katawa shoujo

Sakura Wars' gameplay is similar to Persona except the combat is turn-based. If you liked Persona then Sakura Wars would probably be something you might like. I think I prefer the Persona series a little better, I felt like the plot was a little bit more intelligent.



Anyways I've recently played:
Digital - A Love Story (http://scoutshonour.com/digital/)
don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story (http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/)
Analogue A Hate Story (From steam, $15 I think)
(Christine Love binge I know)

These were all stellar. Especially Analogue. Very rarely does a game make me stop and think for so long after I've beaten it. Analogue brings up the gender issue like no other game I've seen, and probably does it better than most books and movies as well. It also brings up a more subtle point of whether or not civilization will actually be "better" in the future, or will it regress. I definitely suggest doing at least two different endings so you unlock at least 95% of the material (there is a little % tracker on your save files).

These games do tend to have a lot more reading and less visual appeal than other visual novels, but don't let that stop you. The music is good enough too, it definitely complements each game.

Eh, old thread, but still figured I'd contribute a bit.

It really does depend on what you want out of a VN. If you want a romance story with some sex but not a lot, Katawa Shoujo and Kanon are good choices to start, along with Hinata Bokko, Shuffle! and the Da Capo games. All of those (except Kanon) are easily available and fairly inexpensive in English; Kanon is a little trickier, since its a fan translation, but the game is old and not really too expensive to buy from Japan. To Heart 2 is another good choice, but the translation is unfinished, and might not be finished for quite some time.

If you're interested mainly in the porn, Koihime Musou has a huge cast of memorable characters and many different H-scenes, along with a fairly decent plot (if unoriginal). The SonoHana series is also quite good; they're yuri, so YMMV, but they are also fairly inexpensive to buy, and the fan translations are quite well done.

If you want a good plot, G-Senjou no Maou is great, as is Kara no Shoujo and Cross Channel. Seiken no Inganock is pretty good as well.

Finally, while this should be obvious, if you like an anime based on a VN, you should probably check out the VN. The games are much longer than the anime, and give a lot more depth to the individual characters. I've never seen an anime adaptation of a VN that was as good as the game, so if you liked Clannad or Deus Machina Demonbane or Fortune Arterial, check out the games. Likewise, if you liked anime written by VN authors, their VNs may be up your alley. Liked Madoka Magicka or Fate/Zero? Check out Saya no Uta. Liked Angel Beats? Try Little Busters.

Anyway, I've gone on quite a while (I've played a lot of VNs, obv.), but hopefully anyone interested can use this list to start out.

I played deardrops,hyper->highspeed->genius and school days. Never even finished those :p

only started playing visual novels just recently so at the moment i'm only playine one which is tsukihime might get around to play more but only after i finish this game.

I would recommend these VNs (which I played, at least one route of each), really they're mostly eroge:

- Kamidori Alchemy Meister

Theme: Fantasy, medieval, romance, adventure
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (16+ imho)

You start as an apprentice alchemist and the protagonist objective is to become a top ranked alchemist, in other words an "Alchemy Meister". There's some drama and it's emotional enough, the story is kinda long but definitely not monotonous.
There're many different characters and each one of them is really unique, sadly you can't meet them all on a single route but you can always restart later. There're really many CG scenes, also you can unlock extra stories after ending the game.

- G-senjou no Maou

Theme: Crime, action, mistery, present time, romance, drama
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (always 16+ if you ask me)

This story is a bit more complicated, I'll try to explain it in a few words.
Basically, the protagonist is an adopted son of a Yakuza's boss and works for him to pay off a debt. Even though he doesn't go to school very often because the work takes most of his time, he meets some new class mate and after, a new criminal (head of a terrorist group) comes in the town and the protagonist's life completely changes. I think it's a very deep story, the lives of the characters are somehow linked to each other.

- Yume Miru Kusuri

Theme: School life, present time, romance, drama
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (same as before)

The main themes in this eroge are mostly serious stuff, like drug addiction and bullying (..and sex).
Basically, this is an emotional story and it's not very long.

- Fate/Stay Night

Theme: Fantasy, present time, romance, drama
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (same as before)

I bet almost everyone here on CR knows the anime, but the VN is unique in its own way (really, I didn't see the anime yet.. xD).
This is another very emotional story, to be honest the true ending (a.k.a. Fate) made me shed a tear.
You have to play it yourself because I can't write anything about it without using infinte spoilers.

- Dengeki Stryker

Theme: Sci-Fi, present time, romance, drama, friendship
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (there's just 1 hot scene.. 16+)

Everything begins in the protagonist's childhood, when he meets a mysterious character who claims to be a memory collector.
Since the protagonist's wish is to become a super hero to protect his best friend (which is leaving the town to go live somewhere else), he decides to trade his memories to obtain the Dengeki Stryker's super powers.
Later, in the future where he's not a child anymore, a reunion awaits him but something seems wrong...
I liked this story a lot but too bad I played only a secondary route. I'm gonna try to get the true ending next time, I bet it's somewhat epic since the secondary route was kinda cool.

- Deardrops

Theme: Music, present time, romance, drama, slice of life
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (guess what? I say 16+)

Is probably thanks to this eroge that I started liking JRock, if you love music then you should definitely play it.
After many years living in Europe and becoming a famous violinist, something that ruins his career happens and the protagonist decides to go back in his home town to live peacefully, but thanks to his childhood friend and new acquaintances, he's forced to deal once again with the music's world, although in a different way than before.

- Shuffle!

Theme: Fantasy, school, present time, romance, drama
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (same as before)

This game has an anime adaption but I don't know if there's any big difference since I didn't watch it yet.
In a near future where the 3 worlds of devils, gods and humans are linked together, a normal student suddenly becomes the protagonist of the moment, because both kings of devils and gods worlds decided that he will become their successor.
Anyway, at start the story might look like predictable and boring stuff but the real game starts when you end one of the main routes because all the routes are linked together and you really start liking it after playing on different ways, you can better understand the back story of each character and every thing that happens.

Unlocking the special route:


- Juniper's Knot

Theme: Fantasy, medieval, friendship, drama
Targeted to: All ages and audiences.

This is a classic VN and one of the first I ever played, it's a short but intense story.
I'll just copy and paste the description:

IMO they did a good work in that month, it's one of my favourites!

- Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo

Theme: School life, action, present time, romance, drama, friendship
Targeted to: Male audience, 18+ (same as the others)

Finished this eroge just recently and as expected from the authors of G-senjou no Maou, it was another amazing story, many twists totally unpredictable. At some point of the game you'll probably think "is this a bad route? looks like it's gonna be bad..." don't give up! there're not many bad routes but there're many intense moments and cool situations.

The protagonist is a high school student, which after 7 years could finally go back to his home town. A conflict of the past happened in this town between revolutionary forces and military, forced his life to change and to leave behind all his friends and acquaintances. However, although he's finally back, his real identity must remain a secret even for his best friends, which happen to have been burdened with different obbligations due to the committed crimes. Did they really deserve this punishment? is there any way to save them and to change the harsh national juridical system?
________
That's all.
Enjoy! =D

EDIT:
Added "Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo".

It's been announced with little fanfare, but a new official VN translation is going to be released soon.

Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa wo Hirogete
If My Heart Had Wings is the English title.
http://www.jlist.com/product/KONOSORA


Official site:
http://moenovel.com/imh/
There is a demo available on the official site

This is being translated by a new company named MoeNovel that seems to be related to the original Japanese publishers of the game. It is all-ages.

The translation right now is kind of stiff, but it's been stated that it is not the final translation. The company doing the translation is Active Gaming Media [AGM]. AGM is the company who did the translations for both No More Heroes, and also Demons Souls. So they're certainly capable of doing a better translation than what is currently up, so I have some hope for it.

The original game is fairly well regarded in Japan, it was released in 2012, and won the 2012 Moe Game awards gold medal
It also won awards for Scenario, BGM, and Character Design
The game is fairly long at about 30-50 hours.

There has been some controversy as this release has the H-scenes removed in an attempt to widen the potential audience. With an ESRB rating there is theoretically potential for it to be sold in more mainstream locations like wal-mart, best buy or gamestop, although unlikely due to shelf space. There is also a chance it may end up sold on Amazon however which could potentially increase its audience.

It will be sold by JAST USA and J-list as well as Play-asia in physical and digital copies. Manga gamer will also sell digital copies, and may also sell physical copies later down the line.
Currently it's priced at about $34.95 and planned for release this year.

As of now, I'm definitely interested, and if the translation improves sufficiently once it's released I will buy it, but I probably won't pre-order. The lack of h-scenes although not preferred isn't significant enough for me personally, since everything else about it appeals to me. The game isn't a nukige anyway.

I've only currently played Clannad [Full Voice] and Katawa Shoujo, but there's no doubt I'll open up my horizons with more visual novels. =)

I'm really looking forward to this! I'm hoping the talk about improving the script is true! And PlayAsia had the release listed as May, and now June... I wonder when it will actually come out.

As for the H-scenes, as long as it doesn't negatively impact the story, I'm fine without it. And if it is a big enough deal, I'm sure there'll be a fan patch or something to restore the scenes. (Or maybe MoeNovel will listen to the raging fan base and release a DLC patch themselves?) Though honestly, I haven't cared for H-scenes, so I doubt I'd buy or download any such patch. >.>

And if this is to believed: http://vntls.org/news/everything-we-know-about-moenovel Then I'm assuming we'll be getting a lot more VNs translated and sold in English!



Also, just saying, people gotta play Ever17, 999, and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. Three very awesome VNs that have insane storylines! (I have yet to finish Ever17, but I've heard only great things about it's ending, although the road there can feel slow to some.)

Flyable Heart was a pretty cute visual novel.

I generally go for darker visual novels like Euphoria and anything made a Black CYC. Yume Miru Kusuri was the first visual novel I ever played and I really enjoyed it.

If My Heart Had Wings

Game details:

Correction
*Game length: <30 hours
*MangaGamer will sell digital and physical copies at launch

The original VN has:
Non-H: 463 CG
H: 646 CG
SD: 110 (chibi characters) CG

They are also censoring kissing scene and some other jokes like you see on anime. Quote from their email "The kissing scenes will be altered so that it will not show any tongues or lips touching, but will show the back or side view of a couple kissing, as seen under the 'demo' section in the official homepage" This is a romance VN...

No wonder they it got rated for T for Teens.

I have Virtues Reward Last Reward on PS Vita, but that game has game play compared to If My Heart Had Wings. They're different.

Anyone played the trial edition of If My Heart Had Wings? I heard that MoeNovel have no plans on fixing the errors e.g. translation seems a bit off and unnatural at times. Oh well I can still understand it. I'm still planning to pre-order it on Play-Asia.

As for the main Topic, I recommend Corpse Party Book of Shadows.