Best Fantasy Visual Novels For Beginners

Fantasy worlds have captured the imaginations of readers and creators for centuries, and the advent of video games as an interactive medium has only seen the variety of worlds on display grow further. Whether players are JRPG fanatics or fans of immersive first-person RPGs, there’s a universe’s worth of fantasy worlds to explore.

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While many games can offer immersive experiences in these worlds, there’s nothing quite like a visual novel that takes players into the finer details of a world where magic and impossibilities become reality. In particular, these visual novels make excellent starts into the genre thanks to their cohesive stories, high-quality writing, and high amounts of choice and consequence, which really showcase what visual novels are capable of producing.

6

The Life And Suffering Of Sir Brante

An Excellent Character-Driven Visual Novel

• Platforms: Windows, PS4, Xbox One
• Released: March 4, 2021
• Developer: Sever
• Genre: RPG

An excellent choose-your-own-adventure game, The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is one of those phenomenal text-heavy games that few titles can manage to replicate. Brante’s youth and origins, his profession, and his path in this fantasy world are all subject to the choices of the player, who can guide Brante into the role of a magistrate, knight, or cunning thief, among other paths.

The gritty, low magic world that Sir Brante showcases to the player will enthrall and entrance, and repeat playthroughs are a must – if only to see other areas of this world explored. This is an excellently written and illustrated visual novel with an emotional, compelling story.

5

Slay The Princess

An Experimental Horror Fantasy Fusion

Released

October 23, 2023

ESRB

nr

It’s best to go into this one as blind as possible, but suffice it to say that Slay the Princess is a masterwork of subversive horror, set within a fantasy world where the player has one, very simple goal (hint: it’s in the title!). Playing on a sense of morality and mortality, this game will keep players feeling uneasy and conflicted throughout the breadth of its runtime.

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This dark, humorous, psychological game has many endings, begging for multiple run-throughs, many of which can end quite suddenly if the right (or wrong?) choice is made.

4

Sorcery!

A Classic, Zany, High Fantasy Adventure

Adventure

Narrative

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Released

May 2, 2013

ESRB

t

Set on a beautifully illustrated watercolor map, this fantasy visual novel is an excellent, engaging romp through a LOTR-inspired world that holds a plethora of choices for players to shape their experience through. Players’ main tools as they guide their character through Steve Jackson’s classic world are their reliable sword and a myriad of often bizarre spells that can turn battles or encounters on their heads.

The first game in this four-part series combines the first two installments into one game, letting players experience this world in an utterly unique way – and also seeing the sheer number of choices from the first game that helps color the second. Of course, players must actually survive the first part of Sorcery! – and that’s easier said than done.

3

Roadwarden

A Uniquely Untamed World To Explore

Roadwarden

Released

September 12, 2022

ESRB

t

The world in Roadwarden is beautiful – but it’s also hostile to a tee. This text-heavy RPG has players exploring a lush, untamed peninsula as a stranger in an even stranger land, making difficult choices, crafting a personality as the game goes on, and all-around sinking into around 30 hours of content. The style of writing is very hands-off and economical with its language, so players aren’t going to be lost in paragraphs of imagery trying to figure out what’s happening.

It’s a subtle, reserved kind of story that Roadwarden is trying to tell, but it’s also one with an incredibly expansive amount of choices for the player to make. An exceptional game by any standard, this game explores a world as unique and uncanny as Morrowind‘s, but in an entirely singular way.

2

Pentiment

Obsidian Returns With Another Jaw-Dropping Title

Released

November 15, 2022

ESRB

m

Taking a step back from pure high fantasy to create a world of historical fantasy, Obsidian brings the world a dazzling, startlingly realized world with Pentiment. Pentiment has players take on the role of a master artist in 16th-century Europe as they create manuscripts that frame the world around them. It’s an exploration of art and how people use it to create meaning, but it’s also a time capsule for this tumultuous period in history.

Beyond these two things, it’s an excellent visual novel with plenty of choices and consequences and a character that can be designed in a myriad of ways as the player sees fit. Its take on European history is a little less grounded than something like Kingdom Come, but fans of the RPG will still find plenty to love here.

1

Umineko When They Cry – Question Arcs

A Great Urban Fantasy Mystery

• Platforms: Windows, PS3, PSP, PS4, Switch, Mobile
• Released: July 8, 2016
• Developer: 07th Expansion
• Genre: Mystery

There are many cult classics among visual novels – many titles that have devoted followings but were otherwise missed by the public eye. Umineko When They Cry is one such title, deserving of far more love than it currently receives.

The ultimate ambiguity with this title is whether the string of terrible crimes occurring can be attributed to a simple, mortal criminal, or a bona fide witch. Exploring the difference between magic and theatrics makes this title an incredible urban fantasy mystery, and is definitely going to be enjoyed by fans of anime, manga, or visual novels as a whole.

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