While PC is usually where you’d find visual novels, there’s no denying that the PS4 has really stepped it up for this age old genre that many people adore. Can’t figure out which ones to play, though? Don’t worry, we have you covered. These are the best visual novels of all time, found on the PS4. All of these are available for you to download and enjoy right now.
Best PS4 Visual Novels to Download & Play Right Now
Steins;Gate 0
The original Steins;Gate is widely considered one of the best visual novels of all time, but it isn’t on PlayStation 4, unfortunately. It’s available pretty much everywhere else, so you can still play it, but not on PlayStation 4. Luckily, its excellent follow-up Steins;Gate 0 is.
The Steins;Gate franchise is an entertaining and wholly strange adventure all about time travel. You watch the game’s events unfold via the eyes of the team of one Hououin Kyouma and send “D-mail” to the past as you unlock the mysteries of this time travel thriller. Fittingly, that’s short for “DeLorean mail.” You’ll also be engaged in face-to-face discussions, which could be interrupted by voice calls as well. These events are where you begin traveling down branching paths, hurtling toward one of the multiple endings.
The sequel picks up directly after where the original Steins;Gate left off, after the death of one important character. Protagonist Rintaro Okabe is understandably depressed, and decides there will be no more time traveling to the past to try and prevent said character’s death or the onset of World War 3. After a certain chain of events occur, he ends up interacting with different timelines anyway, which brings on a whole new set of happenings that are just as mind-blowing as the first game’s.
Make sure you don’t miss the original Steins;Gate, but if you did play through it, you shouldn’t miss its sequel, conveniently available on PlayStation 4.
Best PS4 Visual Novels to Download & Play Right Now
Danganronpa 1-2 Reload
The original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc took the highs and lows of living as a high school student, punctuated by bouts of murder mysteries, and spun what could have been a pedestrian tale into a colorful, bizarre adventure that’s since captured the hearts of eager new fans. Its sequel, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, flipped the script and took things in an entirely different direction, trapping characters on a deserted island and pulling plenty of new tricks. Danganronpa 1-2 Reload brings both games together for a convenient way to get started on the Danganronpa bandwagon.
Danganronpa is an accomplished amalgam of storytelling, character interaction and deduction. It’s got an involving (if silly at times) plot to ensure you’re ensnared from the very beginning, several types of minigame-like play to make such ideas as “trials” and “evidence-gathering” instances players want to engage in, and a certain level of macabre attitude that isn’t afraid to show its true colors.
There are several other installments in the series as a whole that you can move on to when finished with these two games, but you’ve got to get your start somewhere. So if you want to get in a different kind of trouble as a high school delinquent, Danganronpa 1-2 Reload is your best bet when it comes to the series on PlayStation 4.
Best PS4 Visual Novels to Download & Play Right Now
Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was the second entry in a trilogy from visual novel developer Aquaplus, and it came west in a surprising move by way of publisher Atlus. Unfortunately, the first entry never got the localization it deserved, but we did get graced with Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth, the third and final entry in the series.
This installment manages to conclude the story in a satisfying manner, a direct sequel to the previous game following protagonist Haku and his followers the day after the end of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. After losing their glue that holds their team together, Haku’s companions are upset, as he’s been forced to play the role of another person: the General of the Right, Oshutoru. Wearing this mask means Haku must lie to his loved ones in order to keep an important facade alive. It’s an integral part of the game, and if you’re interested in playing, know that you really should have played the entry prior to this one if you want this story to make any sense at all.
Without ruining too much of the story-based plot, which is the most important part of the entire package, the rest of the characters are left forced to hold onto their own secrets while masking their interactions with others. You should certainly play through the first two games to understand everything that’s unraveling in the opus of the trilogy, but this conclusion is the highest point by far, and worth tackling as soon as you can.
Best PS4 Visual Novels to Download & Play Right Now
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is a remastered collection of the first two visual novel/puzzle titles in the Zero Escape trilogy. These games include 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. If you missed out on either game when they first made their rounds, it’s absolutely a good idea to pick up this remastered collection for some of the best experiences you’ll have with visual novels and puzzle-solving on the console, and for a pretty low price at that.
Originally, the games were released on handheld consoles respectively, but they struck a chord with players enough that a sequel was planned for a US release later in October of this year. The cult hit 999 follows Junpei, a college student who comes home to find his window open and a mysterious figure wearing a gas mask reflected in his now-closed window.
He passes out and upon waking can remember only that he was “chosen” to play something known only as the Nonary Game, which ends up quickly conjuring Saw and other familiar horror films, as the Nonary Game finds a group of eight other individuals kidnapped and forced to participate in a mysterious game — if they don’t play ball, the bombs inside their bodies will detonate.
The sequel Virtue’s Last Reward follows player character Sigma as well as eight others who have been kidnapped by the enigmatic Zero as they’re faced to take place once again in the Nonary Game from the previous title. Zero forces the players to “ally” or “betray” others, participating in chilling “games” and earning points in order to escape. The fully-voiced dialogue and upgrades to the original games in this remaster make both titles even more chilling, and some of the best on PlayStation 4.
Best PS4 Visual Novels to Download & Play Right Now
Root Letter
Root Letter is a classic visual novel that made its way to PlayStation 4 by way of PQube, one of Kadokawa Games’ best. The protagonist is in search of his old pen pal Fumino Aya, who disappeared 15 years ago. When he finds a letter she never got to send him, he sets off on a quest to speak to her classmates, friends, and family to figure out what exactly happened to her all those years ago.
Your entire life is essentially set aside to figure out what happened in Aya’s hometown in the Japanese prefecture of Shimane. He’s trying to figure out whether or not she actually did commit the heinous thing she says she did in one of her letters, which we won’t reveal here for fear of spoilers, but the investigation that ensues plays out like a crime drama that’s deliciously addictive to comb through.
Root Letter is exemplary of the kind of stories visual novels can tell, especially when they’re as creative as this one, and it’s a bit shocking that a niche title like this one ended up making its way to PlayStation 4, but here we are talking about it, and it’s definitely one of the best you’ll find on the console.
