Recommend a VN

[acewing905]

I don't think the art is terrible. Remember it was made in 1998/1999. You can't compare it to stuff made today

It's not the age that's the problem. It's just that Hinoue Itaru can't draw faces for shit. This is quite obvious from Little Busters, where NA-GA's designs are a lot more pleasant compared to Hinoue's designs.
She's improved a lot by Rewrite, but remnants of her wide, high mouthed designs are still visible on her characters' faces.

Well, I'll continue to love the art no matter what you say. Just for curiosity, what characters are you talking about in LB?

Of course, opinions are opinions, after all.

Of the LB girls, Komari, Haruka, Kurugaya and Kanata are drawn by Hinoue, while Rin, Kud, Mio, Sasami and Saya are drawn by Na-Ga.

[Nobody in Particular]

If you think Clannad is too long, you should play Kanon instead. The routes are much shorter.

Guess I'll do that one first then. How many routes are there in Kanon? Does it take long to finish a single route?

If you think Clannad is too long, you should play Kanon instead. The routes are much shorter.

But the art is terrible. It's not like Clannad has very good art either, but Kanon is borderline hideous.
UGH... -_-

I wouldn't say Clannad's art is much better at all.

[FoxtrotZero]

Alright, so I took a look down the VNDB's highest rated VNs (the whole first page) and picked out the ones that seemed interesting. I also added some that had been previously reccomended. My list is thus:

• Ever17
• Clannad
• Yume Miru Kusuri
• Planetarian
• Kira*Kira
• Narcissu
• Muv-Luv
• Sekien no Inganock
• Digital: A Love Story
• Analogue: A Hate Story
• Kanon
• Wanko to Kurasou
• Edelweiss
• Crescendo
• Osananajimi wa Daitouryou
• True Remembrance
• Kazoku Keikaku
• Symphonic Rain

It's kinda long, but I figure I'll not run out for quite a long time, particularly given that I only plan on playing over breaks; I don't want to play on weekends and have my feels interrupted for five days at a time. There's a few of these that stand out to me, but I'm wondering who has opinions on these; if there are any I should play first, any I shouldn't play at all, or any that I REALLY should add to this list.

[Flutterz]

I found Clannad's and later Kanon's art jarring at first, but it seems to have grown on me quite a bit.

Speaking of Key, I just finished Rewrite's main heroine routes and while it is very different from their other VNs in that it has more action rather than being almost completely Slice of Life, and the endings are a lot more bittersweet, it's still very good and I can't wait to see how they wrap everything up in the Moon and Terra routes. Going to pick up Muv-Luv while I wait for the next patch.

Guess I'll do that one first then. How many routes are there in Kanon? Does it take long to finish a single route?

There are 5 routes in Kanon and no true route. I can't really say how long they take as I don't remember, but VNDB reports Kanon as 10-30 hours, so I guess about 4-5 hours per route.

It's kinda long, but I figure I'll not run out for quite a long time, particularly given that I only plan on playing over breaks; I don't want to play on weekends and have my feels interrupted for five days at a time. There's a few of these that stand out to me, but I'm wondering who has opinions on these; if there are any I should play first, any I shouldn't play at all, or any that I REALLY should add to this list.

You should really add Steins;Gate and Little Busters! to the list if you haven't done them already, Cross Channel and Saya no Uta are also good ones, but aren't everyone's cup of tea.

[FoxtrotZero]

I found Clannad's and later Kanon's art jarring at first, but it seems to have grown on me quite a bit.

Speaking of Key, I just finished Rewrite's main heroine routes and while it is very different from their other VNs in that it has more action rather than being almost completely Slice of Life, and the endings are a lot more bittersweet, it's still very good and I can't wait to see how they wrap everything up in the Moon and Terra routes. Going to pick up Muv-Luv while I wait for the next patch.

Guess I'll do that one first then. How many routes are there in Kanon? Does it take long to finish a single route?

There are 5 routes in Kanon and no true route. I can't really say how long they take as I don't remember, but VNDB reports Kanon as 10-30 hours, so I guess about 4-5 hours per route.

It's kinda long, but I figure I'll not run out for quite a long time, particularly given that I only plan on playing over breaks; I don't want to play on weekends and have my feels interrupted for five days at a time. There's a few of these that stand out to me, but I'm wondering who has opinions on these; if there are any I should play first, any I shouldn't play at all, or any that I REALLY should add to this list.

You should really add Steins;Gate and Little Busters! to the list if you haven't done them already, Cross Channel and Saya no Uta are also good ones, but aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Mmh. I'll add Steins;Gate and Cross+Channel to the list. Little Busters! and Saya no Uta really don't seem like my thing (I could probably do Saya no Uta if the premise didn't seem really freaking creepy).

[Nobody in Particular]

It's kinda long, but I figure I'll not run out for quite a long time, particularly given that I only plan on playing over breaks; I don't want to play on weekends and have my feels interrupted for five days at a time. There's a few of these that stand out to me, but I'm wondering who has opinions on these; if there are any I should play first, any I shouldn't play at all, or any that I REALLY should add to this list.

Well Flutterz has already recommended them, but Steins;Gate and Cross†Channel are easily two of the best in the medium and are definitely worth playing at some point.

[Flutterz]

Mmh. I'll add Steins;Gate and Cross+Channel to the list. Little Busters! and Saya no Uta really don't seem like my thing (I could probably do Saya no Uta if the premise didn't seem really freaking creepy).

Well, Little Busters! isn't that different from other Key VNs. The description on VNDB makes it seem more complicated than it really is. Most of it is an ordinary slice of life VN, so if you end up liking Clannad(or KS for that matter ) you should really reconsider adding it. As for Saya no Uta, yeah, creepy is an understatement. But if you ever want to try something different, you know where to look.

[Silentcook]

Wanko to Kurasou is, pardon me, a wank. You won't get anything out of it that you couldn't get from any one of an army of clones.

[OtakuNinja]

Of the LB girls, Komari, Haruka, Kurugaya and Kanata are drawn by Hinoue, while Rin, Kud, Mio, Sasami and Saya are drawn by Na-Ga.

I don't see that much of a difference... Actually, I don't see any difference at all.

If you think Clannad is too long, you should play Kanon instead. The routes are much shorter.

Guess I'll do that one first then. How many routes are there in Kanon? Does it take long to finish a single route?

There are five routes in Kanon. For me it took about 12 hours to finish one route, 16 when I used the auto-text function.

[acewing905]

I don't see that much of a difference... Actually, I don't see any difference at all.

Seriously?


(Click to enlarge)

Like I said before, which style is better is a matter of opinion, but the two artists definitely have their own distinct styles.

[OtakuNinja]

I don't see that much of a difference... Actually, I don't see any difference at all.

Seriously?

Like I said before, which style is better is a matter of opinion, but the two artists definitely have their own distinct styles.

Yeah, I still don't see any difference between the two artists.

[acewing905]

Yeah, I still don't see any difference between the two artists.

That's definitely a first. I've never seen anyone say that their art styles are similar before.

[OtakuNinja]

Yeah, I still don't see any difference between the two artists.

That's definitely a first. I've never seen anyone say that their art styles are similar before.

I asked my sister, and she didn't notice it either. The only difference she saw was between characters by the same artist.
Why don't you pick one character from each artist and give me a detailed list of what's different? That would help a lot.

[Flutterz]

First time I saw Little Busters I didn't even realize that it was by Key because the characters looked so different from Clannad, but I thought that was just a stylistic change, not that some of them had a different artist.

The two styles certainly look similar, it would have been a bit weird if they didn't, but I can clearly see the distinction between the two. Putting it into words, however, isn't nearly as easy. :/ It seems that the bottom row's eyes are slightly rounder, and slightly smaller. Also the shading on contours, for example on the chins, seems to be more subtle in the bottom row. That definitely isn't everything, but that's all I can point out right now.

[OtakuNinja]

Well in that case i must be shoujo-blind.

Btw, Amagami is still great.


EDIT: I recommend Amnesia, even though I haven't played it. It's an otome game, but from what I've seen in the anime (the first episode aired today), I think it's a great game. If I ever get my hands on it, I'll play it.