What are your thoughts on Visual Novels - as games or as fiction? [VN Giveaway inside]

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I've been an avid reader as far back as I can remember; I was devouring 'chapter novels' by kindergarten and had to get permission to check out books years above my reading level from the elementary library. It was around that same time - twenty years ago this Christmas, in fact - that I was given a Game Boy Pocket as a birthday present, and Santa brought the family a Nintendo 64. Gaming and reading were really the first two hobbies I had, and to me, visual novels seem like a great union of the two.

Naturally, there are plenty who don't share that sentiment. While the number of VNs on Steam has exploded in the last few years, neither gamers or publishers seem to give them much respect. Publishers routinely release subpar ports, often with poor translations or dozens of typos and errors. 'Hardcore' gamers deride them all as porn games or call for them to be removed for not being games at all (which is a bad take, given that Steam also sells hardware, software, and videos). Naturally, there's plenty of low quality products, or clearly censored ero VNs, but to ignore everything available because some unworthy content exists is to throw away an entire banquet over a single bottle of wine spilled.

I think the recent release of Doki Doki Literature Club is a good enough excuse to start examining how the gaming community at large looks at the genre. A guy known for developing Twitch plugins and Smash Bros mods takes some time off to develop his own game, only to surprise everyone with what looks like an anime dating sim. Sure, it's short, free, and much deeper than how it looks on the surface. But it's not what any of his followers would have expected, and the product description doesn't make it seem anything but earnest. People who weren't interested in the genre shouldn't have seen a reason to try it, and anyone downloading it in hopes of boning digital teenagers would've been left hanging pretty quickly. On the surface, it's a recipe for failure.

Despite the odds, though, Doki Doki Literature Club was a smash hit, garnering over 45,000 positive reviews on Steam and taking home four IGN People's Choice awards, up to and including Best PC Game of 2017. People latched on to the game beneath the cutesy exterior; the characters all had their own complexities, the game managed to tell a moving story, and it utilizes the Ren'Py engine in ways I'd never even thought about doing. It's absolutely a worthwhile experience, especially for how short it is; if you haven't already given it a shot, go do it (without spoiling yourself first).

The question becomes whether or not DDLC's wins were entirely deserved. I'm not arguing against it being a great game - it certainly is, although I don't doubt that a good chunk of its popularity is from those latching on for the meme potential. But does it really deserve an award as an Adventure game? Certainly if you go by the classic definition of anything point-and-click being an 'adventure' game, it qualifies; you can probably complete the entire game with just a mouse. But can any visual novel - regardless of how many branches or routes you're free to pick from - really be called an adventure game on par with something like Breath of the Wild or an Elder Scrolls game? You can absolutely have a novel that brings about a sense of journey and exploration - the fantasy genre as a whole relies on it. But there's a clear difference between that and exploring for yourself; it's one of the shortcomings of one genre and the defining feature of another.

I suppose that through the rambling, what I'm trying to say is this: visual novels absolutely have their place on Steam, regardless of which interactive elements they have or lack. At the same time, it's important to understand that every genre has its own strengths and weaknesses, even if those weaknesses aren't actual flaws.

In closing, here's a giveaway for my favorite VN release of last year: The House in Fata Morgana. For those who don't like overly cutesy anime styles, Fata Morgana at least tries something different. If you're convinced that every VN is anime porn, you'll disappoint yourself trying to find any nudity, censored for Steam or otherwise. It's not a perfect game - I think there are a couple chapters that go out of their way to explain what's already reasonably implied, and for as much as I enjoyed the soundtrack as a whole there are a couple tracks that are pretty grating. In a way it's more of a romance novel than anything; as a guy who mostly reads sci-fi, fantasy, or horror, that should tell you how much I enjoyed it, even when it did play up some anime cliches on occasion. If you've had this on your wishlist, or simply if your interest is piqued, you have until noon (EST) on New Year's Eve to enter; the only requirement is being level 1 or higher.

Good Luck, Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading!

6 years ago

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BigTxT

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6 years ago