Do you prefer the text box to take up the whole screen, or to have it at the bottom?

[Mugi]

Personally, I get a little put off by text boxes taking up the whole screen, its mainly why i've put off KiraKira, FSN, and Tsukihime. What do you guys think? Does it bother you? Or maybe you don't care which one it is?

[Soulless Watcher]

It dosn't bother me a whole lot as long as the story is engaging, like Tsukihime and FSN. If something like Da Capo had whole screen text boxes, I wouldn't touch the damn thing with a yard stick.

[Rabbit]

I prefer having it in the bottom as I enjoy having the CG properly visible in the background but it's not super important to me.

[Decay]

These styles have names, NVL (novel) and ADV (adventure), for full screen and bottom of screen boxes respectively. Ideally, you use whichever format is best suited for your scenario. Some VNs will actually switch between the two, such as Grisaia no Kajitsu and G-Senjou no Maou. The idea is that NVL format is better suited to long blocks of narrative text. So Grisaia's narration-heavy flashback sequences use the NVL format. I don't mind either way, but I find it weird and unnecessary if a game uses NVL but doesn't take advantage of all the screen real estate. Like To Heart 2. 

[Mugi]

I prefer having it in the bottom as I enjoy having the CG properly visible in the background but it's not super important to me.

This is something I forgot to mention, it bothers me as well. Though I guess you can just right click and view it whenever.

[nohman]

Pretty much what Decay said.

I don't really mind either, as each as their uses. When GnK went NVL mode, I knew shit was about to get real.

 

As for detracting from CGs, never thought of that as a problem since you can just close the text box to view it in full.

[Beato]

Depends on the VN in question. Very verbose VNs with lots narration of are generally better in NVL while dialogue heavy stuff is better as ADV.

[GLM4475]

For an obvious reason, I prefer the bottom text box. However, if the game has the feature to hide the text, I don't care which one.

[TheFantasm]

I usually prefer ADV, and don't care much for NVL, though there can be exceptions.

[Camy]

Doesn't matter to me, just as long as it's legible.

[Pudding321]

Personally, I get a little put off by text boxes taking up the whole screen, its mainly why i've put off KiraKira, FSN, and Tsukihime. What do you guys think? Does it bother you? Or maybe you don't care which one it is?

 

Luckily I played fsn and tsukihime on my phone...so the text are at the bottom of the screen

[MoeKyun]

As long as the story is good, like FSN, I'm okay with the full screen. But I prefer the bottom one, though.

[Kosakyun]

I don't mind either.

[Eclipsed]

Bottom!

[Bolverk]

I prefer the ADV and NVL to change back and forth. G-senjou iirc. Changed to NVL when the viewpoint changed away from the protag. I think that was nice. As well as when you get big info dumps or monologues. Having NVL is nice. But most of the time I like having ADV. Can see the art more then. So I pretty much agree with decay.

[Abyssal Monkey]

Since GnK was my first and Fate came immediately after, I really could care less either way. The thing I remember about Fate was that it had a lot of action CGs and screen effects, so it might have thrown a bias, but hey, it did them really well.  I honestly can't remember Grisaia ever doing NVL format.

[Lexyvil]

That's actually a very good question. From all the Visual Novels I've been playing, all of them had text at the bottom except the new one I just started to read—which is Swan Song.

 

Swan Song feels like a whole new experience for me since the text is mostly centred; It's refreshing, it's as if I'm actually reading a book on paperback. Plus, the imageries can appear either in all directions, forcing the text to relocate, which I find very interesting to put emphasis on the story and that kind of makes it look like I'm reading a comic strip/manga.

 

I do think I prefer the text on the bottom however, maybe because I adapted to it more.

[Deep Blue]

I don't like NVL because you can't see the graphics very well and most of the time they don't show you the names of the characters either, so you have this full dialogue on the screen with 3 people talking and it gets annoying.

[Zarah]

Definitely bottom. It's better in everything, although if there's a long story to tell top is much better.

[Zodai]

I think I had a conversation regarding this in the dev-group once.

 

"In-general it seems NVL is more accustomed to higher-tension scenes, something like fear or a sense of claustrophobia, whereas ADV's open design feels more open and light-hearted by comparison.  So the idea is to use NVL during moments of fear of danger whereas ADV would be used when the situation is more or less calm."

 

Basically, each has their uses, and the amount of space that's taken up by the text can actually be used to create some specific emotions as opposed to others.

[Abyssal Monkey]

I don't like NVL because you can't see the graphics very well and most of the time they don't show you the names of the characters either, so you have this full dialogue on the screen with 3 people talking and it gets annoying.

As anecdotal evidence, from all the translated Japanese light novels I read, almost none of them, save for maybe two out of the 40+ that I follow give character names.  You as the reader as supposed to be able to intuitively follow who is saying something based on how they speak and the flow of conversation.  I've just gotten used to being able to pick out the character who is saying what, and often times, because it is only two characters, it's a back and forth, easy to pick out if you get lost when the next block of non dialogue comes around to give context.

 

Someone who is actually knowledgeable feel free to correct me on this assumption.

[Heizei_koukousei]

Ive avoided F/SN and Higurashi because of the full screen text box. I can't stand that stuff when its over images. Kara no Shoujo and Cartagra had fullscreen text boxes set against a bloody background or straight black, and that wasn't a problem. 

[LinovaA]

I like both, but I really enjoy NVL when it is used in certain ways. For instance, the way it is used in Rewrite is a good example of what I am talking about. I think NVL is used to its maximum potential when a VN switches between ADV and NVL to put emphasis on certain events.

 

In Rewrite's case, an entire route.

 

Of course, I quite enjoy pure NVL VNs and pure ADV VNs... but I really like when they bring the two together.

[Deep Blue]

As anecdotal evidence, from all the translated Japanese light novels I read, almost none of them, save for maybe two out of the 40+ that I follow give character names.  You as the reader as supposed to be able to intuitively follow who is saying something based on how they speak and the flow of conversation.  I've just gotten used to being able to pick out the character who is saying what, and often times, because it is only two characters, it's a back and forth, easy to pick out if you get lost when the next block of non dialogue comes around to give context.

 

Someone who is actually knowledgeable feel free to correct me on this assumption.

You are right and for me it's annoying I'm not saying that I can't follow who is talking and most of the time is just 2 people so it's really easy to follow the conversation, still is really annoying. And the most important thing is the text covers the graphics and the art, so you need to press the space bar or some special key to take out the text from the screen and the slight blur too, so you can enjoy it as it should.

[Ventares07]

At first I preferred the the text covering the entire screen, cos my first VN was FSN, but I dont mind either right now. But I think having it at the bottom is better so you appreciate the visuals properly