Favored text box presentation in VNs.

[Guest]

Haven't made a post in a while huh? Was quite busy this year so haven't been able to spend time here, or even read that many VNs ironically kek, but that is besides the point, so I was thinking about what type of text box style VN readers prefer, NVL (i.e. Fate, Saya no Uta, some brief sections of G-sen), ADV (G-senjou, Clannad, etc.), Both or something more unusual like Quarttet? IMO I think NVL is great for plotges, alternate povs (like the G-sen example), and narration.

Edited December 25, 2018 by Guest

[TexasDice]

I consider full-screen text to be abhorrent and subhuman. 

[sarkasmus]

I don't like it when the text is covering the whole screen.

It's a visual novel, what's the point in it if you can't properly enjoy the supporting visuals.

In that case I might as well read normal books (which I do as well, and they're cheaper, and they're more easily avaiable, but they're not what I'm looking for when I start a VN).

[Kenshin_sama]

I prefer a mixture of the two. ADV for general dialogue and NVL for the lengthy narration segments. The VN I'm reading right now, Symphonic Rain, makes pretty good use of the technique.

But where I draw the line is when the VN uses ADV for every other bit of content, and then makes a full switch to NVL for the final route, like with Rewrite. Idk what inspired that design choice, but I'd much rather see a work go full NVL than to switch styles for just one route.

30 minutes ago, sarkasmus said:

I don't like it when the text is covering the whole screen.

It's a visual novel, what's the point in it if you can't properly enjoy the supporting visuals.

In that case I might as well read normal books (which I do as well, and they're cheaper, and they're more easily avaiable, but they're not what I'm looking for when I start a VN).

It's not like you can't see the visuals at all, and the combination choice-based storylines and background music still give visual novels an edge over standard novels. The reason NVL is used at all is to emphasize the story over the aesthetics while still keeping VN aspects in tact and delivering a storytelling experience that is unique to this medium.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Kenshin_sama

[Silvz]

2 hours ago, SeniorBlitz said:

Haven't made a post in a while huh? Was quite busy this year so haven't been able to spend time here, or even read that many VNs ironically kek, but that is besides the point, so I was thinking about what type of text box style VN readers prefer, NVL (i.e. Fate, Saya no Uta, some brief sections of G-sen), ADV (G-senjou, Clannad, etc.), Both or something more unusual like Quarttet? IMO I think NVL is great for plotges, alternate povs (like the G-sen example), and narration.

I don't get why you are playing Sakura freaking Dungeon instead of Umineko. I mean, what's the point?

On topic, ADV is the best for me, although I don't mind when a game switches to NVL in some specific scenes.

What I really hate are floating text boxes.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Silvz

[MaggieROBOT]

I vote for being able to see the CG 

though I don't really care either way, but you asked for my favorite

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Silvz said:

I don't get why you are playing Sakura freaking Dungeon instead of Umineko. 

I stalled Sakura Dungeon since the end of 2017, boi.

Umineko is way to long, I can barely finish my current joke read (blame holidays and family) and I really wanna play Fata Morgana (which I bought some months ago) after I finish my current main read.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Guest

[Clephas]

ADV is great for minor narration and dialogue.  However, when it comes to complex and long narration, nothing beats NVL.  That's limited to Japanese though... because Japanese don't always follow our ideas of what a run-on sentence would be, some lines of narration could fill an entire paragraph space in a book, thus making NVL necessary (I think the most English sentences I broke down one such line into was six, simply because it just hit too many points for any of the fancy grammatical tricks I know to get around it)/ 

[wyldstrykr]

the teXtboX on noble works and sanoba witch. you know. when you switch into 4:3, you can see the teXtboX and the full game screen at the same time

 

[Stormwolf]

7 hours ago, TexasDice said:

I consider full-screen text to be abhorrent and subhuman. 

Same. Overshadows the picture and it looks messy and outright ugly. I dont like to much too much mess in my vision.

[Mr Poltroon]

I prefer male presenting text boxes.

[Lodratio]

I get that reading a visual novel written entirely in nvl can get annoying, but while the adv textbox is perfectly adequate for character interactions and small pieces of narration, I do think that tasteful use of nvl for longer stretches of narration, particularly to distinguish a third person narrator from the characters perspectives or signal that something unusual is going on, is a benefit to the presentation and can heighten the impact of the story being presented.

If you do make use of both formats though, you need to write with that in mind, so you aren't constantly switching back and forth.