Anyone else wish/hope more visual novels have a route style more similar to Sharin no Kuni?

[NowItsAngeTime]

If you don't know how Sharin's route style it's basically set where the main plot and character development of every heroine is always canon no matter which route you take (outside bad endings of course). This is due to a chapter system. The only scenes that are different are H scenes you get during / after a route and some ending scenes for the couple.

One thing that bugs me from time to time is how some heroines' (and even males/MCs) development is reset in other routes, especially if there are VNs with 'true' routes.

There are some VNs where technically all the development happens but not in the same timeline/universe (won't say due to spoilers) but I'm not talking about VNs that do this in a convoluted way. Whether it's a chapter system or just some way for all major planned heroines/characters to get development in one story but still getting the option to choose who you end up would be nice to me. Consistency is the main key.

I guess the only flaws of this system I could think of are:

• You're forced to go through the development of characters you don't care about. This could cause people to not like the VN as much especially if they love the typical route system.
• Some may argue you might as well just make this a linear/kinetic visual novel if you do it this way and not even worry about getting with different girls?

Anyways, while I'm not sure if I'd want this to be the standard I'd like for more visual novels to try this method more even if it's not the popular method.

What do you guys think? Would you want this method to be tried more or do you prefer the typical route system?

[Flutterz]

It's certainly an interesting way of doing it, and I wouldn't mind having more VNs do the same, but at the same time the whole "different stories in different routes" thing is part of what makes VNs stand out IMO.

[Barktooth]

Personally, when I was reading Sharin no Kuni, I didn't like the route system at all. Maybe that was due to expectations - I was thinking there was more to the game, but the other routes were the same plot again with a few different h-scenes. I don't like most h-scenes so it just felt like a waste of time to me.

Maybe it's not a particularly bad way to do it - this way, you don't have to sit through a route of a heroine you don't care for/hate to get the whole story.. but I guess that would mean her story would just be part of the common route then, which defeats the point. So no, I think I prefer the standard route system after all.

[Deep Blue]

Well sharin no kuni is a VN with linear plot, you can have different endings and some things will change here and there depending on your choices (most of the time H-scenes ) but  overall it's an straight line/path story. 

I love those types of VNs (and kinetic!) because the story is most of the time more coherent and better developed rather than when you have 6 girls and the main character suffers from dissociative identity disorder, he acts in some way with girl A and total different with girl B  and so on, still him being the same fucking person (this doesnt happen in all vns but in most of them it does..) or some girls you just know that they are filler just to add extra hours because their routes are so bland and cliched...

[Kabu]

54 minutes ago, Flutterz said:

It's certainly an interesting way of doing it, and I wouldn't mind having more VNs do the same, but at the same time the whole "different stories in different routes" thing is part of what makes VNs stand out IMO.

All of this.

[littleshogun]

My opinion here would be I think Grisaia no Kajitsu here would be very perfect option for this system. The reason is that there's Meikyuu which based on unseen route back at Kajitsu ie Yuuji help all the girls while in Kajitsu you could only choose one girl because it's charage. Apparently Frontwing realize their mistake by making Kajitsu charage if they'll made 2 follow up games with linear story, so they decided to made linear storyline at anime adaptation (Just my opinion here, okay).

To answer the title here, I'm okay with both of charage style and Sharin style, although it may depend on each people here though.

[WinterfuryZX]

I hate the character oriented route system with passion.

[Bolverk]

Sharin is pretty nice. But I think I prefer Eustia's kind of linear story. Straight forward with just 1 h-scene pushed on you.

With more branches I like tokyo babel, that branches off quite early in the story.

[DarkZedge]

While I really enjoyed Sharin and it's FD I was never a fan of the way they did the routes, interesting as it may be I still couldn't find it in myself to like it more than the regular way in which most vn's do their routes.

It's linear nature also doesn't help it, I like the feeling I get when I'm playing a different story in each route.

[Lucius]

Yeah, I'm a branch-man myself. I like myself some nonlinear branching storyline. Gives me a sense of variety, even if it's an illusion.

I do agree, however, that noncanonical routes can end in some pretty terrible ways for some VNs - like Key's Kanon, where the girls meet tragic endings if you don't go into their route and 'solve' their problems. It was never specified, but the implications of so are very obvious.

As for the Sharin kind of route system, I haven't read it, but that kind of chapter system does sound kinda redundant, considering that I might as well be playing reading a kinetic novel. G-senjou no Maou reminds me a lot of that system. Sure, it's got a set of binary choices every now and then, but it's basically a chapter-by-chapter kind of story where you pick a different option to go into a different route, and pick one more for a bad end or a good end. Same with Grisaia no Kajitsu. That kind of route system isn't particularly my favorite as it makes the whole 'choosing' thing seems kinda redundant. Of course I would be picking the 'other' option after seeing the bad end. Unless you have a lot of choices that make my conversation with the girls seem more natural, I find the whole binary-system just pointless in practice.

In contrast, take a look at School Days and Clannad. Both have wonderfully designed systems where the possibilities are endless. It feels more realistic when your choices matter, like you're actually talking to these people, and dispels the feeling of reading something. Fate/Stay Night's bad end system is also somewhat worth mentioning with its large number of meaningful choices.

At the end of the day, giving a stupid dilemma just for the sake of choosing something can be insulting to my intelligence, like Analogue: A Hate Story with its forced option of trusting a criminal or be thrust into game over. Why don't you just not give me the option to game over in the first place then? Seems kinda dumb.

[Comfy]

This might sound strange but I didn't like how repetitive it was. You select one heroine and nothing really changes except a few scenes. And then when replaying it's mostly just skipping dialogue until something new comes up.

Clannad had an excellent route system. Even though it was a pain in the ass sometimes trying to get onto some routes, but it was almost always something new.  A new story.

I did like Sharin no kuni, but It failed to excite me after my first play through and I found myself just skipping the dialogue I've already read until some new dialogue appeared only to be followed by more already read dialogue.