What should I play If I liked Doki Doki Literature Club?

[adad]

I'm sick of getting recommandations from redditors, they're attrocious.

Anyway... Unlike some (many?) players in other places, I did not like the game due to it having cute girls, or horror, or PSYCHOLOGICAL horror (the new fancy word for, again, horror), or cute girls that are actually horror, or because it's indie, or because it's free... I liked it because the author actually put thought into the story and the characters... You know, beyond just "pixelated depression simulator" or "scary indie game that is very scary" flop that has become so common. I mean, it's not easy to explain the difference in words... It's like, the author had a story and characters in mind, and it just happened to be a horror story. You know, not the OTHER way around, where the main idea is "I want to make something about horror/depressions", rather than simply "I want to say something", which just ends up filling some genres on its own anyway. You know, the actual genres are more of an afterthought rather than the focus.

...I hope that made the slightest bit of sense. Anyway, so uh... For the above reasons, I've been recommended a lot of japanese visual novel slop. I mean, there might be A FEW good ones, maybe. I haven't found them, that's for sure. And the reddit demographic isn't exactly aligned with ours either.

This one's just a personal taste, but I prefer games with a lot of text and story and little to no gameplay. Well, you know, visual novels. Again, some gameplay can be tolerated if the story is very good, but preferably not a lot...

Of course, this begs the question of why not just reading books instead? I don't know man, a lot of it is focused very flowery and overly-descripitve writing that makes use of a hyper-extended vocabulary... How do I say this... I'm looking for good stories, not good "writing"... If that makes any sense... As in, I'm not looking for a poem that has very good rhymes or anything... I am looking for one that has good content beyond the musicality. Uh. Literature puts a lot of emphasis on both, if not only on the former, and that takes away much of my enjoyment for it. But also, it's just easier to SEE where the story is taking place rather than read 3 paragraphs describing the scenery... I don't know, literature is probably just not my thing.

Of course, I could also try watching movies. For one, I just find it easier and faster to read the story than to hear it. And secondly, I get the feeling that the demographic is a lot more gender-neutral, if not female-oriented, than video games. Though of course, video games have been astroturfed relentlessly in that regard too... But alas...

So... To conclude, I am looking for a game that is mostly story-focused. I'm not looking for any genre in particular, as long as it doesn't have a lot of gameplay and you believe the story to be good (as hard as that is to measure objectively), I might take a look into it.

[Tangerine]

Of course, this begs the question of why not just reading books instead? I don't know man, a lot of it is focused very flowery and overly-descripitve writing that makes use of a hyper-extended vocabulary... How do I say this... I'm looking for good stories, not good "writing"... If that makes any sense... As in, I'm not looking for a poem that has very good rhymes or anything... I am looking for one that has good content beyond the musicality. Uh. Literature puts a lot of emphasis on both, if not only on the former, and that takes away much of my enjoyment for it. But also, it's just easier to SEE where the story is taking place rather than read 3 paragraphs describing the scenery... I don't know, literature is probably just not my thing.

It sounds like Goosebumps is right up your alley.

[WhiteShark]

I'm a gameplay-first kind of guy, so I'm having trouble thinking of recommendations that fit your criteria, but my limited experience with VNs has been that they have way more useless descriptive text than a decent book.

[logincrash]

I'm sick of getting recommandations from redditors, they're attrocious.

Anyway... Unlike some (many?) players in other places, I did not like the game due to it having cute girls, or horror, or PSYCHOLOGICAL horror (the new fancy word for, again, horror), or cute girls that are actually horror, or because it's indie, or because it's free... I liked it because the author actually put thought into the story and the characters... You know, beyond just "pixelated depression simulator" or "scary indie game that is very scary" flop that has become so common. I mean, it's not easy to explain the difference in words... It's like, the author had a story and characters in mind, and it just happened to be a horror story. You know, not the OTHER way around, where the main idea is "I want to make something about horror/depressions", rather than simply "I want to say something", which just ends up filling some genres on its own anyway. You know, the actual genres are more of an afterthought rather than the focus.

...I hope that made the slightest bit of sense. Anyway, so uh... For the above reasons, I've been recommended a lot of japanese visual novel slop. I mean, there might be A FEW good ones, maybe. I haven't found them, that's for sure. And the reddit demographic isn't exactly aligned with ours either.

This one's just a personal taste, but I prefer games with a lot of text and story and little to no gameplay. Well, you know, visual novels. Again, some gameplay can be tolerated if the story is very good, but preferably not a lot...

Of course, this begs the question of why not just reading books instead? I don't know man, a lot of it is focused very flowery and overly-descripitve writing that makes use of a hyper-extended vocabulary... How do I say this... I'm looking for good stories, not good "writing"... If that makes any sense... As in, I'm not looking for a poem that has very good rhymes or anything... I am looking for one that has good content beyond the musicality. Uh. Literature puts a lot of emphasis on both, if not only on the former, and that takes away much of my enjoyment for it. But also, it's just easier to SEE where the story is taking place rather than read 3 paragraphs describing the scenery... I don't know, literature is probably just not my thing.

Of course, I could also try watching movies. For one, I just find it easier and faster to read the story than to hear it. And secondly, I get the feeling that the demographic is a lot more gender-neutral, if not female-oriented, than video games. Though of course, video games have been astroturfed relentlessly in that regard too... But alas...

So... To conclude, I am looking for a game that is mostly story-focused. I'm not looking for any genre in particular, as long as it doesn't have a lot of gameplay and you believe the story to be good (as hard as that is to measure objectively), I might take a look into it.

You should play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded 1911.

[rusty_shackleford]

Of course, this begs the question of why not just reading books instead? I don't know man, a lot of it is focused very flowery and overly-descripitve writing that makes use of a hyper-extended vocabulary... How do I say this... I'm looking for good stories, not good "writing"... If that makes any sense... As in, I'm not looking for a poem that has very good rhymes or anything... I am looking for one that has good content beyond the musicality. Uh. Literature puts a lot of emphasis on both, if not only on the former, and that takes away much of my enjoyment for it. But also, it's just easier to SEE where the story is taking place rather than read 3 paragraphs describing the scenery... I don't know, literature is probably just not my thing.

Considered audiobooks? I like to read along with the narrator.

[logincrash]

Okay, I actually read the OP. I won't suggest suicide again, but I do want to express my disdain for VNs.
Read some comic books or somethinh; it's literally the same thing. I heard Elric was good.

[rusty_shackleford]

Crazy that comic book VNs never really became a thing

[edit]
I guess modern adventure games fill a very similar niche

[rusty_shackleford]

So... To conclude, I am looking for a game that is mostly story-focused. I'm not looking for any genre in particular, as long as it doesn't have a lot of gameplay and you believe the story to be good (as hard as that is to measure objectively), I might take a look into it.

Have you played Planescape Torment?

[methoxetamine]

Saya no Uta

[A Chinese opium den]

Come play some aoe2 with me, black forest 2v2v2v2 of course.

[Manny V]

i would recommend ****

[Tadeusz]

So... To conclude, I am looking for a game that is mostly story-focused. I'm not looking for any genre in particular, as long as it doesn't have a lot of gameplay and you believe the story to be good (as hard as that is to measure objectively), I might take a look into it.

I don't have a lot of knowledge about VNs but I really liked "The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante" and "Remember 11". You may try these.

[rusty_shackleford]

So... To conclude, I am looking for a game that is mostly story-focused. I'm not looking for any genre in particular, as long as it doesn't have a lot of gameplay and you believe the story to be good (as hard as that is to measure objectively), I might take a look into it.

I don't have a lot of knowledge about VNs but I really liked "The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante" and "Remember 11". You may try these.

Sir Brante one is a good suggestion, slipped my mind. Very few other things I've read have managed to captivate my imagination to the same level. One of those " I felt like I was actually there", burned an entire day on it without realizing it.

[gerey]

This one's just a personal taste, but I prefer games with a lot of text and story and little to no gameplay. Well, you know, visual novels. Again, some gameplay can be tolerated if the story is very good, but preferably not a lot...

So, basically, storyfag games?

A good place to start is always going to be Planescape: Torment, the quintessential storyfag RPG, though it may have more gameplay than you'd like?

Fallout 1 is also fairly verbose, and the gameplay isn't particularly challenging.

People **** on Disco Elysium, with good reason, but underneath it there's a nice detective adventure game with different ways to get new clues.

Detective games are a favorite of mine, and there's a fairly good pick - from adventure games like the Tex Murphy franchise to games that focus more on deduction skills and solving a mystery - Return of the Obra Dinn, Strange Horticulture etc.

"The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante" and "Remember 11"

These are both good, you may also want to take a look at









All developed by the same guy, Paul Wang, IIRC.

Adventure games should also be a genre you may want to look into, there's plenty of well-written ones to play - Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Monkey Island 1-3, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Gabriel Knight 1-4, Day of the Tentacle, Gemini Rue, Beneath a Steel Sky etc.

Telltale's Walking Dead (at least the first part) and Wolf Among on Us were also pretty good.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

World End Economica is holistically the best VN I have read. It does not have voice acting but the story is tight with almost no padding. There are other VNs that have had more appealing aesthetics, premise, soundtrack, full voice acting, etc (like the Utawarerumno trilogy or Muv-Luv), but they are sabotaged by horrendous pacing issues/padding and botched execution of multiple plotlines across 100-200+ hours. I would also recommend Aselia the Spirit of Eternity Sword, which I have raved about on the HQ a few times before, but it had gameplay that requires a lot of savescumming and is a 80+ hour time commitment.

Otherwise I would recommend JRPGs. In particular, Trails in the Sky FC (50 hours long, first 20 hours are just okay, second half is engaging), Trails of Cold Steel 1 (90 houts, had me engaged for almost the full duration), the first discs of the PS1 FF games FF10, Sakura Wars 1, 2, and 5, Suikoden 1 and 2 + Suikogaiden, Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4, the first half of Xenoblade 1, and a few others that escape me ATM. WRPG wise, I would recommend The Banner Saga 1, and if you really liked it, its sequels.

[Trickster]

Everlasting Summer or/and Katawa Shoujo.

[TKVNC]

You should definitely play Raid: Shadow Legends.

[rusty_shackleford]

You should definitely play Raid: Shadow Legends.

I've been told this is actually pretty ok

[Trickster]

slay the princess and Зайчик

[Tweed]

You should play Russian...****.

[Tadeusz]

Зайчик

I think it's called Tiny Bunny in english:
It's not finished yet but I think the final chapter will be done this year.

[Trickster]

Зайчик

I think it's called Tiny Bunny in english:
It's not finished yet but I think the final chapter will be done this year.

Yes, that's the game.

[Tinky Winky]

Wrong section, VN is not video game.

[Vergil]

With a loaded gun ideally

[J-12]

Yakuza series. Start with Zero.
Yes, really.
There is a lot of "visual novel" in those when it's not the combat parts.

[Norfleet]

You should play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded 1911.

That's Polish Roulette.

[aimlesshealer]

Your options are going to be very limited if you don't buckle up and learn to play video games. Why don't you try Mother 3? It's a great story told for no other reason than that's what Itoi wanted to say. Not flashy, but thoughtful and mature. Get an emulator, download a ROM and patch it with the fan translation, and you're good to go. Follow a walkthrough if you want to make things easier for yourself. You'll have to exercise patience until you can get used to the gameplay, but it would be well worth the effort. The gameplay is part of the storytelling; it's indispensable.

[Valter]

Any other story games you liked or disliked, or have or have not played yet?

[Vergil]

I did not like the game due to it having cute girl

[Stack of Turtles]

I did not like the game due to it having cute girl

The style and cadence make me suspect another KOS-MOS situation.