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playing pc visual novels on my tablet

june 9, 2025

Throughout my playthrough of Fate stay/night, with my back hunched over my desk for hours at end, I realized something as I fixed my posture for the nth time–this wasn’t a very comfortable position for me to read. Usually when I read a book, I lay down on my bed and merge into its sheets, making for a comfortable reading experience. However playing a visual novel constricts me to my computer desk, which compared to my bed feels less cozy. I could play visual novels on my Switch (the only way I could play Tsukihime) which solves the problem of being tethered to my desk but:

  1. The visual novel library on the Switch is smaller than on PC. At the time of writing, the Switch has only existed for a measly 8 years. The library on PC is much larger, spanning decades. For example, the Umineko and Higurashi games aren’t localized on Switch, having only released in Japan.
  2. I like having my games tracked via my Steam library instead of my Switch. Earning achievements and seeing my playtime accumulate itches a completionist, statistician aspect of my brain.

In order to fulfill my dream of playing visual novels on my bed, I installed Apollo, a fork of Sunshine that streams output from my PC to my tablet (which runs Moonlight). Finally, I could play visual novels on my bed, a far 10 feet away from my desk. Instead of being tethered to my desk reading, or having to buy a Steam Deck, or lugging my laptop everywhere, or locking myself to the Switch, I could finally read a visual novel anywhere in my house. The possibilities were endless.

Although after an hour of reading on my tablet, I realized I liked how visual novels looked on my big monitor so I proceeded to move back to my PC. I’m thinking of using this method to read smaller visual novels, and then moving to the big screen for longer visual novels like Umineko.

bonus rant

The English releases of Type-Moon visual novels confuse me so much. Witch on the Holy Night released on Steam, PS4 and Switch, receiving physical releases on consoles. Tsukihime only released on consoles, also receiving physical releases. Fate stay/night remastered released on Steam, PS4 and Switch, but was never released physically. Why is it so inconsistent? And why is Tsukihime the only English Type-Moon novel to not release on PC? Aghhhhhhh