Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What's a visual novel?
Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their generally minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving (many recent games offer "play" or "fast-forward" toggles that make this unnecessary), while making narrative choices along the way. Another main characteristic of visual novels are its strong emphasis on the prose, as the narration in visual novels are delivered through text. This characteristic makes playing visual novels similar to reading a book.
Christine Love began creating visual novels while in school at Trent University. By January 2010, she had made a few small video games; written a novel and a few short stories, which she largely unsuccessfully tried to sell; and had made a visual novel each March for three consecutive years for NaNoRenO (National Ren'ai Game Writing Month), a month-long contest in the vein of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where developers attempt to create a visual novel in one month. In February 2010, she started a fourth visual novel, which resulted in "", her first game to receive widespread attention and acclaim. Set "five minutes into the future of 1988", "Digital" tells the story of the silent protagonist's online relationship with a girl named *Emilia, and a mystery surrounding the "murders" of several AI programs. The game is presented entirely through the interface of a 1980s computer with online bulletin board system posts and messages from other characters; the protagonist's own messages are implied but never shown. Love expected the game to reach as many people as her prior work, "a dozen or so people"; instead, the free game was noticed by video game publications and websites such as "PC Gamer" and Gamasutra and received much more attention, becoming what Love believes was "a defining point in [her] writing career". Widely praised by critics, "Digital" earned an honorable mention in Gamasutra's "Best Indie Games of 2010" list. Love felt that "Digital"s success turned her from a writer into an indie game developer.
Most of "Kanon"s development staff originally worked for the visual novel publisher Nexton under the brand Tactics. After the release of the brand's third game "", most of Tactics' staff left Nexton to pursue work in another publishing company where they could have the freedom to produce their next game. Itaru Hinoue, who had previously worked at VisualArt's once before, introduced Key's founding members to the president of VisualArt's, Takahiro Baba. Baba gave the developers the freedom they desired, and they officially transferred to VisualArt's where they formed Key on July 21, 1998 and started production on "Kanon". The planning for the visual novel was headed by Naoki Hisaya who was also one of two scenario writers with Jun Maeda. Hisaya wrote the scenarios for Ayu, Nayuki and Shiori, while Maeda wrote the routes for Makoto and Mai. Art direction was headed by Key's artist Itaru Hinoue who worked on the character design and computer graphics. Further computer graphics were split between three people—Dinn, Miracle Mikipon, Shinory—and background art was provided by Torino. The music in the game was composed by OdiakeS, Shinji Orito and Jun Maeda. "Kanon" was the first and last visual novel developed by Key that two of the main staff—Naoki Hisaya, and OdiakeS—worked on before pursuing a similar line of work in other visual novel studios.
A is an interactive game genre, which originated in Japan, featuring text-based story with narrative style of literature and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals, most often using anime-style art or occasionally live-action stills (and sometimes video footage). As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels.
There are a number of hybrid graphical adventure games, borrowing from two or more of the above classifications. For example, the "Ace Attorney" series of games, while presenting itself as a visual novel, includes elements of point-and-click adventure games. The "Zero Escape" series wraps several escape-the-room puzzles within the context of a visual novel. The "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" series has the player use point-and-click type interfaces to locate clues, and minigame-type mechanics to manipulate those clues to find more relevant information.
While most adventure games typically do not include any time-based interactivity by the player, action-adventure games are a hybrid of action games with adventure games that often require to the player to react quickly to events as they occur on screen. The action-adventure genre is broad, spanning many different subgenres, but typically these games utilize strong storytelling and puzzle-solving mechanics of adventure games among the action-oriented gameplay concepts. The foremost title in this genre was "Adventure", a graphic home console game developed based on the text-based "Colossal Cave Adventure", while the first "The Legend of Zelda" brought the action-adventure concept to a broader audience.
A radically altered version of "Silent Hill" was released for the Game Boy Advance. Titled "Play Novel: Silent Hill" and released only in Japan in 2001, it is a gamebook-style visual novel. It contains a retelling of "Silent Hill"s story through text-based gameplay, with the player occasionally confronted with questions concerning what direction to take the character, as well as the puzzles, which are a major part of "Silent Hill"s gameplay. After completing the game once, the player has the option of playing as Cybil in a second scenario, with a third made available for download once the second scenario has been completed. When the game was exhibited, Western critics were unimpressed, and criticized the lack of any soundtrack as severely detracting from the "horror" factor of the game.
English translations are published in North America and the United Kingdom by Viz Media. As of 2013 Viz Media has released the manga in five different formats. Initially the manga was printed flipped and with English translations of the sound effects. Publication of English editions began in 1988 with the release of episodes from the story under the title "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" in the "Viz Select Comics" series. This series ran until 1996. It consists of 27 issues. In October 1990 Viz Media also started publishing the manga as "Viz Graphic Novel, Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind". The last of the seven Viz Graphic Novels in this series appeared in January 1997. Viz media reprinted the manga in four volumes titled, "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind: Perfect Collection", which were released from October 1995 to October 1997. A box set of the four volumes was later released in January 2000. In 2004 Viz Media re-released the seven-volume format in an "Editors Choice" edition titled "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". In this version the manga is left unflipped and the sound effects are left untranslated. Viz Media released its own deluxe two-volume box set on November 6, 2012.
A novella is a text of written, fictional, narrative prose normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, somewhere between 17,500 and 40,000 words.
"Bleach" was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine "Weekly Shōnen Jump" from August 2001 to August 2016, with its chapters collected into 74 "tankōbon" volumes. The series has spawned a media franchise that includes an anime television series that was produced by Studio Pierrot from 2004 to 2012, two original video animation episodes, four animated feature films, ten stage musicals, and numerous video games, as well as many types of "Bleach"-related merchandise. A live-action film adaptation was released in 2018. English-language releases of "Bleach" are coordinated by Viz Media, which has released several volumes of the manga each year since 2004, and published chapters of "Bleach" in its "Shonen Jump" magazine since November 2007. Viz Media secured foreign television and home video distribution rights to the "Bleach" anime in 2006. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim began airing dubbed episodes of "Bleach" in the United States that Fall, and Hulu later began to stream subtitled versions of the anime a week after each episode aired in Japan. Viz Media has also released each of the "Bleach" feature films in English.
In September 2004, IDW Publications began publishing a series of "Metal Gear Solid" comics, written by Kris Oprisko and illustrated by Ashley Wood. As of 2006, 12 issues have been published, fully covering the "Metal Gear Solid" storyline. The comic was adapted into a PlayStation Portable game, "Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel" ("Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée" in Japan). It features visual enhancements and two interactive modes designed to give further insight into the publication. Upon viewing the pages, the player can open a "scanning" interface to search for characters and items in a three-dimensional view. Discoveries are added to a database which can be traded with other players via Wi-Fi. The "mission mode" allows the player to add collected information into a library. This information must be properly connected to complete a mission. "Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel" was released in North America on June 13, 2006, Japan on September 21 and the PAL region on September 22. In 2006, the game received IGN's award for Best Use of Sound on the PSP. A DVD-Video version is included with its sequel ("Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée"), which was released in Japan on June 12, 2008. The DVD version features full voice acting.
The "Clannad" animated television series is based on the visual novel "Clannad" by the Japanese visual novel brand Key. The episodes, produced by the animation studio Kyoto Animation, are directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, written by Fumihiko Shimo, and features character design by Kazumi Ikeda who based the designs on Itaru Hinoue's original concept. The story follows the main character Tomoya Okazaki, a discontent high school student whose life changes when he meets a girl one year older than he is, named Nagisa Furukawa.
"Harmonia" is a visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Rei. The gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue and follows a linear plot line; this is what Key refers to as a "kinetic novel". The text in the game is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Rei is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. Once the game is completed, a gallery of the game's CGs and background music becomes available on the title screen. The story takes place in a town with a stable water source that supports a small population. Frequented locations include the church where Rei and Shiona live, the library where Tipi lives, and the town plaza. The town also has various establishments, including a general store, a photo studio, and a bar. Although most of the town does not have electricity, there is a solar-powered battery in the library. On the outskirts of town, there is a ruined Phiroid factory next to the town dump.
"Clannad" is a visual novel developed by Key and published by VisualArt's in 2004. The story follows Tomoya Okazaki, a discontented high school student whose life changes when he meets a girl one year older than him named Nagisa Furukawa. It was adapted by Toei Animation into an animated film in 2007 directed by Osamu Dezaki with music direction by Yoshichika Inomata. Kyoto Animation also adapted it into two anime television series consisting of 49 episodes broadcast between 2007 and 2009, including two original video animation episodes released in 2008 and 2009, directed by Tatsuya Ishihara with music direction by Shinji Orito. The discography of "Clannad" and its anime adaptations consists of two studio albums, four singles, two soundtracks, and four remix albums.
A light novel series titled , written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto, began on April 1, 2011. Its story is set before the events of the manga and it was published by Kodansha in three volumes. While the first tells the story of Angel, the blacksmith who develops the first prototypes of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, the following two follow a young man who was found as a baby in the stomach of a Titan. A second light novel series called , written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata, was published between August 1, 2014 and May 1, 2015. Vertical released the novels in North America in 2014 and 2015. A novel titled , written by Hiroshi Seko, was published on December 9, 2014. It comprises three short stories featuring Mikasa and Annie Leonhart, titled "Lost in the cruel world", "Wall Sina, Goodbye", and "Lost Girls". It was also released in English by Vertical, in 2016. "Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel", a novel created by American writer Rachel Aaron was published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. It is centered on Rosalie Dumarque, who defies her family to join military garrison.
Puzzle adventure games are adventure games that put a strong emphasis on logic puzzles. They typically emphasize self-contained puzzle challenges with logic puzzle toys or games. Completing each puzzle opens more of the game's world to explore, additional puzzles to solve, and can expand on the game's story. There are often few to none non-playable characters in such games, and lack the type of inventory puzzles that typical point-and-click adventure games have. Puzzle adventure games were popularized by "Myst" and "The 7th Guest". These both used mixed media consisting of pre-rendered images and movie clips, but since then, puzzle adventure games have taken advantage of modern game engines to present the games in full 3D settings, such as "The Talos Principle". "Myst" itself has been recreated in such a fashion in the title "realMyst". Other puzzle adventure games are casual adventure games made up series of puzzles used to explore and progress the story, exemplified by "The Witness" and the "Professor Layton" series of games.
The first "Bleach" artbook, "All Colour But The Black", has been released in Japan, the United States, and Europe. The artbook compiles a selection of color spreads from the first 19 volumes of the series, as well as some original art and author commentary. The second artbook, , was released on August 3, 2007. In addition to character guides and articles on other fictional aspects of the series, it compiles the various short comics, , that were published in "V Jump". The "omake"-style panels are similar to those included in the main series, but reveal more of the daily lives of characters. "Color Bleach+: Bleach Official Bootleg" was released in English by Viz Media on August 10, 2010. In December 2018, another artbook will be released, which will contain a massive 700 artworks from the series' 15 years tenure. It will be titled "Bleach JET".
A novella generally features fewer conflicts than a novel, yet more complicated ones than a short story. The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories. Novellas may or may not be divided into chapters (good examples of those with chapters are "Animal Farm" by George Orwell and "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells) and are often intended to be read at a single sitting, as is the short story, although in a novella white space is often used to divide the sections, and therefore, the novella maintains a single effect. Warren Cariou wrote:
Key's third game "Clannad" is a visual novel similar to Key's previous games, but contains no adult content. "Clannad" was meant to be released in 2002, but was delayed, leading to the game finally being released on April 28, 2004. Seven months after "Clannad"'s release, Key released their shortest game, "", on November 29, 2004 with a rating for all ages. "Planetarian", in contrast to Key's past games, is a linear visual novel that does not require the user to make choices during gameplay; this is what is referred to as a kinetic novel. The brand's fifth game is "", an adult game and spin-off to "Clannad" released on November 25, 2005, which expanded on the scenario of the heroine Tomoyo Sakagami from "Clannad". Key released their sixth game, "Little Busters!", on July 27, 2007 with no adult content, but released another version of the game entitled "Little Busters! Ecstasy" on July 25, 2008 with added adult content, story, and visuals.
Prior to being serially published, Tite Kubo wrote and illustrated several one-shot manga. Three of these were later published in English, included in Viz Media's collected volumes of "Zombiepowder." These short manga display the rapid development of Kubo's artstyle in the mid-90s. Afterwards, Kubo published another one-shot after "Bleach" ended, with an artstyle that has been widely recognized as his own.
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult. "Colossal Cave Adventure" is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include "Zork", "King's Quest", "The Secret of Monkey Island", and "Myst".
An original unreleased "Silent Hill" graphic novel was completed in 2000 by comics publisher Com.X, but for an undisclosed reason the book was never published. Com.X and Konami have repeatedly officially stated that they still intend to publish the book, but no confirmed date has been set. IDW Publishing was unaware that this project existed when they pursued the license.
A is a game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels or tableau vivant stage plays. Many visual novels track statistics that the player must build in order to advance the plot, and permit a variety of endings, allowing more dynamic reactions to the player's actions than a typical linear adventure plot. Many visual novels are dating sims, including bishōjo games. Visual novels are especially prevalent in Japan, where they make up nearly 70% of PC games released. They are rarely produced for video game consoles, but the more popular games are sometimes ported to systems such as the Dreamcast or the PlayStation 2. The market for visual novels outside Japan, however, was nearly non-existent prior to the success of the Nintendo DS, for which several Japanese visual novels were released in the West, such as the "Ace Attorney" series.
The branching path stories found in visual novels represent an evolution of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" concept. The digital medium allows for significant improvements, such as being able to fully explore multiple aspects and perspectives of a story. Another improvement is having hidden decision points that are automatically determined based on the player's past decisions. In "Fate/stay night", for example, the way the player character behaved towards non-player characters during the course of the game affects the way they react to the player character in later scenes, such as whether or not they choose to help in life-or-death situations. This would be far more difficult to track with physical books. More importantly, visual novels do not face the same length restrictions as a physical book. For example, the total word count of the English fan translation of "Fate/stay night", taking all the branching paths into account, exceeds that of "The Lord of the Rings". This significant increase in length allows visual novels to tell stories as long and complex as those often found in traditional novels, while still maintaining a branching path structure, and allowing them to focus on complex stories with mature themes and consistent plots in a way which "Choose Your Own Adventure" books were unable to do due to their physical limitations. Visual novels with non-branching plots, such as "Higurashi When They Cry", "", "Muv-Luv Alternative", and "" are rare exceptions within the genre.
Branching storylines are a common trend in visual novels, a subgenre of interactive narrative and adventure games. Visual novels frequently use multiple branching storylines to achieve multiple different endings, allowing non-linear freedom of choice along the way. Decision points within a visual novel often present players with the option of altering the course of events during the game, leading to many different possible outcomes. Visual novels are popular in East Asia, especially in Japan where they account for nearly 70% of personal computer games released there. A recent acclaimed example is "", where nearly every action and dialogue choice can lead to entirely new branching paths and endings. Each path only reveals certain aspects of the overall storyline and it is only after uncovering all the possible different paths and outcomes through multiple playthroughs that everything comes together to form a coherent well-written story.
Most visual novels have multiple storylines and more than one ending; the mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiple-choice decision points, where the player selects a direction in which to take the game. This style of gameplay is similar to story-driven interactive fiction, or the shorter and less detailed real-life gamebook books. Many fans of visual novels hold them up as exceptions to the relatively weak storytelling in video games overall.