{"id":4647,"date":"2017-06-10T09:49:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T13:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=4647"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:49:38","slug":"visual-novels-growing-popular-but-still-hidden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2017\/06\/10\/visual-novels-growing-popular-but-still-hidden\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Novels: Growing Popular, But Still Hidden"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Here\u2019s a riddle for you: what\u2019s more complicated than a book or TV show, but simpler than a game? The answer is \u201ca visual novel\u201d\u2014and most people have no idea what that is, despite visual novels\u2019 growing popularity.<\/p>\n

Visual novels are a medium made up of narratives, images and sounds, usually with branching choices that will go off into their own storylines, or routes. Fans of companies like Bioware (makers of games like the \u201cDragon Age\u201d series) will find this setup rings a bell\u2014though Bioware games tend to be more animated and gameplay-filled.<\/p>\n

Connor Golden, 23, is a fan of Bioware games and was happy to discuss whether he\u2019d heard of visual novels before. \u201cI first heard about visual novels through a site called TV Tropes, which catalogues tropes in different media\u2026.\u00a0 One of the first sections I saw was on visual novels. They were very anime-esque\u2026.\u00a0 There were basically interactive novels.\u201d He joked, \u201cBioware games have been called \u2018dating simulators\u2019 (a subgenre of visual novels]).\u00a0 And if that means (visual novels) are as engaging, then I\u2019m fine with that!\u201d<\/p>\n

So where\u2019s the appeal? Visual novels give readers agency (where they want the story to go) and also enhance the story being told with art and sound. If you\u2019ve ever read a romance novel and wanted the protagonist to fall for another character or wanted a horror film protagonist to have more options than just going into the cellar, visual novels may be for you.<\/p>\n

Visual novels, due to being simpler in design than video games, tend to have only two or three choices when the branches come up. (That said, there can be huge numbers of branches.) As a result, those few choices count. And when bad endings are involved (choices that lead toward anything from a break-up to death), it brings a real element of surprise and risk to the proceedings. Happy endings feel the best when they\u2019re earned.<\/p>\n

These days, visual novels tend to have walkthroughs–like video games–for when you get stuck on a choice. (It\u2019s not always easy to tell which one you want: choices that look like small talk could be hiding something big.) But a reader may want to go in blind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all kind of depends,\u201d Golden said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m playing a game like \u201cMass Effect\u201d or \u201cDragon Age\u201d for the first time, I\u2019m saving constantly, so in the event that a choice I made early on results in a \u2018wait, I did what?!\u2019 moment, I can go back and rectify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One American company, Telltale Games, makes visual novels for franchises such as \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d \u201cBatman\u201d and \u201cThe Walking Dead.\u201d Some, like Connor, may find the choices very bleak or disturbing:<\/p>\n

\u201c(\u2018The Walking Dead\u2019 game) is a very intelligent story, but it\u2019s just so heavy with inhumanity to man and the choices people make to survive. There\u2019s a moment where you had to kill a kid because he\u2019s been infected by a zombie. You have to do it, because he\u2019s going to be turned (into a zombie) anyway! That\u2019s where I stopped playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another stumbling block for visual novels can be length: because as a medium they don\u2019t have restrictions that books, TV and games do. The length can vary from 15 minutes to 80 hours. (Longer visual novels have more fans, because you can really get invested in the story and characters.)<\/p>\n

But bleakness or length won\u2019t necessarily be a turn-off. \u201cI think what would keep me engaged is the story and the art style,\u201d Golden said. \u201cSo it would need a good story behind it to make me want to see what\u2019ll happen to the characters, how the choices affect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone wants a good story to get sucked into.\u00a0 How you want that story to be portrayed varies wildly. Visual novels from Japan may have art styles that some Westerners find unappealing (\u201ctoo cutesy\u201d is a common complaint). Visual novels from the United States may have forced gameplay elements to \u201cprove\u201d that they\u2019re interactive. And there\u2019s the fact that visual novels are a niche within a niche.<\/p>\n

At the first-ever webinar for visual novel developers, Visual;Conference, on Jan. 17, 2017, conference organizer and visual novel translator Randy Au had this to say: \u201cNobody knows what works, but that means we can’t hesitate to try whatever we can. A complete project that gets your name out there, and gives you learning experience, is better than sitting on a project for four years\u2026and finding its time has past.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, we\u2019re seeing a surge in visual novels being translated and created\u2014not just from Japan, but all over the world. That means there\u2019s a market eager to enjoy them, no matter how niche they are. Maybe you\u2019re one of that market.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a riddle for you: what\u2019s more complicated than a book or TV show, but simpler than a game? The answer is \u201ca visual novel\u201d\u2014and most people have no idea what that is, despite visual novels\u2019 growing popularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8891,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions\/8891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}