the time spent on reading a word game

[Yuki3548]

I was scrolling through Rednote yesterday and came across someone posting their thoughts on beating 《UN:LOGICAL》 it totally blew my mind! Because I remember this game just released on the 22nd, and someone already finished reading it by the 23rd. How on earth do you read that fast? So I'm really curious to know how long it usually takes everyone to get through a visual novel, and also how to boost your reading speed.
For me, even the fastest I've ever finished a visual novel is over two weeks, and I keep going back to re-read the earlier dialogue. I really feel like I'm such a procrastinator.(゜-゜)

 

[plumtree]

I generally only play when I have a lot of free time, (holiday season, public holidays/long weekends) etc but I will play for hours straight during that time (10h a day-ish) which is probably not healthy...
Binge reading is easier for me because the lore/story is still fresh in my mind and I'm still emotionally invested in the characters. If I leave it too long and forget, I know I'll get bored and just never finish lol

I don't think there's anything wrong with procrastinating as long as you're still having fun with the otome (no need to force yourself to speed through it if that's not your style). But if you want to try it out, fiddle around with the text message speed settings/auto play speed settings and see what the fastest is you can tolerate. Using auto play reduces wrist strain from manually clicking through. If you replay the common route of a game after your first playthrough, use the "skip to the next choice or next unread text" feature.

 

[ishibashi]

Fastest I ever went through a long-ish game was 3 days, back when I was a student. I def can't do it now lol.

I think it helps if you don't have the OCD to listen to all the voiced dialogue. If you're a fast enough reader, you can pretty much set the text to highest or second highest speed and finish reading by the time the text finishes showing up. Use skip judiciously for games that have good skip options (most of them, these days).

Being really engaged in a story helps too. I know I definitely slow down when I'm not interested in a route, so if you get a game that's 1/2 fun and 1/2 boring to you you'll also probably slow down, and at that time maybe it's good to consider skipping some texts outright if you want to go fast.

 

[Yara010]

If book/game is interesting it's pretty easy to read fast
I have a friend who completed Neon Clash in 3 days

But 1 day for a game like Un: logical (which is pretty long)...wow

 

[Nastya]

Eh, it's not unusual for me to finish VN in 1-3 days depending on the length. If I'm really enjoying it I usually just ending up binge reading it for hours at a time (if i have time).
But I don't think you should call yourself a procrastinator for taking your time with games , it's a hobby , there isn't right or wrong way to play

 

[Nastya]

Eh, it's not unusual for me to finish VN in 1-3 days depending on the length. If I'm really enjoying it I usually just ending up binge reading it for hours at a time (if i have time).
But I don't think you should call yourself a procrastinator for taking your time with games , it's a hobby , there isn't right or wrong way to play

 

[pingtoryan]

I don't keep track of the time I use to read, but I do feel I'm on the longer side...listening to voiced lines and playing another game at the same time do not help, either...nor do taking notes of what choice lead to where.

 

[Mutsumihelp]

I just skip voicelines and sometimes h-scenes. If a vndb says a vn is 20 hours long, I can read it in 9 hours. I usually read for a maximum of 3 hours a day, but if I'm interested, I read longer (But JOP vn takes more time)

 

[baybridge]

I don't keep track of the time I use to read, but I do feel I'm on the longer side...listening to voiced lines and playing another game at the same time do not help, either...nor do taking notes of what choice lead to where.

Same! I tend to take the time to enjoy the voiced lines so I take forever to finish

Edit to include: I mainly play in Japanese (slow as mentioned before) but can finish a typical full-length English novel really quickly, if engrossed

 

[kyameiko]

It takes me forever to finish a VN. Mostly because I eventually get distracted, stop, and then don't come back to it until months have passed lol. Even if I find it interesting, I get distracted so easily I also take my time reading, and if it's choice heavy, I'm save-scumming to see the differences

 

[mitsumitsu]

Personally I'm on the slower end of reading. I like listening to voice lines until the end to improve my listening comprehension(and appreciating seiyuu ehem). I enjoy comparing Japanese voice lines to what's written if the game is localized in English. I don't really get distracted or procrastinate in the middle often so my time spent ends up similar to the vndb average most of the time. Though, if a vn is too boring I do skip voice lines before I lose motivation and the game is banished to stalled hell.

 

[mitsumitsu]

Fastest I ever went through a long-ish game was 3 days, back when I was a student. I def can't do it now lol.

I think it helps if you don't have the OCD to listen to all the voiced dialogue. If you're a fast enough reader, you can pretty much set the text to highest or second highest speed and finish reading by the time the text finishes showing up. Use skip judiciously for games that have good skip options (most of them, these days).

Being really engaged in a story helps too. I know I definitely slow down when I'm not interested in a route, so if you get a game that's 1/2 fun and 1/2 boring to you you'll also probably slow down, and at that time maybe it's good to consider skipping some texts outright if you want to go fast.

agree, I wish I had 1/4th the time and stamina I had when I was younger ;;;;

 

[Pismy]

I read veery slowly so usualy takes me 3-5 days to finish 1 route so most times takes 4-5 weeks to fully finish everything. ( And if I really like the game I might replay it so it could take longer ).

A game like Sakuya took like 5 fives days for me to beat but The House in Fata Morgana took almost 3 months...

Plus japanese/english are not my primary languages so sometimes i have to double check stuff because the translation doesn't make any sense.

 

[1chi]

When I was a student, I read very quickly because my time was limited. I would stay up all night just to finish a game. However, because of this, I couldn't quickly switch to other things, and I would constantly return to the game in my thoughts, as if I hadn't had enough of it. Now, when I have more time, I can stretch out otome for weeks, or even months. But I also "let them go" much more easily

 

[kaenyu]

Japanese games takes me weeks or months to finish. I play a little bit every day, at best I can play for a few hours after work but that's not always the case. With English games it's a bit faster because I can read it more easily, I struggle more with Japanese. The games are longer too. Sometimes I get bored during the common route before reaching any of the guys, so I procrastinate instead of keep playing.

I might have a problem with my attention span for reading. I can binge watch tv series and dramas...yet when it requires a lot of reading, I can't focus for long. I also have to re-read some things while playing visual novels, because I zone out then forget the details that was said before...

 

[ninnikuryona]

unfortunately, for me its either "finish reading in a single sitting in a single day" or "read it for one day and backlog it for a year". i have no idea what kind of brain condition it is, but even if i really really want to read something, i kinda,, have to literally force myself to? lately, ive been only capable of finishing stuff thats extremely short, like an hour or two, because any more than that and i immediately feel tilted and fatigued. the last vn i finished that i successfully spread out for ~two weeks took me just a bit under 22 hours, and it was back in september 25, and before that was enzai (i read it for ten hours straight one day) in september 24. maybe september is my lucky month.. ww

about forcing myself: its a very silly reason really, but. a lot of stuff i want to read is in japanese, and i cant read or speak japanese sadly, so i have to rely on mtl. however, i always hear people saying that mtl is trash nowadays so its better to switch to ai translations. but ai is blocked in my country! and i kinda dont want to use vpn and pay for a service that i might use for like one or two vns once a year! but i also feel like if i dont use ai translations, i get shittier experience! but i checked and gemini ai translated stuff no better than bing or lingocloud did! but i see conflicting information on the internet! and that makes my brain explode!!!!!!!

so yeah. always read at your own pace, dont get discouraged if you see someone reading stuff faster than you, and dont listen to other people if they dare try and teach you on how youre supposed to be reading/playing. your personal experience is only yours to live through, so try to make it as comfortable as possible for you<3

also, i kinda feel like its always better to spend a little more time reading or rereading a line to fully understand all the context than just speedily skim through every single line of story thats being thrown at you. case in point

 

[Marrychan]

I consider myself a fairly fast reader. When a game has a neutral route for all characters in one go, it's even faster. It takes longer when it's in Japanese and I'm using a program to translate; I always leave a couple of references open to check if it's correct, so it takes a little more time, but with games I try to take my time to enjoy them. I read books even faster because I practically shut myself off to read them in private. If I'm very engrossed, it takes me about three days?

 

[Pastels]

I think I'm a pretty fast reader but tbh sometimes I read too fast and my brain can't process whats happening so I have to go back and reread, which slows down my game progress . But if the story is super interesting, I could probably finish a long game in 1-3 days depending on how much time I have. I never really thought about how quickly I can finish a route since the first otomes I played were the shall we date games and those force you to take a break until your tickets reset .

 

[myfrral]

I usually play games within a week and can complete them all! I need to read game content and don't want to fast forward text. Sometimes while playing this game, I also play that game.

 

[alicent]

for me it could take up from five days to two weeks, i usually have so many other things i want to spend my time on like reading a novel or just did not have the capacity to read a heavy visual novel. i do think finishing everything in one day is really surprising! personally i'd do that for fan disks or shorter games. but everyone probably has their own style of playing and how they read visual novels, it truly varies

 

[Artina]

i'm a slow reader. commercial untranslated games took me around 1-3 month for one title. always focusing on one game but it seems lately i'd playing 2/3 title at the same time.

free/short untranslated game tend to takes 1-2 weeks to finishing it.

translated commercial games took around 1 month or 2 for me to finishing it.

translated free/short/doujin title took me around 1 week to finish.

 

[Yuki3548]

It takes me forever to finish a VN. Mostly because I eventually get distracted, stop, and then don't come back to it until months have passed lol. Even if I find it interesting, I get distracted so easily I also take my time reading, and if it's choice heavy, I'm save-scumming to see the differences

Same here. I'll always start playing a couple of story routes, then suddenly stop opening the game altogether. After that, I tell myself every single day that I must pick it up again but the whole day slips by just like that. And just like this, I end up putting it off for ages.

 

[Yuki3548]

unfortunately, for me its either "finish reading in a single sitting in a single day" or "read it for one day and backlog it for a year". i have no idea what kind of brain condition it is, but even if i really really want to read something, i kinda,, have to literally force myself to? lately, ive been only capable of finishing stuff thats extremely short, like an hour or two, because any more than that and i immediately feel tilted and fatigued. the last vn i finished that i successfully spread out for ~two weeks took me just a bit under 22 hours, and it was back in september 25, and before that was enzai (i read it for ten hours straight one day) in september 24. maybe september is my lucky month.. ww

about forcing myself: its a very silly reason really, but. a lot of stuff i want to read is in japanese, and i cant read or speak japanese sadly, so i have to rely on mtl. however, i always hear people saying that mtl is trash nowadays so its better to switch to ai translations. but ai is blocked in my country! and i kinda dont want to use vpn and pay for a service that i might use for like one or two vns once a year! but i also feel like if i dont use ai translations, i get shittier experience! but i checked and gemini ai translated stuff no better than bing or lingocloud did! but i see conflicting information on the internet! and that makes my brain explode!!!!!!!

so yeah. always read at your own pace, dont get discouraged if you see someone reading stuff faster than you, and dont listen to other people if they dare try and teach you on how youre supposed to be reading/playing. your personal experience is only yours to live through, so try to make it as comfortable as possible for you<3

also, i kinda feel like its always better to spend a little more time reading or rereading a line to fully understand all the context than just speedily skim through every single line of story thats being thrown at you. case in point

It may be because of the advanced technology nowadays that people no longer have the patience, time or energy to stick to one thing for a long time. That's exactly how I feel now I have to skip through any video that's longer than 5 minutes, otherwise, I'd close it before finishing it. Still, I love watching long videos. However, most of the content on video platforms these days is only 1 to 2 minutes long, and they get much higher view counts than longer videos.

 

[mohuwari]

It takes me a relatively long time. There are two reasons. Firstly, I read slowly, savoring each word carefully. Secondly, my leisure time is not continuous and the duration is uncertain.
The time it takes to complete a game ranges from a few weeks to several months, depending on the length of the game's storyline.

 

[qixianxiaomiao]

I'll always start playing a couple of story routes, then suddenly stop opening the game altogether. After that, I tell myself every single day that I must pick it up again but the whole day slips by just like that.

This is so real. Once I shut down those boring game, I won't open it again.

However, most of the content on video platforms these days is only 1 to 2 minutes long, and they get much higher view counts than longer videos.

never mind.Let's support those creators who produce long videos. ;)