For AIR, it was the medieval japan part, which was fun, but not brilliant. for Clannad, it was Kotomi’s route, which was, IMO, probably the best or at least best written part of Clannad.
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It’s really not unpopular. All his stories are regarded as very good. He’s definitely my favorite.
@Totoro_Futaki, you know this topic is a list of all routes with corresponding writers.
I absolutely love Suzunoto as well and, who knows, perhaps he will comeback in 2020 after 7 years of inactivity and suddenly write an anime original! Coughcoughcough
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Jun Maeda is all my all-time favorite. However, I also enjoyed the work Naoki Hisaya did with Shiori and Nayuki. Both were charming and had good chemistry with Yuichi. It makes me wish he still worked with the company. Yuto Tonakawa also impressed me with Kurugaya, who I felt was unique for a Key heroine. You don’t often get the uber confident,grin-prone, flirty heroine in Key’s visual novels. Yuichi Suzimoto impressed me with both the way he portrayed Kotomi’s character growth in Clannad (even if the plot felt a bit contrived and out there), and Planetarian was EXTREMELY well-written.
The only Key writer I have a real sore spot for is Kai. I don’t like how he unceremoniously sidelined Kyou in Kappei’s route, and I REALLY don’t like how he did Kyou’s route. (Kyou route spoilers) I just can’t see Tomoya getting into a relationship with someone unless he really likes them. He doesn’t do anything like that in any of the other routes, and the implication is he takes romance pretty seriously. Kyou IS pressuring him, but he’s not usually this much of a doormat. And it leads to cringe-worthy scenes where he vents his stress by indulging in his romance with Ryou. This is Makoto Itou-level jerkishness, not Tomoya Okazaki. And what’s with Kyou pulling dumb stuff like kissing SUNOHARA to hide her feelings? OF COURSE no one’s going to believe that. And even though the route tried to make it balanced, Ryou felt like such a victim here. If people just talked about their feelings… haah…
Sorry about the random rant. I just needed to vent.
Just go post that in the Kyou route topic and watch all the hate going towards you (me included). 
That aside, I coincide that I liked how Naomi Hisaya writes those two Kanon routes, and that Maeda is my favorite writer, but I have mixed feelings about whether he’s all that good or not.
I feel like Maeda has great ideas and developments for the concept of a whole VN. An example would be CLANNAD, where he is given the task of writing After Story, so we could say that he almost have full control over the VN. However when having to write only one single route without having all the control he wants over the main character or the way the whole VN theme is going to develop, he doesn’t always nail it. An example of this would be Mai’s route in Kanon.
Finally Planetaria is amazingly written, as you said, but I think that also has to do with the fact that there are no choices and the entirety of the story was written by the same person, unlike route based VNs where having multiple writers is something common. I don’t want to say that Yuichi had it easier to achieve a better result though. He demonstrated that he is completely capable of various things in a single VN: beautiful writing, excellent use of metaphors, philosophical theming and emotional impact.
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Do you want to keep liking Hisaya? If not, there’s Sora no Method, an Anime written by him that has been discussed (a lot) and enjoyed (almost a little bit) by Kazamatsurians back when it aired.
Can we say that Key authors are kinda bad with writing anime?
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Haha, yeah. I’m not brave enough to do that… 
I agree; when Jun Maeda tries to write a really big, really grand narrative, things start to fall apart. I agree that Mai’s just gets bizarre near the end, but a bigger example in my mind is Charlotte. That story was ALL over the place. I don’t think a single theme in that anime ended up fully-developed it was so cluttered.
@Naoki_Saten It’s funny. After finishing Charlotte, one of the first thoughts I had was “Maeda, stick to your VNs. If you keep writing stuff like this, I might lose respect for you as writer…” I skimmed reviews on ANN for Sora no Method. You didn’t think it was any good?
Well, how do I put it? If you’ve got time to spare and you’re confident that your image of Hisaya won’t take a huge blow from watching this anime, no matter how little you’ll like it, then I guess there’s no reason not to watch it…
I think there were bits and pieces that I kinda liked, but as a whole, it was no good at all. 98% of my enjoyment of the series originated from the discussions I had about it on this forum. Also, one of its characters was my “worst girl” 2014.
On the other hand, I don’t remember anyone dropping it. Maybe you should ask around for more opinions.
EDIT: If you do end up watching it, by all means, make sure to read through our discussion topic as you go. It’ll be worth it ^^
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RIP Ayu; I guess no one remembers her route.
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Ouch. I was mean in not even mentioning Ayu, wasn’t I…?
I think I had trouble swallowing the romantic development in their route. They had good chemistry, but I had trouble seeing that in a more romantic light. I’m not really sure what propels them from being really good friends into loving each other. Some of the elements used in the latter half of her route were interesting, if a bit confusing, though.
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I have serious problems with what I’ve read from Kai so far as well. Though for me it’s mainly Tohno Minagi’s ‘normal’ ending. that shit was so fucked up I don’t even. It makes me really worried since he’s also apparently writing Harmonia, but we’ll see how much he’s learned in that time.
I’m optimistic. I think there’s a lot more room for creativity in a premise like Harmonia’s, so I’m gonna give Kai the benefit of the doubt and say he’ll do a good job.
It’s fucked up shit like that that makes me like Kai so much though. In the Kyou route as well as in Minagi’s normal ending. It’s the whole (minagi route spoilers) sacrificing greater things in order to compromise for a regular, small happiness. It’s definitely not something good and not something that people should allow themselves to accept, but it’s a very realistic thing that happens. Which is why, as an alternate ending, I see it working very well.
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That’s an interesting point, but it still made me really really angry at Yukito for basically just helping her in her own self-destruction, breaking her will, having sex with her and then taking her with him, running away from all their problems that’s what it felt like to me, anyway.
I guess it’s kind of realistic, but his actions are downright disgusting nevertheless
