Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch.1 Onikakushi may just be the best start to a story that any episodic game could wish for. In just around ten hours, that excellent visual novel manages to hook players with a storyline that starts out as just another harmless “slice of life” tale before everything spirals out of control. For those who had never experienced the storyline before, either via the anime, manga or previous game iterations, it is a tremendously exciting mystery to watch unravel. For those who had played the chapter before in English, it also provided a much-needed improvement to the original translation. But where does that leave us with Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch.2 Watanagashi?
KeenGamer: "We have the best visual novels to suggest to you, but we do recognize that many gamers don’t consider visual novels as games. Sluggishly leafing through dialogues, from time to time making choices. Additionally, many don’t like the anime style of the genre. Maybe we can change your mind."
Visual novels went from being a rare genre outside of Japan to one we see appearing on major consoles! This is great news, but it also means that there can be some ambiguity. Lots of games are having the “visual novel” label applied to them. Which is fine for beginners, but it does not really show how distinct and unique some games can be. There are different categories falling under the visual novel umbrella, after all. With games like Nekopara and 428: Shibuya Scramble finding their ways to consoles, now is a great time to go over the different kinds of visual novels, so you can be better informed before you start reading!
After Valve threatened publishers and developers of visual novels with mild adult content, MangaGamer has found a new home for its titles.
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I love GOG and I hope they make themselves a home for visual novels, especially ones with a little fan service.
It looks like Steam is going to regulate itself to death. On one hand they can't stop the influx of cheap crap games and unfinished games, on the other hand they crack down on legit games because of fan service. It's kind of sad to watch.
Come On Gabe and his team. What is the point of the media touting that majority of gamers are in their 30s or older and still treated like kids. What is wrong with adult content on games?