Visual novels are a relatively niche form of video game and rather simple design wise. As the name suggests, they are novels in a visual form. They are story-based games that come with music, sound effects and often voice acting. This style of game design on paper is very limited and doesn’t allow for a lot of player interactivity and that’s fine, because interactivity isn’t their focus.
Visual novels function mainly to do one thing: to tell a story. Sure, they often have routes and choices players can make but for the most part they are set to a script that the player watches as it unfolds. For example, “Full Metal Daemon Muramasa,” is one visual novel that doesn’t offer much in gameplay. However, its story is where Muramasa truly shines. By having limited gameplay with an extremely interesting take on the morality of taking a life, no matter if the player may think them good or evil, as well as the widely interesting world it narrates is the main draw that reels players in and keeps them invested, not the number of choices and player interactivity.
Another good example is Type Moon’s “Witch on the Holy Night,” which completely lacks any choices and player input aside from one optional side story. This visual novel is set in a set plot direction from start to end and there isn’t a way for a player to change that. Yet it’s one of Type Moon’s most interesting works with its extremely entertaining slice-of-life style storytelling and acts as an amazing gateway to Type Moon’s other works such as “Tsukihime” and “Fate.”
But what if you want a visual novel that allows for more interactivity? Well games such as “Rance,” for example exist which have widely varying combat mechanics as well as character missions that allow for more challenge and strategy that other players may want. The argument that visual novels are limiting due to how they are designed is a dis-service to what visual novels actively focus on and what make them good to begin with.
