Steam is Still the Overall BEST Place to Buy Visual Novels

This video is a response to an August Hail video and the general recent anti-Steam sentiment. Regardless of understandable frustrations, the silent majority still considers Steam the overall BEST place for supporting VNs, this video will explain why.

Original @TheAugustHail reference video:

Notable Visual Novels Referenced:

* Kira Kira only on MangaGamer
* The Seventh Sign Mr.Sister on GOG
* Demon Roots on Kagura Games
* Meteor World Actor on Johren with no DRM
* Angelic Chaos Reboot not released yet
* Rance IX on MangaGamer only
* Full Metal Daemon Muramasa on JAST USA
* Amatsutsumi on Denpasoft

Ko-Fi Donation Link:

Social Media you can find/contact me at:

Ange's Discord:

[YuriyVashurin]

The thing about visual novels on Steam that annoys me the most as a Japanese learner is that a lot of VNs there are stripped of their Japanese text, with English text/Japanese voices as the only option. Baldr Sky, Rewrite, Totono, etc. Only CLANNAD has a mod that restores Japanese text, as far as I know.

[tiedninedash]

Steam cloud is genuinely game changing for me. Being able to start a VN on my desktop, go to school and continue on my laptop, and then loading up my steam deck on vacation to finish the VN is just such a useful feature that I can't give up for the sake of buying from other store fronts.

[mikamaximillian]

Well, I had a lot of struggle buying visual novels because, for what I can afford and the overall product that visual novels are, they're pretty expensive -- UNTIL I discovered Jast USA. Here in Brazil at least Jast USA is much, MUCH affordable than Steam, in which had products over R$80 while in JAST is generally like R$40 or R$50 (1 US$ = R$6, 07) the same game. So where I'm living does not make sense to buy these specific games on steam if they are on Jast, unless you're a hardcore steam user or something.

[kylerainermason]

I only purchase VNs from Steam if I can’t find the VN on other VN platform sites. Their hypocritical policy of putting uncensored 3D shovelware porn on Steam but denying an anime style VN just because a heroine is wearing a traditional Catholic school girl outfit is ridiculous

[tiedninedash]

Something about DRM on steam that I'm surprised more people don't know about is the fact that it actually only applies on a per-game basis, not on steam as a whole. It is up to the developer whether or not they want their game on steam to DRM protected or not.

[ThiennTaii]

I'm not glazing or anything, it's just facts, if you want to support the scene as much as possible, buying from the publisher is THE way. (Jast USA, Mangagamer, Denpasoft, ... ) Steam cuts 30% + DRM-ed + Unfairness.

[matteagle]

I only started using Steam a few years ago and I’d have to say it’s actually easier to buy VNs off it than any of the other sites. Now I use those sites for any games that Steam decides to not approve of for whatever reason.

[revagong]

I wholeheartedly agree with Steam being a great place to start with VNs and are easily accessible (had a friend who was curious about VNs and I helped him out and got him started and he’s pretty hooked now) I then introduced him to other stores which he did have a hard time with but he got used to it learned his way around JAST. I’ve only ever used JAST and Steam to buy my VNs but if I were to choose which store felt more comfortable I would say Steam anyday the negatives may be many but we gotta look for the positives in something imo.

[FengLengshun]

Steam is the default for me. The price is good, the user experience is convenient all the way through, cloud save is great, and it works well on Windows and Linux. GOG is second place for me- if it has more regions for its regional pricing, I'd be fine, though confusingly publishers don't seem to want to release their stuff there despite having seemingly less content restrictions. Still, I bought Rance VI there recently, and Heroic Games Launcher makes it almost as convenient as Steam.

[templegarden]

I don't think anyone is trying to argue that Steam is somehow an inferior storefront compared to JAST or MG. The problem is, Steam doesn't care about visual novels. They don't have a good reason to, and they have already screwed over us many times in the past. People should be supporting JAST if they truly care about the future of visual novels, since they are the storefront that have your best interest at heart. Only then will they be able to provide you with a service that matches Steam's standard.

[selli]

I've also heard that Steam seems allergic to anime porn. Though, I'm not sure that's exactly the case as much as they're just wanting to be able to quickly glance at a NSFW title and clearly see that all the characters in it are meant to be 18 or older. I can understand that.

Steam - as far as I know - is the most well-known store front for buying and selling games, online. Customers know it and know how to use it - and appreciate being able to pay with PayPal, for easy transactions - and developers know it and know how to sell on it. There's little guessing when it comes to selling. Instead, there's a standardized process. No need to confusedly contact the people, directly, wondering if they'll look at your game, at all, what their process will be like, how much profit they'll take from your sales, et cetera.

Part of Steam's success is also due to the fact that you'll never see NSFW game "covers" - or "ads" - while browsing their platform, as they know younger people also use their service. This prevents Steam from looking like a full-on, sketchy porn website, even if some of the covers can - of course - be suggestive.

Another part of why Steam has a large customer base is because it doesn't solely sell VNs, but all sorts of digital games. So, more people will be able to come across VNs, and VN-enjoyers will also be able to come across other types of games. At the same time, like said in the video, filters make looking for what you want easy, so you don't have to wade through a bunch of titles you have no interest in.

For my part, I dislike when VNs on Steam have large sections of story removed, and I also dislike when modified games on Steam use the exact same titles as their non-modified counterparts, with no distinction between the two versions. If a version of a game is different, please say "all-ages version" or "Steam version" in the title, so people won't get confused.

But, setting those points aside, I appreciate that I can enjoy SFW variants of high-quality visual novels, on Steam. As far as I've seen, it's pretty common for high-quality visual novels to be NSFW with no SFW options. So, I'm glad Steam is somewhat normalizing SFW visual novels. Some people - like me - want to be able to enjoy high-quality VNs without them being explicitly pornographic. :)

That last point tends to miff people, when I bring it up. But, really, could you imagine if the vast majority of books, movies, TV shows, and other pieces of media we consumed, each had at least one explicitly pornographic scene in it? In itself, I think normalizing SFW visual novels only helps the medium grow.

[AliceMerrygoround]

I don't have CC/Paypal, so Steam is pretty much the only way I could pay the publishers. Huge bonus points for regional pricing and Linux translation layer.

[warspite]

Steam cloud save is a life saver for me, being able to continue playing anywhere anytime i want

[yaboil]

Steam is the "best" until they remove them for some arbitrary reason.

[TheFeri]

I agree with pretty much everything you said. But on the other hand I'll only get VN's from steam if I have no other option.

[octapusxft]

GOG includes the 18+ patches as free DLC.

[MicnoEverything]

Bro, it's cool that you explain that steam is good for buying VN, i kinda tought that steam is bad for buying VN, but with this video clears some things up!

[pokemongirl]

minus one vn from JAST (a bl vn that they had for like years atp) I bought every other one from steam, since the store also hosts some games that I don't think are on other pc storefronts (titles such as 7'Scarlet and Amnesia). I also noticed that a few Japanese publishers has their stuff on steam (idk if its region locked as I have yet to purchase any of the ones in my wish list) so I guess that is another positive for steam.

[millasgameroom]

This video is spot on. Worth adding if a game is unfairly banned from Steam, many people will just wait for Switch ports. If a game isn't on Steam, it effectively does not exist for most people, and that is the reality. SukeraSparo (Curse of Kudan) realised this, hopefully Nitro+, Purple software, Aquaplus and other devs of banned games do soon.

[SoullessResident]

I prefer switch cause I can hold them in my hand like a book. But if I had a steam deck I'd use both