Before I started making a mess in the interactive fiction space, I was writing about Japanese visual novels. It’s been fascinating thinking about the intersections and differences between Japanese visual novels and interactive fiction.
So, I started thinking, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to see more people from each side explore the other side?” As a result, I composed a list of interactive fiction titles for my Japanese visual novel friends. My approach for this wasn’t about highlighting the best IF had to offer but rather the titles that I thought will provoke the most unique discussions. As a small example, I got some friends to play Photopia because it came out around the same time as another influential VN, Kanon, and also had a very similar atmosphere.
I want to do the same with IF people and visual novels. Not all the games are my favorite (though a good chunk is!) and I’m not aiming to be comprehensive, but I think their similarities and differences should be interesting enough to warrant an essay or two from people here. I’d like to read what IF people have to say about visual novels in general.
I’m sectioning my list into themes, and I’m also providing content warnings when appropriate. And the games I’m recommending all have satisfactory English translations or are in English to begin with.
What This Thread Won’t Be About
I will not define what a visual novel is. That debate will never end… I’ll just say that it’s a genre where you read and sometimes click buttons. I’m also not recommending really popular and good titles for the sake of it. I’m interested in recommending visual novels that I think would be interesting for IF developers and players.
Unique Approaches to Interactivity and Structure
YU-NO - A girl who chants love at the bound of this world (paid) (cw: incest, nonconsensual sexual content: Imagine a “time cave”. Now, imagine that time cave as a flowchart map where you can hop from one node to another. In YU-NO, you are traveling between different timelines with the items you have from one route that could help with this new timeline. This is an epic science fiction game released in 1998, and it still takes my breath away. While not everything aged well, especially in regards to the sexual content, the ambition is still unmatched. There are two versions that largely depend on your preferences of the aesthetic and the translation: the original TLWiki combines the PC98 art and Saturn voice acting, but it has some dated vocabulary including using a slur that was common to that day; the remake with new art and translation is also available on Steam and modern consoles.
Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa (paid) (cw: gore and noncon: If there’s one visual novel someone should play, this is it: the game imagines a world overrun by powered armor suits and explores Japanese imperialism in a lush alternate historical fiction setting. Written by a practicing kendo martial artist, the game is like a treatise on the nature of violence. It’s long, it’s tedious, but it’s also everything in one package. I laughed and cried so much playing this title. The translation is also one of the best things too. The game was banned on Steam unfortunately, but it is available on the publisher’s website and GOG.
Tokyo Necro (paid) (cw: gore, noncon: Set in a frozen cyberpunk Tokyo, the game follows two protagonists who don’t hook up with each other but have their own girlfriends. You’ll read them shooting down and chainsawing zombies, but what I also find cool is how the routes are decided. Without spoiling too much, I think the few choices it has are surprisingly impactful and deliver a lot of impact. Of the titles I’m recommending, this is perhaps the title with the most universal appeal.
Subarashiki Hibi/Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole (paid) (cw: noncon, drugs, suicide, bullying: While I’m not sure if the author intended it, the plural systems I’ve talked to have said the game has captured quite accurately what it means to be see the world in their eyes. Each chapter reinterprets the same event from a different POV. The game tackles some uncomfortable subject matter, and people have said it was too extreme for them, but I think the approach the game has taken is very grounded and surprisingly measured. I have a hard time evaluating this game since it’s one of those life-changing games for me, but I think it’s a genuinely impressive work. The game requires a patch from JAST USA in order to play the content past the first chapter.
Paranormasight (paid): A horror adventure game directed by an experienced developer whose bread and butter were mystery adventure games on flipphones, the game plays with some interesting adventure game and timeline mechanics that use the supernatural setting really well. I won’t say too much, but it’s a fun ride.
Fate/Stay Night (paid) (cw: noncon, some gore: This is perhaps the most famous of the visual novels I’ve brought up because it inspired countless spinoffs, but the original visual novel is worth a play. The game is linear, but there are many branches that lead to some fascinating bad ends that explore what-if situations. I also think the story is still relevant and may appeal to the comic book fans in the forum: everyone is embroiled in this battle royale, and they’re fighting each other with characters from history and legends. It’s so cool.
Witch on the Holy Night (paid): While the game has connections to the above title, it can be played standalone. The title follows two women and one guy in a tranquil setting, and the stories are separated into “books” as volumes and tangents that explore a theme or an aspect of the setting. The presentation is also on another level, with combat sequences looking like they’re storyboards from an anime adaptation that doesn’t exist.
Kindred Spirits on the Roof (paid): An anthology of lesbian relationship stories set in the same school, the main mode of interactivity is through a calendar. It’s a nice read if you want something cute. As an aside, this game is important to English-language visual novels developers because it showed there was a market for lesbian romance games.
Cyanotype Daydream (paid): When you start the game, you’re randomly launched into one of three main stories of a game. After you’re done with one chapter of said story, you go into an intermission in the “real world” and learn about the world before going into the next story. So, you can say it’s a linked story with an interesting framing device.
Raging Loop (paid) (cw: mentions of gore, scenes may be read as ableist): A fascinating take on the werewolf party game, you are trying to suss out who’s manipulating the loop by figuring out the right (and perhaps wrong) choices. It’s also a nice meditation on Japanese folklore religions too.
Subversive Storytelling and Aesthetics
SeaBed (paid): A mundane lesbian romance travelogue at first glance, the game explores what it means to move onto a new life. I often found myself in a daze playing this game. It’s hard to explain. All I can say it’s the work that means to me the most, and I want to see more people talk about it.
Connect the Dots (free): Told entirely in storyboards, this fanfic of a rather obscure anime is this meditation on what it means to tell a story.
Sona-nyl of the Violet Shadows (paid) (cw: dubcon: A love letter to 1920s American culture, this linear visual novel uses the trappings of magical girls and Lovecraftian mythos to explore nostalgia and what American literature means to the Japanese writer. It’s very cute and poignant.
Chaos;Child (paid) (cw: gore: For better or for worse, the game’s approach to media literacy will never stop being relevant. The protagonists are interested in unveiling a conspiracy that ends up entangling them. It feels like a critique of what happens in the true crime genre at times. Another favorite of mine, though unfortunately the game requires a patch to translate some important parts of the game.
Himawari: The Sunflower (paid) (cw: abuse: I’ve always felt this visual novel would have more of an impact on me if I played it growing up. It’s a coming-of-age story that tackles the adulation we have on our role models. This idolizing ignores the bad parts of the people we admire. It’s like what Harper Lee intended to do with Go Set a Watchman but more refined.
Flesh and Pressure (free) (cw: gore, transphobia): A deeply funny game that plays on the trans experience and what it means to hook up with other people. The self-deprecation hits too close to home at times. Love it.
Ten Metre Tide (free) (cw: age gap): A declining island town, a love triangle, and mixed media art. Somber and lovely.
slime feet (free) (cw: gore, sex): I’m a huge fan of Nadia Nova’s games, and I think this game encapsulates what I find fascinating about her titles. It’s funny, fetishistic, and also tragic. You have no idea what to expect from title like Slime Feet, but I can assure you that you’ll definitely feel something.
Ghostpia: Season One (paid): This visual novel feels like it came out from a picture book. Fantastical setting, interesting relationships. If you want something that is very different from anything I’ve recommended, this is worth looking into.
Notable Mentions
There are games I wish I played because they would be obvious inclusions onto the list. Rather than ignoring them, I’m putting them in this section. I’m also putting stuff that’s a bit troublesome to include on the main list.
Slay the Princess: I have the game on my backlog. This is probably the biggest omission.
YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story (paid): Another big omission on my end. This is a meta visual novel that plays on how people interact with visual novels.
Kikokugai (paid): I actually played the game, and I think it would be interesting to see people tackle how the game critiques the hero’s journey. Indeed, I would’ve put this edgy cyberpunk linear visual novel on the main list if the game was actually accessible… I think you can only get the game through piracy and used copies.
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (paid): Haven’t played it, but the massive time cave structure is apparently impressive.
Ever17 ~ the out of infinity (paid): This is an important visual novel that launched several creators’ careers, including Uchikoshi Kotaro (now famous for 999 and AI: The Somnium Files). It does some funky stuff with visual novel mechanics and structure that could be fascinating for IF people. The problem is that the official translation is based on a later version that isn’t written by him and his team. A fan translation of the original game exists at least.
MYTH (paid): Is this game good? Who’s to say, the abrasive storytelling doesn’t win many fans. But it’s gotten some fans since people enjoy speculating aspects of the lore. Perhaps, someone might find this title interesting.
The Shell: Part One (paid) (cw: gore, body horror): May be of interest to people who are interested in mystery games because its approach to adventure game design is eclectic at best. There are two translations of the same game, both decent but the newer one I linked completes the trilogy.
428: Shibuya Scramble (paid): Haven’t played it, but I know it’s a game that connects many perspectives into one story. Notably, the game uses photographic backgrounds with live actors.
Gnosia (paid): A werewolf game from my understanding. I have this game for ages, but I keep forgetting to play it.
Perhaps I can ask for a personal recommendation, but don’t answer if you don’t have the time or energy for it! Thing is, although I know woefully little about Japanese culture in general, I’ve fallen in love with The Tale of Genji. Because of that, I’ve read quite a bit about Heian Japan, and I’ve been delving into the literature of that time (I love Sei Shonagon as well) and roughly up to the post-Heian Taira epic.
Would there be any good visual novels, available in translation, that engage with this period or its literature? Just in case you happen to know anything!
Not a visual novel so much as a Heian-era walking simulator, but you might like Cosmology of Kyoto.
It’s a 1993 game for PC and Mac and I have no idea where it can be obtained legitimately.
It’s difficult to summarize. It’s designed for multiple playthroughs with a very slight amount of meta progression. You wander around encountering both historical and mythological characters and situations, dying and being reborn, progression governed by a mostly-opaque karma system.
Parts are very loosely based on Tales Old and New/Konjaku Monogatari/今昔物語 and there’s an in-game reference guide that glosses many things.
I think it’s the sort of thing that a lot of people will immediately bounce off of, but if it clicks for you it’ll probably really click so it’s probably worth hunting down to check out.
The Heian period is woefully under-depicted, even in Japanese fiction. The translations are even scarcer. I can’t recommend much in that realm, but I know that Ivan Morris’s history book The World of the Shining Prince comes highly recommended. Liza Dalby’s The Tale of Murasaki seems popular too last time I checked.
For anyone interested in Japanese historical visual novels, I would encourage people to check out Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa since that depicts a Japan that didn’t enter the Meiji era but another longer and more corrupt Tokugawa period when World War II should’ve started/ended.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is also a huge recommendation from me. This explores the tensions between Meiji Japan and Victorian England and is surprisingly thoughtful about the imperialisms of both countries. It’s not exactly what people have in mind for a visual novel, but damn is it a good adventure game.
Butterfly’s Poison, Blood Chains is a fascinating title set in the Taisho era. You play as a woman trying to define herself in an era where women are still treated as too childish, and the guys who are your love interests come from different classes and backgrounds. Some of the bad endings can get pretty vicious. A nice introduction to how interesting otomege (so-called maidenly games where women are the central characters of their plots) can be.
Sakura Wars 1 and 2 are Saturn games that were recently translated into English by fans. It imagines an alternate steampunk history of the world, and the male protagonist is part of an all-female musical troupe and mecha force fighting against evil. This is a very optimistic vision of history where people are able to work together without being susceptible to xenophobia and racism, and I found it quite uplifting. The second game in particular critiques the rise of the imperial army, which I thought was refreshing. In general, I found the entire series surprisingly progressive for its time period, even if there are mishaps like bad homophobic jokes. There’s so much emphasis on their women characters as people that it felt like I was knowing them as actual people in history. As a visual novel, it uses timed choices and QTE sequences for choices, which makes it pretty weird and interesting. The strategy RPG elements are fun too.
I’ve not played The House in Fata Morgana, but that title jumps between different historical periods to track the house and the people living there. The title is extremely popular due to its more gothic art and approach to historical trauma.
This got me curious to try sorting VNDB by “starsort”, the algorithm we use to sort by ratings on IFDB. VNDB doesn’t have that feature built in, but they allow anyone to write custom queries and share them with others, so I did that.
You really can’t go wrong picking up games on this list:
in case you missed it, the Cosmology of Kyoto sequel/spiritual successor TRIPITAKA (which was for a long time very super-rare and unfindable) recently had a copy released
I somehow forgot Christmas Tina, a visual novel set in 1988 at the height of the bubble era Japan.
This is a Chinese and Japanese collaboration and explores the tense relationship between two teenagers: a Japanese school dropout who moved to Tokyo to find work and a Mainland Chinese student whose family was affected by the Cultural Revolution.
The two characters refuse to learn each other’s languages and prefer to confirm their biases. It’s a pretty fascinating game if you want to read a coming-of-age visual novel that plays with the boy-meets-girl dynamic but not in a romantic way.
I played just under four hours of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa and was pretty unimpressed, but I don’t know how much of that is me not getting on with the stylistic choices.
I got through the intro (fight between the two power armor dudes, the sack of the village, introducing Ginseigo and Muramasa), the first chapter (teenage school students and their missing friend), and the second chapter (mining village and the inspector and the two old dudes fighting over their former love triangle).
The martial arts sections consistently felt like a new-convert/true-believer showing off their “knowledge,” rather than the voice of a more grounded long-time practitioner, which pretty much ruined the “treatise on the nature of violence” part for me.
It felt like they wanted the ever-escalating drama and constant cliff-hangers of serial-format fiction, and wanted wacky comedy but also “this is a very serious adult story” and most of the way they tried to do that was by throwing in lots of violence and the dismemberment and rape at the end of the school kids section. Which felt like a lazy and immature approach to me.
Similarly, I felt like they were mostly dedicated to whatever twisty long-term conclusion they’re going to come to, and a lot of things felt unearned from a character perspective and were just plot devices. Which… again, unsatisfying for me.
The choices only started mid-way through the second chapter (so 2.5 hours in, for me?) and I was expecting this to be largely linear, but also the actual choice design so far has been very clunky “do you want to root for/flirt with this character to make their meter count up?” that felt shoved in there arbitrarily in support of some long-term conclusion.
They spent their art budget largely on flashy special effects and I would much rather that they had spent more time smoothing out some of the laughable mismatches between the text and the art (like in the intro, the text makes a BIG deal out of how beat up the old guy’s power armor is, and then they dramatically reveal… one! …and then two! shiny renders of the same 3D model except that one has a red jockstrap and the other has a black one).
The engine was kinda clunky and buggy: the author presumably doesn’t have much control over that but most of the almost THIRTY seconds that it takes to start the game is game-related splash screens and warnings. And then if you open the config menu to change some settings, and think, “oh, I’ll hit the escape key to close this menu” NOPE, THINK AGAIN, the ENTIRE game immediately quits with no confirmation and you have to wait half a minute again. Stuff like that.
IDK. A few of the humorous moments were pretty fun. The alt-history seemed like it would be interesting if I knew the real history? Or maybe it would be as disappointingly pompous as the martial arts stuff. I definitely didn’t play enough to see the “unique approaches to interactivity and structure” – I gather most of this is in the final (fifth?) chapter – so I can’t comment on that.
But yeah. Not my thing. I’m glad I tried it to see what it was like, but sorry, I ain’t playing the rest of this.
I think one of my initial reservations about Visual Novels is most of them are heavily draped in Anime tropes - which is great for fans, but the style can be bewildering to get into for some western audiences not familiar with the genre.
A few titles that are still Visual Novel but step back a bit from common Anime genre tropes:
Many of these are dating sims, but specifically not pornographic.
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is a game where you play as a Dad and your goal is to meet and romance other hot Dads. You and your daughter have just moved into the sleepy seaside town of Maple Bay only to discover that everyone in your neighborhood is a single, dateable Dad! Will you go out with Teacher Dad? Goth Dad? Bad Dad? Or any of the other cool Dads in this game? With minigames, sidequests, and a variety of paths and endings, Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is this year’s most anticipated Dad-based game.
Date Everything is a dating simulator where you date sentient furniture in your house. It’s simultaneously a legitimate dating sim and parody of the dating game genre with a stellar voice-cast. Mature themes and language; Contains in-game filters to avoid triggering subjects that occur via the unusual “reverse objectification” themes. For example, one hidden dateable character is Doug, yourOverwhelming Sense of Existential Dread.
Doki Doki Literature Club is created by a Western fan of Visual Novels and satirizes “harem” dating sims so the irony may be lost on players who aren’t experienced with this type of game. This is not a game for children or everyone - MAJOR content warning if you are one of the few who haven’t heard of this and are sensitive to some triggers: This is a stealth slow-burn meta-psychological horror game with eventual disturbing imagery, jump-scares, and graphic suicide scenes that usurp the cozy-pastel shoebox quality once the turn happens.
purrgatory is a visual novel about passing time in an afterlife where nothing really matters. explore a whimsical point-and-click world, befriend seven charming characters, and remember — furever’s not so bad!
winner of the “i can’t draw” game jam and featured in the museum of pop culture in seattle, washington!
Elevator Hitch is a short 2.5D surreal horror/escape room visual novel with point-and-click and puzzle elements following the story of two co-workers suddenly finding themselves stuck together in a “Perfectly Normal” 70s office elevator. This was a game completed in a month for submission in SpooktoberVNJam.
TWs include: graphic gore, blood, violence, disturbing imagery and audio, flashing/shaking images and eyestrain, shortly implied family abuse
Arcade Spirits is a romantic visual novel that follows an alternative timeline where the 1983 video game crash never occurred. It’s 20XX and you’ve just started a new job at the Funplex game arcade. Who will you meet along the way? Will you find the romance you’re seeking?
Any VN suggestions for someone who’s not into romance and picking partners to hook up with? I like sci-fi and medieval fantasy, not interested in slice-of-life stuff. I just want escapism.
I fear that I may have eliminated 99% of the entire VN library though.
These are kind of random but hopefully toward what you’re looking for, I’ve only played Monster Prom and seen gameplay of Ace Attorney.
Monster Prom does have a dating element, but the writing and (adult) humor is hilarious. The sequels are less about finding a prom date and it can be played like a multiplayer board game with choice elements. (‘stat-refining’ gameplay).
Yeah, I’m very far from an expert in the genre, but I’ve had a lot of fun with the original Ace Attorney trilogy. No romance, generally G-rated, plus I’ve seen them credited with bringing the VN genre to prominence in the West.
Also, there’s Danganronpa but that is high-octane ‘anime’ in elevated pop-punk style and there are some dicey plot elements in the early ones that didn’t age well. The first one can be a bit tedious in places - likely due to the English translation and repetition - but they get better, and the first sets up for the much better second one’s absurd (in the best way) plot twists. The music for this game is always in my playlist.
They are releasing the remaster of the second which is my favorite: D2: Goodbye, Despair (Danganronpa 2x2) sometime this year, and I hope that was the test ground to remaster and hopefully fix the pacing and other problems in the first one (and the second one; alas, Mikan Tsumiki…)
Mystery VNs are actually a really big genre, going all the way back to the origin of the medium; The Portopia Serial Murder Case was originally a parser game, but you can arguably trace the lineage of mystery VNs back to its console port, with influential early mystery VNs including Otogirisou, Machi, and Kamaitachi no Yoru. (428 is a spiritual successor to Machi, incidentally.)
In terms of stuff easily available in English, the big names have all been hit already and I can’t think of anything in particular to add. There are a ton of Ace Attorney and Zero Escape knock-offs out there, Japanese and otherwise, but so far I haven’t personally played any that I thought were better than okay.
Of the VNs listed in Kastel’s original post, I know that Paranormasight, Raging Loop, 428, and Gnosia are not romance-focused. Ever17 doesn’t feature dating mechanics but does have a couple prominent canon romances.
Edit: Umineko no Naku Koro ni is another big mystery VN, but in interaction style it is closer to hypertext fiction (read a story and occasionally click on some words to get more information) than an adventure game, whereas the rest of these are more adventure-gamey.
