There are threads of some popular VNs in the Discussion (/d) thread, though they're currently buried now. Guess nobody checks in there.
It's almost as if the idea of moving some of them from /gfur but not all was really contrived!
- Repeat (Shirokoi) Love the characters, the story, most of the art (some CGs are hit & miss), the themes, etc. Probably my favourite, though progress is a bit slow (but contrarily to a certain *other* VN, the Shirokoi doesn't copy paste his routes, nor does he "just" write).
- Tennis Ace (WOTB AKA Basket) I'm sorta biased towards this one. Though this is a relatively new project from last year, it's one of my favourites. I love a lot of humour & charm from the interactions between the characters, the UI is great, and while the main character can be a hypocrite at times, he's still written "human" (he's a Shiba) and he's called out for it so instead of a drawback it's more of a feature (ahem Lagoon Lounge). Art is improving; new sprites replacing old ones from the same artist are getting released (the old ones are/were... bad by comparison and male characters lacked muscles). First day is... rather lengthy & heavy though, and it's still in Prologue after 11 days in game and the MC, so it's taking its time, though updates are very rarely short.
- Extracurricular Activities (DyneWulf) Pretty much the most popular around here, it has great characters and writing for the most part, however even if its updates are the lengthiest and of good quality, the "visual" part is largely unfinished; a lot of the backgrounds are gray, the UI is shit (sorry Dyne), the characters still don't have alternate poses (except Richard). It knows its focus, and I can appreciate that even with CursedMarked's very muscle-fetish-oriented art, the game wants us to take our time to date characters, on the other hand, 2 days so the MC decides which route/character he's on is too short.
- Morenatsu A while since I haven't played that, but I hold great memories of it, especially Shin's route & Kouya's route.
- Echo (Howly) Most. Attractive. UI. Ever. Haven't followed for months, but I remember liking it a lot. It's more story driven and rather realistic and subdued in its approach, while I find myself a bit lost in it from time to time, it's still a great read.
- Sins & Paradise (Wolfstar) It doesn't really waste any time telling us what it's all about... and yet it takes its time for these kinds of scenes, which is welcome, and even if it didn't, it'd make much more sense for relationships to be rushed in this universe than in Blackgate... and Blackgate is an accurate comparison, cause the concept of "Paradise" is somewhat similar to the "Blackgate" city. What I like is that even though the artwork is so obviously fetish oriented, it has a lot of backstory and lore, the characters still have some charm (even though fuck Alex), and having different point of views is a refreshing change of pace. Much like Tennis Ace the artwork is improving, although it's... still really special, and half of it is still uncanny. Wolfstar's art is an acquired taste and he was out of shape when he started making art for the game.
- Blackgate (Bane) A very great start... hampered with terribly slow progress (showing your update is 4k words long when other VNs output 4k lines sometimes per update, a line being usually on average 13 words long, is a bad sign, especially if it's for boasting about it), copy/pastes, limited art considering it's been a while the game first launched, terribly rushed relationships (for love), terrible managing, terrible business decisions... all around wasted potential. Biggest problem is the opposite of EA: some updates are so short, they're over in 5 minutes, mainly because I get the sense that Bane wants to wait for his artwork to be done before making real updates. Either that or he's slacking off.
- Lagoon Lounge 1-3 Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE. NOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Well, at least it knows its focus. Sex. They could've released an entire game with just sex and no story, it would've still sold like hot cakes. I hate almost everything about these. The main character sucks, is a literal molester, horny pervert, and a hypocrite. He's the main reason why I hate the games. The choices suck especially in the first one (SEX OR NO SEX?), the continuity sucks (rather it's basically non-existent between games, would've wanted some choices to matter at least), at least half of the endings suck (Sousuke's ending... just why? Why are you sexing in front of Rai?! WHY?!), the artwork in itself is fine, but the lack of sprites/expressions/poses suck, the English translation sucks... I could go on. I played every single one of them, hoping the next one would get better than the last, and oddly enough, the first one had the strongest story, while also having the most disgusting choices (namely Yamato and Sousuke's younger non-legal brother). No offense defenders of these VN, but it blows my mind how these are so popular based on their writing & story & relationships, not even just because of the sex.
I could mention Project Aego which has a great premise, but I haven't gone much into it passed that, and progress seems slow. Also Ocean Blues and Paws & Steel, but they're too short (and the former sucks).
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