One of the most important decisions a visual novel developer will make is how any choices that can be made by the audience will affect the overall game. Interactivity is one of the core draws of a visual novel, after all. Even going the kinetic route means that it becomes incredibly vital to have a […]
This reminds me of Jacob’s Island. You’ll be forgiven for not remembering Jacob’s Island. If you do, you know that means to lay out the tarp. Jacob’s Island was the first demo feature I ever did for VNs Now back in 2013. It was a story set in a fantastical world with a human protagonist […]
I had some fun with this one, I must say. I don’t know if I’ll come back to it, but we’ll find out in the next livestream! Genre: Parody, Comedy Release Date: April 10, 2017 Developer: Desunoya Publisher: Sekai Project Language: English Platform: PC Website: Steam
Let’s talk the thin red line between holding contempt for a character, and holding contempt for how a character is written. For the most part, it comes down to the writer themselves. A good writer knows how to build a pathological case for why a fictional character does what they do. When an audience has […]
Oh, my children; I have some good eating for you today. This is in large part to the subgenre Date or Die it has chosen to work in: the death game scenario. Beyond its current levels of market saturation, the death game scenario can vary in execution, but there are certain…let’s call them ‘structural necessities’ […]
One of the more interesting themes I’ve seen come up and used with various degrees is success in visual novels is slavery. As a student of history, it’s a subject you cannot avoid because of its prevalence. However, its portrayal isn’t already successful, at least to this one, because of the inability of writers to […]
The University setting is quickly becoming an ideal breeding ground for what I’m loosely calling the ‘Infatuation’ subgenre. We’ve seen this in a handful of EVNs starting with Winter Wolves’ Roommates and arguably Obscura’s Coming Out on Top and Love Conquers All’s Ladykiller in a Bind (still haven’t played it either, so I’m just going […]
You know what is rare for me? Getting bored playing a visual novel. I have experienced the full spectrum of emotions as a critical voice of this subgenre. From the pure awe of playing a true artistic gem like Cave Cave Deus Videt to the blinding rage that can only come from scraping the bottom […]
You know what’s rare in English Visual Novels? Stories about childhood. Not adolescence: childhood. There are various reasons behind this, but it comes back to the reliance on familiar tropes to sell a story and most of those tropes are reliant on a cast older or around the legal age of consent…make of that what you will. […]
‘Will ‘Fanservice’ ever be executed correctly?’ It’s a question that is usually the last thing to ring through my head after slamming my face into oblivion on my desk. Despite my often-well-earned reputation, I do not blindly hate ‘fanservice’. If I did, then most of the anime I grew up on would have been on […]