YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world

A little underrated. Would be perfect if not for some writing problems (characters make dumb, costly decisions; stuff happens only out of plot convenience; etc.) Plus, I think this game relies too much on sexual topics for them to safely remove the actual sexual elements without any loss. Still, flowcharts and interactive environments should probably be a standard for visual novels. Gotta play the original sometime.

This is a classic VN that defined the medium. To anyone interested in VNs, I would absolutely recommend playing it.

Be warned that you might need a guide for 1 or 2 things though. I would say that the vast majority of things you can discover on your own so I would not recommend playing with a guide open all the way through. However, you might need some help to solve the picross puzzle if you've never tried solving one, and there's also a single jewel that's hidden behind an absurdly obscure hint.

I really didn't expect anything special when I bought this game but let me tell you, it has been an exceptional journey especially towards the end.
The story follows Tukuya Arima, a high school student who is being confroned with mysterious events which all bear different questions to answer. While experiencing the different branches of the story some questions get answered and some remain a mystery, slowly developing the overarching plot unfolding the meaning of the mysterious events happening.
During the story I often found myself speculating and thinking about the events, characters and the plot in general but Chiyomaru Shikura once again managed to fool me with some plot twists and big revelation moments.
Between the sometimes really long reading sections the game offers a rather small amount of interactive gameplay which is a key factor for advancing in the plot.
One aspect I'd criticize is that I've literally finished the first ending in below 15 hours. You can advance in the story without a guide tho I wouldn't recommend it. Even with a guide this game has a lot of story to tell and will keep you busy with just the reading alone. Those games usually demand you to play more than one ending to actually get a grasp of the plot and this game has been extremely brutal when it comes to this. It's pretty common in the genre but spite that I've spent the rest of my playtime while following guide instructions which didn't really enable me to explore at my heart's content. Of course noone forced me to use a guide but if you've played your fair share of games like these you probably know that it's not always trivial to advance in the plot which makes a guide somewhat necessary if you don't want trial and error all the time.
Another aspect you could criticize is the fair amount of scenes with sexualised women. I know that it's somehow part of the genre but this game did this to EVERY female character which left me in shock tbh. It's not like they're overusing it all the time. The extent of it was pretty bearable and not too hilarious or sudden - the plot definitely gets more attention - but if you're completely against the idea in general, now you know.
All in all I have to say that I enjoyed the story A LOT. The characters were all individual and interesting that they grew on me after a while. The music has been fitting and was enjoyable throughout the game.
Talking about the plot I can definitely recommend this game to our fellow VN enjoyers.

I've mixed feelings on this one. Overall, I liked it though.
As the originator of several tropes, and a piece of video game history, it was interesting. While I like some of the updated features (labelling clickable areas, colour coding routes and showing necessary locations in the side-bar) the art feels bland. I didn't really get the inclusion of animated scenes - it felt random as to what got animated and what didn't. I'm assuming the scenes were re-used from the anime release. The game doesn't feel like a 90s VN at all, and I wish it had the option to switch to the original art.
I also wish the sex scenes had been kept in. This is so clearly an eroge - one where the h-scenes actually add to plot and character development, rather than just a 'bonus'. The fade-to-black h-scenes feel jarring in most routes, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering how raunchy and sex-focused the dialogue is. The plot is already weird - the incest vibes are pretty damn clear throughout. Trying to censor and sanitise that feels like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Some old things are weird. Let it be weird.
The localisation is kinda iffy. Dollars and cents in a clearly Japanese setting. 911. I'm British, I don't care. I can handle another culture using a different monetary system.

At the beginning I really disliked the MC, over time he grows on you but I was pretty put off at first. Aside from that the majority of the first 2 thirds of the game was good.
The Otherworld route was just wholly unsatisfying for me, it just seemed like a bunch of random bullshit, barely connected to the rest of the game. To me, it didn't seem well foreshadowed and failed to give a satisfying conclusion to the story.
Overall, my thoughts are positive, but I would like to caution those who are bothered by random anime bullshit logic as a means of wrapping up a story.

mid with one of the greatest soundtracks in gaming, for both the original and the classic OSTs
only happens with visual novels i swear

I have no idea what was going on towards the end, however, I think MC went through space & time and ended up making love with his own daughter.

Jesus Christ.

There is an anime alternative, just an FYI.