Captivating novels like Umineko

[philipmikh]

Although I've been reading VN's for quite a while, I was never hooked to the point of reading a single novel all the dam day as I do tend to space out my reading, but Umineko changed that.

I managed to read through those 90+ hours in a single week whilst being totally focused and immersed, which is not something usual for me to be able to do. Clannad, which would be one of my favorites VN, took me between 3 and 6 months to fully complete as each session did tire me out, but I guess the mystery and conspiracy aspect can change that.

I'm looking for any novel that might replicate this feeling, which is not a problem considering the coronavirus situation, all the free time in the world right now. 

As for Steins Gate, I did see the anime so I will skip the novel considering it's totally spoiled for me, which doesn't excite me one bit

[Jardic47]

Have you tried the first two games in the When They Cry series. The Higurashi series of games. They were the first two in the series and if you want the full story for this series.

[Zidan209]

Subarashiki Hibi and Muv-luv can hook the reader pretty well, but it kinda depends on you.

To get to the actual drama/intense story in Muv-luv, you need to wait till you get to the 3rd game Muv-Luv Alternative and the first 2 probably aren't what you're looking for, but I would say it's worth it.

As for Subahibi, your enjoyment will be based on how well you can tolerate it. The story is very interesting, but I'd probably describe it as "hard to read"

[MDruidd]

1 hour ago, philipmikh said:

Although I've been reading VN's for quite a while, I was never hooked to the point of reading a single novel all the dam day as I do tend to space out my reading, but Umineko changed that.

I managed to read through those 90+ hours in a single week whilst being totally focused and immersed, which is not something usual for me to be able to do. Clannad, which would be one of my favorites VN, took me between 3 and 6 months to fully complete as each session did tire me out, but I guess the mystery and conspiracy aspect can change that.

I'm looking for any novel that might replicate this feeling, which is not a problem considering the coronavirus situation, all the free time in the world right now. 

As for Steins Gate, I did see the anime so I will skip the novel considering it's totally spoiled for me, which doesn't excite me one bit

G-senjou and Grisaia i think can replace them. Im also read higurashi, but its too dark i think.

Edited: oh.. almost forgot about this series. Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo There so much conspiracy with more mystery's story.

Edited May 14, 2020 by MDruidd

[littleshogun]

May as well recommend Shibuya Scramble here, seeing that it have thriller story along with some mystery. If you want more, then perhaps you can try Fata Morgana and Rose Guns Days (The latter is from Ryukishi07 as well). I don't know though if those three would be able to captivate you or not, but still I hope that my recommendations would be helpful to you anyway.

Edited May 16, 2020 by littleshogun

[Dreamysyu]

Oh, well this feeling is pretty familiar to me. While I'm usually a pretty slow reader, it only took me something like a week to finish the main bulk of the story (episodes 2-6), though I had to slow down after that for irl reasons. Sadly, it's already been 6 years since I finished Umineko, I never really manged to find another similarly addicting VN. I guess, the closest thing to me was Muv-Luv Alternative, but I can't really say if you're also going to like it, since it's pretty different. And, actually, I wouldn't recommend picking up something so drastically different right away, it's usually better to let yourself cool down a bit after reading something so grand.

You know, I think I'm also going to recommend Higurashi, since the new translation for the main arcs just recently finished. It wasn't really as captivating as Umineko for me, but it's something like its spiritual predecessor, and overall, it's still a pretty good mystery and horror VN, though its written a lot more like a proper story and doesn't go into the meta territory. Actually, I personally read Higurashi pretty soon after Umineko, and I had already seen the anime for it, but I still ended up enjoying it, especially since the anime adaptation, as it turned out, skipped a lot of important details (though reading chapters 1 and 2 was pretty boring, as they didn't have that many changes, but in chapter 3 the anime skipped the entire epilogue). Also, the anime completely messed up foreshadowing for a certain important twist in chapter 7, so they even had to include a completely new arc just for that.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Dreamysyu

[Jardic47]

This is why 

44 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

You know, I think I'm also going to recommend Higurashi, since the new translation for the main arcs just recently finished. It wasn't really as captivating as Umineko for me, but it's something like its spiritual predecessor, and overall, it's still a pretty good mystery and horror VN, though its written a lot more like a proper story and doesn't go into the meta territory. Actually, I personally read Higurashi pretty soon after Umineko, and I had already seen the anime for it, but I still ended up enjoying it, especially since the anime adaptation, as it turned out, skipped a lot of important details (though reading chapters 1 and 2 was pretty boring, as they didn't have that many changes, but in chapter 3 the anime skipped the entire epilogue). Also, the anime completely messed up foreshadowing for a certain important twist in chapter 7, so they even had to include a completely new arc just for that.

This is why I don't watch the anime based on a VN a lot. I just avoid them unless it is recommended to do so. In my case, it's like the .hack series where watching the show was recommended when playing the games.

[Dreamysyu]

16 minutes ago, Jardic47 said:

This is why I don't watch the anime based on a VN a lot. I just avoid them unless it is recommended to do so. In my case, it's like the .hack series where watching the show was recommended when playing the games.

I know, but, well, back then I wasn't really so into VNs yet, so quite often I preferred to watch anime adaptations instead if they were available. I don't do that anymore. I think, Higurashi is one of the reasons why.

[Jardic47]

It's fine. some of us were like that at some point. I may be wrong here, but there are not that many good examples of anime that is better than the source material. The only one I can think of is Stein Gate. I watched it before I read the novel and I liked it. I don't watch tv much, but I follow the manga and news from certain shows a lot.

[Zalor]

VN's that I marathoned within a couple days to a week have been: Swan Song, Yume Miru Kusuri, Narcissu, Saya no Uta and Dies Irae. 

[Silvz]

On 14/05/2020 at 1:28 PM, littleshogun said:

May as well recommend Shibuya Scramble here, seeing that it have thriller story along with some mystery. If you want more, then perhaps you can try Fata Morgana and Rose Guns Days (The latter is from Ryuishi07 as well). I don't know though if those three would be able to captivate you or not, but still I hope that my recommendations would be helpful to you anyway.

This, and only this