Visual novels

Recently, I've noticed an increase in general interest towards VNs on this site, from Patrick and his experience with Dangan Ronpa to members discussing Steins Gate and even Kawata Shojou. As such, I thought I'd start a thread to see what VNs people in this community have/ are reading, and which ones they would recommend. I've only completed one myself, Fate/ Stay Night, and I'm currently playing through Hadaka Shitsuji

That username...

Of course. Sir Dick Bonerflex of the proud Bonerflex family.

I was gonna write something relevant, but that username...

Does Virtues Last Reward count? It's a visual novel/puzzle game on the Vita and 3DS and I think the novel part of minus the puzzles made it's way to iOS. It was pretty enjoyable in the sense that I really wanted to find out what the hell was going on, even though most of the characters annoyed me.

Katawa Shoujo is absolutely worth playing, if you don't mind the sexual bits that pop up later on. It never really gets TOO creepy, but it could definitely turn some people off.

I also highly recommend anything by Christine Love. Both Analogue: A Love Story and Hate Plus are excellent, intriguing looks into a unique culture, and Don't Take it Personally, Babe is one of my favorite things from the last five years. Her new project sounds great too, a very adult and insightful look into romance and sexual relationships.

I haven't read a lot, and they are fairly "mainstream" as far as this niche fucking genre is concerned. But I'll list everything just for the hell of it.

• Little Busters: Romance/High School story. The individual story arcs are enjoyable at best. But I think the way things tie together at the end is pretty great. Though I had to outright ignore some things that would have otherwise put me off...
• Katawa Shoujo: Romance novel. It's popular on this site. Just look around it's subforum and you'll see a fair bit of threads. Pretty good entry level VN.
• Saya no Uta: !EXPLICIT SCENES! A pretty grotesque story. It's very short, and player input is minimal. But damn if it isn't hard to stop reading. Really enjoyed it. !EXPLICIT SCENES!
• Stein's Gate: Time travel and quirky characters. It's a pretty fun ride. Even fans of the anime could get something out of the multiple endings in the game.

I went a fair bit in to Clannad and G-Senjou no Maou. But meh. I had a hard time sticking with either.

I know the Infinity series is another set of visual novels worked on by the 999 writer "Kotaro Uchikoshi". I just looked it up on Giant bomb and apparently the series is a spiritual predecessor to the Zero escape games. (makes me even more interested now.)

I've never played them myself(999 and the ace attorney series are the only VN I've ever gotten into). Could anyone give any insight as to whether these games are worth checking out? I know I'm definitely interested in the genre, but the pervasiveness of hentai and the likes has kept me firmly away.

Also, Op's username is pretty fun to say out loud.

I dunno if it counts as a VN, but I played and enjoyed 999. The puzzles in that kinda made it more of a game than what I'd consider to be merely a visual novel. I've never played one though, so maybe they all have that kinda thing and I just dunno.

@tobbrobb: I am still slowly working through Little Busters, there are elements to it that I am not a fan of, but the more I kept playing and when I got pulled into komari's route and Rin 1 I was fully on board. Those are the only 2 routes I have completed so far as I have gotten busy with school. I started that game in May, so it has been a slow and steady race for me. I don't know if I would recommend it to someone completely new to visual novels, it has a lot of anime tropes that turn people off.

I played through both EF: The First Tale and Latter tale when its localized release came out in december and thought it was fantastic. Very emotional and not certain I would play through it again just because it really tackled some tense subject matter. I felt like the ending was left resolved and the game found closure, I may not have been 100% on board with how certain things played out but I felt like it did a whole lot better at telling a compelling story then most games trying to cover similar material.

One I would go so far to recommend would have to be Kara No Shoujo. Quite possibly one of the most gripping stories I have ever played, effectively juggles some very disturbing content in the story to keep you pushing forward to find out how it will all conclude. I am closely awaiting the future localizations from other Innocent Grey titles, Kara no Shoujo has a prequel and sequel, hopefully one of them will be out by end of year.

When I asked similar questions about getting into visual novels one company came up frequently in recommendations, that being Key. Not all of their titles have fan translations but I would still recommend checking out their various releases to see if they seem compelling to you. If you have hundreds of hours to spend on a title I would suggest playing through Clannad.

Bonerflex, Billy Herrington, Cirno and Naked Butler. It all makes sense.

If you liked FS/N at all you should also read Tsukihime, it's about half the length and the sex scenes are at least as awkward. I'm in two minds about Nasu's writing but the worlds he builds are really compelling.

@ervonymous:

Yeah, if anyone were to play FSN I'd probably recommend trying the realta nua version, cuz even though CG dragons WAS pretty stupid, Shiro's narration during some of those sex scenes is just awful.

@wolfgame: I'm pretty sure all of Key's VNs are traslated

You mean there are puzzles in Katawa Shoujo? I'm not prepared for this, man!

I'll second Tsukihime.

I also liked Himawari no Shoujo a lot.

@video_game_king said:

The Katawa Shoujo puzzle is actually the 片輪走行 trial in Ground Zeroes, the world record of which is something like 15+ hours. I like to think that a certain "片輪少女" is the record holder.

I actually did picture a girl driving a car on 2 wheels when I first heard the name Katawa Shoujo. My mind was too pure to imagine the possibility of a VN about cripples!

Hanako? It's Hanako, isn't it? It's gotta be Hanako.

In the OP, I neglected to mention that I have played Kawata Shojou and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it handle the whole disabled girl dating sim thing without making it super fetishy and offensive. Hadaka Shitsuji, on the other hand, is extremely weird and just a bit disturbing at times, though if you can handle or even enjoy seeing some man on man action, it's pretty entertaining.