Board 8 > Vote on my next VN.

(+) Yeah! (+)

ive played Aokana, Danganronpa 1, and Doki Doki.

13 Sentinels with the early lead

13 Sentinels is incredible

Of the ones I played:
- Fata Morgana is great. It drags on at parts but the good parts are amazing.
- Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is good. It can get a little cringy at times.
- Muv-Luv is fucking terrible for the first set of routes. I'm most of the way through the second set of routes and they're better but still worse than the other 2 games.

Fata Morgana, Clannad, and Utawarerumono are all fantastic.

Muv-Luv Alternative is a great experience that unfortunately requires or at least strongly recommends reading an average VN and an absolutely awful VN first. (Strictly speaking these are 2 chapters of the single game "Muv-Luv", but yeah)

Now: if i play 13 sentinels first is every vn after going to feel underwhelming

Gnosia

I didnt vote for it in the poll, but Ill vouch for The Fruit of Grisaia (I assume thats what you meant to write in the poll). The common route is fantastic, and while, in my opinion, a couple character routes are noticeably less good than the others, theyre all really good.

I still need to play the other games in the series, so I cant speak to them, but Ive heard really good things about the remaining games as well.

RikkuAlmighty posted...

Now: if i play 13 sentinels first is every vn after going to feel underwhelming

--I haven't played it but I doubt it

--These results are mainly reflective of the fact that a lot more people have played 13 Sentinels than any of the other games.

13 Sentinels is....

Hmm

Not a visual novel?

Top 2 are correct. 13 Sentinels or House Fata Morgana

I've never actually considered 13 Sentinels a VN but I suppose it kind of is. I suppose I would ask how much of a VN you want your VN to be.

13 Sentinels is VN adjacent

And no I don't think it will ruin other VNs, but it is very good. I prefer Utawarerumono and MuvLuv on the list you gave alone.

it's really not a visual novel at all and was never boxed in that niche, which made it reach a far wider audience than anything else in this list.

Nah, it won't ruin all other VNs for you (it's technically not a VN, but it's close enough), but it's a unique and worthwhile experience.

And yes MuvLuv does come with the caveat of "You need to read Extra and Unlimited before Alternative". I don't think Extra is bad though a lot of people do, Unlimited is pretty good but not great, and Alternative is why anyone actually recommends MuvLuv in the first place.

It's definitely a lot of investment for the payoff, but I think the payoff is well worth it imo.

I voted Utawarerumono

but if you want a short one on your list, fault milestone one is like 3 hours long. same with Planetarian

Planetarian is a pretty quick and poignant read if you want something short.

Seconding Gnosia

voted utaware in the poll, though I personally prefer the regular forms of Utawarerumono 1 to the remake tbh. it's a shame the fan translations for the ps2 and psp versions never happened since they definitely had significant quality of life improvements to the srpg gameplay without replacing everything like the remake did, and the sensitive content of the original release is less than ideal. remake's handling of the visual novel half is largely just a straight upgrade though, save for some quirky menu selection stuff from the original (getting to pick what areas you go to on a minimap) i miss. also both the fan and official translations have some questionable (even if justified) localisation decisions regarding names, the official use of Hakuowlo is probably the most glaring example

oh right and similar to planetarian I also have to strongly recommend giving Narcissu 1st and 2nd a try, combined they're only like 10 hours long or so but still quite powerful, and they're free (both on and off steam)
https://www.neechin.net/file_download/25/[Denpa]_Narcissu_2_Eng_[win32].exe
https://www.neechin.net/file_download/27/Narcissu_2_Eng_v1.1_script_[All_platforms].zip
this non-steam version of both was delinked a year ago since the steam version had a more recently updated translation but this one was never fully obsoleted since it had more translations on it (3 english tls of narci1 and 2 for side 2nd) and the ones that got removed from the steam version (from haeleth) were also the best ones imo. since they were both official translations and also freeware i don't think there's really any issue with me linking to the installer directly especially since it wasn't fully removed.) oh yeah also 2nd is a prequel but i still think it's better to read the original first

13 sentinels is a must play. also yes, it's not technically a visual novel in the same way that DR and AA aren't technically visual novels either.

I would avoid those famicom detective club remakes. I suppose they're nice as a historical relic but they're both extremely basic and kind of boring

Utawarerumono is also a legit Strategy RPG with VN elements rather than being a true VN.

I'd actually say its a VN with an SRPG system in it because the time you spend in the VN portion is WAAAAAAY more than the time you spend in the gameplay portion. Especially in Mask of Deception, where you can easily go like 5 hours of reading between each gameplay section early on (every Utaware game is backloaded with gameplay, though- that's not unique to Deception).

13 Sentinels is in a similar boat but I don't know I'd say its a VN because even during the plot-heavy parts of Remembrance (which is the vast majority of the game there too) you're controlling a character running around and trying to puzzle out how to advance. Even if it is very easy to do so most times.

Regardless, either way, they're very VN-adjacent as both titles have the majority of their time dedicated to just reading.

Clannad was good

Is Uta compelling srpg or is it basically musou on a turnbased grid

it's pretty run of the mill, besides letting you rewind turns.

There isn't that much to the srpg in either Prelude to the Fallen or Mask of Deception, really - both are pretty simple and easy to break open.

Mask of Truth excels at the SRPG portion especially when adding the Dream Arena's postgame battles into it - many of the fights in this game have a lot of interesting scenarios that encourage different ways to think through its battles.

Voted Utawarerumono, but both it (well Mask of Truth in particular) and 13 Sentinels are among the best of the best.

I heard great things about 13 Sentinels but I dont normally play RTS and not sure if I would enjoy those parts

voted Utawarerumono but I also have a large VN backlog

(just finished my last one, and my VN tag on Steam has >80 games)

handsomeboy2012 posted...

I heard great things about 13 Sentinels but I dont normally play RTS and not sure if I would enjoy those parts

I don't normally play RTSs either and found them fairly enjoyable. They're pretty simple and fun imo.

I don't play RTS games either and the gameplay is pretty simple and the battles aren't too difficult.