Visual Novels

[Outeanos]

I've just finished reading all the routes and endings in CHAOS;HEAD NOAH (w. Committee of Zero patch) and I'm blown away with how much I enjoyed it. I had never played a visual novel before, and I must say this is much better than anime for some reason. This is a magical medium for sure. There is so much richness and soul in this world. I can't get enough of it. It's a middle ground between anime, manga and light novels. I didn't expect to get this immersed with it, but somehow it felt like I was watching an anime in my head, except as I explored the different routes I felt no anime would be able to explore such a rich story. The only one that did ever do this for me was perhaps Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.

Moreover, both CHAOS;HEAD and Suzumiya have a very rich metaphysical aspect to them. Some of the people who write these things know some stuff and they wouldn't have written them like this if they didn't. But that's a story for another thread, perhaps.

I have all the Science Adventure series lined up for playing after this. And I feel like there's a whole unexplored world waiting for me. But, anyway, what are your favorite visual novels? The absolute classics? And what makes them so special for you?

 

[MindControlBoxer]

I played True love as a teen more times than I like to admit.


Its a rec not because of the mid hentai, but because of the game play rpg aspect of it, lots of modern vns i feel ignore the branching paths by checks nowadays, it makes it more personal because then it its your character, you can't just make a choice to go run on the track tournament when you have no physical, it makes every playthrough more organic and unique. Also loads of hidden things to discover throughout.

 

[dargon]

...... I'm too biased
I'm sure @endless_self or @rain would give a top notch explanation

 

[SomaSpice]

...... I'm too biased
I'm sure @endless_self or @rain would give a top notch explanation

View attachment 93517

The real milk was the O we found along the way

 

[赤い男]

Don't we have a Visual Novels thread already?

 

[SomaSpice]

Don't we have a Visual Novels thread already?

Huh, yeah. Thought this was the old one. I'll link it for if any newfriends want to check it out.

Visual Novels - Old or new, let's talk about them

Visual novels. They're like a book, but with images. Or more like a comic, but with music. Or maybe more like a very elaborate powerpoint presentation, but pornographic. They're objectively the highest of the Japanese arts, so I cordially invite all members of the Agora to share their...

forum.agoraroad.com

 

[lain is here]

Huh, yeah. Thought this was the old one. I'll link it for if any newfriends want to check it out.

Visual Novels - Old or new, let's talk about them

Visual novels. They're like a book, but with images. Or more like a comic, but with music. Or maybe more like a very elaborate powerpoint presentation, but pornographic. They're objectively the highest of the Japanese arts, so I cordially invite all members of the Agora to share their...

forum.agoraroad.com

I used to Necro that thread all the time, good memories.

I'll use this as an opportunity to link to the screenshot Let's Play I did of a really cool underground 90's VN a while back:

Let's Play/Read For Elise ~Elise no Tame ni~ [COMPLETE]

A couple days ago I downloaded a retro visual novel that I've been interested in for a while, but that I think the broader Agora community might also find interesting. Since it's untranslated and likely never will be, reading it and writing a review of it seems pointless. Instead I had this...

forum.agoraroad.com

 

[Outeanos]

Don't we have a Visual Novels thread already?

DAMN. I searched, but I came up with nothing. Maybe this one should be locked then. After all, the thread I wanted to read seemingly materialized itself with 11 pages for me to peruse.

 

[spronket]

Visual Novels are one of my favorite storytelling mediums as it has the best aspects of anime/manga, film, and books. Good art and music, with mature and interesting stories, occasionally with great voice acting! It's a shame that so many are just pornographic and don't really fit that... Steins; Gate is one of my favorite works ever, as is Umineko.

 

[endless_self]

I'm sure @endless_self or @rain would give a top notch explanation

I will try my best! =D
Introducing... MILK INSIDE A BAG OF MILK... and MILK OUTSIDE A BAG OF MILK... games, woohoo!
Games made by russian developer Nikita Kryukov, that created story, soundtrack and written code for the games.
(if im not mistaken) Art for Milk outside... was made by @khromushka and @GhosttFuneral on twitter.
I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

First visual novel in the series (Milk inside...) is a more traditional visual novel with linear gameplay. Main "objective" of the novel is to help our completely normal and sane main character to buy milk and return home. During her trip to the store she will talk to the voice inside her head (us) and ask us for guidance. During this trip, she will talk to us and slowly reveal some aspects of her story. Game has two "endings" that are basically success or failure to buy and deliver milk.
Game has interesting art style, consisting of either pixel art or heavily edited and pixelated photos. Game mostly utilizes purple color palette, and (for me personally) creates feelings of both comfort and discomfort at the same time.
Here are spoiler-less screenshots:

This game is fairly nice, and considering its very cheap I recommend it as a really short one-time experience!
Next one is my favorite - Milk outside a bag of milk!

This game is a sequel to the previously described game, that expands on the background of our main character. Main goal of this game is to help the main character to fall asleep by collecting "fireflies", hidden in her personal belongings.
This game combines visual novels and point-and-click games, creating more interactive experience for the player. This game allows us to inspect items inside of main hero's room, revealing more detains about the twisted world of Milk games.
One of the things that caught my eye at first was absolutely gorgeous art style of the game. For the most part, game utilizes really small palette of colors, mainly - red and purplish-black color palette.
Screenshots (no spoilers):

I really enjoyed the original soundtrack of this game and it's game art. In perspective to the first game, this one is definitely more engaging and interactive and can be more interesting.

And that concludes my "review" of those novels!
I hope it wasn't to boring to read this)
Thanks @dargon for calling me into this thread, I appreciate it!