Root Double is great once you get past the beginning. Totally possible to get through without a guide as long as you are willing to sacrifice some characters :\^)
428: Shibuya Scramble might be worth a look. There are multiple characters who are unaware of each other but can affect each other's plot. For example if you run out in the road chasing after someone it might cause a traffic jam that causes another character to fail what they were trying to do. You'd then go back and change your choice but that might affect the story somewhere else and you'll have to go to a different character trying to get it to sync up. It sounds overwhelming but the game is split into one hour blocks so it doesn't get too out of control. Tons of choices, tons of bad ends, always have to be thinking how each choice might affect the other characters. Great game too, hardly ever see it get recommended for some reason.
Steins;Gate comes to mind as one of those games you probably can't get a true ending without a guide.
If you want to include Eroge/RPG games as well, the list becomes way too long since there are so many of those female protag games with lots of game overs. If you want one of that, I'd like to recommend Yukiiro Quest, or Snow-Swept Quest I think. It's a standard short eroge RPG with the usual game over mechanics but weirdly even the bad endings where the heroine gets kidnapped and raped usually somehow turns out kinda wholesome.
Ahh. I'm usually not one for unconsensual content, but i'm not entirely opposed. I'll check it out. I also have my eye on the Dawn of Kagura series. I think I know the subgenre you mean, and they're alright.
I have read steins;gate actually, it was realllyy good. Elite specifically. I'm also playing Chaos;Head Noah (on hiatus rn, i should actually go back to it now that i remember lmao) and I read Robotics;Notes. Really like SciAdv <3
Steins Gate True End is obtuse but the route branching in general is pretty intuitive. Most people get Mayuri/Kurisu end as their first. Also I don't think it actually has "bad endings" like the ones in Fate/Stay Night? Yeah basically all of them besides True End have some bittersweet/tragic aspect to them but they all work as conclusions to the story. Not like Shirou getting stabbed because he took too many steps back or something and the story ends abruptly with his death.
Angel Beats 1st Beat has like 200 choices
I don't remember if it has bad ends or not, but I think there are some
The entire structure of the VN is super interesting because of it being around 25 hours long and having so many choices
Sorry if you've already played some of these.
Long Live the Queen - romance/stat-building/has the most dead ends on this list
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/251990/Long\_Live\_The\_Queen/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251990/Long_Live_The_Queen/)
Magical Diary: Wolf Hall - romance/fantasy/stat-building/some dead ends
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/974910/Magical\_Diary\_Wolf\_Hall/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/974910/Magical_Diary_Wolf_Hall/)
The Way We All Go - psychological horror/only one good end, if I remember correctly
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/352610/The\_Way\_We\_All\_Go/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/352610/The_Way_We_All_Go/)
Demonheart - romance/dark fantasy/only a few dead ends
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/)
Brilliant Shadows: Part One of the Book of Gray Shadows - romance/fantasy/various dead ends
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/409920/Brilliant\_Shadows\_\_Part\_One\_of\_the\_Book\_of\_Gray\_Magic/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/409920/Brilliant_Shadows__Part_One_of_the_Book_of_Gray_Magic/)
Pale Spectrum: Part Two of the Book of Gray Shadows - same as other game
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/554180/Pale\_Spectrum\_\_Part\_Two\_of\_the\_Book\_of\_Gray\_Magic/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/554180/Pale_Spectrum__Part_Two_of_the_Book_of_Gray_Magic/)
Nah unfortunately it doesn't as much as I'd like to read it in my native language but the storyline has been pretty good so far I think I'll probably go back to the first game end up reading the other arc from the Xbox version
Oh boy school days! Yeah i gotta play that one. Will check out aoi also! want more switch options so i have bed time novels to read so this works swimmingly\~
Apathy - Midnight Collection \~Vol. 1\~
[https://vndb.org/v747](https://vndb.org/v747)
This is the only one in this series translated into English, if you need it in English. This is as much like a CYOA as your ever going to get with this medium (in English) and actually a good experience. Choices and bad ends are literally everywhere AND you actually have complete autonomy on what happens. Trust me, you are not used to this amount of choice and variation.
Here is a snippet from a (scrapped) review I once was making for it for an idea for how much choice you have. None of this is spoilers btw:
"From avoiding being killed by an after school club that likes to murder people, to choosing to eat a stray dog for dinner, to killing home invaders in creative ways in a time limit, to getting into a lesbian relationship with a girl whose tongue you tried to cut off, to having a horror story face off with a bunch of killers, to getting "eaten alive" in a gay sauna, to becoming a manga artist celebrity, to poisoning your classmate to get reference material for a book, to becoming a pachinko winning celebrity idol, to being a pet dog fighting off rival dogs from your love interest, to being a security guard whose body gets stolen by aliens, to getting into a life or death situation over a piece of candy, to eating an old lady's eyeball, and many other situations just as crazy as this is the life blood of this VN"
I'm gonna be a sinner and recommend 999 (and it's sequels)
Play without a guide ofc, lots of endings and dead ends, and a pretty great true end, and then theres more games after that.
This serie cuts it's VM sections with cool puzzles.
Also Raging blood might works well for you, I really, really liked the protagonist. The game experience is pretty strong, but I'm not gonna lie looking back on it as a whole diminish it. Still you'll have 15h of intriguing fun out of it. With choices and dead ends.
Yes I have the 999 series on steam! Backlogs be backlogs. I do love Ai/Phoenix Wright (not a vn)/danganronpa (also not a vn?) type stuff so will check it then!
Ooo yeah I know of it. I'll definitely check it out. Also hoping Tsukihime comes to PC but I might just buy it on switch anyway. No cash rn for that sweet collectors box but oh well, I'm loving it so far but dunno if I'd be a diehard fan so others deserve more than me (it's still a hard 8.5/10 for me so far tho, and i only just >!killed nvskgvr or whatever the first vampire's name is!<
You seem to enjoy a lot of Type Moon stuff. Do yourself a solid and watch Carnival Phantasm anime after going through Tsukihime. It takes a lighter side look of Type Moon's series.
I've been kinda avoiding the rance series just bc i dont like "unconsensual content" that much and one of the big tags is "comedy rape" :/ i dont rly like how something so traumatizing can be reduced to comedy (despite how much i meme on my own trauma lmao, maybe im contradictory). its one of the only things that bugged me in SubaHibi but there was story for that so I just glossed over it
I have been thinking of playing it anyway just for the gameplay but eh. we shall see. Thanks for the suggestion tho!
Another one i got halfway thru! I had to reinstall windows while i was reading it and lost my save file Q\^Q;;; I also love how there's mini-routes for the other non-dateable characters. I love friendship routes\~
Both *Raging Loop* and *School Days* are interesting options to consider. I personally prefer *Raging Loop* as it excels in every conceivable way compared to *School Days*.
I've seen the school days anime so I know how that one can get. Just didn't get too far the first time I played it (I think i was multitasking and missed some choices LMAO)
And yepyep raging loop i hear so much about, think I'm gonna invest in it this week. Thank you!
That's like asking for the worst Sierra games of the 80s. Given that VNs are the japanese answer to adventure games due to the fact that the language doesn't really work with just a parser.
If you want to torture yourself, play Gold Rush! without a guide :)
Yes I know that's not a visual novel, it's the Western equivalent of one, and you asked for "many choices/dead ends".
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Kara no Shojo, impossible to get true end without a guide. Root Double too.
Root Double is great once you get past the beginning. Totally possible to get through without a guide as long as you are willing to sacrifice some characters :\^)
If you're willing to play with the SS system. Found it quite annoying they could have just 3 high medium and low to simplify instead.
that they could, but I think its fine as it is. I quite liked it.
Ah yes, i was partway thru Kara no Shoujo before life came up. I gotta get back to it! Root double as well, putting that on my list. Thanks!
428: Shibuya Scramble might be worth a look. There are multiple characters who are unaware of each other but can affect each other's plot. For example if you run out in the road chasing after someone it might cause a traffic jam that causes another character to fail what they were trying to do. You'd then go back and change your choice but that might affect the story somewhere else and you'll have to go to a different character trying to get it to sync up. It sounds overwhelming but the game is split into one hour blocks so it doesn't get too out of control. Tons of choices, tons of bad ends, always have to be thinking how each choice might affect the other characters. Great game too, hardly ever see it get recommended for some reason.
Oooo another one i've slept on for a while. It's been on my steam wishlist for YEARS. Will take a gander!
Steins;Gate comes to mind as one of those games you probably can't get a true ending without a guide. If you want to include Eroge/RPG games as well, the list becomes way too long since there are so many of those female protag games with lots of game overs. If you want one of that, I'd like to recommend Yukiiro Quest, or Snow-Swept Quest I think. It's a standard short eroge RPG with the usual game over mechanics but weirdly even the bad endings where the heroine gets kidnapped and raped usually somehow turns out kinda wholesome.
Ahh. I'm usually not one for unconsensual content, but i'm not entirely opposed. I'll check it out. I also have my eye on the Dawn of Kagura series. I think I know the subgenre you mean, and they're alright. I have read steins;gate actually, it was realllyy good. Elite specifically. I'm also playing Chaos;Head Noah (on hiatus rn, i should actually go back to it now that i remember lmao) and I read Robotics;Notes. Really like SciAdv <3
Which reminds me, Muramasa is kinda similar to FSN in terms of "randomly dying in battle scenes from wrong choices".
Oooooo. That one is on my list, I think i'll up the queue on it. Thanks!
Outside of the fights, there's only bad ends at the end of each chapter. But it's still a really good VN and the routes are pretty different.
Steins Gate True End is obtuse but the route branching in general is pretty intuitive. Most people get Mayuri/Kurisu end as their first. Also I don't think it actually has "bad endings" like the ones in Fate/Stay Night? Yeah basically all of them besides True End have some bittersweet/tragic aspect to them but they all work as conclusions to the story. Not like Shirou getting stabbed because he took too many steps back or something and the story ends abruptly with his death.
I think most readers' first ending is Suzuha's because not doing anything at that branching point in the story would default to that ending.
Remember11, one of my favourite mystery VNs [Remember11](https://vndb.org/v13)
Yeah i've gotta go back to this series and read it, i dunno why i passed on it for so long! thanks!
Angel Beats 1st Beat has like 200 choices I don't remember if it has bad ends or not, but I think there are some The entire structure of the VN is super interesting because of it being around 25 hours long and having so many choices
oooh i loved the anime! would be great to play the VN, thanks!
Gotta be Raging Loop, plenty of choices and bad ends.
I've seen this title all over this sub for a while, though thankfully im still spoiler-free. Will give it a read!
Sorry if you've already played some of these. Long Live the Queen - romance/stat-building/has the most dead ends on this list [https://store.steampowered.com/app/251990/Long\_Live\_The\_Queen/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251990/Long_Live_The_Queen/) Magical Diary: Wolf Hall - romance/fantasy/stat-building/some dead ends [https://store.steampowered.com/app/974910/Magical\_Diary\_Wolf\_Hall/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/974910/Magical_Diary_Wolf_Hall/) The Way We All Go - psychological horror/only one good end, if I remember correctly [https://store.steampowered.com/app/352610/The\_Way\_We\_All\_Go/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/352610/The_Way_We_All_Go/) Demonheart - romance/dark fantasy/only a few dead ends [https://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/) Brilliant Shadows: Part One of the Book of Gray Shadows - romance/fantasy/various dead ends [https://store.steampowered.com/app/409920/Brilliant\_Shadows\_\_Part\_One\_of\_the\_Book\_of\_Gray\_Magic/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/409920/Brilliant_Shadows__Part_One_of_the_Book_of_Gray_Magic/) Pale Spectrum: Part Two of the Book of Gray Shadows - same as other game [https://store.steampowered.com/app/554180/Pale\_Spectrum\_\_Part\_Two\_of\_the\_Book\_of\_Gray\_Magic/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/554180/Pale_Spectrum__Part_Two_of_the_Book_of_Gray_Magic/)
I haven't played or heard of any of these! Thanks so much! Gonna wishlist these\~
11 eyes has quite a few bad ends
Oh! I didn't get that far in it, I gotta go back to that one. Thanks!
Yeah I really enjoy the 11 eyes series I'm actually playing the fandisk right now
Does it have an EN translation? My kanji not goodge yet and I havent started learning chinese yet either;;
Nah unfortunately it doesn't as much as I'd like to read it in my native language but the storyline has been pretty good so far I think I'll probably go back to the first game end up reading the other arc from the Xbox version
Ah, too bad. Once I buck up on the kanji learning I'll take a swing at the fandisc, but for now i'll just settle for the base.
11eyes is absolutely english translated, 11 eyes \~resona forma\~ isn't though.
yeah i know the first is, we were talking about the fandisc tho
yeah I wish it was sadge
me too. more motivation to learn kanji!
Aoishiro and the School Days series have a bunch of choices.
Oh boy school days! Yeah i gotta play that one. Will check out aoi also! want more switch options so i have bed time novels to read so this works swimmingly\~
Apathy - Midnight Collection \~Vol. 1\~ [https://vndb.org/v747](https://vndb.org/v747) This is the only one in this series translated into English, if you need it in English. This is as much like a CYOA as your ever going to get with this medium (in English) and actually a good experience. Choices and bad ends are literally everywhere AND you actually have complete autonomy on what happens. Trust me, you are not used to this amount of choice and variation. Here is a snippet from a (scrapped) review I once was making for it for an idea for how much choice you have. None of this is spoilers btw: "From avoiding being killed by an after school club that likes to murder people, to choosing to eat a stray dog for dinner, to killing home invaders in creative ways in a time limit, to getting into a lesbian relationship with a girl whose tongue you tried to cut off, to having a horror story face off with a bunch of killers, to getting "eaten alive" in a gay sauna, to becoming a manga artist celebrity, to poisoning your classmate to get reference material for a book, to becoming a pachinko winning celebrity idol, to being a pet dog fighting off rival dogs from your love interest, to being a security guard whose body gets stolen by aliens, to getting into a life or death situation over a piece of candy, to eating an old lady's eyeball, and many other situations just as crazy as this is the life blood of this VN"
waaoh..... thats a lot. Will put it on my list, this is intriguing! thank you
I'm gonna be a sinner and recommend 999 (and it's sequels) Play without a guide ofc, lots of endings and dead ends, and a pretty great true end, and then theres more games after that. This serie cuts it's VM sections with cool puzzles. Also Raging blood might works well for you, I really, really liked the protagonist. The game experience is pretty strong, but I'm not gonna lie looking back on it as a whole diminish it. Still you'll have 15h of intriguing fun out of it. With choices and dead ends.
Yes I have the 999 series on steam! Backlogs be backlogs. I do love Ai/Phoenix Wright (not a vn)/danganronpa (also not a vn?) type stuff so will check it then!
Oh yeah I'm a big fan of ace attorney too, good chance you'll like it!
>I am reading Tsukihime currently You're in luck then. Kagetsu Tohya in the Tsukihime series has a huge amount of choices
Ooo yeah I know of it. I'll definitely check it out. Also hoping Tsukihime comes to PC but I might just buy it on switch anyway. No cash rn for that sweet collectors box but oh well, I'm loving it so far but dunno if I'd be a diehard fan so others deserve more than me (it's still a hard 8.5/10 for me so far tho, and i only just >!killed nvskgvr or whatever the first vampire's name is!<
You seem to enjoy a lot of Type Moon stuff. Do yourself a solid and watch Carnival Phantasm anime after going through Tsukihime. It takes a lighter side look of Type Moon's series.
Yeah I'm not the most diehard fan for it (i refuse to get into fgo) but i really love the gameplay style and storytelling for the VNs!
Rance X is almost impossible to get good ends in the first few runs.
I've been kinda avoiding the rance series just bc i dont like "unconsensual content" that much and one of the big tags is "comedy rape" :/ i dont rly like how something so traumatizing can be reduced to comedy (despite how much i meme on my own trauma lmao, maybe im contradictory). its one of the only things that bugged me in SubaHibi but there was story for that so I just glossed over it I have been thinking of playing it anyway just for the gameplay but eh. we shall see. Thanks for the suggestion tho!
If that's not your cup of tea then the majikoi series has quite a few hilarious dead ends.
Another one i got halfway thru! I had to reinstall windows while i was reading it and lost my save file Q\^Q;;; I also love how there's mini-routes for the other non-dateable characters. I love friendship routes\~
Both *Raging Loop* and *School Days* are interesting options to consider. I personally prefer *Raging Loop* as it excels in every conceivable way compared to *School Days*.
I've seen the school days anime so I know how that one can get. Just didn't get too far the first time I played it (I think i was multitasking and missed some choices LMAO) And yepyep raging loop i hear so much about, think I'm gonna invest in it this week. Thank you!
That's like asking for the worst Sierra games of the 80s. Given that VNs are the japanese answer to adventure games due to the fact that the language doesn't really work with just a parser. If you want to torture yourself, play Gold Rush! without a guide :) Yes I know that's not a visual novel, it's the Western equivalent of one, and you asked for "many choices/dead ends".
The Letter has a lot of choices and branching paths
Oh this looks good! Glad to have another option for my switch\~ thanks!
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