nakige

plural nakiges

1. A Japanese visual novel of a genre characterized by melodramatic plots intended to move the player to tears.

   The medium is dominated by nakige, the crying genre, much like how superheroes dominate comics and sitcoms television.

   2011 November 10, Alex Mui, “Visual Novels: Unrecognized Narrative Art”, in The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Johns Hopkins University, page B5

   2 more examples

   Nakige are known for their sense of melancholy. Take 2001's Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (The Eternity You Desire), for example, which was released by eroge label âge, a division of ACID. Soon after high school student Takayuki Narumi falls for his classmate Haruka Suzumiya, she goes into a coma after a car accident. Depressed and shocked, Takayuki develops post-traumatic stress disorder and becomes involved with Haruka's best friend, Mitsuki. "To put it simply, a nakige brings players to tears as they read the in-game text," says [ACID CEO Hirohiko] Yoshida.

   2010, Brian Ashcroft, Shoko Ueda, Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool, page 154

   Utsuge, on the other hand, stands for pretty much the opposite of nakige, aiming to be as depressing an experience as possible.

   2019, Robert Ciesla, Game Development with Ren'Py: Introduction to Visual Novel Games Using Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine, page 90