VNs with ONLY Pure Love Story

Well, it was just an example, even if I still think it fits this quite well. The point is, though, that with distinctive characters a story can be great without needing the "unexpected" twists we already know to expect.

Also, Kaimax used Heart de Roommate as an example here. If that fits this category, KS Act 1 has no worries at all about fitting as well.

alright side question:

What kind of VN Qualifies as PURE LOVE?

To heart 2
Snow Sakura
Utawarerumono
I think those qualifies as a Pure Love story...
I am tempted to mention School days....but it's too messed up to be called Pure Love (Pure Lust is more befitting)...

Explain? There is so much else going on in that one, you wouldn't even notice the difference if you'd cut the love part from the game...

Snow Sakura was the only one I even remotely enjoyed, and then only in a couple of the routes. I remember that my favorite route was the one of the older classmate, and the "True Love" nature of that route was complicated by the fact that she wanted to keep the relationship a secret and she was suffering at the hands of an overbearing father.

There's a reason that most great fiction centers around relationships that don't work out very well in the long run, or at least work with complications; Romeo and Juliet, for example.

If the story of Romeo and Juliet was changed to be about a Montague falling in love with a Capulet, and the Montagues and Capulets getting along great with each other, and Mercutio and Tybalt sit together and eat cookies, and then they get married and live happily ever after -- that would be a boring-ass story.

I really don't understand what the nit to pick is here. I mean, stories about relationships that face hardship and pull through in the end are way more romantic than stories about relationships which exist in a perfect vacuum where nothing ever goes wrong (and apparently too much comedy isn't allowed there either). Relationships which have been forged on the fires of, well, reality come across as seeming more true to life, and thus compelling to read.

In writing, stories typically follow an arc. The arc guides the characters through some obstacle or challenge to be overcome. Remove the challenge and obstacle and you lose the plot arc and dramatic tension, and in so doing you cheapen the love element of the story.

That's why those stories that have literally -nothing- besides the love element (no story, no challenges, no danger) are not as well received -- because they're poorly written, and ignore many of the elements that make fiction work, and are typically a snooze-fest until they introduce something more.

That's the thing, nearly all romance stories are couched within some other genre, at least those which I have read or seen. It feels like an artificial and forced distinction to go out of your way to find it without the setting of high drama, comedy, action, adventure, fantasy/sci-fi, or mystery, etc.

I mentioned Bazooka Cafe, so I guess I'll go a little into why I thought that fell into the category of true love. The setting is simple character has taken over his family business (a Cafe) after his father takes ill. The cast is full of relatively normal people, there's the girl who worked in the cafe when she was college many years previous and is now something of a family friend, there's the childhood friend who's a trainer family's kendo dojo, a friend from the protagonist's former business, and the protagonist's old boss. Once the relationships are established there are no unexpected turn of events or plot twists. There are elements of drama and suspense, but they are very typical and understandable given the circumstances of the characters.

Ngggg?How can you metion Utawarerumono
Plot Twist

It has Action,not to mention an SRPG.


So true nuf said.

A few out of my head

Everything DAHHH CAHHH POHHHHH
Comic Party
To Heart 2
Shuffle
Wanko to Kurasou
every single ADV otome game

I personally think of Pure Love type games that follow the format of

1. meet
2. daily slice of life events
3. little drama
4. happy kiss end.

I would still play them if there is recommendations, since, I don't really like the typical pure love shoujo eroge games.

I regard these kind of games different then those games like Subarashiki Hibi, Ever 17, Cross Channel, Sharin no Kuni, Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara that heavily relies on the scenario, these pure love games rely on character development.

The old type of eroge and visual novels are these types, traditional ones that lets you choose a partner and go on their route to happiness. Therefore, if you didnt like a particular character, you would be rather reluctant to finish their respective routes.

Unless there is a good scenario backing, then you will be more motivated to finish it, like Yume Miru Kusuri.

When playing good Pure Love games, you can actually get attracted to the characters and establish a bond with them. While on the other hand, good scenario games can have a deep impression too.

To me, people who like them are very subjective. Its only a question of either you like light hearted sit-back-relax kinda game, or a shittingbrix on a twist kinda game, or a mix between the two.

Both of those games feature a quite a bit of tragic drama (i.e. not a pure love story as explicitly stated by topic creator), and make heavy use of gimmicks to make the setting stand out as being fantastic rather than ordinary life (in both games most of the heroines aren't even human!).

You can make the distinction between a story being character centric or plot centric, which is a very meaningful distinction, however merely being a character centric story does not mean it contains only distilled essence of love.

Even if the setting is different, and they can even be robots(ToHeart2AD), aliens(ToHeart2) or even cat-turned-human(DaCapoGS), it's still much more character centric, has most of the game time interacting with the character. It makes you feel bonded to the character, to the character's story, thats what made me characterized it as PURE LOVE.

Besides, every single light hearted game is surely to have a little drama based on the character's route, and those two game's drama is very much character based, like their true identity,past,intentions that help enhance the character development themselves. Example :

1. meet girl A
2. daily comedy slice of life with girl A
3. oh no girl A suddenly is leaving, and you just found out she is your long lost childhood friend whom you made promise to marry, drama drama
4. XXX
5. happy kiss end



True, I didn't mean it only have love and nothing else, in fact, most of the character centric story have some drama, more like, it's essential to have abit of drama.

That's kinda what I've been saying the entire time (and maxyo agreed with me) that you need to have something beyond the romance itself to make it interesting. I still don't know what a Pure Love story is, and I'm half thinking that that it's a terminology that Kaimax invented for this specific discussion. Certainly Kaimax is aware of games such as Shuffle and Wanko, and is aware that they are generally well received, thus I don't think they are the intended object of discussion when he asks, "How do you feel about these kind of games that lots of people don't seem to like?"

I have yet to cast a vote in the poll because I don't know what my vote would actually be signifying.

Perhaps what might clear things up is changing the tone of the discussion from "what impurities must be eliminated in order to be pure love?" "Which elements of dramatic storytelling are permitted in pure love?"

However, before that, someone give me some reference to the terminology of a "pure love story", outside of this thread, as this is the first time I'm ever heard of such a genre.

And to add some further fuel to the fire, are Edelweiss and Kira*Kira pure love? (barring the extreme overdrama of Kirari's path) Why or why not? I'd say no on both accounts, but some people seem to be a lot more permissive, so I'm curious.

then you're not playing it right...

what kind of "terrible" reasoning are you basing it off?
Since I don't play with CTRL.

It's the LOVE STORY that we're talking about here, not HOW FAST you can actually get to the next H scene.

Story wise, Horny bunnies has a good (not great) love story, that is overshadowed by many H-scenes. Did you even bother to read one of the most simplest Love story VNs?

If you try to throw away all the "overshadowing" H-scenes in Horny bunnies what will you get? PURE LOVE STORY

Agh this is a dilemma, i really appreciate those games and they always make me feel good about myself when i finish them but on the other hand sometimes its nice to just sail through a game without putting too much work in to get your "reward". But tbh i'd go pure love games over most of the purely hentai games out there, i love clannad i thought it was one of the best games i've ever played, in the end i felt really good about myself even if i didnt get hentai because in the end i managed to save everyone.

Season of Sakura, Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na

No superpower-centric storyline, no epic battles, no mindfuck conclusion to deliver, just pure romance, the kind that usually ends sweet sweet sweet.

About Utawarerumono....sorry...I remembered the wrong thing....lol

Yume Miru Kusuri qualifies as Pure Love...
There are good stories and it is backed up by good H scene...ending was really sweet...

I said i get easily bored with pure love stories but I did fully enjoy Yume Miru Kusuri.

Narcissu is another story though <_<...

No one misunderstood, you're the one that came with your own conclusion. your conclusion is about how love can even happen in Action/mystery

I already mentioned "VNs that have a Pure love as the main Genre" not Pure love as a side genre that is used as a plot devise for 2 people to connect each other in action genres.

But more to the the only thing there is all about is love, no action, no horrors, no plot twists that uses "Pure Love" as a plot devise.

example of love used as a plot devise:

-Fate/Stay Night: UBW route, Shirou X Rin is not really needed since it's more about Shirou Vs Archer, with Rin guiding Shirou. the Love part is totally erasable.

-Tsukihime: Can Shiki and Arc fall in love with each other without "all the events" that is happening around them.

My point is VNs that only have love as the main story without "excessive" spicing from other genres

Example of PURE LOVE as a genre
To Heart 2: Konomi Route, basically she's one your childhood friends, but is treated as only a close "sister" by you, which leads to the climax of events that will lead to the end of the story where you finally acknowledge her more than just a Childhood Friend.

tl;dr

This thread is not about How pure the love of the Character, but about VNs that Only has Love in it, Hence the PURE LOVE