For those who've never heard that term before, visual novels are a type of "game" popular in Japan that generally have very little to do with actual play mechanics. The games are more like stories told using still images, talking character art, static painted backgrounds, and voice-overs. They can generally be thought of as choose your own adventure books in completely visual and audio format. For those who have played Ar Tonelico, the "dive" sequences in the game are basically visual novels.
The influence of visual novels will be easily recognized by fans of Japanese RPGs, as many use varying amounts of visual novel style for character dialogue.
Kimi no Yuusha will apparently be even more visual novel-esque than most JRPGs, (which is probably a selling point in Japan) in that it seems like almost all of the storyline will be told through visual novel style storytelling, giving players only the ability to explore dungeons and fight battles in real time.
Still, relatively little can be gleaned from Famitsu scan, but just looking at what I can make out, the game seems much too Japanesey to ever find a home with a North American publisher. However, for those willing to brave the Japanese text and voices, the game is set to be released in Japan for Nintendo DS sometime this fall.
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