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Visual Novels have arrived on GOG.com! Our first selection includes acclaimed games, revered for their intricate artwork and stimulating stories, up to 66% off until May 29, 1pm UTC.

Higurashi When They Cry Chapters 1-5 (25% off): Spawning a popular anime and manga series, Higurashi is a "sound novel", where meticulously designed audio plays a crucial part in these unique stories. Chapters 1-5 are available today, with Chapter 6 slated for release in the near future.

fault (50% off): Sometimes it takes a healthy dose of pulp sci-fi and a dash of fantasy to weave a powerful cinematic story about the human condition. These two episodes of the ongoing series star the perky princess Selphine and her sarcastic guardian Ritona, as they desperately try to make their way back to their homeland.

Sunrider series (66% off): An alternate universe, intergalactic strife, mech combat, high school, and love all around. Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius (free!), Liberation Day, and Sunrider Academy are a beloved and unique mix of strategy, romance, and visual novel. De-censor patch optional, but come on.

eden* (66% off): Stock up on tissues. This critically-acclaimed love story on a dying planet is a real tear-jerker told with stunning cinematic flair. Humanity is about to be wiped out by a red star but this story is destined to stick around for much longer.
Thanks GOG
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WereSquirrel: We've come a long way from when GOG used to mean Good Old Games
It's Good Old Gaming actually, in the sense that unlike Steam you own the games you buy. So you're wrong since the very beginning.
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WereSquirrel: I feel like GOG should have two storefronts at this point. GOG itself, the curated storefront, and an "Anything goes" storefront that publishes anything and everything just like Steam. The common point being that games purchased on both platforms end up in your GOG client. This way we'd have the best of both worlds: a curated selection, and the ability to have everything under one roof: one more reason to abandon Steam for good.
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Srawperd: I don't even begin to understand the logic here. You browse the store by using the search bar anyway so what would be the purpose of creating a separate place to put other games?

"I don't care for visual novels" would have sufficed. You don't have to be a gate-keeping elitist and suggest that they should be corralled elsewhere just because you don't want to see them on the front page; which is the only place you'd likely see them since you wouldn't search for them intentionally.
This seems to be the divining factor with GOG. On the other hand, this seems to have happened after all the complaints about curation and the positive responses when gog reverses a particular decision. None of these games look that appealing to me (i did hit the free button on the free one, of course, 'cause you can't argue with free, especially after buying a 4TB hard drive to house the rest of my gog collection), but i'd rather have the option to reject it by not buying it than not have the opportunity to buy something I want.
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XyleDaylight: Higurashi When They Cry original release: 2002

Don't try and pretend that they're not fit to be sold here because you don't like VNs or anime. There's even older VNs that I would love to have here.

As for the whole Valve censorship thing... GOG still didn't release Hatred or that Senran Kagura game. So they're not exactly heroes for games with sexy or controversial content. Let's hope this recent PR convinces them otherwise.
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kohlrak: On one hand i'd say that these are a bad sample to see how people would react, but on the other hand, i've seen topics here go hot and go to like 18 pages, but not within 24 hours of posting. This one exploded. These don't look that appealing to me, but here we are on page 18.
if they dont look appealing to you, you don't have to buy them pal
A cynical person would say that Steam's budding attempts at curation seem to be robbing GOG of the very thing that made it appealing to discerning gamers, but I for one am happy to see an established company unabashedly catering to a vilified, marginalized, misunderstood demographic. Better let them work out their stuff through a piece of non-choice interactive media acquired through a regulated, monitored storefront. Choices are hard, and some of us are bad at making them.
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kohlrak: On one hand i'd say that these are a bad sample to see how people would react, but on the other hand, i've seen topics here go hot and go to like 18 pages, but not within 24 hours of posting. This one exploded. These don't look that appealing to me, but here we are on page 18.
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Minuteworld: if they dont look appealing to you, you don't have to buy them pal
I'm not. If you pay attention to what i'm implying, their lack of appeal to me is indicative of the fact my tastes don't agree with the GOG customer base. So, it is worth pointing out, that while some people have a problem with it, the fact that this topic is now on page 19 within 24 hours of posting, vs how previous posts were, is indicative that alot more people like it than don't. Didn't to the censorship topic hijacking the XSEED thing take almost a week to get to page 14 alone? I may disagree with the taste, but it almost merits a topic of it's own to just point out how hot this topic is.
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dorzl: A cynical person would say that Steam's budding attempts at curation seem to be robbing GOG of the very thing that made it appealing to discerning gamers, but I for one am happy to see an established company unabashedly catering to a vilified, marginalized, misunderstood demographic. Better let them work out their stuff through a piece of non-choice interactive media acquired through a regulated, monitored storefront. Choices are hard, and some of us are bad at making them.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems as if you're suggesting people are here for the curation instead of the "DRM free."
Post edited May 23, 2018 by kohlrak
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ZaineH: But the Paradox sale... I just... Alright. I did swear that if Higurashi ever showed up, I'd instabuy it. I hope there isn't much of a delay between the Steam and GOG releases for the last three chapters.
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liamphoenix: How did the Paradox sale get you?

It's not like they've actually been adding many games here for quite a while.

I've pretty much stopped playing almost all Paradox games because they tend to be Steam exclusives now and I'm not putting up with that from them to play Stellaris or a newer version of Europa Universalis.
I finally caved and got the first Pillars release alongside of few games for my sis. I don't care much for Paradox, but I do generally find something to like in Obsidian games. The strategy games largely aren't my cup of tea.
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kohlrak: Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems as if you're suggesting people are here for the curation instead of the "DRM free."
But why do people care about DRM(Free)? To avoid corporations meddling with the content of a game or your ability to access it. Steam doesn't allow you to decline updates on games, some of which have been to censor. There's MANY advantages to DRM free, quite a few of them that would benefit audiences who want old or niche VNs with content that is controversial to the average person.
low rated
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EnglishInfix: That you can buy movies on GOG shows that there that a lack of traditional gameplay isn't really a good reason that VNs shouldn't belong here.
GOG in the OP of this thread, and many users, are calling visuals novels "games" even though they aren't. That's a different issue to the question of whether or not they belong here. They may belong here, but they doesn't mean they should be described inaccurately in ways that misrepresent them. Lots of people who hear that visual novels are "games" will be given a misleading impression and then buy and launch one or more VNs expecting them to be games. They are going to be rightfully irate when they discover after the fact that a bait & switch scam was pulled on them.

So my point is, call them what they are, and there is no issue. But start muddying the waters by calling them games, then that opens up lots of cans of worms.
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kohlrak: Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems as if you're suggesting people are here for the curation instead of the "DRM free."
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XyleDaylight: But why do people care about DRM(Free)? To avoid corporations meddling with the content of a game or your ability to access it. Steam doesn't allow you to decline updates on games, some of which have been to censor. There's MANY advantages to DRM free, quite a few of them that would benefit audiences who want old or niche VNs with content that is controversial to the average person.
Corporations will meddle no matter what. I came here so that once i buy something, I don't have to (or shouldn't have to) worry about things changing. If i have a version that works on my computer, i don't need some silly client that does nothing but make it harder to run well on my computer. Most importantly, the copy i have now, I can play 20 years from now on the same computer if i have it, just like i can with my old disk copies.

Personally, i think curation is a sort of necessary evil with gog: they can't install and support every game on the market. But, to be fair, i think GOG's curation should limit itself to whether or not the game can turn a profit after figuring the cost of writing an article and taking up space on the drive. The bandwidth and support cost should be figured into the price itself, rather than determining whether or not it should be on GOG. I understand that can be hard to guess, but GOG isn't basing it's curation on those factors.
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: GOG in the OP of this thread, and many users, are calling visuals novels "games" even though they aren't. That's a different issue to the question of whether or not they belong here. They may belong here, but they doesn't mean they should be described inaccurately in ways that misrepresent them. Lots of people who hear that visual novels are "games" will be given a misleading impression and then buy and launch one or more VNs expecting them to be games. They are going to be rightfully irate when they discover after the fact that a bait & switch scam was pulled on them.

So my point is, call them what they are, and there is no issue. But start muddying the waters by calling them games, then that opens up lots of cans of worms.
Not this crap again. This comes from yet more people who are inexperienced with this genre.

Yes, some VNs don't have choices. These are called Kinetic Novels or KNs but are still widely regarded as VNs just like FPS games are primarily referred to as FPS in general conversation even if they have some other genre blending like RPG mechanics.

Does a VN being a KN and not having choice areas that make them not games? I dunno, maybe. But does it matter? They often have cued music to play at appropriate times, sound effects and art/writing crafted to make it all come together for an interesting story an a unique experience. Is it not a game? Then neither is Gone Home where there is no choices. Its content is that of a 3D demo where you look at objects and have sound effects and music played at different times (and can be 'completed' in minutes). I'd say even kinetic novels are more of a game than that because at least they have a save feature and take a while to get through.

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kohlrak: Corporations will meddle no matter what. I came here so that once i buy something, I don't have to (or shouldn't have to) worry about things changing
They can't meddle with your DRM free version after the fact. This is important to games that have a high chance of being removed or censored. You appreciate that the lack of DRM helps you enjoy the product years from now with no activation needed. This is very helpful for content that is lightweight and might remain on a system for years before being accessed or moved to a new system. This is exactly what happens with VNs a lot of the time.
Post edited May 23, 2018 by XyleDaylight
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Whoa! The impossible actually happen! I'm really glad from the bottom of my heart that GOG.com finally decided to publish Visual Novels especially from renowned companies such as Mangagamer and Sekai Project!

Many thanks GOG.COM, Mangagamer, and Sekai Project! More power to you people!!!

This is truly a miracle! Today's a good day to be alive!!!

Hope to see more quality Visual Novels make its way through GOG.COM!!!

Please bring Moékuri and other Visual Novel RPG hybrid from Mangagamer!
Post edited May 23, 2018 by Theseekingseer
Moekuri is more of a cute Final Fantasy Tactics clone than a VN.
I'd be very happy if GoG was able to bring over Utawarerumono.

It'd be nice to buy it instead of just pirating it, fucking with the patches and all that shit
It technically is an old classic VN that a lot of people consider legendary. But that's a bit of an odd request, and coming from someone who just wants to play it despite not having played many VNs before.
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Fenixblade33: It technically is an old classic VN that a lot of people consider legendary.
Evidence needed. I've played the game and I certainly don't consider it that way...nor have I ever seen someone regarding it like that.