Visual novel fans can grab a bargain this weekend: some of the best PC games in the genre (opens in new tab), including the Danganronpa, Zero Escape and Steins;Gate series, are heavily discounted until Monday as part of developer Spike Chunsoft's sale.
It's worth browsing through the full list of offers, but Danganronpa (opens in new tab) is a good place to start: the first (opens in new tab) two games in the series are 80% off (opens in new tab), making them just $4/£3. You play a new student in what appears to be a school for an elite, but is actually a sadistic battle royale, and you have to kill another student to "graduate". As characters are murdered, you're asked to solve the crime in court trials that play out a little like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It's brilliant, and you can read Andy's review of the first game, Trigger Happy Havoc, here (opens in new tab).
Both Zero Escape games—The Nonary Games (opens in new tab) and Zero Time Dilemma—are 80% off too, making them less than $6/£5 (opens in new tab). They're gruesome tales of a group trapped in an underground facility, and they have arguably the best puzzles of any visual novel. Katharine gave The Nonary Games a 90/100 in her review (opens in new tab).
Steins;Gate Eilte, a remaster of the 2009 original, and the follow up Steins;Gate 0 are less about murder and more about time travel. You alter the past to create branching worlds, tangling together cause and effect into a variety of different endings. It's complex, but never hard to follow. Both games are 60% off (opens in new tab).
Fire Pro Wrestling World, one of our favorite sports games (opens in new tab), is also on the list at 70% off. Browse through all the deals on Spike Chunsoft's Steam page (opens in new tab): again, the Danganronpa games are the perfect place to start if you're new to the genre, not least because they're so cheap. The deals expire at 10am PDT on Monday, August 12.
If you need more advice about getting into visuals novels, follow our guide here (opens in new tab).
