Visual novel
A visual novel (Japanese: ビジュアルノベル, Hepburn: bijuaru noberu), often abbreviated as VN, is a digital fiction game, featuring story text, character sprites, backgrounds, and audio. Visual novels often feature a branching narrative that can be navigated by making decisions. The medium originated in Japan, with its early roots in the American adventure game genre, but is now popular worldwide.
In the early days of the medium, most visual novels were structured so that the main goal was to enter the routes of major characters, often for romantic or sexual reasons. This format is still common, but visual novels are diverse and have a wide range of structures and goals. Some visual novels do not have branching narratives at all - these are called kinetic novels.
History
The inception of visual novels is often accredited to Portopia Serial Murder Case[1], an adventure game first released for the PC-88 in 1983[2]. With Western adventure games as primary inspiration[1], visual novels that followed after developed in a similar vein and lacked the "sprite-on-background" presentation now familiar today, instead sequencing most visuals shot-to-shot like in manga[1]. Erotic adventure games (eroge) also existed around this time, with Tenshi-tachi no Gogo by JAST (1985)[3] being notable for being the first with anime visuals and dialogue choices[4]. It was not until the release of games like Doukyuusei by elf (1992)[5] and Tokimeki Memorial by Konami (1994)[6] that visual novels began to form into what we're familiar with today, with features such as the pursuit of romantic/sexual interests with storylines[7][4] and a sprite-on-background presentation style[1].
Genres
- Main article: Genre
As a fiction medium, common genre terms such as mystery, romance, fantasy, and sci-fi also apply to visual novels. In addition, visual novels have a variety of specific genre categories and conventions (like Otome, Yuri, etc.), which often originate from Japanese loanwords.
Gameplay
- Main article: Gameplay
Generally, players progress through a visual novel by clicking on the screen or pressing a key to advance to the next block of text. Players are sometimes asked to make choices, which often lead the story in different directions.
Outside of simple click-to-advance gameplay, some visual novels have elements that involve more significant interaction. These include:
- Timed choices, where a timer counts down to when the game will make a choice of its own
- Quick Time Events (QTEs), where the player is tasked to click the correct button at the right time
- Point-and-click/scene examination (ex: the Ace Attorney [VNDB] series and Collar x Malice [VNDB])
- Full minigames, such as match-3 (ex: Huniepop), or interactive segments (ex: poem writing in Doki Doki Literature Club [VNDB]).
Development
- Main article: Development
DevTalk, and this wiki, are dedicated to the development of visual novels and other story-based games.
See also
- The Visual Novel Database, a nearly comprehensive database of published visual novels
- Visual novel jams, events where developers create visual novels in a set time period
- Assets, the component parts of visual novels
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Crimmins, Brian (2016). "A Brief History of Visual Novels". 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2022-06-16
- ↑ "Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken". The Visual Novel Database. Retrieved 2022-06-17
- ↑ "Tenshi-tachi no Gogo". The Visual Novel Database. Retrieved 2022-06-17
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Binimbol, Huann (2021). "What is Galge (ギャルゲー)?". 2021-06-09. Retrieved 2022-06-17
- ↑ "Doukyuusei". The Visual Novel Database. Retrieved 2022-06-17
- ↑ "Tokimeki Memorial". The Visual Novel Database. Retrieved 2022-06-17
- ↑ "「Kanon」や「CLANNAD」「Angel Beats!」など…「泣きゲー」からアニメ原作まで、美少女IPを仕掛け続けた28年！ ビジュアルアーツのユニークなブランド戦略と経営思想を馬場隆博社長に聞いてみた" [Kanon," "CLANNAD," "Angel Beats!" and more... 28 years of setting up bishoujo IPs, from "nakige" to original anime titles! We asked President Takahiro Baba about Visual Arts' unique brand strategy and management philosophy] (in Japanese). Den Faminico Gamer. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2022-06-17
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