Albedo

The drama has been pretty entertaining so far. And the project? Paid vacation lol. Seriously, I don't think that having no prior experience making a documentary is that big of a problem, if people want to give him money for it, more power to him. That worked well for Neal Stephenson, and less well for those who gave him money. However, asking for 20k AND not giving a breakdown on exactly how is he going to spend it should be enough to raise alarm bells. Also, misrepresentation, both of who he is and what the documentary is; asking for 20k to just shoot footage of Japanese landmarks and maybe offer some comentary instead of trying to do, dunno, interviews and stuff? Yeah.

Pretty much this. However, if there's gonna be a sibling route, I'd say that writers shouldn't try to have their cake and eat it: The siblings should be blood-related. Otherwise, a lot of the impact (and maybe even the whole point) is lost.

So Steins;Gate and Ever 17 would be games despite having no gameplay whatsoever? No, the choices do not count as gameplay. If they are games then every single VN, except Kinetic novels, would be a game too!

Make sure you see the bad end this time. It's not good at all (unlike Makina's) but it is worth it.

Playing Divi-Dead, so far it's not bad at all but it is going a bit too slowly for my tastes. Map movement is awful, both because it is terribly implemented (seriously, 10 or so locations and almost no hint of where you have to go?) and also makes the story go even slower.

For example, I would include something that looks like MLA, reads like MLA but has none of Takeru's inner monologue (all dialogue.)

Looks good, but I think I'll wait until they release episode 5.

Pretty much this. But the term does have its problems, namely, placing too much emphasis on the novel part and forgetting the visual part. Which can lead to a scene where you have a perfectly good cg and lots of useless text describing exactly what you're seeing on the screen. You know, like those old marvel comics where the writers felt that they needed to describe in 20 thought bubbles what was going on in a single panel. Personally, I like the term, but I would use it in a looser, catch-all sense, unlike VNDB with its requirement of a "novel narrative" to be included in the database.

Pretty much this.

I don't mind them if they add something new and not just a couple of sentences telling you that you died and have to go back to a previous decision. F/SN did this very, very well (also, Tiger Dojo ftw) and Ever 17's Sora/Tsugumi bad end was brutal. Grisaia also had interesting bad ends (Makina was screwed up and Sachi's was hilarious.) On the other hand, Remember 11 had the worst bad end "system" that I can think of, it takes way too much time to get the bad ends and a lot of them are just uninteresting dead ends.

Never played Little Busters, but Higurashi has better plot and characterization than Grisaia, so Higurashi.

1. Deep story that is effectively used to present a complex theme 2. Interesting scenario, ideally not another Japanese high school 3. Complex characters 4. Good pacing Optional number 5: Mind screw!

Well, there are... other ways of getting it. Try the Sono Hanabira translations (1 to , their english is pretty simple.

I get that he's meant as a deconstruction of a certain character type. Problem is, when you have him acting on, winning impossible fights and getting out of situations where he should die in 5 seconds with WILLPOWER alone, well, that's not a really well made deconstruction, isn't it?

Personally, I don't like F/SN that much. Characters are pretty good, 1 of the 3 routes is generic and kinda bad (Fate, the first one), and the other two are ok. Also, it might be LSAT prep doing this to me but I see logic holes everywhere. Also terrible, terrible sex scenes (they are funny, so it might be a positive!), and the worst main character that I've ever seen in any medium. Don't get me wrong, I had fun, but I saw it's score on vndb after playing MLA and other top ranked games so I was expecting something AWESOME TO TEH EXTREEEEEEEME, and I got a shonen romp with a pretty good concept instead.

¡Yo tambien hablo español!

A friend told me about it, and then I said that Ever 17 did it before it was cool, hipster-style.

Muv Luv Alternative: Despair. Utter despair. Also, chomp. Family Project: Your boss has the hots for you dude. Oh, and he's also gonna fuck up your life. Umineko: Oh Beatoriche.

Ever 17. It was my first visual novel and I played it because I didn't have anything better to do, lol. Didn't expect it to like it that much. Also, despite that I don't really like lighthearted space operas, I liked the Galaxy Angel series quite a bit. Gameplay was no Homeworld, but it was pretty decent, if a bit on the easy side. On the other hand, I hated Phantom of Inferno on every level. Annoying format, so-so voice acting (the narrator was an exception: he literally put me to sleep), bland characters and a marked inability to decide what the hell it wanted to be: It failed as a crime drama AND as a Bourne-style thriller... it's really hard to take it somewhat seriously when the main bad guy is SCYTHE MASTER, and the badass drug dealer dresses like Sephiroth going to a 19th century party, and I'm supposed to believe that guy makes moves in Colombia lol.

Madoka: Miserable magical middleschool lesbians and a troll. Utena: Let's slap the fuck outta Himemiya! Mirai Nikki: Yuno's show.

I'd recommend YU-NO, it's kind of old and so it follows some gameplay conventions that are really a pain in the ass (click 20+ times to advance the story!) but other than that it's pretty good. EVE:Burst Error too, from the same author except that it's less annoying. Eien no Aselia is good if you don't mind gameplay, and if you liked Ever 17 I'd recommend 999 and Remember 11. Finally, on the shorter side of things, Dysfunctional Systems and Planetarian are pretty good.

That could be because you played 999 first. I played Ever 17 first, and a lot of 999 feels familiar (I do like it a lot, and I do think it's better than Ever 17 in some areas, mind you), and while I haven't played VLR, that twist with sigma is straight out of Ever 17. Never seen Grave of the Fireflies, but Planetarian is indeed sad. If you are interested in that kind of games, check this tag in vndb: http://vndb.org/g596

MLA, but you need to play at least MLU first. 999, YU-NO and Kara no Shoujo are pretty good too. Also, Umineko and Higurashi. Higurashi does have some normal day life stuff, but it's not the main focus, at all. If you want something shorter, Dysfunctional Systems or Planetarian, and if you don't mind gameplay Eien no Aselia is good too.

Dunno about Narcissu, never played Katawa Shoujo which is about dating disabled girls, so I'm guessing no. Planetarian... well, it's a whole different kind of game. As in, sad as hell and wants (and will probably get) your tears. Maybe you'd like it; again, no slice of life and it's like 2 hours tops.

Thing is, if you want to really understand MLA, you must at least play Muv Luv Unlimited (second half of Muv Luv). Yes, playing Extra could help, but you can still get most of the info you need through flashbacks and the like. The problem is that MLU is basically a military slice of life where not much happens, but the things that do happen, man, they are incredibly important for MLA. Character-defining important in one or two cases. Probably the worst thing about MLA is that it requires such a huge commitment to truly enjoy it, and this is coming from someone whose favorite VN is MLA. You might like Remember 11, 0 slice of life (a group of people trapped in a mental institution with a killer roaming free and another in a shelter cabin amidst a snowstorm with limited supplies, so moe) but it is incomplete and you will likely need to google for answers to some of the unanswered questions. But it is a mindfuck, and if that is what you're looking for, it's pretty good. Never 7 is also in the same vein as Ever 17, but it has slice of life. Steins;Gate is great, but the twist is not unexpected at all; rather, the point is that you can see it coming. Veering off track for a bit, Kara no Shoujo, a detective story in 50's Japan, is also a mindfuck and has zero slice of life. YU-NO is also a mindfuck without slice of life but its old school gameplay might turn you off a bit, and the latter half is not as good as the first one. Still very much reccommended, though. Umineko might not qualify and it is long as hell, and I'd say is more meta than a mindfuck (or it becomes so later), but has almost no slice of life. Finally, Chaos;Head could be what you want... for the first half or so. Then the story goes south, fast. But it is pretty entertaining if you choose the "sick" delusions. tl:dr try Remember 11, Steins; Gate, Kara no Shoujo and YU-NO. Maybe Umineko and Chaos:Head. MLA is pure awesomeness, but you need to endure at least Unlimited. Then the fun times start.