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A visual novel is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels or stage plays more than anything else.
Gameplay
Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their extremely minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving (most recent games offer 'play' or 'fast-forward' toggles that make even this unnecessary).
Most visual novels have multiple storylines and many endings; the gameplay mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiple-choice decision points, where the player selects a direction in which to take the game. This style of gameplay has been compared to the Choose Your Own Adventure novels. Most, however, strive for a higher level of plot and character depth than the aforementioned series of interactive children's books. These can be more closely compared to story-driven interactive fiction. While the plots and storytelling of mainstream video games is often criticised, many fans of visual novels hold them up as exceptions and identify this as a strong point of the genre.
Some shorter works do not contain any decision points at all. Most examples of this sort are fan-created. Fan-created novel games are reasonably popular; there are a number of free game engines and construction kits aimed at making them easy to construct, most notably NScripter.
Style
The visual novel genre has evolved a style somewhat different from print novels. In general, visual novels are more likely to be narrated in the first person than the third, and to present events from the point of view of only one character. It is fairly common for the primary structural unit to be the day rather than the chapter, with formulaic awakenings and returnings to bed framing each day's events. There are of course many exceptions to these generalisations.
In the typical visual novel, the graphics comprise a set of generic backgrounds (normally just one for each location in the game), with character sprites (called 立ち絵 tachi-e) superimposed on these; the perspective is usually first-person, with the protagonist remaining unseen. At certain key moments in the plot, special event CG graphics are displayed instead; these are more detailed images, drawn specially for that scene rather than being composed from predefined elements, which often use more cinematic camera angles and include the protagonist. These event CGs can usually be viewed at any time once they have been "unlocked" by finding them in-game; this provides a motivation to replay the game and try making different decisions, as it is normally impossible to view all special events on a single play-through.
In Japanese, a distinction is often made between visual novels proper (abbreviated NVL) and adventure games (abbreviated AVG or ADV): the main difference is in the presentation of the text, which is overlaid on the picture in a visual novel, and confined to a window at the bottom of the screen in an "adventure". This distinction is normally lost in English, where adventure game refers to a different genre.
Content and genre
Many visual novels are dating sims, ren'ai games, and bishoujo games, but science fiction, fantasy fiction, and horror fiction games are not uncommon.
Traditionally PC-based visual novels have contained ecchi scenes, which English-speaking fans tend to regard as a sort of unpleasant and unnecessary cliche (similar to the "obligatory sex scene" in Hollywood action films). However, the vast majority of console ports do not contain adult material, and a number of recent PC games have also been targeted at the all-age market; most notably, all but one of Key's titles come in family-friendly versions, and two have never contained adult content at all.
Related terms
Games which share the style and gameplay mechanics of visual novels, but concentrate on text and music with minimal or abstract graphics, are sometimes called sound novels (technically a trademark of Chunsoft, which used the term for its horror-themed Super Famicom visual novels such as Kamaitachi no yoru).
VisualArt's, the major visual novel house that publishes Key's works (among numerous other brands), has recently released a series of works called Kinetic Novels, which are notable for being an experiment in online content distribution. Most of these fall into the completely linear category, lacking any choices at all; as a result, some fans have begun using the term to describe other non-interactive titles.
Fan translations
As of 2005, all major visual novels are produced in Japan. A few bishōjo games have been licensed in the United States, but international visual novel fans rely mainly on fan translations. Some doujinshi and one commercial work (the Kinetic Novel Planetarian) have been translated so far. Translation is impeded by the sheer size of text in a novel; often, translators are faced with hundreds of hours of work, as opposed to fansubs which can take as little as one hour to finish.
Famous visual novels
Many of these also have associated anime series.
- Air
- Atlach Nacha
- Enzai
- Fate/stay night
- Kanon
- Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
- To Heart
- Tsukihime
- Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito
- Di Gi Charat
- Sukisho
You can find more on List of visual novels.
See also
External links
News resources
Translation groups
- insani's Official Homepage
- Hæleþes áwendende - Haeleth's Official Homepage
- Mirror Moon's Official Homepage
- Revolve's Official Homepage
Commercial licensers
Discussion boards
- Hæleþes gemot - One of the most primary visual novel discussion boards
- Hirameki International's forum and community page
- AnimeSuki.com's Game Forum
- insani's discussion board
- Revolve's discussion board
- Lemma Soft Forums - Discusses English-Language VN Development
Miscelleanous
"Visual novel"