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[Foamybeard]

Right. I'm currently looking for a good Visual Novel to play. Any suggestions would be loved.

I'm currently playing Fate/Stay Night and Katawa Shoujo, and once I finish those I'll be playing Fate/Zero, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, and Winter Shard. Anyone know any good ones? Personally I don't much care if they are eroges or not (But if they are so obviously an H-Game, don't post it here, send the name in a PM, haha), as long as it isn't stupid.

Also, if you could tell me where I could find the ones you tell me to check out, I'd love it.

Thanks in advance.

[LordBucket]

If you hven't played it already, there's a few pages of discussion and links for Clannad in this thread.

[Lectorog]

And here is the most recent VN discussion thread.

Muv-Luv is a pretty great VN. There's even an all-ages version available, if you like that option.

[Leafsnail]

Both When They Cry series are really good.  Normally I'd include a warning about them starting slowly but if you can read all of Fate/Stay Night you are clearly immune to boredom anyway.

[penguinofhonor]

Random question: I'm pretty sure "visual novel" is just a snobby way to say "anime video game". Is this true?

[freeformschooler]

Random question: I'm pretty sure "visual novel" is just a snobby way to say "anime video game". Is this true?

Visual Novel actually just implies Visual Novel. As in, a "game" you read instead of play (except for making decisions about what to do, occasionally). A lot of games are about as anime-style as any visual novel, but you don't see Touhou or Bunny Must Die being called Visual Novels.

The exception is things like Phoenix Wright which blur the line a bit. Phoenix Wright is pretty obviously 80-90% reading stuff, but there's a lot more participation than is common for the genre.

If you want to be more precise, "Visual Novel" is just a snobby way to say "anime choose your own adventure book."

[penguinofhonor]

If you want to be more precise, "Visual Novel" is just a snobby way to say "anime choose your own adventure book."

This is exactly the answer I was looking for.

[Lectorog]

Honestly, the intro of the Wikipedia article explains it pretty well. There's nothing snobby about the term; it's a category. Also doesn't have to involve anime style, but I've never seen one that doesn't.

[fqllve]

My favorite VN is probably Ever17. Uchikoshi, the writer for that, also designed 999 and its sequel. I enjoyed the first one, so I'd definitely recommend that, but I haven't played Virtues Last Reward yet. I'm sure that's good as well though. There were a few more games in the Ever17 series none of which I've played yet, but those might be worth checking out. I know Hayashi, the main writer of Steins;Gate, also worked on Remember11.

Phantom of Inferno was written by the guy who wrote Madoka Magica and the Black Lagoon light novels, and I really enjoyed that. He also did a VN called Saya no Uta that seems extremely fucked so I've been a bit wary to try that. One word: meat-vision.

I also liked Yume Miru Kusuri and Cross Channel. And I just started Forest lately and it's good so far, seems like another mindfuck VN which is the kind of stuff I like.

[freeformschooler]

OH! If you have a way to play GBA games, Riviera: The Promised Land is excellent (though it's an RPG at heart, the largest chunk of the game is Visual Novel style dialogue - there's even "CGs" like you'd see in a lot of PC VNs).

[ToonyMan]

Here's some things I've played, I'll just share my personal opinions.  My rating list is here if you really care.

Bold means must-play.
Italics means only partially translated or the game ends on a cliffhanger that you won't be able to resolve yet anyway.

I'll only list things on VNDB (so no Professor Layton or Ghost Trick) and there's also the STALKER MKIII guide you could look at.

Handhelds
Ace Attorney series (excellent)
Corpse Party series (very good)
Zero Escape series (written by Uchikoshi of Infinity fame)
Dangan Ronpa series (excellent)

07th Expansion
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni - The First Night (okay, probably should wait for second night?)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (mustplay)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (mustplay)
Rose Guns Days S1 (wait for Season 2)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (mustplay)
Umineko no Nako Koro ni Chiru (mustplay)

Age
Muv-Luv (Extra is painful but bear through it)
Muv-Luv Alternative (you have to play Muv-Luv first though but it's worth it)
Muv-Luv Altered Fable (pretty good, what Extra should have been)

I don't think Akabesoft games are very good besides the music but maybe try Sharin no Kuni or G-senjou no Maou?

Alicesoft
Gahahaha

Nitro+
Chaos;Head (the ending isn't very good but it's fine otherwise)
Kikokugai -The Cyber Slayer- (very very good! written by Urobuchi of Fate/zero fame)
Saya no Uta (also written by Urobuchi)
Hanachirasu (pretty good)

KID
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (pretty boring, probably want to play Zero Escape instead)
Remember 11: The Age of Infinity (NO ENDING but otherwise fine)

Key
Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~ (okay)
Rewrite (fucking long, but it's okay)

Little Busters is pretty awful, I wouldn't play it.

Type-Moon
Fate/stay night (very good, although everybody has already played this...)
Fate/hollow ataraxia (WILL NEVER BE FINISHED TRANSLATED)
Tsukihime (interesting, it's pretty good, make sure to play the PLUS+DISC for the short story before you do KT or MB)
Kagetsu Tohya (like Fate/hollow you might as well, I liked it)
Melty Blood (the controls are really good, there's no story besides the original one really)

Liar-soft
Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- (very surreal and it's a bit predictable but it's short so why not?  great art and music)
Shikkoku no Sharnoth -What a Beautiful Tomorrow- (improves upon Inganock and also has great art and music)

Other stuff
Kara no Shoujo (for more murder mystery fun, sequel just came out)
Swan Song (I liked this although don't expect tooooo much)
Kamidori Alchemy Meister (pretty fun but the characters and story is bland)
Majikoi (the closest I've come to liking school life comedies, worth reading, also S and A)

And a bunch of others that aren't really translated at all so it would be too mean to recommend them *cough Baldr Sky Aiyoku no Eustia Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa Subahibi cough*.

[bulborbish]

If your willing to troll through the time it takes to install it and the English patch, Hoshizora no Memoria is worth the effort.

And on ToonyMan's glorious list, I'd actually only recommend any of the Rance games within a PM, as they very much push the boundary of that requirement. Little Busters is actually a okay game, but is incredibly depressing at times (read: All the time), so you should approach with caution.

[ToonyMan]

Hoshimemo has been on my desktop for awhile but Insem's poor translation reputation is hurting my motivation.

I'd probably wait for Steins;Gate to get edited too since typos are everywhere.

[Vector]

Why has no one mentioned Hatoful Boyfriend.

[freeformschooler]

Why has no one mentioned Hatoful Boyfriend.

Because it's so amazing it forever ruins all other visual novels?