Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Zero Escape, Steins;Gate- Which is the best VN series?

[ThatsMyTrunks]

Steins;Gate is the greatest time travel story I've ever experienced. Not much of a game, but that doesn't stand in its way.

Conversely, I'm enjoying Danganronpa V3 a good deal, but after Steins;Gate, I wish it were a little more on rails.

Phoenix Wright is godly, but the story of S;G beats it out for me.

I fell asleep during the first hour of Zero Escape. I should try it again when I'm done with DGRV3.

 

[enigmatic_alex44]

I dunno, the people saying "Steins;Gate is part of a bigger franchise and has a bunch more games so it's weird to pull game #2 and #4 but not the others" don't seem to be pushing "bizarre titles" especially given the Chaos;Child OT is literally on the front page right now.... :P

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I took a peak at the OT, and I hate that you've given me possibly another game to buy. I don't have the time!

Ghostrick. Literally just Ghostrick.

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Ghost Trick is a masterpiece, yes, but it's not really a visual novel? More of a point-and-click adventure I'd say.

 

[Aters]

Interesting question. I don't think any of them is my favorite VN, but in terms of VN series, there aren't many options. Muv-Luv for example is just two games (and maybe a third that nobody cares). Those who did get turned into series such as Ikusa Megami and Rance are hardly VN and more like full-fledged RPG,same with Sakura Wars.

 

[Wazzy]

I don't know if I can pick. I love all of them though I can say of the four Steins Gate would be last. I feel like if I had to pick it would be Ace Attorney followed by Danganronpa. 999 was top dog until ZTD which I've come to dislike more as time goes on. I really enjoyed it at first but not so much now.

 

[jon bones]

Ghostrick. Literally just Ghostrick. My love for Ghostrick aside, I'd probably say I like Ace Attorney the most. Especially Investigations 2.

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Ghost Trick is a masterpiece - can't wait to replay it around Christmas

 

[Aters]

edit, still not used to the forum yet

 

[Myradeer]

Shout out to Time Hollow if we're mentioning DS point-and-click adventure games.

 

[MechanicalWall]

Ace Attorney is by far the most consistently good of those franchises, where even its lows are still pretty damn good, and none of the rest of the games save maybe 999 can fuck with its highs. The court trials are heads and shoulders above the 'gameplay' in the other games, particularly the Zero Escape series.

 

[KazuchikaOkada]

Ace Attorney. It's by far the most consistent and easily has the best gameplay. Like GSR said there's been 11+ games that range from, at worst, decent to fucking fantastic.

Zero Escape was good but ZTD fucked everything up and ended the series horribly. The gameplay was also never that fantastic, with only VLR's puzzle rooms being challenging.
Danganronpa is too stupid for its own good and its minigames are awful.

Haven't played Steins Gate.

 

[Lemstar]

Ghost Trick is a masterpiece, yes, but it's not really a visual novel? More of a point-and-click adventure I'd say.

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Ace Attorney isn't a visual novel series either, and the Zero Escape series only qualifies halfway.

 

[Thuddert]

None of those.

The kyle hyde games are just that good.

 

[TinfoilHatsROn]

This title made me sad for Chaos;Head, Robotic;Notes and Chaos;Child. C;C actually has a better plot to me than S;G.

Never had interest on Danganronpa and I need to actually read all the Science ADV stuff before comparing the franchises, so it boils to Ace Attorney vs Zero Escape to me. I actually enjoyed AA more, but I hate AA5 and 6 so much I'll vote for Zero Escape.

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Is there an official Chaos;Head port though? I feel so weird playing Chaos;Child right now without it. I know it was referenced in Steins;Gate...

 

[t26]

This title made me sad for Chaos;Head, Robotic;Notes and Chaos;Child. C;C actually has a better plot to me than S;G.

Never had interest on Danganronpa and I need to actually read all the Science ADV stuff before comparing the franchises, so it boils to Ace Attorney vs Zero Escape to me. I actually enjoyed AA more, but I hate AA5 and 6 so much I'll vote for Zero Escape.

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I played Robotic;Notes and it is weaker than either S;G The plot is predictable and extra endings didn't add enough to the game.

Personally I only conder S;G to be VN from that list.

Utawarerumono should be on the list but SRPG part probably turn a lot of people off

 

[enigmatic_alex44]

999 was top dog until ZTD which I've come to dislike more as time goes on. I really enjoyed it at first but not so much now.

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I'm the same way with ZTD, I was one of its biggest defenders after it released, but it's really soured over time and I've grown to somewhat dislike it for bringing the whole series down a notch. I don't even want another game in the series, whereas I'd love another Ace Attorney or Danganronpa (if it's even possible for DR).

 

[Mashing]

Steins;Gate. While it has a lot of Japanese tropes, it was really well written and was emotionally draining for me. Okabe's development through the chapters was incredible. I cried a lot.

Playing The House in Fata Morgana now and I can tell it may be even better. I haven't lost control of my emotions quite yet, but I can see it happening as I get further in (on door 3 now).

 

[Nocturnowl]

Ace Attorney for me by a fair margin.
While the series hasn't quite reached the highs on its original trilogy it's a reliable one for Capcom. The right blend of humour, mystery, putting on a thinking cap and fun characters. Needs a reboot/fresh start though at this point though, which makes the lack of DGS1 and 2 over here burn my soul.

Zero Escape falls a bit flat for me, the puzzle rooms can be a bit much sometimes when you just aren't getting them, too verbose, too much having to go back over yourself to get the full picture. Now when the big picture is revealed it's pretty damn hype. Regardless though I never finished the trilogy and by the sounds of things I should leave the final one alone.

Danganronpa's overly anime tone ain't my cup of tea, I enjoyed the first two in the moment of playing them but upon reflection I found a lot of the characters too tropey, the overall overarching story revealed in the endgame of 1 to be an absolute clusterfuck of stupid played surprisingly straight. It's one where the core concept works well and promotes unease, I like how they try to mix things up for the trial segments gameplay wise even with the misses.
Ultimately though the direction it chooses just ain't for me. Though I'm interested in trying 3 at some stage for that divisive conclusion.

Steins Gate? well that's pure visual novel right there, an incredibly sloooooooow burn that eventually delivers but I need a bit more adventure game aspects in these things.

 

[Aters]

Ace Attorney isn't a visual novel series either, and the Zero Escape series only qualifies halfway.

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And you should probably cross Danganronpa off too. I've come to accept the fact that it's ok to call text-heavy ADV as VN.

 

[Damaniel]

None of those.

The kyle hyde games are just that good.

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Second for me, behind the Ace Attorney series. I'm still annoyed that Last Window never came out in the US, but at least I was able to import it.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Zero Escape imo. 999 is the most mind-blowing game listed there and despite the moaning about the third game, the series is overall quality.

Ace Attorney is very great overall. The gameplay is always great and engaging and the stories range from decent to great. Almost never mind-blowing but usually quality. I might say AA is my most recommended series. Lower highs than ZE, but more consistent.

Steins:Gate was really good. Tbh, haven't played Zero, hoping to remedy that soon. As an overarching story, it is the strongest of these choices I think. So there's an argument to be made. But ZE has higher highs, equal lows, and AA has more consistent quality imo.

Danganronpa is fun but aggressively stupid. The plot is just pure stupidity, always. The ending reveal at the end of 2 was fun, but the series narrative is still just terrible. And I've even read a book or two from the series. Some of the gameplay is downright annoying to boot. That said, fun series. I like to hop in every now and then and understand why people like it. But easily the worst of the series listed imo.

 

[Champion]

Ace Attorney and I dont think it's close.

 

[Wazzy]

I'm the same way with ZTD, I was one of its biggest defenders after it released, but it's really soured over time and I've grown to somewhat dislike it for bringing the whole series down a notch. I don't even want another game in the series, whereas I'd love another Ace Attorney or Danganronpa (if it's even possible for DR).

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Pretty much the same position as me. I kind of want another game only because I need it to somehow fix everything wrong with ZTD but I'm not sure how much can be done due to it being so mishandled. It had such an amazing setup and they dropped the ball with it so bad.

Like you, I'm always open to more DR and AA but DR I'm starting to accept it might not be the same after the third game and I'm okay with that because it finished the series in a much better way than most.

 

[Terraforce]

For me, they each have their own pull.

**Steins;Gate is an excellent story, but bad game.
**AA has the best singular plotline with the original trilogy + AJ (haven't played the 3DS games). Also best gameplay out of the four.
**Danganronpa has the best shock value and better games (imo) but the plot is not as solid or cohesive as AA overall. Mediocre minigames also bogs it down a bit.
**ZE is... no comment lol. I tried VLR but dropped it about 70% through. Then I tried 999 since I heard VLR's ending spoils some of 999's ending, but it got lost in my backlog. Haven't even touched the third one, but I hear it's even more divisive than DR V3.

Trials and Tribulations remains untouched as a VN and stands among one of the best games ever for me. But I enjoy DR1/2/V3 more than the rest of the games in the series. DR gives me build up and satisfaction, as well utter sadness and destruction like very few other games have done to me.

 

[lucablight]

None of those.

The kyle hyde games are just that good.

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I played Hotel Dusk and Last window and all I can remember is what a slow burn they were without ever rising to any great heights. I can literally not remember the story for either or name another character aside from Kyle Hyde from the series.

 

[Lemstar]

And you should probably cross Danganronpa off too. I've come to accept the fact that it's ok to call text-heavy ADV as VN.

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I hesitate to describe Danganronpa as a visual novel, too, because it really is closer to Ace Attorney as a point and click adventure game, but at least it qualifies under d2.1.2 in that it extensively features internal monologue and text descriptions of visuals and such, whereas Ace Attorney needs an exception describing how it's not actually a VN but it's only catalogued on VNDB because everyone expects it to be there.

I think my biggest problem with casual misusage of the term is that people who play the core recommendations of AA/ZE/DR and maybe Ghost Trick or Hotel Dusk is that they aren't very well prepared for playing actual visual novels. Enjoying those aforementioned games never feels like a very good predictor of whether you'd enjoy S;G or F/sn or MLA or whatever, based on the number of posts around these parts I see complaining about S;G having too much text and not enough ~gameplay~.

 

[SeacatsAndCicadas]

S;G is so different from the other that I really can't compare them in my mind.

Out of the remaining three, Danganronpa is the only series left where a new game announcement would actually get me excited. There hasn't been a single good mainline Ace Attorney game since 3 more than a decade ago. The original trilogy was amazing (other than 2) but I did not care for 4-6 at all. I remember vaguely enjoying VLR at one point in time (not as much as DR or prime AA though) but ZTD was just so, so, so, so, so irredeemably bad that it retroactively killed any bit of enthusiasm I might have had for the series.

The only real contest is between AA 1-3 and Danganronpa and I'd still give it to DR because the style and humor appeal to me far more. AA has infinitely better gameplay though.

 

[xZoneHunter]

I like all of them, but to me it goes ZE > DR > S;G. Haven't played Ace attorney yet, not really sure which one i should begin with. (Only ninty console i have is a 3DS)

I love Zero Escape. Many emotional moments in all three games. Even the community around the games is great, the whole operation bluebird thing on facebook to get interest for a 3rd game was a great effort and amazing to be a part of. When uchikoshi came on stage to announce ZTD you could just see he put his soul into that series. I, even thoroughly enjoyed the 3rd game which wasn't well received.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

Danganronpa for me and it's not even close. Fast-paced, trope subversions, style; pretty much everything about it was made for me. And on top of all that, V3 did something that I've never seen before in any work of fiction regardless of medium and I'm still thinking about it weeks later. I'm probably going to make a thread about it when more people have completed the game.

Zero Escape is good, but it (and Uchikoshi games in general) are VERY end-heavy. I was bored of 999 until around the end of the safe route, and I got all the other endings before that after being recommended to do so. VLR and ZTD are a bit better in terms of the mystery being sprinkled throughout the game instead of just the ending, but even they have long patches of boring.

Ace Attorney is good, but kind of redundant in a lot of ways and many cases are completely hit or miss. And as far as overarching plots go, they're honestly just not that interesting.

Steins;Gate has a great second half, but it shouldn't take a boring nothing of a first half to get there. And on top of that, Steins;Gate Zero is super underwhelming in terms of overall mystery revelations.


So yeah, giving it to Danganronpa. 3 still sucks though.

Edit: If I HAD to assign a ranking, it would probably be DR>>>>>>>>>>>>>ZE>AA

I don't think putting Steins;Gate in the ranking is very fair since it's just 2 games while the others have 3+. I guess if we were going by individual game rankings, S;G would be somewhere in the middle after all the DRs, 999 and the first AA, but in front of everything else.

 

[kodax_shc]

While I'd agree Virtues Last Reward is probably the best game out of all of these. I think the Danganronpa series is my favorite. However Steins;Gate is so damn strong and so was Zero. Never played an Ace game. Really need to get on that.

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

Is there an official Chaos;Head port though? I feel so weird playing Chaos;Child right now without it. I know it was referenced in Steins;Gate...

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Not yet, but there's an in-process fan translation for the much superior remake Chaos;Head NOAH so even if it never gets localized you'll be able to play that in a bit.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Is there an official Chaos;Head port though? I feel so weird playing Chaos;Child right now without it. I know it was referenced in Steins;Gate...

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No, just the fan translations. While C;C is its own thing, I think it would be even better if you knew about C;H's plot.

 

[Mr_Nintendont]

Ace Attorney 1 and 999 are the GOATs.

I like Danganronpa but it's not really that original and steals most of its ideas from both AA/999

 

[Lumination]

I'd have to give it to my buds Phoenix and AJ. It's the longest running and most consistently excellent series. Even the bottom two games of the six are unforgettable experiences. I'm not even counting the JP only ones that are also supposedly fantastic.

Like you said, ZTD completely burned down any chance of the ZE series. I don't think Stein's Gate stays consistently good enough to make the cut either.

Danganronpa is a weird one. Like... I love the mainline games, but I don't think they're good. They're totally flawed in so many different ways, but they're fun in spite of that. For me, it's a solid 7/10 series that I will buy every iteration of.

 

[Strings]

Probably Zero Escape -> Ace Attorney -> Steins;Gate -> Danganronpa.

While ZTD is spotty quality-wise, especially towards the end, every Danganronpa game crashes at the finish line too (that said, they're plenty fun before that point).

AA is remarkably consistent for such a long series, while I still need to play a bunch of the other Science Adventure titles.

 

[Kanjiology]

Story wise Steins;Gate and Zero Escape.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

To be fair,

Spoiler

The Tragedy

was always gonna have a bad explanation given how expansive it is.

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I disagree. There were ways to make it work and in fact it takes place in one of the few worlds where it wouldn't be THAT much of a stretch if it did considering the extreme nature of ultimate talents. They just fumbled it sooooo hard because apparently Kodaka's imagination isn't as good as a lot of the fanbase when it came to that one aspect.

 

[Antiwhippy]

No umineko?

 

[flatearthpandas]

I like all of them, but to me it goes ZE > DR > S;G. Haven't played Ace attorney yet, not really sure which one i should begin with. (Only ninty console i have is a 3DS)

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Trilogy on 3DS

 

[DragonSpear2462]

Aside from Ghost Trick (which was AMAZING), any other VN that you guys can recommend if I really loved all of these games? XD

 

[ibyea]

No umineko?

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If you include that, that is the best one for me.

 

[Bjoern]

To me the absolute number one is Zero Escape.
I loved the premise and execution of the story. Really really good. Even though the last one made things awkward with subpar voice acting (except for Phi and Sigma) and awful awful animations, I still think it was a great conclusion to a great series.

2nd place would be the Ace Attorney series.
Just great in general. Good stories. If you haven't played this, get your 3DS and buy the trilogy. And then Apollo Justice. And then the other two games. Fantastic series held in very high regard by pretty much everyone who played it.

No 3rd place because I haven't played nearly enough of Danganronpa or Steins;Gate to form an opinion about either series.

 

[Jiggy]

Out of those options, I'd go with Danganronpa.

Although I've only played a little bit of the first Ace Attorney.

 

[BrickArts295]

1. Ace Attorney(Excellent first game [Masterpiece if you include Case 1-5], great second game, fantastic third game).
2. Danganronpa (Great first game, Excellent second game, fantastic third game).
3. Zero Escape (Great first game, Excellent second game, Okay third game).

I love them all.

New Challenger Appears: Ghost Trick (Masterpiece game) [Switch version Capcom, hint hint]

I really hope we are not entering a VN drought with Zero Escape ending last year and this year getting V3 (obviously I don't think its the end for any of those franchises, specially Ace Attorney but man they can take a while to crank these up).

 

[TinfoilHatsROn]

Not yet, but there's an in-process fan translation for the much superior remake Chaos;Head NOAH so even if it never gets localized you'll be able to play that in a bit.

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Ah. Hopefully I'll be able to play that in the next year or so. I've heard that it is just as good, or a bit better, than C;C so that'll be exciting. Glad C;C doesn't spoil too much. I'll keep my eyes open.

No, just the fan translations. While C;C is its own thing, I think it would be even better if you knew about C;H's plot.

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Yeah, as a new fan, I can see that playing the earlier one would be better. But, I heard this is pretty beginner friendly so I'll be playing it while waiting for NOAH's fan translation. I also want Occulutic;Nine and that other hacker one. (Not hearing much about it though)

 

[Aters]

I think my biggest problem with casual misusage of the term is that people who play the core recommendations of AA/ZE/DR and maybe Ghost Trick or Hotel Dusk is that it doesn't really prepare you very well for playing actual visual novels. Enjoying those aforementioned games never feels like a very good predictor of whether you'd enjoy S;G or F/sn or MLA or whatever, based on the number of posts around these parts I see complaining about S;G having too much text and not enough ~gameplay~.

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I totally agree. And it's particularly infuriating to see a reviewer giving low score because of lack of gameplay.

 

[Mistle]

For series as a whole, Ace Attorney. It's just too good. I love those games.

But I think the single best game might be 999. I've only played it once but damn I was engrossed. An extremely well told story, in a unique way, with an ending that is unbelievably satisfying. I liked VLR but nowhere near as much, and ZTD wasn't even on the same wavelength.

I've only played the first 2 Danganronpa games so far, with case 1 completed of the third, and have loved it all so far. Second is just as good, if not better, than the first. The story in these games though is completely bonkers and off the wall, it's an aquired taste. I feel they walk the line pretty damn well where I can suspend my disbelief and enjoy it.

If I had to rank series as a whole, it'd be Ace Attorney > Danganronpa > Zero Escape.... but 999 is the best single game haha

(I'm not including Ghost Trick which is sublime :P)

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

Ah. Hopefully I'll be able to play that in the next year or so. I've heard that it is just as good, or a bit better, than C;C so that'll be exciting. Glad C;C doesn't spoil too much. I'll keep my eyes open.

Yeah, as a new fan, I can see that playing the earlier one would be better. But, I heard this is pretty beginner friendly so I'll be playing it while waiting for NOAH's fan translation. I also want Occulutic;Nine and that other hacker one. (Not hearing much about it though)

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I would say C;H is not as good as C;C by any stretch. It feels rough. The character is really hard to like. It's clearly their first effort, and the gap between it and every subsequent title is large. Not to say it's not worth reading but don't expect it to live up to the sequels.

Occultic;Nine is actually not part of SciAdv, it's a part of the confusingly-titled Science Visual Novel series. The SciAdv games exist as games within the universe of the SVN games though.

 

[TinfoilHatsROn]

I would say C;H is not as good as C;C by any stretch. It feels rough. The character is really hard to like. It's clearly their first effort, and the gap between it and every subsequent title is large. Not to say it's not worth reading but don't expect it to live up to the sequels.

Occultic;Nine is actually not part of SciAdv, it's a part of the confusingly-titled Science Visual Novel series. The SciAdv games exist as games within the universe of the SVN games though.

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Ah. That makes me more excited to dive into C;C! I'm in the prologue right now and things are heating up quite quickly which is a suprise. I'll try out NOAH when it comes out.

So is O;9 rumored to live up to the SciAdv reputation? Looking at the anime trailer and VN info page, it's not getting me too excited. But I'll always give it a try.

 

[CeroMiedo]

Ace Attorney,but only for the first three games, apollo justice and two investigation games

 

[mrmickfran]

This ain't even a competition, Ace Attorney for sure. Six main entries in and it's still going strong.

Danganronpa is trash, the only good thing it has are the trials. Everything else is unnecessary and just padding.

Zero Escape peaked with 999

I actually find Steins;Gate boring

 

[hersheyfan]

Among the four franchises mentioned in the OP, Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban is easily the most consistent. It's the gaming equivalent of delicious home cooked food, very comforting.

As to the individual game I enjoyed the most, it has to be Virtue's Last Reward. If Zero Time Dilemma wasn't an absolute car crash of a finale, the series would probably win as well.

Reading all these posts reminds me that I have to resume reading the Higurashi series, and buy Umineko.