We rank the 10 best visual novel games of all time, according to Steam. Take a look at the best games around in the genre.
Visual novel games are a popular genre in video games, with many people enjoying their anime visuals and stories. They have attracted plenty of anime fans, but many have grown beyond this audience, finding mainstream critical acclaim.
There have been many titles released, like Doki Doki Literature Club! and Clannad, that it can be hard to find which ones are good.
To help with this, here is a list of the ten best visual novel games of all time, according to Steam reviews.
10 Best Visual Novel games of all time you must play
Senren * Banka (2020)
Deep within the mountains lies the isolated village of Hoori. It’s so isolated it’s managed to keep its rustic charm, resisting the spread of civilization. This has made it a popular tourist spot for those willing to venture out.
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A big attraction is the divine blade of Murasamemaru, stuck in stone. That is until the protagonist, Arichi Masaomi, snaps it in half. Arichi must marry the village shrine maiden to amend his crime but finds he’s in over his head.
Dialtown: Phone Dating Sim (2022)
Dialtown is a dating sim with an unusual twist. People in this town have phones for heads, women have typewriters for heads, dogs have gramophones for heads, and cats have keyboards for heads. It’s a very weird concept.
The player wanders around Dialtown, attempting to find the perfect person to call up and wrap their cords around their fingers.
Flowers -Le volume sur ete- (2018)
Since one of her Amitié partners suddenly disappeared at the end of spring, Suoh Shirahane has had to deal with severe sadness. She tries to hide her pain, but it doesn’t go unnoticed by her close companion Erika Yaegaki, who feels compelled to help her “bookworm buddy” mend her broken heart.
Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue – EXTRA2 (2022)
Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue – EXTRA2 follows high school student Masaya Hinta as he coaches fellow classmates Asuka Kurashina, Misaki Tobisawa, Mashiro Arisaka, and Shion Aoyagi in the dangerous sport of the flying circus. Competitors must travel through the sky using ani-gravity shoes.
ATRI -My Dear Moments- (2020)
In the near future, an unexplained sea rise has left much of humanity underwater. Ikaruga Natsuki, a boy who lost his mother and leg in an accident, returns to his sunken countryside home after a difficult life in the big city. Without a family, he only has a ship and submarine left to him by his oceanologist grandmother and her debts.
He must take an opportunity presented to him by mysterious debt collector Catherine as the pair journey deep underwater to Ikaruga’s grandmother’s old lab to try and find rumored treasure.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always (2020)
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a nostalgic visual novel where players design their own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. Gamers can create an experience unique to them with this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story.
Tales of the Black Forest (2019)
Kihara Kashin is just a normal and boring high school student until she is trapped by an unknown force in Kuromori-ch. She ran into Kiritani Yuki, who explained that Kihara must travel to the past if she ever wanted to leave Kuromori-ch.
Kihara must embark on this adventure, exploring what lies ahead and behind.
Riddle Joker (2020)
For many years, the inhabitants of Riddle Joker thought that superpowers and psychic abilities were just science fiction, a work of the imagination. But at the end of the 1900s, scientists discovered the Astron particle, something that brought sci-fi superpowers to life.
People who wield this particle are called Astrals, and Arihara Satoru is a seemingly normal person who secretly uses the particles to give himself powers.
Purrgatory (2021)
Purrgatory is a cute and loveable visual novel about finding ways to pass the time in the afterlife where nothing matters. Instead of a depressing hellscape, explore a whimsical point-and-click world where nothing really matters.
Oh, and there are cats to play and stroke. In this world, an eternity doesn’t seem so bad.
Café Stella and the Reaper’s Butterflies (2022)
Takamine Kousei was once a normal, carefree college student. One day, he tragically died in a horrible accident. But then something very bizarre happened. Takamine Kousei opened his eyes again on the morning he died.
He went back to the location of his accident and met a death goddess and a talking cat, where he was asked to assist her and open a café.
Do you have any other recommendations for the best visual novel games? Let us know in the comments below!
