1 - Xeno series (Saga > Gears > Blade >>> Blade X)
2 - Metal Gear series (mindblowing plot, great gameplay, absolutely brilliant series)
3 - SoulsBorneRing series (brilliant minimalistic story, perfect combat system)
4 - The Witcher series (3 > 2 > 1, fantastic plot, gameplay, characters and quests)
5 - Death Stranding (Kojima did it again)
6 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (astounding gameplay, really nice lore)
7 - The Elder Scrolls series (amazing world, the stories can look not amazing on their own but when linked to the lore they become great, gameplay is awesome but has some serious issues)
8 - Final Fantasy series (IX = Tactics > VII > XI > X > VII: Crisis Core > IV: After Years > XV = XII > XIII > XIII-2 > Lightning Returns > IV > VI > VIII > XII: Revenant Wings > X-2 > V > III > I > II)
9 - Blazblue series (Complicated as all hell, just the way I like it, even though I'm not a fan of fighting games. Would've been a masterpiece if it didn't leave all those loose ends, and I'm not aware of any sequels to ever come out to tie them all up.)
10 - Kingdom Hearts series (Great plot and fun gameplay, "hurr durr it's too complicated" is not an argument. Series is only held back by cringy stuff.)
Fate/Stay Night ---- 10 ---- (Be warned that watching or reading Fate/Zero beforehand spoils a lot of things) An amazing story with the best magic worldbuilding (that is even more expanded with the other stories from Type-Moon), a very crazy storytelling broken in 3 routes, where each introduce plot points, characterization and foreshadowing for the twists that appear in the next ones, and each route is focused on different aspects. It's a story that exceeds in having tons of well-written twists (you MUST play the routes in order and also look at the Servants' stats to understand their abilities, otherwise you may be thinking there are asspulls), great themes of altruism, justice, giving a meaning to life, morality, what is evil (in a unique take, you'll know what I mean in Heaven's Feel), redemption, responsibility, etc., and all the important characters are excellent, although only some of them are fleshed out immediately in the first route, most take time. The fights are amazing and well detailed, and the art and soundtrack are impressive. And of course the fantastic gameplay, with many choices that lead to unexpected bad ends, I suggest you don't use a guide. Some pacing issues and a few flaws, but I'm rounding up the score.
- Fate -------------------------- Slow start due to mix of slice of life and plot, some good fights spread around but really not that much of an engrossing story, romance starts weak but really picks up steam into good drama, Saber's backdrop and development are fantastic, the last days have unexpected well-written twists and an intense climax. Shirou's epilogue was weak, but Saber's was great. Some points are unexplained or discarded, but they're left for the next routes.
- Unlimited Bladeworks -------------- Much more engrossing story than the first route, with lots of twists, fights, alliances and planning. The supporting cast is much more fleshed out and plays a much bigger role. Many questions from the previous story are answered, but still not all of them. The romance is inferior to the first route, but the story still gets very dramatic due to Shirou fighting for his ideal against Archer and Gilgamesh, Shirou also actually becomes stronger than in the previous route. There are 2 endings to this, I liked the true end better as the romance was focused only on Rin and gave perspective for the future, while the good end was kinda messy in the romance aspect and it's short-sighted. There is a fight with a weird outcome that fortunately gets better explained after the credits.
- Heaven's Feel ----------------------- New plotlines are introduced that answer all the questions that were left, characterizes the remaining characters and add even more layers to the ones that were already set, the Holy Grail War is stomped on and everyone die like dogs with twist after twist, it gets a bit slow in days 11-13 but it gives time to pay off. The drama is great, the revelations are mindblowing, where nothing was what seemed at first, and characters (that don't die early) develop fantastically. The last fights are absolutely epic, that apocalyptic feel. The true end is happy but well done and emotional, while the normal end is... sad as fuck. Really. I recommend you see both.
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia ------------ 7+ ----------------- The story itself is pretty good, nice mystery and twists, and further develops interesting plot points of the series, as well as the characters. Those whose pasts weren't fully explored in Stay Night get focus here.
However, over half of the novel is slice of life. The good SoL scenes are much better than all of those in Stay Night, with good character exposition and interactions. But the bad scenes are... so bad you'll wanna skip them. Repeatedly small talking about food and clothing, seriously? I can't stand that.
Tsukihime --------------------- 7 --------------------- It has a few too many routes considering the plot isn't that heavy. Ciel's route is the best, Hisui's is the worst. Roa is a nice villain, but SHIKI is a lame one. Protagonist is bland. Kohaku's twist was pretty amazing. Really liked the worldbuilding behind vampires, but the one behind the Tohno bloodline is half-assed.
Saya no Uta --------------------------- 9+ ----------- This is extremelly SICK, but also incredible. Great introspection, character development, plot and horror. You've gotta see both endings 2 and 3 to fully understand the story. An excellent psychological with a very original plot and masterful writing, a masterpiece.
Danganronpa ------------------ 7+ ------------------------ Very good mystery with an intriguing gameplay on the trials where you have to put the pieces together, last chapter was awesome, but it has some dumb points that could've been better. Some stuff is still ambiguous by the end, but there's a sequel, the story isn't finished yet. By the way, the anime is a bad adaptation.
Danganronpa 2 ------------------ 9+ ------------------------ You get everything that made the first game good and make it EVEN BETTER! ...Except for the execution scenes, that is. Most of them in this game are lame.
But other than that, it's amazing. The cases and trials are better made, less predictable and more complex, while the main story turns out to be even more twisted than the first.
Danganronpa v3 ------------------ 10 ------------------------ You know what this is? Pure genius. The reason the fanbase split into hate or love is because those are retarded people with low IQ.
It's one of the most original combinations of ideas I've ever seen, it deconstructs even the series itself and creates a play of themes and tropes that were never made before, as far as I'm aware.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ------------- 8 -------------------- Although maybe more slow-paced than necessary, padding a little too much with slice of life scenes, it's still a really good mystery. It can really screw your mind and make you invested into solving the mystery. Amazing OST, atmosphere, everything.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai ------- 10 -------------------- Now THIS is a masterpiece. As the actual story begins to unfold when mysteries are unveiled, you get a shiny gem of a plot. The final arc can have a few contrived developments, but overall this VN is a god-tier drama with very original ideas.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni -------------- 9 -------------------- The absolute craziest take on the mystery genre. It has you dumbfounded by all the crimes going on and questioning whether everything is magic or done by human hands. All the twisted logic argument-battles are incredible.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru -------- 10 ------------------ What was already great takes one step beyond. If you thought the story was already good enough, this part goes even further and becomes a story with a huge amount of layers. It does so many things at once and excels at all of them.
There is, however, one issue. It leaves quite a bit of the mysteries for the reader to figure out, and I'm not a big fan of that. The "Confession of the Witch" chapters from the manga SHOULD have been present in the visual novel, as answering it all makes everything deeper.
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