Board 8 > The OFFICIAL Visual Novel Rankings

(+) Yeah! (+)

As a Visual Novel Expert, I spent countless hours pouring over the countless VNs I have experienced to give you the one true list of quality. No need to think me, save your applause I can't actually hear it anyway. Here it is:

House In Fata Morgana

Danganronpa V3 | Umineko..... QUESTION ARC

Steins;Gate | Fata Morgana Requiem For Innocence

Virtue's Last Reward

Ace Attorney 3

Zero Time Dilemma (2Complex4U) | Ace Attorney Dual Destinies

Umineko """""Answer""""" Arc | Super Danganronpa 2

999 | Ace Attorney 1

Danganronpa

Ever17

Apollo Justice | Ace Attorney 2

Hotel Dusk

Doki Doki Literature Club | Long Live The Queen

REMEMBER 11 | Ace Attorney Investigations 1

The Analogue games probably go around here
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999 > VLR

DR2 > DRV3
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Looks fine to me
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Ever17 is far and away the best thing listed

this list is a SHAM
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I'm sorry, who is the VN Expert here?
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Most of the top VNs aren't even on this list... Can't believe you don't even have Majikoi, translated by great board 8 user Dowolf.
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From stuff I've read:

Tier 1: Fata Morgana, Higurashi, Ever17, Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth

Tier 2: Muv-Luv Alternative, Little Busters, 999, Virtue's Last Reward, Danganronpa

Tier 3: Danganronpa 2, Zero Time Dilemma, Chaos;Child, Fate/Stay Night, Cross Channel, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (this tier is still pretty good)

Tier 4: Phoenix Wright, Umineko, Symphonic Rain

Tier Bad: Muv-Luv

I don't really consider the Utawarerumono games VN's, but they're listed on vndb so whatever

Edit: Oh I didn't read the VN's but attempting to judge off the anime adaptations (which is a bit sketchy), you could add the following:

Tier 1: Steins;Gate, Clannad

Tier 2: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, Utawarerumono

Tier 3: Kanon, White Album 2 ~Introductory Chapter~

Tier 4: Amagami

Tier Bad: Air
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Wow pyresword, you never mentioned that you finished Chaos;Child!
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I didn't! It's not the only VN on that list I didn't finish either >.>
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Hell, strictly speaking I never finished Higurashi and that's in tier 1. Though in that case it's because I'm waiting for chapter 7 and 8 to be released on Steam so I can just read the whole thing at once >.>
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I appreciate this topic. I was beginning to consider playing more visual novels, especially since Ace Attorney seems to be all but dead.
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pyresword posted...

I didn't! It's not the only VN on that list I didn't finish either >.>

do you mean not finishing the other routes/true ending or not even finishing the main ending?
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In Chaos;Child I finished the first route (Over Sky) and then didn't get through any of the other routes.
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I'd recommend going back and finishing the other routes since there's a few more points that get explained and true ending is a continuation/epilogue of the normal ending. so it's kind of like just stopping at the safe ending in 999.

although I should point out as a fair warning that Hana's route has an untranslated map trigger segment that doesn't indicate that you've failed it by picking the wrong choices until a significant amount of text later.
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Fata Morgana
Phoenix Wright
Umineko Ep 1-4
Virtue's Last Reward
Fate/Stay Night
Ever17
Doki Doki Literature Club
Zero Time Dilemma
999
Cross Channel
Umineko Ep 5-8
Danganronpa 1/2

Something like that.
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Wheres my Majikoi

Wheres my Taimanin Asagi
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Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever played an outright bad Visual Novel

If I did, I've repressed it by now
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You haven't played Spirit of Justice yet? I recommend it
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Actually, I think Justice for All is bad outside of Case 2-4 but I didn't feel like ranking each individual PW game and Case 2-4 is good enough on its own to bring the game up to an 'average' rating.

I played the first case of Spirit of Justice so far and it seemed pretty fun.
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Surprised there's no Katawa Shoujo mentioned here. Probably my favourite VN and not just cause it's free. Then again, I've only played a couple.
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th3l3fty posted...

this list is a SHAM

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Cant handle the VN rankings get out of the VN kitchen
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I have my own rankings on vndb but I'm sure as hell not linking to that site on gamefaqs
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I should mention that Im a Non-Hentai VN Expert, maybe that will clear things up
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christ i just read this xkcd and the topic title (if you use "VN") fits it
https://xkcd.com/1412/

I'm ruined
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Saya no Uta
Tsukihime
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai
Sengoku Rance
Majikoi
Symphonic Rain
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
Muv-Luv Alternative
G-senjou no Maou
Fate/Stay Night
Rewrite

Something like that.
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Oh right, for Tsukihime and Saya

Fata Morgana
Phoenix Wright
Umineko Ep 1-4
Virtue's Last Reward
Fate/Stay Night
Ever17
Doki Doki Literature Club
Zero Time Dilemma
999
Tsukihime
Cross Channel
Umineko Ep 5-8
Saya no Uta
Danganronpa 1/2
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I guess I can rank them based on what I posted on vndb now that I'm not at work. tiers are not in order of quality

tier 1: Fate/stay night, Steins;Gate, Muv-Luv Alternative, 428: Shibuya Scramble
tier 2: Danganronpa (series), Ace Attorney 3/5/6, Ever17, Doki Doki Literature Club, 999/VLR, Steins;Gate 0
tier 3: Analogue: A Hate Story/Hate Plus, Eiyuu Senki, Ace Attorney 1, Umineko (series), Tsukihime, Hatoful Boyfriend, Hotel Dusk, Long Live the Queen
tier 4: Ace Attorney 2, Ace Attorney Investigations, Planetarian, Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness, Kira Kira, Disgaea Infinite, Corpse Party (original)
tier 5: Kagetsu Tohya, Ace Attorney 4, Remember11
tier trash: Saya no Uta, XBlaze (series), Root Letter, Muv-Luv, Sakura Spirit, Corpse Party (sequels)

ZTD isn't on vndb but I'd put it on tier 4.
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Oh, I forgot about corpse party.
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Bump for the WVNE (Weekend VN [ Visual Novel] Experts)
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Eh, I guess I'll chime in as well. Sadly, I'm not as much of a VN expert as some of the other people that have posted so far!

Tier 1: Umineko, Clannad
Tier 2: Rewrite, Little Busters, Grisaia no Kajitsu, 999, Katawa Shoujo
Tier 3: Saya no Uta, Doki Doki Literature Club

Also gonna throw in anime adaptations of visual novels that I've seen: Higurashi, Kanon, White Album 2

I enjoyed all the visual novels that I've read so far, even the tier 3 ones!

Sheep007 posted...

Surprised there's no Katawa Shoujo mentioned here.

I was also a bit surprised to see that! I feel like Katawa Shoujo tends to be a lot of people's first visual novels. That was my first visual novel and it definitely sparked my interest in the genre.

Play the Utawarerumono games

I realize I am not the VN EXPERT here, but they are good I swear.
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pyresword posted...

Play the Utawarerumono games

I realize I am not the VN EXPERT here, but they are good I swear.

I'll play the remake when it comes out since it's the first game, then play the other two that are out already
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loweffortmemes posted...

I was also a bit surprised to see that! I feel like Katawa Shoujo tends to be a lot of people's first visual novels. That was my first visual novel and it definitely sparked my interest in the genre.

B8 discovered VNs in general through Phoenix Wright, so we're a pretty significant outlier when it comes to these things

(and even if you don't count Ace Attorney games as VNs, Umineko was also well before KS)
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Board 8 introduced me to every non-handheld Visual Novel except for Umineko, which I discovered elsewhere and then spread here like a plague

Place hasn't steered me wrong so far! Especially never would never have heard of Fata Morgana. Which people should play.
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th3l3fty posted...

B8 discovered VNs in general through Phoenix Wright, so we're a pretty significant outlier when it comes to these things

(and even if you don't count Ace Attorney games as VNs, Umineko was also well before KS)

Ah yeah, I forgot that the age range for B8'ers is higher than in other communities I'm in, so that makes sense actually.

I've read enough not to want to bother with rankings, but my top 5 are Umineko, Ever17, Rewrite, Higurashi, and Steins;Gate in that order.

Haven't read one for a while though, Fata Morgana was over a year ago. Maybe I'll get to Chaos Child eventually.
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When the heck is that PS4 version of Fata Morgana out? Still listed as Q1.
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I have also seriously slowed down on reading VN's lately, which is kind of unfortunate.
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I have a local friend who swears by Underwater Ray Romano. Didn't know it was actually a VN. Apparently that's being localized in 2020?

LapisLazuli posted...

When the heck is that PS4 version of Fata Morgana out? Still listed as Q1.

No clue!
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Also Fata Morgana was kind of doomed to obscurity from the start I think. The gothic aesthetic is not really one that appeals to the VN fanbase I don't think, and also some of the promo art is...not the best. In particular there is one image that (to me at least) makes the game seem like it's going to be some really trashy yuri VN.

I was only even aware of the VN at all because I was following the Higurashi releases and Fata Morgana was also being done by the same company. I pretty much wrote it off on sight initially. I only gave it a shot because of some random really passionate tweet from one of the translators saying how much they loved it, and then I also liked the song that played in the trailer when I went to find out more.
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I can rank visual novels too. I think these are all the ones I've read (I'm not counting Phoenix Wright but am counting Long Live the Queen and Magical Diary which are more choice-heavy and stat-based than the others). I also got one episode into World End Economica and two small routes into Clannad. Both were good but then I got distracted and never went back to them so they aren't ranked. Anyway, these are split by tiers

Highway Blossoms
The House in Fata Morgana
Steins;Gate

Magical Diary
If My Heart Had Wings (only did one route)
Doki Doki Literature Club

Season of 12 Colors
Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For-

</reality>
planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~
Amplitude
Sound of Drop -fall into poison-

Long Live the Queen

Raka_Putra did some amount of work on Amplitude, which is why I tried it, so I feel bad for ranking it so low but I enjoyed most of the VNs I've read except for Long Live the Queen. Man, I need to read more VNs. I own a bunch more on Steam.
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I actually thought Fata Morgana was a Western VN for a while, lol.

I played the original Utawarerumono quite a few years back when it got a fan TL. Was a pretty good game! Haven't been playing enough VNs recently, but at least I managed to played one this year so far (and both of the DGS games, if those count).
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KamikazePotato posted...

I have a local friend who swears by Underwater Ray Romano. Didn't know it was actually a VN.

Well...
pyresword posted...

I don't really consider the Utawarerumono games VN's, but they're listed on vndb so whatever

I don't really think they are. They're SRPG's that have a lot more text and dialogue than your typical SRPG. (Like reading an hour's worth of text or more in between battles is pretty common.)
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Isn't Katawa Shoujo the 4chan VN?
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pyresword posted...

Also Fata Morgana was kind of doomed to obscurity from the start I think.

While true, that's not going to stop me from telling people to play it. Pretty sure 100% of its sales have happened from word of mouth so it's actually important!
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pyresword posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

I have a local friend who swears by Underwater Ray Romano. Didn't know it was actually a VN.

Well...
pyresword posted...

I don't really consider the Utawarerumono games VN's, but they're listed on vndb so whatever

I don't really think they are. They're SRPG's that have a lot more text and dialogue than your typical SRPG. (Like reading an hour's worth of text or more in between battles is pretty common.)

That's similar to the Tears to Tiara series, of which one game (II: Heir of the Overlord) on the PS3 was localized.
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Fata Morgana is a masterpiece, one of the greatest stories I've ever read in general much less VNs.
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pyresword posted...

I don't really think they are. They're SRPG's that have a lot more text and dialogue than your typical SRPG. (Like reading an hour's worth of text or more in between battles is pretty common.)

Close enough to count, honestly. I think you could even include something like Blazblue under the umbrella if you wanted to stretch the limit - if you ignore multiplayer each game has like 30 hours of VN-style story.
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KamikazePotato posted...

pyresword posted...

I don't really think they are. They're SRPG's that have a lot more text and dialogue than your typical SRPG. (Like reading an hour's worth of text or more in between battles is pretty common.)

Close enough to count, honestly. I think you could even include something like Blazblue under the umbrella if you wanted to stretch the limit - if you ignore multiplayer each game has like 30 hours of VN-style story.

well

those are also on vndb
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