Do most visual novels suck?

[ElijahRyne]

A week or so ago, I mentioned that I was interested in making a visual novel someday. My exposure to VNs is pretty limited. I've played (and loved) the Phoenix Wright games, but those are so different from "normal" VNs that they practically don't count.

I played a couple hours of Doki Doki Literature Club and wasn't a fan, and it kinda falls into the same category as Phoenix Wright where it breaks so many VN rules that it might not even count.

I played through most of the first Utawarerumono game and enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it in spite of a lot of the tropes that are pretty common in VNs--primarily the part where a boring Gary Stu with the personality of a bowl of cold oatmeal accidentallies himself into a harem of beautiful women. Game-with-stupidly-long-name is also pretty well known for being one of the more "professional" VNs, once again putting it in the same boat as the previous two games, even though it's more of a traditional VN than they are.

I wanted to get a better idea of what a "normal" VN was like, so I downloaded Sable's Grimoire on my Switch. It doesn't have any puzzle solving, no Final Fantasy Tactics-style combat chapters, and no...whatever you call what DDLC did. Just a branching story told via static character models. It's not super well known, but what I could find about it sounded promising, so I have it a try and...

Holy crap, it reads like something I would read on Fanfiction.net! It's not the absolute worst thing I've ever read, but I don't think I've read a single line of dialogue that sounds like something an actual person would say. It also has the "Human Oatmeal Gets a Harem" problem, but I knew that going in, so I can't really blame the game for that.

But that's got me wondering. Is this really the standard for VNs? Webnovels and litrpgs I can understand since most of them are free, but are people really okay with this level of quality on something they pay money for, like VNs? Because if so, maybe I should devote some of my time into making my own. If I can be even a little bit better than what's popular, then that should mean guaranteed success, right? (It'll be my fallback plan if winning the Powerball doesn't pan out)

What do you guys think? Are VN standards really this low, or have I just had bad luck picking them out so far?

They are my favorite medium to consume atm. I suggest you read one with voice acting. Stiens;Gate or Fate Stay Night are good intros. If you want a more indie/cheap experience and are willing to mod, Higurashi When they Cry is fairly cheap, and broken into chapters so if you don’t like the first you are not forced to buy the whole thing. However you should mod in the sprites and voice acting from the console version with the 07 mod. In general, if you are cautious with your spending money, looking at a let’s play first is also an option before buying a VN, although the quality of said let’s play is variable. Here are a few playthroughs of the above mentioned titles:
Steins;Gate: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPlqrKHEmTrmTmtsmssZ0i8Dw-o1Q1MWB&si=XsAPLN50-33Bqt15
FSN: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBPNfI73fc3GfLAO9Hzp8IQiIrZv6v8kR&si=p247S0uq9w_5rGc4
Higurashi Chapter: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBPNfI73fc3EJL3BdjOoqYe5sHjFzPX2x&si=pNnWyJnlMGhnXD3q

 

[Failnot]

As someone who has played more than my fair share of good ones (and trash ones), if you want a good feel for a Visual Novel, go with the original Type MOON (Fate/Stay Night, Witch on the Holy Night, Lunar Legend Tsukihime) visual novels.
Hell, even the mobile game Fate/Grand Order would actually qualify as a Visual Novel, if not for the Gacha element.
They have real depth, even if the protagonist in Fate/Stay Night (Shiro) is a rather bland character, the storytelling, magic system, and basically everything else about it, was top notch for the medium.
If you're looking for something more like a video game feel, the Utawarerumono visual novels (yes, even the mediocre remake of the original) are definitely worth playing.
I'd recommend the remake only if you can't get your hands on a fan-translated copy of the original on PC. The narrative is the same, but they did change a few scenes, and removed the NSFW CGI's entirely. It was basically a "sanitized" version of the story released on console. (It's not terrible, and they did leave the narrative in-tact, sans 18+ CGI's which really isn't a major issue).

If anything, I'd say those are the gold-standard for quality in the medium, and I haven't really played any others that come close to the same level of quality.

It does, however, take a great deal of work, even if you're just coding it in Ren'py (a fairly common choice for its easy-to-use standard interface and control systems), you still need to do a lot more than just writing, creating the artwork, and coding the game itself, so unless you're already familiar with that kind of undertaking, I'd recommend looking into what goes into it before making any snap-decisions.

Calling Shirou a bland character is a sin punishable by DRAWING AND QUARTERING

But yes, read Tsukihime. You can even read it on your browser, free of charge, because they don't really give a shit about the original anymore

Tsukihime, year 2000. Warning: Does contain 18+ scenes. You can change something in the settings to warn you when they're coming up

 

[ElijahRyne]

Calling Shirou a bland character is a sin punishable by DRAWING AND QUARTERING

But yes, read Tsukihime. You can even read it on your browser, free of charge, because they don't really give a shit about the original anymore

Tsukihime, year 2000. Warning: Does contain 18+ scenes. You can change something in the settings to warn you when they're coming up

It is a claim that only makes sense if you saw the anime. It is more accurate to call Shirou an idiot that is stupider than most, but bland nah. Is Tsukihime voice acted?

 

[Failnot]

It is a claim that only makes sense if you saw the anime. It is more accurate to call Shirou an idiot that is stupider than most, but bland nah. Is Tsukihime voice acted?

Unfortunately not, you just have to imagine the voices in ur head I guess

But, compared to the remake, it's a complete VN with 5 routes and also has better character design ngl

 

[ElijahRyne]

Unfortunately not, you just have to imagine the voices in ur head I guess

But, compared to the remake, it's a complete VN with 5 routes and also has better character design ngl

Is it that the remake doesn’t have all 5 routes or that the English release of it doesn’t hold those routes? If so is it possible to mod in those endings? I have tried VN’s without voice acting a few times, but haven’t been able to get into them. The closest I would say is DokiDoki, but that was watching a letsplay where the let’s player did the va work…

 

[Failnot]

Is it that the remake doesn’t have all 5 routes or that the English release of it doesn’t hold those routes? If so is it possible to mod in those endings? I have tried VN’s without voice acting a few times, but haven’t been able to get into them. The closest I would say is DokiDoki, but that was watching a letsplay where the let’s player did the va work…

No, the 5 routes don't exist yet. Go figure

But, fortunately, we'll be getting actually six total routes once the remake is fully complete, ft. a route that didn't make it into the original