What are Visual Novels (aka VNs)?

As this blog is going to have a lot of it devoted to visual novels, I suppose I should clarify what visual novels actually are, since many people outside East Asia (primarily Japan where VNs are well known) may not have even heard of them.

A screenshot from the visual novel Rewrite

Classifying whether a game is a true 'visual novel' or only 'visual novel-esque' is pretty subjective, but, generally speaking, VNs are video games with large amounts of text. Usually the text is used in along with both music (sometimes called 'background music' or BGM) and 2D artwork. Newer visual novels often have voice acting included, too, and various degrees of animation (keep in mind as most VNs are Japanese in origin, the voice acting is also in Japanese, although that doesn't really detract anything for me). In this respect, reading a visual novel is much like reading a book but watching anime at the same time; it's pretty unique.

A CG, or 'computer graphic', taken from Muv Luv Alternative. CGs are like still
shots that you see occasionally in game that help to encapsulate what is happening in the story

The amount of game-play can vary greatly between VNs with some having lots of rpg elements in them
(sometimes they have their own micro-category called 'Adventure games'), and others being almost entirely text with a few choices for the reader to make in the story. If you've ever read those 'choose your own adventure books', the concept is quite similar since the choices that you make can greatly impact what the story throws at you. The different stories that you experience depending on what choices you make are often referred to as different 'routes'.

Although the choice system is mechanically simple, it allows for the reader to take a part in the story that is unfolding, which can be quite immersive. The Walking Dead, by TellTale games, uses this choice system to great effect, for instance, and in many ways is a visual novel itself (technically it's classified as a 'graphic adventure', but a lot of the subtleties between the two elude me). In addition, the Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) games are essentially visual novels (or at least share a lot of features) as they tell an interesting story with a fair amount of text in combination with engaging game-play.

Choices in Katawa Shoujo...Okay, I admit, the 'purchase' thing was an elaborate
april fools by the developer, but you get the idea

The likelihood is that you may have heard of some visual novel titles as many have been adapted into anime. This includes names such as Higurashi, Clannad, Fate/Stay Night, Steins;Gate and others. The way I actually found out about visual novels was by watching the Clannad anime, and then hearing about the fact that it was based on a video game (note: clannad is not a great first visual novel).

The reason I, personally, enjoy visual novels is to do with how text-heavy they are, as it allows for very good story telling. However, a fair bit of warning: visual novels are a bit of an acquired taste and aren't for everyone. Some visual novels are heavy on the romance aspect (although they can still present a good story), and a large percentage of them have adult content that's for those who are 18 and over (read: many contain hentai). Some visual novels, dubbed nukiges, are nearly entirely adult content and have very little plot at all, so you probably want to avoid most of them if you're looking for good story-telling (not to be confused by nakiges; they are story heavy VNs and try to have a profound emotional impact on the reader). In addition, many visual novels tend to be long, and you might loose interest if you're not drawn into the story enough.

Most visual novels are in Japanese, so you may not be able to play all of them unless you read Japanese or they
are translated. This picture is taken from ever17 which does have an english translation, for example

Warnings aside, however, if you're willing to be a little patient give a visual novel a try to experience a different medium, I wholeheartedly recommend it. VNs tend to have a lot more detail than their anime counterparts and can be really engrossing (personally I always avoid an anime adaptation of a visual novel because the VN is almost always superior). In fact, some of the story lines presented in visual novels would be very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate with an anime adaptation due to their narrative structure.

So, if you're interested in trying a visual novel, I'd highly recommend Katawa Shoujo as a good starting VN. It's not too terribly long, it's fairly well written and can be downloaded legally and freely from the developer's website (just type in 'Katawa Shoujo' into your search engine of choice, it should be the first one that pops up). While the the game has a lot of 'slice of life' elements, it has a serious side to it once you get into the game deep enough; it's pretty enjoyable while remaining fairly accessible. Keep in mind that it is intended for an 18+ audience and, while the adult content can be turned off, I wouldn't recommend it for those under said age.

Another good starter visual novel is Planetarian due to its short length and the fact you can buy it legally on ios (there isn't an official PC version, though). It's also 'all-ages', meaning that there isn't any adult content so anyone could play it if they want. I probably would have recommended it more highly if not for the fact that I haven't played it yet myself...Oh well, if it's well regarded enough to get an official ios translation, it has to be pretty good, right?

If anyone were to have any questions, you can just leave a comment and I'll be more than glad to clear anything up that wasn't discussed in this article (it's not easy to summarise an entire medium in a short a page or two of text). At any rate, I hope this has helped some people actually learn what a visual novel is and why, potentially, you might be interested in trying them.

A screenshot from the Steins;Gate visual novel

Postscript - Different Endings
(Not all VNs will have these archetypical endings (some are completely linear, for example), but for those that do, this is a little mini-guide as to what they mean in visual novel jargon)

Bad End - If you make a wrong choice(s) in a visual novel, you can have a 'bad ending'. This involves something, well, bad happening to you and/or other people in the story. It's sort of another way to say 'game-over', basically. That said, there can be important plot points and/or foreshadowing discussed in bad ends, so it's often worth playing through them just to understand the story a little better.

Good End - Making the best choices possible in a visual novel will likely unlock this type of ending, which is usually the 'best case scenario' ending. This is usually what you're aiming for unless there is a true end.

Normal End - If you make fairly average decisions in certain visual novels, you can end up with the normal or 'neutral' ending. Generally, nothing too terribly bad happens to you or anyone else, but it can sometimes feel a little plain. Not all visual novels have this type of ending.

True End - This type will usually not be playable until you've completed all the good ends (and possibly all the bad ends) in a visual novel. It's not present in all VNs, but it represents what actually happened...It's a little difficult to explain, but just know that's it's the climax of some visual novels and is usually when big plot reveals and such take place.