What makes a good Visual Novel?

[Clinton]

Sorry in advance if this topic was already made but I did not see one like it.

Well the title says it all, what makes a good Visual Novel?

Is a good Visual Novel all about the setting, characters, plot, romance, attention to detail, art, or the protagonist. Does a VN need an interesting setting like a town for Mnemonicide's (True Remembrance), or can it have a setting as just a normal High School (About half of the VN's out there)? Does the VN revolve around the characters, and the setting does not matter? Does non of this matter if the plot is no good? If it has a good amount of romance does that make it good, so on and so on. What is the perfect balance between all of these?

To you, what makes a good Visual Novel. Share your opinion, and maybe try to make others see why your view of what makes a good Visual Novel is right.

Disagreeing is a part of life. Remember that.

[Camoufrage]

If you want the god-honest truth, I think most VNs are about the h scenes and thats about it

But for the few VNs that are not about that, its just like a movie or novel. Good setting, characters, story, etc. Good artwork and writing helps, too.

[rydiafan]

A touching story and well writing characters ...hentai doesn't make a good vn ( Digital a love story is the perfect example of that )

[Clinton]

If you want the god-honest truth, I think most VNs are about the h scenes and thats about it

But for the few VNs that are not about that, its just like a movie or novel. Good setting, characters, story, etc. Good artwork and writing helps, too.

Well I am SOMEWHAT the same as you but I think of "H" scenes as a sort of reward.

[Snow_Storm]

Good Story - One of two things you're going to be doing when "playing" a visual novel is read. Read a damn lot. Like a book, the story has got to good enough to get you involve and in love with the plot and it's character. If it ain't good, then it ain't worth wasting time on.

Good Music - I'm just saying this because I'm musically inclined and I am a musican Music tends to get me in anything from games, to movies, visual novels, etc. about 90% of the time. If the visual novel doesn't have good music that fits well with the story, I'm gonna be pissed off.

Good Art - Look at Higurashi no Naku Koro NI for an example of what SHOULDN'T be in a visual novel in terms of art. I love Higurashi, the music, the characters, and story but oh my god does the art sucks.

[Camoufrage]

If you want the god-honest truth, I think most VNs are about the h scenes and thats about it

But for the few VNs that are not about that, its just like a movie or novel. Good setting, characters, story, etc. Good artwork and writing helps, too.

Well I am SOMEWHAT the same as you but I think of "H" scenes as a sort of reward.

Well personally I dont play VNs for the scenes Im just saying most of them ARE that . I much prefer the story-centric ones and thats about it

[Kutagh]

For myself, the story as a whole has to be high quality and interesting to me. The story also needs to revolve around something and be consistently interesting to read. There are a lot of books that might be good quality but that I haven't really read because I picked it up, started reading the first chapter or so and got bored. Yet with other books I can read hundreds of pages in a short timeframe (I've the whole Kushiel's Legacy series in a month or two, three).

But if the art work is going to be horrible, I'd strongly discourage making a VN and rework it instead into a novel (or even a Choose Your Own Adventure book, be old-skool! ). If you use art work, it has to add to the immersion otherwise leave it to the reader to create the visual world in his mind.

This goes for voice-over as well, it has to be quite complete, consistent and believable. If you are not sure you can achieve that quality, it is more likely to be distracting for the reader than having no voice-over.

Music-wise, I don't care since I'm deaf.


Overall together, for me the main reason that I haven't found other VNs that I like is likely because of the story. I read a lot of manga nowadays (just finished Kimi Wa Pet) and it's a broad range of subjects that I've been reading (though almost all of them involve love in some form, like romance but also family and such, I guess Toriko is the manga standing out in that regard as it is a love of food lol). It's not the artwork nor the music that is the issue for me with VNs (some manga have crappier artwork than the VNs) so it more likely is the story of the VN.

If there is one thing I'd recommend for VNs, it is going for android/iOS. I like being able to read my manga/book on my tablet, downstairs or at university or in the bus (and from September onwards also in the train likely). A VN would work quite well on a tablet IMO, the control set is limited and fits a touchscreen quite well, being able to read the VN in a more comfortable position would work well for me.

[dwarduk]

This goes for voice-over as well, it has to be quite complete, consistent and believable. If you are not sure you can achieve that quality, it is more likely to be distracting for the reader than having no voice-over.

Music-wise, I don't care since I'm deaf.

How you can care for voice-overs but not music, being deaf? I don't meant to be rude; I'm just curious


As for me, a good VN has great characters you can identify with, decent writing, and graphics and music that help bring the whole thing to the next level, rather than seeming like a script with good-looking/sounding bits tacked on.

[acewing905]

I think most VNs are about the h scenes and thats about it

You really haven't read many visual novels, have you? All the top rated vns at http://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating disagree with you. Some of these don't even have any h scenes at all.
(Sure, there are a shit load of nukige that are all about sex, but these are pretty much the bottom of the barrel that people don't even usually talk about.)

To me, what makes a good visual novel is:
Good setting/atmosphere.
Good plot.
Good characters.
Good character interaction.
In some cases, if the other parts are good enough, the good plot is not necessary. (Eg: Majikoi (again I love it, if someone hasn't noticed). Little to no coherent plot, but one of the most enjoyable VNs out there.)

[Camoufrage]

I think most VNs are about the h scenes and thats about it

You really haven't read many visual novels, have you? All the top rated vns at http://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating disagree with you. Some of these don't even have any h scenes at all.
(Sure, there are a shit load of nukige that are all about sex, but these are pretty much the bottom of the barrel that people don't even usually talk about.)

To me, what makes a good visual novel is:
Good setting/atmosphere.
Good plot.
Good characters.
Good character interaction.
In some cases, if the other parts are good enough, the good plot is not necessary. (Eg: Majikoi (again I love it, if someone hasn't noticed). Little to no coherent plot, but one of the most enjoyable VNs out there.)

Im not saying ALL of them are. Im saying that a lot of them are. You cant say that isnt the case. There are plenty of VNs made specifically for the h-scenes. And of course the top 10 VNs arent about the h-scenes, because they are top ones, not the shitty ones made specifically for those scenes.

But yeah, there are plenty of GOOD VNs out there, I know what you're saying.

[Clinton]

If you are looking for a great Visual Novel without "H" scenes then you should really read True Remembrance It is fairly short but very enjoyable. (If you have not noticed it is one of my favorites maybe even surpassing Katawa Shoujo).

(Edit: This was a little off topic but considering the conversation at hand I thought I would share.)

[Kutagh]

This goes for voice-over as well, it has to be quite complete, consistent and believable. If you are not sure you can achieve that quality, it is more likely to be distracting for the reader than having no voice-over.

Music-wise, I don't care since I'm deaf.

How you can care for voice-overs but not music, being deaf? I don't meant to be rude; I'm just curious


As for me, a good VN has great characters you can identify with, decent writing, and graphics and music that help bring the whole thing to the next level, rather than seeming like a script with good-looking/sounding bits tacked on.

It was more as being quite logical. You'll notice I'm talking about 'the reader' and not myself when talking about the art-work and voice-over, since those two can add to immersion... or detract from it. There's no point into including elements if they're going to detract from the immersion. Music doesn't add or detract from immersion as much, it is more to create a mood.

[Tununias]

It needs to make you think and feel the same way as the main character. In other words It has to make you feel like you're the main character. It also needs a decent amount of emotion(any emotions, not necessarily just love, happiness, and sadness). It doesn't even need to have any romance in it.
The other stuff is important too, but if I feel like I'm disconnected from it all I'd rather read it in novel form or something.

[yummines]

A visual novel is essentially an interactive comic. Comics are called graphic novels for a good reason.

So basically the same as a good manga: plot, characters, story flow, and art, along with the bonus of music and/or voice.

Good h-scenes also if its an h-game.

Which is why i love Monmusu Quest

[rafcor]

As finished KS, I played other games before, and I may say that the best one are those that get you to not stop reading or thinking. Besides what everyone already said such as story, music, etc, still today I think about one game in particular: Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream.

That game was the first VN that I read/played that made tears and not stop thinking about it anymore. I really suggest everyone who can to play it do it as well, since it was it that made me start playing more VN based more in story arcs than H-scenes or whatever. This game, I could say, that's on the same level of KS, since you'll be dealing with drugs, bullying and "extreme life style" as I could say, until today I few sorry that I didn't bought this game before. And before KS I played Snow Sakura, other game that I felt that there was a good story arc as well, give a try if you.