Decay

The routes are very different, there's a much bigger difference between common route and heroine routes in Rewrite than the other Key games, it practically turns into a Chuuni VN. Complete tonal shift. For what its worth, I'd say that Chihaya's route is the worst which is unfortunate, since she was also my favorite heroine. It's such an incredibly cheesy shounen action story. But if you do that first and still aren't turned off, then you'll probably like the rest.

In my mind, the torrents on nyaa by known uploaders are no more unsafe on average than the ones uploaded to fuwanovel, there is always a chance of something you're downloading being infected, no matter what it is or where it is from. I'm not sure what specific types of malware is present, I never personally ran into it. There could always be unexpected viruses or malware in other ways, but that could be said of pretty much anything you do. It is especially risky when pirating stuff, that's just a risk you have to take if you don't want to spend money on your games. I mentioned all of the important stuff to be mindful of, follow these directions and you will be generally safe. The equivalent installer file will be called something like setup.exe, install.exe, setup.msi, etc, they're always very plainly labeled install executables. The autorun will try to pop up every time you insert a disc or mount an image. This is what an autorun popup will look like in windows: If you click "Open folder to view files" you will be safe from that particular style of infection. Edit: Furthermore, I do believe that Nyaa polices their torrents. So if one is reported to have malware, it will be removed. This generally means that you'll only see it on newly uploaded stuff. If a torrent has been around for a while and is still there, it is almost certainly safe.

An autorun is a script that attempts to run whenever a disc is inserted into a computer. By default, ever since Windows XP, your OS will ask you if you want to run it whenever you insert the disc. It's meant to make installations easy, e.g. insert disc and the installer automatically runs. Some pirates of Japanese eroge seem to be modifying the autorun scripts to install malware. However, this appears to be very rare, and also if you instead ignore the popup that happens when you insert the disc/mount the image and browse into the CD's directory structure, and run setup.exe or whatever the equivalent installer file is, you will avoid said malware. I mentioned it as a precaution, but it really does seem to be a very rare occurrence anyways.

I think a lot of my enjoyment of Rewrite's common route hinged on Kotarou's character. He is easily one of the funniest protagonists from any VN I've read. Any interaction with Yoshino is golden.

Well, just don't use the autorun. These are disc images that are otherwise safe and don't mess with the actual installer. Also certain trusted uploaders seem safe, such as girlcelly, the uploader of the torrent I linked.

Because (some of) the routes are interesting. Also I liked the "boring stuff" in the common route. If you don't like slice of life comedy, give up playing most Key games because that's like over half the content.

edit: The new rules make this post a no-go.

Air and Kanon have their fair share of fans, may as well grab them if you're interested, although a potentially better translation patch of Air is still in the works if you feel like waiting. People have a hard time agreeing with what qualifies as nakige in general. You can look at the VNDB tag for it, although there's some questionable entries: https://vndb.org/g596?fil=tagspoil-0.tag_inc-596;m=0;o=d;s=pop

lol, sex in Rance is only "important" because it's almost a nukige, a lot of people buy those games just to fap so they load them full of porn. It's not like it has a deep plot that explores human sexuality or anything. Also yeah, there's tons of rape, but it's "comedy rape". The protagonist is a chronic unapologetic rapist and they play it for laughs. It's not dark, but it's still not for everyone (or me).

The apocalypse has occurred and there are no women to be found anywhere. You're Brad, a drug addict who happens to find an abandoned newborn baby (how??), and your life changes forever. Expect brutal violence This is a grimdark RPG... for about 15-20 minutes. Then suddenly, it becomes one of the funniest indie games you'll ever play, with exceptional dark comedy. Every situation will be horrible, morbid, and hilarious. It will make you laugh at 1) bullying, 2) drug abuse, 3) indiscriminate murder, 4) disembowelment, and 5) stuff so much worse I wouldn't want to ruin it for you. You don't want to know what those black lumps used to be. I have a penchant for dark comedy, but it takes more than twisted imagery to make something funny, and this game's writing is so surprisingly excellent that every single joke delivers. A large part of this is due to the sublime art style and eerie yet catchy psychedelic music (both drawing inspiration from Earthbound) establishing the perfect atmosphere. This game is one of the best examples of the audiovisual side working perfectly in concert with the writing and gameplay to create an incredibly compelling experience. Every enemy has a unique sprite full of character. Gather a party before taking on these rude dudes! Play LISA. It's kind of brilliant. It seems like it flew under a lot of people's radars, but everyone I have talked to who has played it has gushed as much as I have. It's not perfect, combat can be a bit of a clusterfuck, and your party members aren't very well fleshed out, but these are minor issues when you look at the overall package. If you like quirky RPGs or dark comedy, you absolutely cannot pass it up. Here's a quick look Giant Bomb did for it, which will show you a lot of what I'm talking about:

Well, since it's quasi-linear, many are probably inclined to say that the final route/week is the best and it was pretty good, excepting one part I didn't like, but I'm partial to the Miki one.

Eh, it created a lot of extra hassle for him, because people were pirating a bad version. Apparently there have been major problems with multiple amaterasu releases. At that point, why be sympathetic? The theme change actually made it so I can't use the windows zoom feature, which is oddly enough how I prefer to read 640x480 VNs.

The Cross Channel torrent comes packaged pre-configured in a way that made it a nightmare to run properly on my computer. It's actually better if you don't get the torrent from here and do a manual install using a japanese iso found on nyaa.

It's neat that there is a heroine with different circumstances than usual, and they handle her disability with tact which can be rare. Kotori being in a wheelchair certainly isn't a negative aspect of that game, and you don't need to have any weird fetishes to appreciate that.

You'll still be able to buy it elsewhere.

What if this is the afterlife?

Nope.

About Rewrite's Terra route:

Have you played more than 30 minutes? The characters are all very different. Tina and Mare couldn't be further apart. All of those character archetypes, including the token shinigami, are pretty common in moege. But even though many of the characters share the same archetypes, they behave pretty differently. Konami and Chinami are very different, Tina and Mare are worlds apart in personality, etc. If you play enough VNs, you will see these archetypes all over the place. SakuSaku takes very little inspiration from Hoshimemo, but it does pull heavily from the genre in general, and offers little in the way of creativity. It's worth noting that Hoshimemo also did not invent those archetypes, that one was also using a lot of the standard tropes present in VNs and specifically moege. edit: The archetypes in both games: The shinigami - Mare and Tina. They have very different personalities. Mare is really shy and mysterious, puts on a mask of indifference because she's afraid of getting too close to others. Tina is quite friendly, actively likes being with other people, wears her personality on her sleeve. The only similarity between these characters is that they're both shinigami The deredere childhood friend - Mio and Asuho. Perhaps the most similar, I chalk this up to there not being much depth to explore in this archetype. Their personal issues are very different (and both very, very dumb, especially Asuho's). There are still differences in their behavior, Asuho is a bit more direct while Mio is more reticent. Mio is much more reliant on the main character than Asuho. The Imouto - Chinami is super hyper and innocent. Is very outgoing, and also very obnoxious. Konami is low-energy, and actually pretty lewd. She's a relatively normal person, not as outgoing as Chinami but also not an introvert. The only real similarity is that they're both the MC's sister. I'd say the rest of the characters are even more divergent. Aoi vs Yuri - Aoi is aggressively introverted, refusing to interact with others unless forced to. Whereas Yuri makes friends and treasures them. Yuri's attitude is understandable given her position and is flexible. It practically takes a force of nature to move Aoi. These two are not really similar at all. Hikasaki vs Jinpou - I'm unsure which Hikasaki you mean here, but I presume it's Kosame. Kosame is very meddling, almost an oneesan-type character despite not being older. She kind of serves a mentor of sorts, imparting wise advice or interfering when she deems it would be helpful. She sort of feels detached from everything, trying to observe or help from the outside, and avoids getting too intimately involved. Jinpou also meddles a bit, but not to the same extent. She's a senpai, but she doesn't act her age, she's actually pretty childish. Is a mischievous person in nature. She's a bit hard to get a handle on in the common route, her route might elucidate more details on her character but it's not translated yet. As of now, I'm inclined to say that they're very different characters belonging in different archetypes. As for Komomo and the secret heroine, they both have no equivalents in SakuSaku. It has no real tsundere, although if they make Yuri's sister into a heroine in a fandisc or expanded version, she might qualify. She'd still be very different from Komomo. None of the support characters are all that similar, the surrogate mother behaves very differently, for example. So yeah, after that lengthy analysis, I'd say that you are definitely being overly sensitive. Why did I just type all this? I guess I have time to kill.

Since this is a real thread now... Hoshizora no Memoria is boring with some terrible routes, and Mare is the worst character in the game. Se is predictable, one note, and not cute at all. Katawa Shoujo is trite garbage and the whole thing stinks of a "me too!" attitude that just wants to do a thing because Japan does too, without an ounce of creativity. Yumiko is the most boring heroine in Grisaia no Kajitsu by a mile, and her route is by far the worst as well. In a game where every heroine becomes overly dependent on Yuuji, she was by far the worst in that regard. Her transformation into a super docile waifu who can barely even breathe without her man being there to protect her was atrocious, and the route's general plot was a worse, rehashed version of Makina's. Her backstory could not possibly be more boring. Also with GnK, Yuuji is a total blowhard. If he was american, he'd be spending all day posting in the MRA subreddit and tending to his fedora collection. Thankfully his character is used in really hilarious manners, but the story is at its worse when you're meant to take his attitude seriously, because it's just impossible to do so. It's really depressing how many people see him as practically a role model. 999 is unremarkable, its twists not all that interesting, and the characters are really boring. VLR is more of the same, but it drags on even longer. I couldn't even finish Ever17. Eden* does not have a single compelling character and despite it trying so incredibly hard to make you cry, it completely fails at evoking any strong emotions. Largely because it's impossible to give a shit about any of the characters. Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki was the most disappointing releases in years and it's a mystifying that it is retaining a strong rating on VNDB after the partial patch was released. The heroine routes are god awful. The melodrama feels super unnatural and the writing takes a sharp nosedive, and it wasn't even that good to begin with. Sengoku Rance's gameplay feels sub-par and I'd rather play a real strategy game. Rance himself is extremely unlikeable and there is no humor in anything he does. I can keep going all day.

If a VN interests me a lot, I can put 6+ hours a day into it, otherwise I spend around 2-4 hours on one, if I decide to read at all. I haven't read anything since I finished eden 10 days ago. I'd say I'm a little bit above average for read speed. I think Grisaia no Kajitsu took me a week to complete when I first read it, which is more than a little nuts.

Well, what do you mean by Dating Sim? There is a common misconception by people outside the scene that any romance oriented visual novel is a dating sim. Or maybe they do know the distinction but call them all dating sims anyways. If you want a proper dating sim, english ones are actually pretty rare. If you mean just romance VNs in general, then there are a ton. Check the pinned threads on the top of this forum, most of the listed suggestions will apply.