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 […]
I first heard about Fatal Twelve last year at AnimeFest in Dallas. It was a part of a rather impromptu presentation by Sekai Project that I enjoyed, but mostly because I was roasting most of it on Twitter. A few titles stuck out to me though as having strong potential and this was one of […]
As you know, we here at VNs Now are focused on building you a better gaming site and correcting many long-term issues we’ve had in delivering on that site. To that end we’ve talked with several business partners with long-established ties to the visual novel world to make improvements. All of our conversations were productive and […]
Well, it is that time of year again. That glorious month where aspiring and veteran EVN developers all become one body, focused on one goal: completing a visual novel within a month. Yes, it is NaNoRenO time yet again and I love this time of year. While this does lead to some typical genre tent […]
Ah, Valentine’s Day. For many, it’ll be a warm, emotional day of fun with their significant other. For me, it’s a brutal reminder of romance’s oppressive tyranny in the VN realm. Despite my galliant, damn near yeoman’s efforts to free us from the tooth-rotting grip of BxG, GxB, GxG, BxB, BYOB and every other letter […]
A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine decided that I was experiencing far too much happiness in my life and sent me a link to Winged Cloud’s next big “hit”: Sakura Agent. As the cold drained from my body, leaving behind a void to be filled, I stumbled across a picture of the […]