Year 2008 started with two failed months, continued strong, but by the end lost a lot of appeal for me. There is not a single full 10/10 masterpiece (although technically Dies irae reworked version may be counted), but the overall number of masterpieces is again 20, exactly the same as in 2007, so can't complain here. New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2008 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2008:
11eyes -Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo-
12Riven -The Ψcliminal of Int
Year 2007 is great for bringing two full 10/10 masterpieces Draculius and Dies irae and many more very nice visual novels. You all know that winner is Dies irae as it's probably main visual novel of all times. First version from 2007 was quite raw, and there are some funny negative reviews from 2007-2008, but light found inner strength to polish this version and even freely give away it to original buyers. New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2007 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 20
Year 2006 did not bring any full 10/10 masterpieces, sadly. There were few chunige as well. I already see that year 2007 offers a much wider diversity, so placing great hopes on it. New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2006 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2006:
D.C. II ~Da Capo II~
ef - a fairy tale of the two.
Eve ~New Generation~
Fragments Blue
H2O -Footprints in the Sand-
Hidamari
I/O
KimiKiss
Kimi no Koe ga Kikoeru
Year 2005 was awesome. It's the golden age for plotge. Plots have become so diverse and complex that a lot more time is required to crack them up. My new approach to pick up all the titles I like doesn't help to move faster either. In addition, my base corresponds VNDB base of 2017, and it's time to synchronize. There are 230 new titles to add from 1980 till 2005, plus a dozen of old titles that I found out over time and finally can describe properly, let alone the need to refresh openings links
Year 2004 pleasantly surprised me with the number and especially quality of visual novels.
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2004 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2004:
3days ~Michiteyuku Toki no Kanata de~
Akai Ito
Carnival
Dear My Friend
Eigou Kaiki
Fate/Stay Night
Forest
Paradise Lost
Peace@Pieces
Realize
Remember11 -The Age of Infinity-
Sorairo no Shizuku
Sorauta
Sympho
Year 2003 proved to be profound in every way. Great variety of masterpieces suiting everyone's taste.
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2003 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2003:
Ashita Deatta Shoujo
Clover Heart's
Cross†Channel
Eien no Aselia -The Spirit of Eternity Sword-
Gin no Hebi Kuro no Tsuki
Interlude
Konata yori Kanata made
Kurenai
Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...
My Merry Maybe
Moekan
Year 2002 was quite curious. A lot of heavy weight candidates finally entered the scene.
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2002 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2002:
Baldr Force
Bokura ga Koko ni Iru Fushigi.
D.U.O. ~Song for All~
Ever17 -The Out of Infinity-
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Hotosenaru Uta Chitosenaru Shirushi
Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer
Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~
Masaru: Ashita no Yukinojou
Year 2001 is a year of lost opportunities for visual novels, at least for chunige. The matured industry failed to produce breakthrough works. Of course there are lots of new cool openings Visual Novel Openings 2001 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2001:
Renaissance
Yougen Tennyo
Vampirdzhija Vjedogonia
Silent Hill: Play Novel
Gensou Suikogaiden Vol. 2: Crystal Valley no Kettou
Mizuiro
No Reality
Chain Ushinawareta Ashiato
It took a huge amount of time to finish year 2000, but it's over. The industry has matured to contemporary state, so there's no need to search for novelties this year.
First of all, here's the collection of Visual Novel Openings 2000 with songs.
In 2000 I've made a number of videos with only 1-2 routes, so now is the chance for you to choose one of those games to make playthrough of the rest of the routes. Less than 10 votes in 2 weeks time will mean that noone needs that, an
1990s are over. And to commemorate that I've made a video playlist of all the openings/demo/endings with singing/energetic instrumental from 1990s here
I'll be making such playlists for each new year starting with 2000 since each year is going to have over 100 such opening/ending/demo themes. Second Windows era year is behind. It failed to bring such a game that I'd announce Vn of the year 1999 right away. Instead, it brought a number of quality galge and some quirky crypt
Year 1998 has become a year of hope for me. After very devastating transition year 1997 there are so many joys and wonderful games at last. Running a bit ahead, there is a 50% increase both in total number of games and in number of listed games resulting in the record number of masterpieces this year.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
Year Total
1991 75
1992 80
1993 121
1994 155
1995 180
1996 183
1997
What a tiresome year. First Windows year had too many obscure games with tiny bits of information to get. Crude graphics, bland plotlines, typical dating sim gameplay. But all in due time.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
Year Total
1991 75
1992 80
1993 121
1994 155
1995 180
1996 183
1997 202
Numbers don't show anything extraordinary - a very mild logical increase in numbers. Shift to Windows has
The best year so far, actually. I really hope that I'll be able to say the same about every forthcoming year. 84 works during the year amounts for an average of 7 works each month - a very saturated year.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
Year
Total
1991
75
1992
1995 did not bring as many masterpieces as previous years while increasing the total number of visual novels significantly
First of all, let's prolong the chart
VN per year
Year
Total
1991
75
1992
80
First, some statistics. Here's the chart of total number of VNs, number of listed VNs in this blog and number of blocked VNs for the years 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994. Number won't change significantly since for the moment these are all the VNs that vndb.org has for the noted periods.
VN per year
Year
Total
Listed
Blocked
1991
75
Year 1993 was... strange. Most of praised games of the year were blocked by me due to nukige nature of the games. Those games include Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku, Rance 4, Viper series, NOVA, Ayumi-chan Monogatari, Kindan no Ketsuzoku. And a lot of quality representatives that I don't even want to mention here are purest brainless nukige. It really looked to me as if the world got mad after the strict censorship of 1992. The number of VNs that made into my list slightly decreased from 4.08 in 1992
Year 1992 was much to my liking with few eroge and a great number of elaborate plots.
The notable features of year 1992 included:
- Implemented censorship rules resulted in private parts censored and at some cases companies set self-censorship to a degree when no private parts were ever on a screen or sometimes even to no nudity at all
- Regulations led to bigger emphasis on the story and experiments with the genres
- Horror mysteries with gore pictures started t
Year 1991 was the first with monthly issues and for that reason the hardest. Let's first try to determine its prominent features for VNs:
- Number of adult games increased greately to some 100 titles overall
- PC-98 era arrives with mouse support and the older systems finally lose support
- RPG percentage remains high at some 20% while ADV grows significantly to some 50%
- New sub-genres appear - point-and-click, quiz, board game.
- Some games start to use action icons
My masterpieces list:1. Can Can Bunny Superior2. De-Ja3. Illumina!4. Misty Blue5. Sekai de Ichiban Kimi ga Suki!6. Slope 7. Suijaku Sakusen 2 Moeyo Dragon8. The 4th Unit - Merry Go Round9. Toushin Toshi10. Yami no Ketsuzoku11. Urotsukidouji12. Urusei Yatsura: Stay With You 1990 is the year of RPG. Their number and diversity put interactive adventures VNs to shame. 1990 is a revolutionary year in many aspects. First doujin works, first nsfw covers, first explicit sex scenes, first lgbt game, firs
Year 1989 masterpieces:1. Burning Point2. Dororo ~Jigoku Emaki no Shou~3. Dual Targets - The 4th Unit Act.34. Paragon Sexa Doll5. Tawhid6. 38 Man Kilo no Kokuu7. Dragon Knight8. Twilight Zone 3 Nagakute Amai Yoru9. Hare Nochi Oosawagi!10. Imitation wa Aisenai11. Nishimura Kyoutarou Mystery: Blue Train Satsujin Jiken12. Asoko no Koufuku13. Psychic Detective Series Vol. 1: Invitation - Kage kara no Shoutaijou14. Psychic Detective Series Vol. 2: Memories The two main candidates for VN of the year f
In 1988 there are even more games, but I have only selected 9 as masterpieces:1. Soft de Hard na Monogatari2. Chatty3. Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha4. Lipstick. ADV5. Onryou Senki6. Psy-O-Blade7. Angelus ~Akuma no Fukuin~8. Snatcher9. Akira Year 1988 is the year when PC-98 won. In 1987 there were only couple games with pc-98 versions. Occasional games start to have animation and sometimes even certain phrases voiced. In 1988 there's a very big share of visual novels made deliberately for
The number of visual novels in 1987 increased greatly, but the number of masterpieces is relatively the same:1. Amazons no Hihou2. Urusei Yatsura3. DNA4. Koroshi no Dress5. Hadou no Hyouteki6. Jesus7. Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School8. Hiatari Ryoukou!9. The 4th Unit1987 has become a great breakthrough for visual novels. Text parser has been made obsolete by command selection and quite many games that amplify text over gameplay or graphics have showed up (even though the graphics have evolu
The masterpieces of the year 1986:1. Shiro to Kuro no Densetsu ~Rinne Tensei Hen~2. Wingman 2: Kitakura no Fukkatsu3. Boukenshatachi Kenja no Yuigon4. Alpha5. Hokuto no Ken: Violence Gekiga Adventure6. J.B. Harold no Jikenbo #1 - Final Mystery - Murder Club7. Casablanca ni Ai o Satsujinsha wa Jikuu o Koete8. Gall Force - Eternal Story9. Maison Ikkoku ~Omoide no Photograph~10. Suishou no Dragon11. Little Princess12. Toki no Tabibito13. 1000-nen Oukoku
So there are very few VNs in 1985 and even fewer account for masterpieces. Karuizawa Yuukai Annai was obviously a favorite after Horii Yuji won the previous two years, but the game lacks the mystery and fills it with lots of fanservice. El Dorado Denki gets a pretty devastating review. Tenshi-tachi no Gogo is an eroge that I would strike out if it weren't in the 80s. Abyss II and Dezeni World still use text parser. So why not Shiro to Kuro no Densetsu first title? The story is fresh and serious.
The masterpieces of the year are:1. Miko to Akemi no Jungle Adventures ,2. Salad no Kuni no Tomato-hime ,3. Eiyuu Densetsu Saga4. Again5. Jigoku no Renshuu Mondai6. Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsk ni Kiyu7. Corridor8. Wingman9. Time Tunnel10. ZarthFirst of all, Death Trap is not included in the masterpieces list because it does not feel exciting to me. But we're still left with as many as 10 masterpieces on our hands! Lots of novelties and good stories this year, but the VN of the year 1984 is H
