onorub

From the ones i've played (order of recommendation, most to least): Little Busters is the closest to Clannad in both route structure and storytelling. Rewrite has similar route structure, but different storytelling. Planetarian is different in both structure (no choices) and in storytelling. Air has simpler route structure and similar storytelling. Kanon is the same as Air, except the route structure is even simpler (no unlockables).

https://vndb.org/v53 https://vndb.org/v12239

If you don't mind untranslated ones, go for this.

Rankings > Numbers for me, so i score my VNs in a way that's closest to my actual rankings. I'd use two decimals in VNDB if i could. One main route is enough for me to score a VN, but i'm revising my scores all the time so i can easily change it as i play more.

Video has spoilers for Ikusa Megami Verita: Is the stuff in there compreensible? If not, that's what's wrong with reading a bad translation.

Finished the Utawarerumono trilogy. Despite the pacing issues (either the war portions are too short or the slice-of-life portions are too long), i found it a solid series with fairly consistent quality. Unlike most people i found the first one the best, because as war-filled as the third one was, i didn't feel tension like i did with the first one and the battles before the true final boss felt too much like typical JRPG storytelling (true final boss itself was the highlight of the series for me though).

Noble Works, the comedy isn't the best but it's pretty light-hearted.

Lupin from Code: Realize. It was the last route so i had high expectations and it turned out to be my second least favorite one in the game.

Started Utawarerumono. Story is interesting but those initial villains are really lame, they make Bobon from Funbag Fantasy look like a daring genius. Update: Finished it and for the first two thirds, i thought the slice-of-life stuff went on for a little too long. Last third was great though.

Is the choice system like Katawa Shoujo, where there is an affection system and a bad end for the common route, or is it simpler like Fruit of Grisaia? The length is 10-20 per playthrough of for 100%'ing it? Is the route order enforced in any way?

I believe the first one is translated, correct? I think the one review i saw of it pretty much said it was "silly but fun".

Anyone claiming that Analogue: A Hate Story is the best VN of all time needs their head checked.

This must be SO much harder than mapping the VN fanbase, because since VN is already a niche genre to begin with, it's easier to identify the fandom. However, anime was heavily featured to the point of having a casual fanbase that won't ever bother to go to myanimelist, so it'd be hard to determine how DBZ would enter in the analysis properly, for example.

Same. That's some badass shit, but i wouldn't be able to do that because i couldn't get immersed in what i'm reading.

Can i troll and recommend the Yakin Byoutou series?

From seeing all the indie VNs from the renai forums that get brushed aside, i don't see pro writers that are strange to the medium get any significant recognition. I think i can count on my fingers the amount of people that care about Christina Love on fuwa, for example. I'd also argue that DDLC became famous for its' production values while Sakura Spirit became famous for its' cringe factor.

Don't know if it counts, but i wanted a version of the normal route of Clannad's After Story where once you get the true end, Tomoya and Ushio survive the snowfield and you can make choices to have Tomoya end up with a grown-up version of one of the remaining girls, kinda like the heroine endings in YU-NO that you get after doing the true end.

Is there data on the top selling VNs already? Kinda interested to see if Niizuma's promotional VR weddings actually paid off.

If you don't mind gameplay-heavy VNs, then Kamidori Alchemy Meister might be what you're looking for. If you can read untranslated ones, i'd also recommend the modern Ikusa Megami games (Zero, Verita and Memoria).

Does VA-11 HALL-A count?

https://vndb.org/v12239 https://vndb.org/v12241

Finished SubaHibi. It reminded me of Higurashi in the sense that people really remember the dark stuff when that's just the surface of the VN. My biggest complaint is that the dark stuff in the 3rd and 4th chapters was over the top to the point of being goofy (though that was probably intentional on the 3rd chapter). Overall, it made my top 10 and is my favorite story on a eroge (4th favorite within the whole VN genre).

I'll be biased for my country and recommend "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", because it has the greatest 4th-wall breaking of all time IMO.

IDK, i always found Noble Works and Dracu-Riot to be good "shut your brain off and have fun" kind of VNs. They certainly aren't 10/10 material, but i don't even think they are trying to be. They're just romantic comedies with dorky sexual humor and it's fine to me. For the answer, i guess Clannad is a moege so i'll go with Fate/Stay Night.

I'll be the contrarian here and say Clannad. The sheer amount of routes and secret little things made it feel like more of a legit game and the After Story (normal route specifically) made the story go from ok to great, making it my favorite VN ever.