Best Visual Novels for PC

[Karnik]

With naughty bits: Yume Miru Kisuru: A Drug That Makes You Dream

Famous and appreciated title by Jast USA; I started playing it on DS Lite, via VNDS, and I remember a little girl, who seemed extremely shy (or retarded?) who was constantly bullied in class (and this in itself was getting on my nerves), but then I came across some hentai scenes (oral perhaps, I don't remember, too disgusting!), and I sent everything to hell! Ok some erotic scenes, but if they are disgusting and involve an underage or retarded person, absolutely not!!!

 

[Tronky.it]

I've never played visual novels.
The only thing close to a visual novel I've ever played is Telltale Games' The Walking Dead - and I also know Doki Doki Literature Club, but I'm too scared to play it, xD. And for PPSSPP... Ore no Imouto. I cast my eyes after the first run.

 

[Zemus]

The House in Fata Morgana is absolutely beautiful, Amazing story, characters and visuals.

If it were only door 2, I would wholeheartedly and emphatically agree. But the direction it ended up taking just disappointed me more and more. All the torture...and more when you think it's done...oh, you liked the art style and music? Too bad...and did I mention how long they draw it out for? It fits together depending on how much you care about its rules. Maybe I got too invested in "that person's" story arc to really appreciate it, since he was infinitely more compelling than the main character. I could understand its reputation as a cult classic, but not what every VN should aspire to be or other praises I've seen.

Anyway, that one was probably the hardest I ever tried to get into VNs. Sometimes I ask a friend what eroge he's currently playing, but it's never one he likes very much.

 

[captainshrimple]

Famous and appreciated title by Jast USA; I started playing it on DS Lite, via VNDS, and I remember a little girl, who seemed extremely shy (or retarded?) who was constantly bullied in class (and this in itself was getting on my nerves), but then I came across some hentai scenes (oral perhaps, I don't remember, too disgusting!), and I sent everything to hell! Ok some erotic scenes, but if they are disgusting and involve an underage or retarded person, absolutely not!!!

Yeah the ero aspect is straight up pr0n. Comes with the territory. Now the girl is of age and not retarded, just high as a kite/psychotic.

 

[DanCalibur]

I incredibly forgot three touching and tear-jerking titles, not to be missed for sensitive and dreamy souls, all by legendary D.O. (which already published titles for the PC-98): Kana Okaeri (remake with voices of Kana Imouto), Kazoku Keikaku (Family Project) and Crescendo. Moreover unforgettable background melodies. I recommend these three wholeheartedly, especially to the younger ones; try them to believe, you won't be disappointed.

Kana Imouto, that bring back some memories.

 

[Infasis]

I/O is one the best experiences I've had with the genre & is rarely mentioned. The vndb description does justice, & is as interesting & complex as it sounds. It's really quite something, & is hentai-free which is a bonus, since at no point does it cheap-out in any way. Should 100% be played by anyone who even remotely likes visual novels.

Man, I totally forgot about I/O... I played a lot of it, what must be like 8 years ago, but my laptop broke, so I never did end up finishing those last couple routes.
I'm glad you mentioned it. My time with it wasn't an all time favorite or anything, but I found that game pretty intriguing and just liked the artstyle, and characters, and everything in general, so I'm definitely gonna try that again.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

I've really enjoyed the Science Adventure games and I'm sure it's gotten many praise already, but Steins;Gate is an incredible experience.

It's very short, but Planetarian does an incredible job bringing emotion that other Key games have done as well,but in just the span of 2 hours. The ending scene literally made me stop, because I couldn't see from my tears covering my vision. I remember sobbing for like 5 minutes and then finally being able to continue. Defintely recommend!

Say no Uta is pretty good as well. My favorite part of Saya no Uta is it's atmosphere. From the visuals to the music it just oozes out the horrors that Fuminari is experiencing.

Ever17 and Remember11 are also pretty good. Great visual novels with a lot of mystery going on.

Recently,I've been considering playing Higurashi pretty soon and maybe eventually Umineko even though the length of Umineko seems intimidating to me.

 

[Adrastia]

Zero Escape series is neat, tho I vastly prefer the first game over the others.

I've played all three and I highly prefer the art style in the first game. Virtue's Last reward has a lot of really obtuse and out there puzzles that I found a tad too frustrating at times. Especially for those golden files. Although the final puzzle is nowhere near as hard as it appears. I think they were messing with us there. Zero Time Dilemma looks awful. Those character models... I thought he cartoonier ones from VLR looked better. The subtitles are too small so it sucks is you have bad vision. The game itself is fine. It's just those models that got me.

A lot of VNs have hentai or at least some nudity in them that isn't necessary or could be toned down. It's kind of hard to avoid.

These have good stories though.

Swan Song: It's an apocalyptic story about some unknown event that kills off a ton of people and causes an endless snowstorm. The survivors try to rebuild society and look for more survivors. Things do not go smoothly.

Sayonara o Oshiete: It's about a teacher who starts having nightmares and delusions and has many strange encounters with his students. He's at constant odds with other staff and is slowly losing his mind. The plot takes you places you were not expecting. A lot of hentai though. I found myself skipping through it to get back to the madness.

Subarashiki Hibi: Starts off with a very cool girl named Yuki. At times it looks like a cute slice of life. But below the surface it's pretty terrifying. Several students mysteriously die and others become increasingly more unstable under the influence of others.

I also really liked Umineko, Ever 17 and Saya No Uta.

 

[Karnik]

Sayonara o Oshiete: It's about a teacher who starts having nightmares and delusions and has many strange encounters with his students.

Well, this is a famous VN that runs on onscripter. I've wanted to read it for ages, but the translation that came out a few years ago was immediately withdrawn by its author, because it was full of syntactic/grammatical, semantic and general coherence errors. In practice it was a machine translation without any checking and editing work: unreadable according to everyone.
Have you read this translation? Was it really as annoying and incomprehensible as they say?
By the way, I don't understand why the author didn't entrust the text to some native english speaker to have it edited and made coherent: was it such a difficult task?
And now we are left with no translation available...

 

[χKai]

In my case Katawa Shoujo, it's a special one for me <3

I was gonna mention it but wasn't sure if I'd get in trouble.

It really is sweet and romantic, despite having some ero to it.

 

[ciro64]

Ace Attorney - you probably already know about this one
Reaching Out - a short cute story that tackles bullying
If You Stay - short yuri about two girls in their last date
Just Kiss Him Already and Just Kiss Her Already - cute yaoi and a short yuri sequel respectively
Butterfly Soup (and its sequel) - about four girls becoming friends with some romantic tension added to it. Wholesome but also tackles on serious and darker themes too
A Year of Springs - a wholesome story but that also touches on the sensitive subject that what is like to be a trans woman. Features other LGBT+ themes too
Tomato Clinic - welcome to a vampire blood donation clinic. I won't say anymore than that, except that it really makes me feel warm and fuzzy
Heart à La Mode - multiple love interest otome dating about a girl going through adult life who just wants to enjoy fluffy pink things. I have yet to do all the routes with this one
Nomnomnami Games - a shared universe of visual novels with a cute unique art style and really well written and nicely paced cute stories. Some of my favorites:

• Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet: a grumpy candy alchemist finds a girl made of candy in her store and has no idea what to do with it. Features multiple endings. You may want to play this one first if you want to get some references in other games but it's not mandatory
• Starry Flowers: the best romance game ever made
• Contract Demon: yuri about falling in love with a summoned demon
• Lonely Wolf Treat: a multi-chapter game. It's a "visual novel" but in RPG maker, if that makes any sense. The last chapters are not released yet. There's a wolf girl in it.
• Bad End Theater: A puzzle visual novel with a lot of bad endings

None of these games fall into the traditional japanese vn category. I can't stand them. I feel like they have too much bloated and boring dialogue, lacks focus and relies too much on cheap narrative tricks and the "anime girl factor" alone.
Granted, I haven't tried playing a ton of them, so in case someone want to recommend a specific one to prove me wrong I might be willing to try it.