Can anyone recommend a good first one? I'd prefer it to have at least sone interacton. Apparently When They Cry is a bit low on that. How much so? If it has, at least, branching paths it might be good.
(Okay technically it's my second one cause I played 999 so what who cares)
When normal gaming grew stale for me, I happened to get a visual novel that opened up a whole new world of games to keep an eye on. I had already been interested for a while in english translation of japanese games... The Ys series, the many translated roms for older consoles, etc...
So it was only natural for me to be curious about VNs, and fortunately I hit the jackpot.
Of course, like Cave Story is to many other platformers; the ones really worth the time are far and few.
To nobody specific :
Is there a visual novel right for you?
First off, do you like some anime and some anime art styles?
Second, do you like games produced in Japan? (no brainer! CAVE STORY!)
Third, are you interested in reading about relationships between people?
And as a major bonus, do you like the spoken Japanese language?
If all yes, then there's *bound* to be a VN that's right for you~
Takamine Yuuto is a regular guy with a heavy responsibility. After losing his parents, instead of relying on relatives he decides to live independently and provide for his stepsister Kaori. Their life together is hard, but pleasant; passed in friendly quarrels with his rival Shun, and accompanied by their childhood friend Kyouko.
But the wheel of fate moves as it wills. In an astonishing turn of events, Yuuto and his sister are summoned to another dimension: the land of Phantasmagoria. Kaori is held captive, and without the ability to understand or communicate in this new world, Yuuto is compelled to become an Etranger - a warrior of power - and take up the sword, becoming a force in the conflict raging in this alien world.
To protect Kaori, the unwilling Yuuto throws himself into the fray. But as he fights alongside the fighters known as Spirits, living among the people of Phantasmagoria, he slowly comes to discover other reasons for his ongoing struggle...
Ever17 is the tale of seven individuals who come to be trapped 153 feet within the underwater marine theme park, LeMU. During an apparently normal day at the park, a massive accident happens, placing almost half of the facility underwater. The path to the surface and the communication lines are cut off. In addition, LeMU is under constant assault by severe water pressure, limiting time to find a means of escape to 119 hours. Escape is not the only concern, however; many questions arise as to the legitimacy of the accident and whether or not those trapped there were brought there for a purpose.
----The one who obtains the Holy Grail will have any wish come true.
The Holy Grail War.
A great ritual that materializes the greatest holy artifact, the Holy Grail.
There are two conditions to participate in this ritual.
To be a magus, and to be a "Master" chosen by the Holy Grail.
(The experience as a magus is not questioned if one has the aptitude)
There are seven chosen Masters, and seven classes of Servants.
There is only one Holy Grail.
If you wish for a miracle.
Prove that you are the strongest with your powers.
+ Plenty of choices, several routes
- There is a non-ero patch available (I believe); although the complete all-ages Realta Nua patch is still in development
Type : PC Translation patch release
A Bizarre Serial Murder Mystery. There's A Serial Killer Close By. A Prohibited Psychothriller. The Multi-Sight System Reveals Surprising Truth!
In this game there are two heroes, Kojiroh and Marina, who are each called to solve their own cases. This game allows you to switch characters at any time to solve the mysteries these heroes encounter. This "Multi-Sight Adventure" allows you to view what's happening behind-the-scenes from the other character's perspective, bump into each other, and sometimes even help each other out. Together, they come closer and closer to the shocking truth through their combined actions and skills of deduction.
Marina's Episode: Marina is a national intelligence agent with a 99% success rate. Her new assignment is to protect the daughter of a Japanese embassy official stationed abroad. As you encounter numerous attackers, you become aware of a dangerous government dispute that is the root of all these attacks.
Kojiroh's Episode: A seemingly down-on-his-luck private investigator finally gets a break, as he is hired to locate some mysterious piece of art. Even though he feels a little weird about this case, the pay is huge! Yet he may be drawn into an unexpected nightmare involving a string of bizarre murders.
You play a young male Japanese student on vacation in Los Angeles who unwittingly finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is witness to a murder and is very surprised that the killer is a dark-eyed young girl around his age. Despite his dumbfoundedness, he manages to escape the girl, only to black out and wake up in an abandoned warehouse in the clutches of Inferno.
+ Several routes, some choices; DVD system forces you to watch and listen to everything as it plays out although you can use a software DVD player to skip parts you've already seen. Has old fashion passwords.
- Still available on DVD in english for DVD players
Type : official DVD release
You play the role of Azai Kyousuke, the son of a legendary gangster infamous in the underworld. You spend your time listening to Bach, playing God at school and covertly working for your stepfather, a ruthless financial heavyweight. This idyllic existence is broken when two individuals appear in the city - a beautiful girl named Usami Haru with hair you could get lost in for days, and a powerful international gangster known only as "Maou". Almost without delay, the two begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game, bringing you and your friends into the crossfire. Plotting, political intrigue and layer upon layer of interlocking traps are the weapons in this epic battle of wits.
Galaxy Angels are from the "Special Guardian Division" and they work closely with the "Imperial Special Guards" and the "Satellite Defense Teams". They are the guardians of the White Moon, the sacred planet of the Transbaal Empire, and the personal protectors of the White Moon Goddess Shatoyan. The story begins with Prince Eonia attempting a take over of the Transbaal Empire with the aid of the mysterious Black Moon, counterpart to the White Moon. To counter Prince Eonia, the Angel-tai along with their flagship the Elsior are placed in the hands of the kind and ever-capable Commander Takuto Meyers.
+ Strategy active battle space battles
- Part of a trilogy, both which are ALSO translated (third might have some ero content included though)
Type : Translation patch release
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa, which has a population of approximately 2000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro-sama. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro-sama. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986 during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima (六軒島). The head of a wealthy family named Kinzō Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eleven of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzō's assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are five of Kinzō's servants, and his personal physician. After the eleven family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered.
Takumi is a high school student. He is withdrawn and is not interested in 3D things. In his town, a mysterious serial murder case happens and people get panicked. One day, when he chats on the internet, a man suddenly contacts him and gives him a URL. He goes to the website and finds a blog image that suggests a next murder case.... On the next day, it really happens....
subject in the Specified Psychiatric Hospital for Isolation and Aegis, or SPHIA. For unknown reasons, her plane crashes in the mountains in the middle of a snowstorm. Of the 31 passengers, only she, Kusuda Yuni, Yomogi Seiji, and Mayuzumi Lin survive unharmed. Unable to establish communication with the outside world due to the fierce snowstorm, the four decide to take shelter in an empty cabin and wait until the storm passes.
Yukidoh Satoru, a graduate student in the field of quantum physics, falls from the SPHIA clock tower. He later awakens with some memory loss and the realization that someone is out to kill him. Unable to leave the SPHIA facility due to a snowstorm, Satoru's only chance at living is to find that person among the three other residents (or perhaps the hidden culprit) of SPHIA.
Shortly after, Kokoro and Satoru realize that they are somehow exchanging bodies and Yuni appears to be at both of their locations...
The game centers on Jonathan Ingram, one of the five "Policenauts", astronauts with police training, assigned to ensure the safety of Beyond Coast, mankind's first fully-functional space colony in the year 2013. A freak accident occurs while testing a new space walking suit and Jonathan is drifted away into space and is presumed dead by his colleagues. He is found alive and well nearly 25 years later thanks to the cold-sleep module connected to the suit. Three years later, Jonathan (now a private investigator working in the former Los Angeles) is visited by his former wife, Lorraine. She asks for Jonathan's help in solving the disappearance of her current husband, Kenzo Hojo, the only clues he left behind being a torn leaf, a set of capsules, and the word "Plato". Jonathan is reluctant to take her case at first. However, after Lorraine leaves his office, she is attacked and murdered by a man in a black motorcycle suit. Jonathan, unable to catch the culprit, decides to fulfill his ex-wife's final request and travels to Beyond. There he is reunited with his former partner from his LAPD days, Ed Brown, who agrees to help Jonathan investigate the circumstances surrounding Hojo's disappearance and Lorraine's murder.
+ Many different interactive mini-games and adventure gaming
- Still out there... if you can find it! Uh, also see Snatcher
Type : Translation rompatch release
Count Georik Zaberisk builds a sterling reputation as the head Royal Physician tending to the King of Hardland. However, the poor health of his frail sister, Lillith, drives him to resign from his post and retire to the countryside where he lives the charmed life of nobility. One day, while Georik is away, Lillith is accused and tried for witchcraft by an angry mob of villagers -- her head is chopped off and her body burned! Somehow Georik manages to secure Lillith’s head and to his amazement finds that she is still alive, and Georik is consumed with a desire to make Lillith whole again. Georik learns of the homunculi, who use alchemy. However, the Kingdom of Hardland had outlawed witchcraft and alchemy long ago. Georik is forced to delve into the banned world of alchemy in order to help his sister.
The story focuses on the main character Sayori, who is a modern high school girl. She finds a mysterious pendant while out helping with an archeological dig (she's in the high school history club, and so is forced to attend), and later has a strange dream - it seems that the scene is from about a hundred and fifty years ago, during the last days of the samurai, and she sees Hatsuhime, princess of the Mochizuke clan, assassinated!
It gets even more strange when the scene changes, and Sayori realizes that she's in Hatsuhime's body; that she has somehow seen how things were, and the situation has somehow "reset", giving her the chance to avert the princess's terrible fate.
My deceased grandmother liked travelling. Strange scenery and strange people.... She liked to meet them. I'm now a high school student and set off on a trip as well. It's just a training camp of my club. We visit a town near the sea and go to a temple gate located at the cape to do some training. However, what we see there is....
Dreams... ice-blue eyes calling to you in the night...
The howls of wolves echo across empty streets.
Young women found dead, violently murdered.
Love and loneliness.
In Fatal Hearts you play the role of Christina Robinson and help her to uncover the secrets behind her dreams. As the story unfolds you will be forced to make choices of who to believe, who to trust, and who to declare an enemy. Solve puzzles and conquer challenges, but be careful, or Christina may become another victim...
Lillet Blan is a young magician admitted to a prestigious magic school, the Tower of Silver Star. Though she attends normal classes for the first four days and meets the various professors and students, on the fifth day Lillet awakens to learn that everyone in the tower is dead. Before she is killed as well, she is suddenly propelled back in time to her first night at school. Lillet then proceeds to relive the five days before the tragedy over and over again, retaining the knowledge of magic she learns in those five days and desperately trying to solve the mystery to prevent the same events (or worse) from taking place on the fifth day. Over the course of the plot, Lillet discovers dark secrets about her classmates, teachers, and even the academy itself, all of which will lead her to the truth.
An uninhabited, sealed off city, abandoned 30 years ago after a sudden biochemical warhead strike. The deserted ruins are ruled by autonomous battle drones.
And there, you meet a young woman whose name is Reverie. A member of the planetarium’s help staff who continued to wait for customers for thirty years.
+ No interactive features, but it's short
- digital download supported
Type : Translation patch release
(If you want to know my personal favorites out of those ... G-senjou no Maou is great, but I might not recommend it for the FIRST VN you play. It is very awesome though.
Phantom of Inferno was my first love , but you might not have the patience for the slow DVD player system the english release uses...
I say choose the one that best suites you from the description and video?)
Now, there is a whole slew of other *Great* novels I can add to that already lengthy list... but, uh ... They are rated 18+ and contain some ero in one form or another. Maybe I'll make a list of some of them sometime (like Tsukihime for instance))
This already took too long to write
Oh wow, I knew it had some disturbing themes; but didn't know it had ero content too.
I guess in the words of Samuel Jackson ... "Assumptions are the mother of all ... bleeeeeeeeeep"
, but you might not have the patience for the slow DVD player system the english release uses...
