Visual novel

A visual novel tells its story through text boxes over still character art and backgrounds; you advance it with a click or a tap, and some menu choices branch the plot. The form grew up in Japan in the 1990s.

Where the name comes from

Wikipedia, citing the historian Yuhsuke Koyama, says Leaf released Shizuku in 1996 as part of its “Visual Novel Series”; the term emerged in the mid-1990s and was later applied back to older games in the West. Before it, Chunsoft used its trademark “Sound Novel” for Otogirisō (1992), and System Sacom marketed a 1988 game as “Novelware”.

Where the edges are

Scholars distinguish “true” visual novels from Japanese adventure games, and the word means different things in English, where it covers text-heavy games in a Japanese style, and in Japan, where it points to the novel games of the late 1990s. The designer Kazutaka Kodaka describes two lineages, one from the adventure game The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983). Some visual novels offer no choices at all.

Key visual novel games

Each game links to its article; the last column links to the source that puts it in the genre.

Related genres: Walking simulator.

At a glance

Parent genre

Adventure

Name first used

1996, Leaf (Shizuku)

Earlier names

Sound Novel (Chunsoft, 1992), Novelware (1988)

Also called

VN, novel game

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

1. Visual novel — Wikipedia