Visual Novel recommendations?


Eridger

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Oct 25, 2010
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Since EvilDragon is such an ass and decided to port an amazing visual novel to the Pandora (Narcissu), I've been absolutely addicted to these things. The stories of the ones I've played to far are absolutely brilliant. More than that, they piqued my interest in the Japanese language in general and I'm now studying it. That probably sounds like typical anime nerd crap, but it's not quite like that for me. I'm studying it pretty vigorously, partly because it's a pretty language, but mostly because it's a very interesting challenge.


Anyways, I was wondering what visual novels others have played. I'm kind of out of ideas of where to look for them now. The problem with these kinds of games is that you're either going to find ones that are mind-blowingly awesome or crappy excuses for looking at anime porn.


Here's what I've enjoyed so far, best to worst:


CLANNAD - Bawled at this one. Beautiful, sad story. And takes a crazy long time to beat. I think this one took me like 40 hours or something like that.


Ever 17 - Great sci-fi story, which is my favorite genre. Pretty heart-wrenching scenes in it, too. First one I played, and I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon.


G-senjou no Maou - Fantastic, frightening. It's got a kind of a generic character list (the protagonist being a Yakuza member seems pretty cliché in my opinion), but the characters have a lot of depth to them. This one can be pretty disturbing.


Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo - Very good one here, too, but only for 18+. This one, unlike the other ones, can make you feel pretty tense and angry. Lots of emotion in this one, but not nearly as tear-jerking as CLANNAD.


Narcissu - Another pretty sad one. Not much really happens, but it's still a good story. Don't expect some kind of magical resolution, though.


Don't Take it Personally, Babe. It Just Ain't Your Story - Bottom of the list, but definitely not a bad game. Good story, good food for though, but half-baked ending. The character sprites can look pretty funky too.


If you guys have played any good ones, let me know! Oh, and if you want to play one of these for kicks, I'd recommend any of these, but you might want to go with Ever 17 first.
 
Do they make Western Visual Novels? I mean, there has to be a European or American-born one floating around somewhere.
 
Do they make Western Visual Novels? I mean, there has to be a European or American-born one floating around somewhere.

I honestly haven't looked too much into it. I would think that they wouldn't be incredibly common, since it seems to be kind of a niche interest in the Western World. There are a ton that have been translated, though. Some translations tend to stay in line with Japanese culture, like CLANNAD does with its Japanese references and things like that, while others seem to try to Westernize the game through text, like Ever 17.

I'm assuming that only Narcissu is available for the Pandora? Are these for free? Where do I find them and what OS is required?

Yeah, it seems like only Narcissu is available on the Pandora, but the neat thing about that game is that it uses an open-source engine that is used by a lot of free visual novels. For some of those, it would be as simple as swapping out the data files of the Pandora's Narcissu with the game you want to play.


The ones I've listed all cost money, except for Narcissu and Don't Take it Personally. The others are all very long, taking at minimum something like ten hours to play for the shortest one, and they all have voice acting. but there are some pretty killer free ones out there still. I heard some good things about one called True Remembrance, which you'll find with a quick google search. The lame thing is that they all support Windows only, and Linux support through wine can be sketchy. Still, a lot of the free ones you'll find run with Nscripter/ONscripter, which is what Narcissu runs. Those ones can run natively on Linux.


But if you're looking for a quick one to mess with, Don't Take it Personally has a native Linux port, but I wouldn't really use that game as an example. ;)


EDIT: Oh, and one more thing: Ever 17 is absolutely brilliant and I really hope someone else on here can experience it. But the company who made it went bankrupt and it's not really being sold anywhere. I've seen some sold on Amazon for $100+... So you might want to look for it in alternative places.
 
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