used to. Seems useless to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzu Fanatic Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 At least I didn't notice any backhanded comments such as "It's like reading playboy for the articles." like a recent Kotaku segment I found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I should point out that 80 Days is VERY close to a visual novel, the only difference is it uses flavour images instead of images showing off every scene. This relegates it to "Interactive Fiction" status, a sister genre to Visual Novels. And considering how a lot of people mistake dating sims and VNs, I can forgive him this. It's VERY highly regarded btw and has won a number of awards recently. I have no problems with him recommending this title, I would also recommend fans of visual novels give it a try :3 Suzu Fanatic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fun2novel Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I'm so tired of people who have almost never played a vn trying to 'introduce' vns and alwayas spreading missinformation or just plain lies. Edit: I'm sorry but this is just a shitty article written by someone who thought he's very clever by googling 'popular vns' and just wrote a few lines aobut them. Obviously this person didn't even play half of those. Why not cover other vns like Dengeki Stryker, Cartagra, Kara no Shoujo, Saya no Uta, Ever17, why not explain that some have erotic and pornographic scenes but these are never the focus of most story vns. Show some depth and get people excited about these, not just hey I have to write 300 word article let me just select a few popular vns and copy paste their premise summaries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Meh if Blaz Blue and Ar Tonelico are in vndb (Thus considered VNs) then i can see why Arena games would be considered one, i think it could be a good introduction since the fighting aspect could help people ease into the VN portion of the game and be more accustomed to long reading sessions in videogames. Darklord Rooke 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Meh if Blaz Blue and Ar Tonelico are in vndb (Thus considered VNs) then i can see why Arena games would be considered one, i think it could be a good introduction since the fighting aspect could help people ease into the VN portion of the game and be more accustomed to long reading sessions in videogames. Or even go "well, if you want more fighting VNs, maybe try Duel Savior" to get them further accustomed to VNs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Or even go "well, if you want more fighting VNs, maybe try Duel Savior" to get them further accustomed to VNs... After a game like arena the next step would be a VN with gameplay and then the pure VN part. Its a transition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abyssal Monkey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Sorry, but from what I've heard, isn't BlazBlue basically a fighting game first and foremost like Mortal Kombat or Tekken? Even if it has text stringing together a story, I can't call that a visual novel, that's a fighting game with a story. Persona Arena definitely falls into this category as well. The gamebooks I'm on the fence about on a logical level, but as a personal preference, because they aren't purely text based, I can't call them novels, thus I don't consider them as true VN's. The thing that really got me about this list was this: Hate Story, Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story, and Digital: A Love Story Platforms: All three on PC, Mac, and Linux In the last few years, Christine Love has been creating interesting visual novels that tackle human relationship issues in conjunction with the impact of modern technology. Her novels often feature LGBTQ characters and dating-sim mechanics. The premise of her stories is often unique and begs you to explore them. It was almost as if he is featuring it as a significant portion and aspect of the games. Any time I see this crap, I immediately think that the author has an agenda or at least a checklist they are checking off. I find it insulting as I could care less about any relationships as long as the story is interesting (though I can say that I'm not into any male x male relationships as a focus). All in all, the first page was OK at best with the second page turning into a trainwreck. TL;DR I don't classify anything with actual gameplay elements a novel, but rather a game with a text based story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuki Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 All in all, the first page was OK at best with the second page turning into a trainwreck. TL;DR I don't classify anything with actual gameplay elements a novel, but rather a game with a text based story. You just ruled out the whole Baldr series and and most every (or every?) vn made by Eushully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Sorry, but from what I've heard, isn't BlazBlue basically a fighting game first and foremost like Mortal Kombat or Tekken? Even if it has text stringing together a story, I can't call that a visual novel, that's a fighting game with a story. Persona Arena definitely falls into this category as well. The gamebooks I'm on the fence about on a logical level, but as a personal preference, because they aren't purely text based, I can't call them novels, thus I don't consider them as true VN's. BB and Arena uses a VN format, has long scenes of narration, inner character monologue and even feature dialogue choices that branch the story mode (Even gameplay aspects that branch the plot) and the stories are rather long for any character. Lets put it this way: Do you consider the Rance games as VNs? Because they have many gameplay elements so by your classification process shouldnt they count as one? Why RPG/Dungeon Crawling elements gives Rance games a pass but not fighting mechanics in a VN? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abyssal Monkey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 BB and Arena uses a VN format, has long scenes of narration, inner character monologue and even feature dialogue choices that branch the story mode (Even gameplay aspects that branch the plot) and the stories are rather long for any character. Lets put it this way: Do you consider the Rance games as VNs? Because they have many gameplay elements so by your classification process shouldnt they count as one? Why RPG/Dungeon Crawling elements gives Rance games a pass but not fighting mechanics in a VN? Again, I haven't played either of the series, nor have I played Rance, but the fact that they have gameplay, to me, immediately declassifies it as a novel. You just ruled out the whole Baldr series and and most every (or every?) vn made by Eushully. Baldr I can't comment, as I've never played, refer to above. Eushelly isn't VN, Kamidori is an SRPG with hentai, and most of their other games are just that, games with hentai added on. I don't classify them as novels. The only difference between Kamidori and Fire Emblem for example is the fact that Kamidori has hentai, but you don;t see people toting Fire Emblem as a visual novel. I'm really stringent on my terminology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 It was almost as if he is featuring it as a significant portion and aspect of the games. Christine Love games contain strong social progressive themes. Some would say these themes are a significant attraction to her games. There are 2 ways you can go with visual novels - you can omit visual novels with gameplay and thus also be omitting a sizable chunk of the Japanese eroge database (this causes angst,) or you treat the visual novel tag as relating to the storytelling method within the game, in which case the storytelling tag and gameplay tag can co-exist in harmony (this causes angst.) Either way, as long as you're consistent it should be fine. I wouldn't penalise the author for holding similar opinions to a sizeable portion of the eroge fanbase though. The problem stems from eroge fans never figuring out what a visual novel actually was, not the reporter in this instance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 At least I didn't notice any backhanded comments such as "It's like reading playboy for the articles." like a recent Kotaku segment I found. From what I've heard, Kotaku tends to pile a decent amount of snark onto their articles, so I'd stay away from them unless you consistently agree with the writers' opinions and morals. If you want a good laugh, look up Kotaku's review of Bayonetta 2. Made me laugh, so it was worth it. To be fair, the average gamer most likely won't give a crap about VNs, so my best guess is that they only stuck with products that were games first and VNs second in order to talk about content that will actually capture their readers' attention. If they said, "Look, books with choices and anime-style CGs!", I'm pretty sure a good chuck would have ignored it entirely and moved on to different content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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