reading games/visual novels i've played

Definition of a reading game: a game that involves a lot of reading, but isn't a visual novel.
NEED A RECOMMENDATION? click the note i put on the title. (wip)
TOP 5: Utawarerumono Mask of Truth, Remember11, The House In Fata Morgana, Umineko When They Cry, AI The Somnium Files

PLAY THIS! ✔️ I'm not sure what genre AITSF really falls into (maybe more point and click adventure). By no means is this game perfect, but it is perfect to me. Been in the AITSF hype trenches since the Tesa YouTube ARG days.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ Higanbana is one of the Ryukishi greats that unfortunately gets overlooked quite often because it isn't easily accessible. I would highly recommend seeking it out and playing it. I think he shines in the short story format.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ Higanbana is one of the Ryukishi greats that unfortunately gets overlooked quite often because it isn't easily accessible. I would highly recommend seeking it out and playing it. I think he shines in the short story format.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ The greatest Infinity game. Anyone who disagrees just didn't get it. Do not let anything stop you from playing this game and letting it consume your every thought like it did for me.

Play Remember11 Gestalt Edition if you're trying this out!
PLAY THIS! ✔️ EASILY one of the greatest vns of all time. A nonstop incredible story that will leave you breathless and sobbing also.

You will need to play Utawarerumono Mask of Deception in order for this game to be great, and Utawarerumono/Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen for this game to be kino. They are both great, please play the whole trilogy.
PLAY THIS!✔️ One of Uchikoshi's best. Buy the Nonary Games collection so you can get 999 as well.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ It's a pretty great AA game.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ Another Code R is a cozy time and I prefer this to its remake.

ESC

PLAY THIS! ✔️ I/O Revision II if it was good
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ If you don't like men having sex with other men this is not for you. NO, THANK YOU!!! has a plot that is surprisingly gripping and really entertaining? I really like parade's plots. The R18 scenes are nicely drawn too (though a lot of dubcon, not really my thing).

Not sure if the Steam release is censored, so just buy from Mangagamer directly if you're trying this.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ Contains men fuckin other men. You have been warned. Sweet Pool feels gross and disgusting and I really, really love that about it. Just read the game description and determine if you wanna play something like that.

My extended thoughts on it are here: https://lonesgamethoughts.blogspot.com/2022/03/sweet-pool-review-saya-no-uta-but-for.html
PLAY THIS!✔️ One of Uchikoshi's best. Buy the Nonary Games collection so you can get VLR as well.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ I think this collection of the two Another Code games is good, but also loses a lot of the soul by getting rid of a lot of the gimmicks (closing the DS to solve a puzzle, connecting a nun-chuk to solve a puzzle, etc).

I would honestly recommend playing both of the original games (on original hardware if you can) and then this, they are fairly short.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ It's a fine game, but in retrospect having AA5 and AA6 be both 1) bad and 2) rewrite apollo's character again and again, it almost makes this game feel really fucking pointless.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ Last Window rules and I'm sick of no one talking about it. It sidesteps all the issues I had with Hotel Dusk and is genuinely a great time.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ SeaBed is a bit vague with its storytelling which can be frustrating (on top of the pacing being extremely slow). I love it both in spite of and because of these quirks but your mileage may vary.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️I fucking hated rintaro and some of the extremely unfunny jokes but every other visual novel fan loves Steins;Gate so whatever
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️I like AAI1 enough but it's just an alright game. If you skipped this to get straight to the kino (AAI2) I wouldn't blame you.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️You should really only play this if you already played DMMD. If you have, this is a great companion to DMMD and in some ways I prefer it to DMMD because it has all unique writing (instead of having the repeating story bits like DMMD did)
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ Contains guys having sex w each other. The premise is interesting but I really feel like this was missing something deeper to bring everything together. Still a good time.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️This one's fun but not really groundbreaking. The fandom is almost entirely comprised of fujoshi though so you unlock that as a perk if you finish it.
DON'T RECOMMEND❌I think the version on the DS is better....
DON'T RECOMMEND❌If you're someone who's played Uchikoshi's modern works (999 and after), you may be tempted to try this game out. It is honestly very boring for 80% of its runtime and I don't recommend it unless you want to see how Uchikoshi grew as a writer rather than be enthralled by a great story.

Play Ever17 Himmel Edition if you're trying this!
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ I personally had the story fall kinda flat for me/I wasn't that moved by it, however if you love yuri this will be up your alley regardless.
DON'T RECOMMEND❌I could see this game being pretty good if it had Higurashi levels of pacing (see: really slow but it builds your trust and care for its characters), but it really is pretty mid and only gets interesting toward the end— the ending felt hollow for me seeing how I didn't care much for its characters but they had to pretend i did.

This game is also really fucking gross for no reason. Like really gross sfx and art and voice lines do not eat while playing this.
DON'T RECOMMEND❌The art is the only saving grace for LOOPERS. The story is quite short and very, very, very predictable, which is a shame because I think if the concept was stretched out (with typical Ryukishi pacing), it might be a classic.

The voice acting is extremely grating also.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ Necrobarista has beautiful visuals but a really underwhelming story where it feels like none of the stakes matter until they try to clumsily tie it all together at the end.
PLAY THIS! ✔️ It's not groundbreaking but it's 4 hours long.
DON'T RECOMMEND❌ Really great visuals but the story is very barebones. To prove how barebones it is one of the girls on the cover literally only shows up in one bad ending for 5 minutes but they had to stick her on the cover to make it seem like the game is bigger than it actually is.
MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️to be frank DMMD is really not that great story-wise but it has a ton of unique design/ways it plays with the concept of the game. Hard to explain. Also contains gay sex.

I/O

MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️ If you like really, REALLY out there and nearly impossible to follow plots, you may like I/O. You'll probably never play anything else like this.

I think about going back to this game for a replay once every few months before stopping myself.
DON'T RECOMMEND❌this game sucks ass
if i paid for this shit on the 3ds in 2015 or whenever it came out i would have been so pissed. this is absolutely not a standalone title and as someone who played it as a standalone title years later before the official english release i really did not like it. but in the two-pack of tgaa it's alright!

so, TLDR, PLAY THIS! ✔️
DON'T RECOMMEND❌Flat out this is not a good game. It is, however, very short, so you could bang this out in a weekend if you're really that curious about it. The voice acting for both languages is extremely grating so have fun with that.
ZTD is not a fantastic game, and it isn't great to look at, and honestly I really don't care for the plot, I don't uhhhhh care for most of this game but it's really great to laugh at :)
12Riven is a very strange game, that's all I can say.

MAYBE PLAY THIS ⚠️AT THE TIME OF WRITING, THERE IS NO WAY TO EXPERIENCE THE FULL GAME IN ENGLISH. An English patch is in the works, join the Discord for updates here: https://discord.gg/xBe7Kmq2FX

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