Visual Novels

[Masquerade1412]

(This may be in the wrong thread, so forgive me if it's wrong.)

One of my favorite anime is CLANNAD, which I heard was adapted from a visual novel of the same name. I tried searching for some other visual novels.....let's just say, the results were "corrupted".

Does anyone know where to find good (clean!) visual novels?

[Atria35]

A lot of VNs have 'adult material' in them, but most have the option to turn it off (and sometimes have clean versions of them released- the Key series all were released in two formats, the adult and the not-adult, and the same for Fate/Stay Night).

the Visual Novel database has info on a whole lot of visual novels, so you can get a little more in-depth with what they're about.
http://vndb.org/

Wikipedia has a few:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Non-H_visual_novels_available_in_English

There's also True Tears, Narcissu, Chaos;Head, Ever17 -the out of infinity-, Planetarian

[blkmage]

Visual novels as a medium probably have the ratio of adult material to safe material inverted compared to most other media. That is to say that unlike everything else, the majority of visual novels are 18+. Of course, that doesn't really quite matter so much because the number of visual novels that are available in English (legally or not) is similarly minuscule. After narrowing down the visual novels that are worth playing and safe, it's probably pretty easy to just give a list of them.

Of course, finding that list is hard because visual novel players are typically okay with 18+ stuff. They might not like it (I know a lot of people who complain about it in otherwise excellent games), but they put up with it. Clearly we're not comfortable with doing that here. Finding that list is hard also because there are way more fan translated VNs than there are officially released ones, which is probably in the single digit range.

As alluded to by Atria, the most popular of the 18+ visual novels have 18+ content only because they were created during a time when the thinking was that good writing wasn't enough to get people to buy a game, so they had to throw in 18+ scenes to entice the audience. This made it pretty easy to gut those scenes out once developers realized that people liked the games because of their stories.

An important correction, though: Key's games do not all have both 18+ and all ages editions. CLANNAD, Planetarian, and Rewrite have never had 18+ editions, while Tomoyo After and Kud Wafter have no all ages editions.

So what all ages English visual novels are there?

For completion's sake, you could argue that the Ace Attorney series are visual novels. I don't know if they are, but they're there if that's what floats your boat.

Arguably the most famous are 07th Expansion's When They Cry horror series. Mangagamer has officially licensed and is releasing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, while The Witch Hunt releases unofficial translation patches for Umineko no Naku Koro ni with series creator Ryukishi07's blessing. A fan translation patch for Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni is in the works.

Ever 17 is one of the few big officially licensed visual novels, but the company responsible for it died years ago. Remember 11 is a visual novel from the same series and has a fan translation. And curiously enough, the staff behind Ever 17 went on to create a DS visual novel by the name of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which is also available in North America.

As for Key games, both CLANNAD and Planetarian have fan translations. This is funny because Planetarian has no choices, while CLANNAD is one of the hardest visual novels I've ever played. The all ages version of Little Busters! is being worked on as well.

Both narcissu and narcissu -Side 2nd- are free visual novels that have received fan translations.

5pb/Nitro+'s collaborations have all been all ages. Chaos;Head has a finished fan translation, while Steins;Gate has a fan translation that's being worked on.

I'm not too up to date on news about otome games, but I do know that at least one part of Starry Sky has a fan translation done.

Finally, one that's often overlooked is a little known visual novel called Symphonic Rain. This one has a fan translation.

In the future, I'd imagine Rewrite, Key's latest game, and Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, TYPE-MOON's new game that's been delayed forever, will be getting fan translations. Both are all ages.

There are also a few games that have fan translations where the patch installer gives you the option to remove the 18+ scenes. I believe TYPE-MOON's Tsukihime is one of those games, and if I recall correctly, Flying Shine's Cross†Channel is too.

[Masquerade1412]

Wow...thanks guys! (Might take a while to find one...)

I have heard about some of these (like Phoenix Wright and 999) But I haven't have the ability to play them yet.

Are all of these free to download? Or do you have to purchase them?

[Neane]

I have one Question: Is Phantom of Inferno good? Because everyone on the other Forums says that it is great. And does it have any of those turn it off features if it does have that certain activity in it? Because I tried the ones without the feature and I'm not a big fan of those scenes if you know what I mean.

[Atria35]

^ Some must be purchased. Narcissu is free for download following the link here:
http://www.insani.org/

All of these are free to download, but not all are 'safe for play'.

Chaos;Head has, as blkmage pointed out, a fan translation- which means you'd have to Google for it. Anything that he said has fan translations are ones you Google for.

Higurashi, Planetarian, Clannad, Ever17 must be purchased.

Those are the ones I know about. The others, you can find out via Wikipedia.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I can confirm that Tsukihime's fan-translation patch allows you to have the all-ages version.

[blkmage]

Phantom is probably good because it's written by Urobuchi Gen, but no, it doesn't have an all ages option.

narcissu and narcissu -Side 2nd- is probably the only free visual novel on this entire list, but if you're going to play them, just get Side 2nd, since it comes with both anyway.

Everything else is a commercial visual novel. However, for some, like Ever 17, it'll be difficult to buy what with it being out of print and all.

[Neane]

Phantom is probably good because it's written by Urobuchi Gen, but no, it doesn't have an all ages option.

Thanks. If the Content is done in a tastefully done way, then I might love this Novel.

[Masquerade1412]

Everything else is a commercial visual novel. However, for some, like Ever 17, it'll be difficult to buy what with it being out of print and all.

That makes sense.....One of the many disadvantages of living in the middle of the U.S......You can't get anything Japanese! (Other than sushi...)

But thank you, Blk and Atria! (And good luck with Phantom, Neane....you might need it!)

[AnimeGirl]

There's this one visual novel I discovered in the Artist Alley of AX called Cradle Song. I played the demo and it was pretty good. It was made with the Ren'Py engine. Sadly it sounds like it'll be 18+, which is a shame, it seems like such a good story.

One visual novel I'd love to play would be that of Steins;Gate. The anime has been excellent so far and I'd love to see the original concept in action. And I'm kinda interested in the Higurashi ones (that'll probably be super scary, though!)

Anyway, as far as finding clean visual novels, the only one I know of is...well, the VN version of Calbach's Heaven Bound. It does deal with some heavy stuff, like Elijah's addiction to porn, but nothing explicit is shown in the manga and I doubt so for the VN. It's also the only Christian VN I know of.

Also, you could download free and legal visual novels created with the Ren'Py engine here: http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Ren'Py_Games
Whether or not they're clean is not specified (I am sure it is on the user's site for it or in the description, so tread carefully).

EDIT: Nevermind, there IS a rating system if you click the game that you want, it'll tell you the rating.

[blkmage]

AFAIK, the translation for Steins;Gate is actually finished and it's going through editing and stuff, so a patch should be out soon. But, from what I've been hearing, the anime was a pretty faithful adaptation of the game, so there might not be that much of a reason to go through it again except to see the other endings and the hot huke art.

[Atria35]

Well, Katawa Shoujo has been released, and I'm finding it to be a big hit. What's nice is that there's an easy system for turning of the H content, and I really am enjoying the story.

[Masquerade1412]

Speaking of Katawa Shoujo, How is it? I've heard about the...questionable...content of the game and of the switch, but I don't know how it works. Does it skip it entirely or is it implied? I don't want to see a blank screen that has the words "CENSORED" on it...

[Atria35]

Speaking of Katawa Shoujo, How is it? I've heard about the...questionable...content of the game and of the switch, but I don't know how it works. Does it skip it entirely or is it implied? I don't want to see a blank screen that has the words "CENSORED" on it...

Well, you have the build-up (girl sits on the bed), maybe a little dialoge of undersseing, but then you get a funny little picture and it skips straight to the scene after, which usually involves them ebing in the same room together and some aftertalk, but nothing is in detail, no pictures or anything.

[Masquerade1412]

oh, really? I can probably handle that...Thanks! Anything else I need to know?

[Atria35]

There's some fanservice on occasion? I mean, we'll occastionally 'hear' him think about how short a skirt is or whether a blouse is see-through, but it's rare.

Oh, and depending on the interactions you have, you'll probably at one point be confronted in the showers by a guy that lives in the dorms with the main, and he'll have a leaf covering the important bits. He's a crazy conspiracy theorist on feminist activites. You can actually just skip most of his dialogue, since it's pretty unimportant to the storyline. I do since I find it irritating rather than funny.

[Masquerade1412]

Arigoto!

I shall skip when possible!

[Atria35]

Glad I could help! ^.^ (it really is a very well-done VN, so I do hope you enjoy it)

[blkmage]

A while back I played a free otome game called Hatoful Boyfriend, in which you woo a pigeon. No, really. Well, it turns out that was a (pretty complete) demo and the full version with the extra routes that tie everything together was released recently for about $5. And for $5, it's a pretty good read. It's not as well crafted or emotionally deep as Katawa Shoujo, but it will surprise you and the creator definitely put a lot of thought into the setting and scenario.

[Masquerade1412]

Unfortunately, I have siblings in my house, so KATAWA SHOUJO is out of the question...(For now.)

I really don't want to spend a lot of money on Visual Novels. Especially when there are plenty free ones to be found!:-^o^-:

[Purin]

Eto... http://www.sakevisual.com/projects.html

MagiCos pokes fun at ero games, so there are references to H material, but it's still clean.