Visual Novel Recommendations Megathread

[Yousef]

Hey I do remember it especially because Mages was involved, I just haven't played far since it's in Japanese.
Can I join the cool kids club too?

Of course, game is pretty great from what I know.
I think I know it from mobile.

 

[Prism Red]

Been a while huh.

My recommendation this time is the franchise which kickstarted the entire Oshi culture through anime/video games media, Sakura Wars.

I will be describing broadly just the main series where the VN aspect are the most prevalent, as of this post, only the 1st, 5th and 6th games has been released outside of Japan, with 1st in Russia and Chinese, and 5th and 6th in English. The 1st and 2nd games has an English patch (I'm sure you can find it easily out there :) ) and 3rd game's translation is currently being worked on.

So what's Sakura Wars? Well, think Fire Emblem, put it in alternate version of 1920s Japan where WWI didn't happen, remove all the boys (but not the homo subtext, this is important), leave just the harem, amped up the novel aspect by 400%, oh and add 6 meters tall steam-powered robots, and there you have it!

The story is a bog-standard VN where you work as a theatre usher by day and protector of Tokyo by night. alongside 6 girls (another 2 joined up later at the sequel) as a stage actresses. Unique to this series is the LIPS System, it's your usual multiple choices dialogue with a twist, as these are often timed and may even unlock new choice as you are getting closer to the countdown, there are some variation where you control how you gonna deliver the dialogue, be it loud and full of energy, or as silent as a mouse, or say nothing and let the timer run out, it's a viable choice. Your relation with the girls are going to affect their combat capabilities as well.

Ima stop here before I turn this post into a 4000 words article, if we're talking about Sega, this IP dwarfs Sonic by huge mile in Japan, play it, give it a try.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Been a while huh.

My recommendation this time is the franchise which kickstarted the entire Oshi culture through anime/video games media, Sakura Wars.

I will be describing broadly just the main series where the VN aspect are the most prevalent, as of this post, only the 1st, 5th and 6th games has been released outside of Japan, with 1st in Russia and Chinese, and 5th and 6th in English. The 1st and 2nd games has an English patch (I'm sure you can find it easily out there :) ) and 3rd game's translation is currently being worked on.

So what's Sakura Wars? Well, think Fire Emblem, put it in alternate version of 1920s Japan where WWI didn't happen, remove all the boys (but not the homo subtext, this is important), leave just the harem, amped up the novel aspect by 400%, oh and add 6 meters tall steam-powered robots, and there you have it!

The story is a bog-standard VN where you work as a theatre usher by day and protector of Tokyo by night. alongside 6 girls (another 2 joined up later at the sequel) as a stage actresses. Unique to this series is the LIPS System, it's your usual multiple choices dialogue with a twist, as these are often timed and may even unlock new choice as you are getting closer to the countdown, there are some variation where you control how you gonna deliver the dialogue, be it loud and full of energy, or as silent as a mouse, or say nothing and let the timer run out, it's a viable choice. Your relation with the girls are going to affect their combat capabilities as well.

Ima stop here before I turn this post into a 4000 words article, if we're talking about Sega, this IP dwarfs Sonic by huge mile in Japan, play it, give it a try.

Its crazy that Sega never release these games in the west or at least in PAL. These games are huge in terms of gameplay, and each one gets progressively more in depth. If these games were released in the 10s-20s i think it would have been a smash hit. Especially when games like SMT Persona and Fire Emblem took a lot of inspiration from these games. There hasn't been anything like this in JPN well until the early 00s which says a lot from these games. VN back in the 90s were just classic choose your adventure types. Only game series that came somewhat close to having a lot of depth in the gameplay perspective and not in the VN aspect was either Princess Maker or Rance.

 

[Prism Red]

Its crazy that Sega never release these games in the west or at least in PAL. These games are huge in terms of gameplay, and each one gets progressively more in depth. If these games were released in the 10s-20s i think it would have been a smash hit. Especially when games like SMT Persona and Fire Emblem took a lot of inspiration from these games. There hasn't been anything like this in JPN well until the early 00s which says a lot from these games. VN back in the 90s were just classic choose your adventure types. Only game series that came somewhat close to having a lot of depth in the gameplay perspective and not in the VN aspect was either Princess Maker or Rance.

I genuinely believe Rance could've reach this kind of hype, it's only held back by the fact that it was marketed as an eroge.