What you enjoy from VN?

[uselessp]

Uhm, this could be my first serious question. So please answer this seriously.

I'm betting that you all in this forum like VN, right? Here's a question.

"What parts of reading, playing, and making VN is interesting?"

I'm not going to criticize you, but it's just that....
I'm wondering about the reasons we like Visual Novel. The questions why one like it has been floating inside my empty head that has been formatted after entering high school safely.

Although for me, everything inside VN are into my liking. I likes the gameplay. I likes the story, the characters, the moral values, the voice acting, the musics. Everything. But how about everyone?

I wish to know so badly that it's distracting the development of my project.

[Nuxill]

I like visual novels because I like reading comic books, and visual novels are a similar concept except a bit fancier, what with having music, sound and animation. Also I was always fond of 'choose your own adventure' books when I was a kid.

If you're asking what our favorite parts of visual novels are, then I'd have to say the artwork, at least when it's a renai/otome/"pick the character you want to date" sort of game. I know that's a bit shallow but there are so many of those out there that you've got to have a little something special with the art or allude to a really interesting and different plot for me to pick it up. For other genres of VNs I'm much more lenient. Mostly I just want the game to have a strong, cohesive style. It doesn't even have to be the best artwork out there as long as everything fits together well and has a bit of polish.

[Sapphi]

I'm wondering about the reasons we like Visual Novel.

Since this could get very broad, I'm going to answer this in terms of Visual Novel "versus" other visual storytelling media like comics and animation.

What I have found with VNs that is different from the above other media is the deprivation/reward system they create for the reader. Animation changes from frame to frame, and comics from panel to panel, but visual novels traditionally have a much lower image count. This means that it is a treat whenever the reader sees a new image. This is why a full-screen CG is considered a reward and usually put into a gallery so that the reader can admire what they have "earned". It's also different from the above other media in that the reader physically has to hit a key* or click a button to get the "treats". It is a more satisfying means of consumption than passive absorption.

I'm only speaking for myself, but I think there is a point where there can be too many art assets, and the deprivation/reward system falls apart. First the deprivation, then the reward, or else the reward is meaningless! (Gosh, this sounds like S&M...)

*I know some people like to set their VNs to auto-forward. I, personally, do not enjoy this (it makes me nervous, and I like being in total control) but I might do it for a VN with voice acting. But with voice acting you're taking more steps toward passive absorption since at that point it isn't necessary to read. Unless, of course, text is familiar language and VA is foreign; in that case auto-forward is still nerve wracking because reading is still necessary.

[KalaCansado]

I like reading that's why I love VN so much...
VN are just like a story, it have a setting and story to let you knows, you can also say it like a movie, cause it including art, music....something that effect you action and feeling.

But one different thing that makes me like VN so much is you can change something in the story.
If you are reading a book, the ending and progress are fixed and the only thing you would do is guessing what will happened.
But if you are playing a VN, you will not guessing the ending, you will only want to get a best ending or a guy, that's will make the story different.
So I can say that VN have many storyline and that's why I love it so much ^^
And same with you, I also enjoy the gameplay^^

Hope it can help you ^^

[Sharm]

I love having more than one ending that's positive. That's what bothered me about the choose your own adventure books, most of the endings in the books were bad endings, and I was always disillusioned with the whole concept of the story before I got to an ending that wasn't. In VN's it really does feel like you choose your own adventure.

[Nuxill]

I love having more than one ending that's positive. That's what bothered me about the choose your own adventure books, most of the endings in the books were bad endings, and I was always disillusioned with the whole concept of the story before I got to an ending that wasn't. In VN's it really does feel like you choose your own adventure.

Choose your own adventure books also didn't seem to have very strong plots and felt like the author was just coming up with random bs off the top of their head for anything that wasn't the 'true end'. At least in most of the cyoa books i read. VNs seem to take their plots a bit more seriously. It's also nice to not have as many pointless deaths as their were in those old cyoa books, at least in the vns in this community.

[Showsni]

I love having more than one ending that's positive. That's what bothered me about the choose your own adventure books, most of the endings in the books were bad endings, and I was always disillusioned with the whole concept of the story before I got to an ending that wasn't. In VN's it really does feel like you choose your own adventure.

I wouldn't say most of the endings were bad. I suppose it depends on the book; flicking through the Cave of Time (the first one) there are probably about an even number of good and bad endings. (Maybe slightly more bad ones...) You can be eaten by dinosaurs, or bring an egg back to the present. You can be killed falling off a mammoth, or ride it and be accepted by a neanderthal tribe. You can become a successful knight, or be hanged. You can return to the present, or end up millions of years in the future, or past... It has 40 diverse endings. One thing most of them don't have is a definitive true ending, though. Cave of Time certainly doesn't seem to have a single true ending. In fact, Inside UFO 54-40 is probably the only one I can think of with a single best ending, and it's impossible to find that through normal gameplay!

[Sharm]

I last tried to read them around 20 years ago, so my memory may be foggy, but every one I picked up stopped being fun very quickly because I kept dying and I had no indication from the story why that was the wrong choice. I kept meaning to write one that had clearer cause and effect, but I never got around to it. Either way, I've had much more fun with the VN's I've played. ^_^

[Showsni]

Certainly, the cause and effect is often complete trial and error.

Go Left -> Die!
Go Right -> Win!

isn't too uncommon. I always keep a finger in the page with a decision point so I can backtrack easily.

[Argeus_the_Paladin]

I think that trial-and-error is part of the genre's charm. Life choices and their consequences are as a rule not always intuitive or logical, and sometimes utter disaster can arise from the most innocuous of choices. Hence the "for want of a nail" hyperbole.

As for the differences between VN and CYOA: In my opinion, the main difference between Western CYOA and Japanese/OELVN is that the former tries to simulate the sense of vagary and randomness of human choices by oftentimes entirely arbitrarily horrible endings, while the latter focus a great deal more on the story-telling aspect. A good old Brit sense of dry humor, then, is essential to make CYOA yet-another-stupid-deaths funny. On the other hand, bad ends/deaths in VNs are more often than not made so that the players feel horrible/depressed about their poor choices. In this sense, it is much in line with theatrical tragedies.

In a nutshell, VN often makes bad ending thought-provoking, frightening or downright depressing. CYOA makes light of the whole business via humor. VNs are to CYOA as Final Fantasy is to Nethack, in conclusion.

[Destiny]

I like VNs, because I dislike books AND movies.
Even though I study literature, I was never really keen about reading (I like theater more). And movies are stupid or cliche in 90% (exceptions can be there, but they are rare in my opinion).
There is also the fact, that both are fixed. When the main character sees a giant crocodile and wants to touch it, then he will touch it and I can't do anything about it. The movie will show the scene, the book has that text already printed in it. And I get frustrated.
It's like those video games with total stupid main characters where you ask yourself how that dude is even able to not piss in his pants without someone helping him ("The Last Remnant" is a good example where the protagonist seems to think, running screaming to the antagonist [who can use strong magic] to get him letting go of the girl would help just to see him teleporting away and summon a mighty beast).

A VN at the opposite allows you to choose many things. Sure, not everything can be choosen. When it is a dating game, then I can choose to go to the beach and a few said things can be chosen by me. But the protagonist will drink a coconut cocktail anyway, no matter if I like it or not. But that is a minor thing and most is my decicion.
The only games that I like even better are "Fahrenheit" and "Heavy Rain" (both Click&Point games from Quantic dreams) and "Lurking Horror" (a totally text based game).
I mean, hello? I can even choose to comit SUICIDE in the first two games and in the last one I... well, let's say, I molested a few teenagers, licked a monster and set the school on fire <__<
But that is just what I like, freedom. Do, what I want, say what I find reasonable.
If there is a main character with a personality then I want to play what that character would say (and - for whatever reason - some games make the character suddenly turn total strange [look at Squall from FF8, how he goes from distant and grumpy to "Aw, I missed you, I love you, I will never let you be alone again!" once he is captured in a space ship ôo]).
When I realize my character was a heavy drinker once then it would make no sense for him to order vodka, only if he has extremly huge stress or is totally beaten down maybe.



So, yeah, the freedom of choice it would be.
Art, Music, point of view, all that can be nice or not but I want some freedome, so kinetic novels won't do much for me

[Gambit74]

Personally I like VNs because of how they're structured. Like having multiple choices to choose from, and they affect the story in some way as well as determining what ending you'll get. Although some of them are linear or don't have choices, they usually make up for it with a good story and decent characters.

[papillon]

I think that trial-and-error is part of the genre's charm.

The name-brand 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series was in many cases pretty random, however there were a LOT of other gamebook series, many of which were far more internally coherent and some of which were intended to be played like a tabletop RPG.

Even within the CYOA series there were books where the choices made logical sense and books where the choices were absolutely arbitrary, it varied depending on the writer.

The thing about the official CYOA books was that they were very short and wanted to keep the reader constantly flipping around, so they couldn't go for much of a stretch without putting another choice in. And it gets hard to have proper buildup with choices coming THAT fast and furious. Many other series were much longer and had more time to give you clues.

[Showsni]

I think that trial-and-error is part of the genre's charm.

The name-brand 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series was in many cases pretty random, however there were a LOT of other gamebook series, many of which were far more internally coherent and some of which were intended to be played like a tabletop RPG.

Even within the CYOA series there were books where the choices made logical sense and books where the choices were absolutely arbitrary, it varied depending on the writer.

The thing about the official CYOA books was that they were very short and wanted to keep the reader constantly flipping around, so they couldn't go for much of a stretch without putting another choice in. And it gets hard to have proper buildup with choices coming THAT fast and furious. Many other series were much longer and had more time to give you clues.

True, that. I wonder where my old Grailquest book is? Ah, here. Maybe I'll look for some dice and play it through! You only generally die (and get sent to section 14) here if you run out of LIFE POINTS.

Oh, dangnabbit, the list of things you can choose for your starting inventory has a bit ripped out... They're in alphabetical order, but anyone know what comes between Knife and Razor? (The last one is apparently a week's supply...)

[papillon]

Which book? (Husband is scanning the shelves but not finding one with an inventory list that includes both Knife and Razor.)