Visual novels are a hybrid of books and video games and I find them very compelling.
When I was young there was a type of book that let you choose the story as you read it. You would read a page and then at the bottom of the page there would be a decision. If you made one decision you would go to x page, and if you made another decision you would go to y page. I liked having a choice in the story and it made it feel more real.
Visual novels incorporate that. You get to make choices in the story that affect the outcome of the story. Some VN will tell you if it is a helpful or not choice if you select in the preferences. Most of the time you don’t know what the most helpful choice is. Often the obvious choice is the wrong one, and the less intuitive choice is the correct one.
One of the things that I find most compelling about this medium is that they have taken life and distilled it into a game. We all face consequences for our past choices and we always have incomplete information when making a choice. Many times in my life the choice that seemed to be the “right” one would have been the worst one to make.
No this is not to praise me but rather that besides fun, these games have challenged my ideas of decision making. Some of them have compelling twists, interesting story lines, character development, humor and in my opinion are more realistic and fun than movies/video games. I think about some VN for months afterword about the choices I made and why I made them, and the consequences they had. Then I think about life and realize it is the same. We don’t always make choices that help us, and it takes wisdom and experience to learn from past mistakes.
I think people would have more enjoyable lives and make better decisions if they played Visual novels and gave them a chance.