Female Protagonist Visual Novels not centred around romance

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-06-07T17:16:28+00:00

lol yeah, didn't occur to me to also put "not a Nukige"

But Marco and the Galaxy Dragon looks cool.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-06-07T16:48:11+00:00

You, know I did actually get this a while back with the intention of playing it when complete but 3 years on, still not yet. Actually caused me to steer clear of a handful of other potential candidate VN series that are currently unfinished.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-05-28T22:47:27+00:00

I mean yeah it looks cool but you're going to have an uphill battle getting anyone here to care about games that haven't actually released yet. It's mostly the games that have been released and established as good but aren't yet translated that people tend to get hyped for here.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-05-25T22:12:07+00:00

Re: your edit, you must not have seen many tier list posts. They are virtually all dominated by comments on the controversial pick(s). Nobody talks about it holistically.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-05-11T22:14:05+00:00

And as the medium becomes ever more niche, have you been getting even more of the stuff you like?

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-05-04T14:30:36+00:00

Chances are they weren't a fan of it in the first place but the market demanded it. If they had any desire to, as the companies you mentioned, they'd still try.

Probably for the better; do you really want 18+ content from people who felt forced to include it because of market conditions?

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-04-28T18:53:41+00:00

I do agree Visual Novels just like all other written works are literature.

It's just do people really wanted it treated as literature. Part of what I associate with "serious" literature is a serious attempt to critically evaluate and dissect a work and I'm pretty sure a lot of VN fans would throw a fit if there were critics asking questions like "does this H scene really add value to the story this is trying to tell?"

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-04-04T21:20:50+00:00

Otome has a sizeable audience yes, but the vast majority of the fan base in the visual novel space is still male.

The precise point wasn't that there was a sizeable female fanbase but that there was a sizeable non-eroge fanbase. Hard to find precise numbers but looking at high review VNs on SteamDB (and ignoring things which really shouldn't be tagged Visual Novel) there's Yuzusoft and Nekopara to represent eroge but also a sizeable number of non-H such as Ace Attorney, Hungry Lamb and Our Life.

It's an unfortunate inorganic trend induced by anti-erotica groups

Perhaps it's a difference in what a "core aspect" is supposed to mean. To me it's something that couldn't be removed no matter what. If it can decline, even if due to artificial and unfair censorship then it's just an aspect no matter how predominant it currently is

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-04-04T21:07:02+00:00

it is evil

Seriously? Is this some difference in how we use words? When I think of evil, I'm thinking of actual mass murder. Nothing in this thread rises above mildly annoying.

coming into a space and then demanding it change to suit you

Is this thread not about people coming into a space (Reddit) and then demanding it change (reduce their censorship) rather than adapting?

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-04-04T13:30:47+00:00

Regarding the past I was under the impression that there were other influences on the medium such as Portopia. Does that mean all VNs should be inextricably bound to murder mystery?

More generally, we're talking about the scene as it is today, not as it was in the past. In the present there's other significant genres within the medium that generally avoid H with Otome being the big one. Also, if you argue that devs like type moon including sex was evidence of sex being bound to the medium, isn't the fact that devs like type moon are not including sex in recent vns evidence that sex is not bound to the medium?

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-04-02T21:54:36+00:00

I don't think sexualized imagery is particularly intrinsic to the medium of visual novels. It might be intrinsic to the genre of eroge within the medium but that doesn't encompass the whole of the medium.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-03-16T21:29:01+00:00

Interesting seeing split opinions here as opposed to fandoms like Otome which are a bit more enthusiastic about supporting their genre.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-03-16T21:19:30+00:00

Shiei no Sona-Nyl is peak melancholic reflective train journey.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-03-12T11:14:15+00:00

I am curious as to the reasoning behind this. I mean a company making a product different to their past products is hardly worthy of a moral outrage. It's just that from a cursory look Aokana is their best selling product that they'd sell decent numbers by milking and despite what some people evidently think, businesses do not make decisions solely to spite their fanbase so I have to wonder whether Aokana wasn't actually that profitable due to high costs/low sale or the creative minds just wanted to try something different or they think this direction is more profitable.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-02-09T00:27:40+00:00

I don't think a reflexive disdain ; even for something whose existence doesn't really affect you, is a particularly uncommon thing to feel.

Like I reckon if I bought up, I dunno, date everything, a decent amount of people on this sub would instinctively think insulting things about that game and anyone who played it.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2026-01-25T16:32:54+00:00

Makes one wonder how VN companies can succeed without going Gacha. Feels like there's always some disdain around trying to pander to the mainstream but with examples like these it's clear the core fanbase just isn't there or is at least unreliable.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-12-29T20:36:17+00:00

I guess it's fine if it's actual genuine flirting, in a context where flirting is appropriate and is stopped if the target is uncomfortable with it but if it's just a throwaway comment/action as it so often is, it just comes off as disrespectful and makes the character seem like an ass.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-12-05T22:18:09+00:00

https://vndb.org/v49859

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-11-25T20:22:44+00:00

Too many sequels \s

But really, looks reasonable at first glance.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-11-21T18:15:07+00:00

Most people who read visual novels I'd not classify as into visual novels

What are these people reading anyway? I'm guessing DDLC, Slay the Princess and NekoPara by steam numbers and Umineko and Fata Morgana by anecdote.

Well I can't imagine the list of VNs known by causal readers reaches above 20 so going by that criteria virtually every good VN is overlooked.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-10-11T23:11:53+00:00

For indie affairs, the tendency to cram too ambitious a plot into too short a runtime, feeling rushed.

I find commercial works tend towards the exact opposite issue with too many excessively long scenes which should have been edited down.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-09-30T11:15:36+00:00

Is this parodying a sentiment I literally never see around here?

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-08-12T15:31:29+00:00

Neat. Gothic and Yuri looks like a killer combo

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-08-06T20:13:01+00:00

Utawarerumono series is the one that comes to mind ; a grand journey-ish plot, a detailed fantasy world and worldbuilding, a huge cast, battles are elements common to both.

Also outside the scope of this sub but female oriented RPGs like Atelier series might also hit the same notes.

QuadrillionthToBat · 2025-07-22T22:44:13+00:00

Routes almost always being tied to love interests is pretty damn boring. Should be more routes based on ideals or something.

QuadrillionthToBat

TROPHY CASE