15 Gripping Visual Novels You Definitely Shouldn’t Miss

Hakouki has a bit of a different setting from most visual novels, and ends up being quite a bit more violent and mature as well. It takes place in feudal age Japan, and like many other visual novels, is also a romance game. You play from the first person perspective of Chizuru Yukimura, a young girl who interacts with five different Shinsengumi captains in five different scenarios. For players to get a full understanding of the game’s setting and events, they’ll need to play through each scenario and learn about all five characters.

Hakouki has a bit of a different setting from most visual novels, and ends up being quite a bit more violent and mature as well. It takes place in feudal age Japan, and like many other visual novels, is also a romance game. You play from the first person perspective of Chizuru Yukimura, a young girl who interacts with five different Shinsengumi captains in five different scenarios. For players to get a full understanding of the game’s setting and events, they’ll need to play through each scenario and learn about all five characters.

Rewrite is the ninth game created by Key, the same company responsible for Clannad. Like that series, Rewrite features branching paths, romance, and has strong characters, that are easy to get invested in. The story revolves around Kotarou Tennouji, a high school student that possesses superhuman abilities. These abilities land him in the middle of a war between summoners and superhumans, and he has to solve mysteries along with five girls from his school, in the fictional city of Kazamatsuri.

The Ace Attorney series provides one of the most unique twists on the visual novel that gaming has seen, putting you in the shoes of a defense attorney. The characters of the series are almost always crazy and colorful, with the cases matching that. Phoenix always has an innocent soul to defend, and has to overcome wildly opposing odds. Each game has you interacting with character to learn clues about the murder or crime, investigating the crime scenes, and then finding contradictions in court testimony to prove your client innocent. It’s a weird and wonderful series, that keeps thing interesting with its unique cases and situations.

Each of the Zero Escape games puts nine characters into a desperate situation, where they’re forced to play a game of life and death. 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward match the visual novel style while the latest game, Zero Time Dilemma, replaces that with cutscenes. The story sections are interspersed with puzzles that force you to escape a room, oftentimes using real mathematical or scientific theories/formula. The biggest highlight of the series though are the complex stories and interesting characters, that require multiple playthroughs to truly understand.

Professor Layton is another visual novel-hybrid series, that combines some serious puzzle solving elements. The Sherlock Holmes-esque Professor Layton and his assistant Luke always have a new mystery to uncover in every game, filled with fascinating and colorful characters. The puzzles of the series are impeccably designed and can really be head scratchers. Layton even crossed over with the famed attorney Phoenix Wright for a game.