snowbell55

Like some other JRPGs, it kind of divides itself into 2 games. The first is generally more chill, then ends on a climatic cliffhanger, and the second game is the "true" development. So you'll get quite a bit more fighting on Mask of Truth! (while still having chill sections, do not fear)

Currently reading Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, and absolutely loving it. It's so much fun to read. I don't know how they keep introducing characters and giving them enough time, effort, and uniqueness to be memorable, but it seems to be working really well. Almost everyone (and certainly the team members) I've come across has had some sort of quirk that makes them interesting, and I find that I'm greatly enjoying the slice-of-life moments as a result. Spoilers below. 
I haven't laughed this hard at a VN since Majikoi, and I'm really enjoying it. It's such a fun read. I do wish it had a bit more of the fighting sections, since the battles are quite fun, but it's really good even so. 

Don't really have a wide pool to draw from but I'd have to agree with PE for moege. It's really really fun to read, and relaxing and soothing too. The first 2 or 3 hours are the time I've come to refer to as the "hump period" where I need to get pulled in. I found myself being pulled in almost immediately, which doesn't always happen with me. From there things got better and better. I really like that the synopses present it as a simple story, but it winds up surpassing that and striking above its weight. It's obviously not to the point of making a grand statement like something like Fate/Stay Night, but it still wound up being interesting in a few ways that I didn't see coming - ways that made me reflect on my own life. That's always a bonus when it comes to a VN and indeed is one of the reasons I like the medium so much. Plus it does a lot of things pretty well - the art is quite pleasant, the music is really nice (with several tracks being standouts or memorable), and the thing I like most is it sticks to its plot relatively well. the Steam release also didn't have issues with bugs that I noticed (aside from the overlay itself not working) which helped. Also some of the scenes were genuinely hilarious to the point where I had to pause reading so I could laugh for (literally) a few minutes). In the end, Vincennes became somewhere I would want to visit IRL if possible - just like the Future Gadget Laboratory from Steins;Gate, and Yamaku, from Katawa Shoujo. I didn't go into it with high expectations but wound up feeling happy when I read it, relaxed, and comfortable.
I'm waiting until I've forgotten the story and will reread (common route + favorite route (Rise FTW)) it in a year or two. It's going to be only the second VN I've ever reread. 

Finished Marie's route in Dies Irae and can't help but feel awed by it. Kasumi's route and Kei's route were pretty good but Marie's route is on a whole new level.
If I am to compare Dies Irae to Fate Stay Night, Kasumi's route and Kei's route would be like Fate and Marie's route would be like Unlimited Blade Works. I have a feeling that the final route (Rea's route) will be like Heaven's Feel but we'll see.
 

Probably Steins;Gate. If you want an absolutely gripping plot (with quite a lot of sci fi).
Otherwise, if you don't know what you want, The Fruit of Grisaia (has everything from awesome dialogue, endearing characters, LOL comedy, some nice fanservice, and some serious tearjerker scenes).

Well, I loved PE but I also didn't like Noble Works and Hatsukoi 1/1. Both VN's don't have a story and the character were imo not really good. I don't know why people say that Noble Works is similar to PE... It isn't! Noble Works is more a comedy VN with no story. 
I would recommend you to read:
- Chrono Clock  --> At first I thought that it won't be a good VN but I was wrong with this assumption. I liked Chrono Clock more than PE. There is a nice and heart-warming story with a great romance and it's the first time that the Incest-Route was the best for me. The incest route dosen't focus on the "incest" part actually but it's more about "family". 
- Grisaia no Kajitsu --> Be aware that the common route is very long! But it's one of the best VN out there in english with an awesome MC. 2 Route's focus on romance (Yumiko and Sacchi), the other have a really good story as far as I know. But if you really like romance then start with Yumiko's route. I loved her route very much and imo I have never read a better romance route. Furthermore I mostly skip the h-scenes because they aren't really romantic but in Yumiko's route it was my first time that I actually read all h-scenes in a route. They were actually very good and cute. Every route in Grisaia no Kajitsu focus on the plot and in Yumiko's route you also have a good romance. 
Personally, I love storys were the MC does everything to protect his girl.
- Dracu-Riot! --> It's from the same company as Noble Works but it's a lot better. The story is average but we have a Story till the end of each route. Furthermore it's funny and I liked the romance. 
- G-senjou no Maou --> Well, it isn't your average VN. The Plot is really interesting but the romance is a little bit too short.

To Heart 2 translated by yours truly. Character driven but a plot for each of the heroines. See below for project thread.
 

Most of the ones I've read so far are recommended....
- Kono Oozora https://vndb.org/v9093 . Very light hearted in general (but still has some drama). This game has a brand new fan translation that came out days ago too.
- Wagamama High Spec https://vndb.org/v17823 . Also light hearted, with some great artwork and cutesy music. Plot has a lot of manga and eroge references (since the protag is a manga author). And this VN has a LOT of H content too.
- Grisaia no Kajitsu https://vndb.org/v5154 . I'm always going to recommend this to everyone. Great cast, funny writing, nice music. The common route is VERY light hearted and full of comedy. The character routes get quite serious though.

EDIT: Due to Fuwa anti-piracy rules this thread's usefulness was quite limited, since we couldn't ask for any files that we needed for further compatibility testing and the like. I'd say even posting direct links to our patch here was questionable to begin with, since it's not that different from the abovementioned files that we were asking for.
So in the end we decided to remove all links from here and move our main release thread to Reddit: LINK
That's where all further updates will be posted, so make sure to follow us there. I'll ask mods to lock this thread, since MeruP won't be checking it anyway, so all feedback should be posted on Reddit instead (we also have a dedicated thread for reporting bugs and other issues).

Definitely not. It's entirely standalone as @Kabu has said below.
 
One thing about the routes in To Heart 2 is most of them have a different feel from each other. Routes and their endings tend to polarise people. What one person loves another hates with a vengeance. While I agree with @MarcomiX about Sasara's ending, I don't think she's the best girl (just look at my avatar ), and others really enjoy her route. Either way, you're bound to find something you like, and something you hate in To Heart 2. You'll also then have about a dozen anime OVAs to watch that are much funnier after you play the game.
Project link:
 

To Heart 2 https://vndb.org/v20
A legend in charage, light hearted, 11 girls, 9 routes, plenty of reading. The reference by which all moege/charage are compared to afterwards, and translated by yours truly

Nope. Any references made to the first are very minor and unassuming at best. It's entirely unconnected in all ways that matter.

Honestly I find the idea of immaturety of adults that have hobbies they enjoy that aren't "adult hobbies" to be stupid. It sort of feels like the people who calls people immature for liking something different just want everyone to conform to their lifestyle. Also I always believed the high school setting has been common because adult work life in Japan is shit. Since they work so much extra time that they essentially don't have a life outside of work most adult life based stories would be boring (unless the characters have an interesting job) and I assume a lot of people in Japan use anime as an escapism from their empty lifes filled with endless workdays. A high school setting works really well as that is the time they can think back to before they started working as well as it being easier to make stories for it. Characters have more free time and this is the time where people often develop themselves as people.

Yeah pizza is awsome and when it's bad it's still pretty good
 
Well this kinda things happen in 3 occasion as far as my experience goes:
1. You read to much VN-s from the same genre so you are bored of it
2. The genre you read doesn't really suit your taste
3.  You read something really good and now look for that in everything
Most of the time changing the genre or just stopping reading for a time is a good idea (like the others said). In my case I just simply lower my expectations depending on the VN I read.
Funny how I'm the complete opposite of you I droped Wagamama but I love Majikoi and I will love Tsujido when it is completly translated.

For the 194824th time, i am not a tsundere and i will never be!!! 

This is a good way of putting it. IMO VA does add to the presentation of a VN, and it helps to make the characters more real. Emotion can also carry over quite well (even if you don't understand what they're saying) - Fate/Stay Night for example, with Jouji Nakata as Kotomine Kirei: even if his voice crops up in other stuff I can't help but shudder when I hear him . That's not to say that unvoiced VNs are bad - it's an oft-cited example, surely, but I really liked Katawa Shoujo and of course that doesn't have voice acting. 
I guess the best way of saying it would be that I appreciate it if it is there, and I'd prefer to buy (in the case of something like G Senjou no Maou) a VN that has it, but if it's not available that's not a big deal and if I was considering buying the VN then at that point I'd be more interested in the story than whether or not it has voice acting. 

I was quite surprised how widespread that authoritarian attitude was. My philosophy back then was that we mods were stewards of the community, trying to make it nice for everyone, rather than overseers on a powertrip. I was always happy to discuss why we'd done a mod action, and not just with an evasive "it's the rules," but to explain *why* that rule existed. Anyone who modmailed us got a prompt response within 24 hours, and I was always happy to give someone another chance if they apologised for whatever they'd done. I thought my fellow mods felt the same, so imagine my surprise when I was suddenly on the outside of that process and all my modmails, apologies, and pleas for help went unanswered. They wouldn't even tell me I was banned, they just had automod remove my comments covertly.
As for the regular forum style, while it certainly has its merits, the problem I have is with it having just one chain of messages it's awfully easy to get derailed or have 2 people arguing and drown out the chance for anyone else to chat. Fuwa helps with that though as it has notifications for if someone replied to you etc, so it's easier to continue a conversation in between other messages, but still, I prefer reddit's tree structure personally. 
 
Ah yeah that's a major problem on bigger subreddits with more comments, so much stuff gets hidden. I think generally /r/visualnovels was small enough that comments being hidden was fairly rare, plus we discouraged downvoting except if someone was being rude, but yeah there can be problems with circlejerks.
 
Haha. There was an even older shitpost that used to be famous, one guy posted an AMA (ask me anything) as he'd read 500 VNs (back in the days when the average on /r/visualnovels was 17). The guy went on about how he judged VNs by the quality of their "lighting" in the CGs. I still can't tell if the guy was just trolling, or just really weird (as much as I love the VN fandom, we do tend to attract an eccentric bunch - me included). 
 
Thanks Zedge, it was a pretty soul destroying experience to go through. I don't think she intended any harm, it's just that she was hurt and couldn't deal with it, and with all those around her wanting to protect her, an unhealthy atmosphere built up where no compromise could be considered.
 
Yeah I doubt it'll ever grow significantly, it's a huge investment to learn Japanese. My respect to those who manage it, I don't have that willpower.
 
It's made it kind of hard to trust people again, as I thought I could trust insanityy, I thought she was my best friend. Did I just imagine it? Did I just project what I hoped she felt too onto her? I hope not, but those kinds of fears are hard to shake after your world crumbles and those you thought were life-long friends just abruptly cut contact when you most needed help. I'm glad you enjoy the trend posts, I have a lot of fun researching it. The posts are only so intermittent because it's such a pain writing it up in a long post, but it's always worth it when someone says they enjoyed it. 

For anyone still interested in reading about this properly, even despite the OP's lack of effort to make it presentable, here's a more readable version:
By the way, the guy also failed to provide any links to actually buying the game, haha.

Confession: As much as I like the hard-hitting punch of something like Fate/Stay Night, moege are becoming (or already might be) my favorite VN type. The ones I've ready (Princess Evangile, Noble Works) have been really fun to read and haven't had that "hump" where you take a while to get invested in the story and want to see what happens next - they've hooked me almost immediately and I've enjoyed the stories they've had to offer. Plus I like the silent comfort of knowing that things won't go belly up and leave you with a crushing sadness (*looks at Fate/Stay Night*). 

Indirectly I suppose. Moege can actually have a lot of little lessons about living the day to day that can help out in a stressful situation, and they themselves are also great stress relievers, being light and fluffy.
They also inspired me to start Moege February, where I shall read only Moege (and maybe an occasional Charage) in defiance of those who would defy us.
Viva la Revolution

It's nice to see so many people having come in via Katawa Shoujo tbh. It really does seem like it wound up having a big impact on people :D.
My story is much the same as many others': a friend of mine was playing Clannad and I asked them "What's a Clannad?". It turns out that a Clannad is a giant hole that yanks you inexorably towards a wide variety of fun and profoundly touching experiences, as I would come to discover later. At that point though, they explained visual nmovels and pointed me to Katawa Shoujo and I tried it, got to the end of the prologue (ie when he's at the gate of the school) and stopped for some reason. A few months later, I picked it up again, and immediately upon seeing Hanako and how skittish she was decided to learn what her story was about. Suffice to say I spent the next 2 or 3 days doing little else other than reading, and the story, soundtrack, themes, and art pulled me in and left me wanting a lot more. When I asked the same friend he said that there was plenty more than KS to discover, so I decided to fire up my copy of Steins;Gate (that I'd gotten on the recommendation of someone else). As with KS I'd started it and stopped it, but I continued, and enjoyed the relaxing parts of it, the characters, and events, and suffice to say, by the time I was done with that I'd come across one of the most memorable and impactful stories I'd ever read. Annoyingly this came just after the Golden Week Steam Sale so I missed out on the chance to stock up on several VNs, but I've been buying them up since then and really enjoying them. Still haveonly finished 1 route in Clannad itself though :P. 
The funny thing is that it acted as the catalyst for me - I wanted to see if I could find more stories like this, so I started to read manga and watch anime (which I've never really done over a constant period). The thing is, I've always liked stories as a kid, and can read quite a lot, so it works really really well on that front, but I've found that the emotional investment can be quite high too (which I like). 
As far as the barriers, I think in my case it was two things - firstly adapting to reading rather than playing: I didn't give KS enough of a chance (1 or 2 hours) to settle in before putting it down. This also happened to me with Steins;Gate. To elaborate on that, I'm used to *playing* something on a PC or console, so the mentality of sitting and reading on such a system was new to me - if I want to read I'd use a phone or a Kindle instead so I needed to get used to that. Secondly, after reading KS I think the barrier was limiting myself to things that were *exactly* like it and not necessarily "same genre but different". It helps if you're willing to look for the core elements but not going to just stick precisely to *I only want things from this universe*. It can make sense if you really really like that universe and want more from it (nothing wrong with that) but at some point it has to be realized that there are other universes that might not reach the high peaks of the just-read one, but have their own draws and merits. 

This one is so soothing: I really really liked it, and for whatever reason it's staying in my head rather persistently: it's probably my current favorite (with Childhood Friend from Princess Evangile being a close second for that spot). 
For all time favorite, it gets harder to decide, but I really like how this gets so frenetic: it especially seems to fit the later parts of the VN. 
I really like how the song (like Skyclad Observer) builds to something of a climax, and I wind up having to listen to it twice or thrice before moving on to the next song. This is probably my favorite song in the VN, and the VN had a lot of really good songs (Amadeus, Future of Spirit, Messenger, and Re: Awake amongst others).
Admittedly these are probably "safe" choices, and perhaps somewhat stereotypical, but the thread asked for favorite songs from VNs, and I staunchly maintain that Steins;Gate is my favorite VN (and one of my favorite pieces of any entertainment type) so it's only fair for it (and its universe) to feature so heavily in the selections. 
 
Man... I think of the songs in F/SN this is the one that hits most in the feels. It's... Even now it's hard to listen to after having finished the VN. It sounds so morose and bleak (to me at least), and I can't help but think of
 

SukiSuki, Lovely x Cation 2, OreImo D2, Amagami.
 
Yeah, I love date sims.

Steam, and digital. I prefer to have my PC games on Steam, and doing it that way avoids issues with Kickstarters, not being able to find a copy, or the VN going out of stock etc. I'd do something from Humble Bundle or another site, but in both of those cases, I'd want a Steam key. It seems to mean only getting all ages versions, but I don't mind that.