What can be done with visual novels / dateing sims?

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I have only just jumped into the visual novel realm. It's neat, like fertile ground to try new things. So anyway to the point. What whould people like to be seen done with visual novels. It can be a story, a setting, mechanic. You know what ever.

One thought I had is why not include a character creation aspect to a VN? Having a nice CC helps immerse and invest the player, and it since most VNs don't show the player much it wouldn't be that taxing on the budget.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Oh, dear god.

I hadn't even considered Occulus and Morpheus for that purpose. Oh, lawd. Make this happen.

Ahem...there are animated (sort of) VNs, but that's about as advanced as they've become so far, aside from some games with actual gameplay outside of making choices.

And I'm down for some avatar customization. Even just choosing between X, Y, Z looks and names would be kinda nice, but most of them are very dependent on preconceived characters, since a lot of the CGs (especially ero or romantic scenes) show at least part of the MC.

I'd basically just like more life. More animations, more interactivity (this is one genre where QT doesn't seem like it would be overly obnoxious), and a higher emphasis on character interaction.

 

[Foolery]

Dunno. Never could get into the genre. Of the ones I've played, they've always felt slow and tedious. I'd rather read an actual book, honestly. VR sounds like a logical step, though.

 

[Treeberry]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Kind...of...exist already. There's an adult "maid training" game with Oculus support. Factor in that USB onaholes exist too....

I like that visual novels and related games are being released on Steam. The censorship of sexual content doesn't bother me too much since I tend to skip over that stuff most of the time anyway and there are always restoration patches.

I like interactivity (such as minigames or map movement) within the medium as well regardless of how well it is implemented annnnd I really want more of them to allow to play as male or female.

More horror! More mystery! More sci-fi and fantasy! Screw reality.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Dunno. Never could get into the genre. Of the ones I've played, they've always felt slow and tedious. I'd rather read an actual book, honestly. VR sounds like a logical step, though.

I found them to be kind of slow and tedious too. Your reading way more then your acting. One really simple thing they could do is cut down on some of the writing (like don't show me a picture then describe what I am seeing. I can see it already!.) and ten give you more choices to make. In a game like mass effect*, your not going more then 1 or 2 lines before you get to pick something. (Not all choices matter, but the act of picking them helps keep you in the moment.)

*Lets be honest Mass effect is basically a visual novel that gets interrupted by gunfire now and then.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Kind...of...exist already. There's an adult "maid training" game with Oculus support. Factor in that USB onaholes exist too....

I like that visual novels and related games are being released on Steam. The censorship of sexual content doesn't bother me too much since I tend to skip over that stuff most of the time anyway and there are always restoration patches.

I like interactivity (such as minigames or map movement) within the medium as well regardless of how well it is implemented annnnd I really want more of them to allow to play as male or female.

More horror! More mystery! More sci-fi and fantasy! Screw reality.

I want to see a cyberpunk VN. The setting is just ripe for exploration in ways other then bullets.

 

[EyeReaper]

I want to see a cyberpunk VN. The setting is just ripe for exploration in ways other then bullets.

Uhh, Kojima covered that way back in 1988. It was called Snatcher. And a fair bit of VNs do have Char. Customization, especially life sims. Off the top of my head there's: Hatoful Boyfriend, Magical Diary, Pincess Maker, and Long Live the Queen. Although I do agree there should be more.

As for what I would like to see? Well, I'd like to see the timer from Sakura Wars in more of these types of games. Essentially what it does is every time you have to choose dialogue, you see a meter ticking down, and if you don't make a choice by the time the limit's up, you stand there like an idiot and say nothing (which was sometimes the better choice). It was a little thing, but I felt it added urgency to the choices you make.

Oh, and a super smash bros dating sim plz thks

 

[Drathnoxis]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Yes, we've already got proof of concept!
It's just so unbelievably immersive.

 

[syaoran728]

Actually VN's have much more interesting mechanic options than most current games, try any Key game or Steins Gate, they use the setting in a great way to bring the idea of alternate reality/timeline that can't be done in any other medium.

See also 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors and Virtues Last Reward for more fun things like that in VN format.

 

[syaoran728]

Also a good example, another one is Ever 17 for extreme mind fuckery. I also think games like Saya no Uta works much better as a VN where the fucked-up imagery hits in full force.

There's a lot you can do with VNs. I was surprised how good the fight scenes are in the Fate/Stay Night visual novel when all they had was text sound effects and a few pictures to describe the scene.

 

[BrokenTinker]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Kind...of...exist already. There's an adult "maid training" game with Oculus support. Factor in that USB onaholes exist too....

I like that visual novels and related games are being released on Steam. The censorship of sexual content doesn't bother me too much since I tend to skip over that stuff most of the time anyway and there are always restoration patches.

I like interactivity (such as minigames or map movement) within the medium as well regardless of how well it is implemented annnnd I really want more of them to allow to play as male or female.

More horror! More mystery! More sci-fi and fantasy! Screw reality.

I want to see a cyberpunk VN. The setting is just ripe for exploration in ways other then bullets.

I've seen cyberpunk VN somewhere before, damned if I remember it. If you can think of any of the settings in sci-fi/fantasy, it has likely been done but less wellknown.

A lot of things to do with VN has been done to death already, I'm more interested on the side of VN+SLG/Simulation side of thing. Eh... Best imagery I can give are things like Recettear, replace the action elements with things like breath of fire's miniature village, harvest moon, sim city, etc...

Games that can be engaging for kids and all, but sadly, sex sells, so more often than not, VN has adult contents. Even the really excellent stuff by Key is affected by this, thankfully they do release all-age editions for their works.

 

[CaitSeith]

They could combine other genres in a similar way than Ace Attorney.

 

[wings012]

Are VNs such a fresh fertile ground to try new things?

I always thought of the genre as an attempt to market a novel as a game. Gameplay essentially is trying to figure out a flowchart of varying degrees of complexity, and can be potentially obtuse depending on the writing. So what determines whether I end up with girl A or B depends on whether I go to bookstore or not? It'd be fine if girl A was known to be a bookworm beforehand, but often that's not the case.

There are other VNs that shoehorn some game levels in the middle. Like Sharnoth had a little weird puzzle game, which was interesting at first but kinda wore thin. And ultimately felt like a bit of a distraction.

I rather they stay well away from any notions of gameplay, and I'm fine with just clicking on icons as to which route I wanna go on as player choices are obtuse as all fuck. Sure bad endings can be amusing but eh. Damn things aren't really games strictly speaking, just embrace the fact and move on.

Presentation though is something VNs can improve on. Shikoku no Sharnoth had a voiced protagonist and her CG cut out is included in most scenes. They also go with a mix of full body and close up shots which overall breaks up the monotony of the usual static character cutout with a few facial expression changes. Sure it's less 'self inserty' but bugger that. How do people even self insert into most VN protagonists anyway? You can barely control what the guy does and he has his own character anyway. Might as well go all the way and give him more of presence.

Then there's Quartett which eschews the whole usual VN presentation and goes for a full comic book panel presentation and speech bubbles.

Just anything to break up the whole character cutout and text until some event CGs pop up. I'm often not even staring up at the art anymore half the bloody time.

 

[springheeljack]

Okay I have a few things that I would like to see in more Visual Novels
Visual novels that are not set in a high school, main characters that don't have a childhood friend involved with the story or a sibling who turns out to actually not be your sibling (So you can totally fuck em)
It would be nice to have a Visual Novel set in an actual college it would have the same narrative possibilities of ones set in a high school in fact even more so. It would make more sense for the main character to think about his future adult life when school is finally over and it would remove the slightly squeamish feeling of weather you are about to get with a girl whose age seems questionable.

 

[Aerosteam]

I think seeing characters, no matter where they are or what they're wearing being in the exact same pose throughout the whole VN is really jarring. A VN that doesn't do that would be good.

 

[SweetShark]

Occulus rift for waifu simulators. Seriously the level of engagement with would twofold.

Kind...of...exist already. There's an adult "maid training" game with Oculus support. Factor in that USB onaholes exist too....

I like that visual novels and related games are being released on Steam. The censorship of sexual content doesn't bother me too much since I tend to skip over that stuff most of the time anyway and there are always restoration patches.

I like interactivity (such as minigames or map movement) within the medium as well regardless of how well it is implemented annnnd I really want more of them to allow to play as male or female.

More horror! More mystery! More sci-fi and fantasy! Screw reality.

I want to see a cyberpunk VN. The setting is just ripe for exploration in ways other then bullets.

Here:

VA-11 HALL A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

"You are a bartender at VA-11 HALL-A, affectionately nicknamed "Valhalla." Although it is just a small bar downtown, it attracts the most fascinating people this side of dystopia. Keep your clients lubricated and you will be made privy to the most interesting stories."

Not yet available, but you can play the Demo and the Prototype right now. Plus if you Pre-Order, you can play the Prologue.

Cheers!!!

 

[springheeljack]

Oh and it would be nice if Visual novels combined the dynamic character animation of Nekopara(except without the boob physics) with the ability for a character to turn their back to you(like in muv luv)