2014 has been a fairly significant year for visual novels in the international market. As of now we have three major visual novel publishers which are publishing a good number of in-demand titles (MangaGamer, Jast USA and Sekai Project) in addition to a number of smaller publishers and development teams publishing some notable works, supported by crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and services such as Steam which has provided even more exposure to what has been a growing genre.
We have seen Minori become more open to western audiences by launching the Supipara Development Plan with MangaGamer, been eagerly watching as Sekai Project more than double their goal for the Kickstarter of KEY’s visual novel CLANNAD (With fourteen days left to go) and seen Jast USA continuing to offer physical editions (Often with some bonus limited edition goodies) for most if not all of their recent visual novel releases simultaneously with the download edition.
I am genuinely excited to see what 2015 has to offer, and plan to make visual novels an even more important element of The Otaku’s Study alongside the anime and video game departments.
But as 2014 draws to the end, it is time to wrap things up by crowning The Otaku’s Study Visual Novel of the Year 2014 award. As with last year I will only be awarding a single title, but starting next year I plan on doing three individual awards ranked under the generic Gold, Silver and Bronze scale. The winner’s review will be shortly adorned with a 
award, and will be easily locatable via the main news page by hovering over “Sort” (Located at the top right of the “Latest Posts” section) and clicking “Recently Awarded”.
Now imagine some drum rolling in your head while you slowly begin scrolling down the page.
While there were a couple of titles that gave it some noteworthy competition, ultimately I couldn’t stray too far from Jast USA’s English localized release of Steins;Gate. This is the second and currently only internationally available instalment in the “Science Adventure” collaboration between 5pb and Nitroplus. First released in Japan during 2009 on the Xbox 360, it has since then been ported over to a number of different platforms and received not only an anime adaptation, but several spin-off games as well.
Steins;Gate won me over by its sophisticated and fairly complex plot surrounding time travel, pop culture references and an evil conspiracy orchestrated by CERN SERN; which starts off with a bang and continues to build into something that at one time kept me glued to my monitor for an entire day. Coupled with memorable characters who sufficiently contributed to the storyline, the writers/localizers not hesitating to bombard readers with scientific jargon/ not-so-simple ideas and providing multiple endings based on your actions through phone conversations – every element came together in order to deliver an incredibly satisfying read.
Therefore, Steins;Gate is a well deserving winner of my Visual Novel of the Year 2014 award.
With Steins;Gate confirmed for release on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita by PQube next year, and a reduced price edition from Jast USA now available for purchase, there are even more ways to enjoy this notable piece of fiction. I just hope that Jast USA or another company manages to pick up rights to the other instalments in 5pb and Nitroplus’ Science Adventure series. With Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes already available in Japan and Chaos;Head currently in the works, there is plenty for fans to hopefully look forward to and demand for in the new year.
