The best visual novels. Visual novels

Visual novels- a rather peculiar phenomenon, which is a kind of synthesis of manga and computer games. From anime and manga they inherited a characteristic graphic style, and from games - the interactivity of the narrative. Today, the variety of genres and themes of visual novel storytelling allows everyone to find something they like, but in this rating we will try to highlight the ten most successful and beloved works by players.

10

Lost among the dark streets of the city of the future there is a Bar, where only dark personalities go. The heroine of the story, Jill, meets them at the counter so that, after mixing the cocktail, own recipe, find out other people's secrets or otherwise influence the behavior of the characters. Everything happens in a stylish cyberpunk setting, the main goal of the player is to interact with visitors.

9

The heroine, who has lost her memory, travels through parallel worlds in search of my memories. Talking to different characters, she gradually restores fragments of the lost past, but each new meeting at any moment it can destroy the entire already established picture. The exciting quest is complemented by an excellent visual component - the study of all characters on high.

8

Hope's Peak Academy became a prison for fifteen schoolchildren. The sinister creature, appearing in the form of a toy bear, will allow only those schoolchildren who can secretly kill one of their comrades to leave the walls of the institution. But this is not enough - the crime must not be solved, otherwise the killer will face trial and retribution for his deed. The plot of the novella is built on the principle of a hermetic detective story.

7

The small town of Joga is hidden in the mountains, and teenager Hiroshi Kuzumi moves here. At first, the place does not seem strange to him, but very soon a representative of the school committee opaquely hints to the boy that it is better to stay away from the streets of the old settlement and under no circumstances appear there after sunset. Hiroshi is intrigued, and gradually it becomes known to him that sacrifices were once made to terrible wolf gods in the town.

6

An extraordinary survival game, an exciting thriller that keeps you in suspense from beginning to end. Ziro, the antagonist of the story, is a mad genius. He plays with people's lives, locking them in a room from which it is not so easy to find a way out. They all must take part in a cruel roulette game in which the bet is life. Unpredictable plot twists and exciting climaxes set the novel apart from similar games.

5

This popular visual novel is based on the classic Chinese romance of the Three Kingdoms, only here it is not stern men who stand up to defend the homeland, but beautiful sexy beauties. The warrior maiden Kanu, together with her fighting friends, participates in various adventures, fights, and gets into trouble. A lot of attention is paid to the interaction of characters.

4

In the world of "Cyborg Killers" martial arts developed through the education of the body or the education of the spirit. With the advent of future technologies, those who rely only on their own flesh in battle readily replace parts of it with cybernetic prosthetics. But in this way they weaken their spiritual energy. Kong Taolo developed his fortitude to the limit, which allowed him to become the most dangerous killer in the world, able to cope even with cyborgs.

3

In a world where magic reigns, a group of wizards have been fighting for centuries for the right to own the Holy Grail. There is a belief that an artifact can make absolutely any desire of its owner come true. Fights are fought through the use of summoned servants - famous characters from the myths of the peoples of the world, as well as historical heroes, such as Alexander the Great.

2

Gloomy and dark visual novel reveals the most base sides of human nature. The story of a group of people who survived a devastating earthquake in the midst of a harsh winter. Stuck in the middle of the ruins, freezing, with no hope of salvation, the heroes of the story gradually lose their human appearance, plunging more and more into the abyss of madness.

1

The cult visual novel “Saya's Song” tells tragic story young medical student Fuminori. After the death of his parents, he slowly descends into madness: the world turns into a nightmare due to terrible hallucinations. The appearance of the charming girl Saya becomes a ray of light for the hero. He undertakes to help her in search of her father, but Fuminori’s condition is getting worse...

One of the few programs designed for creating visual novels. It allows you to add various multimedia inserts (music, video and even mini-games) to the narrative. The only thing it doesn't have is visual editor to edit the game - everything is done in a notepad-like editor using a special scripting language.

I’ll start, as always, from afar, so that you get a deeper understanding of the idea :)))

This was back in the 90s, when they still didn’t even dream of having computers in every home :))) I somehow fell into the hands (then still a fifth or fourth grader) of one magazine... I don’t even remember the magazine itself, but in The addition to it is firmly stuck in my memory! And it was called simply: “History Quest.”

The whole story was contained on 30 pages of printed text in A5 format. These pages had to be cut and sewn in the required sequence, after which reading could begin...

The whole point of the story was that its plot developed depending on your personal choice! In fact, you became, as it were, the main character of the story, and the ending of the story depended on what you chose to do at one time or another! That is, having read to the end of the next page, you had to choose one of available actions and, depending on this, proceed to reading the specified page.

Thus, the beginning of the book had one thing in common, but whether you reached the happy ending depended on you!

At that time, my comrades and I read the book to pieces (in the literal sense of the word :))). Some of us even tried to come up with our own quests. And now, after so many years, I came across a program that allows me to create similar games, but on a computer!

She's called Renpy(and, to be very precise, Ren’Py) and is intended for creating visual novels (or visual novels, to be more accurately translated from English).

What is a visual novel?

Visual novel is computer game-quest, which is a narrative in pictures with several characters (they are superimposed on the background in the form of sprites), whose replicas reveal the storyline. The very same story line, as in other text quests, has several branches, the transition to which depends on the player’s choice!

Essentially, this is something like a comic book, but, firstly, here the characters’ lines are usually written at the bottom of the screen (and not in “bubbles”, as in classic comics), and, secondly, the player, as has been repeatedly emphasized, can influence on the course of the game, making your choice in certain situations.

This genre of computer games is most often associated with anime and manga, since visual novels originated in the Land of the Rising Sun, where these styles were the most popular. However, this is not canon, since you create your own game from scratch and are free to decide how it will look!

Briefly about how games are created in Renpy

If you have already been inspired by “great feats” and decided to make a “super-mega game”, then I hasten to disappoint you a little... The fact is that Renpy is not a visual editor!!!

This means that the game will have to be written manually using a special scripting language based on Python. True, the language is not too complicated and with due diligence you will master it in a couple of days (not all of it, of course, but the basic functions).

And yes! Drawings for the game will have to be done in a separate graphic editor, since there are none in Renpy...

If you still haven’t changed your mind about creating your own game, and learning a new scripting language doesn’t scare you, then my further article with an example of a game, I hope, will be a good hint for you in mastering Renpy.

Getting started with the program

To start working with the program, you need to download the archive with it to your PC and unpack it into any folder convenient for you. In the archive, in addition to the program folder itself, you will find the “Bonus” folder with a couple of Russian-language manuals for Renpy, which may be useful to you when mastering the scripting language, as well as the source code for the game I created, which I will describe below.

After unpacking from the archive, Renpy is ready for use, so let’s go to the folder of the same name and launch the program using the renpy.exe file. The Control Center window will appear in front of you:

This window consists of two sections: in the upper part there are items for managing the currently selected project (by default “Demo”), and in the lower part there is a menu of the program itself (items coming after the “Renpy” heading).

To begin with, I propose to launch a demo game that will introduce us to almost all the features of Renpy. To do this, click the “Launch” button in the “Demo” game menu:

A pretty girl in anime style will give you a tour of all the features of the Renpy program. To navigate through the frames of the game, use the usual left click of the mouse. It also serves to select the desired item in the game menu. We practically don’t use the keyboard (except if the game requires you to enter some data, for example, your name).

Start creating your own game

If you have already familiarized yourself with the demo game, and the desire to create has not left you, then let’s start creating your own visual novel.

I decided to create an educational game for little schoolchildren to help them remember the 2 multiplication table :). Main character my game is Pikachu, and the plot will naturally revolve around a duel with another Pokemon, to defeat which you need to know the multiplication table by 2 :). So let's get started...

First of all, we need to return to the Control Center and click the “ New project" We will first be asked to enter the name of our game. I entered the first thing that came to mind - “PikaPikaBum” :). This name does not affect the course of the game itself.

After entering the project name, we will need to select a design theme for dialog boxes and the game interface in general:

We will see the appearance of the theme in the window on the right when we hover the mouse over the name of the theme in the list on the left. You can apply the design you like by clicking the mouse (later you can change the theme at any time in the Control Center in the “Select Theme” menu).

A couple of seconds after creating the resources needed for the game, Renpy will redirect you to the Control Center, but now at the top there will be not a demo game, but your own!

You can launch it now, but there is nothing in it other than standard menus and pre-installed replicas:

Editing game options

Now we see only, so to speak, the tip of the “iceberg” (that is, outer shell games). The rest of it (that is, all the contents that we will edit) is hidden from us in a folder that can be accessed by clicking the “Game Folder” item in the Control Center:

By default, there are 6 files here, two of which contain all possible information about the game. The “options.rpy” file stores settings for the appearance and theme of your visual novel. In a file named “script.rpy” we will write the entire plot of the game.

You can open these files for editing in any Notepad, but it is better to use the built-in text editor with Renpy syntax highlighting. You can run it by clicking the “Edit Script” item in the Control Center:

An editor window will open, in which there will be two tabs (like in a browser) with both files we need. Using the buttons on the toolbar, you can split the window view into two parts and open both files for viewing at the same time (see screenshot above)!

I suggest you immediately pay attention to the options.rpy file. If you know English and have at least a little understanding of programming (even at the HTML level), then here you will find a lot of useful information that will help you fully personalize appearance Your game. I want to draw attention to a few of the most basic parameters:

1. Line "config.window_title = u"Ren'Py based game""(see screenshot above) allows you to set the title of your game window (this is to the left of the “Collapse”, “Maximize” and “Close” buttons). Here you can enter the name of your visual novel. Please note that here and below, before the line in Russian, you need to put English letter"u";
2. If you add the line below "config.windows_icon", then you can use it to set the game icon, which will be displayed to the left of the window title;
3. Line "mm_root" sets the background of the game's main menu. You can set the background as a picture or a certain color in RGB format (see screenshot below);
4. The "gm_root" line allows you to specify the background of game dialog boxes. The data format is the same as in the previous line:

As I already said, in the options you can correct all the parameters, but we have considered the main ones, so we will consider that our acquaintance with the settings was successful :). Now let's save the settings and move on to editing the game script itself.

Announcement of game sprites and characters

Every game script in Renpy must start with an "init:" service part:

Here we must declare all the images and characters that will be used in your game (except for those backgrounds that you have already specified in the settings).

Advertising an image (and video) is quite simple:

1. First you specify the data type (image);
2. Then, separated by a space, the nickname of the picture (or video) by which you can call it in the game (any name in English);
3. We equate all this to the name of a real image in quotes (preferably in .png / .png format (with an alpha channel - for character sprites) or .jpg (for backgrounds)).

Please note that for convenience, it is better to preface background aliases with “bg”.

When all the images are announced, a list of characters is written under them:

1. The first thing to do is put the “$” sign. This tells the program that you are creating a character;
2. Next, separated by a space, the character’s nickname is written to call him in the game;
3. All this is equated to the service word “Character”, after which the following information comes in parentheses:
   • the name of the character, which will be displayed above the line, in single quotes (if the name is in Russian, do not forget to add the “u” symbol in front of it);
   • character name color (set as in HTML: color = "#RGB").

This concludes the preliminary part of the game. But before proceeding with the analysis of further code, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Renpy scripting language is hierarchical!

In practice, this means that all data related to the same section, scene, or block must have the same indentation from the left edge of the editor window. As they say: “A step to the right, a step to the left - execution!” - that is, a code error. Therefore, be careful!!!

Script writing

To write the script we use scenes and menus:

The scene always begins with a name, which is specified by the auxiliary word “label”. It is best to start writing a scene (if it is not nested in another scene) from the very edge of the window (on the left) without indentation. There is always a colon after the scene name!

The next line always sets the background of the scene. For this they prescribe function word“scene”, followed by the alias of the desired image. The background of the scene and all its subsequent elements (cues, functions, transitions, etc.) are indented (best done with the “TAB” button).

After the background, characters are added. Their appearance is specified by the service word “show”. To hide the desired hero, use the word “hide”. The syntax here is simple: first, the function word is indicated, and then, separated by a space, the alias of the character sprite (that is, the desired picture).

For the “show” parameter, you can set the location where our hero will be displayed using the word “at”. By default, the character sprite's position is set to "center", which aligns the image to the bottom edge of the window and center. If we need our hero to be displayed in central point screen (as was done in our test game), then you need another parameter - “truecenter”.

The position can also be specified using arbitrary coordinates. To do this, after the character sprite alias, we write “at Position”, after which we set the necessary parameters in brackets:

• xpos - horizontal position (set in pixels or tenths of the game screen);
• ypos - vertical position (same units);
• xanchor and yanchor - the horizontal and vertical anchors of the sprite image, respectively (the point that will be considered the center of the image);
• xalign /yalign - horizontal/vertical alignment.

The last thing that concerns working with characters is the effects of their appearance and disappearance. To add an effect, at the very end of the line of the hero’s description (after marking his position), the service word “with” is written, after which you should indicate any of possible options their display. You can see all the options in the demo game.

After specifying all the visual parameters, you can begin writing the actual replicas. Replicas can be either personalized or not belonging to any of the game’s heroes.

Reply in Renpy is always written in quotes. If we put the character's nickname before the quotation marks (indicated before “Character”), then the name of the hero we need will appear above the replica. If you leave the line without additional parameters, then the phrase will not belong to anyone.

Menu structure and transitions to the desired scenes

To create a choice situation for the further development of the plot, Renpy uses a menu system. The menu is part of the scene structure (that is, it starts with a tab) and contains a number of buttons that can be pressed by the user.

The menu has its own hierarchy. This means that all items are tabulated from the menu initialization line. The structure itself is as follows:

1. The service word “menu:” specifies a new menu in the current scene. The menu must belong to the stage, that is, it must begin with an indentation, just like the cues. Don't forget to put a colon at the end;
2. The second required component of the menu is a button with an answer option (that is, a menu item). A button is a word (or several words) enclosed in quotation marks and indented relative to “menu:”;
3. If we want the character’s replica to be displayed at the bottom when the menu is displayed, then it needs to be placed before the first menu item (see screenshot above). It will differ from the paragraph only in that before the words in quotation marks we will have the pseudonym of the character we need, to whom this replica belongs;
4. Additional actions and remarks that appear after clicking on the menu button are written with tabs relative to the menu item to which they belong.

Additional actions also include the function of moving to the desired scene. With its help, through the menu, we can create unlimited branching scenarios. Typically, scenes in Renpy follow each other in the order in which they are written in the script, however, if we need to “jump” to an arbitrary scene and continue the story from it, we can use the “jump” command.

After the command, all we have to do is add the name of the scene we need to get to and that’s it :)

Using the menu you can create quite complex effects. For example, in my game I only used the menu(!) to organize the Pokemon battle system! This is what I ended up with :)

A little naive, but nevertheless colorful :). And keep in mind that this was done in one day!

Game release

Once you've finished creating your game and it's fully functional, you can release it to the world! To do this, you need to go to the Renpy Control Center and click on “Game Release”:

The function of checking your game for errors will start, after which (if no errors are found, read the lint.txt report), you will be asked to continue creating the game. Naturally, click “Yes”:

In the next window we will be asked for which platforms you are planning to release your game. By default, all available operating systems are selected (Windows, Linux, Mac), but you can uncheck the boxes and leave, for example, the game only “for Windows” :). After this, all we have to do is click the “Release game” button and wait until the archive with it is created. You will find this archive next to the game's working folder.

You can distribute the finished archive with the game as you please. You can put it on the Internet for public access, you can distribute it in torrents, or you can burn it to disk and sell the game in transitions :).

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

• a ready-made free engine for creating visual novels;
• wide functionality;
• A fairly easy-to-learn scripting language;
• possibility of releasing commercial games;
• Russian language support.

• there is no graphical interface for editing games;
• there is no sane manual describing all the built-in functions of the program;
• To work with the settings file, knowledge of English and HTML is required.

conclusions

Renpy, unlike other game designers, does not have a graphical mode for working with the project! Is it good or bad? On the one hand, of course it’s bad :(. It would be much easier if it were possible to configure all scenes in visual mode. However, on the other hand, the program teaches you and me that without difficulty, neither here nor there :)) )

Even if this is not full-fledged programming, it still gives us the opportunity to look at the process of creating a game through the eyes of a programmer and understand “how they do it” :).

If you are full of ideas and the desire to create, if you want your story (or even a novel) to be seen by the whole world, then Renpy is just the program that can give you the opportunity to express yourself and your talent!

P.S. Permission granted to freely copy and quote. this article provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

A visual novel (or visual novel) is a computer game that is a subtype of the genre text quest. The player can choose from several character behavior options and then watch how the story develops. Our top 10 visual novels will tell you about exciting games of this genre.

10 Phoenix Wright: Ace Lawyer

The character you will play for is aspiring lawyer Phoenix Wright. He gets a job in a law office owned by his mentor Mia Fey. The visual novel includes five cases. In each of them, Phoenix first investigates. He collects evidence and talks to characters connected to the case. After this, at the court hearing, Phoenix defends his client. To do this, the lawyer uses the collected evidence and cross-examines witnesses.

9 Kikokugai Cyber ​​Assassin

The plot of this visual novel takes the player into the future. Cyber ​​technologies have merged with people's lives. Now almost everyone uses some kind of implant. Gynoids live next to people - creatures created entirely thanks to cyber technologies. The main character of this visual novel is Kong Taolo, who is betrayed and tried to kill by his ex. best friend. Taolo leaves for a year, and then, upon returning, learns about another victim of betrayal.

8 Swan Song

The action of this visual novel takes place in a small town located in the foothills. At the end of December there is an earthquake there. Several people who managed to escape come to church. It remains the only building that more or less survived the earthquake. It is here that the long struggle for survival begins.

7 Ever 17: Escape from Infinity

The plot of this visual novel takes place in an underwater amusement park where a disaster occurred. The upper and some lower parts of the complex were flooded. Most visitors were evacuated, but a few people remained in the park. While waiting for help, they must escape the flood and figure out the strange things that surround the underwater park. Gradually they learn a lot not only about him, but also about each other.

6 Country of Wheels, Sunflower Girl

The main character of the novel is Morita Kenichi. The guy is going to become a Representative of a Special Class, that is, one of the people responsible for the punishment and rehabilitation of criminals. The final exam separates him from his goal. In order to pass it, the guy must return to the city where he spent his childhood. There he needs to help three girls reform, but completing this task will be very difficult.

5 Clannad

This visual novel spans two worlds. One of them is the Illusory World. The second one is normal modern world. This is where the main character, Tomoya Okazaki, lives. Teenage guy studying at graduating class schools. Tomoya lost his mother at an early age, and his father suffers from alcoholism. The guy was disappointed in life. However, on the way to school, Tomoya meets a stranger, whose meeting changes his way of life.

4 Girls with disabilities

The main character of the game, Hisao Nakai, led a completely ordinary life as a teenage schoolboy. However, after a heart attack, the guy has to go to another school where children with disabilities are taught. disabilities. Hisao faces many difficulties, but also a chance to find friends and love.

3 School Days HQ

The player will have to make decisions for schoolboy Makoto Ito. He doesn't even dare to talk to a girl named Kotonoha, whom he runs into on the train in the morning. His classmate Sekai Saienji decides to help him win Kotonoha's sympathy. Your choice will determine what kind of story this story will be for the characters - light and romantic or bloody and dramatic?

2 Lucy and the infinity she wished for

This visual novel takes place in a future where androids have become a common part of human life. The main character hates androids, but one day he finds a discarded android in a landfill. It turns out to be a pretty girl named Lucy, whom the guy, after thinking about it, takes to his home. This decision leads to the guy having to change his worldview... and also unravel many secrets associated with his new acquaintance.

The interesting plots of the above visual novels will give fans of this genre many exciting minutes gameplay.

A visual novel is a subgenre of text quests, where the gamer participates little in the gameplay, mainly being an observer, a spectator. Sometimes he is required to make a decision that will affect further development events.

What genre is it

Visual novel is not a virtual dating simulator, as it is characterized by a large gaming audience. In such entertainment, the player mainly follows the development of events on the other side of the screen. The plot is revealed through text inserts, pictures, animation, sound and musical compositions. Also, fragments of anime-style videos began to appear in the novels.

A genre appeared in the land of the rising sun. It also develops there and is popular mainly among teenagers.

Peculiarities

Visual novels have unique features that distinguish them from dating simulators.

1. A short story can include several genres: fantasy, horror, science fiction, love story.
2. The story is an important part of the gameplay, unlike quests.
3. The presence of ecchi scenes (anime with elements of erotica and explicit scenes with a hint of sexual intercourse, without its demonstration).

With the advent of Western countries on the market, games in the romance genre began to be transferred to portable devices on Android and consoles with the removal of erotic scenes.

Game process

The story is told from the first person, the protagonist is an observer of the development of events. The visual part consists of a background that changes every day, part or location, and sprites - the characters. Often the story is divided into days rather than chapters, allowing progress to be assessed each evening.

Important points are accompanied by visualization large images with a lot of small details and may differ in style from the main stage. These inserts can be viewed at any time after they are opened. To see them all, you will have to play through the game several times, making different choices at branching points in the plot.

Some representatives of the genre (Symphonic Rain is an example) require the user to solve a simple task performed in the form of a mini-game. IN in this case you need to play the specified melody on an unknown musical instrument.

Branches in the genre

Novels are divided into several types; among all, we will consider the most popular.

Sound

A very mediocre picture is actually completely replaced by high-quality sound. Music is often written specifically for the game, and the roles of the characters are voiced by professional voice actors. In Russian similar games very little.

Adventure (ADV)

Text is displayed in a small window in the corner (usually bottom left), the rest of the space is occupied by a background with characters. Brief, frequently changing sentences, colorful effects, beautiful windows for selecting actions - character traits subspecies

Otome

Games for girls, where one lady is surrounded by bishounen men - young and femininely handsome.

Kinetic

The player is only a spectator; due to the lack of plot branches, he is unable to influence the course of events.

No matter what you like more: anime romance or bloody thrillers, there is a visual novel for you.

Visual novels are full of cliches, but the scope of the genre is not limited to hot romance or the everyday life of Japanese students. Over the past few years, more and more truly talented Developers have begun to create experimental games that resemble short novels and clever reimaginings of typical anime tropes - and that's when it all started. Now visual novels are super cool.

However, choosing where to start can be difficult. For those who have been on the fence up to this point and now want to understand what's what, we've put together a list of the best visual novels on PC, from the traditional Japanese games that started the genre to ambitious and unique experiments with the format.

There is no doubt that this is a complete list, and each visual novel deserves your attention. We wholeheartedly recommend taking a stroll through itch.io in search of hidden indie gems under the “visual novel” hash tag. But if you want to get started, this list contains the best options.

In the West, Clannad was released only a couple of years ago, but during this time it managed to become one of the most popular visual novels ever released. There is anime, cinema, manga, even audio drama. The novel tells the story of Tomoya Okazaki, a "delinquent" (this is a quote, not my words) who tries to cope with existential crisis. He meets Nagiza Furukawa, another "delinquent" with whom he has much in common, and they begin working together to restart the school's drama club, inviting students to join along the way.

Clannad is the game for you if you like visual novel stereotypes. It was released back in 2004, and therefore shows the first shoots of the genre, even if it may seem familiar to someone in this regard. What really stands out about visual novels is the quality of writing, interesting characters, and a point of view that can't help but draw you in. Even without the little things modern games, Clannad does this job admirably.

This is the story of a young man who learns to create his own happiness. Tomoya's story can be seen as analogous to depression without falling into the broad traps of sexy girls, but with a search for something that is marked with a tragic mark. It might sound cliché, but it's not because the idea is unoriginal: it's just that people have been copying Clannad for the last ten years.

If you like to get your hands dirty with puzzles, the Zero Escape series may be the best choice for you. There are three games in the series: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Virtue's Last Reward; and Zero Time Dilemma. The first two were only brought to PC in 2017 (with redesigned visuals and new voice acting) in a package called "The Nonary Games". Zero Time Dilemma was released as a standalone game.

In each game, nine people find themselves locked in a location by a mysterious man named Zero. Each of them has wrist watch with some number on the screen, and everyone is given the opportunity to escape after solving puzzles on 9 doors. It all becomes like Saw when people start dying in very gruesome ways, such as from standing in an acid shower or from having a bomb implanted in their stomach.

However, you don’t just read all the time. The point-and-click parts force you to solve puzzles to get through each door. Some of them become more difficult as you continue: for example, you will have to decipher an unknown language created from symbols. They never seem easy to complete, and it's rare that something as easy as, say, the Tower of Hanoi can be completed in an unlimited amount of time.

Zero Escape is dark, but the story is terribly exciting and well told. The choices you make are reflected in the different endings, and the puzzles fit together as well as any other visual set. The way you as the player (versus you as the character) know something the characters don't is played out with dark irony when considering different timelines and endings.

The full title is: "My Twin Brother Made Me Swap Clothes with Him and Now I Have to Deal with a Geeky Stalker and a Hot Dominatrix Who Want to Bond Me!!" But try not to think about it. As what could be called a visual novel in the classic style, Ladykiller in a Bind is all about the social manipulation of a group of horny teenagers. The setting is what rich kids call a school trip and the rest of us call it a once-in-a-lifetime thing on a cruise. You are The Beast, a lesbian who is not shy about flirting or luring you into your bedroom. For mysterious reasons, her twin brother, a manipulative jerk, has forced her to pretend to be him on a cruise, and she really wants to "party" while maintaining her appearance so as not to arouse suspicion.

Social manipulation – the main point games. You need to choose Right words and phrases in the middle of conversations to continue to maintain the illusion that you are your twin brother, while simultaneously trying to develop a relationship with every woman on the cruise. This mixture of social manipulation and acting as a jerk (the character herself is very overacting) is simply superbly executed, and if you're lucky, it will lead to more than a few steamy scenes with other students.

There is no doubt that Ladykiller in a Bind is a game for adults. While the sex scenes can be turned off and the nudity hidden, you get to know the characters much more intimately than you would in any well-written sex scene—though there's none of the calf tenderness you'd find at an auntie's in the library.

Steins;Gate is a time travel story that explores the intricate relationship between cause and effect. Rintar Okabe, a mad scientist who plays the role of the protagonist, has created a time machine in which messages can be sent back in time. Using it, he and others begin to work to improve the future by influencing actions in the past.

Unexpected, branching lines are a must-have for the genre - Zero Escape does a great job of showing how this can be used to great effect - but Steins;Gate takes the theme of time travel in a completely wild way. Cause and effect become convoluted, with future actions affecting the past and placing characters in completely unpredictable circumstances. All major events can change even depending on whether you pick up the phone.

However, the storyline is never that confusing, and that's very cool. Steins;Gate gives meaning to every ending - even the ones where you royally screw up. Therefore, you can see characters from different points of view - from best to worst. After that, they seem so complete that you understand: otherwise it would not have been possible to achieve this.

Danganronpa may be responsible for visual novels becoming more popular outside of Japan. At least partially. Like Zero Escape, it combines visual novel and puzzle elements, and follows a group of students who discover that the most prestigious private school Japan really is a bloody arena.
To survive, the student must kill another and go through court hearing, arranged by their peers. When other students start killing each other, it's your job as protagonist Matoko Naegi to collect evidence, interrogate suspects, present the case, and find the culprits.

Court hearings are not just a series of dialogues, but real monologues. Armed with truth bullets, each representing a piece of evidence found, you can defend or challenge other students' claims. For example, if you found a murder weapon, you can argue with someone who says it wasn't there by clicking on the text as it appears on the screen. You need to be attentive to illogicalities in testimony, and have a good understanding of what evidence proves you are right.

Both the writing and character designs are very funny in contrast to the moody atmosphere of the game about students who kill each other out of hopelessness, while the mysterious and antagonistic Monobead provokes them into more and more cruelty. The characters are surprisingly absurd, but given such a dark setting, it is obvious that they are wonderfully written.

The visual novel genre isn't as limited as it might seem, and Simulacra is one of the best proofs that it doesn't have to conform to the expected style. The game is described as a "found phone" game, a genre that has recently gained popularity with games like Bury Me, My Love and A Normal Lost Phone.

You find on your doorstep mobile phone. Very soon you realize that it belonged to a woman named Anna, and she has disappeared. A short video taken shortly before her disappearance tells you that evil is coming, and the interruptions and static in the video leave you perplexed. Every video and every image has one. From the interface to the video selfies, the attention to detail is amazing.

After some time, you are already writing it to your friends, studying accounts in in social networks, even talking to people she flirted with through a dating app. This is terribly frustrating. Simulacra will endlessly push you into the abyss of voyeurism, making you wonder how deep you can go so that maybe - just maybe! - save her life.

The story only lasts a few hours and there are multiple endings that vary depending on the successful completion of your goals. You can pretend to be Anna, ask her friends questions, trying to imitate her character, or be an honest, open voice and look for her. Turn off the lights and phone and immerse yourself in the voyeuristic work of a rookie detective for one night, because the atmosphere is definitely worth it.

While this spot may have been taken by a couple of other games from Hanako, Long Live The Queen remains their most successful title in every sense of the word so far. You are given the right to control the princess, who will soon be crowned and become queen. Oh yes, she is still just a baby.

It sounds very nice, but the throne is also needed by other people who are ready to do anything to win it - including killing a 14-year-old girl. Her coronation is only 40 weeks away, and it's your job to spend day after day with her to make sure she survives.

As part of the game, you will have to learn with her and control aspects of her life, turning the princess into a queen, giving her the skills to rule with splendor and courage. Like Crusader Kings 2 or Dwarf Fortress, Love Live the Queen is good game to create jokes as you control something that will definitely lead to a scary but funny ending.

It is not necessary to survive these 40 weeks - it is enough to fill the lack of subtext with your own imagination. There is also depth here. Life or death isn't as simple as rolling a die, and as the weeks go by there are different stats to keep track of.

Told from the point of view of a bartender in a utopian future, VA-11 Hall-A gives you a unique perspective on life from which you see people at their best, their worst, their highs and their lows.

VA-11 Hall-A has a well-written world (and was later well-developed in 2064: Read Only Memories, a phenomenal point-and-click game from a different developer, but in the same world), but its main meaning– precisely in stories from various customers. In Glitch City, corporations and White Knights enforce the law through nano-machines and brutality, and constant surveillance shows that the mythical independence of the virtual future has long been a thing of the past.

Of course, as a bartender, you hear people talking when they are not being watched. Rumors, personal stories, fears and dreams of every person. Where Simulacra is voyeuristic, VA-11 Hall-A makes you feel privileged as these people reveal themselves to you over a cocktail you made from cyberpunk alcohol.

Because of this somewhat dispassionate approach to storytelling, VA-11 Hall-A is not a single story, but a series of vignettes into the lives of its eerie inhabitants. However, this trip is not permanent, as each visit can always be marred by the possibility that they will never return.

Sometimes half a genre fits the genre and the other half doesn't. The Yawhg is one of those. This is a choose-your-path game for a group of up to 4 local players, each playing as a character living in a town that will be destroyed by Yawhg in 6 weeks.
The townspeople and your characters don't know Yawhg is coming, but you, the player, do. Will you live day after day as if nothing had happened? Or will you start telling everyone about it, appealing to people, fulfilling the prophet’s share? Each decision can lead to dramatically different consequences.

The Yawhg bypasses the usual rules of the visual novel, but still has a bit of heartfelt story history - that's why he came here. You're given scenes that feel more like improvisation than paragraphs of text, and it's all supported by great art and an incredible soundtrack.

This makes The Yawhg unique, as other games let you play as a character you've already created. You can create your own here. In total, there are 50 endings, and none of them can be called "correct". They vary depending on the choices you or your friends make. The situations created by the game are interesting, unexpected, and leave just enough freedom of action to add your own perspective on things. The Yawhg is a prime example of how a visual novel can create something completely wild, and perhaps the perfect representation of a tabletop RPG.