With the line between different forms of media straining ever thinner, some games blur completely between play and publication. While a number of visual novel games land firmly in the gaming camp, adding text-heavy commentary to complement various styles of gameplay. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s pure story-telling with minimal active input from the player.
Whichever your preferred style of narrative-based game, commentary-heavy experiences are often best when you can dip in and out of your chosen tome while relaxing on your sofa or bed. Put simply, visual novels were made with portable devices in mind. From the purest perusing playables, to some that are lighter on the syntactic action, we have the best visual novel games for your preferred portable platform.
Now, let’s get into our list full of the best visual novel games on iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.
While The House in Fata Morgana gifts players with just a smattering of interactable dialogue choices, they have very little impact on the story. Yet the game suffers little. Before we even speak of the scrumptious storytelling, let’s explore its delicious packaging. The hypnotically dreamy soundtrack transports you into the house’s fantasy world, and can be played on repeat without monotony.
Taking place in the cyberpunk future, you play as Jill, who works in a small dive bar situated in VA-11 HALL-A. Stick to the script and mix drinks just as the recipe book details, or remember what guests describe as their favourite for each particular mood. Either way, it matters little. While you can unlock small glimpses of additional dialogue, overall the words here are king.
When teenage mad scientist Okabe Rintaro accidentally develops the world’s first time travel device, a phone attached to a microwave with the ability to send short texts to the past, a secret organisation descends on the Future Gadgets Lab, attempting to procure the technology. Altering his reality through flip phones, he faces the deaths of either his childhood friend Mayuri, or his true love Makise Kurisu. Yet through the strategic planning of mobile messaging perhaps you can reach a timeline far removed where both survive: the fabled Steins;Gate.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus works by subverting your expectations, and as such, to even outline the story here would be a disservice to the player and experience. It goes deeper than your usual dating simulator, with themes such as mental health as well as the worth of fictional friendships. How you view DDLC+ is a Kafkaesque reflection of your inner self more than of what is written.
Gnosia mixes a dreamy art style, trippy lo-fi soundtrack, and gameplay which is not vastly removed from if Among Us had intelligent crewmates and a story. It leads you in gently, gradually adding in new roles as you decipher which members of the space station’s crew are overtaken by the murderous Gnosia. Speaking with the members each morning you use RPG-style stats to give you better instincts for who is playing loose with the truth.
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark and its sequel NG are a deep dive into Japanese myths and fairytales respectively. In each, you play as someone investigating a series of mysteries set around a specific legend, at the heart of which is a horrifying ghoul you must placate. Be warned as the imagery which accompanies each story is actually alarming.
Visual novels go hand in hand with murder mysteries almost as often as they do portable consoles. Where AI: The Somnium Files is exceptional, is in developing the character. With his mechanical fake eye partner, our protagonist knows when to throw a suspect’s testimony under suspicion. You guide the path of the investigation which makes it feel as if your choices matter, though using the timeline you can jump back and view a situation from another’s perspective.
The anime ensured that the Danganronpa series became a cultural phenomenon, but the games originally for the PlayStation Portable are what set the trend. A class of fifteen students are trapped in a school and the only way out is a perfect crime. Murder your classmates and most importantly, get away with it in a peer-led trial, and walk free. With all these teens the ultimate expert in their field, it is the characters that stick with and often outsmart you.
Attempting to describe Disco Elysium is madness in itself. It’s a film noir thriller, an RPG, an exploration of the psyche and a dice-rolling simulator. The one thing it very much is not though is average. Not for one moment. While the narrative sprawls endlessly through Revachol’s twisting crannies, you choose the character traits which make up our hapless protagonist.
The focus of Hades is naturally on the fast-paced roguelike combat, which sees you expire over and over as you try and fight your way past your father as you flee the underworld, with just a little help from your relatives above. However, as you gift nectar and eventually the eternally rich ambrosia, the story unfurls slowly before you.
This unique game allows you to date a myriad of handsome daddies, need I say more? Well, if you need a little more info, here’s the basic premise, you must customise your appearance to reflect your true personality, choose to date one of seven potential partners, and complete mini-games.
Arcade Spirits is a romantic comedy that allows you to completely customise a character with your pronoun, hairstyle, skin tone, hair, and eye colour. From there you head out into the world in search of love and friends as you grow your personality and protect an arcade.
Digimon Survive is a very dark take on the series, in which the choices you make can mean life or death for each of the characters. Outside of the visual novel elements, you also need to take part in tactical combat and raise a team of strong Digimon. Take a look at our Digimon Survive review for more thoughts.
Here are some upcoming visual novel games we’re looking forward to.
From the minds behind Danganronpa, Master Detective Archives: Raid Code is an upcoming game that follows an amnesiac detective-in-training who must solve mysteries along with Shinigami, the adorable spirit that haunts him.
