Good day / afternoon / night, depending on the time you are reading this, after a long absence today I return to tell you about a saga of visual novels relatively little known, but quite intense.

For those who are not aware of what a visual novel is, I leave a brief explanation:

A visual novel is a program or application with a different format than conventional literary novels, in these, apart from reading the story, the dialogues are usually interpreted by voice actors and actresses - usually Japanese - for each of the characters, apart to be able to appreciate these visually as they express themselves, at given times we can also find illustrations - more technically called “CGs” -, all this accompanied by a BGM setting, I leave you an example image:

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Simply put, it's like half the way between a book and a movie.

Spin-off: It refers to a delivery belonging to a story, and whose own story develops from the original, but does not affect the latter canonically.

All SciAdv novels are part of a shared universe whose story unfolds in a fictional Japan temporarily located in a time parallel to ours, the main theme is a quite interesting mix of modern science with science fiction, but in a way that It turns out, maybe not quite realistic, but very credible. Each novel has a certain continuity, so you will find winks and references between them, which results in the fact that in the long run they all tell a rather large story with a level of detail that reaches the sickly without any exaggeration.

In order not to fall in spoilers, I will give a brief synopsis of each of the main novels, which I will break down individually in future posts, since each one is so extensive individually that they would have me writing for more than a whole day if I put them all together in one just post. The novels will be organized by chronological order of departure, but not by the order of the story.

The starting point of the whole story, perhaps not the best of all but it stands by itself and yet it is quite interesting.

The plot puts us at the feet of Nishijou Takumi, an almost-Hikikomori who lives alone in a container - of those who carry the trucks - on the roof of a Shibuya building, is someone who lives in his delusions and that's what it is all about the history.

Hikikomori: Japanese term used to refer to those people who for one reason or another refuse to leave their homes, or in more serious cases, their rooms, this in real life is usually caused by the enormous social pressure in Japan, being something that Not everyone manages to endure.

Eventually, he will be immersed in a series of bizarre murders - in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word - but at a level that would escape the imagination of many people, despite that I will not give details of any for those who prefer to discover it on their own .

STEINS;GATE

Considered as the best of the SciAdv and that has captivated fans around the world, Steins; Gate is sometimes put as the best visual novel of all time, but for tastes, colors, of course.

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This time the protagonist - far from Takumi in ChäoS; HEAd -, is Okabe Rintarou, a self-proclaimed mad scientist who calls himself Hououin Kyouma who runs a laboratory of futuristic inventions (only in name) in Akihabara, with his “colleagues ”Shiina“ Mayushii ”Mayuri and Hashida“ Daru ”Itaru.

The story will focus, unlike the murders and delusions of C; H, on time travel, in a way that could be a bit complex and impossible to explain completely in a few lines, but let's say it's a “What would it happen if you could "travel" in time, all thanks to a microwave and a telephone?"

Unlike C;H, you can find this novel translated into a relatively large number of languages, but if you want to buy it it is available on Steam in English (and on almost any existing device), to read it in Spanish you need the same procedure as for C;H.

STEINS;GATE on Steam

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ROBOTICS;NOTES

Third main novel of the SciAdv, this focuses mostly on robotics, we follow Kaito, who along with his classmates from the school's robotics club want to create a giant robot.

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Being a novel that I have not yet had the pleasure of playing I can not give more details or it would be harmful to me, who is interested, is available on PS3, and PsVita (unfortunately only in Japanese), its improved version already released on PsVita, Robotics; Notes ELITE is planned to come out sometime in 2020 for PS4, Switch and Pc with English localization.

ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE on Steam

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ChäoS;Child

Not so direct sequel to ChäoS;HEAd, but which follows the same formula and far exceeds the quality of the first at all levels, in my opinion a novel as good as Steins; Gate - or even better -.

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Years after the events of ChaoS; HEAd, we follow Miyashiro Takuru, again in Shibuya, and under the premise that quite violent murders happen again and that they could only leave the head of the worst psychopath. Although this sounds repetitive, it isn't, and when you understand the story you will understand the reason, the novel has its own air and characters, which may feel like something totally new, but that is on a basis that you already know if you played C ; H, even so, it is not obligatory to have read one to understand the other, but it is quite advisable.

It is available on Steam with official English localization, originally in Japanese.

CHAOS;CHILD on Steam

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STEINS;GATE 0

Steins;Gate alternative sequel, for some better than this, for others inferior in some things.

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I can not explain much why he would fall in spoilers of the first, but basically it is a story that takes place in an alternative ending to Steins; Gate, about a year later.

STEINS;GATE 0 on Steam
(Possible STEINS;GATE spoilers on the Steam page)

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Robotics;Notes DaSH

Robotics Notes sequel and last major novel released so far, earlier this year, represents a kind of crossover as the character Hashida Itaru of Steins appears; Gate as the name implies.

DaSH > Daru the Super Hacker

Currently it is only available in Japanese for PS4 and Switch, but it has an English location for PS4, Switch and Pc with a release date to be confirmed for next year, with this we would have all the main SciAdv accessible for most of the world in English.

And with that are all the main visual novels that cover the story, as you can see, it focuses on three different focuses, murder investigations with supernatural powers, time travel and robotics.

All the novels have the option to change the course of their history and draw different endings, despite this, they all have a “True Ending” that is the true and canonical ending that is taken into account in the general chronology, while the rest of the finals are usually focused on knowing the background of the characters and making them love them (or hate them, depending on the case).

So if you like good stories or those where in one way or another your "decisions" matter, it would not hurt to give these novels a chance.

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As if that were not enough, each one has its plot-twists quite interesting and that will keep you intrigued for much of the story, with a respective soundtrack as the perfect accompaniment at all times, whether to cause you happiness, terror or sadness.

As I said soon I will make a post focused on each of the main ones, and mentioning the secondary ones, it should be noted that we talk about a very wide universe that does not stay in the novels, it also extends through anime, manga, light novels and even audio-dramas.

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Anime: Word used to refer to animated footage specifically in Japan.

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Manga: Similar to the comic but of Japanese origin, it is composed of vignettes drawn accompanied by text, it is read in the opposite direction to normal for us and covers countless stories.

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Each novel has its respective anime style series, however some are better than others and none is better than its homonymous novel, so it is always better to take the time to read a little, putting all the series in comparison the best of all is the of STEINS; GATE by general opinion.

If there is someone who has already read any of these I would like to know your impressions, so say what you like in the comments.

Without more to say, so far today's post, thank you very much for reading.

Until we meet again