Visual novel
Japanese narrative-focused games with static art and text boxes.
Visual novels are a video game genre that originated in Japan and center on telling a story. Players advance by clicking, tapping, or pressing a button. Some definitions note that these games often give players choices that lead to different story paths. The look of visual novels typically involves static character images and background art, paired with soundtracks and sound effects. The story and player interactions usually appear in text boxes, with menu-based choices controlling actions or dialogue that reflect the player character’s speech or thoughts. The term "visual novel" came into use in the latter half of the 1990s; in Japan, they are often called *noberugēmu*, short for "novel game." Key releases from the 1990s, such as *Otogirisō* (1992), *Yu-no* (1996), and *Kanon* (1999), helped establish the gameplay and visual features that later visual novels would commonly adopt.
- First game marketed as "visual novel"
- Shizuku (1996) is often cited, but the first use of the term is disputed
Lore & Background
Visual novels draw gameplay elements from 1980s Japanese and Western made adventure games. The term "visual novel" originated by the later-half of the 1990s, while in Japan they are often called noberugēmu (lit. 'novel game') for short. Releases in the 1990s such as Otogirisō (1992), Yu-no (1996), and Kanon (1999) would establish the gameplay and visual elements that would become common in later visual novels. Being narrative-focused, the stories and themes explored range from various narrative genres, with Japanese-made games often emphasizing romance. Visual novels are made with lower cost and in shorter periods of time compared to other game genres. This has led them to represent a significant portion of PC videogames produced and sold in Japan, though not the majority. As they are easier to develop than other game genres, most Japanese erotic games were developed as visual novels due to their low-budget nature.
The genre grew more attention in the West with the belated release of games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001) in 2005. This coincided with the rising popularity of anime in the West in the 2000s, which led to players discovering visual novels from their anime adaptations, which led to Western developers developing visual novels more prominently in the 2010s. Through the release of free and open-source software such as Ren'Py, developers outside of Japan began developing more games that adapted visual and gameplay elements of visual novels such as the American Butterfly Soup (2017) and Chinese The Invisible Guardian (2019). Other Japanese games would adapt to newer technology such as virtual reality headsets or artificial intelligence in the second quarter of the 21st century.
Reader's Guide
Visual novels have historically maintained a strong presence in Japan's video game market and otaku culture with hundreds of titles produced yearly. In the Western world, there is debate whether the titles are games at all due to the limited interactivity. Publishers have said these debates had led to slower adaption to mainstream digital distributors such as Steam to release visual novels. In 2015, academic Mia Consalvo said that visual novels remained one of the most "Japanese" genres of videogames, due to their use of Japanese tropes, themes and settings and described them as the least exported styles of games coming from Japan. Mark Kretzschmar and Sara Raffel, authors of The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels (2023) wrote that they expect the visual novel to remain a least a fringe level of popularity due to the changing tastes of Western game audiences. They described these audiences now finding the "Japanese-ness" of visual novels as being a "selling point, not a cultural obstacle". The genre's significance lies in its low-cost production enabling a large output in Japan, its influence on Western indie development through tools like Ren'Py, and its ongoing cultural debate about what constitutes a game.
Did You Know?
- The first commercial video game described as a visual novel is disputed; Shizuku (1996) by the Japanese company Leaf is often cited, but not universally agreed upon.
- The Japanese video game company Chunsoft used the registered trademark "Sound Novel" for early 1990s games like Otogirisō (1992).
- Some visual novels, such as Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (2004), feature no branching path choices and are completely linear.
- Academic Mia Consalvo described visual novels as the least exported styles of games
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