This is a conversation that also comes up when talking about manga. Could someone who’s not Japanese make manga? The answer is yes, I just believe a lot of American people who try to create manga don’t actually know what makes manga, manga. But that’s getting off topic, I’m here to talk about visual novels, and how they’ve been growing more and more in the west.

Visual novels are way larger of a medium in Japan than America, but recently, visual novels have been growing larger here in the west. With more English translation and indie games being released. I believe this is in part by Ren’Py and Patreon. Games like Katawa Shoujo and Doki Doki Literature Club, shows that us Americans have the ability to write and make good visual novels. But while we seemingly have a grasp of normal visual novels, how does it compare to NSFW focused visual novel?

Was suprise to learn that this was made by a bunch of 4chan users.

When it comes to that department, I feel like we still have a ways to go. Japanese H visual novels have crazy effort put into them from the art, voices, sound effects, animation, and even story! Some great ones are Starless and Taimanin Asagi. They really give the same respect they give normal games to porn games...maybe even more. But what would make people say, “this western visual novel is on par, if not better than Japanese visual novels.”? Is it the art, better stories, or just giving it that anime feel when playing it? I’m not sure, but as more and more western visual novels are being made, we get closer and closer to that answer.

What do you think about Japanese visual novels? Do you like western and Japanese visual novels better? Have western visual novels been getting better? Tell us in the comments.