VNs with the best romance routes?

[InvertMouse]

Hello ! I want to ask for recommendations on games with the best romance routes. Not the best sex ! As in routes that are the most romantic, or well written heroines in general. In this case, I am not looking for something with a deep story. I want to find more traditional dating sims where the focus is on the girl you are pursuing. This is a dated example, but my favorite right now would have to be Kawana Misaki from ONE ~To the Radiant Season~.

Thank you!

[Okarin]

Don't romance games include routes for different tastes? I've never found a moege where I liked every route equally. For example, "Period" by Littlewitch has 8 heroines, but the routes vary greatly in quality and interest. There's filler and some are uninspired, and the trend is common in this type of game. I'd say the ideal number of heroines to have a chance of all them being good is between 3 and 5. Heck, I don't even like equally all the routes in Kanon, and they share a common background.

Also there's the tropes and character archetypes, these tend to be repeated over games, and there's also the deconstructed tropes. And in a game with lots of heroines, probably there's lots of writers, which influences cohesion and immersion and not in a good way.

[Dergonu]

I figured everyone would jump at this instantly, yelling out their favoirte romances but ... Guess not.

Well, since you said

20 minutes ago, InvertMouse said:

I am not looking for something with a deep story.

I'll do this

Romance is pretty much the one thing you get

Well, seriously though, in my opinion the romance and character interaction in those games is the one thing that makes them very enjoyable. Might not be very "authentic" romance but its entertaining and adorable.

[CeruleanGamer]

define "romance". @InvertMouse

For me "romance" can vary from childhood friends to a master / slave relationship to uncle and his precious loli niece to hot stud guy releasing the wife from the shackles of her terrible, dense husband by NTRing her away. All these can be romantic in some sort or fashion when executed properly. 

[mitchhamilton]

21 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

define "romance". @InvertMouse

For me "romance" can vary from childhood friends to a master / slave relationship to uncle and his precious loli niece to hot stud guy releasing the wife from the shackles of her terrible, dense husband by NTRing her away. All these can be romantic in some sort or fashion when executed properly. 

 

0___0

 

52 minutes ago, InvertMouse said:

Hello ! I want to ask for recommendations on games with the best romance routes. Not the best sex ! As in routes that are the most romantic, or well written heroines in general. In this case, I am not looking for something with a deep story. I want to find more traditional dating sims where the focus is on the girl you are pursuing. This is a dated example, but my favorite right now would have to be Kawana Misaki from ONE ~To the Radiant Season~.

Thank you!

 

kind of question up for interpretation. i think dergonu has the right idea. its about two girls falling in love and only deepening that love. its just a pure love story. nothing more nothing less.

[solidbatman]

Unfortunately, many VNs completely fuck up romance in my opinion, by following a set, strict formula and compresses the crush phase into a matter of hours. Common routes usually take place over the course of a week, to maybe a month. Then, you enter a route, and 'OMG TRUE LOVE GAIZ!" I've really yet to see a VN that moves at a good, deliberate pace, building up two characters together so we see a relationship blossom in a far more believable manner. Clannad, should you choose to go down Nagisa's route pulls it off only due to After Story. The anime does a far better job in this sense, of creating a relationship where two characters grow together in a very real, believable manner and don't just fall in love because the story demands it. ef: A Tale of Melodies anime does this as well, through the use of a back story shared between two characters (but don't get me started on the other relationship of that season). I can't comment on the VN for that one though.

 

So in short Mouse, there are no good romances in VNs. 

[Silvz]

Does it have to be a Dating Sim? I think Rewrite's Lucia, Katahane's yuri route and even Umineko did great jobs when dealing with romance within a good plot.

[Guest]

Clannad : Nagisa Route + After Story

[InvertMouse]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I guess romance can be tough to define. If I think a game has next to no story, but I am sticking around because I want to see a and b do cute things and get together, that would be a good romance for me. Hope to see more recommendations!

[ChaosRaven]

Hmm, I think for pure romance with an English translation I liked Da Capo 2, Hoshizora no Memoria, Kira Kira, Otoboku, Canvas 2 and the Shuffle series the most.

Untranslated, there's certainly way more but I haven't read enough in Japanese yet to be able to give good suggestions for them.

Edit: Added Otoboku.

[kingdomcome]

Perhaps White Album 2?

[LiquidShu]

9 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

Perhaps White Album 2?

I don't know about the quality of the translated VN, but the anime is one of my all time favorites. I definitely recommend watching it, if the VN isn't up to snuff. 

[kingdomcome]

1 minute ago, LiquidShu said:

I don't know about the quality of the translated VN, but the anime is one of my all time favorites. I definitely recommend watching it, if the VN isn't up to snuff. 

Quality is good imo, at least it is with the 'introductory chapter'. The 'closing chapter' is like 98%+ translated.

[LiquidShu]

8 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

Quality is good imo, at least it is with the 'introductory chapter'. The 'closing chapter' is like 98%+ translated.

Cool beans, wasn't sure or not. In that case definitely go for it! 

[CeruleanGamer]

57 minutes ago, InvertMouse said:

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I guess romance can be tough to define. If I think a game has next to no story, but I am sticking around because I want to see a and b do cute things and get together, that would be a good romance for me. Hope to see more recommendations!

Indeed. There is a huge difference between romance and attraction. Unfortunately, VNs tend to tag attraction as romance a lot. I mean, if it takes you 1 week to romance and marry someone, you must have 10 PhDs in love or relationships or something because no way that's remotely logical or sensible. It can take several months or years to really get to know a person to the point one can confidently say, "This person is definitely the right one for me."

[Deep Blue]

ef - a fairy tale of the two (it contain very very few ero scenes) probably one of the best love stories out there

eden* really good too, no ero scenes at all 

[Okarin]

1 hour ago, CeruleanGamer said:

Indeed. There is a huge difference between romance and attraction. Unfortunately, VNs tend to tag attraction as romance a lot. I mean, if it takes you 1 week to romance and marry someone, you must have 10 PhDs in love or relationships or something because no way that's remotely logical or sensible. It can take several months or years to really get to know a person to the point one can confidently say, "This person is definitely the right one for me."

Well... most of the relationships out there are based on attraction and then progress in whatever way, it's hard to know your partner deeply beforehand. If you're trying that you'll lose lots of chances, you're pretty limited to taking the dive, but of course disaster and distress is a very real possibility. On the other hand, that's one of the reasons why relationships going long back work the best -I mean the ones you start at an early age... it's only that, at that age, it's so easy to screw up completely. I don't find VNs do a particularly bad job portraying attraction, but some are quite ludicrous. I hate it when the girls are won before the game starts and even fight over the same boy shamelessly (or shamefully), that's just otaku pandering and unrealistic.

Some of you are mentioning "ef" by Minori, I found the game decent with some of my favorite heroines (Mizuki awwww), and I am curious of what path the anime took. I put Miyako with Hiro and Kei with Kyousuke, and it wasn't bad, but latter stories are much better IMO. Kei was... on the brink of unbearable, Chihiro and Renji was almost utsuge, the rest is very good, and Yuu is a great character. Yuuko, I found alright, especially when she counsels people around, but some things were not that brilliantly handled and screamed "fanservice".

If anything, something worth critizicing about VNs (but on a different note) is the lack of contraception. Thorough H scenes but with no condom in sight. Not educative.

[CeruleanGamer]

8 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Well... most of the relationships out there are based on attraction and then progress in whatever way, it's hard to know your partner deeply beforehand. If you're trying that you'll lose lots of chances, you're pretty limited to taking the dive, but of course disaster and distress is a very real possibility. On the other hand, that's one of the reasons why relationships going long back work the best -I mean the ones you start at an early age... it's only that, at that age, it's so easy to screw up completely. I don't find VNs do a particularly bad job portraying attraction, but some are quite ludicrous. I hate it when the girls are won before the game starts and even fight over the same boy shamelessly (or shamefully), that's just otaku pandering and unrealistic.

Visual novel romance/relationships take 1-2 months to blossom to the point of "let's get married". Ask 100 married people on how long it took them to get to that stage, bet you can count with 1 hand how many of them are a "love at first sight" (this is actually very rare than what it used to be back then) situation or less than 2 months of dating. Nobody falls deeply in love in that short amount of time. VNs are just a very poor portrayal of romancing/courtship duration/lengths.

[Flutterz]

I still think Katawa Shoujo did it pretty damn well, especially in Lilly's route.

Aside from that, Clannad and Symphonic Rain, maybe?

[Okarin]

I've just played around 30 novels total and dropped some along the way, and marriage is pretty uncommon to be honest. Only saw that in

Spoiler

Rimu's route from Deardrops as far as I can remember, and it was pretty much a joke route not to be taken seriously.

Most romance routes are about meeting, going out and stabilizing the relationship somehow, and then they cut, but the relationship could end at some point: a good example is

Spoiler

Rin Tezuka from Katawa Shoujo, where the relationship is left at an stable position but it is implied Hisao still doesn't understand her fully, and Rin is so fickle she could wake up one day and end the whole thing. Besides they're very young.

Finally, I like when they fast forward and show something about the future of the relationship, like

Spoiler

Junichi from Amagami going to the festival with his children, or watching the fireworks with Ai from their rented flat. Speaking of the anime since the VN still isn't translated.

 

[Ike]

34 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

ef - a fairy tale of the two (it contain very very few ero scenes) probably one of the best love stories out there

eden* really good too, no ero scenes at all 

I think these are fairly good recomendations when looking for a romance, but I'd like to talk about them a little in more detail:

ef revolves more around de hardships of two protagonists being able to end up toghether in all 5 routes. You get your fair share of romance in there, but the story as a whole is fairly complex, and I believe it's not what @InvertMouse is looking for here.

eden*, on the other hand, while it doesn't have all that much romance at the beggining, turns very romantic as it goes on. In fact, the second half of the novel is pretty much just romance, and it felt really heart-warming when I read it. I'd definitely recommend this one, although it's a bit short.

[Deep Blue]

ef, the chihiro route is pure romance and love also very sad, the other routes are a bit more complex like you said but still I don't think you can have a love story and romance without drama, it would be a very dull story :/ 

[CeruleanGamer]

29 minutes ago, Okarin said:

I've just played around 30 novels total and dropped some along the way, and marriage is pretty uncommon to be honest. Only saw that in

  Reveal hidden contents

Rimu's route from Deardrops as far as I can remember, and it was pretty much a joke route not to be taken seriously.

Most romance routes are about meeting, going out and stabilizing the relationship somehow, and then they cut, but the relationship could end at some point: a good example is

  Reveal hidden contents

Rin Tezuka from Katawa Shoujo, where the relationship is left at an stable position but it is implied Hisao still doesn't understand her fully, and Rin is so fickle she could wake up one day and end the whole thing. Besides they're very young.

Finally, I like when they fast forward and show something about the future of the relationship, like

  Reveal hidden contents

Junichi from Amagami going to the festival with his children, or watching the fireworks with Ai from their rented flat. Speaking of the anime since the VN still isn't translated.

 

It's common actually. Maybe it's more common on untranslated VNs and it sucks you're missing out on that. Marriage is the ultimate vanilla ending 2nd to having kids. It's so cute when there's an epilogue or CG showing the protagonist and heroine's child. Recently played...

 

Spoiler

Noble Works. Hinata and Takumi's kid is the cutest thing ever!

 

I am more open and accepting of quick romance/courtship if the heroine has been connected with the protagonist for a while like a classmate, childhood friend, or even a relative, however, if it's a heroine like a transfer student or new neighbor who suddenly appears before the protag and then love develops in like a month, then it's really hard to convince yourself that their relationship will a successful one, because it's no different than getting an erection if you see a hot babe. It's fleeting and temporary....

[Kogashuko]

I'm a little afraid to reply to this worrying about someone saying your taste in *Romance* is shit. o.o;

but I found a few of Da Capo 1 and 2's routes to be a romantic.

https://vndb.org/v264
https://vndb.org/v266

[ittaku]

Taste is very much in the eye of the beholder.

 

To heart 2 - 9 romantic routes of the usual high school duration (2-3 months). All routes contain very different girls, though "conquering" is rather straight forward, but the protagonist behaves slightly differently to suit each route. Each route only has one (long) H scene close to the end.