The only VNs I’ve played to completion outside of Key ones are Katawa Shoujo and Analogue: A Hate Story. Analogue is a very different VN than you’d expect, but is certainly very good. It’s got just as much story but it’s told through different means, since you play as a guy who’s investigating an abandoned spaceship or something. It’s got some very nice puzzles, is very non-linear, and forces you to think, and there are also options for making the girls wear different outfits ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
And if that last part hasn’t sold you already I can praise the soundtrack all day; give this a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwUYR2n5j-k
My only problem with the Analogue and Hate Plus soundtracks is that they’re not mixed well and they sometimes clip. Especially the Hate Plus soundtrack. It absolutely drives me up a wall.
I just realized from that OP posted his personal favorite VN, but I haven’t yet talked about mine!
My personal favorite is:
It doesn’t seem to be a very popular choice, but it really reaches out to me. If I had to explain it in a few words, I think it’s because the characters seemed more real to me than any other VN that I have played. Other VNs had me look at the characters as simply just… characters. The air of mystery and melancholy gave it a huge plus as well.
Though I won’t deny that I am heavily partial towards music games in general, and Ritsuko Okazaki as a composer 
I’ve actually heard very good things about Symphonic Rain. My VN backlog is way to crammed right now, but its definitely in there somewhere. I mean seriously, rain falling every day AND a great soundtrack? that already sounds like a great VN.
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I’ve heard mixed things about it. Some people praise it to high heaven, and others say they struggled to get far into it. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my “getting soon” list (which basically means I mark it as “playing” on VNDB but don’t have it yet.)
I’ve been putting it off for a long while. Mainly because it has that plain realistic-colored anime art style I love (I seriously like anything that has that art style… even M;Y) and I take pleasure in knowing there’s still one out there in English that I haven’t read… but also because I feel like it’d make me reeeaaally sleepy~
Why not just use your wishlist on VNDB? that’s where I put all the VNs I plan to play eventually but don’t have yet. There are actually quite a few VNs that have been translated which I haven’t played yet, but I tend to go for the Japanese ones most of the time. I pick up English ones every once in a while when I don’t really want to deal with Japanese or just want a quick/easy read, but the small number of English VNs always makes me feel like I’m running out when I pick one up, even if I have quite a few left to read.
The wishlist is on a separate page to the Visual Novel list. It’s a lot easier to just have everything on one page. Well, three pages, but there are sorting buttons right at the top!
I wouldn’t be able to read a Japanese VN, and machine TL-ing is just too much effort for me… (I’m lazier than the Symphonic Rain protagonist~)
There are a decent amount of English VNs though. A few hundred maybe? There’s probably only around 80 that are really worth reading, but still, more exist.
Yeah, to be honest, I put it off for a while as well simply because of the art style 
As for my backlog, next is Tsukihime, which I have been putting of for years now. Other than that, I’m waiting for alternate patches (like the ME of LB and Air) or new releases (like Higurashi on Steam)
Aha! I’ve been on a nostalgia trip listening to an old anime song playlist from my pre-teen days, and (for some reason) the .Hack//LotT OP reminded me of the name! It was Shira Oka! It was a very fun read.
Besides Planetarian and Clannad (I haven’t gotten around to any other Key titles yet because Clannad is SO DARN LONG), I’ve read Katawa Shoujo and just started Fate/Stay Night.
Clannad’s length comes mostly from the sheer number of routes in it. Once you find out that the “skip previously read text” button is your friend, it should go by quite a bit faster. Believe it or not though, Rewrite actually has a higher word count, but feels much shorter because there are less routes. I bet everyone here will be interested to see where you go after you finish Clannad though; a lot of us here enjoy hearing what people think of Key VNs while they play them. 
Any idea on which Key game you’ll pick up next or are you planning to wait until you’re done with what you have before deciding?
Katawa Shoujo seems to be a staple VN for people to read. I personally didn’t like it, but just about everyone that I’ve talked to that plays VNs has played it at some point.
I didn’t like Katawa Shoujo much, but considering how many people got into VNs because of it, how it compares to other pure romance VNs, and it being totally free, it holds up in my ratings~ Some routes were great, others were terrible (as is the way with romance VNs) and the soundtrack was kinda boring, but I know some people liked it.
I was thinking about English VNs a few days ago, and honestly… Katawa Shoujo is probably the best out of them all despite it’s flaws.
I don’t know if its something wrong with my computer, but my skip function goes REALLY slow. Its almost just like a fast auto mode because you can still read most of the words.
As for what I will play next, I’m not 100% sure, but I think I’ll probably do either Tomoyo After or Kanon
Make sure you have the text speed set to “no waiting” and screen transitions to “fast.” If you have, or it’s still too slow, you can try switching to a monochromatic cursor.
I tried all of those and none of them seem to work. In fact, switching to monochromatic cursor doesn’t actually seem to switch it, so there must be some kind of bug either with the game files or the computer
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[quote=“Takafumi, post:52, topic:108”]
I was thinking about English VNs a few days ago, and honestly… Katawa Shoujo is probably the best out of them all despite it’s flaws.
[/quote] I’m assuming by this you mean VNs that started in English and not all VNs that have been translated into English, right? If its the former, then I can kinda agree.
[quote=“yerian98, post:53, topic:108”]
I don’t know if its something wrong with my computer, but my skip function goes REALLY slow.
[/quote] Oops, forgot about that… that’s not your computer, the skip function on Clannad (and older VNs in general) is just really slow. If it becomes a big problem, you could always use efficient saves to get the job done; it takes some thinking (or a guide) but it can REALLY cut down on your play time for a VN if it starts to take too long.
As for which of those two games you’ll play next, I recommend playing Tomoyo After once you finish Clannad. You’ll be getting H either way, but TA is something that never got animated, so everything in it will be a new experience if you’ve watched all their anime. That aside, I personally liked TA a lot more than I did Clannad, and it has a dungeon crawling mini-game.
Yes, I meant original English VNs
Skipping on my copy of Clannad seems to be pretty fast, however I only checked the pre-OP scenes. Maybe the sprites slow it down?
Tomoyo After is (in my opinion) a lot better than Clannad. That’s easy for me to say though, because Tomoyo After is my favorite Key VN, and Clannad is my close to least favorite (above Air and HF.)
The music has it’s own style, but still refers to Clannad bringing in some nostalgia, the art is waaay better than Clannad, the characters overall are a lot better (mainly because the large amount of boring or forgettable characters in Clannad diluted the overall quality of it’s cast, and the TA cast all bounce off each other very well) and I think the story, largely, is a lot better. The first two arcs are on par with some of the better Clannad routes, the last two arcs are on par with (and sometimes better than) After Story… except the Akio stuff and some of the Ushio stuff.
Oh, and TA Tomoya > Clannad Tomoya. It’s crazy how much he changes depending on what Clannad ending you progress from.
@AngelofDeath720 Cool I guess I will definitely read TA next and thanks for the skipping advice.
@Takafumi BTW, when is the Clannad OP supposed to play, because I haven’t seen it yet
IIRC, it’s like, sneakily integrated into the walk to school scene where Tomoya meets Nagisa.
Hmm, maybe thats where it was in the original, but it not there in Full Voice.
Edit: Just read on another site that its somewhere in Nagisa’s route, which I havent’t done yet. Thanks anyway!
