Recommend a VN

[Mysterious Stranger]

Well guess I'll do that one then. Wasn't aware it had gameplay in either, so I guess that will be something to look forward too. Thanks. If I may ask one more question, how does it compare to Kira Kira and Katawa Shoujo? Is it better or worse in your opinion?

None of the ones I mentioned are discussed or recommended much (except for Chaos;Head for all the wrong reasons) so I didn't have much to go by for any of them.

I thought it was better than Kira Kira all around, since I still can't say I particularly enjoyed that one (*smiles bitterly*). And ah, well, Katawa Shoujo is still god-tier from my very inexperienced point of view, the only thing that has so far come close is G-senjou. But I really did like Princess Waltz, it has a rather excellent mix of comedy, over-the-top shounen action (in fact there are many fight scenes that are quite intense despite the relatively static medium, the developers were very clever about how they implemented all of that), and a few serious feely moments. And I thought the final ending was rather superb.

I should probably mention that there are only three choices in the entire game, and they're all back-to-back towards the very end. I realize there are VNs that have no choices at all, and are completely linear, but it did surprise me. The card-based battles will be your only form of interaction for pretty much the entire first three-quarters of the game. But yes, keep in mind this recommendation is coming from a complete newbie.

[Surreal-mind]

A couple of days ago I saw some screenshots and some comments on a VN called "Deardrops".
The whole story is supposed to be very good and someone said that it was very similar to Katawa Shoujo.

Anyone played this ? Is it good ? Would you recommend it ?

[Nobody in Particular]

I thought it was better than Kira Kira all around, since I still can't say I particularly enjoyed that one (*smiles bitterly*). And ah, well, Katawa Shoujo is still god-tier from my very inexperienced point of view, the only thing that has so far come close is G-senjou. But I really did like Princess Waltz, it has a rather excellent mix of comedy, over-the-top shounen action (in fact there are many fight scenes that are quite intense despite the relatively static medium, the developers were very clever about how they implemented all of that), and a few serious feely moments. And I thought the final ending was rather superb.

A comedy? That's good enough for me. I doubt I'll enjoy it as much as I did Kira Kira (I really loved that one) but who knows.

I should probably mention that there are only three choices in the entire game, and they're all back-to-back towards the very end. I realize there are VNs that have no choices at all, and are completely linear, but it did surprise me. The card-based battles will be your only form of interaction for pretty much the entire first three-quarters of the game. But yes, keep in mind this recommendation is coming from a complete newbie.

The amount of choices don't matter all that much. Saya no Uta only had two choices, and that one was fantastic. Also I think that a minigame of sorts is more than enough interaction then you get from an average VN. Thanks for your input Mysterious Stranger, I look forward to playing that one.

A couple of days ago I saw some screenshots and some comments on a VN called "Deardrops".
The whole story is supposed to be very good and someone said that it was very similar to Katawa Shoujo.

Anyone played this ? Is it good ? Would you recommend it ?

Personally I would recommend Kira Kira and Kira Kira Curtain Call before DEARDROPS. DEARDROPS is set in the same universe as Kira Kira although set at a later date and as a result there are references and even a couple of cameos scattered throughout the VN. Ultimately though it doesn't make that much of a difference.

DEARDROPS isn't at all like Katawa Shoujo in my opinion. DEARDROPS focuses on comedy whereas Katawa Shoujo focussed on getting the player emotionally invested in the characters. I thought that DEARDROPS was pretty mediocre, although many people seemed to enjoy it. I would, however, recommend it as it is pretty fun. Those who disliked Kira Kira tend to enjoy DEARDROPS.

If you want something like Katawa Shoujo then I would recommend Yume Miru Kusuri, if you haven't played it already. I enjoyed it about as much as I enjoyed DEARDROPS (i.e. not much) but it does generally get pretty good ratings.

[TheBrotasticBrony]

Quartett! is a great one with excellent art and music, and it's also pretty funny too.

[stanman237]

If you want minigames, check out Little Busters by Key. There's baseball, 1v1 fighting game, stats and accessories for each characters, 3 secret, funny, extra path with one being world domination.

The part I like the best is the common route changes as you complete each path. Please note that since it is a Key Work, it is a Nakige even though it doesn't seem like one for the first 75% of the game.

If anything this should be a reason why you should try it out

[mysterycycle]

Finished Narcissu but lets say Windows 7 and Narcissu are mortal enemies.

Crashed every single time a chapter was finished and occasionally, when you load a new scene. I couldn't load saves unless I run administrator mode of the game before the save and after it. Trying to backwards compatibility with windows xp resulted in windows 7 not finding the game which is hilarious. All in all, it crashed about 25-30 times making the read through 2-3x longer.

Back to the story, you see the ending coming from the beginning but it still hits you.

Anyone else had as many troubles as I did with this?

Note: Thank god it was short or I would had quit a long time ago

I had this problem during, it was a real pain. Downloading Narcissu 2 will fix this error, as it comes bundledwith a non-crash version of the original VN.

LOL now someone tells me about this

What stanman said. I haven't finished Narcissu yet because of Windows 7's hatred of it. Good to know this.

[acewing905]

1v1 fighting game

This is out of our control and happens automatically, though, so I don't think it can exactly be considered a minigame.
Oh, and also, the minigames end with the common route. The heroine routes, and Refrain, aka the "true" route, have no minigames, and take up a huge portion of the game. In short, LB isn't about the minigames at all. They're surely entertaining distractions, but nothing to focus on, other than to access events like defeating Mask the Saito or the Mysterious Lifeforms.

[encrypted12345]

1v1 fighting game

This is out of our control and happens automatically, though, so I don't think it can exactly be considered a minigame.
Oh, and also, the minigames end with the common route. The heroine routes, and Refrain, aka the "true" route, have no minigames, and take up a huge portion of the game. In short, LB isn't about the minigames at all. They're surely entertaining distractions, but nothing to focus on, other than to access events like defeating Mask the Saito or the Mysterious Lifeforms.

Yeah, the minigames were unimportant, but they were a nice touch. Hitting the cats with baseballs was fun and helped me to like Rin as a character.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Hitting the cats with baseballs was fun and helped me to like Rin as a character.

I'm going to go ahead and reserve judgment of this statement until I play Little Busters.

[Nobody in Particular]

Quartett! is a great one with excellent art and music, and it's also pretty funny too.

What is Quartett! anyway? I have heard it get recommend quite a lot and that it's about music, but I don't really know anything else about it. Is it a comedy or something? The VNDB tags don't really help on this one, except for "Slice of Life Realism".

[encrypted12345]

What is Quartett! anyway? I have heard it get recommend quite a lot and that it's about music, but I don't really know anything else about it. Is it a comedy or something? The VNDB tags don't really help on this one, except for "Slice of Life Realism".

It's Slice of Life realism. Jokes aside, it starts out as a comedy, but becomes more dramatic after the common route. The one route I didn't like got stupidly dark in my opinion, but since it's short, you should give them all a try. I recommend Charlotte's route last since it fits best with the short epilogue at the end. The story is nothing mind-blowing, but the presentation is awesome.

[Nobody in Particular]

It's Slice of Life realism. Jokes aside, it starts out as a comedy, but becomes more dramatic after the common route. The one route I didn't like got stupidly dark in my opinion, but since it's short, you should give them all a try. I recommend Charlotte's route last since it fits best with the short epilogue at the end. The story is nothing mind-blowing, but the presentation is awesome.

So it's basically a comedy/drama with music. Sounds good, guess I'll play that before Princess Waltz since it is apparently short. The comic book style artwork within a VN looks like an amusing novelty, would have thought that style would be slightly more popular among the medium. Thanks.

[Surreal-mind]

good recomendations.

Thanks man ! I will give 'em a try when I get the chance.


I am really new to the whole VN deal, to be honest the only ones I've actually played are:
Policenauts, Snatcher, Phoenix Wright 1-2, Katawa Shoujo,Famicom detective club and Fedora Spade.

Can you guys recommend me VNs similar to Snatcher and Policenauts ?

[stanman237]

Hitting the cats with baseballs was fun and helped me to like Rin as a character.

I'm going to go ahead and reserve judgment of this statement until I play Little Busters.

Finished Refrain and lets say hitting enough cats would get wonderful results.

Question to people who finished both Clannad and Little Busters: Which do you like more, Clannad After Story or Little Busters Refrain? I personally liked the Refrain better because of the scope of things along with perspectives from other characters.

[BobBobberson]

http://desuchan.net/vn/src/1306386931188.jpg

Recommending Sengoku Rance again, because you get stupidly hilarious choices and insane one-liners, all squeezed inside a turn-based strategy eroge! And there's 5 routes! Which means you have to conquer Japan 5 motherfucking times to beat it! Yayyyy. OK i'll stop with the Sengoku Rance recommendations now. That, and Rance is a fucking badass.