While most know what a novel is, not everyone may know what a light novel is. In simple terms, it is a Japanese type of novella that often has illustrations throughout the book. Light novels rarely exceed 200 pages and usually are between 40,000 to 50,000 words in length. Other interesting attributes of a light novel include the book size, specifically A6 10.5 cm x 14.8, and the vast majority originate from Japan with Chinese and Korean authors appearing more frequently in recent years.
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Nowadays, it’s very common for an anime or manga to receive a light novel adaptionwith the reversebeing just as if not more common. This isn’t the case when it comes to gaming franchises receiving light novel adaptions. While it has become more common in the last 10 years, the majority of the games that get this treatment are visual novels. The non-visual novels that do get adapted tend to still be Japanese-developed games and often don’t get translated. However, a lack of translations won’t prevent dedicated fans and this list from bringing attention to the adaptions that do exist and why any fan should read them.
Danganronpa Kirigiri
Released back in 2010 for the PSP by Spike Chunsoft,Danganronpawas a smash hit upon release spawning many sequels, spin-offs, anime, and tie-in manga. While the game wasn’t revolutionary, audiences loved the mix of visual novel, dating simulator, and murder-mystery gameplay elements on top of a well-constructed story and lore. The first game’s success caught the eye of popular mystery author Takekuni Kitayama, who voiced interest in wanting to write a story focusing on thepopular character Kyoko Kirigiri. A mere three years later after the release of the first game, Kitayama would releaseDanganronpa Kirigiri.
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Set as a prequel to the events ofDanganronpa: Trigger HappyHavocandDanganronpa Zerothe story takes place during Kyoko and newcomer Yui Samidare’s middle school years exploring the Duel Noir cases. The series found great success in Japan releasing seven volumes from 2013 to 2020 and becoming the most popular light novel series from the franchise. As with the other three light novel series from the franchise, it has not been officially released in English, but that has not stopped the dedicated fanbase from releasing amazing fan translations that are well worth tracking down.
Kingdom Hearts The Novel
Many of the other light novels on this list will be alternate stories, but theKingdom HeartsNovelis mostly a retelling of the original story with unfortunate changes and omissions. Most notable is the omission of a fewworlds such as Halloween Town and Atlanticas well as any character from said worlds. Despite this, the light novel is a good option to experience the story for any newcomer to the franchise.
Authored by Tomoco Kanemaki and with Shiro Amano’s talented illustrations, the light novel was originally published as two volumes in Japan by Square Enix in 2005 before being re-released as a single omnibus for English-speaking regions by Yen Press in 2015. The novel isn’t the most popular of the franchise’s books but is a good gateway for those looking for a more streamlined and digestible version of the originalKingdom Heartsstory.
Final Fantasy 7: On the Way to a Smile
Final Fantasyis likely the crown jewel for Square Enix with the seventh entry being one of if not the best in the franchise. Due to the game’s popularity, other media expanding on the lore of that specific game was inevitable. Written by Kazushige Nojima, who was also the main scenario writer for many of theFinal Fantasygames including 7, the book is a series of short stories followingmany of the familiar characters suchas Tifa, Barret, and Yuffie. The story itself takes place between the events ofFinal Fantasy 7the game and its CGI-animated filmAdvent Children.
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Originally the stories were released in chapters on the official Japanese Advent Children website in 2005 before receiving its official light novel release with all chapters in 2009. Yen Press would go on to release the English translation in 2018 with German, French, and Spanish releasing following shortly after. The novel was very successful and remains the franchise’s most popular light novel adaptation despite there being another light novel focused on the same game calledFinal Fantasy 7: Lateral Biography Turks.
Fate/Zero
TheFatefranchise has grown into a massive property expanding past its early roots as eroge visual novels into critically acclaimed anime, manga, and of course light novels. Written by Gen Urobuchi and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi,Fate/Zerowas a collaboration between TYPE-MOON and developer Nitro+ who had both previously and continue to work onFategames and novels. Released in four volumes from December 2006 to December 2007, the novel succeeded enough to receive an anime adaption and a direct sequel in 2011.
Fate/Zerois a prequelset 10 years beforeFate/stay night, during the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City focusing onpopular characters such as Excalibur, Kiritsugu Emiya, and Kirei Kotomine just to name a few. Due to a few minor detail changes and weird story quirks such as characters missing from key moments, the story takes place in a parallel world to the originalFate/Stay Night. Despite the story being the series' most well-known light novel it has not been officially released in English but is very much worth experiencing via the fan translations that do exist.
Devil May Cry (Light Novel)
One of the risks that come with novelizations of popular franchises is that the content within them may no longer be considered canon as the story continues from the original source. This was the case for theDevil May Crylight novel despite its writer, Shin-ya Goikeda, receiving direct assistance from franchise creator Hideki Kamiya. ThankfullyDevil May Cry 5, and its accompanying media would confirm that most of the story is canon.
Originally published in Japanese back in 2002 by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., LTD it wouldn’t be till 2006 that English and German-speaking fans would get to experience the story thanks to TokyoPop and Panini respectively. The story is a prequel to the firstDevil May Crygame followingDante going under the alias Tony Redgraveas he is forced to leave his loved ones and work on an unsolvable case in the dark underworld. The novel is also notable for having been illustrated by Shirow Miwa, the author of the popular mangaDOGS: bullets and Carnage.
