🧠 VN Critic
VN Critic is a modern, feature-rich desktop application designed for Visual Novel enthusiasts who want to rate, track, and analyze their reading history with precision.
Unlike simple 1-10 rating systems, VN Critic allows you to break down every aspect of a Visual Novel—from plot pacing to character art—and generates a weighted final score based on your personal preferences. It features seamless integration with VNDB (Visual Novel Database) and optional AI-powered analysis to help you understand your own rating biases.
✨ Features
📊 Advanced Rating System
Granular Scoring: Rate specific elements including Plot, Pacing, Route Structure, Character Art, Backgrounds, Soundtrack, World Building, and Emotional Impact.
Dynamic Weights: Not everyone values story over gameplay. Click the Gear Icon on any section to adjust its multiplier (e.g., make "Visuals" count for 2x the score).
Favorite Characters: Track your top 3 characters per VN with individual ratings that factor into the final score.
Visualizations: Real-time Radar Chart (Spider Graph) updates as you adjust sliders.
🌐 VNDB Integration
Auto-Metadata: Search for any Visual Novel to automatically pull its Title, Cover Art, and Tags.
Tag Management: Automatically categorizes tags into Content, Technical, and Sexual categories using the VNDB API.
Two-Way Sync:
Import: Pull your entire voting history from VNDB to populate your local library instantly.
Sync: Push your calculated final score directly to your VNDB account with one click.
Offline Caching: Cover images are cached locally, so your library looks great even without an internet connection.
🤖 AI Bias Checker & Critical Editor Don't let recency bias inflate your scores. The integrated AI Bias Checker acts as a critical editor, analyzing your current rating against your existing library to ensure consistency.
Comparative Analysis: The AI automatically pulls comparisons from your library (entries within a ±0.3 score range) to challenge your ratings. ("You rated this Story an 8.5, but your favorite VN 'Steins;Gate' only has an 8.0. Is this really better?")
Interactive Draggable Chat: Instead of a static response, open a floating chat window to discuss and justify your scores. Move the window aside to tweak sliders in real-time—the AI context updates immediately as you adjust values.
Provider Agnostic (BYO-LLM): Built on the Generic OpenAI standard. Connect to OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Groq, or even a local model via LocalLLaMA or Ollama.
📂 Data Management
Local First: All data is stored securely on your own machine.
JSON Import/Export: Easily backup your library or move it to another computer.
🚀 Installation
Method 1: Download Zip click EXE Method 2: Download source and do npm install then npm run build-exe to get your own exe file.
⚙️ Configuration
Setting up VNDB Sync
Log in to VNDB.org.
Go to My Profile > Applications and generate a new API Token (Ensure both permissions are checked). Once finished import your library and click the Auto-Link IDs button to ensure each VN has the proper ID linked so the scores can update. Any score that is set will automatically be rounded up before being sent to VNDB as they only accept 1.5 vs 1.46 as an example.
So if you scored a VN as 7.53 it rounds to 7.5 same applies when rounding up. the scores on the application itself will remain whatever you had it as so 7.53 stays as that and you can export it should you want to.
In VN Critic, click Settings (bottom left).
Paste your token into the VNDB Account Connection and click "Connect".
Setting up AI Analysis (Optional)
Get an API Key from an OpenAI compatible Platform.
In VN Critic Settings, paste the key into the OpenAI field along with all the info for whatever model and platform you're using.
Note: Keys are stored in Local Storage and only sent directly to OpenAI endpoints.
🛠️ Tech Stack
Runtime: Electron
Frontend: React 18
Styling: Tailwind CSS
Icons: Lucide
Build Tool: Electron Builder