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medakakurokami · 1 year ago

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I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

#long post #i'll only tag the main ones #planetarian #narcissu #umineko #witch on the holy night #marco and the galaxy dragon #white album 2 #the princess the stray cat and matters of the heart #noratoto #ace attorney #utawarerumono #the house in fata morgana

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ultraericthered · 23 days ago

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One Villainous Scene: Her Last Bow

Umineko's sixth episode, "Dawn Of The Golden Witch", is really just as much Erika Furudo's story as it is Battler's and Sayo Yasuda's. It's Erika, as the detective, who's the main protagonist of the Rokkenjima Murder Mystery gameboard at this time just as Battler had been for the first four gameboards, with Battler himself now playing the Witch nemesis role for Erika that Beatrice had played for him. With Dlanor acting as the Watson to Erika's Holmes, we follow Erika and begin to understand her a bit better, even coming to begrudgingly like and respect the little shit in certain moments despite her remaining an evil gremlin in service of Bernkastel. But then the big twist comes that Erika, the great detective, also chose to become the culprit of this particular mystery, having murdered several of the Ushiromiyas who took her into the mansion on the night of the family conference, just to defeat Battler and win both the game and the favor of her master.

Following this, we can only deeply revile Erika as she's set up as Battler's "bride to be", planning to seal her victory over him and bask in his humiliation through a wedding ceremony where she plans to trap him into marriage with a binding ring and essentially rape him by defiling his body while his mind can neither consent nor resist since it's stuck in a Logic Error. Erika is on such a power high that she has embraced acting every bit as despicably cruel, petty and self-serving as Bern. But as it turns out, this loses sight of who Erika, at her core, truly is. Which Beatrice reminds her of when she challenges her to a duel of Blue Truth against her Red Truth. Invoking Erika's status as the detective, Erika remembers: that's right, SHE IS THE PUMPKIN KING DETECTIVE!, and she sheds her bride gown to return to form.

As Beato and Battler do a bit of catching up now that Battler is saved from both the Logic Error and Erika's marriage, Erika and Dlanor also share a tender moment between them that is beyond precious and moves me nearly to tears to see how close the two have grown. Afterwards, Beato and Erika take out their guns and begin the duel.

The duel eventually reaches this point where Erika is going over the case in her head with statements of details that are certifiable Red Truths, piecing together when and how Battler might have been able to slip out of the Guest Room and swap out with Kanon, who Erika believes had to have been hiding in the closet after making doing so.

...until she catches herself and realizes that cannot possibly be the truth of the case and is only what Beato was leading her to believe, and she was about to walk right into Beato's trap by declaring Kanon's hiding place to be the closet. She redirects her attention to under the bed only to then realize that there still remains a possibility that Kanon could've slipped into the closet. Erika begins to realize that both "Kanon hid under the bed" and "Kanon hid in the closet" are equally valid possible solutions, but if she chooses one, the other is likely to be the correct answer and she loses...unless she could somehow concieve of a way to expose the truth of both at once!

This becomes a moment of epiphany for Erika. While the rules of a proper mystery would render Beato's play a cheat, in a Witch's Game, it's a valid, logical move that drives her to opening up her mind to further possibilities for solutions, to potential truths that had gone unseen by her before, things she never would've considered. Taking it all in, beginning to for the first time see things through a Witch's eyes by standing as a human playing the Witch's game of truth and errors, Erika finds herself awestruck and shedding tears.

How rare is it that we get to see this? A largely unsympathetic, deliciously reprehensible villain who is still largely without empathy and remorse gets to undergo such a character arc where she gets as much emotional moments, triumphant moments, lessons learned and personal growth as a heroic protagonist character would. Prior to this moment, Erika had played at being both the Greatest Detective and the “Witch of Truth” as part of a path set before her by her wicked, abusive master, and she'd been driven both by a desire to please said master and to satisfy her sadistic urges to inflict anguish and hurt unto others rather than be on the recieving end of it. This twisted Erika into the worst version of herself, to the point where she lost sight of who she truly was and what she truly wanted to be - a great human detective who dispells the myths and illusions of Witches and uncovers the truth. But she has now gained a fuller, broader perspective of what "the truth" entails and finally sees the value in things she’d never known or understood until now, like what all there is to a Witch's game beyond winning and losing, beyond being right about The One Truth or being wrong in all perceptions of everything. Had Erika known this perspective way back when, maybe she would've been able to hash things out with her boyfriend and maybe could've avoided the heartbreak. She even thanks Beato for giving her this experience, sealing the moment when she and Beato go from being simply opponents to being also dear and valued friends.

But of course, the duel still needs to be won. And Erika plays to win.

With Erika felled to the ground, it seems that the game has been won and Beato gets to win Battler's hand in marriage from Erika. But Erika has one last shot in her gun, one final play to make...and unlike her master Bernkastel, Erika Furudo proves here and now that she is no coward. Still in pain and bleeding out, Erika struggles to her feet, dragging her body across the floor, her field of vision starting to blur as she walks, as she states that she's come to fully see, accept, and embrace her own real truth, the truth about herself. The truth that she is not a mere great human detective, but as the Witch of Truth, she is a villainous detective. She controls her own role independent of her master now, and the role she chooses to play is the one she views as best suiting her - the role of a villain, all the way to the unsightly end.

But much as Erika might want to play this villain role to perfection so as to leave no room for pity, admiration and respect, the fact that she is making this last stand with such courage and is making a request so noble of the two betrothed Gamemaster Witches is not lost on them. Even Battler and Beato have to honor Erika here. Erika, who not too long ago was complicit in Beato's seemingly total and final destruction, and who murdered the Ushiromiyas on Rokkenjima to trick Battler into a Logic Error and planned to subject his body to martial rape, is most definitely an evildoer, but proves to be one with just enough qualities of decent character and inner strength that her adversaries and those she's hurt can't help becoming fond of her.

With the good-natured, semi-respectful rival trash talk out of the way, Erika Furudo stands tall and proud, gun in hand, to give her final parting line, a "self introduction", a greeting and re-establishing of who Erika Furudo was in the lore of the Rokkenjima Mass Murders, and who/what Erika Furudo believes herself to be at game's end.

A Red Truth declared. A single shot fired. Erika Furudo is no more.

You almost regret that she had to get taken down like that given the begrudging respect and admiration she’s managed to evoke….but at the same time, what an EPIC way to go out. And as we'd see in the final chapter, it's far from the last we'd see of Detective Erika Furudo, a nefarious girl of great intellect and great courage to back it up even if she has to run the risk of failure. A bitch so bad, she's <GOOD>.

#One Villainous Scene #When They Cry #Umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #Erika Furudo #spoilers #manga

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