2025 has been a quieter year than some for more prominent English visual novel releases, but there have certainly still been some outstanding ones. As always, the NookGaming team can’t claim to have read every 2025 visual novel release, but we’ve certainly read a lot of them between us and want to both share our […]
Want to feel that perfect wintry atmosphere? Sitting down next to the fireplace with a cup of cocoa while watching the snow outside isn’t always possible, but sometimes a good read can help you create the snowy season in your mind. Why not take the chance to read a visual novel that paints that winter […]
Visual novels are niche, and they often get overlooked. Even among fans of the medium, plenty of great titles come out that don’t get the attention they deserve. Maybe they had the poor luck to come out at the wrong time, are a less popular type of story, or just don’t have the right circumstances […]
There are far too many games that never made their way out of Japan. What if we could play them while improving our Japanese skills at the same time? This is where tools like Kamui come in. Kamui calls itself a full toolkit for extracting text from video games, looking up words, translating, creating flashcards, […]
While number scores often make for good shorthands in summarizing how one feels about a piece of media, they don’t always tell the full story. This is especially apparent with the score of a 7/10, which for us at NookGaming is the lowest score we still describe as “recommended” out the gate. And while some […]
DLSite sells a wide range of doujin, adult games, visual novels, and other anime-related digital goods. The items on sale are primarily in Japanese, but many titles, such as Sickly Days and Summer Traces and Nekopara After, have English versions available too. There are even titles which were banned from a Steam release, such as Visual Arts […]
Not all games receive the spotlight they deserve and this can be especially true of anime games. Whether it’s due to their niche nature, a lack of media attention, or even just a lack of marketing, it’s easy for all but the biggest to slip under the radar. “Anime Game” is a fairly wide descriptor. […]
Sometimes Japanese games, particularly PC visual novels, won’t work on computers using other (non-Japanese) languages. Or, they may run but show text incorrectly (even if you’re using a translation patch). You may be able to change the region depending on your version of Windows, but this causes its own issues. Locale Emulator can almost always […]
There are so many great characters in visual novels who don’t get the chance to be in the spotlight. While fandiscs or expanded versions occasionally fill the void (even if we don’t always get them in English), more often than not we’re left wanting. So why not take the chance to highlight a few of […]
As those of you who are members of our Discord or perhaps in other shared communities may have heard, I visited Tokyo in Japan. While I certainly checked out a lot of the cultural sites, I also spent far too much time and money picking up anime figures and visual novels. In some ways, this felt […]