No dating or weird parasocial shit. I'm talking about a literal visual novel. Doesn't even have to be a game. I'm talking about a picture book that has animated pages basically lol
Fantasy/horror/sci-fi preferred
Yeah! Good call. This has been on the mental list for a minute and I didn't even consider it for this question. Nice, thanks.
Higurashi and Umineko, both by the same author.
Higurashi was a guy looking at all those weird dating porn games you were talking about and saying "what if the base emotional response you went for with one of these wasn't horniness but pants-shitting terror?" There's like one scene per chapter that's anime cringe but the further you get into it the less of that there is.
Umineko, the follow-up, is the current argument for narrative video games as capital A Art and I'll leave it at that.
I think Higurashi was specifically a response to the movement of dating sims that started out as cute rom-coms, people expected them to get horny, and then they got super depressing instead. Think Clannad, if you're familiar. But yeah. Umineko is probably my favorite game ever, and is definitely the one that I think about the most.
spoiler
It's like 50% critical thoughts about the themes and the structure and how the mystery works from a technical standpoint and the other 50% is my crying about pretty much the whole cast. And also some laughing at Battler.
lol alright yeah i'm going to stop reading about it, seems like a game i can spoil for myself pretty easily. shall be checked out
Love thyself: a Horatio story, is a sci-fi vn that could be interpreted romantically or platonicly. It's also free and fairly short. If you've played either of the endless space games it's set in that universe.
Pure VN: Raging Loop (horror)
VN with some tower defense style battles :13 Sentinels (sci-fi)
VN with puzzles: Ace Attorney series (solve murder cases), Zero Escape series (horror). Danganronpa series is similar to the Ace Attorney series, but has bonding events and is somehow both darker and more campy
I see that Umineko has already been recommended, but I do want to mention it again. Higurashi (the first work by the author, a few characters are in both, though none are major) is also good, though it has more anime bullshit. No dating, but some shitty jokes. That's a lot more horror focused than Umineko. Ciconia is also good, though that isn't finished yet.
House in Fata Morgana is supposed to be fantastic, and I haven't heard a single bad thing about it, though I haven't read it yet. I've heard so many recommendations and have literally never heard any criticism that isn't 'it handles it well, but there's some heavy stuff," so I feel safe reccing it without having played it.
The Zero Escape games are good, and the Ace Attorney games are as well. The Ace Attorney games on steam are the best in the series, and you can play either without any prior knowledge.
I'll list some that I haven't played that I'm less confident in here. 428 Shibuya Scramble. Coffee Talk. Heaven Will Be Mine. Raging Loop. Spirit Hunter. We Know the Devil. I own all of them, but haven't gotten around to playing them yet.
I hadn't connected the dots between Higurashi and Umineko. Also they both have switch releases, interesting 👀
also wait. umineko. umi neko. sea cat. beautiful lol
When the cicadas cry, when the seagulls cry, and when the storks cry. Higurashi is good, but Umineko is life changing. Ciconia isn't done yet, so I don't know where it will fall.
Lots of Image comics fit the description. Check out their best-selling stuff. I should check out ODY-C again: a retelling of The Odyssey only it's just buff ladies in space in technicolor.
In terms of Manga, you might enjoy Kabu no Isaki.
a retelling of The Odyssey only it’s just buff ladies in space in technicolor.
Yep alright I'm in
By "no dating" do you mean no romantic plotlines or just no dating simulator mechanics?
We Know The Devil isn't really about romance. It has a romantic subplot but it's a coherent extension of the greater themes of queer alienation. It's horror with a moderate dose of fantasy/sci-fi in there.
I can't remember how much actual Dating there is in Butterfly Soup. I'm pretty sure it's technically a kinetic novel in that all the choices are false choices. It's a pretty mundane setting.
I'm fine if it's in there, but not if it's like the whole point of the game. I want to be interacting with a plotline, atmosphere, maybe an enemy of some sort, but I don't really want to play one that's just a waifu simulator y'know.
I shall take a peak at these though they sound kinda cool
having pretty much just a story with no interactions is a subgenre typically referred to as "kinetic" visual novels, so you might have some success looking under that label
Someone mentioned The House in Fata Morgana, and it's an absolute masterpiece (although I haven't gotten around to playing the sort-of prequel game, A Requiem for Innocence, yet). It's technically a romance, but there's no dating, it's just one story. There are a few choices, but they're mostly pretty obvious, and they don't really lead to branching plotlines, they just end the game prematurely.
It's amazing, I was bawling my eyes out pretty much every chapter. It does have some pretty heavy stuff though. It also fits the horror aspect, there's plenty of spooky stuff (you're in a mansion that's supposedly haunted by a witch after all). I guess overall it'd fit under gothic romance (with gothic horror elements)? I'm not particulary clear on the various literary subgenres, but "intense emotions, both positive and negative, the emotions are at an all-time high" definitely applies here.
The art is really interesting too. It's a very unique artsyle, and while the characters themselves are drawn with a lot of details, the backgrounds have this more smudged watercolor vibe, which seems weird at first, but works out pretty well. It really nails the atmosphere, the soundtrack is pretty cool as well.
VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is a bit more "gamey", since you have to mix drinks, but it's not really challenging - you have recipes telling you what to do and no time limit. It's mostly linear, the only impact you have is by serving certain specific drinks at certain times to unlock extra dialogue and story bits. But conversations are typically linear, you don't make dialogue choices. It doesn't have dating (although romance comes up), it's just people hanging out at the bar, very chill and comfy. Also absolutely amazing soundtrack, and pretty great art.
To be fair, it's a really weird and unintuitive name, "kinetic" makes me think more that it'd be something with a military topic. Not sure how it came to be, maybe it sounds better in Japanese
