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Can you recommend me visual novels with no choices?
A bit inspired by the similarly worded but opposite question someone asked earlier. Any visual novel recommendations that are focused on just reading without having to worry about making choices? Some examples of what I have already read, I'm looking for more like this: Planetarian and Harmonia.
I don't have a particular recommendation on hand, but the name of the kinds of VN's you're searching for tends to be "Kinetic Visual Novels". So I hope that helps in your search.
Yep, unfortunately most of what I found under that name are adult dating sims VNs.
I see. maybe you can find a way to filter out "eroge" and "nukige"?
There's a lot of OEL (original English Language) VNs that are kinetic and OELVN's don't tend to be eroge as often. But they may not be listed as consistently on places like VNDB.
Higurashi is an obvious one.
White Album 2 does have choices in the sequel, but not in the first game.
Doki Doki Literature Club does have choices, but there's only one ending, so you can pick whatever you want.
House in Fata Morgana also had choices, but again only one real ending and there's not many choices.
Oh right, Higurashi. I bought that one years ago and forgot to read it. Thanks for the reminder.
I have been through DDLC twice.
Thanks for the other two recommendations!
Here's a few I recommend!
Thank you very much! I don't mind the bias, be proud of the game you helped make.
I started playing VA-11 Hall-A, and was really wondering when I would be able to make a choice in the story.
I had no idea visual novels without choices existed, hehe.
So that might be something you could try.
Only downside is that you do need to "mix drinks", as you play as a bartender.
Came here to recommend Va-11 Hall-A, yes. It's technically not devoid of choices entirely as serving the right drinks can lead to different conversations and some extra scenes in the ending. However, you can't make any conversational choices, and you can't actually change the plot in any way. Most of the 'plot' is societal events that don't directly involve the main character, so she has little to no influence on them.
It's an unique and frankly amazing game. There is something extremely pleasant about following Jill's daily life. I treat it as a comfort game...
+1 on VA-11 Hall-A, that was a really amazing game and super relaxing at times. I'm still looking for a game with those same kind of vibes, I really love that game.
Studio Key make some of the most iconic VNs.
Higurashi was already mentioned, and there's also Umineko, Ciconia (on-going series, not finished), Rose Guns Days and Higanbana by the same author (the last two are fan-translations).
Key (who made Planetarian/Harmonia) also made 3 more kinetic novels in the last few years, so far only Loopers has an English version, and only on Switch/PS4 (with a PC version coming... at some point). Tsui no Stella and Lunaria Virtualized Moonchild are also supposed to be released in English this year.
Fault series (fault milestone 1 and 2, and lightkravte) is a fantasy series with stunning art.
World End Economica is a kinetic novel with 3 chapters, set on the moon and focused on stock trading and real estate stuff. It has a couple of big infodumps that could be hard to get through if you're not interested in economics though. I loved the first chapter of this one.
The 9-nine series (4 episodes + bonus episode) is pretty much a linear supernatural mystery, with very few choices, and my personal favourite of the ones mentioned in this post. It's fully voiced and has excellent production quality. This is an eroge, but playing the censored version is fine, as the sex scenes were replaced by rewritten scenes instead of being cut out abruptly. I'm not a fan of sex scenes, but a particular scene in episode 2 was hilarious.
You can argue that it's not a visual novel, but if you are willing to consider it one then it's one of the GOATs:
Snatcher
It's got a lot of interactivity, but there are essentially no choices to be made - at least none of any real importance. There are going to be points where you have to solve puzzles to continue, or to survive a short action stage (most of which are pretty easy). In Japan it would be considered an adventure game, but we in English speaking countries typically classify most of those games as VNs, so I think it counts.
If you've already played it, PC-88 Paradise did an interesting video on it focusing on the original releases for Japanese computers. But if you haven't played it, go in blind with the Sega CD version - you'll almost certainly enjoy it.
Now that I think about it, the Danganronpa games are also similar in terms of gameplay; lots of interactivity and puzzle solving, but no real choices.
If you're cool with horror:
Have yet to play it myself, but Iwaihime is on my list and is apparently a kinetic novel based on reviews. It's by Ryukishi07, the author of the When They Cry series.
One I have played is Raging Loop. The game is literally Rural Japanese Werewolf with a time loop thrown in, and I just love the atmosphere and cast. It technically has choices, but most of them are actually locked behind "keys" so you still have to progress in a certain order, and return later. As a bonus, after completing it you can unlock "red text" which shows people's thoughts, extra scenes, etc. Started replaying the game with it a while ago, adds a lot of fun and replay value.
...You mean movies?
No, I mean visual novels like the ones I mentioned. I want to read so movies aren't an option.
This might sound mean, but I promise that I'm not trying to belittle you:
Have you tried... regular novels? If you're looking for a predefined, choiceless story, and you want the primary focus to be on reading, there's 400+ years of "modern" literature out there and a decent chunk of it is 100% free. Graphic novels also fill that niche, but with the added visuals.
Let me know when they release a normal novel with an OST that automatically plays the correct song in the correct scene.
Funny enough, I actually know of something like this! Masato Kato (writer for Chrono Trigger, writer/director of Chrono Cross) wrote a story called The Five Seasons of Kirite, to which Yasunori Mitsuda (composer for above games as well as many others) wrote a companion album (simply titled Kirite) which was sold in a bundle with that book.
The songs don't change automatically as you read, obviously, and it's all in Japanese. But the music is fantastic; it's honestly one of my favorite albums.
Yes I have and I'm currently also reading some novels, but I occasionally want them to be accompanied by images, music and possibly voice acting.
Oh damn I didn't even think about that. Not quite a visual novel but you could look at The Beginner's Guide, which is a "walking sim" with a good story.
Another good walking sim is What Remains of Edith Finch. I also recommend Everyone's Gone To The Rapture.
What Remains of Edith Finch is amazing, I've played it a lot of times. The other one is new to me so I'll keep it in mind.
I tried to keep the question narrow but I also love walking sims, thanks for the recommendation, I didn't know about that one.
When the Darkness Comes is also good, but it deals with some emotionally heavy topics, and takes some liberties with... non-game elements of your computer.
Thanks for the warning, DDLC wasn't too kind to my mental health the two times I played it so I may skip the one you recommended until I'm better.