While gaming hasn’t stopped getting players hooked on their trademark textual and spectacular narratives, games in 2024 are certainly no exception — a stack of captivating games that are delighting players and the fans of visual novels. Here’s the best visual novel games that came out on Steam in 2024.
The Hungry Lamb
‘The Hungry Lamb‘ is a well made visual novel about lower castes on challenging subject matter through the character’s personal conflict. This title is differentiating because it has great graphics, excellent sound, and excellent scripts. By applying this concept, the story of possibly life changing conclusions can even be told while never feeling low quality.
No Case Should Remain Unsolved
Korean detective visual novel that first hit big early in 2024. Keeping you interested from start to finish considering this game is budget friendly at $7.99 the game has a good story. Its storytelling is nicely augmented by solid detective game play mechanics, a must play mystery game for lovers of such fare.
Until Then
Beyond its status as a celebration of Filipino culture, “Until Then” is an interesting game in that the players never see the light until the very end of the trip. It’s got great art and memorable characters, it’s cinematic. Cultural elements don’t ruin the story, they elevate it so you won’t forget it.
Minds Beneath Us
Minds Beneath Us is a dystopian world with an amazing story and a lot of darkness but a lot of hope. It makes difficult decisions, puts your morals to the test and shows the consequences of your decisions. It’s got some rather quirky things like auto saves and biased dialogue but the story grabs so tight it doesn’t ruin it.
Tales from Toyotoki
This is a very nice visual novel in which life, companionship, and romance with characters in unusual circumstances take place. The game is very simplistic when one looks at it on the outside, but thanks to narrative and character development, the game more than shines. A basic visual novel is quite expensive, but the enchanting storytelling makes up for that price.
Lilja and Natsuka: Painting Lies
Frontwing developed the vsual novel which follows Lilja, a painter whose blind, and her energetic assistant Natsuka as they try to solve the mystery behind the requests they get from their clients. The visuals and voice acting are also good examples of how to tell the story, without the reader having to spend a lot of time on it in the game itself.
Hookah Haze
‘ Hookah Haze ‘ is a terrific game that uses the art style and explores things like PTSD, belonging, and self loathing. Unnatural, as the plot moves on a two week space filled with drama, comedy and romance. This has a well defined and compelling story of each of the characters in the cast of this.
Vampire Therapist
An abrasive look into the psychological balance between mortals and vampires, this is a one of a kind visual novel. The material is treated straightforwardly, without blunting its heft with a flicker of gallows humor, making this mood uncompromising. Because it manages to deal with every theme so complexly, it is a standout release of 2024.
Murders on the Yangtze River
This detective visual novel takes place in early 20th century China. It is extremely detailed, and includes some thought provoking mysteries. Particularly for fans of the Ace Attorney series, the game is a challenge in figuring out cases on the famous Yangtze River.
Conclusion
Boundaries are being pushed in visuals novel genre. 2024’s still seeing the genre evolve, and we’re still telling stories and exploring themes. No matter how you roll, there’s lots of visual novel releases. If you’re new to the genre, these are some of the best interactive storytelling you’ll find on Steam.
If you are into visual novels, many of these bring new and varying directions to the visual novel storytelling. 2024 is actually quite a strong year of visual novel releases on Steam.