This month, we’ve been playing some of the games nominated for the Independent Game Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Games discussed: Slay the Spire, Eliza, A Short Hike.
This month, we’ve been playing some of the games nominated for the Independent Game Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Games discussed: Slay the Spire, Eliza, A Short Hike.
Indie Bandits 
Hey, I just listened to this episode, and I don’t know who exactly, but someone asked why play a visual novel instead of reading a book, and since I’ve been playing a lot of those in recent days, I would like to explain why visual novels appeal to me.
Differently from books, visual novels present their story not only by text, but with visuals and soundtrack, giving much more style and expression than plain text could give on its own. That combined with the fact that the story progresses at your own pace makes me feel much more like part of a stage play than reading a book.
There’s the case of mystery visual novels like Ace Attorney and Spike Chunsoft games (Zero Escape and Danganronpa), that have an interactive element to solve the cases that doesn’t translate as well in other media, in my opinion.
There’s also even visual novels like Steins;Gate, which offer a nonlinear experience, and when adapted into other media is lost, making a “real canon” or “anime canon” situation.
I hope my explanations helped you understand why visual novels exist and the value the format has. It’s not meant to be a full-fledged game like Persona, but more like a more immersive, audiovisual interactive narrative experience. (that sounds convoluted, but I hope you get it.)
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Hi. Thanks for listening and for your inciteful comments on visual novels. We’ll have to do a visual novels episode soon and find some good ones to try out!
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