# What are Light Novels and Visual Novels



## Xiammes (Aug 6, 2015)

I imagine a number of people might be scared and confused about the new changes are are wondering what are Light Novel and Visual Novels and why are they being added here. Its explained in this , big changes around the forum caused these events. 

Light Novels sound just like the name imply's, they are novels but lite. They generally are around 100-200 pages long, feature illustrations throughout the book and are generally geared towards the otaku audience. Another key feature is that these are serialized, so multiple novels come out in a year. Think of if Hairy potter was released in 25 books, each one only having around 200 pages.

Most Light Novels are fan translated into english, how ever there are a few companies that do translate, but are normally far behind the japanese releases, so unless you can wait for the official release, you are going to need to read a fan translation.


Visual Novels are the odd ball, the are essentially interactive novels, but by pure definition they are a video game, but thats a argument I don't want to get into. Visual Novels are far more geared towards the otaku audience then light novels are. Not all visual novels are the same, some like to tell a family friendly story(Clannad) while others focus on excellent gameplay and porn(Rance), you really never know what you are going to get with a visual novel. Visual Novels are in general very long, a short one is in the 10-20 hour range, 100% completion can drive games to be over 100 hours easily.

Visual Novels have had even less success over sea's then light novels had, only recently could you buy official english versions of Clannad. Steam is currently having a booming Visual Novel market, but only a few big titles have been released so far. So just like the Light Novels, you are most likely going to need a fan translation to read any VN worth reading.

If you have any questions, please direct them too


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