11 Best Anime Visual Novels on Steam Worth Playing
Table of Contents
Looking for the best Anime Visual Novels on steam? There are tons of Anime visual novels on steam which has been a common market for the Visual Novel community, whether it is a Western or Japanese published Visual novel with an Anime adaptation, there are a lot, and some with titles that are all too familiar with us already. We will list the 10 Best Visual Novels on steam that were known to cause a spike in the trend among the community and explain a brief short synopsis these Visual Novels hold to get your attention and money.
Doki Doki Literature club
Dok Doki Literature Club! is one of the Best Anime Visual Novels on Steam that is Free-to-Play which follows the normal dating sim plot structure that leads to multiple endings so, dialogue choices do affect players route with the character. Doki Doki Literature Club tells a story about a male high school student that joins his schools Literature club aiming to make a move on one of the four female main characters with a lot of unexpecting twist to its story.
Don’t let looks deceive you as DDLC (Doki Doki Literature Club) went viral not because it’s your typical cute visual novel romance, but because it’s a dark psychological horror genre that revolves around the subject of suicide that made it controversial. DDLC is a dark romantic dating sim, and hell, it does an effective job in doing so to the point it can disturb an emotionally sensitive person. Despite these warnings, DDLC is something worth playing because it brings this horrifying drama to the table and if you’re into that, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t play.
Steins Gate
Steins; Gate is a popular Anime franchise series from the manga to the anime, and now the Visual Novel has been released on steam. It’s currently out on steam as a four part series, and people love Steins;gate due to its science fiction about time-travel revolving around the characters. Steins; Gate is an interactive visual novel and it’s the best of the best.
Interaction with the game revolves around the users “phone” system, allowing the user or player receive in-game calls or text messages, which the decision to reply lies on you. These decisions can have an affect on the outcome of the game, and it’s why I find it an awesome visual novel to try out. If you’re into science fiction about time traveling visual novels, this is a highly recommended title.
Clannad
Clannad is another popular Anime franchise that brings an awesome surreal storyline of Romance and Drama making it another popular visual novel that released on Steam. Clannad has made thousands cry from its Anime, and certainly the visual novel doesn’t fail to bring those emotions as well to its platform. Clannad is known for bringing a lot of real life realizations to its audience with its story containing life lessons about Family, friends, hardships, and other meaningful content which makes Clannad not your average Romantic story.
It’s what made Clannad a top tier visual novel known in the VN community and its a great choice to playthrough when you’re looking for the best Anime Visual Novels on Steam. Clannad is an old visual novel but has been continuously updated with it having an English Translation officially released in 2015. The visual novel contains multiple plotlines or routes that you can follow for each main character in clannad.
Nekopara
Nekopara was one of the first 18+ Anime Visual novels on steam in 2014, and still considered a great playthrough for anyone looking into some fun revolving around Neko Anime Girls that work in a café with quite a lot of fanservice. Nekopara has around 4 volumes able to be purchased on steam and they do frequently go on sale. Nekopara also has their own Anime that aired in the Winter of 2020 which you can binge through. Nekopara Anime isn’t as 18+ compared to the Visual Novel with the Patch, as the Anime focuses more on the innocent slice of life of the character which is still great if you love them.
Ace attorney
Ace Attorney is an Anime visual novel about defense law. Following a guy who just became a defense attorney and just went to his first day on the Job as a rookie in the court which he later experiences the so-called “battlefield”. It still remains as a popular choice because it has a fun interactive gameplay that leads to being an adventure game that uses the Visual novel mechanics where you decide and try to defend the innocent in court with their cases. If you do love this franchise, there is an Anime adaptation released in 2016 which was pretty fun to watch.
Danganronpa
Danganronpa is another major popular Visual Novel Series on steam that has a solid storyline with a very strong character line-up which is the reason that attracts players attention for these two elements. Danganronpa is a Linear Visual Novel with a lot of reading, and even if it doesn’t reside in the traditional multiple endings type of Visual Novel, it’s still worth playing through as it’s quite interesting from the story to the characters that revolves around mystery and murder. You can give the Anime a go, and then play the Visual novel, before you have any doubts to see if you vibe with its Atmosphere.
Date a Live: Rio Reincarnation
Date a live: Rio Reincarnation is never-ending popular Anime franchise that has countless of media releases from Animation, Manga, Gacha game, and now a Visual Novel that includes the entire Japanese release. Date a Live focuses on an all-story game and choices do affect player ending as it is a dating sim, there are over 11 characters and 150 dating events for the Player and Date a Live holds a nice solid storyline that makes the Visual Novel a fun playthrough with awesome girls to aim for.
Little Busters
Little Busters is known for being one of the popular impactful titles a long with Angel beats, Clannad and other Anime titles published by VisualKeys. Little Busters is an amazing Anime just as well with the Visual Novel about a bunch of childhood friends that are in high school who set out to play Baseball, despite Little Busters touch on comedy, slice of life and other fun stuff relating to High school life.
Little Buster is a drama anime, and does a very emotional touch on the progression of Youth and the process of growing up, it dabbles into topics such as identity crisis and finding the meaning of life. Little Busters brings over 60-80 hours of playthrough where all routes are worth the time.
If My Heart Had Wings
If my heart had wings was one of the first Visual Novels on steam that reached a decent worldwide audience. It’s an Adult visual novel and the 18+ patch is optional, so out of the box on steam is censored with the sexual intimate scenes being cut off. If My Heart Had Wings succeeded simply because of its story it has packed for you. If My Heart Had Wings comes with five character-specific story branches to play through with the compliments of having full voice-overs which the VN gives you 20-30 hours of play time and I think it’s entirely worth it especially on sale when it goes absurdly cheap.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne is a Visual Novel Strategy 3D game of the popular Anime Re:Zero set in a different alternate universe of Re:Zero. It follows exactly like the Anime where you have a mysterious ability to resurrect after death when you die.
Although, ReZero doesnt follow the main Source Material it was supervised by the writer of the Light Novel series Tappei Nagatsuki, so you do get that vibe going where the Visual Novel doesn’t feel exactly out of place or majorly different from its Anime counterpart. It has around 15+ hours of playtime, although a bit pricey, if you’re a fan of Re:Zero, it’s worth buying but I do recommend only to get it on a steam sale.
The Fruits of Grisaia
Fruits of Grisaia is a popular Adult Anime Visual Novel about romance that contains multiple branches of routes leading to different endings. Although Fruits of Grisaia is an Adult Visual Novel, the steam release is fully censored and most intimate scenes you would see on the unrated (18+) version isn’t there. Most people love The Fruits of Grisaia for its intimate scenes so, it’s probably better to get the 18+ version on the publishers website Denpasoft. However, if you’re fine with a censored playthrough, the steam version is just as fine. You can also go watch the Anime adaptation The Fruits of Grisaia.
Enjoyed any of these Best Anime Visual Novels or got another in mind? Comment down below.
Writing about Anime is pretty fun.
