Clephas

*Clephas cackles wildly as the dark energy begins to gather, his tentacles writhing with mad joy as his orange-eyed followers bestow love in the form of a feeding frenzy upon the world*  And so it begins... the Fuwapocalypse.
 

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

Hmm... it would depend on what you are interested in.
For fantasy action (also called chuunige), I'd suggest Tokyo Babel or Dies Irae.  For your straight moe-moe slice of life, I'd probably recommend Clannad.  If you want a game that is just going to you break down in tears, then I recommend Nanairo Reincarnation or Hapymaher.
Generally speaking, there is a VN for everyone (except people who hate to read, but then are people that hate to read even people? *honestly wonders*)
Edit: Oh and for hard sci-fi or cyberpunk, I'd go for Baldr Sky or I/O.

Just because I have to compulsively tempt you
 

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

Easily the best Venus Blood game, story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Not to mention the protagonist and main heroine have an insanely strong personal bond that makes you really root for them, though they are evil.

I've been sort of out of it since April, but Silverio Ragnarok comes to mind, for untranslated.  The conclusion of the Silverio series is as impressive in its own way as the first two entries.

To be honest, since my favorite villains are usually the ones who are either crazy competent or crazy over the top, I couldn't really think of much to say here.
Electro-Arms - One of the main antagonists both achieves precisely his greatest desire and 'stops there' in one of the paths.  
 

Being one of the voices that pushes this VN the most loudly as Purple Soft's single best work (by several degrees), I was immensely glad to see that this was getting a localization from Mangagamer.  This was my VN of the Year for 2013 and it has by far the best soundtrack I've ever seen in a VN, period.  Not only that, but I've never come across a VN that utilized its soundtrack so effectively to stimulate emotion in-sync with the story before, so it was in some ways my awakening to the fact that there were still music directors who could 'do the work' around outside of the makers of the Drakengard and Nier jrpg series. 
This VN focuses on the reality-blurring experiences of Tohru, a young man who sees nothing but lucid dreams (dreams where you are aware that you are in a dream) and suffers from physical and mental health issues as a result, and his group of female friends/acquaintances.  The VN itself is something of a mindfuck experience, mostly because the line between dreams and reality is so vague to the protagonist himself. 
If you want my translation of the first scene, go here (the narrated videos are dead, but meh):

 
I also did introductions for the protagonist and Maia, two of the major characters.

 

 
 

Perhaps the biggest difference between a dating sim and a VN is mechanics.
 
In a dating sim, you usually have some kind of stats, where you literally build up a visible gauge for the heroines by buying them gifts, taking them on dates, saying random crap to them, etc.  There is a pretty good reason why these are almost extinct...
 
In a VN, the game is essentially telling a story, no matter how trite or disgusting it might be (nukige tending toward the latter and moege the former).  The player's intervention is minimal and generally restricted to limited choices that pop up at various points of the story.  It is also told in either the NVL manner (the one where the text is across the whole screen) or the ADV manner (where it is in a box at the bottom of the screen). 
 
An eroge is, quite simply, any video game where actual erotic content exists.  I know, it is frequently used as a byword for VNs, but that isn't really accurate.  Basically, if it has actual sex in it, it can be considered an eroge. 

mmm... NTR can be problematic for people who find it easy to suspend disbelief and also think relationships should be honest and straightforward.  This is especially true of the 'forced NTR' that makes up most of the genre.  If you find it easy to get behind protagonists' eyes, it is merely a painful experience, not an exciting one... unless you are already that far gone, anyway.

mmm... NTR can be problematic for people who find it easy to suspend disbelief and also think relationships should be honest and straightforward.  This is especially true of the 'forced NTR' that makes up most of the genre.  If you find it easy to get behind protagonists' eyes, it is merely a painful experience, not an exciting one... unless you are already that far gone, anyway.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

Kami no Rhapsody is severely lacking in part because Eushully designed it with an eventual possible port to mobiles and tablets in mind (you can tell by the unnecessary touchscreen compatibility and a few other aspects), and the way the progression is handled.  In a single playthrough it is hard to progress characters sufficiently to make them effective at all in the last few battles, much less a trump card.   On the second playthrough, it is possible to make the whole cast usable... but the fact that it pretty much takes the entire second playthrough says everything you need to know.
The medal system is also a point of unnecessary complication in an already unnecessarily complicated setup.  To be blunt, at the very least, they should have had special abilities, attacks, and skills unique to the character available without equipping the medals in question.  Customization is all very well and good, but it shines the most when every character shares the same or similar abilities, not in a setting where every character has different abilities/skills/tendencies.  
Story-wise, Kami no Rhapsody is fairly decent as Eushully games go, being better than the company's kusoge entries (Sankai Ou no Yubiwa and Himegari) but not matching its better entries (Ikusa Megami series, Genrin, Madou Koukaku).  It has the advantage of having only two heroines and their accompanying paths, but the lack of the more varied ending stories you see in the better Eushully games, plus the way the non-human heroines all get sidelined once you hit the actual path to the endings, makes the game weaker than it should have been, given that it is a one-off.  The best contrast in terms of story that was also good by this company is Soukoku no Arterial, which had three main paths, plus variances on the final ending depending on which heroine you pursued (the demon ending, which only has one outcome, being set aside) or Ikusa Megami Verita, which was split into the True History, Darkness, and Light paths which had immensely varying outcomes.  
Like Kamidori and Amayui, it is a game that had a lot of potential but was tripped up by various parts that made me wince.  When I tried to replay it last year, it felt similarly to when I played it when it was first released... a game that is ruined in part by its protagonist, in part by the battle system, and in part by the fact that half the game seems to be centered around finding excuses for h-scenes with every female available.  Amayui is probably the most tolerable of the three by several degrees, at least in my opinion.

Ever17 and I/O are my suggestions.

*twisting black tentacles emerge from a gate in the sky, grasping skyscrapers and dragging them into the swirling vortex.  Clephas emerges, encased in black plate armor, his inhuman features unnaturally beautiful, his orange eyes blazing with hunger, love, and emotions beyond human comprehension.  The humans fleeing from the sight suddenly turn around, their eyes glowing orange, and they begin devouring one another with glee, love blazing in their eyes for their neighbors.  Clephas nods benevolently, satisfied that he has once again done a good deed.  He shifts into his mundane form of a fat balding otaku and settles into his swivel chair in the sky, crossing his flabby legs*
Greetings and welcome to Fuwa.