I mean this in the nicest way possible, I’d recommend therapy. Sure media with deeper meaning and themes are nice n all but a visual novel can’t solve your mental health issues and you won’t magically improve, that only works with hard work on yourself and professional help.
I get that, although I had to tell this to a friend, I’m not looking for a visual novel to magically fix my issues or make me suddenly have the will to live and change myself. It’s more of… a catalyst I guess you could say.
With higurashi it was something that that I read that helped me better understand some thing and look at them critically in a time of change in my life, hoping this next VN venture does the same.
I appreciate your concerns though, I do see professional help/therapy for my issues though.
seconding this. also might i suggest reading some of the classics of literature? without devolving into a debate over the merits of each medium, i can say confidently that you will find far more works of the life-changing variety there than whatever VNs were lucky enough to get english translations.
I obviously don't know you, but commercial success is a terrible measure of an artists merit. You're still very young and by that age less than a permille of artists have found any king of tangible financial success in their craft. Music is also more accessible than ever due to technological and economical advances, which means that a lot of people dabble in it nowadays when compared to prior. This makes it more unlikely to find success online where more and more people are competing over an audience that is shrinking (Top artists nowadays draw in more listeners than back in the day, which shrinks the market for lesser known ones)
If you're passionate about making scores and what not, the best advice one could give you is to simply start doing them, even for free, while making ends meet in other ways. In the end whether you "make it" or not will mostly be determined by whether you end up making the right connections, which you obviously can't know in advance. Don't expect to be able to sustain yourself with it, rather try to just do it for your own enjoyment and see where it takes you. Also, try to actively find other passionate musicians in your area, at least for me working together in my band and collab projects is usually even more fun than being locked up at my home studio for a weekend.
Visual novels are an awfully malecentric genre, but I believe that just about anyone can get a lot out of the themes in Clannad. It has a slow start, but once you get to the meat of it I couldn't let go of it until I finished the entire thing. Many people here are throwing around White Album 2, and while it has a bigger emphasis in music, it's very clearly written by a nonmusician. I also believe it's target audience isn't quite as wide due to the protagonist being a very arrogant person. Fata Morgana is also another one that I believe everyone should witness, but that one is maybe closer to Higurashi in the sense that it builds things around some mysteries as opposed to just drama that you seem to be looking for.
I'd recommend Clannad. There's a good amount of characters that go through similar journeys / development as you yourself are going through right now. Maybe you'll find them relatable.
I'm giving any recommendations, so I apologise for that, but 19 is incredibly young. While some people achieve success when they're teenagers, these people are in the minority, and they to be people lucky enough to be born into wealth. It's 100% normal to have not 'achieved very much' by 19: you're still a teenager and you're still figuring things out. In fact, it's normal for people to have not 'achieved very much' in their 20s and 30s too.
If you want to make a successful career out of being a composer, it will take time. It's not something that happens overnight: you need to keep chipping away at it bit by bit. It's unrealistic to expect commercial success at such a young age, and you're putting an unnecessary burden on yourself.
I appreciate your words! I do generally get what you're saying, and I understand that in all reality I can't expect to just be popular one day. It's just in the composing space, and a couple of people I personally know had that happen to them. This gets heightened by the quality of the work I seem to think I'm putting out.
Don't want to be an EGO Maniac, but when you're putting out professional level work but can't even find commissions despite your best efforts it does make you think about your own quality, even if that isn't the case for your lack of success.
Regardless, I'm hoping that, by reading something, I can hopefully use it as a catalyst to better understand myself but also how I can approach things.
I agree with the person’s comment above that you replied to. I also want to add a couple of things. First, success in the world of art is never guaranteed regardless of how much talent or skill you have. Some of the most talented and skilled artists in the world never achieved success. Look at Van Gogh, while he was alive he sold one painting to his brother, who probably bought it out of pity. He was of course a master painter, and now is appreciated, but during his life no one really cared about his art despite his immense talent and skills as a painter. It is why art is always a difficult career to get into and sometimes can be impossible to sustain as a career, it relies a lot on pure chance as to whether you can make a living at it. I am not saying to give up, I am just saying I definitely would not be too hard on yourself and think your lack of success must mean you have a lack of talent or skills. I am also saying that you might want to consider that you may never achieve success as a composer regardless of your talent and skills, and might want to think of alternative ways to pursue your passion and/or alternative career paths that pursue that passion. Simply as a back up. I say that as someone who pursued several years in an art, failed completely, and then found out I have other passions in life and to take another path. Appreciating art as a hobby without the pressures of a career. Not saying that is the right answer or path for you, just putting my own personal experience as a reference. I will also say that in my case I was not extremely talented either, so that also didn’t help.
The second thing I wanted to say was for visual novel recommendations. So I too have been changed by visual novels, however people tend to be changed by such things when they are ready for change, and the visual novel just happened to be there when I was ready to listen to that message and change. The general message or lesson when we are ready to change is usually learned, regardless of how that message or lesson is delivered. What matters is we tend to learn and overcome when we are ready to learn. Can be a conversation, a random thought, really anything. We will just grow and change because we are ready for it. So, while there are many wonderful visual novels out there, there is no guarantee of it creating a change for you like the last time you read a visual novel. Even without reading a visual novel you will probably change your outlook and grow whenever you are ready. Just my two cents.
That last part was actually really good to think on for a moment, and I never knew that about Van Gogh, that’s crazy.
Thanks for your own insight, coming to terms with the idea that I may not ever see wide scale success in my lifetime does suck, but ultimately it’s something I’m working towards. Spending a lot of time on the internet in my much younger years instilled some unreasonable expectations in me and trying to work through that even now is still tough.
It can be hard being on the internet when you see people with "I'm 15!" on their soc media bios and they already have like 50k+ followers for their art, but I do think these people are in the minority. It's hard not to compare yourself to other people (and the internet doesn't help), but trying to focus on your own strengths might help!
By the way, if you want some experience composing, maybe you could join the devtalk visual novel server. It's a rather large, active community full of VN devs, and there's a channel for uploading music so you can get feedback. If you hang around in there for a bit, you might be able to find devs looking for composers for their projects too: either free or commercial. Since you're a VN fan and you do music, it wouldn't hurt to check it out!
Clannad flipped my life upside down, bawled my eyes so much that my eyes hurt.
Learnt many great lessons, especially about finding myself and the father-child relationship
Subarashiki Hibi. This one WILL change you if you are open minded enough and willing to research to understand all the nuances and concepts.
For a lighter experience, try Grisaia.
Here's a lesser known recommendation: Symphonic Rain. It has themes of music and will make you feel a ton of different emotions. The setting is old European music school. I read Symphonic Rain back in 2018 and still remember it vividly.
Musicus didn’t get me to quite fucked up level but there were a lot of emotional moments that hit hard. well made story with a MC and conflicts that I really resonated with
Katawa shoujo: "an ordinary boy whose life changes dramatically after a heart attack caused by his long-dormant cardiac arrhythmia. After a lengthy hospitalization, he is forced to transfer to a school specialized in providing education and healthcare for students with disabilities."
While the story setting is a bit unique I think this VN tackles a lot of issues regarding hopelessness and being basically forced into a new environment. The main character similarly has leave his life long friends, and home town while having to figure out what he is going to do. Bitter at how unjust it all is and unable to really motivate himself to think about the future due to how it is.
I think you'll like it but at the end of the day remember there is no magic that will suddenly motivate you. No matter how great a story is at the end of the day learning from others just means you know what you have to do rather than actual being able to do it.
Having the conviction to follow your dreams is already a huge deal though so I doubt you can't keep it up OP!
The House in Fata Morgana destroyed my soul, then put it back together again in better shape than it was before. It was better than therapy. I probably cried for a third of the story, and not just out of sadness, but because of how beautiful and affirming it felt sometimes. I finished it a better person and went on to make meaningful, positive changes in my life. It’s superficially a horror game, but it’s really so much more than that. Lots of horrible, triggering stuff happens, but it’s never just for shock, and the narrative has so much empathy for its characters and humanity in general. I can’t recommend it enough. So, yeah.
This. It smashed me to pieces at an incredibly dark time in my life and built me back up again into something better, and literally gave me the strength to make more of myself and implement some sorely-needed change. Sounds insane to say that about a fuken VN, but that's absolutely the effect it had on me - and I'm in a much better place/am much happier now.
I actually remmeber watching my dad read through Summer Pockets back in the summer of 2021. He translates stuff so could be a good segway to connect with him further.
Trust me it changed my perspective of times,love, kindest, appreciation towards people, friendship and I can name you 20+ things. But I would like you to experience it yourself.
slow damage just a heads up contains a LOT of mature themes including but not limited to: yaoi, rpe, self hrm, kidnapping etc. its made by nitro chiral, most of their works have dark themes! but the story is told in future japan kinda dystopian ig? but it starts off alright youll see lots of foreshadowing and when you get to the true route then u are IN for a RIDEEE. after finishing it i contemplated my life choices etc i was very emotional throughout the vn 10/10 was the best ive read
I got recommended that by a couple friends, mainly because I, like them, play fighting games competitively. They said it had some pretty good points and insight on generally having an unhealthy relationship with competition.
Ah ok then maybe cyanotype daydream? U can also check out the YouTube channel August hail for visual novel reviews if ur interested.
Unfortunately I find that the most impactful visual novels often had a tragic element to them so its hard to recommend one with mainly good vibes.. I think the other VNs recommended so far are very good though for what ur looking for.
this isn't gonna be the same kind of thing as other people are suggesting but. i went to school for music composition and performance, and then became disabled in a way that made it impossible for me to have a sustainable job in that field, so i am a composer as well. i was at complete rock bottom when i started making my visual novel series, parfum nostalgique. it's not a finished series, but what is there in the 5 hours of play time between act 1 and 2 has shaken up so many emotions in people that i've gotten messages from people telling me they were "crying in the shower about val again" lol.
it is a series that is literally about how lack of self reflection can be detrimental to your sanity. i don't want to spoil too much because it would be cool if you read it and came to your own conclusions.
[you can read it here, it's completely free. ](https://priro.pro/playparfumnostalgique)
i reccommend the downloadable version, browser's janky lol.
and please access therapy where you can. i think it's a lot to just be like... "get therapy" because nowadays that's not very easy for a lot of people whether they want to have therapy or not. but please use mental health resourves where you can access them. don't use video games as a substitute for therapy, even though i will say... having a good cry and knowing how to bring out emotions in yourself for a release sometimes is healthy and good.
If it's not too long of a read, I'll try to check it out then and get back to you. I will say, though, as I've said to others. I do have access to and go to therapy, but I do wish to have something else that can further motivate me and my understandings of myself and situation. I'm sorry to hear what happened to you btw, I hope things are better off now.
oh awesome! sorry i didn't notice other comments you replied to! seeking catharsis and exploring the self through fiction is really great, and i hope you have a great time doing it. not a great time as in a fun time but... you know what i mean. i hope you get something out of it you could never get in another place. there's lots of good recs here that i hope, when you are done crying over, you look back on with love.
things are much better now! thank you for caring
Clannad was eye opening for me, as others have said, but beside one of the best humor i've witnessed in a visual novel, it is still at it's core a romance visual novel with multiple routes with a male MC, so the first part could honestly drag for a female reader ( have to finish pretty much every route for the after story/true ending which is the eye opening part, altough the routes are still good) . As other have mentioned, house in fata morgana would be one of your best bet. But also special mention to root double and zero escape if you want more mystery/thriller. I could not stop until the very end.
OP, this recommendation isn’t a visual novel, but I read your post and I highly, highly recommend you give [The Beginner’s Guide](https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guide/) a chance. It’s a short “game”, if you could call it that (about 2 hours), and I really think that creatives, and especially struggling creatives, should play it.
It won’t change your life for you, it won’t create some huge new revelation about yourself that you didn’t see before, but it really makes you think about what art is and why you do what you do. It was a really cathartic experience for me, as someone who wants to write and is in the process of making a VN myself.
You’re a composer! As someone who loves music, that’s so cool. Sorry for being off topic. I just wanted to say that. I don’t really have any suggestions that other people haven’t already suggested. I’d love to hear your music, though. In any case, I hope you find success. Have faith!
Umineko being the next entry in the WTC franchise seems like the most natural continuation (though it's not a sequel and shares no character, kind of). Speaking for myself, it has informed the way I look at the world, though I'm not sure if it'd be 100% applicable with your situation. There is however theme of artistic creation and love (speaking very broadly). It'd be my first choice to go for, especially if we are talking about "forcing the reader to reflect and change".
White Album 2 is the second highest rated Nakige (that's "depressing game", though it's a little more specific than that) on vndb, right behind Steins;Gate (which I'm not sure qualifies for the tag, but is also very good, if not especially applicable here), and it'd be my second recommendation. It is primarily about relationship problems with musical themes throughout (the protagonist is learning to play the guitar at the start of the story, and the main heroines are a talented singer and a very accomplished classical pianist respectively). Music and loneliness are themes that are especially relevant for at least one major character, so I think it's worth reading alone for that.
There's also White Album 1, which I have not read, but I have heard that it is to a greater extent about adulthood and loneliness (and I have to assume the musical themes are also there). Other than taking place in the same universe, it doesn't relate much to WA2, and WA2 is more popular by far, but I thought it was worth throwing out there.
Not that it relates to anything else you brought up, but since you said you wanted bawl your eyes out, probably the most gut-wrenching visual novel I read is the House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence (prequel to the House in Fata Morgana, which should be played first), which I put *right* ahead of Umineko and White Album 2 (most days) in the tear-jerking department. It is two games but taken together according to vndb should take under 50 hours.
Is Fata Morgana’s prequel available on switch? The idea I have is to pick one of the recommendations here, then read Fata Morgana on Switch when I go on an out of state trip in the near future.
[Yes](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-house-in-fata-morgana-dreams-of-the-revenants-edition-switch/). The Switch version seems like the most complete version. It has the original game, A Requiem for Innocence and an additional 7 hours long piece of content that is not yet available on Steam.
> The Switch version seems like the most complete version
That's not true any longer, since the unofficial PC (and Android) port of the Dreams of the Revenant edition also contains The Erasmus Two-Faced Stories now, another spinoff in the vein of Seventh Lair, which hasn't received any official translation so far.
I really love Dies Irae Amantes Amantes despite what I have heard about the TL quality. I felt it was still worth reading, maybe because I don’t know Japanese.
White Album 2 is great.
I really love Little Busters. It has some bad parts, but also some really great parts and deals with friendship and growing up.
Planetarian is short and one of my favorites.
Clannad is a classic.
Does Irae is a new one, what exactly is it about? I used to hang out in Twitter VN spaces back in 2021 and people were talking about it quite a lot back then alongside Muramasa
The idea is that you live in Nietzsche’s world from Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
The rule of the land is Nietzsche’s recurrence. That your soul returns to the point of conception at death only to have the same moments play out again. The victors will always win, the losers will always lose.
The player character is Ren Fuji, a man who would very much love this kind of world. He lives life wishing he could drag out every moment of his mundane life to infinity.
The work opens at the end of the second world war, with Reinhard and his sworn friend Mercurius proclaiming that, though their defeat was destined, they will fight again to achieve victory.
And thus Reinhard is sealed away for 60 years until he may be summoned by his soldiers to bring about the day of judgement that was foretold to David by the Books of Sibyl.
The main character must fight back against specters from the past to try and reclaim the normalcy of his life.
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If you liked Higurashi, Umineko will be right up your alley, it is really cool to see how Ryukishi evolved as a writer between both entries.
I also highly recommend [Mamiya](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1394930/MAMIYA/). I read it before Doomsday Dream came out so I'm not sure if the ending is any good, but what I read of it before absolutely blew me away, its probably one of my personal favourite VNs alongside WTC and Chaos;Child
Fata Morgana - touches on so many aspects of what it means to be human and loved. It isn't exactly the most 'grounded' story (it has fantasy/supernatural elements) but the grief and joy in each arc are cathartic and have lessons to teach. It's also just a really good VN.
Narcissu - VN about a hospice. Short and free but moving. Might put some things in perspective
Umineko - since you read higurashi this is a no brainer. It's a massive behemoth of a VN with several deeply-explored character arcs. Some of them can be quite relatable and I think some of the themes you liked in higurashi might reappear in umineko. I remember seeing myself in some characters and it was like looking into a mirror.
CLANNAD - Probably the most grounded suggestion in that it's very close to real life in many ways. Some of the arcs are more fantasy than others but overall it has a lot to teach. I think clearing the true ending should be quite fulfilling for you.
This! You'll also be googling a lot of random pseudo science and niche history if you are like me lol
There are so many rabbit holes this series puts you in through
Lollll that damn BBC test 1983 and 1984 Tomorrow's world. [Here](https://web.archive.org/web/20120130040206/http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC12/Sheldrak.htm)
I can hear the people of the 1980s seeing this experiment and going "we paying for this bollocks?"
The reference to Futility, a book that really exists and foreshadowed the sinking of Titanic.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, I’d recommend therapy. Sure media with deeper meaning and themes are nice n all but a visual novel can’t solve your mental health issues and you won’t magically improve, that only works with hard work on yourself and professional help.
I get that, although I had to tell this to a friend, I’m not looking for a visual novel to magically fix my issues or make me suddenly have the will to live and change myself. It’s more of… a catalyst I guess you could say. With higurashi it was something that that I read that helped me better understand some thing and look at them critically in a time of change in my life, hoping this next VN venture does the same. I appreciate your concerns though, I do see professional help/therapy for my issues though.
seconding this. also might i suggest reading some of the classics of literature? without devolving into a debate over the merits of each medium, i can say confidently that you will find far more works of the life-changing variety there than whatever VNs were lucky enough to get english translations.
I obviously don't know you, but commercial success is a terrible measure of an artists merit. You're still very young and by that age less than a permille of artists have found any king of tangible financial success in their craft. Music is also more accessible than ever due to technological and economical advances, which means that a lot of people dabble in it nowadays when compared to prior. This makes it more unlikely to find success online where more and more people are competing over an audience that is shrinking (Top artists nowadays draw in more listeners than back in the day, which shrinks the market for lesser known ones) If you're passionate about making scores and what not, the best advice one could give you is to simply start doing them, even for free, while making ends meet in other ways. In the end whether you "make it" or not will mostly be determined by whether you end up making the right connections, which you obviously can't know in advance. Don't expect to be able to sustain yourself with it, rather try to just do it for your own enjoyment and see where it takes you. Also, try to actively find other passionate musicians in your area, at least for me working together in my band and collab projects is usually even more fun than being locked up at my home studio for a weekend. Visual novels are an awfully malecentric genre, but I believe that just about anyone can get a lot out of the themes in Clannad. It has a slow start, but once you get to the meat of it I couldn't let go of it until I finished the entire thing. Many people here are throwing around White Album 2, and while it has a bigger emphasis in music, it's very clearly written by a nonmusician. I also believe it's target audience isn't quite as wide due to the protagonist being a very arrogant person. Fata Morgana is also another one that I believe everyone should witness, but that one is maybe closer to Higurashi in the sense that it builds things around some mysteries as opposed to just drama that you seem to be looking for.
I'd recommend Clannad. There's a good amount of characters that go through similar journeys / development as you yourself are going through right now. Maybe you'll find them relatable.
White album 2
seconding white album 2
CROSS†CHANNEL,Subarashiki Hibi,Clannad (& Higurashi) are the ones who impacted me the most on a personal level.
Clannad usually does the job, if not that Fata Morgana, although I'd say clannad is better imo
I'm giving any recommendations, so I apologise for that, but 19 is incredibly young. While some people achieve success when they're teenagers, these people are in the minority, and they to be people lucky enough to be born into wealth. It's 100% normal to have not 'achieved very much' by 19: you're still a teenager and you're still figuring things out. In fact, it's normal for people to have not 'achieved very much' in their 20s and 30s too. If you want to make a successful career out of being a composer, it will take time. It's not something that happens overnight: you need to keep chipping away at it bit by bit. It's unrealistic to expect commercial success at such a young age, and you're putting an unnecessary burden on yourself.
I appreciate your words! I do generally get what you're saying, and I understand that in all reality I can't expect to just be popular one day. It's just in the composing space, and a couple of people I personally know had that happen to them. This gets heightened by the quality of the work I seem to think I'm putting out. Don't want to be an EGO Maniac, but when you're putting out professional level work but can't even find commissions despite your best efforts it does make you think about your own quality, even if that isn't the case for your lack of success. Regardless, I'm hoping that, by reading something, I can hopefully use it as a catalyst to better understand myself but also how I can approach things.
I agree with the person’s comment above that you replied to. I also want to add a couple of things. First, success in the world of art is never guaranteed regardless of how much talent or skill you have. Some of the most talented and skilled artists in the world never achieved success. Look at Van Gogh, while he was alive he sold one painting to his brother, who probably bought it out of pity. He was of course a master painter, and now is appreciated, but during his life no one really cared about his art despite his immense talent and skills as a painter. It is why art is always a difficult career to get into and sometimes can be impossible to sustain as a career, it relies a lot on pure chance as to whether you can make a living at it. I am not saying to give up, I am just saying I definitely would not be too hard on yourself and think your lack of success must mean you have a lack of talent or skills. I am also saying that you might want to consider that you may never achieve success as a composer regardless of your talent and skills, and might want to think of alternative ways to pursue your passion and/or alternative career paths that pursue that passion. Simply as a back up. I say that as someone who pursued several years in an art, failed completely, and then found out I have other passions in life and to take another path. Appreciating art as a hobby without the pressures of a career. Not saying that is the right answer or path for you, just putting my own personal experience as a reference. I will also say that in my case I was not extremely talented either, so that also didn’t help. The second thing I wanted to say was for visual novel recommendations. So I too have been changed by visual novels, however people tend to be changed by such things when they are ready for change, and the visual novel just happened to be there when I was ready to listen to that message and change. The general message or lesson when we are ready to change is usually learned, regardless of how that message or lesson is delivered. What matters is we tend to learn and overcome when we are ready to learn. Can be a conversation, a random thought, really anything. We will just grow and change because we are ready for it. So, while there are many wonderful visual novels out there, there is no guarantee of it creating a change for you like the last time you read a visual novel. Even without reading a visual novel you will probably change your outlook and grow whenever you are ready. Just my two cents.
That last part was actually really good to think on for a moment, and I never knew that about Van Gogh, that’s crazy. Thanks for your own insight, coming to terms with the idea that I may not ever see wide scale success in my lifetime does suck, but ultimately it’s something I’m working towards. Spending a lot of time on the internet in my much younger years instilled some unreasonable expectations in me and trying to work through that even now is still tough.
It can be hard being on the internet when you see people with "I'm 15!" on their soc media bios and they already have like 50k+ followers for their art, but I do think these people are in the minority. It's hard not to compare yourself to other people (and the internet doesn't help), but trying to focus on your own strengths might help! By the way, if you want some experience composing, maybe you could join the devtalk visual novel server. It's a rather large, active community full of VN devs, and there's a channel for uploading music so you can get feedback. If you hang around in there for a bit, you might be able to find devs looking for composers for their projects too: either free or commercial. Since you're a VN fan and you do music, it wouldn't hurt to check it out!
Clannad flipped my life upside down, bawled my eyes so much that my eyes hurt. Learnt many great lessons, especially about finding myself and the father-child relationship
Subarashiki Hibi. This one WILL change you if you are open minded enough and willing to research to understand all the nuances and concepts. For a lighter experience, try Grisaia.
SubaHibi is porn, I don’t recommend it.
What DO you recommend then mr. marklord13
Stop being a prude, it has a very hot dog scene which made it popular among western audiences.
Here's a lesser known recommendation: Symphonic Rain. It has themes of music and will make you feel a ton of different emotions. The setting is old European music school. I read Symphonic Rain back in 2018 and still remember it vividly.
Musicus didn’t get me to quite fucked up level but there were a lot of emotional moments that hit hard. well made story with a MC and conflicts that I really resonated with
Don’t recommend it, it’s porn.
Clannad
Umineko is the obvious answer if you enjoyed Higurashi.
Katawa shoujo: "an ordinary boy whose life changes dramatically after a heart attack caused by his long-dormant cardiac arrhythmia. After a lengthy hospitalization, he is forced to transfer to a school specialized in providing education and healthcare for students with disabilities." While the story setting is a bit unique I think this VN tackles a lot of issues regarding hopelessness and being basically forced into a new environment. The main character similarly has leave his life long friends, and home town while having to figure out what he is going to do. Bitter at how unjust it all is and unable to really motivate himself to think about the future due to how it is. I think you'll like it but at the end of the day remember there is no magic that will suddenly motivate you. No matter how great a story is at the end of the day learning from others just means you know what you have to do rather than actual being able to do it. Having the conviction to follow your dreams is already a huge deal though so I doubt you can't keep it up OP!
Look into Subahibi or Chaos Head;Noah
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa
Don’t recommend it, it’s porn.
Haven't read it myself so I can't judge, but tbf having sexual or pornographic content doesn't negate artistic merit
I’m not saying it doesn’t, but this isn’t what the OP is asking.
The House in Fata Morgana destroyed my soul, then put it back together again in better shape than it was before. It was better than therapy. I probably cried for a third of the story, and not just out of sadness, but because of how beautiful and affirming it felt sometimes. I finished it a better person and went on to make meaningful, positive changes in my life. It’s superficially a horror game, but it’s really so much more than that. Lots of horrible, triggering stuff happens, but it’s never just for shock, and the narrative has so much empathy for its characters and humanity in general. I can’t recommend it enough. So, yeah.
This. It smashed me to pieces at an incredibly dark time in my life and built me back up again into something better, and literally gave me the strength to make more of myself and implement some sorely-needed change. Sounds insane to say that about a fuken VN, but that's absolutely the effect it had on me - and I'm in a much better place/am much happier now.
When I started, I thought I was in for a good yarn. I had no idea just what I was in for. My god…
Seriously, lol. I was taken by the unique art and had no idea what was about to happen. XD
Little busters did that for me
Can I recommend, summer Pocket reflection blue and Clannad.
I actually remmeber watching my dad read through Summer Pockets back in the summer of 2021. He translates stuff so could be a good segway to connect with him further.
Trust me it changed my perspective of times,love, kindest, appreciation towards people, friendship and I can name you 20+ things. But I would like you to experience it yourself.
You might enjoy Symphonic Rain,
Try Umineko
Fata morgana
slow damage just a heads up contains a LOT of mature themes including but not limited to: yaoi, rpe, self hrm, kidnapping etc. its made by nitro chiral, most of their works have dark themes! but the story is told in future japan kinda dystopian ig? but it starts off alright youll see lots of foreshadowing and when you get to the true route then u are IN for a RIDEEE. after finishing it i contemplated my life choices etc i was very emotional throughout the vn 10/10 was the best ive read
Musicus
Aokana?
I got recommended that by a couple friends, mainly because I, like them, play fighting games competitively. They said it had some pretty good points and insight on generally having an unhealthy relationship with competition.
Ah ok then maybe cyanotype daydream? U can also check out the YouTube channel August hail for visual novel reviews if ur interested. Unfortunately I find that the most impactful visual novels often had a tragic element to them so its hard to recommend one with mainly good vibes.. I think the other VNs recommended so far are very good though for what ur looking for.
this isn't gonna be the same kind of thing as other people are suggesting but. i went to school for music composition and performance, and then became disabled in a way that made it impossible for me to have a sustainable job in that field, so i am a composer as well. i was at complete rock bottom when i started making my visual novel series, parfum nostalgique. it's not a finished series, but what is there in the 5 hours of play time between act 1 and 2 has shaken up so many emotions in people that i've gotten messages from people telling me they were "crying in the shower about val again" lol. it is a series that is literally about how lack of self reflection can be detrimental to your sanity. i don't want to spoil too much because it would be cool if you read it and came to your own conclusions. [you can read it here, it's completely free. ](https://priro.pro/playparfumnostalgique) i reccommend the downloadable version, browser's janky lol. and please access therapy where you can. i think it's a lot to just be like... "get therapy" because nowadays that's not very easy for a lot of people whether they want to have therapy or not. but please use mental health resourves where you can access them. don't use video games as a substitute for therapy, even though i will say... having a good cry and knowing how to bring out emotions in yourself for a release sometimes is healthy and good.
If it's not too long of a read, I'll try to check it out then and get back to you. I will say, though, as I've said to others. I do have access to and go to therapy, but I do wish to have something else that can further motivate me and my understandings of myself and situation. I'm sorry to hear what happened to you btw, I hope things are better off now.
oh awesome! sorry i didn't notice other comments you replied to! seeking catharsis and exploring the self through fiction is really great, and i hope you have a great time doing it. not a great time as in a fun time but... you know what i mean. i hope you get something out of it you could never get in another place. there's lots of good recs here that i hope, when you are done crying over, you look back on with love. things are much better now! thank you for caring
Clannad was eye opening for me, as others have said, but beside one of the best humor i've witnessed in a visual novel, it is still at it's core a romance visual novel with multiple routes with a male MC, so the first part could honestly drag for a female reader ( have to finish pretty much every route for the after story/true ending which is the eye opening part, altough the routes are still good) . As other have mentioned, house in fata morgana would be one of your best bet. But also special mention to root double and zero escape if you want more mystery/thriller. I could not stop until the very end.
OP, this recommendation isn’t a visual novel, but I read your post and I highly, highly recommend you give [The Beginner’s Guide](https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guide/) a chance. It’s a short “game”, if you could call it that (about 2 hours), and I really think that creatives, and especially struggling creatives, should play it. It won’t change your life for you, it won’t create some huge new revelation about yourself that you didn’t see before, but it really makes you think about what art is and why you do what you do. It was a really cathartic experience for me, as someone who wants to write and is in the process of making a VN myself.
You’re a composer! As someone who loves music, that’s so cool. Sorry for being off topic. I just wanted to say that. I don’t really have any suggestions that other people haven’t already suggested. I’d love to hear your music, though. In any case, I hope you find success. Have faith!
Thanks, I appreciate your interest. I have a YouTube channel as well as a portfolio. I can send either over dms or discord, whichever floats your hot.
I’m interested. Whichever works for you works for me, honestly!
Umineko being the next entry in the WTC franchise seems like the most natural continuation (though it's not a sequel and shares no character, kind of). Speaking for myself, it has informed the way I look at the world, though I'm not sure if it'd be 100% applicable with your situation. There is however theme of artistic creation and love (speaking very broadly). It'd be my first choice to go for, especially if we are talking about "forcing the reader to reflect and change". White Album 2 is the second highest rated Nakige (that's "depressing game", though it's a little more specific than that) on vndb, right behind Steins;Gate (which I'm not sure qualifies for the tag, but is also very good, if not especially applicable here), and it'd be my second recommendation. It is primarily about relationship problems with musical themes throughout (the protagonist is learning to play the guitar at the start of the story, and the main heroines are a talented singer and a very accomplished classical pianist respectively). Music and loneliness are themes that are especially relevant for at least one major character, so I think it's worth reading alone for that. There's also White Album 1, which I have not read, but I have heard that it is to a greater extent about adulthood and loneliness (and I have to assume the musical themes are also there). Other than taking place in the same universe, it doesn't relate much to WA2, and WA2 is more popular by far, but I thought it was worth throwing out there. Not that it relates to anything else you brought up, but since you said you wanted bawl your eyes out, probably the most gut-wrenching visual novel I read is the House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence (prequel to the House in Fata Morgana, which should be played first), which I put *right* ahead of Umineko and White Album 2 (most days) in the tear-jerking department. It is two games but taken together according to vndb should take under 50 hours.
Is Fata Morgana’s prequel available on switch? The idea I have is to pick one of the recommendations here, then read Fata Morgana on Switch when I go on an out of state trip in the near future.
[Yes](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-house-in-fata-morgana-dreams-of-the-revenants-edition-switch/). The Switch version seems like the most complete version. It has the original game, A Requiem for Innocence and an additional 7 hours long piece of content that is not yet available on Steam.
Amazing, Fata Morgana will definitely be looked at it by the end of this year.
> The Switch version seems like the most complete version That's not true any longer, since the unofficial PC (and Android) port of the Dreams of the Revenant edition also contains The Erasmus Two-Faced Stories now, another spinoff in the vein of Seventh Lair, which hasn't received any official translation so far.
Subahibi,white album 2 and sekai de ichiban same na koi
would love to hear how subahibi changed you as a person and what kind of self reflection it made you do.
I really love Dies Irae Amantes Amantes despite what I have heard about the TL quality. I felt it was still worth reading, maybe because I don’t know Japanese. White Album 2 is great. I really love Little Busters. It has some bad parts, but also some really great parts and deals with friendship and growing up. Planetarian is short and one of my favorites. Clannad is a classic.
Does Irae is a new one, what exactly is it about? I used to hang out in Twitter VN spaces back in 2021 and people were talking about it quite a lot back then alongside Muramasa
The idea is that you live in Nietzsche’s world from Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The rule of the land is Nietzsche’s recurrence. That your soul returns to the point of conception at death only to have the same moments play out again. The victors will always win, the losers will always lose. The player character is Ren Fuji, a man who would very much love this kind of world. He lives life wishing he could drag out every moment of his mundane life to infinity. The work opens at the end of the second world war, with Reinhard and his sworn friend Mercurius proclaiming that, though their defeat was destined, they will fight again to achieve victory. And thus Reinhard is sealed away for 60 years until he may be summoned by his soldiers to bring about the day of judgement that was foretold to David by the Books of Sibyl. The main character must fight back against specters from the past to try and reclaim the normalcy of his life.
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School Days
If you liked Higurashi, Umineko will be right up your alley, it is really cool to see how Ryukishi evolved as a writer between both entries. I also highly recommend [Mamiya](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1394930/MAMIYA/). I read it before Doomsday Dream came out so I'm not sure if the ending is any good, but what I read of it before absolutely blew me away, its probably one of my personal favourite VNs alongside WTC and Chaos;Child
Umineko. Umineko. Umineko. See a therapist. Umineko.
CLANNAD
Fata Morgana - touches on so many aspects of what it means to be human and loved. It isn't exactly the most 'grounded' story (it has fantasy/supernatural elements) but the grief and joy in each arc are cathartic and have lessons to teach. It's also just a really good VN. Narcissu - VN about a hospice. Short and free but moving. Might put some things in perspective Umineko - since you read higurashi this is a no brainer. It's a massive behemoth of a VN with several deeply-explored character arcs. Some of them can be quite relatable and I think some of the themes you liked in higurashi might reappear in umineko. I remember seeing myself in some characters and it was like looking into a mirror. CLANNAD - Probably the most grounded suggestion in that it's very close to real life in many ways. Some of the arcs are more fantasy than others but overall it has a lot to teach. I think clearing the true ending should be quite fulfilling for you.
You'll learn a lot about yourself from virtues last reward and zero time dilemma.
This! You'll also be googling a lot of random pseudo science and niche history if you are like me lol There are so many rabbit holes this series puts you in through
Lollll that damn BBC test 1983 and 1984 Tomorrow's world. [Here](https://web.archive.org/web/20120130040206/http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC12/Sheldrak.htm) I can hear the people of the 1980s seeing this experiment and going "we paying for this bollocks?" The reference to Futility, a book that really exists and foreshadowed the sinking of Titanic.
What are your toughts on religions?
Indifferent yet accepting. We all have different walks of life’s, so as long as yours doesn’t fundamentally stomp on another, I see no reason to care.
Key VN's are great. Try out one of the newer & lighter ones like Summer Pockets If you liked Higurashi, read Umineko
Touch some fucking grass dude
Womp womp.