Weekly Discussion #332 - VNs you read in 2020/Recommendations general

[u/AutoModerator]

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Week #332 - Visual Novel Discussion: VNs you read in 2020/Recommendations general

It's time for a general thread! This month's topic is 2019 in review. This is the thread to share what VNs you read and enjoyed in 2019 and what you want to recommend to others. Whether you finally got through a VN that released 10 years ago that was sitting in your backlog, a new release this year is on your mind, or how your priorities changed due to COVID-19, share what you enjoyed this year with the rest of the subreddit. Discuss whatever you want related to what you read this year, it's a general thread!

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Upcoming Visual Novel Discussions

December 12 - Visual Novel Discussion: Wanko to Kurasou

December 19 - Visual Novel Discussion: Making＊Lovers

December 26 - Visual Novel Discussion: Totono/YOU and ME and HER

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As always, thanks for the feedback and direct any questions or suggestions to the modmail or through a comment in this thread.

Next Week's Topic: Wanko to Kurasou

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^{History & Archives | 2019 Schedule} | ^{2020 Schedule}

[u/alwayslonesome]

Releases this year haven't been the greatest due to COVID, but it has been a massive boon to my rate of media consumption haha. By my count, on top of dozens of actual books, I reading around 25 VNs (not to mention made considerable progress on probably a dozen more before inevitably stalling out...) I've also been much more consistent in actually writing thoughts and reflections on almost all the games I finish! My 2020 reads in roughly chronological order:

• Baldr Sky - 10/10 - Review

• Chuusotsu 1.5 - 6/10

• Chaos;Child - 8/10 - Writeup

• Summer Pockets - 9/10 - Writeup

• Senren Banka - 7/10 - Review

• Bokuten - 8/10 - Review

• Making Lovers - 8/10 - Review

• Totono - 8/10 - Review

• Sakura no Mori Dreamers - 6/10 - Review

• Maitetsu - 8/10 - Review

• Byakko - 7/10 - Review

• Yukikoi Melt - 6/10 - Review

• ATRI My Dear Moments - 8/10 - Review

• Leyline 1 - 7/10 - Writeup

• Hapymaher - 7/10

• Ginharu - 9/10 - Writeup

• Houkago Shippo Days - 6/10

• OniiKiss - 6/10

• Dracu-Riot - 7/10

• Flowers Automne - 9/10 - Review

• 9 Nine Haruiro - 8/10 - Writeup

• IxShe Tell - 7/10 - Review

• Utawarerumono 2 - 8/10 - Writeup

• Utawarerumono 3 - 8/10 - Writeup

• Aokana EXTRA 1 - 8/10 - Review

• Nekopara 2 - 6/10

• Nekopara 3 - Currently Reading

• Taisho Alice - Currently Reading

• Yoakena - Currently Reading

• Symphonic Rain - Currently Reading

• Negai no Kakera - Currently Reading

• Ryuusei World Actor - Currently Reading

• Kimihane - Currently Reading

I should hopefully finish off at least a couple of those last set of entries before the end of the year heh... hehe... Looking back on things though, it sure was a really nice year, some really excellent reads throughout and a fairly balanced oeuvre (who am I kidding it's still almost all moege lmao) Of these, I'd probably nominate Baldr Sky, Ginharu, and Flowers Automne as my favourite reads of the year, but I generally go into more detail about all of these games in my writeups. Happy to accept all roasts for my shitty taste and/or recommendations for what to read in 2021~

[u/blackroseimmortalx → u/alwayslonesome]

Just wanted to say: your reviews are great and your taste in VNs is damn good.

[u/ejennsyahmixcel]

To begin with although some of you might already seen my comments anywhere in this sub, I'm pretty new to the VN scene. Although I did read some VNs with gameplay (the globally popular Ace Attorney and Danganronpa series), 2020 is the year I have started being serious in reading VN. Well, thanks to Covid, even my study days are delayed by the lockdown so basically I have started to gobble any VNs that I think interested, one-by-one.

So here is my list, by months.

• March: Clannad (first VN that managed to pull myself in the VN scene), Clannad Side Story

• April: Tomoyo After, Little Busters

• May: Kanon, Air and Angel Beats 1st Beat

• June: Konosora, Narcissu side 1st (first attempt of moving on from Key), Euphoria (first attempt at a H-heavy VNs)

• July: (unluckyly no VNs, computer got broken because silly me tried to change SSD by myself)

• August (finally get a new laptop): Konosora Flight Diary, Narcissu side 2nd, Grisaia trilogy (Fruit-Labyrinth-Eden)

• September: SciADV series (Steins;Gate, SG;0, S;G Linear Bounded Phenogram)

• October: SciADV cont (Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child), Rewrite, Planetarian, Harmonia

• November: Higurashi (full chapters), Saya no Uta, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (reread), Katawa Shojo

• December: Fate/Stay Night (still at UBW route), planning to do F/Hollow Ataraxia.

That being said, the list will keep growing next year considering how much that are in my backlog (including those VNs that has pending patches that keep delayed as I keep waiting) and whatever I have planned to buy soon. So yeah, until I have no idea what to read, next year would be particularly the same (as long my college don't call me back to campus)

[u/_Garudyne]

2020 has been an eye-opening year into the world of VNs personally. I was looking for VNs in 2017 to rapidly prep my Japanese through immersion, and though I came in with the slightly "wrong" intention, I loved Grisaia no Kajitsu through and through. 3 years later, COVID happened, and midway through the year instead of continuously burning myself out from ranked league, I decided on a whim to use that time to finish the Grisaia trilogy. Finishing the trilogy left a hole wanting to be filled with other stories, and here I am now, hunting and consuming new titles that catches my interest. The tally for 2020 so far has been:

• Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~ - 10/10

• Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai - 9.3/10

• Saya no Uta - 9.3/10

• Aiyoku no Eustia - 9.2/10

• Grisaia no Meikyuu -Le Labyrinthe de la Grisaia- - 9/10

• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - 9/10

• Making＊Lovers - 8.6/10

• Flowers -Le Volume sur Été- - 8.5/10

• Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo - 8.5/10

• Grisaia no Rakuen -Le Eden de la Grisaia- - 8.3/10

• Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi. - 8.3/10

• euphoria - 8.2/10

• Hatsukoi 1/1 - 8.1/10

• Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer - 8.1/10

• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - EXTRA1 - 8/10

• Ayakashi Gohan - 8/10

• Eden* They Were Only Two, On The Planet. - 8/10

• Fureraba ~Friend to Lover~ - 8/10

• Hanachirasu - 7.5/10

• Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~ - 7.5/10

• Flowers -Le Volume sur Printemps- - 7.4/10

• Suki to Suki to de Sankaku Ren'ai - 7.4/10

• Salthe - 7.3/10

• Kosaka-san - 7.2/10

• Yeguang - 7/10

There's been a lot of stories that I would have never even thought would read and experience before thanks to VNs in 2020, and I'm certain now that there's much more to come.

[u/Tsukaip]

I seem to have finished 39 visual novels this year according to VNDB, though the number is slightly bloated due to a few episodic visual novels making the list (such as the entire 9-nine series). Will probably finish one or two more, though I'm mostly looking forward to the release of Kara no Shoujo 3 later this month currently.

As far as visual novels are concerned it has been a pretty good year. Read bunch of really good games, the most notable of which were Hakuchuumu no Aojashin, Musicus and Gunjou no Sora wo Koete. Managed to also get almost caught up with all of Muv Luv's spin offs in anticipation of Integrate.

This year ended up being surprisingly good for new releases (way more so than recent years have been in my opinion) with Hakuchuumu no Aojashin being absolutely fantastic. I was only aware of Laplacian from people memeing about how their games are bad, so this game caught me completely by surprise. Because of the bad reputation I was going to skip this completely, but some people managed to rope me into reading it and I'm very grateful that they did. Besides that, bunch of pretty fun games like Shironagasu (this isn't technically from this year, but it was released in a way where I could actually acquire it this year), Sakuretto, Christmas Tina and 9-nine's final episode released too. The year is also going to end with Kara no Shoujo 3, which I've been waiting for forever and Tsui no Sora remake. Senkou no Clarias, Team Baldrhead's new game, got delayed to the next year from december, so that's one less game for this year I guess. Well overall it works out for me since I have enough things to play this month anyway.

Not every new release I played this year was that good though, with all the newest games from the big three gameplay visual novel companies (Alicesoft, Eushully and Ninetail) being disappointments. All of them seemed to share the same goal: to make something simple and light, possibly aiming to catch the attention of a new user base (the soshage playing one). Ninetail's Ars Magna ended up using an extremely heavily simplified version of the Felshis system, making it a bit disappointing after the extremely fun and pretty hardcore Gears of Dragoon games. The story, while not necessarily bad, wasn't very special either. I enjoyed playing through it, but it definitely didn't live up to their previous games. Eushully's Tenmei no Conquista was an average SRPG, which... I did enjoy playing because I like SRPGs. The story was an absolute joke though, with the only saving grace being that there was very little text to read so getting to the next gameplay segment was pretty fast. Alicesoft's Dohna Dohna... lol

[u/tintintinintin]

Can't believe I was able to pull through reading exclusively in Japanese for this long. I half expected that I would experience burnout around this time when I started learning Japanese. But no, my passion for the medium only got stronger thanks to all the lovely imoutos I have met~ I started the new year with a blast as I found the best genki damai imouto I've ever had! All of her saved voiced lines never failed to brighten up my day so it's really too bad that I don't have the game in my current laptop :<

It was fun reading Evenicle 2 and Natsukumo Yururu during the early stages of the covid pandemic because it made the pandemic in both games felt very, very real. A unique flavor I would have otherwise not tasted if I were to read it in a different time.

And I still don't know how to shill for Satsukoi. Hmm... please read it! onegaishimasu!

Too bad I'm too soft-heated for Aiyoku no Eustia. I just couldn't handle Eustia's screams and Caim still trying to play the hero after witnessing that...I just can't. I still highly recommend it though for all fans of the medium.

MA-SHI-RO!

And then the blessed windfall that is Hamidashi Creative. I was really ecstatic and euphoric for most of my time reading it making it one of my best experience in the medium. Truly wonderful.

Also hi, I'm the certain someone around here that is dismayed :c

Can't wait for people to read Amatsutsumi and GinHaru:Mizuha once it gets released. They're both really good especially the latter.

• Shunki Gentei Poco a Poco! - 7/10

• Evenicle 2 - 6/10

• Docchi no i ga Suki Desu ka? - 7/10

• Soi Kano ~Gyutto Dakishimete~ - 7/10

• Satsukoi ~Yuukyuu Naru Koi no Uta~ - 9/10

• Natsukumo Yururu - 8/10

• Primal x Hearts - 7/10

• Haruru Minamo ni! - 7/10

• Aiyoku no Eustia - 7/10

• Making＊Lovers - 7/10

• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - EXTRA1 - 8/10

• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - 8/10

• Tasogare no Folclore - stalled; too hard to read

• Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project - 5/10

• Café Stella to Shinigami no Chou - 6/10

• Ore no Sugata ga, Toumei ni!? Invisible to Suuki na Unmei - 7/10

• Amakano ~Second Season~ - 7/10 +

• Soshite Ashita no Sekai yori - stalled; Asahi is a bitch

• Hamidashi Creative - 10/10

• Otome ＊ Domain - 6/10 +

• Koi Suru Kanojo no Bukiyou na Butai - 5/10

• Amatsutsumi - 8/10

Currently reading:

• Fushigi Densha +

• Karigurashi Ren'ai +

• Gin'iro, Haruka +

• Hokenshitsu no Sensei to Shabondama Chuudoku no Joshu +

+ Novels that still don't have a proper wayr writeup. Or incomplete like GinHaru.

[u/[deleted]]

It's been a while since I last posted here. I don't really feel the urge to talk about visual novels like I used to, but this seems like a good time to put my thoughts down for a pretty productive year in terms of my visual novel consumption.

I read a bunch of Rance and read some really stand out titles. Clannad, Utawarerumono 2 + 3, Kichikuou Rance and Flowers -Le Volume sur Automne- were the stand out titles for me this year. I'd like to get around to doing a write up for Kichikuou Rance sometime, it's a shame so many people skip it. It's definitely deserving of it's place in eroge history and well worth playing for anyone who is interested in either the Rance series or the history of visual novels / eroge.

• Clannad - 10/10

• Baldr Sky Dive1 “Lost Memory” - 7/10

• Oshi no Love yori Koi no Love - 7/10

• Eiyuu*Senki - 8/10

• Senren * Banka - 6/10

• Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen - 8/10

• Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro - 9/10

• Rance III - Leazas Kanraku - - 8/10

• Rance IV - Kyoudan no Isan - - 8/10

• Little Princess - 2/10

• Making＊Lovers - 7/10

• Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi. - 5/10

• Rance 4.1 ~Okusuri Koujou o Sukue!~ - 7/10

• Rance 4.2 ~Angelgumi~ - 7/10

• Little Vampire - 4/10

• ATRI -My Dear Moments- - 8/10

• VA-11 HALL-A KIDS - 6/10

• Marco to Ginga Ryuu - 8/10

• A Summer's End — Hong Kong, 1986 - 7/10

• Clannad - Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de - 6/10

• Chuusotsu - 1.5th Graduation: The Moving Castle - 7/10

• Synergia - 7/10

• Josou Shinwa - 5/10

• Room No. 9 - 8/10

• Kichikuou Rance - 9/10

• Rance 5D - Hitoribocchi no Onna no Ko - - 7/10

• Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk - 5/10

• Flowers -Le Volume sur Automne- - 9/10

• Tsui Yuri ~Okaa-san ni wa Naisho da yo~ - 4/10

• Rance VI - Zeth Houkai - - 8/10

• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - EXTRA1 - 8/10

• Rance 01 - Hikari o Motomete - - 8/10

• Adabana Itan - 8/10

I'm also done with 4/6 routes in Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. This is probably a 8/10 for me so far but I'm saving best girl Sora for last so it could go up to a 9 when I'm done with it. Probably won't be finished until early next year though.

As a side note I am progressing with my Japanese at a decent rate. My grammar has really improved in the 6 months since I last attempted reading a visual novel in Japanese. I'm nearly finished Minna no Nihongo I and I'm on level 28 in Wanikani. I'm hoping this will give me a basic level to start actually comprehending what I am reading, instead of just guessing based on a few key words I can understand. Hopefully 2021 will be the year I get to read something in Japanese.

[u/August_Hail]

People probably recognize or may not recognize me, but I'm August from The August Hail on Youtube. Throughout this year, I've read 31 visual novels, reviewed them, and properly ranked them via tier-list (and that's not including the ones I don't review)

Just based on 2020 releases only, there's been some really good releases, and I'here are some ones I would like to point out.

• ATRI

• Adabana Odd Tales

• Baldr Sky

• Making Lovers

• Totono

• Seabed

• Robotics;Notes

[u/donuteater111]

Going through my WAYR Archives, these are the VNs I've read this year:

• 428: Shibuya Scramble

• Ciconia: When They Cry Phase 1

• Cross Channel

• Demon King Domination

• Dies Irae (reading this now)

• Hatoful Boyfriend

• Highway Blossoms: Next Exit

• Higurashi: When They Cry Chapter 8

• Muv-Luv Photonflowers

• Muv-Luv Photonmelodies

• Nekopara Extra

• Nekopara Vol. 0

• Nekopara Vol. 1

• Nekopara Vol. 2

• Nekopara Vol. 3

• Nekopara Vol. 4 (reading this now)

• Planetarian

• Umineko: When They Cry Question Arcs (re-read, reading this now)

• Va-11 Hall-a (reading this now)

As bad as the year has been overall, at least the VNs I'v read have been pretty good overall. Demon King Domination is easily the low point. I got that in some VN bundle a while back, and played through it when I did because I knew it was short, so I could get it out of my backlog. Everything else has been pretty enjoyable in their own way, even if Cross Channel's translation was far from great.

[u/sfisher923]

2019 the only VNs i played was Hiveswap Friendsim and DDLC

So this year i branched out reading

1. Higurashi (Tearjerking and Scary but mostly Tearjerking)

2. School Days (Pretty much had to give that one up because i couldn't bear to see Kotonoha getting Bullied)

3. Crimson Gray and it's sequel (Two of my Underrated gems also didn't get the 18+ patch because was afraid it would ruin the wholesomeness)

4. Katawa Shoujo (Oh Rin why must you be a reflection of myself)

5. Pesterquest (For a Homestuck VN it keeps that charm)

6. Kill or Love (Great Free VN with a Yandere)

Wishlist VNs are

1. Umineko

2. Totono

3. Saya no Uta

4. Cross Days

5. Steins Gate

6. Nekopara (I feel like if i had to give up a vn on the list it would be this one)

[u/UnknownNinja]

Wow, It's been a long year for reading. I got:

• Raging Loop 8.5/10

• Steins; Gate Darling 7/10

• Steins; Gate Phenogram 7/10

• AI: The Somnium Files 7/10

• Sweetest Monster 6/10

• Chaos;Child 6/10

• Ever17 6/10

• Umineko 5.5/10

• Island 5.5/10

• Fault Milestone One 5/10

• Baldr Sky Dive1 5/10

• Fate/Stay Night 5/10

• Wonderful Everyday 4/10

• YU-NO 3/10

The only ones on the list I can say I actually enjoyed were Raging Loop, AI, and the Steins;Gate spinoffs.

Biggest disappointment of the year was Umineko. It could have been great if it didn't implode on its own hubris. It needed someone to liberally hack off a lot of the text and fix some of the inconsistencies.

Not only was Umineko bad in its own right, but it made it difficult to read any VNs after it. I was psychologically unprepared to waste another 150 hours on the next big disappointment. And when I look back over my scores, the VNs with the highest scores are all ones that grabbed my attention early and kept it throughout (Little Busters being a bit of an odd case, as it was really bad in the middle but good at the beginning and end). I've read through a lot of VNs I didn't like on the hopes that at some point it would be worth the time investment. Thus far, the only VN that actually got better after starting boring was Ever17, but even that wasn't enough to make up for the slog of the first 4 routes.

Fault Milestone One did a good job of grabbing my attention right off the bat, but then it took a nose dive by having a 9-hour retelling of of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode instead of following through on the setting they'd established. Similarly, Island pulled me in with the setting and the goofy MC, but it threw far too many red herrings at me, and MC-kun got stupider and more insufferable as the story went on.

As usual, I won't pass up an opportunity to point out how mindbogglingly awful YU-NO was as a story. Nonsense, beginning to end.

This all really leaves Raging Loop as my VNOTY, if for no other reason than there was really no competition.

[u/superange128]

As of last night I've finished 13 VNs in 2020:

• Bokuten

• MajiKoi/Tsujidou Discord VN

• MajiKoi A-3

• Making * Lovers

• Baldr Sky Dive 1

• Sanoba/Sabbat of the Witch

• Baldr Sky Dive 2

• Totono/You and Me and Her

• Senren Banka

• Miazora/Sky Full of Stars Fine Days

• Aokana original

• Aokana Extra1

• Neko Para Vol 4

I know 2020 is considered a (memed) bad year, for visual novels on a personal level it was really great.

5 of these visual novels are a 9/10 which is pretty darn good. Bokuten is probably a top 10 VN. A bunch of characters have become one of my top favorites. Naruko from Bokuten, Hinami from Miazora, Lena from Senren Banka.

But most importantly this is the year Mashiro from Making Lovers somehow surpassed Kotori from Rewrite for me which is feat I never thought would be possible.

[u/deathjohnson1 → u/superange128]

But most importantly this is the year Mashiro from Making Lovers somehow surpassed Kotori from Rewrite for me which is feat I never thought would be possible.

She was definitely easily the second best Mashiro I read that month.

[u/deathjohnson1]

Seems like I finished something like 19 VNs this year, varying wildly in quality from The Witch's Love Diary to Aokana.

Probably the most underrated one that I would recommend more strongly if they didn't fuck up basic technical aspects of the English release was what recently released in English as Wanting Wings. I haven't finished the English release of it, but I read it before that and it's pretty good.

And the most overrated would be The Devil on G-String, which wasn't even complete garbage, it just wasn't very good, and the reputation it had at the time led to expectations it couldn't come close to reaching.

[u/Sloppy_Goldfish]

I don't know if any of you guys actually read The Last Birdling after it was the recommended VN on the sidebar last month but I seriously love this VN. I read it earlier this year and I can say it's my second favorite OELVN behind Katawa Shoujo. The first half is a pretty generic forbidden friendship story but the second half and each of the endings are really good. It's really stuck with me longer than most ending typically do. I was really happy to see on the sidebar.

[u/ArchydaCookie]

I read 2 Visual Novels before 2020.

Katawa Shoujo in 2013.

DDLC in 2017.

While this pandemic sucks, I finally got into anime and visual novels. This 2020 I read 13 visual novels, dropped 1 visual novel, and am reading 1 visual novel right now. I'm glad I got into this medium.

Below will be the VNs I've read and my ratings in VNDB.

• Muv-Luv Alternative 10/10

• Clannad 9.6/10

• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 9.3/10

• Saya no Uta 9.1/10

• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 9/10

• Little Busters! 8.4/10

• Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~ 8.2/10

• Grisaia no Kajitsu -Le Fruit de la Grisaia- 7.9/10

• G-Senjou no Maou 7.8/10

• Muv-Luv 7.5/10

• Making＊Lovers 7.3/10

• Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~ 7.2/10

• Chaos;Head 6.3/10

I dropped Summer Pockets and am currently reading Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai.

Thanks for reading and have a great 2021 and the rest of 2020!

[u/Reikoraph]

Productive year for me: completed 30+ VNs. Among them were well-known legendary VNS and not popular too. My top 5 for this year:

1. Summer Pockets. I even cried in Kanome's and Alka routes.

2. Sorcery Jokers. I enjoy it so much. I am still reading it and if ending is good, then this VN can compete for my 1st place of year.

3. Raging Loop.

4. Muv-Luv series. This series is really good, but not "OMG its best VN ever" for me.

5. YU-NO. Original, not remake.

Runner up VNs: Seven Days, ef - a fairy tale of the two, SakuSaku, Senren * Banka, Eden* They Were Only Two On The Planet, Umineko, Steins Gate My Darling Embrace, Clannad, Nanairo Reincarnation, Tomoyo After ~It's a Wonderful Life~.

But my top 5 of all time still remains unchanged.

[u/caspar57]

My favorite reads from 2020 so far are Raging Loop, Zanki Zero, Changeling, Butterfly Soup, and Project: Perfectly Normal. It’s been a pretty awful year otherwise, but VN-wise it’s been good.

[u/SSparks31]

As usual, work takes priority so I haven't read a whole lot of things outside of it.

• How to Date a Magical Girl (2.3/10) - This is good if you want a DDLC clone that doesn't understand what made DDLC successful

• Love Choice (8/10) - I still need to finish this. It's super short and sweet, the hidden mechanics were meh but the story itself was nice.

• Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai -Dreaming Sheep- (10/10) - I once again rate a fandisc higher than the base game solely because of a single route. Takigawa step on me.

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This month's topic is 2019 in review.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaange

[u/Alexfang452]

As of today, I finished 16 VNs in 2020

• Space Live

• LuGame: Lunchtime Games Club

• Moe Era

• Sounds of Her Love

• Yu Xiang

• Sakura Beach

• Kirakira Stars Idol Project Ai

• Sora to Umi ga, Fureau Kanata

• LoveKami - Healing Harem

• I Love You, Colonel Sanders!

• Voices From the Sea

• My so-called future girlfriend

• Carpe Diem

• Time Tenshi (2020)

• Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki

• Sunny Shine Funland

• World end Syndrome - Currently Reading (close to finishing. Will probably finish before the end of 2020.)

I have only given these VNs a rating of 7/10 at best. I feel I could add a point or two to some of them, but I feel a 7 is the best score I can give for them while only one of them has a score less than a 5/10.

I really enjoyed Koi ga...Doki, Yu Xiang, Sora to Umi...Kanata, Voices from the Sea, My so-called future girlfriend, and Time Tenshi 2020. The others are good, but those are the ones I enjoyed reading through the most. Worldend Syndrome is enjoyable as well.

I did spend A LOT of time with Koi ga Sakura Koro Sakura Doki, but I don't regret it. While this year isn't the best for me in a number of ways, it didn't disappoint me with the VNs I read through.

[u/Curious_Cat3005]

This year I finished Muv Luv Alternative and Sepia Tears

I started Narcissu and I’ll probably start Muv-Luv Photonflowers

I just wish I had more time because I’m reading like 8 books and I’m going to school XD

[u/PigHunterExtreme]

Back then, I always stuck with the safe territory of playing VNs made by Key/Visual Arts, but I've decided to broaden my horizons this year by reading works from creators outside of what I would normally stick to.

I am in no way extremely new to the VN community, as the first one I played was Planetarian in 2017 after I finished watching the anime, and ever since then in December of 2017, I went ahead and got all of Key's anime adaptations from VNs on Steam.

Works I have read this year are

• Little Busters

• The Fruit of Grisaia

• Senren Banka

• Atri -My Dear Moments-

• Steins;Gate

• Wonderful Everyday

• School Days

I finished Lucy ~The Eternity She Wished For~ in 2018 and I just have Tomoyo After and Clannad sitting in my library.

[u/consistent_escape]

Surprisingly even though I had so much free time thanks to COVID I didn't read too many VNs this year, mostly because I tried out some new stuff this year and tried to read some more actual novels than usual. A probably not complete because my memory is trash list of VNs I read this year:

Blank Space

Cartagra

Death Mark (dropped)

Higurashi (reread + chapter 8)

Iwaihime (reading)

Killer Queen

Majikoi

Myth

Raging Loop

Rance VI

Remember11

Root Double

SHINRAI:Broken Beyond Despair

Swan Song

The House in Fata Morgana

Saya no Uta (reread)

Tsujidou-san no Ju'nai road (stalled)

Subahibi

YOU and ME and HER

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (reread)

Kara no Shoujo (reread)

Family Project

There's definitely stuff I forgot to add (already made two additions I just remembered before posting) but I can't access my Laptop right now to check.

This wasn't the best year to go through but atleast that sets the bar low for the years coming :)

[u/Morthra]

I didn't actually read that many VNs this year.

I read Baldr Sky which was great, so I imported DiveX from Japan, which was also great (it came with an artbook too which was cool). 10/10, would recommend.

I also played the YU-NO remake and my thoughts on it are essentially that the translation is botched. 7/10 for the plot (the seiyuu for Harumitsu playing Yuuki was a high point), 6/10 when counting the fact that the translation sucks.

Aokana was good, I finished that a couple of months ago. Extra 1 was good too. Probably about 8/10.

I picked up Silverio Vendetta and Trinity on Steam in a bundle for $30 (normal price is $64.99 USD for one). Pretty good, reminiscent of Dies irae, but some of the routes, particularly in Vendetta, are not good. Chitose and Vendetta are the only two routes that are good. 8.5/10, drops to 7/10 when counting the other routes.

I also got around to finishing Senshinkan Hachimyoujin. 9.5/10 easily. I felt so bad for Keira at the end.

That's basically the full list of VNs I played this year.

[u/littleshogun1990]

Late to the party here. As for 2020, admittedly I didn't finished much VN. That said, I still play some VNs though in that I supposed can be called as finished to a degree. The VNs that I finished are Shoujo Dominance (So that I can write on how the artist design the high school student heroine as strict office lady), Real Life Plus (Thanks to VNDB screenshot that depict the main heroine cosplaying as Cure Marine, and her voice is quite flat if I may say), Venus Blood Frontier, and Kami no Rhapsody. Other than that, I also play the trial for both of Evenicle 2 and Venus Blood Hypno, and let's just say that I look forward to the eventual release of those two.

PS - Right now I prepared something in regard of 2020 releases, so hopefully you'll look forward to it if possible.