Visual Novel Libraries?

I noticed there's a few members here aside from myself and Kagu that read them- or at least one- so I figured that a general thread to see who all has read what would be nice, or perhaps for just general discussion, recommendations, and asking if there's some squick in any given title.

That said, I'll go ahead and list some of my stuff down to get us started.


Completed Titles (In no particular order; may edit summaries in later)

Fate/Stay Night
Tsukihime
Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru
Hanachirasu
Saya no Uta
Chaos;Head
Kikokugai – The Cyber Slayer
Little Busters!
Cross Channel
G-Senjou no Maou
Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo
Aoi Shiro
Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke Wo – first, second, and fifth? I can't be sure of the numbers.
Utawarerumono
Kara no Shoujo
Remember 11: The Age of Infinity
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity
Da Capo 1 (only one route; wasn't that interested in the other heroines)
Da Capo 2 (all routes and bonus chapter; could stomach more of the heroines than the original)
Divi Dead
Crescendo
Yume Miru Kusuri – A Drug That Makes You Dream (only one route got my full attention)
Muv-Luv
Katahane (Will maybe do a review on this one later, since it's technically mostly a yuri title)

And more I'm probably forgetting! . . . or purposefully leaving out for some reason or another.



Working On

Kanon – And by working on, I mean started and haven't touched in over a month. Need to work on it, because KEY is pretty good at stroking my heart's strings.
Steins;Gate – It's there and I intend to read it. Was displeased with Chaos;Head, but I'm giving the joint effort a second chance.
A Profile – I have it installed and ready to go. My expectations are high. Sharin no Kuni was enjoyable, but G-Senjou was beautiful.
Katawa Shoujo – Waiting on the makers to get their DDL links back up. I refuse to torrent it, even if it is a free download.
Sono Hanabira - . . . seven? I'm not sure which the number is. It's the one with the teacher-student relationship. I haven't touched it in. . . a while. But I started it!



Intend to Read. . .

Too freaking many.


Recommendations

Fate/Stay Night/Tsukihime – It seems to be a general rite of passage for any proper VN-reader to read a TYPE-MOON work. That aside, both stories have a variety fun moments, as well as plenty of action, some GAR, and adorable loli. Yes, because loli are a factor in this. -shot-

Umineko no Naku Koro ni/ni Chiru – Eight “chapters” of a single epic. Umineko has an extensive and excellent score that sets just about any mood for every single scene. Sound effects also help to further set the mood. The tale itself is filled with magic, twisted logic, butt-pulls on occasion (that make sense, usually!), and love! And it's actually fun to read, once you trudge past the slow intro to the first chapter.

Kara no Shoujo – Between this and G-Senjou, I was turned on to the detective genre, where Umineko actually made me like mystery. Kara no Shoujo takes place in about the 50's in Japan, and revolves around Tokisaka Reiji, a private investigator. Life begins to become a little more hectic when a series of dismemberment murders take place, with the victims being students at the school his younger sister attends. Can't say too much else without spoiling, but it's a bloody good read. I'm looking forward to the localization of the tie-ins to this entry. Plus, it's one of those novels that has sex that you can- I think- opt out of every H-scene from beginning to (not a bad) end.

G-Senjou no Maou – It's difficult for me to sum up G-senjou. While I'll readily admit that any heroine other than the “main” heroine has a crappy route, the full-story, from beginning to end, for the main heroine is absolutely amazing. It's a true conflict between a “hero” and a “devil”, and the way the writers go so in-depth as to the antagonist's thought processes, as well as explaining the ways that he makes his plans fool-proof, was an absolute treat to me. Include that most of the soundtrack seems to be remixes of classical music, and you have a very pleasant experience.

Saya no Uta – Dating Cthulhu-chan. This sums up Saya no Uta in a sweet and almost cute sentence. Of course, in reality, Saya no Uta is far from happy-happy-joy-joy, and very few people would agree with me that it's a sweet story (though a lot agree that it's a good story). While I highly recommend it to the desensitized readers of visual novels, I do have to put a few warnings up. This story deals with cannibalism, a bit of guro, and the heroine is slightly on the younger side aesthetically. Oh, and there's rape. But the rapist got his just dessert, so that didn't rank as highly on my squick scale.

Little Busters! - To offset the above, Little Busters! is probably the best follow-up. So far, it's the only title by KEY I've read (I watched CLANNAD, but I need to read it) from start to finish. While it's an investment of time, and some routes aren't quite up to par with others, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's opens with the light-hearted story of childhood friends finding a way to “enjoy youth” in high school. Whichever route you end up on, something particularly odd and/or depressing happens. I think this is the general KEY formula, but, either way, the overall package is a treat. It has a few mini-games, plenty of cute humor, gentle subtext, and likeable heroines (even if my favorite one had questionably the worst-written route). It's also entirely SFW, so anybody could read it anywhere. Though it does have an Ecstasy edition, which I'm waiting to have translated. Adds H-scenes, but also three more heroines!



Will likely edit more stuff in as time goes/I need to update. May make a thread tutorial for getting into, installing, and running VNs, if it turns out people need it.

You should read Hatoful Boyfriend. You think pigeons, no big deal. BUT then you get feels for pigeons

I saw clips from it because an LPer I enjoy began reading it. It didn't strike me as particularly noteworthy, or entertaining, though. The fact that I genuinely loathe birds did not help, either.



There's been a few new things, but I don't feel the need to update the list or the post. The board is dead.

I didn't realize I left the "email" option turned on for responses.