Ask a Western gamer what they think of Visual Novels and chances are you’re just going to get a confused glance. “Visual novels? What the hell are they?” some will say. “You mean Japanese porn games, right?” others will reply. The sad fact of the matter is that Visual Novels, as a gaming genre, simply doesn’t exist as something viable outside Japan.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

The truth is a little more complex. Firstly, in case you don’t already know, Visual Novels are basically videogames where story and writing heavily outweighs interactivity. In almost all cases, what you get is a series of different static images (or barely animated images), with absolutely passive backgrounds, and a tonne of text. Hang on, let me dredge you up an example -

The most popular visual novel series worldwide is almost certainly the Ace Attorney series (as can be seen above serving as advertising fodder for the Nintendo DS), featuring a hapless, spikey-haired lawyer with a tendency to turn around cases from certain defeat. Why precisely Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice is so popular both in and out of Japan is a mystery - as trying to work out why anything is popular tends to be - but my best guess would point to its eclectic, eccentric cast of characters, the above-and-beyond top-notch localisation, and the incredibly well-written (for the most part) stories and writing.

Beyond that, somehow Ace Attorney managed to tap into that part of the fanbase that endlessly loves to make things into internet memes, which meant that - OBJECTION - the series gets endless publicity, it becomes a part of everyday internet discourse - TAKE THAT - and people want to find out where all this ridiculous internet stuff is coming from. Also, it has a wacky concept that Western games have never touched upon before - pretend to be a lawyer! And we’re talking a lawyer who actually argues about law here, as - HOLD IT - opposed to a plumber who jumps on mushrooms and fights giant turtles.

But for the most part Visual Novels in Western Gamer consciousness simply don’t exist. It’s a bit of a Catch-22, actually; because the idea of Visual Novels as a genre doesn’t exist, no market exists for one either. And so long as no market exists for Visual Novels, no right-thinking business is going to attempt to really create one. This is changing, slightly - Phoenix Wright led the way, so more games like Hotel Dusk and so on are making their way into Western Markets. But even then, it’s a process of localization from Japan, right?

Well, when there’s gaps like these… there’s always fandom to help fill them.

Enter Katawa Shoujo, a Visual Novel currently being developed by some denziens of the /a/ board of 4chan (if you don’t know what that is, don’t ask). It was inspired by a single page of original art by an artist, RAITA which somehow managed to spark the imaginations of enough people that - over time - a serious core group of writers, programmers, and artists was formed. While the story might sound purile to some people - it’s basically a dating game set in a school for people with disabilities - having actually played the demo, I can confirm that the writing is surprisingly tasteful and respectful, with well-rounded characters that are more than just cardboard-cutout cliches.

See, the thing about visual novels as a whole is that they’re really not hard to program. Because of the extreme linearity and static nature of its graphics, all you really need is ridiculous amounts of content producers - artists, writers, people who are going to work out how the story-pathing system is going to work, and a few programmers to actually input it into the system. A tall order, yes, but not as difficult as creating the next Zelda or Quake.

Another point is that they really don’t require anything system intensive to run. This makes them perfect for hand-held consoles or even stuff like the iPhone - heck, Phoenix Wright is being ported to iPhone even now, if I recall correctly. Given the right subject matter (probably less of a focus on romance; more of one on mystery or deduction) and advertisting, Visual Novels could probably get a little further off the ground then they are currently. In any case, we’ll see eventually.

Ace Attorney Investigations, the next in the Ace Attorney series, should be released in Febuary of 2010 outside of Japan. Katawa Shoujo has no set release date yet, but likely will be done by late 2010.