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.

Watched the anime. The visual novel was MUCH better.
This game can be summarized in 1 word: INCEST. That's it. Play it.

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 haven't finished the game yet, nonetheless I will recommend it because I was skeptical at first but now I am convinced.
I wouldn't or more likely couldn't say that the game is a masterpiece and a must play but it's a very interesting VN and I will summarize my experience as followed:
First Impressions: Time-travel VN in kind of the sci;adv genre maybe, didn't expect much and I did drop the game the first time I started reading it after a while
Reality: Very interesting story, that captivates you and makes you excited for more, the more routes you go through (which I would strongly recommend using a guide for because it's very easy to miss some events and other small stuff as well as jewel placements etc.) the more you understand of the story and get some of the questions answered but also get millions of other questions popping up in your head.
What surprised me the absolute most and is the reason why I am writing this review now, is the epilogue cause it's just one mindfuck after another and I'm loving it.
This VN is pretty long.
I am sitting at 86 hours now (which 20 are from my first playthrough that I didn't continue) and I believe I am almost done with the epilogue, some routes are pretty good (some are mediocre and kind of repetitive imo), the music sticks with you and I had a lot of moments where I got goosebumps from hearing a certain sound track come up, the whole cast of characters have their own personality and I don't dislike anyone, which is rare
TL;DR In my opinion it's not a must play but if you want an amusing read, captivating story, great music and a lot of moments where you literally stare at your screen in awe, then give it a go but please for the sake of your own sanity use a route guide.
EDIT: Well, I finished the game and my thoughts changed a bit... unfortunately.
The ending kinda ruined it for me and there was a lot of stuff not properly explained or completely forgotten about. I still recommend the VN for an amusing read and some good moments but that's about it.

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.

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.

Yu-No is an interesting visual novel/point and click hybrid from the olden days. It's something of a relic of its time and follows themes most visual novels tend away from outside of fetish stuff.
Whether this is the best version is a different question. Yu-No itself is something worth experiencing.