My Favorite Awesome Visual Novels 🍙 
A curated list of my favorite visual novels for Android and Steam Deck. This kamige recommendation chart and VN discovery guide represents my personal journey through the best visual novels for handheld devices over several years of reading on portable platforms.
A visual novel, often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity.
Contents
Why Visual Novels
Like many others, I was affected by the global events since 2020, which led to endless doomscrolling through depressing news, developing various neuroses and eventually a severe panic disorder. I underwent treatment at a clinic for some time, took potent drugs, and attended consultations for my mental health. Despite trying various medications, relaxation techniques, and contemporary methods from specialized literature, nothing helped me as much as visual novels did. Yes, I’m serious.
VNs offer a truly unique experience where you can deeply connect with your character even more than in virtual reality. This is a highly personal and indescribable experience that is challenging to put into words. It’s important to note that I don’t view visual novels as dating sims or anything like that. Rather, I consider them a distinct art form that effectively promotes mental health and encourages innovative thinking. Moreover, top-tier kamige titles and emotional nakige can make an equally strong impression as the best movies, TV series, or books. As you know, the problem of poor content is growing every year, but visual novels offer a refreshing addition to the world of entertainment. The ability to experience these stories on portable devices like Android phones, tablets, and Steam Deck makes them perfect companions for daily commutes and relaxation.
My Top Picks
The items in the list are arranged based on the impact they had on me, from the strongest to the weakest. Please note that this selection only features visual novels that I’ve completed at least one ending for. It’s normal if your opinions differ from mine.
⚠️ Note for Steam Deck users: most of the visual novels in this list require GE-Proton to ensure proper in-game video playback on SteamOS. Without it, you may encounter codec errors or playback issues. Please follow this guide for installation instructions.
- 🎮
STEINS;GATE - A group of friends discover a way to change the past through text messages, but their experiments spiral out of control as they become embroiled in a conspiracy involving SERN and a time traveler from a dystopian future. 15+ In-house.
- 🔞
Sakura no Uta - After losing his father, a young man finds himself entangled in emotional reunions and new beginnings as past and present collide beneath the fleeting cherry blossoms of spring. 18+ BGI/Ethornell. Note: I literally bought a Steam Deck to read this novel!
- 🎮 The House in Fata Morgana + A Requiem for Innocence - You wake up in a mansion with no memories and a jade-eyed maid offers to take you through the mansion’s tragedies to help you find yourself in this multi-story game.
17+ KiriKiri.
- 🔞 🛑 💀 Subarashiki Hibi - Tokyo high school students navigate mysterious events and deaths in July 2012 as apocalyptic prophecies predict the world’s end on the 20th, uncovering dark truths behind the predictions.
18+ BGI/Ethornell. Note: I cannot recommend this lightly - profoundly disturbing content that will change you forever. PROCEED ONLY IF MENTALLY PREPARED!
- 🎮 ATRI -My Dear Moments- - A disillusioned young man, aided by a mysterious debt collector and a sentient robot girl, searches for his grandmother’s lost treasure in a flooded world.
15+ KiriKiri.
- 🔞
Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi - A withdrawn student’s peaceful life changes when he befriends a lonely classmate, rekindling an old friendship and sparking an unexpected love triangle at school. 18+ Diesel. Note: For the best experience, play this after other visual novels.
- 🎮 Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll - Set in 1980s Japan, a young man attending an elite school becomes embroiled in a complex web of events and relationships, including political intrigue, while searching for love.
12+ Unity.
- 🎮 Ever 17: The Out of Infinity - Seven individuals are trapped in an underwater theme park and must find a way to escape within 119 hours while questioning the legitimacy of their predicament.
15+ VNDS.
- 🎮 Higurashi no Naku Koro ni + Kai + Rei - A new student moves to a peaceful rural village and befriends his classmates, but discovers a dark history of murder and paranoia surrounding the annual local festival.
17+ NScripter.
- 🎮 Umineko no Naku Koro ni + Chiru - A wealthy family gathers on a secluded island to discuss inheritance, but a typhoon strands them and they are soon plagued by mysterious murders.
17+ NScripter.
- 🎮 CLANNAD - A high school student with a troubled past meets a strange girl on his way to school and begins to help her, leading to a change in his life’s direction.
15+ RealLive.
- 🎮 GINKA - A high schooler returns to his childhood island, seeking his long-lost friend, only to encounter her mysterious doppelganger who hasn’t aged in five years.
12+ KiriKiri.
- 🎮 Stella of The End - A wandering courier protects an Android girl who seeks humanity while navigating a post-apocalyptic world threatened by giant machines.
12+ Artemis.
- 🔞 Katawa Shoujo - After discovering an anonymous love letter, a high school student suddenly collapses and is diagnosed with a rare heart condition, leading him to enroll in a school for disabled students.
18+ Ren'Py.
- 🎮 Everlasting Summer - After fainting on a bus, Semyon awakens in a Soviet summer camp where he must participate in the daily activities of youth and meet girls, while seeking a way to return to reality.
16+ Ren'Py.
- 🎮 WILL: A Wonderful World - In this story, people write their troubles on a note and pray to a god who can alter their fate, but what if the reader is the god who receives these notes?
16+ Unity.
- 🔞 Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo - In a society where special Duties are imposed upon lawbreakers, a student hopes to become part of the Special Elite and encounters girls bound by various Duties, leading to a series of odd discoveries about his past and the truth behind the Land of the Spinning Wheel.
18+ KiriKiri.
- 🔞 A Summer’s End - Hong Kong 1986 - In this modern romance set in Hong Kong during the 1980s, a young professional woman is torn between traditional values and a newfound attraction to a free-spirited entrepreneur.
18+ Ren'Py.
- 🔞 Fate/Stay Night - In a great ritual, seven Masters and their Servants fight to obtain the Holy Grail, which can grant any wish, but only one can win. One high school student finds himself competing and summoning his own Servant.
18+ KiriKiri.
Next in Line
This is a list of visual novels that I plan to read or am currently reading. Many of them have yet to be checked by me. The list is ordered by reading priority.
- 🔞 CROSS†CHANNEL - Students at an academy for the socially maladjusted return from summer vacation to discover the world has completely transformed.
18+ VNDS.
- 🔞 Sakura no Toki - The untold stories of artistic geniuses and why artists continue captivating people after death, exploring intersecting human thoughts and creative legacy.
18+ Artemis.
- 🔞 White Album 2 - Music brings three people together in autumn, creating deep bonds, but a forbidden love that came too late is hidden by winter and revealed in spring.
18+ In-house. Note: You can start with White Album 2 without playing White Album 1 - you won’t miss anything.
- 🎮 CHAOS;HEAD NOAH - A reclusive otaku is dragged into bizarre serial killings in Shibuya, where the power to make delusions real comes into play.
17+ In-house.
- 🎮 CHAOS;CHILD - Six years after a devastating earthquake, murders return to Shibuya as people with the power to make their delusions reality begin to awaken.
17+ In-house.
- 🎮 ISLAND - A time traveler arrives on a secluded island plagued by disease and dark legends, seeking to change its doomed future alongside three girls from once-powerful families.
15+ CatSystem2.
- 🔞 Soukou Akki Muramasa - A warrior bound by duty wields cursed armor that demands innocent blood for its power, forcing him to slay both evil and good without claiming righteousness.
18+ In-house.
- 🎮 Root Double - Nine souls trapped in a research facility basement must escape while solving a bizarre murder through two different perspectives and timelines.
16+ In-house.
- 🎮 Muv Luv + Alternative - A student’s ordinary school life is disrupted by a mysterious wealthy girl moving in, then he later awakens to find his town in ruins.
17+ rUGP.
- 🎮 Dies Irae - After losing his best friend, a student faces supernatural abnormalities threatening his city, remnants of a WWII ritual, as he fights to reclaim normalcy.
15+ Malie.
- 🎮 STEINS;GATE 0 - After abandoning his efforts to save someone dear, a traumatized student encounters an AI containing her memories, pulling him back into dangerous conspiracies.
15+ In-house.
- 🎮 Remember 11: The Age of Infinity - After a plane crash and an attempted murder, two strangers trapped by snowstorms discover they’re swapping bodies while a mysterious figure appears in both locations.
15+ In-house.
- 🎮 428: Shibuya Scramble - Five strangers in Shibuya uncover bizarre events with global implications, presented through live-action footage and text.
13+ In-house.
- 🎮 Planetarian - A scavenger in post-apocalyptic ruins encounters a robot caretaker at an abandoned planetarium and agrees to repair its broken projector.
12+ RealLive.
- 🎮 Little Busters! - After losing his parents, a depressed boy finds hope and happiness with a group of four children who play with him and help him overcome his grief.
12+ RealLive.
- 🎮 Summer Pockets - A young man escapes to a remote island to settle his grandmother’s estate and meets four girls, each pursuing their own dreams and island mysteries.
15+ Siglus.
- 🔞 Swan Song - Six survivors shelter in a church after a devastating earthquake, facing harsh conditions and humanity’s extremes in a ruined city.
18+ In-house.
- 🎮 Narcissu - Two terminally ill patients reject dying in hospital and escape together in a stolen car.
12+ NScripter.
- 🔞 Sayonara wo Oshiete - A trainee teacher struggles with worsening anxiety and taboo desires as psychological pressure mounts in his school environment.
18+ Siglus.
- 🎮 Raging Loop - A grad student trapped in a remote village must survive a deadly ritual where wolf spirits disguised as villagers kill each night, reliving events in a time loop.
16+ Unity.
- 🎮 PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo - An office worker investigates local ghost stories with friends while detectives, a student, and a grieving mother separately pursue connected mysteries involving strange deaths and supernatural curses.
17+ Unity.
- 🎮 Ace Attorney Trilogy - A defense attorney exposes contradictions in witness testimony to prove clients innocent within strict three-day trial deadlines.
12+ Unity.
- 🎮 ACE Academy - A transfer student struggles to find a team at a prestigious robotics academy, competing in mech tournaments with his outdated robot.
12+ Ren'Py.
- 🎮 Crystalline - A man transported to a fantasy world radiates magical energy, leading a Mage-Knight to help him uncover the mysterious purpose behind his arrival.
12+ Unity.
- 🎮 Ethereal Enigma - A student accidentally summons a princess from another world and must keep her secret while searching for the mysterious woman who can send her home.
12+ Unity.
- 🎮 Mahoutsukai no Yoru - In late 1980s, an ordinary boy stumbles into an old mansion where two young mages live, beginning a strange communal life intertwined by fate.
15+ KiriKiri.
- 🔞 Tsukihime - After an accident grants him the ability to perceive death lines on everything, a boy struggles with murderous impulses when his suppressed power resurfaces.
18+ NScripter.
- 🎮 Rewrite - A high school student with the ability to rewrite his body investigates supernatural mysteries with five girls in a tree-filled city.
15+ Siglus.
- 🔞 BALDR SKY Dive1 + Dive2 - An amnesiac awakens in virtual battle simulations, discovering he’s investigating a mysterious case called Gray Christmas while trying to recover his lost memories in a ruined city.
18+ NeXAS.
- 🔞 eden* - After completing humanity’s century-long evacuation from doomed Earth, a genetically engineered superhuman meets her military guardian on the abandoned planet for a final love story.
18+ Musica.
- 🎮 Phenomeno - Mitsurugi Yoishi wa Kowagaranai - A university student moves into a suspiciously cheap house that grants wishes, only to be haunted by nightly sounds and mysterious countdown numbers carved into walls.
16+ In-house.
- 🎮 ROBOTICS;NOTES + DaSH - Two students try to save their robot club by building a giant robot, but discover augmented reality files exposing a worldwide conspiracy.
12+ In-house.
- 🎮 PARQUET - Created from thousands of memories, he questions his identity and finds companionship with two girls who share his experimental origins.
12+ KiriKiri.
- 🔞 Tiny Bunny INCOMPLETE - In a Siberian forest, Anton faces terrifying events and is forced to make a choice to stay alive or stay human as he tries to survive and find answers to the mysterious disappearance of children in his new village.
18+ Ren'Py.
- 🎮 Doki Doki Literature Club! - Join a literature club with four unique girls and spend time writing poetry together.
17+ Unity.
- 🎮 Guilty Parade INCOMPLETE - After waking up without memories and surrounded by hostile soldiers, the male protagonist must investigate a crime to earn the Commander’s help, but the mysteries he uncovers may put him at odds with his new elite squad.
16+ Ren'Py.
Post a title you want to recommend to me here. It should be playable on Android or Steam Deck.
FAQ
How do you choose the next visual novel that you will read?
I use several methods:
Why are only visual novels for Android and Steam Deck listed here?
I strongly believe that a visual novel cannot be considered awesome if it cannot be run on portable handheld devices. In this day and age, Android smartphones/tablets and Steam Deck are the most popular portable gaming platforms for VN readers. Older VNs should be able to run successfully using emulators, and new ones should be developed with mobile and handheld support right from the start. Visual novel developers who artificially limit the range of supported platforms show a lack of respect towards their readers. Personally, I’m not comfortable reading VNs while sitting at my computer after a long day of work - portable devices offer the perfect reading experience.
Why is my favorite visual novel not on this list yet?
I only read visual novels that can be played on Android or Steam Deck handheld devices. Additionally, I prefer to read works in my native language, Russian. I have also come across titles that I cannot recommend for various reasons, and therefore, have not included them in my list.
What if a visual novel is not translated into my language or is not available in my country?
These are very common scenarios. I frequently face these issues when searching for Russian translations of visual novels. Fortunately, you can often find an unofficial patch for your language on vndb.org - this is the go-to resource for such cases.
How can I install an unofficial patch on Android?
Typically, you will need to download an unofficial APK file and manually transfer it to your Android device using a USB cable or wirelessly via AirDroid. In some cases, after installing the APK, you may also need to manually copy game cache files to folders such as android/data or android/obb. The exact installation steps can vary from game to game, so be sure to follow the installation guide provided by the unofficial patch author.
How can I install an unofficial patch on Steam Deck?
For most visual novels, you will need to install Bottles using the Discover app. Once installed, create a new “bottle” - essentially an environment where you can run your games. Then, either run the unofficial patch installer or manually copy the game files into this bottle. Finally, add your non-Steam game to the launcher and apply the Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse button layout to enable controller support for your visual novel. For detailed installation instructions, please follow this guide.
Why do some videos from visual novels not work on a Steam Deck?
When you play visual novels on a Steam Deck, you may experience video codec errors, video skipping, or even see a “test pattern” placeholder instead of actual video playback. This issue occurs because the standard Proton version from Valve lacks certain proprietary video codecs that many visual novels rely on. Fortunately, the solution is straightforward: you need to install GE-Proton (a community-enhanced version of Proton) via ProtonUp-Qt, which is available in the Discover app, and then apply it to your game. For detailed installation instructions, please follow this guide.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! This is a personal collection reflecting my own reading experience and preferences - please check the contribution guidelines first.