Best visual novel scene style? (Traditional VN vs Unique Images)

[grayyii]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently developing a visual novel game (just like everyone else) using Honey Select 2/Ren'Py and I'm having trouble deciding on the game style I want. I'm not sure if I would rather have a traditional visual novel style (Style1 from Highway Blossoms), a Danganronpa-esque style with one speaker and maybe a little cutout of the PC in the bottom left (Style2 from Danganronpa V2), or have unique scenes per text similar to other visual novels on the site (Style3 from My Real Desire).

Which looks best to you as a reader? I'm hoping to have a story-focused game with a fair amount of sex scenes, and was planning on tying Style 2 for longer text and Style 3 for important/impactful scenes as well as sex scenes.

After prototyping some gui designs in Photoshop, Style 2 looks a bit awkward but definitely takes less time and saves a lot of space. Please let me know if you have examples of good 3d games with a more traditional visual novel style (Style1/2)!

 

[Catapo]

For the vote I will say no preference as long as the styles fit the game you are making.
You should not choose these styles randomly.

In Highway Blossoms the focus is on those 2 characters and their interactions so the style reflects that.

In Danganronpa there are 2 sides: the free time where you get to know and get closer to the other characters and the investigation where you take statements, alibis, etc.
The focus is always on the others.

As for style 3 it should be used for events where that event is the focus. I did not play the game you showed here but it seems that the scene is the MC lost in thought as anothet character is trying to catch up. Showing this with the other styles would not work as well.

Also note that both Highway Blossoms and Danganronpa use unique images (CGs) when important events happen.

So in the end you need a combination of styles dependind on what do you want to convey to the players.

 

[Jofur]

First one makes sense if you want to see your own character, which can make scenes more emotional, but does remove a lot of the immersion. It depends on how talkative the MC is.
First one is also vital if there are more than two NPCs talking in a scene. Third one should only be for major scenes, it would be an absolute nightmare to render a full image for every facial expression in every new scene or background.
Personally I would use all three and change them depending on what the scenes needs.

 

[osanaiko]

How you write and design your game, and your amount-of-work expectation are also a big factors:

In style 1 and 2: When writing dialogue, and you have only a background image and a character foreground with a few different face expressions, there is very little you can "show" to the player via images. You need to explain nearly all of it in the text.

In style 3: The dialogue and images work together, much more like a movie or a traditional comic story, where part of the information you communicate to the player is in the image - in this example, you don't need to explicitly state that the MC is walking away from the girl, is grumpy, and is thinking to himself; it can be seen in the image.

The benefit for style 1 and 2 is you don't need many images created - a background for each location, a handful of expressions and poses for each character.

For Style 3, you need to draw (or pose and render if using 3d) a new image for every few lines of dialogue. It dramatically increases the amount of artwork needed.