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5 Ways to Improve Your Visual Novel

5 Ways to Improve Your Visual Novel

Working on a visual novel, or "VN?" Well, you may not be considering how you can change your VN from a pile of messy writing to a masterpiece. There will be spoilers for numerous games in this article, but if you're looking for tips you can't help studying others.

1: Don't play the cliche, or at least play it well.

This one might be obvious, but it's important to state anyway. Too often do I see visual novels which strive to be a "perfect trope" as I like to call it. These novels cherry-pick the exact hooks needed to make a product clamber to otakus like flies on, well... you get the point. Take the very popular series from recent years, the Sakura series. Seen as a staple of the genre in recent years, the Sakura series is essentially a toned-down eroge (or erotic game). With its flashy and explicit art and lack of substantial plot, the games attract a strange crowd and have thus gained a certain reputation. 

The art, however, isn't exactly the problem here. Instead, consider how the games move the plot forward. Typically, (and in the case of Sakura Spirit) the protagonist finds himself in some awkward bind, usually by way of interacting with a scantily-clad girl. This, of course, is quite the cliche. As a popular staple in ecchi manga and anime, these sorts of situations are the exact bait that makes these sorts of games so popular.

Now consider Analogue: A Hate Story, a sort of different Visual Novel. Relying mostly on text with the occasional cutscene and conversation, Analogue introduced a realm of new mechanics, gameplay, story, etc. while maintaining some of the cliches that are so well-known in the genre. 

2: A big story isn't everything.

Much like any other form of media, your topic doesn't have to be massive. In fact, visual novels which are based on small, defined events or topics often make the best ones. Let's compare WORLD END ECONOMiCA and VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. WORLD END is about economics on the moon, more or less. That's a MASSIVE topic. VA-11 HALL-A, in contrast, is wrapped around a single city and the loss of a single friend. A much smaller topic, wouldn't you agree? This makes for two very different settings and two very different games. WORLD END is not a worse game because of its massive reach, but it's certainly not the only option. Instead, games like VA-11 HALL-A, Without Within, and even Nekopara give a much smaller plot and are easier to follow and write because of it. 

3: Learn to write.

This one is extremely obvious, but I see many people who jump right into writing for video games without any prior knowledge of how to write anything but their English 101 papers. Writing is an art that has to be studied and practiced, not something you can just pick up and expect to excel at. That may sound harsh, but practice is the ultimate equalizer and it may not always be obvious when you need it.

4: Art isn't everything, and neither is writing.

Only half of the visual novel is visual. Well, all of it is but you get my point. The other half is the novel. Just like a bicycle's wheels have to be in sync, the art and writing of a VN should be in sync as well. That being said, neither one is more important than the other. Games like Clannad can get popular despite a strange and off-beat art style, and games like Sakura Spirit can get popular based on alluring and nice art despite the lack of decent writing. Learning to piece together every piece of a game like this is also a key skill for a director and will be helpful to know for any art form or job.

5: Practice.

Your first novel won't be a bestseller, maybe it won't even make it out of your documents folder. Despite this, you have to continue to work and improve your work just like any other profession.

Thank you for reading.

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