Kanon is NOT a visual novel

[kiwisquash]

Many people confuse Kanon and many other type of adventure dating simulation games as a "visual novel." Yes, I agree that this discussion is pointless and no one (including myself) cares about the proper division of genre.

The term "visual novel" is often mistaken as a genre, when in fact it is just a style of narration in which the texts appear right over the CG instead of inside a text box. This is suppose to emphasize the importance of the text over the pictures. The term "visual novel" was first used by Leaf in the 90s, when they released "Sizuku," as the first in their visual novel series. (The visual novel style did exist in the past, but Leaf was the first company to successfully implement it)

Kanon, therefore, is NOT a visual novel. All text appear in that violet box. The proper genre for Kanon is "dating simulation adventure" or just "adveture" or "dating simulation." It is a bit strange since no dating is involved in Kanon (oops, is that a spoiler?).

I do agree that "visual novel" sounds more refined then "dating sim," but it's still a misnomer.

[Haeleth]

You have a point, but as far as most English-speaking ren'ai fans are concerned AVG == Visual Novel...

I could turn it into a real visual novel if you like:


That's a genuine screenshot. It takes a bit of work, though, since I have to paginate it by hand. And AVG32 doesn't provide any easy way to get English text in NVL mode.

Update: there's a general discussion forum now, let's put this where it belongs. ;)