PiggiesGoMoo

It's bad, even for reddit humor

The godly Fata Morgana soundtrack was already mentioned, so I won't link that. But I bet Sorcery Jokers hasn't been mentioned. I thought the Sorcery Jokers soundtrack was unusually high quality, very immersive. Second only to Fata Morgana among the VN's I have read, although only in terms of soundtrack. There're no cheap sounding MIDI instruments here. I like dramatic songs like this (33:53): And this (7:20):

Do want | ˵ ･ (oo) ･ ˵ |

Yes it has many hentai scenes, although not at first. Here is a pretty hilarious review that sums it up rather well:

Have you tried Kamidori Alchemy Meister?

I really liked the charage/moege parts in Higurashi because they contrast with the rest of the VN. But in terms of pure moege, I think Chrono Clock is probably the best I've read, only slightly above Wagamama and Nekopara (pls no bully).

I you do play Higurashi, definitely do not google anything about it. Especially not google image searches. I've never seen a VN that has spoilers so prevalent all over the place. It's the anime's fault The other thing about Higurashi is that only 5 of the 8 chapters are actually translated. Personally, if I had known this at the time, I wouldn't have read the first 5 when I did. I ended up reading spoilers because I didn't want to wait for 6-8, and didn't want to watch the anime.

There's sort of a big plot reveal in chapter 4 though...

I just noticed in the first couple hours of playing, the voice acting in this is particularly good. But I had to download it for the PC for the MangaGamer release. Are the voices absent in the Steam release too? Link is here for anyone who might read this: https://github.com/07th-mod/guide/wiki/Umineko-Getting-started I'm using all the new sprites and backgrounds too, although I like to flip between the original and new sprites constantly.

I haven't read it, but Muv-Luv Alternative has got to be one of the best, right? Every screenshot I've seen from it is gorgeous. Too bad I'll probably never want to read through the first Muv-Luv to get to it. Of the VNs I have read, Subahibi wins in terms of looks I think.

You know, I almost am afraid to play Umineko, because I have such high expectations for it But maybe now is the time, based on my tastes.

Mangagamer's Acta Est Fabula has all 4 routes, I think that's all the extra content but maybe not

Do you have the MangaGamer version? I could do all routes all uncensored with their Acta Est Fabula

I'll be reading all of these eventually, I've already bought most of them. However I can't decide which I want to read now, and am curious how fuwanovel would vote. I have pretty broad tastes so it's hard for me to say what exactly I want. I'll also say this: on my VNDB, I consider anything that is 7 or above very enjoyable. 6 is decent. 5 is just ok. I guess this is a bit different from how people vote, since people often consider a 5/10 to be terrible.

Just finished Subahibi. There are a lot of things I liked about this VN. The music, the imagery, the plot, the characters, etc. I do have some complaints though: 1. This is the first time that h-scenes and fan service annoyed me in a VN. I think it's because it defied my expectations massively. I have to strongly disagree with the OP, because I think most of the h-scenes and ecchi scenes actually don't contribute to the plot at all. I'm not even talking about any of the disturbing scenes. Besides those, there are tons of ecchi scenes, panty shots, and gratuitous h-scenes. There is even this: 2. Subahibi also has some dark comedy in places where it really broke immersion for me. I do like comedy in VNs, but there was some really odd uses of comedy in Subahibi. For example (from Insects): Or this (from Invention): Complaints aside, I thought the endings were good and satisfying. I will say this though, despite what people might say, the game definitely does seem to have a "true ending". The reason I say this is because there are certain mysteries that are completely unaddressed unless you go with this particular ending. Specifically:

I've only played the first, on PC. You could also try ace attorney

Sorcery Jokers has two protags, one of them is a true edgelord type. Also one female character/protag that I'd say is an edgelord too. Dies Irae didn't really do it for me... I thought the routes were kind of repetitive in comparison to each other, and I get annoyed by repetition very quickly, which is actually ironic given the philosophical concept underlying the plot of Dies Irae

Even though many people might just enjoy the "cute girls" or whatever, it's still probably worth telling people that what they're reading is an inferior translation. Hell, the cute girls audience is probably going to go for the Sakura titles on steam, not Cross Channel of all things. The people reading this steam version probably are interested in the story to some extent, otherwise they would be playing nekopara, sakura, a dating sim, or some other moe thing. And since they're interested in the story, naturally the poor translation is going to effect their opinion of the VN. Yea, I don't see this as being beneficial to the VN world in any way.

Am in the midst of reading It's My Own Invention. I have a remote guess as to what's happening, but there is so much weird abstract shit that it's hard to come to any conclusions whatsoever. I mean this is borderline "Art Movie" territory where the actual events of the story are so incoherent that you have to interpret everything metaphorically/symbolically, including the characters themselves, which are portrayed in a way that suggests they are just figments of the protagonist's "world" rather than their own independent existence. There is also a pretty nasty, brutal scene that made me want to vomit. Like come on now, did you really have to go into that level of detail? And I've yet to reach the worst scenes from what I've heard... One thing that's interesting is that there seems to be a lot of Christian symbolism. Many crosses, and even a tree of life (I think it's the tree of life because it has 12 "fruits", exactly like in Revelations, except it's depicted as having 12 eyes looking at the protagonist). There are so many esoteric references in this VN that it's starting to seem a bit contrived... EDIT: Omg the desk... this is so depraved and ridiculous... EDIT2: Ok, the story gets more coherent as this chapter progresses. While still bizarre, at least I have some idea as to what is happening.

Try danganronpa. The SoL scenes are very, very short. There is probably less SoL in danganronpa than in Fata Morgana. I can't believe some people here recommended VNs like Ever17 and Little Busters. Those seem like the exact opposite of what OP is asking for. Ever17 even makes you repeat SoL scenes between different routes with slight variations, on top of having long SoL scenes to begin with.

Steam users also give very positive reviews for Sakura games, which I hear are atrocious. Maybe Moenovel is just a tumor, while steam users are the malignant growth

I am about to start reading Subahibi, and am a bit nervous lol

I think open endings are inherently hard to stomach for many people, so it really has to be executed well. There is an anime + light novel involving an immortality elixir, a train, and mafia groups (I don't want to spoil it by saying the name) that has a very open ending. The narrators of the story even explicitly say why it has to end with an open ending, which is rather funny.

This VN caught my interest recently, and I've been comparing the different translations to decide on one to read. I looked at this exact same passage with all three translations (GHS and the other), and I have to say that I prefer GHS's. Moenovel's version of the passage is less convoluted then the other two, but it seems to have lost some of its character. Very generic, whereas the other two translations at least attempt to copy the original's style, which apparently is known for its unique prose.