Inorin

It's definitely out of the norm, where visual novel stories are considered. It's not impossible, since even something military-ish like Muv-Luv Alternative has its own share of mystery elements, but it's definitely uncommon. However, I'm not that surprised, since Umineko was a vastly different story in tone and genre from Higurashi. I'm glad to see he continues with such variety in writing (unlike Higanbana...).

I like good endings or ones that fit the overall story
There are many times when I liked the ending of one particular heroine over the designated true end of a vn (Like Kyou's and Tomoyo's end in Clannad)
And there are times when I enjoy the true end more than all the others (G Senj)
 

Which walkthrough are you following? The steam walkthrough has a few missing choices so it's best if you proceed with caution. As for the SSS system, yeah it's irritating but don't let it get to you too much since the story's pretty good.

Someone fucking pinch me

Root double is a bit like ever17 but with quite a number of bad ends (though significantly fewer than that of 428). Its bad end system is also a bit like 428, such that it will give you hints as to why you got that particular bad end. The true end isn't as grand as that of ever17 but it's still pretty decent overall so I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did 

Mhm, mhm, You's Good End feels the most
I like that the epilogue cleverly hides away some of the plot details in vagueness since I haven't unlocked Coco's route yet. Now that I think about it, that would also explain why both Tsugumi and Sora's routes feel "uncomplete," because I haven't reached their combined epilogue yet. Not sure why it's combined though, because honestly, I would rather see an epilogue dedicated to each of them separately. You's epilogue, for example, wraps things up so nicely with her character arc. It feels like it has a lot of closure for her character, so I hope Tsugumi and Sora's epilogue being combined won't affect either of their routes not ending effectively.
Anyway, these readings of Good Ends feel kinda short because I kinda just skipped texts I've already read. lol So each Good End only takes me about an hour or two to reach. It won't be long before I hit Coco's route. Kinda anticlimactic, when I made such a big deal about how lengthy this VN is in the past.
Next up is Sara's Good End. 
 

11eyes -Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo-
*Summary*
 Kakeru lost his older sister five years ago. He tries to get back to normal life, but he still lives a vacant life. He has a childhood friend, Yuka, who goes to the same high school. She always tries to cheer him up and he gradually gets better. 

 One day all of a sudden, the sky turns red and the moon becomes black. Everyone besides Kakeru and Yuka disappears and monsters start roaming the streets. All they can do is just to run away and hide. A while later, it all gets back to normal. But when they start to think its all passed the Red Night happens again. They find out that there are four more humans who get involved in this mysterious phenomenon. They get together and try to survive, but six shadows appear in front of them...
*Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order*
There are four heroines, to unlock Kukuri you need to beat the first three. There is also a Bad End that will give you a CG.
Recommended route order:

*Route Guideline*
Minase Yuka

 
Misuzu Kusakabe

 
Kukuri Tachibana

 
Yukiko Hirohara

CG Collection
 

Yeah, I could see that. In that sense, Sora's route does feel like the only route that reveals little to no important information, and therefore, in a sense, you're correct in saying it "contributes nothing." But again, that doesn't take away from my enjoyment of her route.
Actually, now that I think about it, Tsugumi's route bummed me out too, in that certain information about her wasn't revealed either, especially 
By the way, on an unrelated note, I've learned an important piece of information from Professor Dave in Grisaia no Meikyuu - that you can press F12 to minimize the game in case someone walks in on you playing an h-scene. Thanks, Professor Dave! 
Edit:
>Starts Yumiko's route
>First thing I see is 
>Reaction: EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. 
>In deadpan Tomokazu Sugita voice: "Ah, my apologies. Looks like I walked into Professor Dave's station by mistake. GOOD DAY. GOODBYE."
Yeah. This gonna be "good."[/sarcasm]

I thought this is answered rather unambiguously in episode 7:
 

Well, it looks like I finally finished the common route in Dies Irae. I am not sure where exactly each route splits out, but according to the walkthrough I already passed the last choice leading to Kasumi route. And, well, my first reaction is that this is a pretty good VN, but so far I don't really see anything that would make it stand out above all the others.
I'll just make a list of things I liked and disliked so far:
+ Overall, the writing feels good. Except for (actually quite rare) SOL scenes, I never really felt bored.
+ I was kind of skeptical about the setting when I first heard about this VN, as I generally don't enjoy these "good guys vs bad guys" settings, but the villains are pretty well written, and the "good guys" aren't exactly that generically good either, so we'll see.
+ The action scenes overall are quite engaging. The plot armor for the important characters is obviously present (though it will probably become looser in the character routes), but the exact outcome of each battle isn't really that predictable.
+ The character art is pretty nice.
+/- The music somehow manages to change between really good songs and the songs that literally make my head hurt.
+/- There are way too many intermissions. It becomes pretty confusing to keep track of which information the protagonist already knows and which we know from some external source. That said, the main problems with the story structures like that is that the protagonists quite often end up looking like complete idiots in the eyes of the readers, but DI manages to avoid that so far, and the intermissions never reveal too much.
+/- The plot itself is pretty average (and quite predictable) so far, but from what I understand the plot is not the main selling point of this VN. The characters also don't really stand out so far to me personally, but I hope it'll change in the character routes.
- Kasumi, and quite a lot of scenes where she is involved. They somehow managed to make her a very generic osananajimi character, and most scenes where she is involved just make me cringe.
Well, that's it. I don't feel like giving this a numerical rating so far because it can still change very much, but overall it feels like a very enjoyable VN, but I don't really expect it to become one of my favorites.

I made the same mistake as you (googling the anime before I even completed the game), but I can assure you that I enjoyed the ending nonetheless.
KnS is more of a thriller-utsuge, with the mystery part being almost non-existent, since the murderers are very easy to predict. It's still a very good read though, so I wish you all the best (in holding back your tears)! Oh, and before I forget, it is probably recommended (but not compulsory) to have completed Cartagra first, since it provides some context for the story in KnS.
Yeah me too, but I think the Muv Luv Photon series has to at least be first released before any real progress can be made.

vndb  Steam    Summary
A kidnapping on the streets of Shibuya brings together a hot-blooded detective, hard-hitting journalist, former gang leader, the head researcher of a big pharma manufacturer and a part-timer stuck in cat costume for a series of events each more unexpected and outrageous than the last. Can they—or the city itself—make it through the day?
General Info
There is a total of 95 Ends: 9 Character Ends , 85 Bad Ends and 1 special end. There will be instances where you will be forced into a bad end and this is perfectly fine, as 50+ bad ends will be needed to unlock a certain character chapter. 
Using the game tutorial is recommended as you'll be taught the controls and in-game mechanics.
A video walkthrough can be found here.
Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
This route order may not be the fastest way of completing the game, but it should get everything completed.  Tama's identity gets revealed at the end of the 13.00-14.00 time block so do not open any of the spoilers starting from 14.00-15.00 onwards. Please note that you HAVE to follow this order, otherwise you will not be able to progress as intended. Bad Ends in the "After completion" section can be done after completing the time-block or after clearing the main story. In case you messed up, you can look at the bad end list to see what you did wrong.
10.00 - 11.00
11.00 - 12.00
12.00 - 13.00:
13.00 - 14.00:
14.00 - 15.00: 
15.00 - 16.00
16.00 - 17.00
17.00 - 18.00
18.00 - 20.00
After completing all timeblocks
Extras
Route Guideline
10.00 - 11.00
 
11.00 -12.00
 
12.00-13.00
 
13.00 - 14.00
 
14.00 -15.00
 
15.00 - 16.00
 
16.00 - 17.00
 
17.00 - 18.00
 
18.00 -20.00
 
Normal End
 
Suzune End
 
True End
 
Canaan End
 
Mean Clean End
 
428 Pop Quiz Answers
 
Special Episodes
 
Conspiracy
 
True Conspiracy
 
Bad End List
 
FAQ
 
 
Attribution
Walkthrough largely based on my own experience with the game. Bonus endings are adapted from here and there. 61 out of the 85 Bad Ends were from me, while 24 of those were adapted and translated from a Chinese walkthrough.  Summary taken from Steam.
 
 

Wait until the 'that was practically vanilla' comments.

Finished normal end of 428 shibuya scramble. I don't think i've ever overthunk a culprit this much.
 

That's because you're on the Time Chart Menu. Click on a random block (as in get into the game itself) and do the  "fn +F1" thing.
 

I finished Umineko's 2nd episode with its respective Tea Party. This game is such  troll and addictive af. Ok let the rant start. Perhaps for those who have already read it it's not that interesting reading the nonsensical theories of someone new to Umineko, but oh well, at the very least it'll help me put my thoughts in order 

So, I finally started this beautiful thing.

Well, technically I already read the prologue once when it just came out, but it doesn't count as I was only checking that everything works and wasn't going to actually read it.
My first impression - it's epic, bring me more!

Happy birthday to @wei123 and @Kabu - hope you both have a great day :D. 

Happy birthday to @wei123 and @Radi the Synergia dev! :3
 

Happy 19th birthday to our @wei123, and i hope that you'll have a good year ahead.

Happy birthday to @wei123!

Huhuhuhuhuhuhu yerself

All this Umineko talk is making me want to revisit all those online theories damn