Volt

Snatched both 428: Shibuya Scramble & G-senjou no Maou! Thanks guys. We will start reading G-senjou once Little Busters is finished. 428 unfortunately will have to wait quite a bit, since I will only be able to start on it once I'm done reading Umineko. Considering I'm a slowmotion reader, this will take ages.

For a VN with no enforced route order I'm in favor of putting in either an equal amount of plot reveals for every heroine or the most of plot reveals for the main heroine, because the main heroine route would end up feeling less significant when you add the least amount of plot reveals. Though, I am generally in favor of enforcing a certain play order, especially the type where you need to play a certain amount of side routes before going into the main route. One of my favorite VNs does this pretty well in my opinion. It's an otome game though, Collar x Malice. The game has 5 love interests out of which you can only pick 3 in the beginning. Once you finished one playthrough the 4th one becomes available (because vital plot points are revealed in his route) and once you finished all other routes you can finally unlock the main hero/true route where the main mystery will be revealed. For very story-driven VNs I guess it's easier for the writer to lock certain routes, because you don't have to keep in mind all the details along with a mixed playthrough of routes (it's difficult to keep track of everything that way and for everything to still make sense with a complicated story) and instead slowly build up suspense by adding layer upon layer with each route you finish and unlocking the next one. Just like Clephas pointed out, it builds up anticipation for the reader - with the downside being that it needs to be better than the side routes or the reader will be let down.

Thanks to your suggestions I am now decidedly undecided between Grisaia and G-senjou. I will roll the dice to decide between them shortly before the sale ends. Oh, great reminder! Ever since I played the demo it's been on my wishlist. The game mechanics were fun and the games style is a welcome change.

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! I will most definitely enjoy the huge amount of quality titles available. I remember back when I was reading Ever 17, there wasn't even a fraction of titles coming out compared to now.

Help me out, please... (´ ▽ ` ) With the Golden Week Steam Sale going on, I’m trying to decide which visual novels to pick. I already picked Umineko - Answer Arcs for myself, but I’m also looking for novels to read together with my husband. He wants to buy Little Busters, because he liked the anime a lot, but we're thinking of picking that up on Switch instead. I do have the wishlist narrowed down a bit: The Fruit of Grisaia Maitetsu G-senjou no Maou Baldr Sky Muv Luv Root Double Which one is the safest choice? I’m trying to pick 2 of them. The visual novels shouldn’t be too long-winded and by this I don’t mean to exclude long stories, but rather those with a lot of back and forth arguing about theories and very slow story progression (slice of life is okay, though). Mystery, a lot of choices and humorous games are a plus. (If you have some other visual novel recommendations throw them at me as well, preferably ones that are on sale on Steam!)

Hey everyone, new member here! A long time ago I discovered visual novels with Ever 17, but didn't dig deeper due to being a VERY lazy reader... Now that I'm older I finally have the attention span to read visual novels. I wish I wasn't as lazy back then. I feel like I've missed out on a lot of good stuff I need to catch up on.