What do you want from a visual novel?

[Scout]

...but your broad-sweeping use of inappropriate terminology also brands Canadians and Mexicans with those same attitudes when you use that collective term.

I assure you, that's not correct at all. An American means someone from the United States-- I don't know about Mexicans, but any Canadian would be offended if you ever called them an American.

[Dobuchu]

I want exceptional story elements in my Visual Novels. pretty pictures are not enough to keep me interested, there should be high quality placed into the storytelling and how it unfolds. I want to read something with a good style of writing too, but that's all up to opinions there. Any VN I download that starts off with poetry or flowery language I will automatically delete from my computer if that type of writing insists.

An example of flowery language: " The snow caressed his face as it fell down in an endless rain of sorrow."

I hate that kind of stuff no matter how well written it is. No real person talks like that, and so it's bothersome to read. Well, those are my opinions on the subject anyway. : /

[Glasskitten]

I hate that kind of stuff no matter how well written it is. No real person talks like that, and so it's bothersome to read. Well, those are my opinions on the subject anyway. : /

Verily, dear stranger, thou hast ne'er conversed with my fair kin of blood nor my kin of spirit. ;D
(I am occasionally interrupted mid-utterance by my rather amused mother so that she may inform me that I have been using uncommonly flowery language. Often I myself scarcely agree, yet perhaps to many others the world is indeed as plain as the words they select for it. If I should dwell upon that notion, and if indeed there is validity to it at all, I might find it a globe-spanning tragedy without closure, so I shall think no more upon it.)

[AllegroDiRossi]

This is amusing, because:
a) USians use 'American' to mean 'citizen of the United States of America' without thinking about it all the time,
and
b) I often use 'USians', to be precise, but USians also sometimes presume offence simply because I'm for some reason not calling them 'Americans', so when I'm making a joke with no ill intent, as signified in an obvious manner by the ';-)' at the end of the statement, I tend to switch to 'Americans' to try and sidestep anyone's sense-of-humour failure.

Another stereotype in the UK about Americans is that they're terrible at understanding sardonic humour.

Do you wish to suggest another succinct demonym I might use? Because 'American' is pretty much all I hear from USians. Practically speaking, most people I know use 'North American' if they don't wish to refer specifically to USians, and people pretty much never want to refer to everyone who lives anywhere in the entirety of the Americas collectively anyway, so the odds of being misunderstood are pretty slim. I could refer to you all as 'Yankees' if you like, but that seems to me more likely to offend...

The American thing was an aside. And this whole, 'most USian's prefer this' is totally unnecessary because I stated plenty of times in my post how I refer to myself: 'US citizen'. The main point of my reply was to ask you not to toss stereotypes around. And if you'll reread the first line of my original post, I did indeed notice your attempt at humor. I just didn't find it funny. I don't think anyone likes being stereotyped and I merely asked that they not be unnecessarily used. Your post would have expressed your point just as succinctly without the stereotype reference.

[Jake]

I did indeed notice your attempt at humor. I just didn't find it funny. I don't think anyone likes being stereotyped and I merely asked that they not be unnecessarily used.

You did notice it was humour, and yet you for some reason felt the need to call me out and tell me off about it just because you didn't find it funny, even though you recognised it was without malice, and wasn't even suggesting that the stereotype was reasonable. Why?

I even [deliberately!] used the word 'stereotype', which pretty much everyone over the age of ten realises means it's not typically a reasonable generalisation.


Here is a stereotype about people on this forum with the username of 'Jake', which is entirely deserved. There are two things that they loathe, and cause them to lose respect for people: weaselly politically-correct censorship and people trying to push their views upon others.
Example: you might prefer 'US citizen', but I'm not writing my forum posts specifically for you and I never will; the overwhelming majority of 'US citizens' I've ever spoken to have absolutely no problem with being called 'American', and the overwhelming majority of Canadians I've ever spoken to don't self-identify as 'American' at all, so I have no reason to believe anyone sensible will have a problem with my usage of the word. (To be fair, I've never spoken to any Mexicans that I know of, but I kind of expect it's a similar situation with them.)

(Edit: Also, "US citizens" isn't succinct at all, so screw that.)

[yummy]

Would you people stop being off topic?

I like stories where you can't predict how it goes on. Or rather, stories where your prediction turn out to be completely incorrect.
If you add characters with strong personalities, a good storytelling flow and good music, I'd be more than happy to continue reading.
If the story is so good it makes me think like "oh so that's how it goes!", at least I'd find the VN interesting.

At any rate, I despise what people call "yarugame", where you pick up your partners like you're going to the supermarket. Things don't go like that in real life, so I don't find this credible. Apart for being games that you play for the smut, I don't find them appaling.

I have come to dislike VN with characters that fall into simple categories. Sure, it's cute and all, but I don't think that they'd necessarily be a good base for a story. I mean, a story just for the sake of displaying meganekko and without a good story isn't interesting.
Actually, it depends on which public you're aiming at.
If it's shounen category, you won't neccessarily need to get out of the classical tryptic "childhood friend - hero - childhood friend challenger" thingy.
For more mature stories I think you'd have to go past this, add something more, ideals for example.
Evolving personnalities might be a plus I think.
And a main character that goes past the point of "oh a pantsu shot!". Portraying a boy virgin as the main character does not interest me.

What I'd really want from a VN isn't necessarily to hit all my buttons, but to have an intrigue that is well constructed, that is to say, where there are good interactions between characters (be it good or bad), with a good theme (romance, illness, disability, survival, mystery...) and most of all, interesting characters.

But that's only my opinion, I don't think my tastes are the most common taste at all.

At any rate, there's a need for diversity. I read in a previous thread that VNs are getting more or less the "same thing". I'd say that there are themes that are being used and reused all over to the point of vomiting. It's all full of butlers, nekomimi, little sisters and miko. Not that I have anything against them but still...

[sayuri]

First I want to list a few of my favorite VNs. Narcissu, Yo-Jin-Bo, and True Remebrance. Narcissu has really pretty art, lovely music, and a unique story. It didn't have a real happy ending, but that was more satisfying in the end. True Remembrance didn't have the best art, but the story was so different I never could have guessed the ending. Plus there was a cool OP . Yo-Jin-Bo is on the other side of the spectrum. YJB has stereotypical characters but they all have their own quirks. The story was kinda blah but the characters' backstory always makes me tear up. And fangirl . I guess the consensus is that for the story something thoughtful is the best. Also, characters need to have their own quirks. I recently played Re:Alistair and the characters were pretty self explainitory. The sarcastic glasses character, the sporty blonde and the shy boy next door. They all had something different about them that made me actually want to capture all of them. Spoiler! -->

The twist that the blonde (Derek) was actually the bad guy was a nice touch too.

[otaku_lady89]

Personally, When I find a VN I enjoy, it usually means that the bad endings made me cry, and the good endings gave me hope.

As for character types, I always go after the shota/boy next door type. XD The safe, cute kiddo.
THEN, I go for the flamboyantly gay guy!

If they have a well-developed (and preferably tragic) backstory, then I'm good!

Also, one of my personal beleifs is, if someone doesn't have a mental breakdown, then the game, or series automatically is thrown to my B-list. ^.^ Of course special circumstances can change that. XD

[tylerthekitsune]

i want furries(anthropomorphic animals)in a visual novel. because i love animals that act like humans.

[Headache]

I want to see a cool bishie protagonist in a VN for once. Someone badass and awesome - not too awesome, because all humans have their weaknesses. Maybe I didn't play enough VNs, but I don't think I've seen protagonists like that. It's kinda sad ~~

[KomiTsuku]

This one is completely off in left field, but I like readability in a visual novel. The work I have to invest into translating broken sentences, extremely poor grammar, and horrible spelling errors greatly detracts from my experience. Some mistakes are okay, but there comes a point...

And cat girls... Gotta have kitsune.

IN AMERICA!

[WiseSilent]

When reading a visual novel, what expectations do you have?
Obviously, we all want a great, well-written story with high quality cg and charming characters, but be more specific. How can OELVN developers step up their game? What can we do to please you?
People always tell me that only my opinion matters, but games are different. They're meant to be played by many people, so while making my visual novel, I also want to keep the readers opinion's in mind. So what do you like to see?
Any comments are welcome, even if all you really want is tentacle rape. x)

Every storyline must have climax which keep us in suspense mood with a few nice soundtrack when we are playing the game which gives the atmosphere of the game. Cute anime girls for guys or vice versa. Appealing layout when enter the main page of the game and nice choice button. If they can do let say a game about main character 1st time met a girl which will changed his live forever...before he started to chat with the girl have pencil sketching. Later, it's colored to show a big difference in his memory. If can the good ending should give [freebies] photo main character with the girl happily married together or they went back to the place where the first met and took photo together.