I kind of like the sound of visual novels, but know very little about them.

From what I have read, you can't even call them a game really, unless .....

Do you have any free play with them .... move around locations, have different views etc?

Be very cool if you could, otherwise they just seem like a CGI kind of movie to me.

For sure, a very long movie in some (maybe all) instances, and probably cheaper than you would pay for a movie.

So what is the real benefit of these Visual Novels?

At the moment, they seem very much to me, like watching a movie and using the remote control to pause now and then to reflect ... hopefully I am wrong, and there is more to it?

I guess worse scenario, in the case of a good VN, is you got a long movie for a cheap price.

I am thinking of grabbing Eden and giving it a go.

A visual novel is more like a graphic novel... you only get maybe 1 paragraph of data at a time, and images to compliment it.

Some will have variation, but others run straight through with little interaction, occasionally deciding on 'accept the date' and 'turn her down' as the options, something like every 2 hours.

Dating simulators may have a few extras, like having to go work to get money, and then getting presents to raise the 'love meter'.

VallHalla is located in a bar, and thus you make drinks every so often, like every 20 minutes you look up a requested drink and serve it.

I've beaten about 3 visual novels and... well... it's difficult for me to have any motivation to go for more. Yes they can make very lifelike characters, but the script is going to have such restrictions that it doesn't necessarily feel like you're doing anything at all.

And like Jesse Cox puts it, you'll be pressing 'next' for 30 minutes or longer at a time. True there's autoplay, which will move it forward, but still seems like way too much reading in too small a box.

Choose your own adventure books... aahhh loved those...

Generally you get 4 choices every 2 pages, and the story diverges a lot, then comes to a single chokepoint, before spreading out to a few different branches and endings.

Saw this video on mapping some books, and interesting how it got laid out... now if i can only find that....

Choose you own adventure books are a great comparison, but VN's vary greatly the the amount of choices they present. Some have many choices that can affect the story greatly, while others have none.

Having a quick look at the game you mentions, it appears to fall into the later catergory. Which I beleave is called a Kinetic Novel - one that has no choices - though I am not up on my terminoligy with the genre tbh.

One that does offer choices that effect the playthrough is The Letter, a horror visual novel .It's only on Steam right now, but I hope it comes over eventuall.

Alas, I predate those. Not far off 60 I am.
My kids got a few.
I did buy a few as an adult ... still unread.

Oh. It seems like I did not twig to being static images ... or perhaps mostly so. I guess some have video segments.

So I guess, they are not really like a movie, if just mostly static scenes with text.

From what I have read so far, some allow minimal interaction, where you might affect the outcome to some degree ... or maybe side issues only. So in that regard, I guess they are more like an interactive novel than movie.

I had noted that for "Eden' at least, you cannot interact and change anything .... Kinetic as they call it.

However, it has not been made clear to me, whether you get any free play or ability to check out surroundings at least.

If you can't do anything, other than click next, then really it is not a game at all.

There is a mention of CGI though, so I do wonder about the existence of 3D environments, which of course leads to thought of being able to investigate them. That would be a cool ability, akin to walking around the movie you are watching or check out things from a different camera angle (like in some movies, but not so limited perhaps). That would of course be a whole new wondrous experience.

Ooops. :P

Anyway they remind me of those.
I'm not that into them but I suppose if one doesn't cost enough they can be a halfway decent time killer.

Just like any genre, there are variations, but for most of them, interaction is entirely text-based, some don't give you any choices whatsoever. I haven't seen anything claiming to be a visual novel that allows you to move freely, but there are games that combine other genres such as (J)RPG with visual novel-like storytelling.

CGI in this context, I would assume, relates to whether the images are rendered in 3D or drawn in 2D. But I could be wrong.

There usually is a variety of different idle or other images that mostly help convey facial or body language emotions, but they are still going to be static.

Might consider 2064: Read Only Memories, it's a pixelart Visual Novel, however characters in it are animated as i recall, at least far more than the usual Visual Novel. Or video sequences...

Although seeing a moving breathing character is more fun than static images...

Visual novels are certainly not games. They are exactly what their name describes: novels in a visual form. They don't have any gameplay.

At most, sometimes the player can make a few choices here and there, which determines which pages of the novel are subsequently displayed to them, or not. But that's not gameplay either.

If they have no choices to make I agree.
But if you can make choices, that make a difference, then they are a game. Providing of course, that you adhere to the regular understanding of playing something for pleasure, that entertains you.

Games come in all shapes and sizes, and extend well beyond the digital realm ... as you would know.

Hide and Seek anyone?
What about Peekaboo?

*sigh* That's one of the series my ex ran off with.

Check out Visual Novel database:

http://vndb.org

You should get description about each game there, some may of course be lacking information, but at least well-known titles are thoroughly covered. There is information about gameplay type, about possible paths and such, whether the game has adult content or not, etc.

Really a great resource for VN genre.


And if you want to have any interaction, you may want to avoid "Kinetic novels".

http://vndb.org/g709

I've been watching a Sunrider Academy Let's Play this weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV4GAGH_RLw&list=PLZqO_iCT0x36-0Yp8qA7BklZPzdf5BeWn

*shrug* I can see why some folks like it but gotta admit it's probably not my cup of tea.