Anyone ever hear of eroge or dating sims commonly known as "visual novels(VN)?"
I didn't know about them until I was around 16 about ten years ago. I remember taking great interest in a few characters I saw in a Mugen hack that appeared to have originated from the same franchise. Upon further investigation, I discovered not only the fighting game they originated from(Melty Blood) but also that they were conceived from something known as a visual novel(VN).
VNs aren't really videogames in a traditional sense. They're basically interactive books or video books to be more exact. The cool thing about them is that it gives the reader an even greater sense of inclusion than a traditional book would because not only does the narration on most of these present itself in a first-person perspective(the main character's thoughts are displayed, narration uses words like "I," "myself," "me"), but the player can choose the fate of the direction the story takes which leads to many different conclusions, events, mishaps, successes, and meeting new characters/girls/heroines. So awesome.
If you aren't into reading, these probably would not appeal to you as much. Oddly enough there are some VNs that have rpg elements from the battling to the NPCs. Like anime and manga, there are all kinds of VNs but the best, most popular ones are often the traditional VNs that do not involve much gaming. Don't get me wrong though, I love to play a great game or two, but every now and then I like to unwind in the evening with a great book or two also. VNs are very interactive and even have the option to include the voicing of characters(but only in Japanese), sound effects, and music which really has the power to pull the reader into the VN, so to speak. These elements help bring all aspects of the VN to life.
The only problem with these though is that they are definitely intended, for the most part, to entertain a mature audience, particularly a male one. I suppose in the VN market, they will sell better this way when elements of hentai, eroticism, and/or eroge run rampant in their work. I mean, these VNs are awesome pieces of art and are extremely worthy of recognition. Most of the really good ones aren't like totally saturated with this type of stuff, but dude there are some out there I had ran into that harbored situations of such a sexual nature that I had to stop reading it. Call me immature, wimpy, kiddy, or whatever, but honestly when things are that 'perverted' I become too uncomfortable to even bear it. The cool thing is that you can still enjoy the story and everything without those adult scenes with special patches that can be installed from whatever group translated the VN from their original Japanese text. In short, VNs are worth looking into depending on who wrote them like anyother type of book or artwork. These are probably my top 5 VNs of all time so far;
1) Fate-Stay Night
2) Tsukihime
3) Air
4) Kanon
5) Wind: A Breath Of Heart
So what are some of your favorite VNs?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate/stay_nighthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukihimehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_(visual_novel)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind:_A_Breath_of_Heart~Nixy~
