Point and click/VN style games you love and why?

[RageBurner]

I like PnC/VNs that make the gears in my brain turn. Having to make logical connections, figuring out clues and culprits and so on. As the inner detective is strong in me, my favorite kind of game in this space are ones of this kind.

Off the top of my head the Hotel Dusk/Last Window duology comes in very strongly near the top - I loved everything about those games and the fact Cing ceased operations not long after Last Window came to light is rather painful to me, though I should be thankful LW exists at all.

Another standout series in this regard for me is Danganronpa. While it leans very heavily into absurdism and anime tropes, some of the cases are genuinely interesting, as is the premise (though at times logical threads are somewhat weak and the QTE/minigame overload during certain segments is frankly tiring and not entirely warranted.

Lastly, and perhaps predictably, Snatcher. I love everything about it too (except for the fact it is, for all intents and purposes, unfinished), but being a Cyberpunk apologist, the setting is just great, and it is one of the few games of this type I've played more than once.

So that's my take. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts.

 

[Yousef]

Anything made by KEY has the key to my heart.
Ryukishi07 is awesome too.
I’d also I’ve also been in love with Witch of the Holy Night.
As for point and click, I’ve always adored Sam & Max, Monkey Island, the Jurassic park game, back to the future, Detective Grimoire, Tangled Tower, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Cool Attractive People.

 

[Waffles]

I used to really enjoy the entire Lucasarts catalog, particularly Monkey Island and Day Of The Tentacle. They were very doable if you were able to enter a certain mind frame.

Stuff like King's Quest and Discworld, however... you ain't beating those without drugs. Lotsa drugs.

 

[Strategist]

Policenaughts is a classic. Ace Attorney Trilogy is excellent.

And I hear CS Ware makes some good eroge VN. Not that I would ever play those. Nope. Not me.

PC-98 has a collection of VNs I hope to work my way through one day.

 

[Akien]

The zero escape series was a lot of fun, and things Uchikoshi works on in general are a lot of fun. 13 Sentinels: aegis rim is a great experience too although part of the game is RTS style combat the meat and potatos are the adventure style section of the game.

 

[RageBurner]

The zero escape series was a lot of fun, and things Uchikoshi works on in general are a lot of fun. 13 Sentinels: aegis rim is a great experience too although part of the game is RTS style combat the meat and potatos are the adventure style section of the game.

Ah, can't believe I forgot the Nonary games, true, true.
That said, IMO none of the succeeding games could match the brilliance of 999 in my book.

 

[Gorse]

OK, don't get the wrong idea, but I really love Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb. It's a lovingly-realized fantasy adventure game about a sneaky Robin Hood-esque fox who mistakenly pisses off several kings in a fantasy kingdom, and needs to go find a magical orb to prevent himself from being made into a fur coat. It's got extremely charming characters and some very funny dialogue, and the puzzles have a perfect balance of koo-koo moon logic and accessibility that make the entire thing a very smooth ride.

But what I really like about the game is its setting. It takes place in an after-the-end scenario where all the anthropomorphic fantasy animals you meet are actually the result of intervention from long-gone humans. As you go through the story, you learn more and more about what's happened to this world – why everything is as it is, and how you fit into that role – and what first seems like a cute fantasy quickly turns into a very, very different kind of game, indeed. The secret of the titular "orb" is very engaging, and, despite ending on a never-resolved cliffhanger, the game's complete story is excellent.

It's an undeniable furry game - the devs were active members of the furry fanbase in the '90s, and made no qualms about including a few cheeky jokes in the game – but even if you don't want to have sex with cartoon squirrels, I'd really recommend it. Some of the pixel art is just breathtaking, and the soundtrack is pure bliss. It's on Steam for $5, but goes on sale constantly, so if you have any interest in adventure games at all, I'd strongly urge you to check it out.

 

[Akien]

Yea 999 on the original Ds was such a treat, it also helps that the plot felt really fresh in the first game. The later rendition of it having voice acting was nice though. No idea why the DS had so many sleeper visual novel games but it makes discovering them years later a blast.

 

[RageBurner]

Yea 999 on the original Ds was such a treat, it also helps that the plot felt really fresh in the first game. The later rendition of it having voice acting was nice though. No idea why the DS had so many sleeper visual novel games but it makes discovering them years later a blast.

My problem with VLR is the stylistic shift - the hand drawn renders of the first game were so expressive, and the sequel opted for models that looked very ho-hum to me. Don't like them at all.

 

[owari_da]

My problem with point and click/VN's is that I fall asleep literally EVERY TIME i try to play them.

 

[RetroLaw]

The classics, so I think I won't need to explain

Snatcher (played it late, about 3 years ago ? )
Dangan Ronpa
Phoenix Wright

I'm guessing Telltales kind of games counts ?

A wolf among Us if my favorite, absolutely loved it.
I also loved the first Batman (despite the choices seemingly making no real difference ?)


As for click and play, Day of the Tentacles is my fav.
I loved Broken Sword, but the second game is my favorite.
I started Longest Journey, really enjoyed it but had to stop playing and didn't go back to it yet.
So many games to play

Discworld is fun, but way to cryptic imo. I did enjoy playing it with a guide, but I liked games more when I don't need one.

 

[RageBurner]

My problem with point and click/VN's is that I fall asleep literally EVERY TIME i try to play them.

These games are like interactive books, in a sense. Unless there's a strong thematic hook for you personally, I can understand why you would be bored. The ones I mentioned contain themes I'm interested in, so I stuck with them.

 

[Cu-Neo]

It's hard as hell knowing what to do. But AM is such a great hater and that makes the game iconic

 

[DunkeyKong]

Not sure if it counts but, Age of Mythology is one of the best games I've ever played. It was the one of the first games to get 3D graphics from Ensemble Studio and despite it's age, it is revolutionary

 

[Thinaxanel]

Ah, can't believe I forgot the Nonary games, true, true.
That said, IMO none of the succeeding games could match the brilliance of 999 in my book.

I agree wholeheartedly.
While I did enjoy the other 2 titles in the series. Neither could match the peak in quality of the original.

Post automatically merged: Dec 6, 2024

I certainly love the Nancy Drew series of games. And how fun the environments were to explore.
I also have some fondness for most of the point and click titles from Humongous Entertainment.

 

[RageBurner]

I agree wholeheartedly.
While I did enjoy the other 2 titles in the series. Neither could match the peak in quality of the original.

Post automatically merged: Dec 6, 2024

I certainly love the Nancy Drew series of games. And how fun the environments were to explore.
I also have some fondness for most of the point and click titles from Humongous Entertainment.View attachment 3029View attachment 3031

Interesting, I don't know either of these.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Not a fan of VN's, but point & click is one of my favorite genres. I love Gadget and the original Myst and all of their clones. They spawned some of the most bizarre and unique games I can think of. Just look at the insanity that is Eastern Mind: Lost Souls of Tong-Nou for example, or the ominous minimalism of Gadget.

It's also a very varied genre, having from grand scale 3rd person adventures like The Longest Journey to more experimental stuff like The Neverhood, or even the horror themed Sanitarium. And all very good.

 

[Ikagura]

I enjoyed DotT, Broken Sword 1, Ace Attorney (the first trilogy) and Zero Escape as well as others but I'll be honest I'm bad at that genre.

Especially because I'm just easily frustrated when I get stuck in a place (even with trying every items on everything).

 

[RageBurner]

I enjoyed DotT, Broken Sword 1, Ace Attorney (the first trilogy) and Zero Escape as well as others but I'll be honest I'm bad at that genre.

Especially because I'm just easily frustrated when I get stuck in a place (even with trying every items on everything).

Honestly it's quite normal to brute force an answer. What the game considers logical isn't always easy to perceive or even a kind of thought process a person would have reasonably reached. I find that the more absurd the setting, the more this is liable to happen (if you played The Dig I'm sure you'll understand what I mean).

 

[Ikagura]

Honestly it's quite normal to brute force an answer. What the game considers logical isn't always easy to perceive or even a kind of thought process a person would have reasonably reached. I find that the more absurd the setting, the more this is liable to happen (if you played The Dig I'm sure you'll understand what I mean).

And this is probably my small gripe with the genre, if you win by brute forcing and not by logic it kinda fails its point...

Same with when you can actually lose the game without noticing because you didn't enable a flag that you could miss forever (or like that one time in Monkey Island and the meat piece for the dogs).

 

[RageBurner]

And this is probably my small gripe with the genre, if you win by brute forcing and not by logic it kinda fails its point...

Same with when you can actually lose the game without noticing because you didn't enable a flag that you could miss forever

Agreed. Honestly and VN/PnC that doesn't allow you to revisit story points is inherently poorly designed.
Take 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on the DS; I consider it one of the best games in this space but had a lot of literal dead ends (your character dies). To try a different outcome, you had to start over and take notes to find the right path forward and set the right flags.

Only when it got an enhanced re-release on more modern systems did it allow for you to see the branching paths and revisit known nodes (plot points) to try something different.

 

[Ikagura]

Agreed. Honestly and VN/PnC that doesn't allow you to revisit story points is inherently poorly designed.
Take 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on the DS; I consider it one of the best games in this space but had a lot of literal dead ends (your character dies). To try a different outcome, you had to start over and take notes to find the right path forward and set the right flags.

Only when it got an enhanced re-release on more modern systems did it allow for you to see the branching paths and revisit known nodes (plot points) to try something different.

Don't worry I did the original DS and Nonary Game remake.

I say that I kinda cheated by searching a flowchart online after my first game over but it's a good addition that they added one in TNG.

In the same way that Machi (街) by the same company added one for the PS1 re-release of the game and that 428 Shibuya Scramble had it by default.

Speaking of Chunsoft they made quite a lot of "Sound Novels" (the official name for the narrative heavy games that are mostly text on a still frame) starting from the SFC and I wish for translations.

Banshee's Last Cry is, like Shin Megaten, still stuck on an older version of iOS which annoys me. An official PC port could've been good...

Sound Novel are way more verbose than point 'n click so it may not please everyone as you have only one image with a wall of text.

Literally a proto-Zero Escape.

 

[RageBurner]

Speaking of Chunsoft they made quite a lot of "Sound Novels" (the official name for the narrative heavy games that are mostly text on a still frame) starting from the SFC and I wish for translations.

So something like Otogirisou?

 

[Ikagura]

So something like Otogirisou?

Absolutely!

It got an english translation? Makes me wonder why Chunsoft cannot make a compilation of translated games. I understand that localisation isn't cheap but...
Well, at least we can theoretically use AI camera for translation but it's not really convenient.

Not by Chunsoft but Silent Hill got a Sound Novel esque game on the GBA

 

[RageBurner]

Honestly nowadays companies have so many tools at their disposal to shortcut work that not having things be localized is less and less excusable. Back in the day they had marketing considerations, transport logistics, cart manufacturing/CD pressing and a lot of added on costs - it was risky.

As, is, we've gone so hard on digital (for better and worse, mostly worse) that the risks are really that much smaller, and the reachable audience has never been wider.