Gonna drop my thoughts on a bunch of random games I tried lately.
>House in Fata Morgana
Immediately knew this one would be amazing. Not much to say, will finish it.
>Raging Loop
Seemed great at first, then I got annoyed because the pacing seems like half of what it should be. But on second thought I liked the game a lot, very unique/memorable characters and the cartoony presentation grew on me a lot. Will go back to
>The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-
Mixed on this one. I love both Kodaka and Uchikoshi but Kodaka's writing has made me progressively more annoyed as time goes on. The pacing and feel of Danganronpa 1 was perfect but somehow Hundred Line takes 30 hours to get good? Characters are okay but not that memorable. Might go back to much later.
>Hanachirasu
Kind of a okay-tier game with an S-tier setting. I trust the big showdown will be kino though. Will finish.
>VA-11.HALL-A.
I feel like very few devs could take the concept of this game and make something really good, but they did here. Good dialog, great soundtrack. Didn't fully hook me though. Will play more eventually
>Fate/Stay Night
Slow start, seems like it'll be really good but it's a big time commitment. Main thing is I like the characters a lot. Rin, Archer, etc. stick out to my mind way more than the average VN character, something really memorable about them. Probably the most memorable cast of all these games. Will continue.
>Kara no Shoujo
I dropped this one. The Showa/50's Japan setting was great but that's about it. The detective minigames are half-baked and I got screwed into a bad ending over something stupid. Not a bad game, but very average, doesn't stick out.
>Policenauts
Obviously really good. I don't care if it's a ripoff of a movie, it feels like a classic 80's text adventure brought to life with beautiful visuals, cinematic soundtrack, and a great setting. Will finish
>YU-NO
Everyone who plays this game says it's amazing. I wouldn't say that yet, but I like it very strongly. It has a similar energy to Back to the Future or Steins;Gate, where it's just a time travel story with a ton of confidence and fun recurring characters (half of whom have giant tits). Also happy to have a main character with a strong personality, it elevates what would be boring scenes in most VNs to some pretty funny stuff. You would expect a game like this to have aged badly since it inspired countless plotge from the 00's, but surprisingly it feels very fresh even now, and you don't have to temper your expectations at all. Great so far, will finish.