Do you remember your first VN?

[Gear]

I started with Phoenix Wright, though whether it's actually a VN is up for debate, then Hotel Dusk. It wasn't until after that I heard that there were independently-developed titles. The first indie VN I played was a disappointment, as the story was shallow, and the voice acting made me cringe, but I've played better games since then. From every game, I either get advice on what to do, or what not to do.

[KittyKatStar]

I played a lot of point-and-click stuff for the computer, but weren't really VNs. And I also loved Phoenix Wright, Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk, etc...

I think my first 'proper' VN was um... Maaaaybe Katawa Shoujo...? That or Ripples but the VN that really stuck with me was The Flower Shop on the itouch. Was on this month long archaeology dig in the middle of no where, and on break it would keep me occupied as I kept trying to go for one girl, but ended up with another, because I didn't want to be mean to anyone. =,)

So it introduced me to other indie VNs and indie games in general. ^^

[inhalance]

The very first VN I got into was probably narcissu. It was such a good story, and the plot was gripping but very sad at the end.... I started getting into VN's after playing several freeware games such as (P)lanets - the life of happiness has started! and Re: Alistair++. I also loved Starry Sky ~in spring~, which is when I seriously started to search for more VNs to pass my summer boring time. Basically, these games got me into VNs and otome games. ^_^

[Nekobiker]

My first VN was Tsukihime. I watched the anime (wait, there's no Tsukihime anime, right?), and Google illuminated my path to the VN world from there. Tsukihime is still my favorite visual novel because of the great characer development. The author could switch back and forth from mundane slice-of-life drudgery to intense suspense in an interesting way.

Played F/SN directly afterwards, but the obnoxiously sexist and outrageously senseless protagonist ruined it for me. Although the plot was good, it had a number of holes, for example in one of the routes

Shiro cleanly beats Saber Alter

which also left me unsatisfied. The art and character design were very appealing, though. Mixed feelings about F/SN, it was like a beautiful dress with coffee stains on it.

[teacup]

Mine was Narcissu. But if you don't count that (since it's a kinetic novel) it was Hourglass of Summer.
A crappy visual novel that was in the form of DVD... yeah, that was a disaster. It's a wonder I still like VNs after that experience.

[Blue Lemma]

Mine was Narcissu. But if you don't count that (since it's a kinetic novel) it was Hourglass of Summer.
A crappy visual novel that was in the form of DVD... yeah, that was a disaster. It's a wonder I still like VNs after that experience.

I remember those! Still have a bunch... I think the one I got first was Phantom of Inferno. It was actually all right
But my first ren'ai game was Tokimeki Memorial, I think. It was so long ago, I'm not even sure anymore.

This was back in the days of not being able to find these things anywhere, especially not in English! (well, unless you wanted to play an H game.)

[teacup]

Mine was Narcissu. But if you don't count that (since it's a kinetic novel) it was Hourglass of Summer.
A crappy visual novel that was in the form of DVD... yeah, that was a disaster. It's a wonder I still like VNs after that experience.

I remember those! Still have a bunch... I think the one I got first was Phantom of Inferno. It was actually all right
But my first ren'ai game was Tokimeki Memorial, I think. It was so long ago, I'm not even sure anymore.

This was back in the days of not being able to find these things anywhere, especially not in English! (well, unless you wanted to play an H game.)

Heh, I have a bunch too. Tea Society of a Witch, Hourglass of Summer, Day of Love and Amusement Park. (I almost bought Ever17, too... I wish I had now. Then I could sell it for $400 on Amazon!)
I guess the games themselves weren't bad (well, Tea Society of a Witch WAS bad), but the system totally ruined the experience for me, so I have a negative association with those. Writing down passwords got old really fast... and those horrible choppy transitions. Ugh.

I was a weird kid back then. Even at the tender age of 12, I didn't have a problem playing H-games. Now I'm desensitized to them. Sometimes I think something is wrong with me >.>;

[Taleweaver]

But my first ren'ai game was Tokimeki Memorial, I think. It was so long ago, I'm not even sure anymore

Uguu~~ TokiMemo - so haaard...

I never got the Childhood Friend - Shiori was her name, I think. She has ridiculous expectations of a boyfriend (essentially, be a charismatic, desirable academic genius who is also a master artisan and the captain of the sports team), and she'll listen to ALL crap the girls you dump spread about you. You'd think she'd cut her best friend from childhood some slack...

True Love was much more satisfying in that respect. Even the "hidden girl" Ange was easier to get.

[EroBotan]

my first VN? hmmm .... I can't remember ... Pro LesRing?

[EwanG]

Reading through this I guess I am the odd man out (nothing new there, right?)...

I was taking my son to his Yugioh Card Battle sessions, and wandered over to a shop where they had some of the NewType magazines. This was around the time that Haruhi came out, and I went home and looked for Haruhi on Amazon, and found that they only had the books. One thing led to another, and I found myself downloading fansubbed animation.

One of the forums I was on at the time talked about these games where you could "live" in an anime, and the first one I was able to find that had a full english translation was "The Sagara Family".

I spent the next couple of weeks coming home every evening, helping my kids with their homework, and then playing as late as I could tolerate through the game. Soon I had found a walkthrough guide, and was running back through it to get the other routes.

Somewhere in all of that I found this place. And the rest is infamy... err... I mean history

[Googaboga]

Wow this is a harder question than I thought. I really can't remember the very first VN I played. Once I started VNs I played many VNs and VN hybrids in a short amount of time. So I can't really figure out which one came first. And also it is possible I'd played a few here and there before I really got into them. Seriously though it is all just running together >.>.

Umm maybe my first VN was Fatal Hearts.

[BobbyBear84]

Hmm... wow, this makes me feel old saying this (and I'm only 28!), but the first VN I ever played was either DiviDead or Eve Burst Error. I remember falling in love with both of them. As confusing as DiviDead is, the story just drew me in, and the art was gorgeous. Plus, it was dark (but without the nastier H-content you see in more recent games), and I couldn't stop playing. Eve Burst Error grabbed me because the story was so well thought out and detailed. I sunk hours into those games. After that I grabbed as many as I could. Some were great (Critical Point, Snow Drop, Kana, Enzai,Yin-Yang) and some were horrid (Secret Wives Club, Transfer Student and as much as I thought it was hilarious the original X-Change was pretty damn awful.) I kind of fell out of playing them though, but then Higurashi came out, and I was hooked again.

[Michiyo6918]

My first visual novel? Uhm.... If I remember correctly, it's Silver Chaos, a BL/Yaoi visual novel ;;;

At that time I didn't even know what a visual novel was and only found my way to the game browsing through aarinfantasy. My first impression was "Wah! It's a novel, but it has music and voice! There is also sound effect! And.... OMG what am I watching?" Out of my expect it had more H than I thought LUL and at that time I was only like 13 or something.... ;; but I actually enjoy the game play a lot. It took me a decent amount of time to get the game to work on my computer, and I admit at that time my English was so suck that I kept on misunderstand the sentence and ended up with bad ending all the time... (And in the end I decided screw it I'm using walkthrough to get all the CG)

After that game, I found my way to the second one in the series of Silver chaos, its name is arfictical mermaid or something... (I can't quite remember the name) and there was no English version... But still I played it... (Hey, pretty art and walkthrough were waiting for me)

So yeah, there wasn't much impression I got from visual novel at first because I just played the, for pretty art. But when I get to LSF and with the first game I played (Don't be surprised, it's RoA in the fantasia series made by the awesome Azure) I changed my mind about visual novel and grew REALLY fond of it. The art in my opinion wasn't all pretty and shiny as the other professional one like Silver Chaos but I could live with it (and I really didn't expect I would totally fall in love with Oswald at first sight... Hnngh his personality and that silver hair + red eyes got the better of me... ;u;)

(I even got my best friend to play the game and we have some inside jokes that we still telling each other until now like about Ian and his question "Do you like coldness" ;D my friend played it and answered yes obviously, but now everytime winter comes she would run around and yell "I hate the cold!" And said she felt bad for lying to Ian haha)

[Destiny]

Hah...

Truth be told, my first VN... was Enzai.

I was over at a friends place who made a new year party with me and six other persons.
One of them, a girl, knew I had a thing for Shonen-Ai and she forced me to play Enzai (which she had on ther laptop).
Well, the good thing is that it was pretty late and I was very tired. So I wasn't really into the game and far from taking it serious.
In fact, I only clicked through the text to get to the sex scenes, only to laugh like mad by those weird clapping noises that can be heard during them

Well, the good thing from that is, that I came to realize that good sound effects can even be double as important as graphics or music. Because weird sounds make the player go totaly into "Crazy"-mode apparently ôo

Oh well, it still took a while to get away from BL-VN-train (I played Silver Chaos 1 & 2, Sukisho, Gakuen Heaven and simliar after Enzai).
I appreciate some BL still, but I'm way more in the psychotic games now, with Jumpscares, mad enemies/MCs, dark athmosphere and stuff. A real good horror VN like "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" or School Days? Hell, yeah! (Ok, I also played Togainu No Chi because it combines that with BL, but it really is a awesome game? :'D)

[AriaAi]

My first visual novel was most likely ... Ahaha;; Princess Debut. I played it in 6th - 7th grade after I found out there were such things as Visual novels where you can date 2D boys. LOL;;
I was just diving into the Otome game world, and that was one of the only English ones on a portable device (the DS) at the time. :')
Afterward I moved onto Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side Second Season for the DS- after learning a bit of Japanese. \o/
They were all good experiences//