Visual Novel Recommendation

[skyy54264]

Not sure where to put this thread but this section looks more appropriate than the others. Not quite manga, not quite anime but visual novels usually do fall into the interests of otakus like myself.

I've only finshed "Saya no Uta" (and loved it), and read some of Clannad and some of "ef - a fairy tale of two". But both ef and Clannad were excruciating long with 6+ endings which made me lose interest due to having to go back and map out the possible paths.

Does anyone know any visual novels with one or few endings (maybe ~3)? I'm not asking for good ones because everyone has their own taste so I'll just check out reviews on my own.

Also, I remember stumbling into a site that has hundred of Visual Novel titles with and their info on it. The site layout was black/dark-ish and the menu/tabs were on the left hand side. If anyone knows which site it was, I'd very much appreciate it.

[Milfeulle9001]

Read Fate/Stay Night

It's one of my favorites and a pretty good one at that.

I'd also recommend Sengoku Rance, it's pretty addicting regarding gameplay and it has nice routes. Also good if you like historic Japan, i.e the Sengoku period, samurais, etc

Also, I'm pretty sure the site you mention is www.vndb.org.

[Reckoner]

Fate/Stay Night - It's the most popular visual novel for a reason is all I can say.

Ever 17 - Many tout it as one of the best visual novels ever, specifically because of its last arc though.

Tsukihime - An oldie but a goodie. It is a very twisted visual novel however, though not as much as Saya no Uta. If you're looking for fucked up or heart wrenching stuff, check it out. Also was made by the creators of Fate/Stay Night.

Sharin no Kuni Himawari no Shoujo - Most awesome male protagonist of all time. Interesting world and set up with a few twists that'll make your head spin.

[MeoTwister5]

For short games with drama emphasis:

Narcissu
Planetarian ~Reverie of a Little Planet~

Narcissu is about a pair with terminal illness leaving their hospital and going on a "final" road trip to... somehow enjoy the days of their lives and to somehow take control of their impending deaths rather than simply waiting to die. The game is free and downloadable here.

Planetarian is post-apocalyptic. A scavenger of sorts ventures into the broken remains of a city scrounging tech and remnants of a dead era for salvage. Here he ends up escaping guard robots inside a planetarium still operated by an android over the past few hundred years. Here he learns... well okay play the game and find out why. Fantastic soundtrack though. You have to buy the original game in Japanese and download the English patch here.

For eroge... well... the best I can recommend is:

Yume Miru Kusuri. Eroge tends to get a bad rep for all the sex, but this is one of the games that stand out from the usual sex sells crap. Three heroines, one about a drug addict, one about a rich and overspending free-wheeler and the last (and I think the best of the three) is a bullied girl. Did I mention that the illustrator is the character designer for Index and Railgun?

Family Project. A "drug" dealer girl, a homeless girl, an illegal immigrant girl, a disowned female heir, a woman victimized by a con-artist, a homeless but employed salaryman and the male lead, a waiter and "professional escort" of sorts who recently got his apartment demolished. A ragtag bunch of misfits and social rejects band together under an old unwanted house trying to exist as a family unit in order to keep a roof above their heads, each one taking the role of a typical family member.

Now if you want an atypical, Western fan-made but yet unfinished VN:

Katawa Shoujo. Literally "Disabled Girls". The male lead is a guy who is forced to move to a special school for disabled people after being diagnosed with arrythmia. Here he meets many people who also have physical and medical disabilities yet try to live their lives as best they can. Heroines are a blind class rep, the deaf-mute student council president, a very introverted facial burn victim, a track runner with leg prosthesis and an armless painter/artist. The game is still unfinished, I've been waiting for two years, but the first act of the game is finished and downloadable and the rest of the game is proceeding smoothly. We MIGHT see the release in two years, maybe. This is a rather famous fan project and from the first act alone it is very, VERY well written.

[Aqua Knight]

Clannad was pretty entertaining but you can just go with the anime though.

[MaiNoKen]

Since Clannad was mentioned - some of the older Key works will worth mentioning as well. Such as Kanon, Little Busters!, and Air etc. Key is well known for its melodramas.

I myself have been reading through Steins;Gate lately, and that one is awesome too. Unlike most VN, it is hard sci-fi with quite a bit of otaku culture spin.

[Dist]

The website you're looking for is Visual Novel Database ... Oh yeah, it was mentioned already. Well here's a confirmation, lol.

I also second Yume Miru Kusuri. I personally skipped all ero scenes... I just loved the story, the music and everything about it. Well, that only goes for the girl's route who got bullied ( This was ages ago, so I forgot her name ).

[skyy54264]

Thanks for the suggestion guys (and the site).

I've seen the anime of the KEY trifecta. Didn't really like Kanon much so I probably won't look at the KanonVN. If AirVN ends the same way the anime did, I probably won't touch it either (though I did love the immense drama in Air).

I heard Umineko only has one ending? I dropped the anime but I hear people saying the UminekoVN far exceeds it.

But I'll definitely check out Narcissu and Yume Miru Kusuri because they don't look that long.

[Milfeulle9001]

The Umineko VN is a kinetic novel, meaning it has no set choices or routes, you just go with the flow of the story.