5 Great Visual Novels You Forgot Were Awesome

The visual novel genre has roots in the earliest days of gaming. Over time, it’s become much more intricate, as developers use more powerful technology to add new twists to the standard formula. While games like Ace Attorney, Doki Doki Literature Club, Zero Escape, and Danganronpa get plenty of love, there are dozens of great visual novels to dive into if you’re looking for something new. The games below haven’t gotten as much shine as some of the fan-favorites, but they’re well worth checking out.

Here are five great visual novels that you might’ve missed.

5) The House in Fata Morgana

To be fair, most visual novel fans will remember The House in Fata Morgana. It was released in 2012, but only in Japan. It eventually made its way to the rest of the world, but was stuck in Japan for its first four years. Still, Fata Morgana is widely seen by fans as one of the top visual novels of the 2010s, but it hasn’t gotten the same mainstream love as some of the modern classics, selling just 300,000 copies as of 2025.

That’s a shame because Fata Morgana is a captivating story set in a mansion across four different time periods. You’ll need to learn more about the inhabitants of the mansion throughout the four eras, while also discovering more about your character, who is a spirit that doesn’t remember anything about its life.

4) Growing Up

Growing Up launched in 2021, making it one of the more recent games on this list. Developer Vile Monarch’s visual novel starts with your character as a toddler and grows with you as you navigate through school and adulthood. It’s a robust life simulator mixed with a visual novel.

If you’re in the mood for a chill game that’ll take you right back to the ’90s, Growing Up is a perfect choice. Plus, with all the choices throughout the story, you’ll enjoy nearly limitless replay value. You’ll master skills, acquire new jobs, and meet various romantic partners. It’s not a world-changing adventure, but it’s a solid life sim that’ll make for a relaxing afternoon gameplay session.

3) Raging Loop

Swerving in the other direction, Raging Loop is a psychological horror story in a small Japanese village. After you arrive, the village is surrounded by fog, and no one can leave. Then, it basically turns into a classic game of Werewolf, but in this version, the wolves are real.

However, you have a special power that helps you figure out which characters are evil wolves. See, your character has time loop powers, letting you rewind time after witnessing a death, and then using that information to move your playthrough forward. Granted, I’ve seen quite a few players frustrated by the ending, but the ride to get there is worth the adventure.

2) Juniper’s Knot

Juniper’s Knot is a very short game (it won’t take you much longer than 30 minutes), but it packs quite a bit into that small package. The 2012 visual novel from Dischan Media is a great way to dip your toes into the genre since you don’t need to commit much time to seeing its ending.

The story involves a young boy and a demoness, but it’s not worth saying much more. After all, there are only 30 minutes of story here. I don’t want to risk spoiling anything for such a short game. In addition to the engaging story, you’ll be treated to some great art and a solid soundtrack. The best news of all is that you can pick it up for free on Steam, making this one of the easiest recommendations of all time.

1) Gnosia

In June 2019, Petit Depotto released Gnosia on the Vita in Japan. Now, if you’re a Vita historian, you’ll remember that the system was discontinued in March 2019, which means PlayStation had stopped making the system a few months before Gnosia came out. Thankfully, it eventually came to other platforms, but it was still a weird way to release a game, and meant it went under the radar for many.

That’s a shame because this sci-fi visual novel mixes in social deduction and time loops to create a wild adventure. You have to use your wits to uncover which person on the ship is an alien-like Gnosia and put them into cryo-sleep. It keeps going deeper, providing one of the best visual novels of the last decade that deserves more love.

The good news is that Gnosia has started to pick up steam as it launches on more platforms. That includes an anime adaptation that was released in 2025. Hopefully, that means Petit Depotto will come back to the universe someday and give fans another great sci-fi game to dive into.

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