Dreamysyu

Sooner or later it'll happen for real. 

I strongly believe there's never a need to hurry when it goes to games and VNs, but yeah, I think this one is worth checking out at some point, for anyone that's not fully against yuri and slight LGBT drama. The core story and characters are just THAT GOOD.

You know, the way you describe it, it sounds very interesting. I think, it sounds like the type of story I tend to enjoy quite a lot. Right now I'm trying (and kind of failing ) to prioritize my backlog over getting new VNs to play, but, I guess, I'll take notice of this VN and probably buy it at some point in the future when I feel like it.

It looks like a drama CD, music CD, and a book full of material related to setting up the plot and setting as well as artwork.  It's all focused on Euphoria apparently.

Conjueror gave it a bad review, so no thank you. 

Yeah, it's more or less the same for me. I don't know, I just don't care about traditional Key that much anymore.
On the other hand, I read Planetarian last year, and it was still amazing. It was by a different author than the most other Key VNs and it actually doesn't have most flaws other Key VNs have. Rewrite is also pretty cool, but it's Key only in name. Summer Pockets, apparently, is also handled by completely new people, though I heard some mixed reactions about how it actually came out.
To be honest, the problem with Maeda's writing is that he got used to one particular way of writing things (which got old years ago), and whenever he tries to even slightly go away from it, he fails. He failed in Moon., he failed the same way in Charlotte more than 15 years later.

You would probably need to replay through the whole VN to reach them, yeah. The new routes spoil the true route, so originally they were supposed to be locked before you finish it. The Japanese version of EX gave you a choice at the very beginning to unlock them (in case you already played the original version), but I don't think you can do it in the official English version.
OR you could just use a 100% save file. Or just skip the additional routes, like I did. I mean, I literally played this game more than five years ago. As if I would care anymore.

I would say so. Well, I thought about that and the truth is I know very little about this kind of third-rate JP chuunige. I know the really good ones are able to mix the cliches into something satisfying and craft an engaging story out of them. The "angry shounen" line was mainly to signify the lack of depth - a VN of this size would usually have some of it even if it's mostly about the corny action sequences, here... It's just a lot of shouting and purely-literary gore. Kind of missing the point I guess...?

Well, it does sound like a very generic chuunige from the way you describe it. Even classics like Dies Irae has most of the same problems and overused tropes (and it's one of the reasons why I became kind of bored with it after just finishing one route). The reason why they are considered good VNs, on the other hand, is that they have some other very good points that make the whole overall experience worth it. This VN... probably doesn't have something like that, from what I understand.

Something about your statement tells me Michiru's fate in Rakuen is a lot worse... 
 
Hopefully - and I'm saying this with desperate optimism -
So yeah, hopefully it's something like that... But... even if it is, that still doesn't change how mediocre Michiru's AS is.  If anything, this makes her AS feel even more like filler material now compared to the other AS.

Actually, this reminded me that the biggest problem with Michiru's AS I personally had is that I felt as if it completely disregarded her development from the original route.
Now I'm interested in what your reaction on Rakuen is going to be.

I understand your preference for these type of works (VNs with plenty of choices), as this medium distinguises itself by how much agency is given to the player through forking paths and alternate endings, and it is surely one of the main draws of the medium. However, I believe that agency can be given in different ways other than choices. For example, Umineko is engaging because the many different elements come together to draw you into the atmosphere and it gives you a mystery to solve, while Swan Song forces you to think by yourself by presenting you with the idea of how people and society as a whole would change if they were thrust into catastrophe. How would your own life change if the rules and guidelines that keep society together had no one to uphold them?
In fact, I dislike VNs with too many choices. They can often be meaningless and obscure your path towards reaching your desired ending. I'm not talking about games like Canvas 2 where you're presented, with dozens, hundreds of choices, but perhaps games like Clannad and Kara no Shoujo that leave you wondering how a seemingly meaningless choice you made many hours ago happened to lead to a Bad End. Thus, perhaps I'd say I'd rather have no choices than bad choices if that's the alternative.
In conclusion, I think a balance is necessary, and choices should exist if they make sense in the story, not just for the sake of being there. Either way, hope you enjoy Swan Song, it's one of my favorites.

The deviation part was what really made me think about this time period as a golden age. I guess i got too influenced by Clephas' definition of what a golden age was and tried to apply it for otomes specifically.

I never really stop to actually look to the release dates, but I think the time period you mentioned it's the one the genre really grew a lot, started to look prettier in HD and started to deviate a little from the basic formula of dating sims. And if you look at it, it was right around the time the PSVita was released.
Older title tended to be either PC or PS2 games, like Kin'iro no Corda (2003). And the most popular ones, like Heart no Kuni no Alice (2007), later got ported to PSP. Maybe they grew along the mobile market? Otome fans surely love their mobiles, huh? So much that if you take only a tiny peak at google store you probably find several otome VNs and gachas. Hell, the Uta no Prince-sama VN (2010) and its sequels was never localized (because it's for the old dead PSP and it was never ported to Vita? No one would try to localize PS2 or PSP games in this day and age) but its gacha was (and it have a considerable fanbase of anime only secondaries, myself included, please don't judge >.<). And do you know Illusion's VR Kanojo? Yeah, they're planning an otome version VR Kareshi for mobiles only (at least for now).
Of course, you could argue that more games and mobile trash would lower the quality of the releases as a whole. As if. The competition seemed to got even fiercer. So much that QuinRose, an otome developer that made a lot of games during 2006~2010, suspended all business. And Rejet (of Diabolik Lovers fame) is not doing so well lately, after some generic gacha they tried to make failed. We may not look like it, but we're a picky bunch, we'll not buy any crap.  Usually.
Outside of this range, we can't not speak about Hakuoki (2008). Probably part of the reason Otomate, that later made Code Realize, Collar x Malice and other great quality otome games, grew a looooooot.
And I do agree that VNDB is not exactly the best source to gauge popularity, because a) as Dreamysyu said the translated works are severely favored there because it's what is available to the majority; b) from what I see, the otome fandom is not as present or vocal as the galge one in VNDB. IIRC the JOPs really like Shinigami to Shoujo, and it DOES manage to have a good rate even on VNDB, so maybe our opinions aren't thaaat different (unlike say BL games, that most of the translated games have almost 2 points less in Japan).
And for an ending note, F*** me Royally looks terribad since it have absolutely nothing of what I like in otome games and I honestly think that it was made for a male audience to fap instead of a female one interested in 18+ games. But to each their own.

Was it, I wonder? I'm not sure if relying on vndb in this case is reliable, because the highest rated titles are obviously going to be the ones that have English translations, and the localization studios seem to be focused more on the newer titles. I know that the otome game market was pretty big even prior to that, but I don't know whether those titles were actually as good as the ones released later.
Well, I can't really add anything else, so I'm summoning @MaggieROBOT and @Mr Poltroon.

I'm not sure why you claim that this problem is especially important in VNs, numerical scores are always deeply flawed - they're, however, quite convenient and can be still useful if you make clear how you use them and keep some levels of consistency. They may reflect something very specific (your level of enjoyment with the game) or many things at once (many people on the Forums described their elaborate systems of rating VNs, with various amount of points attached to different aspects of them) - the real problem is that people both treat them way too seriously and compare them in ways that are grossly misleading. I think you could easily replace those basic ratings you've laid out with numbers without losing much of their meaning, the argumentation you add to your reviews and the additional tags that explain what kind of enjoyment these games might offer and who they're targeted towards are much more important.
EDIT: Also, I wonder, would that second category be closer to "Deeply flawed"? I know it doesn't sound as good, but I think "imperfect" is too mild of a term to communicate a game being one tier above pure trash.

Giving it way more benefit of the doubt that it deserves, it's still a violent/messed up loli nukige made by a company doing solely violent/messed up loli nukiges. Any kind of good writing exploring pedophilia or incest (because, if you look closely, that's all that the OP's claims point to, a romanticized vision of pedophilic relationship between a father and his [teen? Pre-teen?] daughter) will just be a flavour on top of tons of the pedo porn. I would not touch this for a million dollars and I'm ok with the 0,2% chance that I'm missing on something of value that way. 

What even...

What even...

Oh, hey it was really great! I giggled the whole time while I was reading. And, well, I finally get to be a protagonist in some story that isn't my real life! Oh, wait, am I even a protagonist in my own life?

Oh, wow, not sure how I missed this VN. I guess, I may try it after I finally read fault. Looks pretty interesting.
By the way, I played the first Fault for a few minutes, and I got the feeling that it's way more similar in the way it's written to a light novel rather than a VN. Well, I guess it makes sense, considering that it's a kinetic novel and doesn't even have a protagonist.

Another VN rotting in the depths of my backlog since forever.

Kamimu

Well, I just had to check what those Sekai releases are about, and...


NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE

I presume the best possible result can be achieved through:
Translating, while maintaining a healthy balance between literal and liberal, when required. Doing at least two TLC runs through the entire script. First one should remove the most obvious errors and mistakes, while second one should aim to fix the translated sentences. Editing to improve the general flow, readability and quality of the english translated text. Skip any of these or half-ass them and you'll get a monstrosity of an english TL in the kinds of SP's late translation attempts or Hikari Field's level of translation "quality".
Editors should never fix the translator's mistakes. Their job is to turn the translator's garble into a Shakespeare's level of prose. Likewise, it's not the translator's job to instantly turn their translations into coherent and readable english prose. It's fine, if they can, but most of the times - they can't and really shouldn't even try, for their own sake. This is why professional game localizations are always a team attempt in the first place.