Route formats

[Damonkala]

So, after playing visual novels for a while, I've notices that they all have slightly different ways to get into routes. Some have a common route, counting up flags until a certain point in the story where they split apart. Some just put you into a route based on having enough flags or if a specific decision is chosen. Some games even have the main route as the common route, with the other routes on the side. Sometimes you have to unlock routes. Sometimes one route sets the story for another.
So I want to ask, what is your favorite route format?
Mine is probably when, after achieving certain flags, making a choice that puts you on that route.
(CLANNAD, Kanon, etc.)

[Flutterz]

Different formats have different pros and cons.

The Clannad/Kanon format is really interesting to explore but it's also really easy to get lost.

The G-Senjou/Sharin/Grisaia format where your choices are basically pick this heroine or keep going until you get another heroine choice are really straightforward, but they're also pretty bland.

There's also what Nitro+ did with C;H and S;G, where the choices don't seem like they are choices at first, just a fun feature, and not choosing is a choice in and of itself. But in both it's often completely unintuitive which choice leads to what.

My favourite is still probably the winding Key paths, even if I do get lost often.

[Nosebleed]

This is hard to pick. Honestly every format can be good as long as it's done properly.

The thing i hate the most is when there's really obvious choices like:

Choice 1: Go for girl A > get girl A

Choice 2: Go for girl B > get girl B

Choice 3: Jump off a cliff > get bad ending

But I'd say i'm more used to common route and then branching point. It's just how it's always been for most VNs i play and i think it works fine but i won't hate a game because of the route format. I did dislike g-senjou for the reason it's kind of bland like Flutterz pointed out. It's really easy to figure out which route is where and it takes the fun out quite a bit. Recently i played Toradora and that one had an interesting format where you have to pick up items in order to unlock important choices and you have to pick which person you chose to talk to first. These kind of small changes can make the "common route to branching point" format more fun too. 

Overall anything is fine as long as it's not really obvious and boring

Unless it's a Nukige   

[Sparkker]

This is hard to pick. Honestly every format can be good as long as it's done properly.

The thing i hate the most is when there's really obvious choices like:

Choice 1: Go for girl A > get girl A

Choice 2: Go for girl B > get girl B

Choice 3: Jump off a cliff > get bad ending

>> Currently I don't like two kinds of choices..

One is choices that are unli... (Like in What A Beautiful Tommorrow)

To continue with the story, your choice is only "Extend your right hand", other choices lead to death>

Second is abundance of choices

[Katatsumuri]

I don't particularly mind "obvious choices", since it is nice to know where you're actually going (at least when it comes to entering different routes, subtle bad endings are a different story though) but I pretty much dislike it when there is a common route with a very large amount of choices.

[shcboomer]

I personally don't really have a preference in how routes are plotted out or even split. As long as it works with the story, I usually don't complain.

[Clephas]

Short common route, long individual routes, or no splits whatsoever with a single path (no crappy side-heroine paths like in G-senjou). 

[Wahfuu]

Can't say I care as long as the content is good.

[Okami]

I prefer VNs with many choices and more complicated flowchart, but that doesn't mean I won't like the ones with faw simple choices.

[MellowMadman11]

Short common route, long individual routes, or no splits whatsoever with a single path (no crappy side-heroine paths like in G-senjou). 

Definitely the one problem I have with AkabeiSoft 2's games, they all use this format. Otherwise they are great vn's. 

[Clephas]

G-senjou is the only one from ABS2 that uses that format.  Sharin no Kuni uses the format that is mostly a straight line, with the heroine 'paths' basically only the epilogue.  Basically, the aftermath changes, not the story.   Akabeisoft2's subsidiaries produce some games that are similar to theirs, some significantly different.  Akatsuki no Goei was by one of its subsidiaries, as was Ruitomo. 

[MellowMadman11]

I stand corrected, only route I liked was Sachi's, but I assumed it was like G-Senjou no Maou because I remember having to restart it after her route. Maybe i'am thinking of a vn from another developer.

[Zakamutt]

My preference is something f/sn style; bad ends like that make choices interesting, and the hint corner makes sure you don't get stuck. The routes branch off (very) early as well.

 

For choices between things that lead to different paths I like for them to be unambiguous and logical. Things like the s;g phone trigger system can go die in a fire.

[Albedo]

My preference is something f/sn style; bad ends like that make choices interesting, and the hint corner makes sure you don't get stuck. The routes branch off (very) early as well.

 

For choices between things that lead to different paths I like for them to be unambiguous and logical. Things like the s;g phone trigger system can go die in a fire.

 

This. A thousand times this.

[Clephas]

My preference is something f/sn style; bad ends like that make choices interesting, and the hint corner makes sure you don't get stuck. The routes branch off (very) early as well.

 

For choices between things that lead to different paths I like for them to be unambiguous and logical. Things like the s;g phone trigger system can go die in a fire.

Yes, this. 

[Toranth]

For choices between things that lead to different paths I like for them to be unambiguous and logical. Things like the s;g phone trigger system can go die in a fire.

Although the phone system in Steins;Gate was enough to get me to drop the game early, my personal hatred is reserved for Himemiko: Sengetsu.  That game had normal choices (one true end, lots of bad ends format), but it also had click-able words in the dialogue.  Clicking on each word caused a pop-up to appear with a definition of the term, like a in-game encyclopedia.  However, clicking on the words was also a secret route flag.  And they were neither indicated nor clickable in the backlog, so if you went past one, it was gone. 

 

So when you got stuck in a bad end, you had to not only change your choices, you had to go back through the ENTIRE GAME, including previous bad ends, to see if you'd missed any clickable terms.  If you hadn't clicked on the right words, you were shunted into a bad end, with no indication of why.  But not all clickable terms needed to clicked - just some.  And again, no telling which ones.

 

One of these days I intend to go back to Steins;Gate.  If I ever encounter a system like Himemiko again, I will run screaming.

[Alucard]

Yeah I'm not that big on bad ends especially if it is a long path after you've made a choice to discover 10 choices ago you will get stuck with a bad end. I kind of like a somewhat forgiving set of choices for routes where since finding the one exact combination to trigger can be a pain if there are lots of choices and makes me just end up using a guide which takes some of the fun out of it.

[Clephas]

Bad ends like that aren't always terrible.  I'm particularly fond of Raziel's bad end in Tokyo Babel.   I hadn't realized I was on the bad end path, until I actually got to it.  It was fairly horrifying, but it was also well-written, to the point where it was obvious they put real effort into it for the sake of the reader, rather than it being a half-assed bad end where you suddenly die for an unknown reason.

[Eurobeatz]

Personally, I HATE the format Key games have the thirty choices per route thing. I definitely prefer formats such as G-senjou no Maou's (around three choices per route) and Saya no Uta's (two choices period, all leading to different ends).

[Scars Unseen]

I really like the type of routes found in School Days.  Despite my dislike of most of the characters in that VN, I love that the story feels organic growing from your choices rather than feeling like a series of railroad switches like in games like Grisaia no Kajitsu(though on the whole, I like that VN better).  It feels more like I'm participating in the story instead of merely choosing which story I want to read.

[O. Van Bruce]

I prefer easier to figure out the route formats. I just want to enjoy fully the story, voice acting and visuals without wasting my time to get over and over the same stuff to find a good end.

 

That's probably why I use walkthroughs 90% of the time

 

inb4 I get lynched for using walkthroughs regularly

 

Umineko and Higurashi has been the most enjoyable VNs I've ever read and one of the main reasons was the lack of choices haha

[Vokoca]

I enjoy branching VNs with a lot of choices, since that's what makes them so unique. The hint corner is an amazing idea, as it prevents getting you absolutely lost in all the flags, which is about the only thing that I dislike about it - having to replay repeatedly hunting for the choice that you just can't find can be quite annoying.

 

The Grisaia choices are a welcome change of pace then, but it is too simple for my likes.

 

As for the S;G phone trigger, I'm surprised people hated it so much. The SMS thing could've been a bit ambigious, but as for the actualy route choices, weren't they obvious? After I got Suzuha's end, it was really easy to spot the pattern. If I remember correctly, all the choices were practically the same thing, with clear results. Not to mention the VN even goes out of its way to show you how this works with the first day things go wrong:

You're given the choice to make Okabe send a D-mail into the past to warn himself about Moeka's attack. If you don't, the whole incident just repeats - and all the routes are built around this mechanic. You send a D-mail, and you continue. You don't send a D-mail, and you get stuck in a different ending.

Sure, it was quite subtle at first, but that was exactly what I liked about it.

 

As for the Delusion triggers in Chaos;Head... I have to confess that I've actually finished the whole VN without knowing of their existence. Though from what I've seen, NOAH makes them much more obvious.

[O. Van Bruce]

Stuff

 

The problem is that if you want to get the true ending on both VN you have to get around those cryptic decisions.

[wattstax]

Yeah I'm not that big on bad ends especially if it is a long path after you've made a choice to discover 10 choices ago you will get stuck with a bad end. I kind of like a somewhat forgiving set of choices for routes where since finding the one exact combination to trigger can be a pain if there are lots of choices and makes me just end up using a guide which takes some of the fun out of it.

Second that. Choices are nice if it changes the direction of story telling. But if the plot is doomed right at the beginning because of a wrong decision I fail to see the fun in it. I like my stories mysterious, not the choices i am presented with

Though bad ends aren't necessarily wrong, IF it is a story-based VN.

What I don't like is the miss of a kind of True Ending in pure romance-based game. Some sort of "every girl loves you, but we keep it open-end for your imagination". Know what I mean??

At least I would love to get the background stories of the girls in the common route and only at the end I get to choose my favourite.

Granted I haven't played that many VN so far...

[Vokoca]

The problem is that if you want to get the true ending on both VN you have to get around those cryptic decisions.

Really? I might be conveniently forgetting the details, but as far as I remember, you could get the true end in C;H by simply finishing the game once and then loading near the end and watching the ending again. I mean, I got the ending and I never even knew about the triggers - though there was that weirdly complicated bad ending you could get, yeah.But that was more of a bonus, wasn't it?

 

As for S;G, I got the true ending on my first try (not counting the Suzuha end, that finally made me aware of what the phone really does). I mean, didn't getting the true end simply mean you had to 

send the D-mails whenever you were asked to do so?

 

The only confusing things were the phone messages, since they choices were never really clear. And if that had any impact on the story, I again somehow missed that entirely. 

 

Second that. Choices are nice if it changes the direction of story telling. But if the plot is doomed right at the beginning because of a wrong decision I fail to see the fun in it. I like my stories mysterious, not the choices i am presented with

Though bad ends aren't necessarily wrong, IF it is a story-based VN.

What I don't like is the miss of a kind of True Ending in pure romance-based game. Some sort of "every girl loves you, but we keep it open-end for your imagination". Know what I mean??

At least I would love to get the background stories of the girls in the common route and only at the end I get to choose my favourite.

Granted I haven't played that many VN so far...

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, so sorry if I'm answering to something completely different, but I'm also a fan of well-written bad ends. Amane's bad end is still one of the most memorable endings from the whole Grisaia no Kajitsu VN for me, and I didn't even know it was a bad end until it actually ended. It was so well made I thought it was the real ending - I love that sort of thing.

 

On the other hand, the "Oops, you made a wrong choice. You're dead, lol!" bad ends are extremely lame.