Visual Novels -- Awesome?

[Clo]

Has anyone ever played one? I've played two and I loved them both. Katawa Shoujo is the best of the two, and even though it is hentai, I actually thought it was well-written and I enjoyed the characters (edit: hentai is awesome ANYWAY). My favorite was Rin, I thought her story was very sweet and poetic. Plus, I like talking about this game with parties of nerds: "DID YOU EVER PLAY THAT GAME WHERE YOU SCREW DISABLED GIRLS?"

I also played To the Moon and the graphics were very SNES, but the storyline was also very sweet and sad and interesting.

Now I am a visual novel fan, but I don't have time to play them anymore. Which is sad, but alas.

Visual novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katawa Shoujo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Flying Mullet]

Sounds like an updated take on "Choose your own adventure" books.

[Clo]

That's sort of what they are. And they are awesome!

Some of them do have mini-games though. I believe To the Moon did.

[Laddy]

I'm not a huge visual novel fan, but I do play them if they're any good and I'm open to suggestions.

I'd like my visual novel game with stronger gameplay elements, though. Maybe with some RPG-like stats that you raise that allows access to new events and storylines.

[Agent Proto]

If you enjoy visual novel games, you might enjoy Hotel Dusk for the DS, but it's not exactly a dating sim game like the game you might be referring to. It's still awesome though!

[Laddy]

999 is maybe the best game on the DS, so that and Hotel Dusk are awesome suggestions.

[Shauna]

Phoenix Wright is also considered a VN, so yeah. With Hotel Dusk and 999 in this genre, I think they're pretty good. xD

I have yet to try one of the ones that never leave Japan though, and can only be played via precisely 1 million patches. Don't know if I have the patience for that noise, though.

[Freya]

I love VN's! One of my favorites and one of the only legit english translated games that isn't hentai is Yo-jin-bo. It's cute and actually really funny and for some reason in feudal japan they make a lot of pop culture references....

[krissy]

999 is the best
does it count?

[ShunNakamura]

Another non-hentai Variant available in English with RPG elements is Aselia the Eternal. Gameplay wise it is better than Utawarerumono, though the latter can be much more difficult(I have yet to beat Utawarerumono on the most difficult setting).

However, if you are into the ones that are just choose your own adventures for computers without the gameplay elements of Aselia, you should try Family Project. It is AWESOME. I think it might even be better than Fate/Stay Night(and I really like that one!) and more importantly it has a legitimate English version unlike Fate/Stay Night.

[Quindiana Jones]

I respect any medium of entertainment that, when discussing titles, requires the [forgotten word] "non-hentai". xD

Note: Bloody presque vu. Help me remember what I mean.

[Citizen Bleys]

descriptor?

[Quindiana Jones]

Nah, pretty sure it's a "pre-" word. Like prefix, but bigger.

[Clo]

....prefacing...

[Quindiana Jones]

No, of course not.

But anyway. I think visual novels, when done well, are pretty cool. I'm no expert on the topic, though. Any other recommendations?