This is not a review, but merely a way of extending my steam profile.

9. Witch's Heart
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Witch's Heart is deceptively brilliant. At first glance, it looks like your run-of-the-mill RPG Maker game with not a whole lot to offer. But do not be fooled by its appearance, for what lies underneath is an absolutely beautiful story and an amazing OST that is on par with Umineko's OST. That is VERY high praise coming from me, who considers Umineko's OST to be the best OST ever made.

The story is simple enough at first glance: a group of 5 people end up trapped in a witch's mansion in the middle of nowhere, and are forced to fight for their survival against a multitude of demons as well as each other. What this plot synopsis leaves out though, is how well crafted the characters are. As you learn their backstories, their motivations, and how they came to end up trapped in the same mansion together, you will quickly find yourself falling in love with them and the world they live in.

If that wasn't reason enough to check it out, it also pays very obvious homage to Umineko. Everything from the style they use for the credits, the OST, and bits and pieces of the plot (and even a few references) make this homage very clear. If you enjoyed the antics of Umineko, you will (probably) enjoy Witch's Heart.


10. fault - milestone two:side above
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fault - milestone two side:above is the sequel to the first fault - milestone, and the first half of fault - milestone two. It continues the journey of the Princess and her bodyguard in the previous title as they move on to the second country. While the first game tackled themes of serious mental illness, corporate corruption and politics, the second game focuses more on learning about the world they inhabit as a whole and the two protagonists quickly find themselves caught in the middle of a country on the brink of civil war.

The reason this entry is ranked lower than its predecessor is simply because it's not a complete work by itself. We are still waiting for the release of fault - milestone two side:below.


11. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
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We are finally reaching the part of this list where my opinion on the titles will shift from an overwhelmingly positive review to more of an "eh". Don't get me wrong, VLR does many things very well, and in many ways it builds upon the foundation that its predecessor, 999, built up for it. It was also willing to take some risks in order to improve and try new things, which is good.

Unfortunately, some of those new things fall flat, and the two most glaring issues with this novel is that for one, its way longer than it needs to be. For a novel that takes on average about 40 hours to read, there is really only 15-20 hours worth of actual story to be had. It's all way too stretched out and this leads to most of the first half of the story feeling very tedious.

This, coupled with the fact that you will spend the first half of your playthrough running into segments called "dead ends" where you just have to start over, and "to be continued" where you have to stop, go pick a different route completely, and then eventually come back later when you have more info, leads to the entire thing becoming a real slog.

Originally, my opinion of this title was quite high, but as I watched more and more let's plays of it (as I do with everything on this list) it was the only one that seemed to get worse each time, where as the others got even better. As I continue to discover and read more and more visual novels, this title will most likely end up losing its place in my top 10.


12. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
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Danganronpa Another Episode, sometimes also referred to as Danganronpa 2.5, changes up the typical Danganronpa formula quite a bit. Instead of being a murder mystery with Ace Attorney-esque trials, it is instead a third person shooter. To be quite frank, the gameplay mechanics of this title are not very good. They are slow, clunky, and completely lacking in any form of challenge what-so-ever, even on the highest difficulty setting.

That being said, who really plays a Danganronpa game for its gameplay anyway? Obviously, its the characters and the story we came for. And this at least, it handles fairly well. While certainly not nearly as good as the other mainline Danganronpa games, it offers us a good view of the actual world the Danganronpa franchise is set in, and even manages to mix in some of those crazy, cheesy-but-fun and over the top meme-worthy moments we all know and love.


13. Doki Doki Literature Club
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Probably the most infamous title on this list, DDLC is a novel well known for appearing to be cute and friendly at first glance, while menacing and sadistic under the surface. To be honest, at first my hopes were quite low, as I expected it to just be nothing more than the typical cliche trope of a bunch of seemingly innocent-looking girls actually being crazy yandere axe-murderers in disguise.

A little over halfway through the game however, I found myself rather surprised when it began to tackle several real life issues such as depression, self-harm, and child abuse in a rather mature way. If only it had stayed that way, my opinion of the title would probably be a lot higher...

Sadly though, almost as soon as it started getting good, it quickly descended into the usual run of the mill tropes that I mentioned earlier. To some people, this is no doubt a good thing. To me, however, I was hoping for more of a subversion of the genre where it could be a seemingly innocent-looking title that was capable of being dark and serious, without the over the top cartoony characters and tropes. There is also the fact that many of its "horror" moments revolve around cheap jumpscares, which I consider to be trashy at best.


14. Corpse Party
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Ah... Corpse Party. As you can probably guess from the name, this visual novel does one thing very well. It's a horror story where 8 students and the teacher's assistant become trapped in a haunted school, and it's up to you to solve puzzles and avoid being captured by the many tortured souls of victims who have died in the school.

The deaths, and especially the "bad ending" segments, are extremely graphic. Not visually... but let's just say they are very, VERY descriptive. I think there were several points where my jaw was basically on the floor at just how brutal this game was willing to get, bearing in mind that the characters being forced to endure these things are just children.

All in all, Corpse Party definitely achieves what it sets out to do, and the only reason it is ranked so lowly on this list is because of its characters. I consider the characters to be the single most important element in story-telling, and Corpse Party's are very lackluster. You could basically replace the main character with a plant and things would have the same outcome. And all of the female characters are essentially the same person.


15. Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma
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No human language can possibly describe the disappointment I feel towards this game. This is the only title on the list that I could not bring myself to finish, and is the only title I would say is simply not worth reading, regardless of who you are.

It takes everything that made the Zero Escape series good, and drives it off a cliff. The timeline is incomprehensible, the antagonist is so boring I felt like listening to one more of his speeches might actually kill me, and even the OST, with the exception of a few specific tracks, is mostly forgettable.

One of these days I will probably try to go back and actually finish it, but I am certainly not looking forward to the experience.