Zalor

What I mean more specifically is whether you have VNs that you would recommend to somebody who falls under a particular category. For instance I usually organize my VN recommendations under three categories of people I could potentially be speaking with: 1) Somebody completely ignorant of weeb stuff, 2) Somebody familiar with anime, manga and/or Japanese video games, 3) Somebody who is already exposed to VNs looking to try new ones out. More specifically I always find myself recommending people who have minimal contact with weeb stuff Narcissu since firstly it doesn't have an overtly anime-ish style in comparison to most VNs, I consider it to be quite good, and its short as well as free. It seems to be the most accessible VN I could recommend to somebody. But then I also have a VN like Suba Hibi which is among my all time favorite, but I struggle to recommend it even to the 3rd category of people because of how difficult it can to be to get through to the finish. Inevitably most of my recommendations are best suited for people who fall under categories 2 or 3. So I guess I'm asking whether anyone else uses a similar system when recommending VNs, and if so do you mind sharing what system you use and which VNs you recommend for the different categories?

The art really was the draw for me, but after reading around 10 - 15 minutes of it I have to say I was kind of confused as well. Glad I wasn't the only one since I thought maybe I was just stupid. I think it has a problem where the art is nice, and for a different story it could have worked perfectly, but in Unfamiliar Work it felt like the art and writing were in conflict with each other. Not helping each other out which is the relationship art, writing and audio should have in a VN. I guess I'll have to try Eislyn's Apocalypse next.

I love it when a VN actually make proper usage of having multiple endings by expanding on different things with each different route. That sentence alone convinced me to check out Eislyn’s Apocalypse. Also the honorable mention, Unfamiliar Work, looks to have quite an interesting art style. At least based off of the sample art on the itch.io page.

True story, I remember talking to some guy in an izayaka and some how the topic of VNs came up. He had only read a couple, but among them was Katawa Shoujo. So I can confirm, Katawa Shoujo is even well respected in Japan.

Haha, I was actually about to edit my post to mention some of the stuff you did. I think YU-NO is a great TL;DR answer for the first most influential story based VN. But of course the story isn't that simple. In my opinion I think a lot of influence could be traced to one specific individual, Kanno Hiroyuki. Who was the primary writer for Eve: Bust Error, DESIRE, Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~, and of course YU-NO. All of these mentioned VNs are classics imo. I also want to give Umemoto Ryu an honorable mention because he often collaborated with Kanno Hiroyuki, and his compositions often captured the tone of Kanno's writing excellently. I think he worked on the compositions for all those VNs I mentioned above, so the two were a great combination.

I've been researching PC-98 visual novels quite a bit lately. And simply put, while you could argue on details, I would say Yu-No is an excellent starting place for what defines the modern story-based VN.

VN's that I marathoned within a couple days to a week have been: Swan Song, Yume Miru Kusuri, Narcissu, Saya no Uta and Dies Irae.

My question is how do you deal with seeing something you love (Jrpgs, VNs, anime) gradually betray the reasons/quality you got into them in the first place? For me, I had to take significant breaks from VNs, anime, and the communities attached to those things to keep a piece of mind. And I completely ignore recent releases unless if someone who I know explicitly recommends me one. Otherwise I tend to just get upset at the current state of things. Overall, its just gotten me more withdrawn from the Otaku community. Although a positive is that I've developed other hobbies and interests, so its not like I'm completely socially withdrawn or anything.

Its steadily getting more mainstream, but as is often when a niche medium/genre steadily gains more mainstream attention, it isn't necessarily a good thing if you are an old school fan. I first got into VNs around 2010/2011, they were extremely niche back then. Not as niche as say the early - mid 00s, but thanks to the Visual Novel fan-translation scene that took off around the mid-2000's they were steadily gaining more attention. Likely in part because anime was also becoming more mainstream. And It was the fan-transaltion of Kanon (which I was interested in because of the 2006 Kanon anime) that actually first exposed me to this medium. The correlation between a rise in the amount of fan-translations and rise in VN popularity in the west (even if still very moderate), is likely why Aaeru started Fuwanovel. She was the one who coined the Fuwanovel motto "Making VNs popular in the west", and among her biggest goals was to increase fan-translation output. Ultimately she fought a losing battle, because as VNs were starting to get more attention, companies and localizers started to pay more attention to them as well. So ironically the fan-translators who arguably helped grow this incredibly niche medium, were now getting cease and desist threats because companies wanted to take advantage of this potential market. Infact this very thing happened to Aaeru herself Not saying mangagamer or JastUSA are the badguys at all, I respect them a lot for being the OG localizers in the industry. When shit really hit the fan imo, is when Steam became a popular avenue to sell/market VNs. It was in this phase that VN's once again hit a bump in relative popularity, but this new audience by in large has very different taste then what original VN fans care for. Dies Irae and Suba Hibi for example, are two VNs very much beloved by older school VN fans but did pretty poorly when compared to DDLC. DDLC was a perfect market exploit of the new demographic of potential VN purchasers on Steam. Now I know DDLC is a free game, but its massive outburst in popularity proved one thing. It proved that VN's can reach mainstream popularity, but to do so would require betraying old school VN fans (at least in my opinion).

It isn't slice of life, but it has an experienced heroine and the story to this VN is fantastic (one of my all time favorite tbh): Swan Song. Its also translated. Forest: Is another amazing plot oriented VN, and it has a heroine that is a prostitute.... So yeah she is experience lol.

Heard Snafu/Oregairu was finally suppose to have a season 3. But apparently it got delayed so instead they are reairing Season 2 which I never actually finished. Crazy to think that I was in High School when season 2 was coming out.

Originally I was working on a version where I dubbed the dialogue boxes with random Japanese from Suba Hibi. I got like 20% through doing that but ultimately abandoned that idea because I thought it would have distracted from the movie too much. Also it was a hassle. 16:00 is from the Visual Novel For Elise ～エリーゼのために～. Like 90% of the OST of that VN are rearrangements of Beethoven's Fur Elise. This is the specific track I used:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is as close as films get to denpa. And it actually has several significant similarities with one of my favorite denpa VNs, Sayonara wo Oshiete. Since its a silent film in public domain, I decided to upload a version that exclusively uses music from VNs. Weird as a concept it maybe, I think it turned out decently well. But maybe I'm just the weird one lol. Anyway, here's the link: If anyone is interested in watching this, let me know how many tracks you recognize. I'm be curious to know.

I agree, thats the reason why I hardly use Discord and never found chat-apps appealing. Most of the conversations I had on those felt like I was wasting my time.

I think the death of forums can largely be attributed to Reddit with Discord behind it. I never understood the appeal of Reddit. I hate the format, I hate the karma system, and it doesn't foster any sense of community. Sometimes I feel like I'm alone in disliking Reddit so much, especially considering how popular it is. The karma system in particular I think is toxic, as it incentivizes hive-mind thinking and discourages unconventional/unpopular opinions.

Oh! Actually I just remembered, The Elevator takes place in a Detective's office. However, it isn't a particularly good VN. Though its not horrible. I would say its between bad and mediocre (also I'm a harsh critic).

The only thing that comes into mind for me is For Elise. But it doesn't have an English translation. It does appear to have a Chinese translation if by any chance you know Chinese.

These days my average is 0 minutes a day. But around once a year when I get the bug to play a VN again (and manage to find one that genuinely engages me) I will spend all my free time and likely procrastinate irl obligations to read it. This most recently happened to me with Dies Irae this past winter.

Sounds like you might be reading VNs more than before if you are doing it for work. ;p It makes sense you wouldn't want to do something during your free time as much if its your job.

A couple of days ago, I pretty abruptly starting thinking about my relationship to this medium and how its changed over time. Which inspired a blog post looking back on the first VN that truly gripped me and why it so effectively drew me to this medium. Over the years however, my interest in VNs (and otaku related things in general) have waned pretty significantly. I will still read and quite enjoy them on occasion, but not with any frequency. For me , I think it is mostly that the evolution of my tastes for storytelling have taken me to other places. Notably literature and film. But for those of you who have been into VNs and Otaku stuff for multiple years (maybe even decades) now. Has your relationship to the medium changed in any noticeable ways. Or do the habits/interests you held early on still predominantly persist after years?

The sound of a train indiscriminately moving, carrying you through the ride was the perfect metaphor. Its calming and comfortable, but there is a recognition that you aren't in control. It captured the themes of this story so well. My high school was close to a subway station, and in some classrooms I could space out and just watch the trains pass by. It often reminded me of this VN, as it just furthered the relevance of the ka-chunk sound to my own HS experience. Just like you it seems, I can really only look at this visual novel with the lens of nostalgia now. I've boarded off the train years ago. Existential anxiety has a different flavor now.

There is actually an ending if you choose to be complacent. Its not considered a good ending, but its not exactly a bad one either. It does do a good job of putting everything into perspective though. So you may appreciate that. While I do think YMK is a really good all around VN. I really just wanted to highlight why I subjectively like it so much in this post. Perhaps in the future I might do a more objective and analytical post about it. But I'm not sure.

Its cool to see somebody else's approach, especially when mine is no where near as structured. Usually when I write, I create characters nearly as spontaneously as I do sentences. I try to get a strong feel for what story I am trying to tell, and then I just let characters enter and leave, and do as I feel is most natural for them. In a way its more like taking dictation then it is actively leading a plot. It also helps keep me motivated to write, since much of the fun for me is seeing how things turn out. Often surprising me and going pretty differently from how I planned in my head. And often much better then how I originally planned.

I was in the middle of reading St. Augustine's Confessions when before I knew it I spontaneously started writing a blog post about YMK. I have no idea how the one sequence of events led to the other lol.

The monotony of school is an oppressive force on a kid's life. Psychologically omnipresent, you don't even need to be within its walls to feel its chains shackling you. Home is just made an extension of its presence with homework. And more then just the boredom of rote memorization and a lobotomizing curriculum, there is a social arena where you must interact with the other prisoners. Regardless of how you feel about them, its important to at least maintain a sociable facade. Unlike College where education is on your own dime, and therefore your own time. The grade school schedule from kindergarten through high school is rigidly compact, and generally you have little say in what you get to study. Regardless of talent, interest, or relevancy, you are stuck in a classroom where most other students are just as unenthused to be there as you. 8th Grade, 13 years old and my last year in junior high. I didn't need to put more than a minimal effort into my studies to attain the reputation as an honor student. Although on a superficial front I got along with everyone, I lacked any true connections that extended beyond the solidarity of being prisoners of the educational system I've just described. Life was dull, but everyone told me the path I was walking down had success and stability at the end of its road. That assumed I would continue playing the honor student role I fell into though. Despite the agency of free-will, I was complacent. Despite my ennui, I had little initiative or courage to stir things up. The irony of attending a Catholic school and passively turning a blind eye to the bullying occurring. The frustration of my sexuality awakening but being too emotionally impotent to do anything about it. This is the context in which I discovered Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Make You Dream. Past midnight, and I had just finished downloading a copy of the VN. I had promised myself to install it then go to bed. Opening the application up as a test, I was greeted with a soothing yet hypnotic track. Three girls with blank expressions were looking up at me amid an infinite expanse of vaguely drawn school desks. For minutes I just listened, utterly mesmerized. It was as though I was experiencing a drug that was making me dream. Winter break started the next day, and I had previously installed another visual novel that I was intending to start first. But as my consciousness was drifting in the dazed state before sleep, the title theme track kept ringing in my head. The next day I decided to start my vacation playing this VN instead, and that has made all the difference. The opening scene, an image of a generic blue sky with soft clouds. The narrator himself falls asleep and soon finds himself in an odd dream. Upon violently waking up, soothing music akin to the title screen track plays, and without even realizing it my own thoughts are absorbed by Kouhei's inner monologues. His thinking was so natural, and familiar. And that's when I noticed, I was Kouhei Kagami. The issues of bullying, interpersonal relationships, and the desire to escape the dullness of reality (albeit not through drugs, for me anime was my escape) were all subject matters I understood, and more importantly related to. The way things play out in the various routes always remain grounded in a firm realism. Which easily allowed me to project myself into the situations. But unlike a generic self-insert protagonist, what made Kouhei so relatable was his distinct voice. He was hesitant to tread towards anything that could shake him off his honor-student trajectory, and yet he was equally tempted and fascinated by such things. Smoking, sex, drugs, standing up to social forces; all things that even the most straight laced of teenagers will probably be tempted by. If not for the things themselves, then to grab control of your own life by actively doing something you shouldn't do. This is how Kouhei and I were kindred spirits. The way the story and Kouhei's perspective completely resonated with me led me to voraciously read something for the first time in my life. Before I always viewed reading as a chore, and I only ever reluctantly did so. Reading this VN however, led me into feeling as though everything was happening was to a slightly older, Japanese version of myself. It was that immersive quality that sucked me into the VN's world. That was my baptism into VNs. I'm 22 now, and rereading this VN I can't help but think back on myself and who I was when I first discovered it. Not only have I long since graduated high school, somewhere amidst my early adulthood I also learned to stop being such a passive participant in life. Yet while I can no longer identify with Kouhei Kagami like I did when I first read his story, I can still understand his thinking and actions so clearly. Almost like reading his perspective brings me back to my perspective when I was in my early teens. In that respect, Yume Miru Kusuri is kind of the Catcher in the Rye of VNs.