Figure I'd ask
Just finished Doki Doki Literature Club.
Not normally interested in horror but this was definitely something else. I'm finding that VNs are more consistently scratching my itch for good stories(understandably so considering the text heavy nature). I love me some gameplay too but I think I need to be able to seek good story as well(even if at the lack of traditional gameplay).
My "experiences":
-Zero Escape Series, Ever17(no interest in Never7 and Remember11 or w.e it's called)
-All Phoenix Wright games(I'm guessing they qualify)
-All Danganronpa(V3 was something else and I liked the twist)
-Doki Doki Lit Club
-House in Fata Morgana (Currently doing the Requiem stuff)
-Steins;Gate
Exceptions and skips because I don't think I'd be able to read a VN where I know the plot from anime adaptations:
-Clannad(and the other related works that I can't remember right now)
-Fate series, which includes Hollow Ataraxia (tbh not sure I'd want to read about this sort of thing)
-Steins;Gate 0(the anime is right there which is timely and therefore tempting)
-Higurashi(I did see the anime ages ago so who knows)
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I can go on as to what I like about these and all of them are different in many ways. All I can say is I am very open minded and have been pleasantly surprised giving even something like Fata Morgana a shot despite some reservations(and it's one of my favs). As I mentioned I am hesitant on horror tbh(particularly gorey visuals), but witht hat being said, what would guys recommend?
I have my eyes on Umineko for sure but I am waiting for that gold edition(I know the anime doesn't do jack).
Utawarerumono Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth for the PS4, the second and third games in the Utawarerumono series, would satisfy both "good story" and "good gameplay" requirements, though the third game is a bit better than the second on the gameplay front. If you have never played the first game or watched its anime adaptation, I would recommend watching the anime before playing (the gameplay in the version of the first game available in English is very poor). You can play the second game with mostly no issues, but the third game has lots of characters showing up from the first one.
As for other recommendations...
First let's start with the short stuff.
Planetarian is the quintessential "short VN". It's a post apocalyptic science fiction story from Key (Clannad, Kanon, etc). It's the standard "light first half, heavy second half" Key formula distilled down do only a few hours, and the execution is spot on. No erotic content, if you're not a fan of that. I noticed nothing you listed has any of that so I'll try to list at least one short/medium/long game without it in case that's a dealbreaker.
Saya no Uta and
Kikokugai are both available in English, the former as an official release and the later as a fan translation. These are earlier works by Gen Urobuchi, who you may be familiar with from his various anime/live action/Taiwanese puppetry work over the last seven or eight years (Madoka Magica, Psycho-Pass, Fate/Zero, Expelled From Paradise, Kamen Rider Gaim, Thunderbolt Fantasy). Saya no Uta is a mix of lovecraftian horror and romance, while Kikokugai is a mix of wuxia action and cyberpunk. Fair warning that Saya no Uta has a content warning list half a mile long, including rape, and the backgrounds are...something else (although otherwise the game's CGs aren't gore-y). I recommend
watching the opening scene on Youtube before deciding whether to buy it. Kikokugai is not quite as so heavy on the extreme content but also includes rape if that's a deal killer for you. Saya no Uta has excellent atmosphere while Kikokugai's "all ages" (these are massive sarcasm quotes by the way) remake has some of the best production values and voice acting I've ever seen in a visual novel.
Hanachirasu is another short VN available in English that I'd recommend. Sword fighting action revenge story with
very detailed descriptions of the sword fighting. The twist is that the protagonist is the villain of this little revenge play. CW for rape, although it's only one easily skipped through scene.
Onto medium length recommendations, I would recommend checking out
The Silver Case if you happen to be a fan of Suda51 (Killer7, No More Heroes). It's one of his earlier works that's very weird, cerebral, and pretty confusing. But it's definitely an experience you won't soon forget.
428: Shibuya Scramble is one of the best examples of storytelling that can only be found in the VN medium that I can think of. You follow the stories of five separate protagonists, and choices made in one route can affect the other. The goal is to get all of them to the end of the day. Don't let the "live action" element put you off, this game has some of the best presentation I've ever seen in a visual novel with thousands of screenshots being used to convey the story, and the direction/photography in certain scenes took my breath away.
Kindred Spirits on the Roof is a yuri romance visual novel, and probably the only really good "pure yuri" VN available in English. The game follows six different pairings (plus the titular "kindred spirits" haunting the school) as they become closer over the course of six months. It's available on Steam, but you may want to hold off as a "full voice" version will be available within the next year or so, right now the game is only partially voiced. There is erotic content, but only one scene per pairing and all of it is very slight and about as close to "tasteful" as you can get while still having erotic content.
If you're fine with porn and want to try something to expand your horizons, I strongly recommend checking out the BL visual novel
No, Thank You!!!. It's about an amnesiac who ends up working at a bar, the employees of which double as private investigators of a sort that are looking into drugs being peddled by an organized crime ring. The game does some interesting things with repeated playthroughs, where more facets of the story are revealed after each successive route you clear. There is also a lot of porn, if that's a deal breaker.
For longer works, I would first recommend
Rewrite. This one is another work from Key, but with outside writers doing the bulk of the writing work. It's about a boy with the ability to "rewrite" his own physical capabilities, as he becomes embroiled in a war between a secretive group of superpowered humans and another group of magical eco-terrorists. It's also about enviromentalism, the evolution of species, the difficulty of forming relationships with others, and lots of other stuff. And it also has dinosaurs in it. I still remember being floored when Key dropped
this video on April Fools day and it turned out to be a real trailer. No erotic content. Most of the common route, the two final routes, and two of the character routes were all done by one guy, Romeo Tanaka, and are excellent. One character's route was written by the creator of Higurashi and Umineko, and is very much a route written by the creator of Higurashi and Umineko (always entertaining, maybe not always "good"). The other two character routes were done by Key's B-list in-house writer and are not that good at all, but the rest of the game more than makes up for them.
The
Muv Luv trilogy, which contains my personal favorite visual novel "Muv Luv Alternative", is a work that starts out as an ultra generic high school love comedy but eventually morphs into a Starship Troopers inspired military sci-fi epic with some of the most "real" robots you'll see outside of VOTOMs. The first part, "Extra", can be painful if you don't like late 90s/early 00s anime love comedy style happenings. I personally enjoyed it. The second part, "Unlimited", has your generic anime high school romcom protagonist wake up in an alternate universe where invading aliens have decimated the planet and humanity is on the brink of extinction. He ends up enrolled at a military academy, where this universe's version of his classmates from his original universe are also enrolled. The ending is a huge downer, with the protagonist unable to really accomplish anything of value. The third part, "Alternative", sees the protagonist back at the start of Unlimited as he tries to avert the outcome seen at the end. No erotic content in the all ages versions, although there is a patch to add it back in I wouldn't really recommend it outside of one very funny "bad ending" in Extra.
