Zalor

I'm a bit surprised that visual novel got you further interested with the medium and not disenchanted with it. In any case, I hope you find many interesting visual novels and enjoy the community here. Personally my recommendation for a visual novel to read would be Swan Song.

Doomfest is perhaps the most talented artist in the OELVN scene. Dischan are the only OELVN developers who produce works of quality in my opinion. Their stories are more western, and thus are more honest. A lot of the mistakes OELVN developers usually make that is pointed out in this thread, Dischan mostly avoids.

That is almost exactly what I am considering as well. And getting a degree is crucial for the Japanese job market. While I study a bit of Japanese here and there, I am mostly waiting for college because I don't have time now. So if you have time to study for school and Japanese, do that. But if you had to pick one or the other, well you already know my choice.

I'm in the same dilemma right now, academic studies or Japanese. I personally have prioritized my studies because 1) I get a lot of work from my teachers, 2) because my grades now determine what college I go to, 3) the colleges that I am applying to have great Japanese programs. The college I'm most interested in every year has 20 students from Waseda University study abroad in the school, likewise students studying Japanese at the school get the opportunity to study abroad a Waseda University. For all those reasons I have decided to hold my patience regarding learning Japanese. But if I had more time on my hands, my choice might be different.

As somebody who writes fiction during their free time (although admittedly I rarely do have much free-time), I dream of the day I can assemble a team and create an OELVN. Something almost avant garde in the medium. The mixture of music, art, and writing allows for limitless expressions of emotion and the imagination. Yet this near limitless medium is trapped mostly due to commercial reasons. I agree, OELVNs are the future for quality visual novels, because unlike in Japan there is no real market for VNs in the west. Thus there are no creative restraints on OELVN creators. Hell, most of the constraints in OELVNs are things the creators put on themselves. For some unknown reason OELVN creators keep copying all the bad things about Japanese VNs. Such as poorly using Japanese archetypes, by using school settings, etc. A visual novel story does not have to be confined to a school in Japan! OELVN creators need to get that through their heads. Clephas, I think seeing change will be hard for you because you are so invested in how Japanese most Visual novels are. From what I understand you refined you're reading of Japanese because of Visual Novels. As visual novels change and make a shift to OELVNs, new fans will be increasingly divorced from the Japanese market I think. Which will isolate new VN fans from old ones. This is all speculation though that won't happen for years to come. For now (for better and for worse) we are stuck with Japanese visual novels.

Kekkai Sensen seems interesting, if for no other reason then that it reminds me of Baccano. However, it will probably end up disappointing me. To be honest, I never get exited at season previews because too often I find interesting titles, but when they air they are no where near as good as I hoped.

Narcissu Side 2nd (the prequel to Narcissu) is told through the perspectives of the girls Himeko and Setsumi. The visual novel is legally free and quite good, I'm actually currently reading it myself. However, this is a completely story based visual novel, so there are no choices made (also no romance). You can download the this visual novel along with the original Narcissu for free on either Steam, or here. Some sample art of the character Setsumi:

Ever play Quartett! or Period by Littlewitch? Those were the only times I actually had fun with the user-interface and gimmicks. When ever you changed a configuration or saved the game it would make a cool clicking sound. I felt like I was getting rewarded just for saving, lol. Both games also had a handy feature where you could conveniently alter the speed of auto-play. Aside from that the only features that piss me of when they are not available is when you can't delete saves, and when you can only skip text that you previously read.

That's what I loved about Symphonic Rain, you didn't have to play the mini-game if you didn't want to (like myself). My vote is for Symphonic Rain because the story is great and the mini-game is fun but not mandatory.

Wow, you went to Japan to look for a job. That's really impressive. I thought most people could apply for English teaching work from their home country.

Writing plain characters is not "just as lazy" as writing archetypes. The golden rule of creative writing (which commercial authors always forget) is Write what you know! How many VN writers actually know people like the archetypes they write, probably none. Outside of other Visual Novels they read, they probably have never seen such exaggerated personalities before. What is lazy about archetypal writing, is that it copies other works of fiction, instead of copying reality. Good art requires good observation. Plain characters are better (as you noted) because they require the writer to observe real people. "Plain" characters are more based off of reality, and less influenced by other works of pop-fiction. In other words, I'm in complete agreement with you. This isn't solely a Japanese problem, this is a problem with all commercial (pop) fiction and art. Hollywood is no better, and you can't get more western than Hollywood. Just as indie movies are the saving grace for modern movies, doujin Visual Novels are where we should be looking at if you want works of quality.

Swan Song is an excellent Visual Novel that quite intelligently questions the purpose of humanity, civilization, and morality. You sound fairly well read regarding Visual Novels (I also get the feeling you know Japanese), but if you haven't read it yet, I recommend it.

I thought you already lived in Japan. Has your location status been nothing but a lie?!?!?

A Drug That Makes You Dream has really interesting heroines to pick from, and each of the routes are quite fulfilling and interesting. Also, each route has several erotic scenes spread through out. This seems to fit the bill. I also personally recommend this VN as it was one of my first and got me into visual novels. That said, if you want a story focused on sick/hospitalized people, Narcissu is a great read. Be warned though, Narcissu is really really sad and has no choices or sex scenes.

Yes, specifically it is Mizuki Kirimiya's route in Yume Miru Kusuri. You are talking about this scene right?

That makes perfect sense as to why I've known the phrase forever and you haven't. Living in New York City Christmas's are cold, but snow is a bit unlikely. Usually we only get 2 or 3 snow storms a year. So for one of those storms to happen during Christmas would be kind of romantic.

It's finally Christmas break, so its one of the few times in the year I have time to read/play VNs. I look forward to playing this game this holiday. Also good luck with getting it Greenlit, I just voted for it.

What consistently impresses me is the frequency in which this thread comes back to life. I would not be surprised to be engaged in another Symphonic Rain discussion a few months from now. @Tiagofvarela I really enjoyed your commentary and interpretations.

Swan Song would be great as an anime. Not only are the characters and story interesting, but Swan Song was written in such a way that it would be relatively easy to adapt to an anime. There are no character routes or anything. So yeah, somebody make a Swan Song anime!

Before I actually respond, I just want to thank you once again for doing this. Not only is it really interesting to see people's detailed reactions to each route one by one, but your interpretations are quite good. To expand on Chris's persistence to get Lise, I think it is interesting that she is the only girl Chris tries to win for himself. Both Fal and Torta come to him, but Chris actually has to court Lise himself.

Memo is a fairly decent visual novel, and by OELVN standards definitely worth checking out mostly because of the art and leisurely writing style: Memo thread and download Memo was also I believe the first Visual Novel the artist Doomfest was involved with. And these days Doomfest is kind of an important name in the OELVN community.

On this site you seem to be one of the biggest fans of Symphonic Rain. Therefore you are my senpai in the appreciation and love of this great visual novel. But mostly I called you that because prior to commenting I saw this video and was influenced by the "notice me senpai" meme:

This is the best thing I have heard regarding Chris's personality. His uninspired, apathetic, and morose personality is oddly charming in a way. Anyway, regarding the rest of your post it was brilliant and I enjoyed reading it. But senpai, weren't my interpretations and ramblings of Fal good too? Lol, actually I have to reread what I previously wrote since I already forgot a lot of it. In fact one of the great things about this VN is that over time your perceptions of the characters change. Whatever I wrote earlier in this thread is probably not completely how I feel about Fal now. Much like how personal meanings behind poetry change over time, the same happens for Symphonic Rain. Symphonic Rain is poetry to me.

This is remarkably close to my experience. I finished Symphonic quite late in the night and cried myself to sleep in contemplation as well. When I went to bed I knew I read something that I would never experience again in the same way. I was sad because I was not only parting with the characters that I grew to love despite their faults, but I was leaving the land of Piova. The beautiful background music, art style and most noticeably the rain. Finishing the Visual Novel and retreating to bed was a painful reminder that I had to live my own life again. I was no longer a participant in Piova, but crashed back to reality... In my opinion Visual novels are the modern day poetry. While poetry used to be the primary medium of emotional expression, I feel that a good visual novel can invoke feeling far better than any poem could. All the emotions that I previously described never happened when reading poetry, only from reading VNs.

I agree, having been around since early 2013 I have seen a lot of my former forum acquaintances leave. Even former mods and admins like Ryoji and Aaeru left during my time here. It would be nice to have some recognition as a loyal member. Because while my post count is rather small in comparison to most members (still under 500), I am still an active member and do my best to make thoughtful posts when I do post.