visual novel not to be confused with graphic novel light novel anime game dating sim or bishjo game part of a series onadventure games subgenres presentation interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel gameplay escape the room actionadventure topics interactive fiction competition interactive storytelling syntax guessing text parser companies the adventure company adventure international animeplay accela inc arxel tribe capcom cing cryo interactive cyan worlds djin soft dreamcatcher interactive funcom infocom legend entertainment level 9 computing lucasarts microds quantic dream revolution software sierra entertainment telltale games cs ware key typemoon nitroplus tools and engine adrift ags imuse inform kirikiri nscripter renpy scumm tads wintermute engine zmachine lists list of graphic adventure games list of textbased computer games websites adventure gamers adventure classic gaming just adventure vte a visual novel bijuaru noberu is an interactive game genre which originated in japan as the name might suggest they resemble mixedmedia novels in japanese terminology a distinction is often made between visual novels abbreviated nvl derived from novel which consist predominantly of narration and have very few interactive elements and adventure games abbreviated avg or adv derived from adventure a form of adventure game which may incorporate problemsolving and other types of gameplay this distinction is normally lost outside japan where both nvls and advs are commonly referred to as visual novels by international fans visual novels and advs are especially prevalent in japan where they made up nearly 70 of the pc game titles released in 2006 visual novels are often produced for video game consoles and the more popular games have occasionally been ported to such systems the more famous visual novels are also often adapted into the light novel manga or anime formats the market for visual novels outside of east asia is small though a number of anime based on visual novels are popular among anime fans in the western world gameplay visual novels often feature highly detailed backgrounds and characters rendered in a style reminiscent of japanese animation visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their generally minimal gameplay typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text graphics and sound moving many recent games offer play or fastforward toggles that make this unnecessary while making narrative choices along the way another main characteristic of visual novels are its strong emphasis on the prose as the narration in visual novels are delivered through text this characteristic makes playing visual novels similar to reading a book most visual novels have multiple storylines and more than one ending the mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiplechoice decision points where the player selects a direction in which to take the game this style of gameplay is similar to storydriven interactive fiction or the shorter and less detailed reallife gamebook books many fans of visual novels hold them up as exceptions to the relatively weak storytelling in video games overall some visual novels do not limit themselves into merely interactive fictions but also incorporate other elements into them an example of this approach is symphonic rain where the player is required to play a musical instrument of some sort and attain a good score in order to advance usually such an element is related as a plot device in the game some shorter works do not contain any decision points at all most examples of this sort are fancreated fancreated novel games are reasonably popular there are a number of free game engines and construction kits aimed at making them easy to construct most notably nscripter kirikiri and renpy many visual novels use voice actors to provide voices for the characters in the game often the protagonist is left unvoiced even when the rest of the characters are fully voiced this choice is meant to aid the player in identifying with the protagonist and to avoid having to record large amounts of dialogue as the main character typically has the most speaking lines due to the branching nature of visual novels branching narratives nonlinear branching storylines are a common trend in visual novels which frequently use multiple branching storylines to achieve multiple different endings allowing nonlinear freedom of choice along the way decision points within a visual novel often present players with the option of altering the course of events during the game leading to many different possible outcomes an acclaimed example is zero escape virtues last reward where nearly every action and dialogue choice can lead to entirely new branching paths and endings each path only reveals certain aspects of the overall storyline and it is only after uncovering all the possible different paths and outcomes through multiple playthroughs that every component comes together to form a coherent wellwritten story the branching path stories found in visual novels represent an evolution of the choose your own adventure concept the digital medium allows for significant improvements such as being able to fully explore multiple aspects and perspectives of a story another improvement is having hidden decision points that are automatically determined based on the players past decisions in fatestay night for example the way the player character behaved towards nonplayer characters during the course of the game affects the way they react to the player character in later scenes such as whether or not they choose to help in lifeordeath situations this would be far more difficult to track with physical books more importantly visual novels do not face the same length restrictions as a physical book for example the total word count of the english fan translation of fatestay night taking all the branching paths into account exceeds that of the lord of the rings this significant increase in length allows visual novels to tell stories as long and complex as those often found in traditional novels while still maintaining a branching path structure and allowing them to focus on complex stories with mature themes and consistent plots in a way which choose your own adventure books were unable to do due to their physical limitations visual novels with nonbranching plots such as higurashi when they cry planetarian the reverie of a little planet muvluv alternative and digital a love story are rare exceptions within the genre many visual novels often revolve almost entirely around character interactions and dialogue choices such as ace attorney and tokimeki memorial usually featuring complex branching dialogues and often presenting the players possible responses wordforword as the player character would say them such titles revolving around relationshipbuilding including visual novels as well as dating simulations such as tokimeki memorial and some roleplaying video games such as shin megami tensei persona often give choices that have a different number of associated mood points that influence a player characters relationship and future conversations with a nonplayer character these games often feature a daynight cycle with a time scheduling system that provides context and relevance to character interactions allowing players to choose when and if to interact with certain characters which in turn influences their responses during later conversations as early as 1983 portopia serial murder case featured nonlinear elements which included traveling between different areas in a generally open world a branching dialogue conversation system where the story develops through entering commands and receiving responses from other characters and making choices that determine the dialogues and order of events as well as alternate outcomes though there is only one true culprit while the others are red herrings it also features a phone that could be used to dial any number to contact several nonplayer characters it is not uncommon for visual novels to have morality systems a wellknown example is the 2005 title school days an animated visual novel that kotaku describes as going well beyond the usual black and white choice systems referring to video games such as mass effect fallout 3 and bioshock where you pick a side and stick with it while leaving the expansive middle area between unexplored school days instead encourages players to explore the grey neutral middleground in order to view the more interesting bad endings a common feature used in visual novels is having multiple protagonists giving different perspectives on the story cs wares eve burst error 1995 introduced a unique twist to the system by allowing the player to switch between both protagonists at any time during the game instead of finishing one protagonists scenario before playing the other eve burst error often requires the player to have both protagonists cooperate with each other at various points during the game with choices in one scenario affecting the other other notable examples of nonlinear storytelling include elfs most famous visual novel yuno a girl who chants love at the bound of this world 1996 which featured a science fiction plot revolving around time travel and parallel universes the player travels between parallel worlds using a reflector device which employs a limited number of stones to mark a certain position as a returning location so that if the player decides to retrace their steps they can go to an alternate universe to the time they have used a reflector stone the game also implemented an original system called adms or automatic diverge mapping system which displays a screen that the player can check at any time to see the direction in which they are heading along the branching plot lines rpg hybrids there are roleplaying video games that feature visual novelstyle elements a wellknown example in the west is the lost odyssey an rpg that features a series of visual novelstyle flashback sequences called a thousand years of dreams another title is the arc system works fighting game series blazblue which plays off of a complex fantasy setting where a onehundredyear period is reset indefinitely with many variables the many branching story lines in story mode can serve as standalone stories but players must consider them together along with arcade mode stories to be able to fully understand the universe another successful example is segas sakura wars series which combined tactical roleplaying game combat with visual novel elements introducing a realtime branching choice system where during an event or conversation the player must choose an action or dialogue choice within a time limit or to not respond at all within that time the players choice or lack thereof affects the player characters relationship with other characters and in turn the characters performance in battle the direction of the storyline and the ending later games in the series added several variations including an action gauge that can be raised up or down depending on the situation and a gauge that the player can manipulate using the analog stick depending on the situation style visual novels are commonly characterized with dialog boxes and sprites denoting the speaker this is a recreation of the usual screen layout of a visual novel generated by the renpy game engine although using the narrative style of literature visual novel has evolved a style somewhat different from print novels in general visual novels are more likely to be narrated in the first person than the third and to present events from the point of view of only one character in the typical visual novel the graphics comprise a set of generic backgrounds normally just one for each location in the game with character sprites tachie superimposed onto these the perspective is usually firstperson with the protagonist remaining unseen at certain key moments in the plot special event cg computer graphics are displayed instead these are more detailed images drawn specially for that scene rather than being composed from predefined elements which often use more cinematic camera angles and include the protagonist these event cgs can usually be viewed at any time once they have been unlocked by finding them ingame this provides a motivation to replay the game and try making different decisions as it is normally impossible to view all special events on a single playthrough up until the 1990s the majority of visual novels utilized pixel art this was particularly common on the nec pc9801 format which showcased what is considered to be some of the best pixel art in the history of video games with a popular example being policenauts in 1994 content and genre see also adventure game many visual novels are centered on drama particularly themes involving romance or family but visual novels centered on science fiction fantasy fiction and horror fiction are not uncommon erotic content see also eroge and sex and nudity in video games many visual novels also qualify as eroge an abbreviation of erotic game these games feature sexually explicit imagery that is accessed by completing certain routes in the game most often depicting the games protagonist having sex with one of the games other characters like other pornographic media in japan scenes depicting genitalia are censored in their original japanese releases only becoming uncensored if the game is licensed outside japan certain eroge titles receive rereleases which exclude explicit content in order to be sold to a younger audience such as ports to consoles or handheld systems where sexually explicit content is not allowed and storylines referring to aforementioned sex scenes are often omitted from adaptations into other media unless that media is also pornographic in nature such as a hentai anime traditionally pcbased visual novels have contained risque scenes even if the overall focus is not erotic similar to the obligatory sex scene in hollywood action films however the vast majority of console ports do not contain adult material and a number of recent pc games have also been targeted at the allage market for example all of keys titles come in familyfriendly versions although the content might still not be appropriate for children and three have never contained adult content at all also all of kids titles are familyfriendly however some of these games are later rereleased with the addition of erotic scenes or have a sequel with such for example little busters was first released as an allages visual novel but a version with erotic scenes titled little busters ecstasy came out later and though clannad is also allages its spinoff tomoyo after its a wonderful life is not often the beginning of the eroge will be dedicated to introducing the characters and developing the protagonists relationship with them before the protagonist sexually interacts with other characters for example lump of sugar games such as tayutama kiss on my deity hello goodbye gaku ou the royal seven stars sekai to sekai no mannaka de and everlasting summer do this the effect it has on the reader is the hscenes sex scenes will have a stronger emotional impact for the two or possibly more characters some of japans earliest adventure games were erotic bishjo games developed by koei the japanese game pai touch involves the protagonist gaining the ability to change the size of girls breasts and the adventures that ensue in trying to choose which girl to use the power on the most another subgenre is called nukige in which sexual gratification of the player is the main focus of the game science fiction in 1986 square released the science fiction adventure game suish no dragon for the nes console the game featured several innovations including the use of animation in many of the scenes rather than still images hideo kojima of metal gear fame was inspired by portopia serial murder case to enter the video game industry following metal gear 2 solid snake kojima produced his next graphic adventure policenauts 1994 a pointandclick adventure notable for being an early example of extensive voice recording in video games other acclaimed examples of science fiction visual novels include elfs yuno 1996 and 5pbs chaoshead 2008 and steinsgate 2009 nakige a popular subgenre of visual novels is the nakige crying game which as opposed to utsuge depressing game still usually has a happy ending the main purpose of such a game is to make the player feel for the characters and to make them cry because of emotional scenarios which serve to have a bigger impact on the player after the game is over these games often follow a similar formula a comedic first half with a heartwarming romantic middle followed by a tragic separation and finally though not always an emotional reunion this formula was influenced primarily by leafs visual novel to heart released in 1997 and was further developed in the 1998 title one kagayaku kisetsu e developed by tactics after one was complete the development team quit tactics to form key where they developed their first title kanon also based upon this formula according to satoshi todome in his book a history of adult games kanon was heavily hyped keys crying game formula used successfully in one and kanon was later adopted by other visual novel companies to create their own crying games examples of this include kana little sister 1999 by digital object the memories off series 1999 onwards by kid dc da capo 2002 by circus wind a breath of heart 2002 by minori and snow 2003 by studio mebius under visual arts one of the most acclaimed visual novels of this subgenre was keys clannad written by jun maeda yichi suzumoto and kai and tya okano released in 2004 its story revolved around the central theme of the value of having a family it served as the basis for a media franchise with successful adaptations into a light novel manga animated film and acclaimed anime series in 2008 several of keys visual novels were voted in the dengeki poll of the ten most tearinducing games of all time including clannad at no 2 kanon at no 4 air at no 7 and little busters at no 10 horror higurashi no naku koro ni when they cry was a 2002 horrorthemed visual novel by 07th expansion influenced by the crying game subgenre ryukishi07 of 07th expansion mentioned in 2004 how he was influenced by keys works during the planning of higurashi no naku koro ni he played their games as well as other visual novels as a reference and analyzed them to try to determine why they were so popular he decided that the secret was that the stories would start with ordinary enjoyable days but then a sudden event would occur leading the player to cry from shock he used a similar model as the basis for higurashi but instead of leading the player to cry ryukishi07 wanted to scare the player with the addition of horror elements other examples of horrorthemed visual novels include animamundi dark alchemist higanbana no saku yoru ni umineko no naku koro ni ookami kakushi imabikisou saya no uta doki doki literature club and corpse party djinshi games djin soft djin soft djinshi often transliterated as doujinshi is the japanese term for selfpublished fanmade works this includes but is not limited to djin games also sometimes called djin soft these visual novelstyle games are created as fanmade works based on preexisting fandoms usually anime and manga but also for tv shows or even other preexisting games and visual novels djinshi games are often based on romance or shipping between two characters known as an otome game or dating sim sometimes becoming sexual or hentai known as an eroge a portmanteau of erotic game visual novels in the western world prior to the year 2000 few japanese visual novels were translated into other languages as with the visual novel genre in general a majority of titles released for the pc have been eroge with hiramekis nowdiscontinued animeplay series a notable exception as of 2014 jast usa and mangagamer are the two most prolific publishers of translated visual novels for the pc both primarily release eroge but have begun to diversify into the allages market in recent years with titles such as steinsgate and higurashi no naku koro ni respectively in addition to official commercial translations a vibrant fan translation scene exists which has translated many free visual novels such as narcissu and true remembrance and a few commercial works such as umineko no naku koro ni and policenauts into english fan translations of japanese visual novels into languages other than english such as chinese french german and russian are commonplace as well english translations of japanese visual novels on video game consoles were rare until the release of the nintendo ds though some games with visual novel elements had been published in the western world before then such as hideo kojimas snatcher following the success of mystery titles for the nintendo ds such as capcoms ace attorney series which began on the game boy advance in 2001 cings hotel dusk series beginning in 2006 gamespot has credited phoenix wright ace attorney in particular for revitalizing the adventure game genre list of visual novel engines list of video games based on anime or manga list of anime based on video games graphic adventure game motion comic categoryvisual novel engines telltale games riva celso hypertext fiction wikimedia commons has media related to visual novels visual novels at curlie visual novels at studio encor visual novel database vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 