The Nintendo Switch has been investing more recently in bringing a lot of great visual novel games to the platform. Now is a better time than ever with the rising popularity of the genre to try and leap into some of the best that the Switch store has to offer.
7 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Well known across all video gaming fans, the Ace Attorney series of games has been a mainstay for the visual novel genre since the first game was released in 2001. The games consist of investigations and courtroom trial scenes, and players take on the role of Phoenix Wright as they try to navigate gaining freedom for several of their clients.
Using various pieces of evidence collected and by examining witnesses and searching for lies in their testimonies, players attempt to get their client freed and declared not guilty in each trial. While this is a great game, and series of games, the original trilogy of which have been remastered for the Switch, they are also good for visual novel beginners. Most people are familiar with the idea of trials and courtroom scenes from some form of media, so there are not many concepts that will be unfamiliar to new players.
6 Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Dream Daddy is a much different beast, one which introduces many visual novel concepts to new players but manages to have many references and scenes that take on the style of other games, so there is a smaller volume of total reading than in some visual novel games. The title is self-explanatory, the player is a new dad moving into a neighborhood with many other dads and children.
The romantic aspect of Dream Daddy is sweet, and the relationship the player character has with his daughter is also a great story aspect. The game overall manages to blend romance, comedy, and a heartfelt family melodrama, which makes it a great entry point for newcomers to the genre.
5 Spirit Hunter: NG
Spirit Hunter: NG, which is short for No Good, is the second installment in the series and features a protagonist that must investigate haunted locations and search for clues to solve cases. The horror aspects and many point-and-click adventure aspects make Spirit Hunter a unique type of visual novel that blends many genres of gaming and makes it an easy first-time visual novel.
There are also quick-time sequences where players have to make a series of decisions fast or fail to escape a pursuer. The protagonist can also see visions of people touching their blood, which makes for extra intriguing parts of every investigation.
4 World End Syndrome
There is a stigma around visual novels that have sexier aspects to them, and for newcomers to the genre, World End Syndrome is a great game for both playing into and dispelling some of these stigmas. Reviewers have praised the game for starting many characters out as seeming stereotypes, before then evolving them past those roles and showing great character development.
From a story side of things, World End Syndrome is about a high school student that moves to a new town and joins the school’s Mystery Club. He then uncovers a curse upon the town that occurs once every hundred years, causing the dead to rise and go on rampages. The game is similar to the more complicated Persona games, involving romantic and slice-of-life aspects alongside a more mystery-based investigative plot.
3 Coffee Talk
One of the more simple ideas a visual novel has taken on recently, Coffee Talk is a short game that can be experienced in four or five hours. The game takes place in a fantasy version of Earth populated by various races of fantasy creatures. The player character is a barista and owner of a coffee shop.
The game takes place over two weeks and features various characters bringing their problems and troubles to the player to discuss them while they get drinks. The player mostly reads, but there are mini-games involving the making of drinks, which adds to the actual gameplay aspect for newcomers to the genre.
2 Doki Doki Literature Club
Any newcomer to the genre will be left revisiting what a visual novel can be after going through Doki Doki Literature Club. While it begins with a player being inducted into a literature club at his school and meeting the four girls in the club, it takes twists and turns that are completely unlike any other visual novel.
While much of the gameplay in DDLC is simple and based on reading as opposed to mini-games or other aspects, players should expect some incredible shake-ups as the story continues. Everything that players expect to see in this type of game will be shaken and will make fans of the genre in anyone who witnesses this story.
1 SeaBed
Finally, SeaBed is a great LGBT visual novel game, a “yuri-themed” mystery game, it tells a story from the perspectives of three different characters. Mizuno Sachiko is a designer plagued by visions of her past lover. Her friend Narasaki Hibiki is a psychiatrist trying to understand how the minds of humans work. And Takako is the former lover of Sachiko, and is forgetting her past lover and how it was that they came to be separated.
The game is a much deeper dive into an emotional story, with incredible writing that showcases the capabilities of those working in the visual novel genre today. The writing aspect of any novel, including visual ones, is one of the most important parts of the experience, and SeaBed has one of the best available on the Switch.
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