Albedo

Sharin no Kuni, Remember 11 and YU-NO are quite good, too.

Yes, it is.

Saya is pretty good, and Chaos;Head starts really well... and then gets not so good, but it's still worth a play for the delusion system imo.

It's two parts. Extra is a romantic comedy that might or might not bore you (it did bore me.) Unlimited is like a prologue for Alternative, but with some crucial character moments so it's pretty much required. It also ends up in a huge cliffhanger and Japanese fans had to wait 3 years for Alternative lol. Overall, they're not that long and worth playing in the long run.

Just remember to play Muv Luv first

Muv Luv Alternative, by far.

Muv Luv series (Muv Luv and Muv Luv Alternative,) just remember that you need to play the whole trilogy and not skip directly to Alternative, or you're gonna lose a lot of enjoyment.

Finished Higanbana: The second night. Think I liked it better than the first one.

Saya no Uta was one of my first VNs, and I think it's a pretty good one to introduce people to the medium. Why? Because it's weird as fuck, and really drives home that by playing VNs you'll be able to read the kind of stuff that you won't find anywhere else.

Uh, Try Eve Burst Error or something else instead, it's not really that good (but it does have retro art style xP)

YU-NO, Eve Burst Error and Desire have similar art styles, I think.

For male characters, I'd say Takeda Akane (Hanachirasu.) Female character would be Mitsurugi Meiya (MLU/MLA version.)

Um, the Galaxy Angel games are about as lighthearted as it gets, I think. Or maybe try Go! Go! Nippon to see more of the place from where age troll its fans? I dunno.

Eh, gonna be that guy xP. What you probably want are called Soaplands, not host clubs and stuff, but some allow Gaijin, some don't. Whatever you do, if you go partying around Roppongi, DO NOT FUCKING LISTEN TO THE TOUTS. Heard some pretty bad stuff from people at the school I was in about them.

Halfway done thru' Bible Black, so far it's been pretty funny.

I've learned not to rely on hype as well, as I was pretty disappointed when I discovered that Phantom of Inferno was shit and Grisaia was nothing special. On the other hand, it can be good sometimes to have some games stand out so you try out stuff that you normally wouldn't, like Symphonic Rain in my case.

Nope. If they interact, it's gotta be for some reason, either to move the plot or to reveal something about the character's personalities that might be relevant down the road or a complete red herring, that is fine too. But the point is, the author is giving you information that is in service to the plot. If they established that, say, character X is a tsundere wannabe with a bad case of the blondness in the previous 2 scenes, you don't need 43 more scenes of the same thing (and nothing else.) In other words, that David Mamet memo's pretty good. I feel exactly the opposite to Invermouse in regards to Madoka, I think the reason why it worked so well it's because there's no fluff, at all, everything happens real fast and they do seem to have it planned for everything since the beggining, as opposed to making things up as they go. A Beach/Onsen episode wouldn't fit the tone at all.

Some old Kanno games, like YU-NO (without annoying "click on the screen over 9000 times to make Kanna appear" kinda things) and Eve Burst Error would be pretty good.

Phantom of Inferno. I was hyped for this, being that I played Saya no Uta and Kikokugai before. Sadly, Urubutcher took a bunch of elements of different crime/espionage franchises (plus Rei Ayanami... gotta have her in there somewhere) and instead of trying to mix it to to do something interesting, well, he didn't do shit. Uroubuchi had so poor an understanding of the underpinnings of the things he was aping/playing with that It completely fails both as a crime drama, and as an espionage thriller. Oh also had the most dreadfully boring narrator of all time. Unskipable, to boot.

Slice of life that goes on forever, despite having established the characters rather quickly (looking at you Grisaia) Weak plotting, things that happen too conveniently (Grisaia again) Weird-ass/unfair route sysyem (Steins;Gate. YU-NO does not fall here, however, since you can easily resets) Overall lack of editors, most vns would sure be better with some trimming. Bland, vanilla Japanese high school setting with no magic/paranormal/anything to set it apart.

Regarding YU-NO, forgot about the no sci-fi/fantasy part, but it's really good

Sharin no Kuni, YU-NO or Kara no Shoujo.

Ever 17 is pretty good, and I think it fits all of your criteria. It starts lighthearted but it gets less so as the story progresses. Never 7, the first game in the infinity series (Never 7/Ever 17/Remember 11) is also good, though it focuses more on the romance angle than the other games in the series and is kinda lighthearted, at least at first. Umineko would be good too, it's basically a closed circle murder mystery that has romance as a central element. Drawback is that it's very, very long. If you are willing to compromise on romance, Remember 11 and 999, those two are not lighthearted at all, no slice of life or moe stuff in them. 999 is for the DS, but at this point any pc should be capable of running an emulator. Finally, I see that you haven't played Muv Luv Alternative yet, so that's also a good choice (it can make you think.) It's way better than MLE/MLU, so even if you didn't like them that much (I HATED Extra) you should give it a try.

I/O, Subarashiki Hibi, MLA Chronicles 01, Cartagra, ML Altered Fable, Rewrite: Harvest Festa and F/HA. I'm also looking forward to 12Riven, Seinarukana and Kara no Shoujo 2, but there's no way they're released this year.

At the risk of both their lives? That's not something a so-called genius would do. Imo, the writer did it because he needed Kazuki to presumably die and