Visual Novels: 5 Characteristics of Visual Novel Video Games

Visual novel (VNs) video games are text-based adventure games that combine interactive fiction and traditional anime or manga art styles to give the gamer the experience of reading a novel in a visual format.

A visual novel game often combines elements from other video game genres, including RPGs, dating sims (simulations), and mini-games. There are visual novel games targeted toward women, called otome games, and toward kids. There are also those that are adult-themed, called eroge, which contain nudity, hentai, and other mature topics. The games can come from mainstream or indie developers.

The genre is popular in Japan, with the appeal being its interactivity. Most are available for PCs, although some are ported to popular consoles, including the Playstation lineup and Nintendo Switch, as well as online platforms like Steam.

Here are five video game elements and how creators present them uniquely in visual novel video games, which typically emphasize storyline over action:

1. 1. Advancement: Players do not guide a character the way they would in a traditional video game. Instead, they advance the story by clicking in targeted regions to refresh the text.
2. 2. Complexity: Some visual novels become quite complex, with multiple branching storylines that take the player down completely different paths depending on their choices. These games can have multiple endings, too, determined by the exact choices you make in the game.
3. 3. Interactivity: Visual novel video games do involve some interactive elements, although the focus remains squarely on the storyline. The gameplay allows the player to determine in which direction the main character’s story should progress, enabling the player to feel involved in the narrative.
4. 4. Storyline: The appeal of a visual novel comes down to the story being told. Traditional video games often have a serviceable story, but there is not much depth to the characters or the world. A visual novel goes as deep as a traditional book, which means that the player gets all the same satisfaction as they would if they were reading prose—which, technically, they are.
5. 5. Text: A visual novel video game has large text boxes on the screen that show the prose as the story progresses, with backgrounds that depict the scene at hand. The experience is akin to reading a comic book, in that there are visuals and a narrative, but there is much more text on the screen than on a comic book page.

The genre has been around for decades, with several visual novel video games finding a worldwide audience.

1. 1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001): This wildly popular anime game is about Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney whom you play through both the investigative process and the courtroom drama.
2. 2. Higurashi When They Cry (2002): This game deviates slightly from the visual novel format because it adds sound as a focus. You begin the game in a village in 1983, and upon hearing about people disappearing in conjunction with a festival, you investigate.
3. 3. Clannad (2004): This Japanese visual novel dives into the romance genre, as it’s a love story. It features a girl named Tomoya Okazaki. You follow her from high school through adulthood, making choices for her along the way.
4. 4. Umineko When They Cry (2007): This game is a murder mystery set in an estate on an island in 1986. When a typhoon shuts down travel to and from the estate, 18 people are trapped and subsequently killed in bizarre ways.
5. 5. Steins;Gate (2009): This game is the sequel to Chaos; Head (2008) and explores time travel and manipulation themes. Gameplay involves phone calls—by choosing whether or not to answer the phone throughout the game, you can chart the course of the story.
6. 6. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010): This series focuses on high school kids being manipulated by a bear. This game also incorporates a dating simulator, which is a popular element in visual novel games.
   
7. 7. Hatoful Boyfriend: A School of Hope and White Wings (2011): In this otome game, you play in a post-apocalyptic world in which birds have replaced humans.
8. 8. The House in Fata Morgana (2012): You awake as a spirit and travel through time inside a mansion with the help of a maid.
9. 9. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (2012): Developed by Chunsoft, this game has a portion of it that reads like a virtual novel and another that involves escape rooms and puzzle elements.
10. 10. VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (2016): The name is a play on the Norse word Valhalla. You play as a bartender in a cyberpunk world, and as the story progresses, you travel to other areas where you can learn more about the dystopian locale.
11. 11. Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017): As the title implies, this game is about a girls’ literature club, and you get to help other girls produce a poem and assist with other tasks. There is a twist in the game, which abruptly brings the player back to the start.

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