Current Events > Zero escape and visual novel questions

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What are the best visual novel games? I played Phoenix Wright a lot as a kid and loved those games. I later played 999 and also enjoyed that. Isn't 999 related to zero escape? Or is it related to virtue's last reward?

thanks ce

Phoenix Wright and Zero Escape are point and click adventure, not visual novels. Don't expect actual visual novels to be very similar.

For something closer to those, there was that newer King's Quest game that came out a while back.

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Metal Gear Solid

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Muv Luv Alternative (uncensored)
Stein's Gate
Clannad
The Fruit of Grisaia (uncensored)
Yu-no A girl who chants love at the bound of the world (uncensored)
Fate Stay Night (uncensored)

cuh posted...

Zero Escape is the name of the series

It goes 999 > Virtues Last Reward > Zero Time Dilemma

And yes I recommend them! I also recommend the Danganronpa series

Do I need to play them in order?

GirTheRobot posted...

Do I need to play them in order?

Preferably, yes. It's all one huge story.

And as for recommendations, it depends how much game you want in your visual novel.
Steins;Gate is excellent, but it has near 0 interaction.

If you liked 999 you may wanna try AI: The Somnium Files. It's a game from the same director but a standalone story.

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Danganronpa's a good VN series as well. They'll have to be played in release order though since the next one spoils the previous one quite early on.

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My favorite is Amagami, but it's only in Japanese. You could watch the anime to get a basic idea of how the routes go though.

White album 2 is kicking my ass with just how emotional things get... But also only Japanese.

The grisaia trilogy is localized and on the switch. Really good even if they took out the sex scenes you can find the CGs easily enough. I'm assuming there's a pc uncensored version though.

I couldn't really recommend many others because they're either based off an anime, never getting localized, or too dated to suggest (clannad especially, the art in the more recent remake makes me wanna hurl).


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GirTheRobot posted...

What are the best visual novel games?

Shadowgate

My personal recommendations are:
The Zero Escape series
AI: The Somnium Files
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity
Remember 11: The Age of Infinity
Root Double: Before Crime After Days.
428: Shibuya Scramble

And yes, you do have to play them in order.

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LordFarquad1312 posted...

Steins;Gate is excellent, but it has near 0 interaction.

I dunno, I regret playing Steins;Gate. I couldn't stand most of the characters (especially the main character), nor the saturation of cringey anime cliches. Every time the game would start doing something cool, it'd immediately jump back to something painfully dumb like "Let's help the catgirl maid win a card game tournament because reasons!"

999 and VLR are definitely the best visual novels I've played. That said, I can't pass up the opportunity to shill for Spirit Hunter NG. It's a horror visual novel, and I love it for how much it breaks visual novel cliches.

• You don't have amnesia
• You're more physically capable than the average person, and you have a personality
• Women in the game aren't objectified

Spirit Hunter NG is fairly linear and the boss encounters can be frustrating, but it's really gripping, and probably the most disturbing game I've played.

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from what i hear, this game is amazing

https://store.steampowered.com/app/303310/The_House_in_Fata_Morgana/

98% on metacritic and very positive to overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam. i haven't played it myself yet, but i'm waiting for the right time. i'm playing other games atm.

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Garioshi posted...

Root Double: Before Crime After Days.

TwoDoorPC posted...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/303310/The_House_in_Fata_Morgana/

Thank you for putting these on my radar! These look great.

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House in Fata Morgana. Cant believe no one has mentioned it yet.
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IronChef_Kirby posted...

I dunno, I regret playing Steins;Gate. I couldn't stand most of the characters (especially the main character), nor the saturation of cringey anime cliches. Every time the game would start doing something cool, it'd immediately jump back to something painfully dumb like "Let's help the catgirl maid win a card game tournament because reasons!"

Yeah, I have to agree. I can only imagine how good the game could have been if it didn't focus on so much cringey anime shit.

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Garioshi posted...

I can only imagine how good the game could have been if it didn't focus on so much cringey anime shit.

It would have been complete shit.

Rewrite is my favorite VN
Followed by Umineko

Both huge time investments
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Rewrite and Flowers
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VayneSolo posted...

It would have been complete shit.

Nah, there's some really good stuff buried under all the anime bullshit.

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999 and daganronpa brought the genre in towards a more mainstream standpoint in america during that window when they were getting release in english on sony consoles. both series are extremely overrated, especially zero escape, but it's nice that they made it so we get stuff translated on consoles more

try steins;gate and chaos;head, steins;gate is probably the best written piece of fiction in the genre

umineko: when they cry and fate stay night are both classics for a reason and very good despite being a bit older

if you're really really willing to go far back try YU-NO: A Girl WHo Chants Love at the Bound of The World. It's an amazing piece of science fiction and heads and shoulders above most of the VN genre despite being made by a company mostly known for fantasy rpg eroge style stories

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The Zero Escape series and Danganronpa are the best

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Garioshi posted...

Nah, there's some really good stuff buried under all the anime bullshit.

There is but without Hououin Kyouma, "Kurisutina" and my favorite perverted gentleman with his quality jokes it would be a way inferior experience, imo.

ultimate reaver posted...

steins;gate is probably the best written piece of fiction in the genre

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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Garioshi posted...

ultimate reaver posted...

steins;gate is probably the best written piece of fiction in the genre

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

...you could just, you know, discuss what you do and don't like about it. :/
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Spidey5 posted...

...you could just, you know, discuss what you do and don't like about it. :/

eating vegetables somehow changes the sex of a fetus after conception
you can compress literal terabytes of data by just chucking it into a black hole
the end of the game says that everyone has reading steiner but the reading steiner we see from other characters doesn't resemble rintaro's in any way
faris and lukako could be entirely cut out of the game and you would only improve it
the sheer implausibility of kurisu's memory helmet and any connection whatsoever in 2010 having ~330 Gb/s up and down, let alone one that goes halfway across the world
the first half of the game is boring as sin
rintaro is so fucking stupid at points that it's almost a plot hole

Again, the game has some really good segments (Chapters 5-6 and 9-11 are pretty fantastic and I'm a big fan of the art style), but they just damn the majority of the game for not being anywhere near as good.

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Spidey5 posted...

...you could just, you know, discuss what you do and don't like about it. :/

its ok, getting laughed at by garioshi about video game taste is like getting your free throws critiqued by shaq

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Garioshi posted...

eating vegetables somehow changes the sex of a fetus after conception
you can compress literal terabytes of data by just chucking it into a black hole
the end of the game says that everyone has reading steiner but the reading steiner we see from other characters doesn't resemble rintaro's in any way
faris and lukako could be entirely cut out of the game and you would only improve it
the sheer implausibility of kurisu's memory helmet and any connection whatsoever in 2010 having ~330 Gb/s up and down, let alone one that goes halfway across the world
the first half of the game is boring as sin
rintaro is so fucking stupid at points that it's almost a plot hole

Again, the game has some really good segments (Chapters 5-6 and 9-11 are pretty fantastic and I'm a big fan of the art style), but they just damn the majority of the game for not being anywhere near as good.

I can agree with some of those points, though I disagree about Faris and Luka and the first half being boring. Some of those I just chalk up to science fiction and don't really see an issue with it. Steins Gate is not my favorite VN by far, but I really liked it from start to finish. I'm not too picky with plot holes (unless they are extremely egregious like in Phoenix Wright vs Layton) or silly stuff like the vegetables for a girl lol.
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ultimate reaver posted...

its ok, getting laughed at by garioshi about video game taste is like getting your free throws critiqued by shaq

I will never apologize for having good taste

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Garioshi posted...

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

It's one of the best fictional works on time travel I've ever read. Oh, and the part about changing sex with eating vegetables was taken by the characters as a joke so it was one of the reasons they were fine with going through with it. Did you notice how Okabe felt stupid that it had worked? He couldn't belive it.

Actually scratch all my previous suggestions.

13 Sentinels should be put in a museum as the highest achievement in gaming narrative.

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VayneSolo posted...

Oh, and the part about changing sex with eating vegetables was taken by the characters as a joke so it was one of the reasons they were fine with going through with it.

The issue isn't just that the characters are stupid enough to try it (although it is an issue), it's also that it works.

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Garioshi posted...

The issue isn't just that the characters are stupid enough to try it (although it is an issue), it's also that it works.

You seem to forget that the characters didn't expect it to work. They expected it to fail. And Okabe (the only one who remembered) was surprised when it worked. Why did it work? Drama and comedy reasons.

LordFarquad1312 posted...

13 Sentinels should be put in a museum as the highest achievement in gaming narrative.

No. Metal Gear, Mass Effect Trilogy, Xenogears, Xenoblade Chronicles, Planescape Torment and several other are better.

Anyone who likes VNs should look into The House in Fata Morgana. Its among the best that the genre has to offer.

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VayneSolo posted...

No. Metal Gear, Mass Effect Trilogy, Xenogears, Xenoblade Chronicles, Planescape Torment and several other are better.

None of those games' stories wouldn't work in another medium (except ME, but they blew it at the end). 13 Sentinels only works as a game. The player dictates the pace and the order of the story. Every single player will have a different experience because the revelations they'll get will happen at different times in their playthrough.

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Yeah, I guess MGS is another good example, but I will go to my deathbed saying MGS4 tries too hard to be a movie.

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