Author Topic: Recommendations?  (Read 7148 times)

OPOI

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Recommendations?
« on: July 04, 2013, 04:02:19 AM »
I was thinking of trying some visual novels soon, when the big exams are over.
Any recommendations?

LostHanyou

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2013, 08:19:36 AM »
It'd be good to know what you've already read and which ones you liked the most

OPOI

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2013, 08:33:28 AM »
Just Fate stay night and Steins Gate...

I'm not quite sure all the types of novels, so just throw some names at me and I'll check them out

LostHanyou

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2013, 08:48:47 AM »
Obviously Tsukihime since you read Fate

My other favorites are:
Saya no Uta (Horror/thriller)
Ever 17 (Mystery)
Clannad (Drama/Romance)
Katawa Shoujo (Drama/Romance)
G-senjou no Maou (Mystery)

Tyrnek

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2013, 06:27:00 PM »
+1 on Ever 17. That game will fuck with your mind.

Alice

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2013, 11:14:17 AM »
Hmm... I'm not sure how much I could help since I haven't read many of the mainstream visual novels myself (I mostly tend to go for otome in the VN department I've noticed ^_^"), but I guess maybe it'd help if I asked you this:

What genre's are you usually into?  Is there a particular type of story you tend to be invested in, or anything in particular you're looking for? Also, do you like gameplay in your VNs, prefer them without it, or not care either way?

Hopefully that should help. :D

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OPOI

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2013, 01:06:00 PM »
Hmm... I'm not sure how much I could help since I haven't read many of the mainstream visual novels myself (I mostly tend to go for otome in the VN department I've noticed ^_^"), but I guess maybe it'd help if I asked you this:

What genre's are you usually into?  Is there a particular type of story you tend to be invested in, or anything in particular you're looking for? Also, do you like gameplay in your VNs, prefer them without it, or not care either way?

Hopefully that should help. :D

Not into any genre in particular...
Gameplay...I'd prefer without them really, can't help but feel that they're a bit...redundant

Cherry Lover

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2013, 05:59:06 PM »
Also, do you like gameplay in your VNs, prefer them without it, or not care either way?

What do you mean by "gameplay"?

LostHanyou

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2013, 12:28:57 AM »
Some visual novels have actual gameplay.  Symphonic Rain, for example, is also a rhythm game.

KAIZA

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2013, 02:22:05 AM »
Then there are games like Danganronpa and Phoenix Wright, which are adventure/visual-novel hybrids.

OPOI

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2013, 02:06:55 PM »
Also, do you like gameplay in your VNs, prefer them without it, or not care either way?

What do you mean by "gameplay"?
And I think an Oreimo visual novel had a quick-time event thing for some bizarre reason

Willy Vereb

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2013, 10:08:04 PM »
Just Fate stay night and Steins Gate...

I'm not quite sure all the types of novels, so just throw some names at me and I'll check them out
I see.

First off, I might recommend Tsukihime jusat for the sake of completetion.
Tsukihime makes up the second big half of Nasu's works.
If you read this and FSN you get a much better gist of the Nasuverse.
Tsukihime is a supernatural murder/horror mystery story.
It has lot of suspense and secrets. No one, not even the protagonist, is who you'd initially believe them to be.
In terms of actual plot I believe it beats FSN. Even if I like FSN better.
The problem is that Tsukihime is Type-MOON's very first game and it was made when they were only considered a doujin-soft company.
(Needless to say, this game is what managed to change that soon.)
Which means its visuals are rather dated and the BGM is generally just so-so. (If it even works on your computer, so I suggest listening to something else while playing this.)
Still, I do recommend this to you.
Okay, that was the obligatory advertisement. Seeing this is a TM forum.
Other suggestions, based on the two VNs you played and what little I remember:

Ever17
This is a survival and Sci-Fi mystery.
The basic plot is that a group of people get trapped in an underwater entertainment complex after it suffers a weird accident.
You can choose one of the two protagonists and several routes as they are trying to find a way back to the surface.
Doesn't sound too ambitious but the looks can be deceiving.
I called it a Sci-Fi mystery with reason, afterall.
The execution is also pretty great. You get drama, suspense and decent amount of character development.
And there's a final route which finally puts every little piece together. And how!
If you liked Steins;Gate you'd most likely enjoy this too.
And I personally rate Ever17 higher.

Muv-Luv
Mecha/Sci-Fi/Action story.
Albeit you'd only realize this mid way.
Muv-Luv starts out as a fun but classic Harem/Dating Sim game.
And then you realize this is technically 3 games:
Muv-Luv Extra, Muv-Luv Unlimited and Muv-Luv Alternative (you have to get the last one as a separate game because the devs couldn't finish Alternative in time)
Like I said Extra is a romantic comedy.
But then our protagonist is suddenly drawn into a post-apocalyptic alternate reality. This is the start of Unlimited.
Think of a more bleak and dark version of Gundam with elements of military thriller.
Takeru becomes a cadet and slowly drilled into a soldier while understanding and settling down in this new world.
Still, that would only make Muv-Luv average in my book.
But then the previous two games are only a build-up for the last part, Alternative.
It involves Takeru trying to save the world.
But becoming a hero is no joke and Takeru had to learn this the hard way.
Every action of his drew unforeseen consequences.
Great progress were made at the cost of similarly huge sacrifices.
Diabolus Ex Machina to ensure anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong.
And through these failings and tribulations Takeru gradually changes into a man.
He steels himself and learns the real meaning of responsibility.
In this sense I can call this Heavens Feel turned up into eleven.
Of course, if anything, Alternative also has tons of mecha action, warfare, politics, intrigue and some Sci-Fi styled mystery.
And heroics. Lots and lots of heroics. It's like everyone including their mothers are secretly heroes waiting to bloom.
Muv-Luv Alternative, especially its second part, is very intense.
At times the plot is downright cruel, especially from the protagonist's viewpoint.
It isn't for the faint of heart, I suppose.
But I believe this all worth it.


G-Senou no Maou
This is a detective mystery/action story.
Basically it's a cat and mouse game between the protagonist and the enigmatic terrorist Maou.
Lots of plotting, wits and suspenseful situations.
Of course there are also certain betrayals and twists.
The characters are entertaining (especially Haru) but save a few they'd need more fleshing out.
That's what I could gather.
This game is on my list since a while but I have yet to garner the time to play it.
Hope it helps.

OPOI

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #12 on: August 11, 2013, 04:55:51 AM »
Wao, that is a lot!!! Thanks for all the recommendations guys, I'll definitely check out as many as I can soon!!


Oblivion

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2013, 11:22:36 PM »
If you want to pass a GOOD time laughing, sometimes even almost crying and whatnot, you should read the Grisaia series.
For now I think only the Grisaia no Kajitsu series is translated (by TLWiki IIRC), but if you can read moon runes, then is a must.

Grisaia no Kajitsu
Mihama Academy - on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree.

Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama.

Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome?And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain - his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students...


Grisaia no Meikyuu
Roughly a year after his arrival at Mihama, Yuuji makes the unexpected decision to pursue promotion within CIRS. The action resumes with Yuuji in a meeting with JB at "corporate HQ," discussing the documents he submitted for review as a part of the promotion process - said documents pertaining to none other than Yuuji's own past. Meanwhile, back at the dorm, the girls find themselves unwittingly following along after Sachi and Makina restore the shredded rough draft of said documents.

The irony, of course, being that prominent figures in Yuuji's past may just be continuing to exert their influence upon the present... Also includes after stories for all heroines from Grisaia no Kajitsu as well as other side stories.


Grisaia no Rakuen
A boy trying to find the paradise he once lost arrived in a secluded garden at the end of the world, where he found five girls. Not knowing himself what the result would be, he took out five seeds and distributed them to the girls, driven by a sense of duty and perhaps even the faintest murmurings of something like hope. One by one, the girls planted the seeds they had been entrusted with in the ground around them, waiting for the day when they would bear fruit.But whether or not this day will come remains to be seen - everything hinges on one final struggle to learn where a true paradise is to be found.



That's pretty much the review of the series. It's pretty hilarous when you read it, and you can note some references of general culture here and there. Has good scenes, pacing, characters and story. Yuuji's past is evident since the beginning, but it does develop really well and leaves a pretty good impression. Although it's an eroge, it does not rely too much in it to be a great story. It's well planned and it's hard to get bored with it. I recommend it strongly.

raininmoon

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Re: Recommendations?
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2018, 12:00:31 PM »
Wow awesome thread! very informative I'm thinking of getting into VN games too, this helped me a lot.
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