よつのは

(Yotsunoha)

Yotsunoha was a pleasant surprise in a sea of very mid visual novels I was reading at the time. You follow a guy who is attending a meetup with old school friends after their school shut down years prior and they were split up to attend different schools. I went into this one blind and it's left an impression on me. The choice system is also a forced route approach, as opposed to different choices leading to different routes the game takes a linear approach of having to complete each girls story one after the other. You may be wondering "wouldn't that just encourage you to only complete the routes to get the girl you like most and quit after that?" or "what if I have to play a girls route I don't like just to get to the one I do like?" and yes those are valid BUT in this case you WILL fall in love with all of the girls. I went into this with my own favorite (nono) and left endeared to them all EXCEPT FOR ONE. This leads me to the only huge glaring issue to this vn.... Iori... Her character is one of the most annoying ones i've ever had the displeasure of having to witness. She's overly clingy and extremely annoying. Im assuming the creators thought her going "hoooooooooehhhhhhhh?" every five seconds in a high pitched whiney tone would be endearing but it honestly made me want to kill her with a rock. luckily if you're not doing her route she barely shows up! The other girls are well written and the mechanics of the vn/art are updated and shiny new. This is a VN where you can tell lots of love and care went into it. Worth the play if you mute it every time iori comes on.

ヨスガノソラ

(Yosuga no Sora)

Yes the VN that has the option to romance your sister. Let me explain. I played yosuga no sora out of curiosity why such a weird concept could be so beloved amongst vn fans. My first thought was to just chalk it up as "well obviously the fans are perverts" and I was really wrong. The game itself has beautiful backgrounds and music tracks that I went back to listen to a couple times, can't say i've ever cared about the backing music before but this time they were too good to ignore. The writing is very well done too. The group of friends you become a part of feel like actual friends and by the end of the VN you understand why our protagonist would be hesitant to ever lose them. It's obvious they care and they grew on me until I enjoyed it every time they'd make an appearance to pick on eachother. My favorite character is sora like many others. I don't like her because I think she's the best romance option, I like her because of how much I relate to her. She's an antisocial shut in who spends most of her time online and has a fondness for cute things. She can't socialize to save her life and often comes across as rude. Multiple times in the story she's quite bold about disliking other people. A few times I was clutching my mouth laughing because of a confrontation she'd had. A girl who's antisocial is not often depicted in media being past the point of caring what other people think, in fact she's so far gone it seems like she lives in her own world where others just do not exist. I found myself not only relating to her personally but I relate to the way she loves, we truly are two leeches. I don't think I would never watch the anime, it's obvious why it was made and im sure it won't characterize sora as well as the VN does. It's not often cute girls are ever depicted as being rude or antisocial but when they are you know I will come running.

グリザイアの果実

-LE FRUIT DE LA GRISAIA-

I have mixed feelings about this vn despite it holding a place in my heart. The common route is done well in terms of making everyone feel like real characters with their own interactions and friendships/dynamics BUT I do believe there are a handful of chapters that are utterly useless and nothing more than fluff to the story. For example I ended up skipping an entire chapter because it was nothing but a silly tv show with nothing to do with the story. I like jokes but when the vn is already 90 hrs long I don't find a chapter like this necessary. My favorite route was michiru but yumiko is a really close second! Both of their routes were extremely enjoyable and full of real emotions and can manage to make you feel things (especially yumikos). Some routes I found to be more silly than others and ended up not liking some of them due to how outlandish they became, going from a VN to an over-the-top action movie. This vn is about a ragtag group of mentally ill women and one STOIC man trying their best to experience a normal school life in the only way they can. speaking of the stoic mc, cringe enducing man he is. I know he's written to be cringey on purpose, he's supposed to be as mentally ill as the women around him but there are some moments that made me cringe out of my seat such as his redditor tier introduction and comments on women being women. Personally I can handle this level of redditor especially if its condusive to the story but what I could not swallow were the authors ham fisted attempt at injecting his own opinions into his vn. Breaking the third wall to make a comment on the story saying "don't like it? don't care!" truly a "did I offend you liberal?" moment that made me die inside. It felt like one of those old rom-hacks where the creator just ruins the game under the guise of "fixing the humor". Michiru and yumiko make the cringe worth it though, don't worry! Despite its few shortcomings it's a unique experience, the art is wonderful, and it's written particularly well. Worth your play.

リトルバスターズ！

(Little Busters!)

Little busters is already well known as an absolute classic in the world of vns so I wont go too in depth about the story, especially for spoilers sake so I'll just touch on my likes and dislikes. The music in this VN is some of the best i've ever heard from one. I liked one song from dramatical murder and one from yosuga no sora but ended up enjoying almost every track from little busters. I couldn't find one I disliked (infact i think i'll be adding some to my website hehe). My favorite route was kuds, shocker I know. Mio is a close second. I did find a couple characters a little offputting but thats mostly a personal gripe. Yuiko was hard to stand and komari's "huee" reminded me all too much of iori from yotsunoha so I avoided her at all costs.. Kud's route had a depth to it that was totally unexpected and I enjoyed it so much. I related to her struggles as a foreigner and not exactly feeling like she belonged to either country. She gets rude comments from classmates about her foreign apperance that hit all too close to home for me and I felt a sort of kinship with the goofy character. The story was just the right length and never felt too dragged out or boring and the minigames were very nice :) The most contriversial part about my take is that despite the game being well known for its true ending... I didn't really like it.. I never liked those types of endings and I really dislike true endings that either leave you loveless or force you into a route with a specific girl. I believe that true endings should be worth fighting for, I mean they take forever to unlock! surely it should be worth the hours sunk into completeing every single route in the game especially the routes of the characyers that annoy you! Yes the true end makes you feel emotions but I felt them just as strongly playing the girls routes and felt no need to actually pursue the "truth". To conclude, play little busters. It's a classic for a reason, has the best music, and the characters are really enjoyable! Oh theres also a sfw and a nsfw version of the game. I played the sfw version and found it enjoyable though i've heard complaints about the nsfw version feeling forced and not fitting well with the story.

ドラマティカル マーダー

(DRAMAtical murder)