computer games forum

I already did this poll on twitter and result was slightly in favor of yes, but they don't last much and I think forum polls are better since I can leave them open for years
Basically what is your opinion of story based games with few or even no choices (the so called "kinetic novels"?). This of course doesn't concern the quality - a story is a good story. So it's not about if a game is well written or not, simply if you could get to "play" a game which basically is just reading the story.

I got interested in this topic after seeing several kinetic VNs which did extremely well on Steam.

Personally, I never buy kinetic VNs. Whenever they pop up on my Steam feed, I instantly click ignore. They just don't engage me. I've yet to read a VN (with or without choices) that could actually rival a good book, so without the element of choice or some kind of gameplay feature, I'd buy a physical book from a well regarded author instead. It's the agency of choice that gets me involved in VNs... ok, and sometimes the boobs.

Franka wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 6:07 pm ok, and sometimes the boobs.

Finally the truth!
Yes personally I like more games with choices too. Not necessarily many, it's enough even only 4-5 but if they change the story a lot is still good for me.

I bought Fault- Milestone 1 and 2 when they were on sale. I really liked world building as far as writing is concerned; I'm less fond of the cliffhanger endings. The presentation was also strong, with solid artwork combined with nice use of effects and scrolling.

Due to the lack of interactive elements, kinetic VNs a need stronger story in order to compete with VNs with more interactive elements, let alone video games in general.

Yes that's what other people told me as well on twitter

I am currently working on a secret yuri VN and the plan seems to be to have just ONE choice leading to 3 endings (it would be a smaller game). Though since it's also going to be my first eroge VN, probably it won't matter much, right?

I can already see the negative reviews - "No replayability, just one choice in the whole game."

Now that I know ahead of time, I might personally not be disappointed, but if I went into it blind, just one choice in the whole thing would piss me off. At that point I would rather it be no choices at all and have it advertised clearly as a kinetic novel.

Honestly, I think it would be better to write in more choices and do the simple affection point system that games such as the Sakura series employ. Even just 5-6 choices that change a few paragraphs throughout will be better received than one choice to end them all (based on my experience playing and reading reviews for such games).

Yes I can always do that, even if I was planning to be very straight and say in the game page (or even in the game blurb itself) that there was just one choice

Well, I have played a few kinetic novels... very few among the hundreds of games I bought the last few decades. Usually I would read abook if I do not want choices, or a comic.

That said, a kinetic novel is still better than something with few choices or false choices: Choices which do not change anything are the worst. Better be honest and say KN.

I have played two recently that I really enjoyed, Umineko and House of Fata Morgana (well there're some choices here but I still feel it's more kinetic novel than vn). I think they both do quite well(?). For kinetics novels, I treat them like traditional novels with the added bonus of illustrations. So, I expect the writing to be on par with them.