Is playing VN without Walkthrough (virtually) risky ?

[vizualfan]

Previously, when i was just a newbie experimenting with various J games, i never used Walkthrough at all. Still remember Da Capo.... certainly a good VN for starters.

However, around New year, 2 years ago, i got interested in Suspense-oriented games and (unfortunately) got into playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (to hell with happiness!)

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Game Sypnopis : Trapped in a school-turned-prison, students are murdering each other one by one. Investigate each incident, search for clues, and talk to your classmates to try and get to the bottom of each brutal case (before getting killed yourself!)

A nightmare is all it was.... Sure I've played Call of Duty n Max Payne before, back in High School. Yet, that intense psychologically-virtual-suicidal pressure created by an Utsuge https://vndb.org/g693 just can't be compared with anything i ever played before.... Then that Yandere and Fading hearts VN.... In Yandere, i luckily backed out halfway coz Main character seemed 2 (indirectly) just beg bunch of psycho gals 2 slice him nice n good....

In Fading Hearts, got Survivor ending.... got my life spared, in return of watching my entire hometown engulfed in flames and everyone I ever knew or loved, die....

Now i mostly spend my time on VNDB and fumbling with Game Walkthrough before even daring to think of playing some new VN as (virtually) ANYTHING is possible in J games (T _ T)

[Clephas]

lol... While I never use walkthroughs for straight-out roleplaying games, It's been over a decade since I haven't used one for a VN.  The reason is simple... I'm not interested in finding my own way through endless choices only to find out that I got the 'normal' ending or some random bad ending... Tsukihime was enough to teach me my lesson on that.

[adamstan]

1 hour ago, Clephas said:

I'm not interested in finding my own way through endless choices only to find out that I got the 'normal' ending or some random bad ending...

Yeah, I feel exactly the same. Add to that the VNs that don't have enforced playing order although they should, and going in blindly can ruin or spoil some things.

[AustriaVNFan]

I usually play my first run of a VN without walkthrough and just make the decisions based on what I would really do. But of course, like that you will usually end up in nowhere. After that I usually use a walkthrough.

And in the end in some VNs you will probably never see the true ending without a walkthrough (Root Double *cough* *cough*)

[Chronopolis]

Reading the choices can be a moderate spoiler, and it also gives away the structure of the VN. I prefer to pick the choices myself, until I get stuck at all.

If it's a super clusterf**k of choices I'll end up breaking out the walkthrough pretty soon, no loss there.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Chronopolis

[Plk_Lesiak]

It depends on case to case basis, but mostly the thing you risk by not using a playthrough is losing time and getting frustrated. I have very limited amounts of time and don't want to torture myself with getting stuck, so unless the VN is short and heavily oriented towards mystery (which means even seeing choices could spoil something major), I won't even bother to approach it without a walkthrough.

[ztrepzilius]

Not necessary for short or kinetic VNs. Some VNs have flowchart unless they are misleading. I think walkthroughs are useful for gameplay VNs which requires certain skills to unlock all story/cgs.
 

[vizualfan]

This might be just a hunch of mine, but long VN can be real headache (unless its your lucky day and you get some fluffy "Fureraba ~Friend to Lover~" kind setting throughout the gameplay) in which case, it becomes a trouble of completely different kind... (Don't want this story to end!) hoping for a bit Da Capo style scenerio, where i get 2 play as offspring of the main character of previous game, of same series. Hope Fureraba gets its own series too.  Any recommendations for VN of similiar kind ?

 

[yelsha57]

I usually use a walkthrough. If it's a vn where you can chose your own route to select, or a kinetic novel then I don't need a walkthrough for that. I do read a lot of vns with a ton of choices, so I definitely need a walkthrough for those vns. Sometimes I try to play without a walkthrough, but I always get bad ends. Anyway I definitely recommend using a walkthrough especially for Key vns.

[vizualfan]

Indeed. Sometimes we just want to set game on auto mode and see the story unfold without unnecessary clicking. Though i just try to search Non-Utsuge, Non-Nakige, simply Happy-Go-Lucky kind of comedic stories on VNDB. Somehow It has become crucial to research a VN before thinking of playing it, just to avoid hitting a frustrating dead end.... To a certain extent, in RPG games like Monster Girl Quest Trilogy, we can raise our stats through Cheat Engine but, it is still very difficult to mod J games.