Talk:Visual novel

Redirect

Shibboleth, why did you redirect the page, despite the passionate comments by the previous anonymous contributor? Paranoid 10:41, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Re-writing

I am currently working on re-writing the page, so I'd appreciate it if my work's not overridden. Veyhola (talk) 22:14, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

Andrzejbanas has already been preparing a rewrite at User:Andrzejbanas/VN.--LaukkuTheGreit (Talk•Contribs) 09:27, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

They can add new things to the article, I just prefer they wouldn't override all the info on this page, cause I worked hard to fix it. Veyhola (talk) 19:52, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Hello all. I've basically shared the new version of the article which has everything sourced and material is ready. I only saw now that @Veyhola: has been adding material to the article. I did a quick glance of their material and while some was fixing sources, others I don't think were improvements on what I have added, but am open to further changes obviously. I'll ping the editors who have been conversing on the talk page about it here (@LaukkuTheGreit:. Please discuss what else we require or what else can be cut or cut down to make it a better article. Thank you! Andrzejbanas (talk) 23:20, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Peer review

Visual novel

I've listed this article for peer review because I've recently re-written most of the article. I've given my reason for doing so on the talk page where the older version had a lots of original research, some lower-quality sources applied across the article or no sources at all. Due to complex nature of the genre (i.e: In Japan where it originates, its viewed in a relatively different way than the majority of Western understanding of the genre), I've tried to expand on it on the complexity of genre in general and tried to give a history that did not just become hatnotes of "this game was popular!" or "this was a critically acclaimed series" as those read more of a guide to "great games" than where the genre stood at in particular moments in time. I think the article does that still in some cases, but I'm more curious if there's big portions I'm missing or what would make it better before trying to submit it for a Good Article review.

Thanks, Andrzejbanas (talk) 12:56, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Some miscellaneous notes:

• The phrase "character development" (in the section "Early adventure game influences") is ambiguous, especially after this edit which reduces context. One could understand it in the narrative sense or in the RPG attributes/stats sense. Probably "role-playing elements", "character advancement" or similar would work here.
• "Some descriptions of the genre suggest" in the lead I think unnecessarily avoids describing choices as common-but-not-required in wikivoice, which should be uncontroversial (the influential VNDB for example states them as "optional" in their stricter of the two definitions of allowed types). This additionally is inconsistent because the sentences immediately afterwards describe common-but-not-required elements in wikivoice. Some editor might eventually tag it as WP:WEASEL (despite that guideline allowing such phrasing in leads as long as the content is attributed in the body, which it is in this article).
• The opening phrase "A visual novel is a video game genre..." awkwardly conflates the wider concept of the genre and instantiations of the genre, I'd go with something like "Visual novels are a video game genre..." or possibly "The visual novel video game genre...", the latter of which however requires more rewriting of other parts for flow/grammar.--LaukkuTheGreit (Talk•Contribs) 09:28, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Kinetic novels

I think the page would improve if there was a separate dedicated section for kinetic novels. Kinetic novels are separate enough from the standard Visual Novel format with different fan-bases and sub-genres. So, I feel like it should warrant a section! Shaded-Abyssal-Memories (talk) 19:31, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

I didn't find much information about Kinetic novels when I started my re-write of the article late last year. They definitely exist but as visual novels are relatively fringe, I feel the brief summary of what they are sort of hits the key points. As for them having different fanbases and sub-genres, I found basically nothing about this. Could you provide some sources discussing it in this way? Andrzejbanas (talk) 20:41, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:Visual novel/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Andrzejbanas (talk · contribs) 19:58, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Monathephantom (talk · contribs) 09:24, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

My third good article review, here we gooooo!!! Monathephantom (talk) 09:24, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Spotcheck

This table lists 16 random passages from throughout the article (9.8% of 163 total passages). These passages contain 18 inline citations (8.9% of 203 in the article). Reference numbers refer to this revision. Generated with the Veracity user script. Monathephantom (talk) 12:08, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
The visual novel video game genre originated in Japan.
4	a	Camingue, Carstendottir & Melcer 2021, p. 1.
They said that games presenting themselves as visual novels which did not feature these core features would likely confuse players or violate their expectations.
16		Camingue, Carstendottir & Melcer 2021, pp. 12–13.
Nine definitions did not specify an art-style to the genre, which the Camingue, Cartendottir and Melcer attributed to the genres growth in development outside of Japan.
25		Camingue, Carstendottir & Melcer 2021, p. 8.
Ishii said that Japanese adventure games like Jesus (1987) and Snatcher (1988) may appear to be novel games, but were too were too linear, concluding that when one breaks down the systems of gameplay mechanics, the differences become more apparent.
30	b	Taitai 2013.
Koyama wrote that despite it being easier, many visual novels made by small companies for personal computers (PCs) often had inadequate of debugging during development.
9	c	Koyama 2023, p. 146.
Visual novels sometimes break general common definitions of the genre, according to Uchikoshi at the 2013 conference.
34	b	Arai 2013.
this was brought about by Key's titles, particularly Kanon (1999) and Air (2000),
44	b	Pear & Shin 2021.
46		Visual Arts.
47		Visual Arts 2014.
They feature no happy endings and have few interactive choices.
52	b	Sousa 2020, p. 74.
Fukuyama said that by 1983, the number of Japanese adventure games "exploded" with several Japanese versions of American adventure games being released.
5	j	Iwai 2019.
The two games combined elements of the two Chunsoft game and the bishōjo games to create what Fukuyama described as a new genre in Japan called the visual novel.
5	o	Iwai 2019.
Koyama wrote that the demand from players to concentrate on narratives and the motivations from game developers to create inexpensive and easier to design games led to the novel-styled games to dominate the Japanese market over similar genres like dating sims.
61	d	Koyama 2023, p. 147.
A significant amount of the doujin games are pornographic in nature.
68	c	Fiadotau 2024a, p. 605.
By 2016, the genre had its own category on Steam.
79		Lamers 2016.
In 2019, gamebusiness.jp described a contemporary trend for visual novels in China. Fukuyama said while there were earlier predecessors, he described the turning point for the genre was the release of Renai Simulation Tkool 2 in 2004, which sparked a surge in visual novel production in China and Taiwan.
5	p	Iwai 2019.
In Tokyo Kronos, text is displayed in front of the player like traditional visual novels while the characters are life-sized and move and interact with each other. An overview of the style from CNET found that characters movements are were generally modest, with as an emphasis still placed on either reading text or listening to a character's voice.
90		Taishō Saito 2021.
Sousa similarly wrote that visual novels, remained an overlooked subject in the study of Japanese pop culture and videogames alike.
52	d	Sousa 2020, p. 74.		⏳

Passed spotcheck. Everything seems fine to me Monathephantom (talk) 14:55, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Review Box

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

Passed. Everything seems good to me! Monathephantom (talk) 16:14, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk) 21:04, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that the term visual novel has had different meanings in Japan than the Western world?

• Source: GameBusiness.jp "まず福山氏はおおまかな定義について説明します。日本と海外ではジャンルの定義に違いがあり、少し前の日本国内では「90年代の後半から出てきた、ノベル寄りの美少女ゲーム」と理解され、ADVのサブジャンルとして捉えられてきたといいます。" ("First, Fukuyama explains the general definition. He notes that there are differences in how the genre is defined in Japan and abroad. He says that until recently in Japan, visual novels were understood as ‘bishōjo games with a novel-like style that emerged in the late 1990s’ and were considered a genre of adventure games." and "『ポートピア連続殺人事件』の英語版Wikipediaに記載されている、イギリスのゲーム雑誌Retro Gamerに掲載された同作の評で「ビジュアルノベルを定義する役割を果たした」という一文を福山氏は取り上げ、「いわば、海外でビジュアルノベルとは日本製ADVを指しており、JRPGと同じニュアンスで捉えられている」と説明しました。"[Referring to a review of the [The Portopia Serial Muder Case] published in the British game magazine Retro Gamer and cited on the English Wikipedia page for The Portopia Serial Murder Case, Fukuyama highlighted the that the game "helped define the visual novel genre", saying that, "overseas, the term “visual novel” refers to Japanese-made adventure games and is perceived in much the same way as JRPGs."

• • ALT1: ... that Shizuku was the first game to be described as a visual novel? Source: International Game Developers Association "当時、アクアプラスの専務だった下川直哉氏は、こうしたチュンソフトのノベルゲームと美少女ゲームを掛け合わせることを、脚本家・高橋龍也氏に提案しました。そこから生み出された『雫（1996年 / 冒頭でも述べられた通り、最初にビジュアルノベルゲームという呼称を用いたタイトル）』["At that time, Naoya Shimokawa, then the Managing Director of Aquaplus, proposed to scriptwriter Tatsuya Takahashi that they combine Chunsoft’s sound novels with bishōjo games. The result was *Shizuku* (1996; as mentioned at the beginning, this was the first title to use the term "visual novel")."
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Kuzushiro

Improved to Good Article status by Andrzejbanas (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 8 past nominations.

Andrzejbanas (talk) 19:26, 12 August 2026 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing:
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing: - n

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Article was nominated for DYK within 7 days of reaching Good Article status. Article is over 1,500 words in prose and is nicely sourced. Earwig picked up an unlikely copyright violation of 33.3%. Most of it is from quotes, but one part is from source 71 in the 2000s section. It's properly sourced, but it uses exact wording, so it should either be in quotations or reworded. ALT1 is more interesting IMO. Once the issue is fixed, I think the DYK is good to go. Thank you for expanding such a vital article! lullabying (talk) 04:19, 23 August 2026 (UTC)

Hello @Lullabying:! I've made an edit to that section, thanks for checking it. I agree that the first quote is more interesting. Anything else to do? Andrzejbanas (talk) 19:18, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

• Thanks for changing it. Good to go! lullabying (talk) 19:22, 26 August 2026 (UTC)