Tomas Beaton
When you dive into the world of porn games, there can be a lot of confusing elements to learn. For instance, what are visual novels, and how are they different from straight-up porn games? Is there any difference at all?
Well, the truth is, it's a little more complicated than that. A visual novel is just a type of game, not a genre in and of itself. That means you can have porn games that are visual novels, but not all visual novels are porn games.
What is a Visual Novel?
As the name implies, a visual novel is pretty much a virtual book. They tell a story, accompanied by visuals and music. Some visual novels allow you to make decisions as the protagonist in the story, affecting how the plot progresses. There's generally a lot of reading involved.
As said previously, a visual novel is just a type of game, not a genre. You can have a visual novel that tells a murder story or a visual novel about an innocent romance. And yes, there are visual novels that involve sex scenes, so there are porn visual novels as well.
Basically, a visual novel that can be classified as a “porn” game is a larger narrative that has porn elements in it. Think of it like a regular porn game inside of a bigger game: most of the time, the game is not solely about sex (though the ultimate goal may be having sex), but there is still porn involved.
Why Would You Pick a Visual Novel Over a Normal Porn Game?
Depending on what you're looking for, a visual novel with sexual elements may be more desirable than a traditional porn game that is solely about sex. Perhaps you want an actual emotional connection with a character being portrayed in porn? Maybe you want to partake in a deep romance that involves pornographic scenes.
Porn-based visual novels offer an experience that is deeper than traditional porn, which may be what some people want. Believe it or not, there are many visual novels out there that tell gripping, immersive stories with lovable and relatable characters, while also offering tantalizing, arousing pornographic elements.
Of course, there's a scale of how much the game focuses on pornographic material. Some visual novels are mainly focused on porn, meaning you won't have to do that much reading between pornographic scenes. You could say those games are pornographic games that happen to be visual novels.
On the other hand, you have visual novels that happen to include pornographic content somewhere in them, but pornography is not the main draw of the game.
For instance, maybe you're playing a romance visual novel in which you fall in love with a character, and at some point, there is a pornographic scene involved. However, you may have to go through hours of non-pornographic content to get to that scene, and it could be the only one in the whole game.
Knowing the Difference Between the Two
OK, so how do you know if a visual novel is of the heavy pornographic variety, as opposed to one that just has some porn in it somewhere? Well, it's really not that hard to tell. For one, visual novels, like any other game, often have ratings and explanations for those ratings. If it's rated 18+ for sexual content, that's a major giveaway that there's pornographic material in there somewhere.
Moreover, most of the places you would be downloading a visual novel from will provide you with a description of the game, which makes it pretty obvious what you will be doing within the game. Such descriptions will usually let you know if the game's main purpose is pornography or not.
Websites that offer visual novels for download also often have filters so you can find ones that are pornographic or ones that aren't, so you usually won't have to worry about being confused on that front.
Why Choose a Visual Novel Over a Traditional Porn Game?
Even if you play a visual novel that is focused primarily on porn, it goes without saying that there will be downtime and that it's a longer time investment compared to a traditional porn game that thrusts you immediately into a sexual scenario.
Even in a pornographic visual novel, there may be many minutes of reading (or more, depending on how deep the story is and your reading speed!) between pornographic scenes, whereas a traditional pornographic game usually lets you jump right into the action. If you are looking for top rated online sex games, check our best porn games page, as well as the top rated mobile porn games.
So ultimately, it comes down to what type of experience you want. Some people enjoy porn more when it involves a character that they are specifically attached to or invested in, and visual novels tend to offer that. Others just want to enjoy a sexual scenario without anything like personal investment being involved, which a traditional sex game often provides.
Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and what you are looking for in your pornography experience.
