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[Megaman]

Might play this, if only because it feels so good to get myself to hate it.

What?

edit: Read characters and about section, already feeling self-righteousness. Definitely playing this

[frostshotgg]

If that's how you feel, I heavily advise going through Hanako's story first. Heavily, heavily, heavily.

[Aptus]

I have a guilty pleasure when like this, Magical Diary, I saw in released on steam and had a little money to burn so I thought what the hell and then I couldn't put it down until I had explored every possible story line :p

It is obviously influenced by Harry Potter (you play a young girl who gets accepted into a school of witchcraft and wizardry.) but it does it so much better than the actual Harry Potter games. I never wanted to play as Harry running around yelling stupify at deatheaters in a HP game, I always wanted to make my own character and go to goddamn hogwarts.

I don't know, I find it alot of fun atleast, now please proceed to belittle my manhood.

[Farce]

I tried to put a KS banner in my sig a while ago.  It didn't work, so I didn't.

Anyway, I too also only played through to just one route.  Probably stupid of me, but Rin's route is the Master Route.  Her chapter cinematic.  Other music I liked from it!

Regarding that Magical Diary: Horse Hall game.  It was fun.  I enjoy games where you raise a character's skills over the course of so-long while random events and such happen.  Kinda like Academagia, but lighter and sillier.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some blue demon prettyboy sweet heart charmed my character for pretty much the whole year, the old 'I'm a sweet guy, but since I'm a demon everyone hates me blarg I am persecuted' thing.  Right before finals he told me he needed a soul or he would die, and he came to say goodbye before he did, because of course he couldn't ask me for mine, and he really loved me and all that.

He actually WAS an evil bastard, and was playing me the ENTIRE year.  He needed willful consent to do his freaky soul stealing ritual thing.  He tried to kill me anyway, but the headmistress came and shot magic at him.  Fun times.

Digressively, that name was recycled from a Mechwarrior 3rd Ed character I'd rolled up.  :V  She was from the Free Rasalhague Republic.  Merc brat orphan, left stranded on a planet, but then got back and became a dropship pilot and technician for some other mercs.  Somewhere along the line her foot got blown off, and she lost everything to a gambling addiction.  Also fun times.

[Rabek Jeris]

I can recommend two non-Japanese VNs if OP is still wanting recommendations.

"Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story" is an interesting one. Some people might be bothered by its statement on privacy, but I liked the story anyway. "Digital: A Love Story" is excellent and by the same author, but less a VN. More like a hybrid between VN and Interactive Fiction.

And then there's "RE: Alistair" which is like the only other VN I've played. Hard to explain. It's here: http://www.sakevisual.com/realistair/

[Blaze]

KS was okay, I did play Emi and Lilly's route and thoroughly enjoyed both though. Then there was Hanako...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

therewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadendingtherewasnobadending

I just can't really get attached to VNs without any real gameplay.

I've been playing Kamidori Alchemy Meister recently and enjoying it. And I've ordered GALZOO Island a week ago; it's a bit old, but Alicesoft hasn't failed me yet.

Then again, those are less VNs than games that happen to have a story with sexx0rz.

[Sirus]

Relevant to this thread, especially Blaze's post.

Anyhoo, I've played this game, gotten good endings on all the routes except Rin's, which I haven't even started. Is my first foray into the VN genre, debating whether or not to try a different one.

[varnish]

I haven't played the game, or any visual novels at all, for that matter (just not my thing), but I did hear about this one from a number of people. The consensus seemed to be that it was surprisingly not horrible at depicting disability, so that's good.

Anyway, I saw that Magical Diary game on steam and misread the title as "Magical Dairy: Horse Hell", and now I want to play that game.

[Sirus]

The thing that I (and presumably other people) liked about it was that it wasn't about making fun of the disabled or treating them as abnormal. All of the characters were treated like, y'know, people.

[sluissa]

Relevant to this thread, especially Blaze's post.

Anyhoo, I've played this game, gotten good endings on all the routes except Rin's, which I haven't even started. Is my first foray into the VN genre, debating whether or not to try a different one.

Those are amazing.

[varnish]

The thing that I (and presumably other people) liked about it was that it wasn't about making fun of the disabled or treating them as abnormal. All of the characters were treated like, y'know, people.

That was it.

[Farce]

Regarding gameplay, I totally suggest Sakura Wars 5.  It has a tactical robot fighty thing that happens once or twice every chapter, between all the talking and reading stuff.  Also, style.

For regular ol' VNs, I probably have to suggest Saya no Uta.  The love interest is a

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

shoggoth

.

Also OMGWTFOTL.  That one's good for a few kicks, genuflect.

[Nilum]

I've been playing Kamidori Alchemy Meister recently and enjoying it.

I think I played something like thirty hours of Kamidori before I realized I wasn't really enjoying it. I guess the mechanics weren't particularly satisfying, and grinding for materials was bothersome. If we're including tactical RPGs, literally the best experience I've had on the PC has been Battle Moon Wars. Some experience with Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night heavily suggested. I might be biased, as I've always liked Super Robot Wars games, but never felt particularly attached to the series/characters; Battle Moon Wars is basically SRW except with Type-Moon characters which handily solves every problem simultaneously.

My recommendations as far as visual novels go:
- Fate/Stay Night. This is still the first VN I recommend to anyone interested in the genre. Set in the Nasuverse, which is probably my favorite fictional setting. It was my first VN -- bias may be creeping in here -- but it's the one of my favorites, second only to Tsukihime.
- Tsukihime. Probably best played after Fate/Stay Night despite being released before it. No direct relation, but it's set in the same world. The art is much inferior, and there's no voice-acting, hence why it's probably not a great VN to start off with.
- Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. It's a murder mystery where you or your friends are frequently the murderers. I've only played the first four arcs so far, which veer into 'horror' territory at some points. If the anime is anything to go by, the rest of the arcs lean less on horror and should provide deeper solutions to the mysteries of the first half.

And if you own a DS or otherwise have the capability to play DS games:
- 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. It's a mystery game with puzzles and murder and death and it's really really great and everyone should probably play it.
- Phoenix Wright series. These are also pretty good, usually, but I think everyone's played them by now.

I'll refrain from passing judgment on Katawa Shoujo as I only played a few hours. It didn't capture me at all and I found myself really disliking most of the characters which is basically fatal for a VN that relies entirely on them.

[neotemplar]

My suggestions:

DS:
Time Hollow
Lux Pain (albeit with terrible translation)
Pheonix Wright (Straddling Puzzler and VN)

Also I've heard that 9 persons, 9 hours, 9 doors is not really a visual novel but more of a puzzler like Trace Memory.  I'm not completely sure though.  Pretty much the dividing point is "Do you spend more time on the plot or on the puzzle". 

PC:
Analogue: A Hate Story (My favorite VN ever at this point)
Aselia the Eternal (Think Ogre Battle only it takes you 3-4 hours to get through plot to the first battle and then the battles kick your ass)
True Remembrance (This got me bored.)
Brass Restoration (Also a little boring.)

Also I noted some people have suggested some stat builders like Magical Diary which are also not true VN but are a close cousin.
The most fun I've had with these are:
Cherry Tree High
Princess Maker 2 (If you like stat builders and don't know Japanese this one is the absolute king)
I recommend avoiding most of the stuff by White Wolf, especially Cute Knight, as the tend to knock off Princess Maker (Unless they've changed in recent years.)

Also one can use RenPy to make their own VNs if they want to.  I'd be totally up assisting a bay 12 VN of dwarfy epicness but am too unambitious to lead one myself.  But I keep imagining "Dwarf Fortress: The Visual Novel that Menaces with Spikes of Pitchblende" .

[ToonyMan]

Pretty much everything Nilum said is exactly right.  07th Expansion and Type-Moon are just a lot of good.  The requirements to play Battle Moon Wars and actually knowing everybody is pretty time-consuming and steep though.  Fate/stay night, Fate/hollow ataraxia, Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, Kara no Kyoukai, and the Melty Bloods.  Thankfully Fate/zero isn't really needed.

I'd also recommend Umineko and all the many fan games for Umineko and Ace Attorney.  Quality can vary but I can recommend a few good ones.

Ace Attorney:
The Contempt of Court - has two cases right now, uses PyWright and they have really good production values.  Third case WIP
Ace Attorney: Judgement Seekers - two cases right now, uses Ace Attorney Online.  First case isn't too too impressive but the second case is much cooler.  Third case WIP

Umineko:
Witches & Woodlands - requires knowledge of at least the first 6 episodes I think? (might be 8), very very fun and feels authentic.  Basically a D&D parody but Seacats.  Has three parts.  Part 2 and 3 are great.

I am currently playing One Hell of a Turnabout and When The Seacats Cry, but I shouldn't give recommendations yet.

I also highly recommend a few Alicesoft games.  Daibanchou and Sengoku Rance are both 100% translated and quite fun.  Although I haven't finished Daibanchou yet and SR is much more accessible.  Daiteikoku is only 35% translated so I don't recommend it until you at least do the others.

Sadly I can't recommend the KID games Ever17 and Remember11 too much.  Ever17 has a great ending but it's very boring (then again if you liked Katawa Shoujo maybe you'll like that?).  Remember11 is pretty good overall but it suffers from huge budget issues and if you know MGS2 the ending suffers HARD

I think that's all I have to say for now.  Listen to Nilum.

Oh.

Never ever ever play Tsukihime first.  That's a bad first VN, I'd say Ever17 is too even.


EDIT:
Higanbana completely slipped my mind.  If you liked Higurashi and Umineko it's pretty much a given since 07th Expansion.  I thought it was pretty good.  Great music as always, some good chapters too.  Only the first game is translated so far.

Aselia the Eternal (Think Ogre Battle only it takes you 3-4 hours to get through plot to the first battle and then the battles kick your ass)

Have you even finished that?  I have like 14 hours and I'm only on chapter 2 and nothing has really happened.  I mean it's decent at best but we need faster battles and MORE PLOT not trivial interactions.