Visual Novel Reading Club

I guess I’ll be the first to nominate.

Title: ナツノカナタ
Platform: Windows, Mac OS (through Steam)
Story Summary:

long-Japanese

故郷の東京を離れ、北を目指して一人旅を続ける少女、ナツノ。高校の同級生とは、東京を出るときに離れ離れになった。
両親とはどこかの駅ではぐれた。
電車が動かなくなってからは、一人で歩いて旅を続けた。
旅に行くあてはなく、帰るところはどこにもなかった。

世界は、半年前に終わりを迎えていた。
未曾有のパンデミックは、ほんのわずかな時間で、社会を崩壊させた。
感染すると、人は理性を失い、物言わぬ怪物となって人を襲う。
原因となるウイルスも細菌も、ついに明らかにならなかった。
わかっていることは何もない。
それでも目の前にあるものはただただ現実で、
町を歩いても誰にも出会わず、たった一人、旅を続けるしかない。

あなたが偶然話をしたのは、そんな世界を旅する少女だった。
亡くなった祖母の遺品整理で古いコンピュータを見つけたのが、すべてのはじまり。
祖母との思い出を探して、あなたはコンピュータのデータを開いた。
けれどコンピュータから聞こえたのは、知らない少女の声──
ナツノと名乗る少女と、どういうわけか通話が繋がっていた。

もちろん、あなたの住む世界ではパンデミックなんて起きていない。
高校生は誰もいない町なんかを放浪したりせず、夏休みを満喫している。
それでも確かに、ナツノと通話は繋がっていて。
彼女はいったいどこにいるのか。
どうして通話が繋がるのか。
わからないことだらけだったけれど、
彼女はただ「話し相手になってよ」と、そう言った。

終わってしまった世界を生きる、別の少女たちとの出会いを重ねながら、
あなたは少しずつ、真実に迫っていく──

long- English

Natsuno, a girl who leaves her hometown of Tokyo and continues traveling alone to the north. She is alone.
She left her high school classmate at Tokyo, and got separated from her parents at some station.
After the train stopped working, she walked alone and continued her journey.
She hadn’t where to go and any purpose.

The world has ended before half a year.
An unprecedented pandemic has destroyed society in just a few moments.
When infected, a person loses reason and becomes a monster cannot speak that attacks the person.
Neither the causative virus nor the bacteria were finally revealed.
People don’t know anything.
Still, what is in front of her is just reality,
Even if she walks around the town, she don’t meet anyone and have no choice but to continue her journey alone.

You happened to talk to a girl traveling in such a world.
It all started when you found an old computer, throught my grantmother’s possessions after her death.
Looking for memories with your grandmother, you opened the data on your computer.
But what I heard from the computer was the voice of an unknown girl ──
You dont know why but a call was connected to a girl who called herself Natsuno.

Of course, there is no pandemic in the world you live in.
High school students enjoy their summer vacation, they don’t wander around an empty town.
Still, it’s true that Natsuno and the call are connected.
Where is she?
Why can the call be connected?
There were so many things I didn’t understand,
She just “talk to me,” she said.

While meeting other girls who live in a world that has ended,
You gradually approach the truth ──

Vndb Link: Natsuno Kanata | vndb
Language difficulty: No JPDB but I played a bit it’s not too difficult. Would say intermediate.
Average Game Length: ~8 hours
Hookable: Not sure but can’t copy text from the game
Voiced Audio: No
Spoken Lines Replayable: N/A
Trigger Warnings: possibly mild violence?
Additional Info: Free on Steam.

5 Likes

couldn’t find a hook, either. :cry: Even though, I was able to find the text in the game files. :upside_down_face:

1 Like

Looking at screenshots, that’s going to be a nightmare to hook to anything.

1 Like

Would be nice to include a “why I’m nominating it” field too. Could be left optional

1 Like

Title: FLOWERS -Le volume sur printemps-
Platform: PC, Switch and playstation 4 (console Japan only as part of the four seasons collection)
Story Summary:

Summary

Suou: “Is it wrong if I fall in love with a girl?”

Surrounded by immense walls in the middle of a forest, lies the prestigious all-girls school, Saint Angraecum Academy. It’s a school that prides itself on growing bright and cultured young women.

The school’s Amitié program is designed to help foster new friendships that will last a lifetime. This is why Suoh Shirahane, a painfully shy girl with a mysterious past, has enrolled. As her first year of high school begins, she is filled with hopes of a new life.

Follow her as she navigates her new friendships and attempts to unravel the many mysteries at the academy, including occult rituals and the mysterious disappearance of fellow students, all while trying to pass her classes.

As spring warms into summer, so does Suoh’s friendships until they too blossom into a love that is something more. More importantly, who will she choose?

Vndb Link: FLOWERS -Le volume sur printemps- | vndb
Language difficulty: 5/10
Average Game Length: 26 hours
Hookable: ?
Voiced Audio: Protagonist with voice acting
Spoken Lines Replayable: ?
Trigger Warnings: ?
Why nominate: I personally was going to read it soon. It’s one of the highest rated Yuri visual novels. @Azusa has/had a character from the VN as an avatar. I should mention that it’s the first of 4 VNs.

7 Likes

Title: マルコと銀河竜 / Marco to Ginga Ryuu
Platform: PC, Switch (all regions)
Story Summary:

Summary

Marco, an orphan with missing memories, and Arco, a dragon who rules the galaxy, were hunting for treasure in space! On one of their adventures, Marco was given a clue to the whereabouts of her mother.
Their next stop, her birthplace - Earth!

Vndb Link: Marco to Ginga Ryuu | vndb
Language difficulty: 4/10
Average Game Length: 7 hours
Hookable: ?
Voiced Audio: protagonist with voice acting
Spoken Lines Replayable: ?
Trigger Warnings: ?
Why nominated: It has a reputation for being short but having very high production value (lots of CGs and animation). It has bilingual text (you can choose two languages to display). The switch version has a demo and is currently on sale.

5 Likes

It’s probably a long shot since it’s quite niche and long but:


Title: Chaos;Child

Platforms: PC (Steam, DMM…), Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, Android, iOS, probably also your smart fridge or smart washing machine

Summary

It’s been six years since a massive earthquake leveled the city of Shibuya. Now, in October 2015, while researching a number of recent murders, Takuru Miyashiro realizes a horrible truth. These murders are the return of a series of killings that plunged Shibuya into terror six years ago. And at the same time, people called gigalomaniacs, with the powers to make their delusions real, are beginning to awaken…

VNdb Link: CHAOS;CHILD | vndb
Language difficulty: 6/10
Average Game Length: 56 hours (with all the branches)
Hookable: Should be with TextTractorx86, but needs Hook research.
Voiced Audio: Yes
Spoken Lines Replayable: Yes
Trigger warning: Dark themes, Some Nudity, Sexual Content

4 Likes

For consoles, it also makes sense to note the availability of the Japanese version. I know that flowers on switch is only available in Japan. Chaos;Child is only in English in western console markets. Marco has Japanese everywhere.

1 Like

Ugh… too many variables

The only Switch version of FLOWERS -Le volume sur printemps I can find is the localized one (EN & simplified Chinese). The only Flowers I found for switch in JP is Four Seasons.

I was under the impression that switch was Japan only, but maybe that’s not the case. Four seasons is just a collection of all 4 games, each named after one season (in french).

This is the only thing I could find when looking for Switch: Flowers -Le volume sur printemps-

The JP 4 seasons is here (7,300 円):

That’s for windows. I think switch only has the collection.

1 Like

Oh nice, Flowers is easily my favorite story of all time! I’ve only read it in English so I wanted to go back to it in jp at some point, if it wins the nomination I might have to find some time to join in

Yes, the consoles versions (switch & psn) are Japanese only. JAST refuses to release them on console. The 4 seasons version is also console only.
The English releases don’t come with jp text so I am not sure how to legally get the game on pc. Its on DMM but DMM is region locked for all-ages games (but not 18+ ones…) so can’t get it there unless you’re in Japan or use a VPN. Might be able to buy it on the Gungnir site but they ask for an address and everything, so not sure if that is region locked or if they accept foreign credit cards.

Chaos;Child is a fun game although I’d recommend reading Chaos;Head NoAH first since C;C is a sequel. Some things might not make much sense and it’ll spoil you on most of NoAH if you read C;C first.

3 Likes

I was just about to nominate this, good choice!

I’m actually reading through this right now, it is hookable with textractor and has fully replayable lines and lets you jump back to any previous sentence in a scene. As for trigger warnings, so far I’ve seen murder of a family member, human trafficking, however these scenes are very brief and only mentioned a few times in passing. It’s a really fantastic VN, incredibly funny and the OST is one of the best I’ve heard (samples below).

3 Likes

In a worst case, there’s always YouTube playthroughs… Tho obviously not ideal if you’re looking for the gameplay aspect

4 Likes

Title: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Platforms: PC (Steam), Switch, PS2, PS3, PS4, PsVita, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS

Summary

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa, which has a population of approximately 2000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro-sama. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro-sama. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

VNdb Link: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | vndb
Language difficulty: 6/10
Average Game Length: Around 10-15 hours per chapter according to howlongtobeat
Hookable: Yes (I tested it briefly myself a few months ago)
Voiced Audio: Yes
Spoken Lines Replayable: Yes*
Trigger warning: I’m pretty sure there’s blood and murder
Nomination Reason: Higurashi is considered to be a classic VN and a must play by many, and is one of the few VNs I’ve seen that is broken up into a reasonable chapter structure that would suit a reading club. The first Chapter is also permanently free on Steam, which eliminates any possible issues around availability.

Note:

It seems to be highly recommended that people play the game with the 07th expansion mod, which allows one to swap sprites, BGs, OST, has an optional ADV text mode, and also adds the ability to replay voice audio in the log. It’s also possible to hot swap languages with a hotkey if one isn’t inclined to tinker with text hooking.

9 Likes

How are we going to vote? I hope we’ll do a tournament or approval voting (you vote for all entries you find acceptable), not a single vote (you only vote for your favorite).

2 Likes

There will be a poll or more than one should we get more nominations than we can put in a poll. You will be allowed to vote on more than one visual novel maybe 3 to 5 different ones. But we haven’t decided that yet. The visual novel which gets the highest number of votes wins and the club will read that one.

1 Like

Title: Island
Platform: PC, Switch, PS4
Places you can buy it from: Steam, dlsite, nintendo eshop Japan, PSN store Japan
Story Summary:

Summary English

Urashima is a small island, far from mainland Japan. It’s a true utopia, blessed with rich natural beauty. But the island harbors a difficult past, and it’s about to be erased, silently, from history.

Soot blight syndrome, an endemic disease, has brought about a rift between the island and the mainland. An offshore platform intended for marine research has long been left abandoned; five years ago, three separate incidents brought the once influential Three Families of Urashima to near ruin. Rumors about children being spirited away have become part of the local folklore, alongside another legend, one that has been repeated on the island since time immemorial…

“Let me tell you the legend of this island: it’s a story of tragic love…”

The key to saving the island lies with three girls, each of whom belongs to one of the Three Families. These girls aren’t able to change the fate of the island by themselves, but might they succeed with the help of the young man who’s just washed ashore? Claiming that he’s traveled back in time, the man immediately sets out on a lonely path, challenging the longstanding traditions of the island, and seeking to change the future. But those aren’t his only goals…

How will his presence transform the lives of these three girls, the future of the island, and the fate of the world…?

Summary Japanese

本土より遠く離れた南の島、“浦島”。
そこは豊かな自然に恵まれた、まさに楽園。

「いつまでも――こんな時間が続けばいいのに」

しかし複雑な過去を抱え込んだこの島は、歴史から静かに消え去ろうとしていた。
島の風土病“煤紋《ばいもん》病”による本土との確執。
放棄され廃墟と化した“海上ステーション”。
五年前に“浦島御三家”を襲った三つの事件。
子供たちの間でまことしやかに囁かれる“神隠し”の噂。
そして、島に残された古の“伝承”――。

「お話ししましょう。この島に伝わる、悲恋物語を――」

島を救う鍵となるのは、御三家に属する“三人の少女”たち。
しかし彼女らにはまだ、島の行く末を変える力はない。

「この島はもう終わりだよ。救われっこねー」

そんな島に、一人の青年が流れ着く。

「……――今は、何年だ?」

未来から来たと主張するその青年は、島の因習なんぞくそ食らえとばかりに、
未来を変えるために孤軍奮闘し始める。

「待たせたな、俺が来たからにはもう大丈夫だ!」

だが彼には、別の目的があった。
果たして三人の少女たちは、この島は、世界は、
彼によってどう変えられていくのか――。

Vndb Link: ISLAND | vndb
Language difficulty: Intermediate 6/10 Island – Prebuilt decks – jpdb
Average Game Length: 35 hours according to vndb
Hookable: yes (tested with the demo version)
Voiced Audio: Yes all spoken lines except for the male protagonist’s are voiced
Spoken Lines Replayable: Yes
Trigger Warnings: Sexual Innuendo

1 Like