Best Visual Novels for PC

[Karnik]

I recommend "Yumina the Ethereal", is a mix of dungeon crawler, jrpg and VN.

Sure. If I remember correctly the gameplay is similar to Rance VI. I had been playing it for a few hours, and honestly it's very cute, but Rance is a completely different story, lmao. ?‍

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

I'll take note of the games mentioned here, thanks.

In my case Katawa Shoujo, it's a special one for me <3

Someone said something about Ace Attorney not being in pc, but The great Ace Attorney have a compilation for pc.

 

[ThirdEidolon]

Snatcher and the Hotel Dusk/Last Window series.

 

[Darklink]

Not a PC game, as far as I know. (unless you count emulators)

Someone said something about Ace Attorney not being in pc, but The great Ace Attorney have a compilation for pc.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy on Steam

Become Phoenix Wright and experience the thrill of battle as you fight to save your innocent clients in a court of law. Play all 14 episodes, spanning the first three games, in one gorgeous collection.

store.steampowered.com

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy on Steam

Join rookie attorney Apollo Justice and his mentor, the legendary Phoenix Wright, in this collection of 3 games! This title features 16 episodes (including previously DLC-only episodes) and supports English, French, German, Japanese Korean, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

store.steampowered.com

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on Steam

Immerse yourself in a dramatic yet charming and witty world of evidence-gathering, deduction and courtroom battles with this double-pack of the adventures of rookie lawyer Ryunosuke.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

It seems that only both Miles Edgeworth games don't have pc version.
I hate the first one but the second is godlike.
Anyway, our lawyer have a bunch of great games.

 

[Clippy]

Please don't mention the nukige genre which is disgusting and perverse, for depraved people.

Goddamnit. And here I was thinking it was going to be my time to shine. How could you?

On a more serious note, I'm a fan of C's Ware/Himeya Soft works - Eve Burst Error, Desire, Divi-Dead and a couple of others whose names escape me at the moment.

Eve has the most engaging story out of these and coincidentally it also happens to feature the most infuriating gameplay since they tried to be cute and do more than just let you read it and make choices at crucial plot points. It also has a sequel called Adam The Double Factor which I'm still raging about no matter how many years pass. Long story short - the English translation doesn't include the final chapter because Himeya was closing down its American branch so in their infinite wisdom they just released what they had translated up to that point and bookended the game with a teaser of the climax of the story. If I ever get my hands on whoever made that decision, I swear to God...

I am big mad about it and the worst thing is that there is no fantraslation to rectify it either despite the fact that the game is 20+ years old.

 

[Karnik]

On a more serious note, I'm a fan of C's Ware/Himeya Soft works - Eve Burst Error, Desire, Divi-Dead and a couple of others whose names escape me at the moment

Bravo! You were right to mention these older titles: I also played them at the time, along with lighter, shorter and less demanding titles for MS-DOS/Win95 such as Season of Sakura, Runaway City, Nocturnal Illusion and others. Also, thanks for the curious info about Adam: I knew nothing about this backstory. What annoys me about these titles is the fact that you have to click numerous times on various random and insignificant points in the background before you can continue with the story: how much time of my life wasted in vain.... ??‍

 

[Clippy]

What annoys me about these titles is the fact that you have to click numerous times on various random and insignificant points in the background before you can continue with the story: how much time of my life wasted in vain.... ??‍

Punch the wall 3 times for no reason because that somehow moves the story along, sheesh.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Speaking of, I discovered this gem a few months ago. Some madlad from a far away land made all of the classic eroge VNs playable on the browser. Check it out: https://tss.asenheim.org/

 

[Karnik]

Check it out: https://tss.asenheim.org/

Thanks for the info, boss, but that site has been around for several years. Do you think that a fanatic of old VNs like me might not know this?

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Punch the wall 3 times for no reason because that somehow moves the story along, sheesh.

The most annoying part about some of these games is when they have multiple endings and you have to play through the same scenes over and over. And then you have to jump to a random room at a certain time, then go to the basement twice to unlock another ending.

To be fair, these games are really short and this type of padding may feel necessary to drag out the experience.

 

[geeforty]

haven't gotten into as much VNs as I should but I always like more horror themed ones like divi-dead. clannad's a classic as well

 

[Karnik]

I always like more horror themed ones like divi-dead

Then I recommend Animamudi: the Dark Alchemist : we discussed it at the beginning of this thread. Action-packed, full of twists and turns, dramatic from the start and tragic in some bad endings, great jpn voice acting and memorable characters, especially Georik Zaberisk. An unfairly underrated masterpiece.

 

[Rolandhoalfa]

I played so many VN but if this for every people can enjoy maybe i can recommended 07th expansion visual novel.
Higurashi

Umineko

Why i love them because Quality for story, soundtrack,voice actor High tier for me

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Alas i tried VN's before, and quickly found it wasn't for me. Reading 1-2 lines at a time with semi-static characters talking and clicking 'next next next' repeatedly for 30 minutes straight; Probably feels a lot like walking simulators of games. On the other hand they are cheap to make especially with RenPy being available.

Games i could stomach in the VN genre are something intermixed with something else. Va11 Hall-A comes to mind, where it's 5 minutes of talking, mixed in with 2-3 challenges of making a drink for the customer. About halfway through the game i got to the point i just played to finish it and didn't care about the story anymore.

Course one of my favorite games (on PS2) is Ar Tonelico, which switches to a VN blocks when diving into your Revatails to unlock 'songs'. Those were welcome bits and change of pace from combat and exploration, when you want to eat or chill yet still progress and get lore.

But in my opinion any VN block going longer than 10 minutes (without substantial visuals) wears it's welcome out.

Please don't mention the nukige genre which is disgusting and perverse, for depraved people.

The term I'd seen used is eroge. Though I suppose ecchi works too. But if and why it is (or isn't) a good genre we can get into another time.

 

[Karnik]

Alas i tried VN's before, and quickly found it wasn't for me. Reading 1-2 lines at a time with semi-static characters talking and clicking 'next next next' repeatedly for 30 minutes straight

Well, have you read any adventure, horror or romantic stories or novels in your life? Well, VNs are like this, mostly text to read, with images in the background; you know, even today there is still someone, thank goodness, who likes to read a good storyline and feel emotions by identifying with the characters, without necessarily having to fiddle with the joypad or keyboard to have fun. It is a particular genre, halfway between a literary book and an episode of an anime; perhaps the noun "video game" is, all in all, inadequate to describe it. ?‍

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Well, have you read any adventure, horror or romantic stories or novels in your life?

Yes, i have. However it's the 2-3 sentences at a time that annoys me.

I would much prefer if a VN was half the screen doing a slow slideshow of things ongoing with the events in the story, while half the screen was a wall of text so it's like a caption book.

The thing i hate is:

It was a dark and stormy night,

click

Anne:
Oh i got some nice armor too. Got it from the smithy...

click

down the street, by the name of Hard Iron.

click

Sam:
Oh

click

Believe me, I've been reading more in the last year or two than i have before with a growing library of books. But a good hearty screenfull before clicking 'next' or 'page down' is preferred over 1-3 sentences.

If they are voice-acted then that's nice too, though the timing of text display and audio tends to be off. And you still gotta click on each update, and lots of non-narrated stuff is in between. (Or have it audo-advance, which usually has an unlikable pause of 5 seconds between each text, or advancing too fast making you backtrack to the logs.)

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

VNs are the video game version of choose your own adventure novels. I used to read these as a kid and that's why I like the genre.

I used to have the D&D choose your own adventure novels and read them voraciously. VNs share some DNA with this type of literature:

 

[Karnik]

Yes, i have. However it's the 2-3 sentences at a time that annoys me.

Fate Stay Night (original PC version), Tsukihime (original version), Kana Little Sister, Crescendo and many others (especially the older VNs) have text that takes up the entire screen, above backgrounds and characters, and change page by page with one click.

VNs are the video game version of choose your own adventure novels. I used to read these as a kid and that's why I like the

Yeah, they were also available in my language, adventure, science fiction and horror genre; multi-paths and multi-endings.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Fate Stay Night (original PC version), Tsukihime (original version), Kana Little Sister, Crescendo and many others (especially the older VNs) have text that takes up the entire screen, above backgrounds and characters, and change page by page with one click.

Yeah, that i could probably live with, if i was interested more in the story.

Though i've been getting used to using a tablet to read my books on using epubs (usually cover image only), and being stuck at a computer isn't something i can do anymore like i could as a teenager, at least for reading books. And playing games, i prefer a controller and leaning back, vs keyboard/mouse and leaning forward at a fixed location.

 

[Karnik]

Though i've been getting used to using a tablet to read my books on using  epubs

As written at the thread beginning, through Exagear apk and Kirikiroid2 apk it is possible to read almost all VNs on a tablet, as I have been doing for several years; but I understand that you are not interested in them anyway.?‍

 

[fake-kun]

I've always wanted to get into VNs outside of Ace Attorney, but I can't even manage reading books, let alone a software version of them.

 

[Bonkers225]

House in Fata Morgana

 

[Karnik]

House in Fata Morgana 

Yeah, already mentioned by someone. They say it's very good, but the lack of voice acting makes it less attractive and engaging, in my opinion. Am I the only one who thinks jpn voice acting is essential in VNs?

 

[captainshrimple]

With naughty bits: Yume Miru Kisuru: A Drug That Makes You Dream

Without naughty bits: Genius Nazi Girl! Goeppels Chan

Honorable mention: Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbithole