Here’s a list of yuri visual novels I would love to read (with Backloggd links, which I use to make lists and ratings; I could do igdb or mobygames in the future if anyone likes those better)
Had Mizuchi here but it’s originally in English. I’ll give it time and a chance later.
That’s 13/35 of the entries of my Backloggd list (consisting of BL and older recommended visual novels from that easy Japanese media Google Document that I will not look for again)
Are there any suggestions for easier non-18+ short yuri visual novels?
I read that, because it was accessible to me (I think it’s the only game in the series available on native Linux. I assume the devs wanted to try renpy or something). It was short and easy to understand. But I can’t recommend the all ages version on it’s own. I imagine it’s value must come either as a sort of extra chapter to the other games or from the 18+ stuff. It ended pretty abruptly.
It’s always a good thing for new fans to get to know the older stuff. I find it interesting that a lot of people mention GIRL FRIENDS feels kinda dated, cuz my impression (when I read it 5 months ago) was that it feels surprisingly pretty modern, and also more realistic than a lot of more recent yuri
青い花, 君と綴る, and やが君 are all on my “must reads” list (I mean nobody has to, but I think they’re all excellent and unique). きにおと is also great. Good reminder that I should rewatch 青い花 anime
That said I’ve watched a bit of a 朗読 playthrough of flowers. It’s pretty cool, but also not the easiest. Actually it was pretty affirming watching the reader frequently look up kanji. Now that I think about it, I should check if any of the vocab seems relevant for 花物語 上 | L39 (or just start making an anki deck out of that I guess)
Interesting premise & cover art
That’s an interesting twist
Hmm the only one I know is UsoNatsu. It’s easier than flowers at least, but idk that I’d call it easy (tho I’m not that far in)
I finally started to read this and its super good so far. Its one of those VNs that I always wanted to read long before I started studying jp. I’m glad they remastered it to PC
Thoughts on the other games listed on your backlog
We read Fatal Twelve as a book club on WK a few years ago. I thought the premise sounded nice but the VN itself was really disappointing. I know it was a kickstarter game but you can definitely feel the low budget in it. I think its the only VN I’ve played where the voice actors really annoyed me.
I read some of the SonoHana series way back in the day. Not sure if I’d recommended them nowadays since we have so many more options but I remember back then it was really popular in the western yuri community because we had so few options to choose from.
I highly recommend Flowers as you can probably guess. For me, its not just the best yuri or visual novel series ever made but easily the best piece of media I’ve ever encountered. Its not perfect but I love the series so much. Everything from the music to the art, the voice actors etc are all great. We read it on WK as well, if you ever decide to read it feel free to post there (or here if the class-S club chooses it). I’ll definitely join any discussion on it.
SeaBed is a VN I’ve tried to read on three different occasions since its come out but I just can’t get into it. I also don’t really like NVL style VNs. The lack of voice acting and art style were off-putting to me too.
I finished reading Lilja Natsu a few months ago, I liked that one. It was a fun story with a unique premise. The MC is super genki too which was fun.
It was just mentioned above but I can recommend UsoNatsu as well. It’s a relatively easy read and one of my favorite VNs in recent times.
ツユチル・レター～海と栞に雨音を～ is really short and should be super easy. I read it in Eng before I started studying jp but its often recommended as a good first time VN. Sentences are super short in it and no crazy plot. Its a cute read.
推しラブ is another short one. Maybe a little bit harder than the two listed above but nothing crazy. I haven’t read the sequel yet but the first one was fun for what it is. The 18+ content in that game is accessed via the main menu and not part of the main story so you can ignore that if you want.
You’re making me really wanna get back to watching that playthrough (or even just playing the game itself, while I get frustrated at the lookups ). I should just get the Switch version already … I’m in the middle of so much stuff rn tho
I’m glad you brought up ツユチル・レター～海と栞に雨音を～ because I have it wishlisted but it’s not in my Backloggd list. All of yuri ones in my list are from me searching “LGBTQ+”, “Japanese Language”, and “Visual Novel” on Steam. Also I just went through my 1400 game wishlist and claimed some of the free games while looking
Letters From a Rainy Day -Oceans and Lace-/ツユチル・レター～海と栞に雨音を～(Backloggd/vndb)
Revue Starlight El Dorado/少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト舞台奏像劇遥かなるエルドラド (Backloggd/vndb)
I have the VN on my wishlist too but not sure if its yuri? I need to watch the anime first though since I think its a continuation of that or shares characters.
I haven’t watched Revue Starlight but I’ve seen and heard too much to believe it isn’t yuri. However, I do not know if the visual novel contains romantic contain.
This seems a bit subjective/what you consider yuri. I found the following comment on Reddit (on a thread about El Dorado):
Revue Starlight is a series that has a LOT of Yuri undertones. They never explicitly say the characters are dating, but the framing is so obvious they might as well be. So the answer to your question is “technically no, but yes.”
I dunno, if a female character has a crush on another female character, but there’s no confession, no inner dialogue about that crush, and no hope of any relationship development in the show, I find it hard to consider yuri. I will admit that I’m mostly considering one character here. I don’t really remember the undertones for all the characters, so maybe there is more than I remember.
). I should just get the Switch version already … I’m in the middle of so much stuff rn tho 
I haven’t watched yet, but I guess I should check it out