Recommend a VN

[UrbanBas]

check out the official site, which is plastered with notices that this is NOT an April Fool's joke.

Suspiciously Specific Denial

There's that and the fact that the "official site" link doesn't even work.

[Mirage_GSM]

It worked for me, not that i could read all that much...
Still probably a joke, but with the japanese you never know...

[Censuur]

Style is a matter of taste, and if the music is really horrible, I can turn it off and still read a good story.
I'm not sure what you mean by dialogue... I agree that if the writing style is bad, or if the characters say OOC things all the time it does detract from the story. Can't say I have any complaints about Ever17 in that department, though.

Ultimately how you experience a VN comes down to preference and your ability of understanding, you wont be able to enjoy a complicated and intricate VN if you're simply unable to understand it or put it into proper perspective, you mention characters saying OOC things all the time detracts from the story, but that might just be perceived that way because you fail to understand the context

That said, I can't help but tip on ever 17 some more since the "characters" there never had much of a personality or "character" to break out of, its not so much them never going OOC as them never being in character to begin with. To me, ever 17 begins with a bunch of individuals with no goal or purpose, like a rock being thrown in the water and we're supposed to worry about the situation of the rock, the characters are just utterly lacking in humanity which makes it difficult for me to sympathize with their situation

I'd personally recommend muv luv as a series, though I enjoyed the separate chapters all the same (extra, unlimited and alternative being the things I refer to as chapters here) it has its flaws, but each chapter manages to capture a certain atmosphere and setting quite nicely extra being very light and comic, mostly to draw a comparison to the alternate scenario's in unlimited and alternative for increased dramatic effect, but the comical setting is something I found entertaining in its own right

In retrospect, what I found most enjoyable of muv luv is that it went out of its way to actually include loading back and making different choices as part of the actual story, there are flaws in the story of course, I was able to find quite a few inconsistencies in the end and some parts of the dialogue and narrative felt stretched in the end

Ultimately recommending a VN is difficult because how you experience them hinges mostly on how you interpret them, which is different for each and every individual. Simply saying "x VN is y" isn't enough

[Mirage_GSM]

Ultimately how you experience a VN comes down to preference and your ability of understanding, you wont be able to enjoy a complicated and intricate VN if you're simply unable to understand it or put it into proper perspective, you mention characters saying OOC things all the time detracts from the story, but that might just be perceived that way because you fail to understand the context.

Well, I am quite confident in my ability to understand intricate VNs, and I've read enough... well not so many VNs but enough stories to "put them into proper perspective". Anyway that comment was more of a general nature and not aimed at any VN in particular.
Regarding the rest... I'm sorry, but I simply can't relate to your complaints about the cast. I liked every one of them, so let's just agree to disagree here.

[Censuur]

Well, I am quite confident in my ability to understand intricate VNs, and I've read enough... well not so many VNs but enough stories to "put them into proper perspective". Anyway that comment was more of a general nature and not aimed at any VN in particular.
Regarding the rest... I'm sorry, but I simply can't relate to your complaints about the cast. I liked every one of them, so let's just agree to disagree here.

Confidence comes from ignorance, you don't know what you can do until you know what you can't do, and for that the human lifetime simply isn't enough

Don't get me wrong though, being confident doesn't make you an idiot, it just makes you that much more likely to be wrong. Thinking you're right isn't that bad, knowing you're right is much better though

I realize what I'm saying here might sound incredibly offensive but be assured that I mean no offense, just painting a little perspective here, feel free to prove me wrong

The fact that you can't relate to my complaints about the cast just shows that people have different tastes, I prefer characters to have a clear purpose, a goal they are working towards over the course of the story and the protagonist of ever 17 utterly lacks that, to me a good story includes telling the audience what the character will do once you stop reading the story, when the adversity the character has to overcome ends, to me, ever 17 never got to that point before boring me too much (the problem was more important than the characters, they simply had no existence outside of the problem scenario the story took part in)

In the end, I read a story for the characters, not the events, which is why knowing the end of a story doesn't ruin it for me in any way (I tend to predict it before I'm halfway through the story anyway, assuming the story is at least consistent with itself and doesn't pull too many deus ex's) part of what made muv luv such a good story to me is the fact that all the characters had a goal, a reason to exist outside of the story, they were going to do things even after the story ends, the problem wasn't what made them, it was an obstacle they had to overcome in order to get back to working on what was important to them which made them much more believable

The issue with a story that revolves around a problem is that it only has two possible endings and how they get to that ending is irrelevant, the characters will either win or lose, and thats the end of it, its a type of story that requires no thought or interpretation, and you wont miss much if you just skip to the ending

A story that revolves around the characters is different in that in doesn't matter what the resolution to the problem is (winning or losing isn't the most important thing per se) it matters how the problem is resolved which leads to much more intricate storytelling and a much more immersive and engaging experience

Anyway, I'll stop now before this gets too long, you're probably not here to read me rambling, though I'm certainly up for more discussion if so desired

[Qaenyin]

Style is a matter of taste, and if the music is really horrible, I can turn it off and still read a good story.
I'm not sure what you mean by dialogue... I agree that if the writing style is bad, or if the characters say OOC things all the time it does detract from the story. Can't say I have any complaints about Ever17 in that department, though.

Well look at, say, Tsukihime/FSN for example. The dialogue there is really.... awkward, a lot of the choices of wording in the narration is really... strange and off-putting(mollusks? Really?), etc.

Likewise, if the music is horrible, yes, you CAN turn it off, but having good music can drastically enhance something(Umineko is a good example of this, the music in it creates crazy strong atmosphere in a lot of scenes).

And art style(and even graphical quality) can have a strong influence on something's presentability. Even something as small as having characters actually blink and having moving lips on the sprits in VNs can create a little bit of immersion, and showing while narrating can make a big difference.

Take Muv Luv for example. Compare the mech battles in Unlimited with the equivalent scenes in Alternative. The difference is really big, from something as simple as having animated sprites instead of unmoving CG and narration.

And for art style, yes it can hurt the presentation. I had a really hard time reading Higurashi just because the visuals in that game were so badly drawn and childish. Umineko was much better, although I'd prefer it with the PS3 sprites.

[Leotrak]

I've come to realize that a particular VN I've been reading hasn't even been mentioned once yet...

EF - a fairytale of the two

I haven't found all of its secrets yet (on part 3 of 4, methinks), but so far, I'm impressed. It's seemingly another high-school romance VN (including teh pr0nz, which actually aren't completely lousy (except that, for some reason, the girls are all screamers...)), but there's just some things that don't entirely click... Not gonna spoiler anything, though

Each arc (so far) follows a different protagonist, and either the guy (yes, a guy, of course), or the girl you're supposed to go for are related somehow to either the protagonist of the previous arc, or the girl, or perhaps even a side character. Storytelling is done very nicely, and I've encountered no weirdness factors with the translation patch (google, wheeeeeee). Sprites and CGs look pretty dang fine, too. Definitely worth your time, methinks.

[rusPiglets]

Is there any VN that really starts out strong? I've almost come to accept boring beginnings as a fact of the VN world (Though I've only read 4, Ever17 being by far my favorite.)

I think Tsukihime.
From the very beginning they lay... I'm sorry, throw all cards into your face and you are left sorting this out.
Love this VN.

Both Akiha endings melted my brain.

[DMGnome]

Tsukihime still has infodump problems at the beginning, and stretches of badly-paced high school drama.

[Snooka]

Hello i'm pretty new to this forum and these kinds of games.

I tried the act 1 for Katawa Shoujo and was really impressed, and I can not wait intil it get out.

But intil that day I wonder if any members here can help me find some good games like Katawa Shoujo, and i do not care if it got H in it or not.

Like i say i have only played Katawa Shoujo, so recommend anything that you enjoyed playing.

Thanks.

[Otakumon]

Read this thread from the beginning and you will find several good suggestions.

[UrbanBas]

Read this thread from the beginning and you will find several good suggestions.

This is obvious. Were you trying to be funny?

[rusPiglets]

This is obvious. Were you trying to be funny?

He was trying to be considerate, answering a weak question.
Are you trying to be funny here?

[Mirage_GSM]

I think Snooka created a seperate thread for this question and someone merged it with this one.

[Nooodz]

Excellent thread.

Since i am blessed with a job in these terrible economic times, i am thinking about supporting the industry and the translators and wanted your opinion on the following titles. I don't live in the us and they can be pretty expensive:

crescendo
school days
saya no uta

I haven't seen the anime of the last two, though school days is famous enough. Also, both school days and saya no uta are pre order, so i would be hoping j-list doesn't sink with the economy. Regardless, i have heard a lot of good stuff from these titles and they interest me.

Also, you guys got me GREATLY interested in fate/stay night. Is there a fan translation of this?

Hello i'm pretty new to this forum and these kinds of games.

I tried the act 1 for Katawa Shoujo and was really impressed, and I can not wait intil it get out.

But intil that day I wonder if any members here can help me find some good games like Katawa Shoujo, and i do not care if it got H in it or not.

Like i say i have only played Katawa Shoujo, so recommend anything that you enjoyed playing.

Thanks.

I know 10+ pages threads can look clunky, but a VN player has to be ready to go through tl;dr parts to get to the good ones. Anyway, two choices of mine from this thread. Both are free:

memo: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =11&t=6601
started playing it. It's not groundbreaking, but it's light, has solid writing and art and i like the music. Good start.

narcissu: http://narcissu.insani.org/index.html
i started playing it a long time ago, dropped it since i wasn't in the mood to play VNs. But the folks here strongly advise it, so i will try it again.