Genre

Visual novels can be categorized into groups based on the theme and content of the game. These categories make it easy for readers to understand what the game is about and see if it may interest them.

Genre Mobility

Visual novels being the intersection of literature, graphic novels, games, and film, they frequently borrow genre information from any of them.

Examples of Literary and Film Genres in Visual Novels

Horror and Mystery Visual Novels, like Higurashi When They Cry and Corpse Party.
Suspense and Thriller Visual Novels, like Root Double
Science Fiction, Time Travel Visual Novels, like Steins;Gate
Post-Apocalyptical, Mecha Visual Novels, like Muv-Luv Alternative.
Fantasy Visual Novels, like Fault-Milestone.
Urban Fantasy Visual Novels, like Fate/Stay Night
Historical Fiction Visual Novels, like (example needed)
Romance Visual Novels, like (example needed)
Coming of Age Visual Novels, like CLANNAD

Hybrid Games

Visual novels that share genres with games are often known as Visual Novel Hybrids. These types of visual novels combine elements from visual novels and certain genres of games.

Examples of Hybrids

Visual Novel - Fighting Game Hybrids, like BlazBlue
Visual Novel - Adventure Game Hybrids, like Ace Attorney and Corpse Party
Visual Novel - Dating Sim Hybrids, like Dandelion
Visual Novel - Puzzle Game Hybrids, like 999.
Visual Novel - Role Playing Game Hybrids, Like Persona

Semantic Controversies

What constitutes a visual novel hybrid vs a game of another genre is often a subject of debate. Some games, especially role-playing games, are often indistinguishable from visual novel hybrids and are the source of arguments about what constitutes a visual novel.

Loan-Word Genres

Visual Novel genres are often referred to by a number of Japanese loan words. This is not an exhaustive or prescriptive list.

Structural

Kinetic Novel

A kinetic novel (KN) is a visual novel with no choices, routes or paths. This term was originally coined by Key/Visual Arts as a brand name for their titles, but has since been used to describe all visual novels without choices.

Sound Novel

A sound novel is a visual novel with an increased emphasis on audio, including the number of audio effects, tracks, and/or voice acting. This term was coined by 07th Expansion to describe their visual novels.

Characters

Charage

A charage (キャラゲー, lit. "character game") visual novel that is usually focused on character interactions rather than deep, fleshed-out plot.

Bishoujo / Bishounen Games‎

Bishoujo games (Japanese: 美少年ゲーム, lit. "pretty girl game") or bishounen games (Japanese: 美少年ゲーム, lit. "pretty boy game") are games that generally revolve around interactions with attractive girls/boys.

Moege

A visual novel that focuses on moe characters, usually girls. Moege can often be summarized as "cute girls doing cute things".

Otome Game / Otoge

An otome game (Japanese: 乙女ゲーム, lit. "maiden game") is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women. Generally one of the goals, besides the main plot goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player character and one of several male characters.

An otoge (Japanese: 乙女ゲー) is an abbreviation of otome game. Ostensibly, is the same as an otome game, but in the West there is some degree of push to have it refer to VNs with female protagonists, marketed to a female audience which do not include romance as a main plot point.

Another term that’s useful for this purpose may be ‘josei-muke’ which means a piece of media that is aimed at women (any media - not necessarily only VNs or even just video games).

Emotional Content

Nakige

A nakige (Japanese: 泣きゲー, lit. "crying game") is a visual novel that attempts to create an emotional response in the reader, but usually contains an uplifting message or ending (generally after significant hardships).

Utsuge

An utsuge (Japanese: 鬱ゲー, lit. "depressing game") is a visual novel that attempts to depress the player and create an atmosphere that leaves them in low spirits. Unlike nakige, utsuge often lack happy endings or hope.

Sexual Content

All Ages

All ages (translated literally from 全年齢, Hepburn: zen nenrei) is a term that describes a visual novel that doesn’t contain sexually explicit material. This term, while it is easy to misunderstand it, does not mean the content is suitable for audiences of all ages, as it does not exclude graphic violence, profanity, or other rating-impacting content types.

Eroge

Eroge (Japanese: エロゲー, lit. "erotic game.") refers to any game or visual novel that heavily emphasizes erotic content as its main appeal. Not to be confused with a nukige.

Nukige

A nukige (Japanese: 抜きゲー, lit. "ejaculating game") is a visual novel that is focused on sexual content or the player's fetishes rather than plot.

Quality

The following terms are used by the community to judge the quality of a game. These categories are very subjective and are often jokes.

Kamige

A kamige (Japanese: 神ゲー, lit. "god/divine game") is a visual novel that is considered to be the pinnacle of the medium. Mostly used sarcastically or as a meme.

Kusoge

A kusoge (Japanese: クソゲー, lit. "shit game") is a derogatory term for a visual novel considered to be poor quality. Mostly used sarcastically or as a meme.

Gameplay

Dating Sim

A dating sim is a type of game where the objective is to get into a romantic or sexual relationship with one (or more) of the characters. Any gameplay will reflect that goal. The line between dating sim and a romantic visual novel can sometimes be blurry or confused, but usually the differences come from the emphasis on gameplay as a method to woo a prospective partner, as opposed to solely dialogue choices.

Examples: the Tokimeki Memorial and Tokimeki Memorial: Girl’s Side series, Huniepop, Love Plus, Girlish Love Revolution Love Revo!!.

Gege‎

A gege (pronounced "gei-gei" in reference to the Japanese suffix -gē/-ゲー to mean “game”) is a joking (somewhat derogatory) term to refer to non-visual novels. As an example, Persona 5 may have portraits, text boxes, and relationship parameters, but it is not generally considered a visual novel. If someone were to try to claim Persona 5 is a visual novel/rpg hybrid, someone might say, "No, it’s a gege."

Language

EVN

An English Visual Novel. This refers to the language the visual novel was originally produced in.

JVN

A visual novel originally created in Japanese, or more precisely, by Japanese developers.

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