Visual novels are video games except there’s no real gameplay in them. They’re more like a picture book with music since most of the game is in the text. There’s also multiple endings, think of those “Give Yourself Goosebumps” books where your choices affect the ending. They’ve been getting alot of attention and many even have anime adaptions. Although they’re not nearly as big in the US as they are in Japan, there are fan translations available for many of the more popular galges. The anime are usually not that good when compared to the source material but they’re still a good introduction to the visual novels, like a really long commercial. Some notable ones include Fate/Stay Night, Clannad, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

Although they may contain hentai images or pornography, the story is what counts. F/SN, Tsukihime, Ever17, Higurashi all contain amazing stories and characters. They may be a little difficult to get into, walls of text and static images might seem boring but they’re incredibly fun to read if you can get past that. Or if you enjoy books in general, they’ll probably be easy to dive into.