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REVIEWING RMN'S VISUAL NOVELS
Posts
ganonfrog
1085
ganonfrog
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CloseAs one of the few visual novel writers on this forum, I have set myself a new goal: to review every game on this website with the "visual novel" tag. They will be approached in alphabetical order, and rated both by my usual review standards, as well as how well they hold up in areas specific to the genre. In other words, if someone stuck the tag on a game that doesn't at all fill the standards required for it, they can expect to get chewed out a little for it.
That said, due to the nature of the game that got the first spot on the list, there may be some small exceptions to this.
The current list, in alphabetical order:
Alex's Scar dear god (Played. Review on hiatus.)
Choice (Reviewed!) - http://rpgmaker.net/games/2491/reviews/1654/
Esoterica (Played. Currently reviewing.)
Eternal Memories
Games Journo Story
Grace's Diary
Heartache 101 (Played.)
Hierofania (Played.)
Linus
Maranda
Poetry 2k
Prelude
Re:Alistair (Played.)
Return to Awz
Sister's Storybook
The LCPANES Terminal (Played.)
The End of The Witch of Lorven
The Old Mask
The Sound of Flames
With His Father's Sword
If anyone else knows of any VNs/cinematic RPGs that are not currently on this list, and have a download available for them, then please mention them.
Note: The Vestibule is exempt from this, as it was created by Project BC, a group that I'm a member of. I wasn't involved in its creation, but I feel it's probably best if I avoid it out of the small possibility of personal bias.
Other Note: The World is Made of Paper is also exempt because I made it.
That said, due to the nature of the game that got the first spot on the list, there may be some small exceptions to this.
The current list, in alphabetical order:
Alex's Scar dear god (Played. Review on hiatus.)
Choice (Reviewed!) - http://rpgmaker.net/games/2491/reviews/1654/
Esoterica (Played. Currently reviewing.)
Eternal Memories
Games Journo Story
Grace's Diary
Heartache 101 (Played.)
Hierofania (Played.)
Linus
Maranda
Poetry 2k
Prelude
Re:Alistair (Played.)
Return to Awz
Sister's Storybook
The LCPANES Terminal (Played.)
The End of The Witch of Lorven
The Old Mask
The Sound of Flames
With His Father's Sword
If anyone else knows of any VNs/cinematic RPGs that are not currently on this list, and have a download available for them, then please mention them.
Note: The Vestibule is exempt from this, as it was created by Project BC, a group that I'm a member of. I wasn't involved in its creation, but I feel it's probably best if I avoid it out of the small possibility of personal bias.
Other Note: The World is Made of Paper is also exempt because I made it.
World is made of Paper and Re-Alistair are the ones that's on the top of my head. As for Cinematic RPGs...Narcodis's games? I remember were pretty cinematic and Ghost's Caroline and Alexander one.
ganonfrog
1085
The World is Made of Paper is mine, so I can't exactly review it. XD Though I am pretty flattered that it's apparently one of the first ones that come to your mind. I'm making more of an impression than I thought!
As for Re-Alistair... derp. I think that was a case of it being so obvious that it actually slipped my mind. I played it back when it first came out, so I overlooked it out of instinct. I'll definitely add it to the list and give it a proper review. Apparently it got a new release anyways, so it might be good for me to give it another try.
I'll take a quick look at CaA and Narcodis' stuff before adding them to the list, just to make sure they fit the bill.
Thanks for the suggestions/reminding me of the obvious. XD
As for Re-Alistair... derp. I think that was a case of it being so obvious that it actually slipped my mind. I played it back when it first came out, so I overlooked it out of instinct. I'll definitely add it to the list and give it a proper review. Apparently it got a new release anyways, so it might be good for me to give it another try.
I'll take a quick look at CaA and Narcodis' stuff before adding them to the list, just to make sure they fit the bill.
Thanks for the suggestions/reminding me of the obvious. XD
Are all those labels for Visual Novel accurate? Earnest question here - I've been meaning to go over the genre labels for the games here for some time now, to make sure things are semi-accurately assigned to the proper genres.
Also, I know that LCPANES Terminal isn't very "visual" but hey!
Also, I know that LCPANES Terminal isn't very "visual" but hey!
Muninn
2233
Some of them don't seem to be. Looking though the first page of results after searching for games with the "Visual Novel" tag...
-Acetonic Mushrooms doesn't seem to be one, but might suffer from not fitting very well into any of the categories
-Games Journo Story looks more like a standard RPG than a Visual Novel from the screenshots, but I wouldn't be able to tell for sure without playing it.
-Beloved Rapture looks like a regular RPG
-Novella doesn't look like a visual novel and doesn't seem to be tagged as such, but is showing up on the search results anyways?
In general, there seem to be a lot of games which wouldn't be considered Visual Novels by the fanbase of that particular medium (Ganonfrog used the term "Cinematic RPGs" in his opening post, which seems to be as good a term as any to describe them).
-Acetonic Mushrooms doesn't seem to be one, but might suffer from not fitting very well into any of the categories
-Games Journo Story looks more like a standard RPG than a Visual Novel from the screenshots, but I wouldn't be able to tell for sure without playing it.
-Beloved Rapture looks like a regular RPG
-Novella doesn't look like a visual novel and doesn't seem to be tagged as such, but is showing up on the search results anyways?
In general, there seem to be a lot of games which wouldn't be considered Visual Novels by the fanbase of that particular medium (Ganonfrog used the term "Cinematic RPGs" in his opening post, which seems to be as good a term as any to describe them).
I do agree that a lot of these (including my own Esoterica) aren't traditional visual novels, and that we the authors only labelled them as such because there wasn't really a better alternative to describe how they're played. Cinematic production or rpg would be a much more worthy description.
Anyways, I do applaud you and anyone who ventures to review a list of games like this. It's a huge task, but it's great for the community at large and especially for the authors.
Anyways, I do applaud you and anyone who ventures to review a list of games like this. It's a huge task, but it's great for the community at large and especially for the authors.
ganonfrog
1085
Yeah, part of the reason I'm doing this is to see if these tags are even accurate. I'm allowing the requirements to be pretty loose, but some of these are definitely stretching the definition.
I doubt I'll get to all of these, but hey. I may as well set some kind of goal.
I doubt I'll get to all of these, but hey. I may as well set some kind of goal.
ganonfrog
1085
Just posting to say that this is still a thing that's happening. I've just been super busy this week, so I haven't had much of a chance to get work done on anything except, well, work. Here's to hoping I find the time this upcoming week.
according to Wikipedia:
"A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル bijuaru noberu?) is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static anime-style graphics, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage"
I should have checked the definition of "Visual Novel" before adding the tag to Sister's Storybook. :S Gulp. There's not even one static-graphic.
I thought it meant something along the lines that the game is somewhat interactive but its focus was not on game mechanics but on telling a story.
Oh well, I guess I can fully expect to get "chewed out" if the game is indeed reviewed.
But is ok, I believe that an understaking such as this is very nice indeed, ganonfrog!
"A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル bijuaru noberu?) is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static anime-style graphics, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage"
I should have checked the definition of "Visual Novel" before adding the tag to Sister's Storybook. :S Gulp. There's not even one static-graphic.
I thought it meant something along the lines that the game is somewhat interactive but its focus was not on game mechanics but on telling a story.
Oh well, I guess I can fully expect to get "chewed out" if the game is indeed reviewed.
But is ok, I believe that an understaking such as this is very nice indeed, ganonfrog!
ganonfrog
1085
Just submitted the review for Choice. It should be up soon. The review for Alex's Scar is still sitting in halfwritten purgatory until it stops making me want to hurt small things.
@rabitZ: Heh, it happens. Since you noticed, I won't bring it up in the review. No worries.
@rabitZ: Heh, it happens. Since you noticed, I won't bring it up in the review. No worries.
At the risk of being a shameless plug...(eh, I have nothing to lose).
The End of the Witch of Lorven is a visual novel of sorts. If one lasting like ten minutes and with no choices XD
The End of the Witch of Lorven is a visual novel of sorts. If one lasting like ten minutes and with no choices XD
Hm, not sure if these three count at all, but...
Maranda is less interactive and more movie.
With His Fathers Sword is the same as Maranda.
*Poetry 2K is basically the same, with less story and more poetry.
*The Sound of Flames is more a choose your own adventure, with not much in the way of visuality and text. ^.^;
*Yes, I am aware these are both mine. I don't know what kind of 'Visual Novels' you're looking for but I'll throw them out there anyway.
Maranda is less interactive and more movie.
With His Fathers Sword is the same as Maranda.
*Poetry 2K is basically the same, with less story and more poetry.
*The Sound of Flames is more a choose your own adventure, with not much in the way of visuality and text. ^.^;
*Yes, I am aware these are both mine. I don't know what kind of 'Visual Novels' you're looking for but I'll throw them out there anyway.
ganonfrog
1085
Plugs are fine! As long as they're plugs that fit the requirements. The list is rather long as it is, but I'll gladly add these to it and get to them when I can.
Mislabeling of VNs as games and games as VNs is something one sees a lot of. The former has been going on since VNs first rolled onto the scene, and I'm increasingly seeing more of the latter (for instance, the Ace Attorney series referred to as a VN when it really should be called a game). This can lead to dashed expectations for audiences who have strong genre preferences.
However, when we're talking about submissions to a site (such as RMN), I don't get uppity about labels. The author probably just picked the best label that was available out of limited choices and why get on their case about that? Especially if the work doesn't easily fit into a genre; the last thing I'd want to do is punish authors for coming up with original concepts that break genre "boundaries" by getting on their case about what they call it (or about it not meeting my expectations for what they call it).
Btw, RMN is nice in that it allows multiple labels.
However, when we're talking about submissions to a site (such as RMN), I don't get uppity about labels. The author probably just picked the best label that was available out of limited choices and why get on their case about that? Especially if the work doesn't easily fit into a genre; the last thing I'd want to do is punish authors for coming up with original concepts that break genre "boundaries" by getting on their case about what they call it (or about it not meeting my expectations for what they call it).
Btw, RMN is nice in that it allows multiple labels.
Visual novels are games as long as they have meaningful choices, so I don't think there's an issue with "mislabeling VNs as games." It's just a fairly obscure genre of games that some people don't care for.
Technically, sure, although under that classification you wouldn't be able to apply the label of "visual novel" to (digital) novels that lack any choices at all--and there have been some prominent ones--when in fact a novel without choices often has more in common with the typical visual novel than either of them has with what most people think of as a "game".
On that note, referring to visual novels as games, though they technically are that, arguably does a disservice to the gaming majority who expects a game advertised as such to have stronger elements of gameplay than the occasional decision-making that characterizes most visual novels. (I'm thinking specifically of certain commercial distributors of VNs, their frequent usage of the word "game" in their advertising, and the reactions those who don't care for VNs sometimes have after they purchase their products)
But yeah, on a site like RMN, labels aren't terribly important, I say. If you dl a game that turns out to be other than what you expected, it's not as if you had to pay for it, and anyway, we perhaps ought to be, if anything, encouraging fellow indie developers to deliver other than what people expect.
On that note, referring to visual novels as games, though they technically are that, arguably does a disservice to the gaming majority who expects a game advertised as such to have stronger elements of gameplay than the occasional decision-making that characterizes most visual novels. (I'm thinking specifically of certain commercial distributors of VNs, their frequent usage of the word "game" in their advertising, and the reactions those who don't care for VNs sometimes have after they purchase their products)
But yeah, on a site like RMN, labels aren't terribly important, I say. If you dl a game that turns out to be other than what you expected, it's not as if you had to pay for it, and anyway, we perhaps ought to be, if anything, encouraging fellow indie developers to deliver other than what people expect.
ganonfrog
1085
Visual novels with no choices are called kinetic novels. Visual novels with choices that don't do much are bad.
Really, though, I'm not claiming that the label is that important. It's not. This is more supposed to be a flimsy premise for playing and reviewing a bunch of largely unplayed games. That said, I do feel like games should be well labelled enough for someone to be able search for a particular genre and at lease get a basic idea of what kind of games they're going to get. That's far from the case with the Visual Novel tag. Some of these are labelled really randomly.
But yes, visual novels in their most basic sense really teeter the line of games to novels. I'd say they just barely cross over it. Really, you could argue it's a sign of the times. I think it's kind of cool.
Anyways, the Choice review is up. http://rpgmaker.net/games/2491/reviews/1654/
Esoterica is up next.
Really, though, I'm not claiming that the label is that important. It's not. This is more supposed to be a flimsy premise for playing and reviewing a bunch of largely unplayed games. That said, I do feel like games should be well labelled enough for someone to be able search for a particular genre and at lease get a basic idea of what kind of games they're going to get. That's far from the case with the Visual Novel tag. Some of these are labelled really randomly.
But yes, visual novels in their most basic sense really teeter the line of games to novels. I'd say they just barely cross over it. Really, you could argue it's a sign of the times. I think it's kind of cool.
Anyways, the Choice review is up. http://rpgmaker.net/games/2491/reviews/1654/
Esoterica is up next.
