r/visualnovels

I'm writing a vn but I don't know how to deal with the bgms

I've been reading since 2013 and during my vacation I thought I'd try to write my own visual novel. So far I got the plot, the characters, and the writing style down. My sister, who is a professional manga artist and published a bunch of works in my country, is handling the character design. What I'm missing from the picture is the background music.

Now I'm not really expecting to make a huge profit out of this, so I don't know if I could even afford paying for 15/20 BGMs for the whole vn.

Using AI except for reference purposes is off the table since I'd definitely face backlash, so using royalty free music seems to be the best option at the moment.

Are there any alternatives?

A few details about the vn if anybody is curious about the project:

-It's heavily inspired by Sekien no Inganock, an obscure vn made in the mid 2000s

-Some other sources of inspiration for the setting are Casshern Sins, Ergo Proxy, Houseki no Kuni and Chobits

-Post-apocalyptic settings with androids ruling the world and humans being treated as secondary citizens

-The main character is a tutor for defective androids that require human input, his main task is ensuring that androids never develop a human-like consciousness and conform strictly to the parameters established by the system

-The main heroine is an android herself

-The male lead has a tragic backstory revealed through the interactions with his former friends

-a third key character gets introduced at the end of the 1st chapter. Typically loli/shota type.

-melancholic atmosphere just like Inganock, but it's downplayed by the tsundere heroine and the main character's goofiness

If you read or watched any of these titles you might get a rough idea of what I'm getting into and the type of BGMs I'm looking for.

I haven't thought of a title yet, but I'm done writing a draft of the first chapter and I'm not running out of ideas. Hope this helps.

reddit.com
u/Uselessbodhisattva — 3 hours ago

What are you reading? - Aug 19

Welcome to the weekly "What are you reading?" thread!

This is intended to be a general chat thread on visual novels with a focus on the visual novels you've been reading recently. A new thread is posted every Thursday at 4:00 AM JST (or Wednesday if you don't live in Japan for some reason).

Good WAYR entries include your analysis, predictions, thoughts, and feelings about what you're reading. The goal should be to stimulate discussion with others who have read that VN in the past, or to provide useful information to those reading in the future! Avoid long-winded summaries of the plot, and also avoid simply mentioning which VNs you are reading with no points for discussion. The best entries are both brief and brilliant.

Use spoiler tags liberally!

Always use spoiler tags in threads that are not about one specific visual novel. Like this one!

  • They can be posted using the following markdown: &gt;!hidden spoilery text!< , which shows up as >!hidden spoilery text!<. Make sure there are no spaces at the beginning and end of the spoiler tag because this will break it for users on http://old.reddit.com/. In other words do this: >!properly hidden spoiler!<, but not this: >! broken spoiler tag !<

Remember to link to the VNDB page of the visual novel you're discussing so the indexing bot for the What Are You Reading Archive can pick up your post.

reddit.com
u/AutoModerator — 6 hours ago

vns i should read before getting spoiled?

i get spoiled so many things just from social media or searching up a simple question or because of friends.

i just got spoiled 2 really big things in umineko but instead of dwelling on it, i just want to know what visual novels i should read where getting spoiled something could ruin the experience a lot.

basically, what vns with lots of twists should i prioritise reading to lessen the chances of getting spoiled? i’m currently reading higurashi but i’ve been spoiled every mystery

reddit.com
u/NectarineWestern8586 — 18 hours ago

Cosplaying in Costalia: The Tororo Sisters!, a cosplay nukige by AKABEi SOFT2 written by Kuzumi Takeyuki (Template, Imouto Paradise), will be released in English and Chinese on October 27 by Shiravune.

u/LegitimateCurve8525 — 16 hours ago

I know it’s still a day away from release, but some review videos have already come out. I’m curious to hear your thoughts: for someone who has never played SG before, or someone who already owns it in their library but hasn’t started it yet, would you recommend the reboot or the original game?

u/SmtYlmzD — 1 day ago

Just finished Remember11 -- looking for obscure psychological/mystery VNs

Hello to anyone reading this. So I finishied Kokoron route and I enjoyed the read but I feel it's time to move on at least for now. From anime related fiction I like Steins;Gate, Lain, Homunculus(2003), Subahibi, Remember11. I want older Japanese VNs with dark and pretty opressive atmosphere, unreliable/uncertain perspectives, psychological stuff, mystery, sci-fi/time weirdness. I want something that feels like I discovered it on imageboards in 2007. Preferably not >25hours

reddit.com
u/nazar16108 — 1 day ago

The demo of my dark fantasy BL game "Inimigo" is now out on both Jast Store and Steam! One week if you want to support the crowdfunding

Hi everyone, I'm working on rising funds for this project! This is a visual novel where you play the "villain" and the love interest is the "hero".

Full summary:

Erester, a daemon, wants the end of humanity! However, his goal seemed impossible after his defeat by Gael, the  Warrior Saint. With his decapitated head flying away from the rest of his body, Erester was overcome with regret for having spared that same Gael years ago, when he was still a defenseless child, for no apparent reason. However, once again Erester awakens, conscious and whole. What are Gael's objectives in returning the same clemency?
Follow a BL story between two enemies and see if the cycle of hatred can truly come to an end!

VNDB

JAST Store page

Steam page

Catarse (crowdfunding) page (english guide)

Trailer

The crowdfunding is still at 60% (the game will realease if don`t meets the goal), so if you want, I would be really glad!

u/Yukinaime — 1 day ago

For people who have read Cartagra Steam version (and ideally original and Switch Version)…

I’m a big fan of this series, I wanted to read this as soon as it was releasing, but then I heard the news about the Steam version being censored, my question is: is it just the sexual content what’s being censored?
Or is it something that has to do with the violence or dialogue? Also does it have other cut content?

I was going to wait for a patch from a fan translation, but since I don’t know when it’s releasing, and if it’s JUST the sexual content then I wouldn’t mind at all reading it without a patch.

reddit.com
u/notachocalatecat — 1 day ago

Highballing Cartagra and Kara no Shoujo was EXHAUSTING and taking a break( no context spoilers)

So in my holidays I finished Cartagra with little reference to the guide ( getting lost in bad ends) and 1 route of Kara No shoujo.

High balling it without a guide was mentally exhausting especially when I think about everything everywhere all at once just to reach a bad end. Opened up the guide once stuck like crazy.

So im taking a mental break by diving in the yuri world of FLOWERS! God this girls are gay.

Remember to take a break from time to time in your reads!

u/Ghosteen_18 — 1 day ago
▲ 96 r/visualnovels+1 crossposts

Dies Irae Review

I finished Dies Irae it was very fun one thing i would say is series which is known for action pack chuni stuff suprisingly a lot of good slice and highschool drama which I really fuck with like i have a lot of fun with it.

I will go route by route.

  1. Kasumi Route :-

I think the finale was anticlimactic.

The fight was lame, and the whole thing felt incoherent.

Trifa was about to rape his own stepdaughter and only stopped because he saw the ghosts of the children from his orphanage. And I’m supposed to believe that he was always going to let Fuji kill him and that the whole thing was just a prank?

Oh, and in the end, everything was practically worthless because Reinhardt would have been coming back anyway.

With that said, the tragedy was good.

Is Ren alive at the end? Is Kasumi fucking some other dude?

Kei. Oh my God, Kei.

At least the Shirou stuff wasn’t a fake-out either, so that’s good. He really did die.

  1. Kei Route :-

Phenomenal route as a whole, but the climax was underwhelming.

Sakurai is such a great character. I already liked her in the previous route, so I’m really happy to see her character expanded here.

Her tragedy is being so stuck in the past that she’s willing to walk the same path again, and she’s fully aware that she’s sinning. She’s even willing to die if the punishment comes, just like it did in the last route.

Her embracing Ren after being left completely hopeless was fucking beautiful.

I think the anticlimactic part was the final stretch.

There was so much hype built up with one fight after another. You have Cain vs. Shirou. You have Sakurai nearly defeating Trifa. Then you get the fucking ankle-breaking ending with Reinhardt arriving at the very end.

But the reason I feel disappointed is because so many of the hyped matchups were between Ren and Machina or Beatrice and Eleonore. It feels like a cop-out, like the story is just saving those fights for later.

The ending should have been Reinhardt and the boys killing us all and fulfilling the ending.

Instead, it ended in a very contrived way: “Yeah, Mercurius is gonna bail us out.”

“Oh, did Mercurius kill Rea? Apparently something related to her caused the castle to collapse.”

Nope, she’s fine.

“Oh, did he kill Kasumi to unleash Cain?”

Nope, she’s fine.

It all feels like, “Yeah, see you again. Please love Marie so she has a chance against Reinhardt.”

But that final scene was beautiful.

Good route, meh ending.

  1. Marie Route :-

10/10

I have no flaws to point out with this one. Probably one of the best routes in a visual novel I’ve ever read.

The grander narrative was absolutely magnificent, both on the macro and micro levels.

Whether it was the grand battle between Reinhardt and Ren, or the minor characterization of Eleonore—how she hates women because she believes her love for Reinhardt will never be reciprocated, which explains why she is the way she is.

The thematic conflict on the surface is solitude vs. bonds.

One side believes that a community can be forged through togetherness, kindness, and shared pain, while the other believes that true strength comes from individual fortitude—to fight until they reach Valhalla, essentially questioning the point of kindness and believing that human nature is ultimately defined by the harshness of the world.

Of course, both sides have their contradictions.

Reinhardt, despite his appetite for destruction, makes a half-assed attempt to form a familial bond in the end, only for it to backfire on him.

Ren, meanwhile, has to grapple with the dilemma of how far he is willing to go to protect the people he treasures, and whether he is willing to sacrifice countless people he doesn’t even know for the sake of the one he loves.

There were so many banger character moments: Trifa and his pathetic end; Ren finally finding his purpose in life; Marie realizing her feelings and learning how to love something; and Rea dealing with her unrequited love.

And then there’s Reinhardt vs. Ren, which is easily one of the best fights I’ve ever seen in anything, especially in the anime/visual novel medium.

Reinhardt is easily one of the best antagonists I’ve encountered. He is genuinely a force of nature, yet at the same time, there is something incredibly empty about him. He represents unabashed cruelty, but he interprets that cruelty as love. He destroys everything while believing that he loves everything, yet he never truly understands what love actually is.

The fact that he can say “I love all and everything” while being so completely hollow makes his character even more fascinating.

And that climax on the rooftop, man. That was genuinely heart-wrenching. The side story at end was heartbreaking those sinners have tomorrow damn it.

One of the best routes this medium has to offer.

  1. Rea Route :-

Rea Route was phenomenal.

I feel like this route was the answer to everything: Who is Ren? Who is Mercurius? Who is Reinhardt really? It answers almost every mystery surrounding the world.

It also gives us some of the most anticipated fights in the entire series. One of them was off-screen, but it is what it is.

It was incredibly fulfilling to see the full development of all these characters. We finally get to see Trifa take a stand against his destiny and, this time, actually make a difference.

The character dynamics were also fantastic. The showdown between Lisa and Eleonore finally gives us the dynamic that was teased in the Kasumi route, especially their disagreement over what a woman ought to be. Both of them are broken women, but in completely different ways. Lisa is a sinner, while Eleonore is coping with losing the battle for Reinhardt’s love. She has accepted death as the only finale she can look forward to.

Rea is an adorable baby girl who loves Ren with her whole heart. She is aware of her destiny, but she’s still happy living within the fake paradigm of their lives, with Trifa and Lisa acting as her parents. She’s happy simply because she gets to be with the boy she loves.

Her arc—of a girl who is destined to be sacrificed, yet still longs to remain with the person she loves and wants him to be safe even when everything else is falling apart—is beautiful.

Mercurius is suicidal, I guess? Curse of immortality type shit.

And Rusalka, my goodness, what a phenomenal character she was.

She spends all this time chasing the love she lost, but at the same time, she’s deeply broken by men and desperately trying to fill the wound in her heart. She lives in fear of Heydrich because of her past trauma, and that explains so much about why she is the way she is.

That final scene in the side story, where she finally finds her love, was fucking beautiful. Even though the tragedy is implied—he still dies—she at least gets to confess her feelings to him. That was genuinely heartbreaking.

And Reinhardt finally gets his full character arc.

This time, he actually loved all and everything. He paid his child support. He had no hesitation anymore. He was finally aware of how miserable his life could have been. He used to be afraid of death, as shown in the flashback with Mercurius, but not anymore.

He gave up on the life he had as a bureaucrat in Nazi Germany. He is finally free from those bonds, and now he is simply giving everyone his pleasure and his love.

I had a lot of fun with this route.

Question regarding Totono

any reason people praise this VN so much?

i played Miyuki route and since i don't like Aoi so i didn't start her route (she is just a kuudere with hollow eyes)

this felt like a typical romance, did i miss greatness here? any symbolism or something?

u/alexCosmetic — 1 day ago

Asobu Akinashi’s doujin visual novel "ShiroKuro" will receive English and Chinese releases from Shiravune, with character art by the circle’s founder Yuu Akinashi (character designer of Meteor World Actor and Love, Elections, &amp; Chocolate)

u/LegitimateCurve8525 — 2 days ago

Whats up with Rena from Higurashi?

ive seen lots of reference either from the anime or the game that says "shes a different girl who attends to therapy" so it implies that Rena has some sort of disorder. i never finished all the games so im asking if it has said which does she have? or if theres a theory

u/pervertcel — 2 days ago