Top 10 Visual Novels I Want To Play (Updated Version)

Although I haven't been playing very many visual novels lately, that doesn't mean my interest in them has completely faded away. I'm not sure if or when I'll get around to playing them, but there are still plenty of visual novels I intend to finish and that I want to start. Back in 2018, I published a top 10 list on this blog for visual novels I was interested in playing. Six years later, more than half of that list has become obsolete due to me actually getting the chance to play them! (Admittedly, though, I have only actually finished Love and Romance - A Study of Intimacy and A Sky Full of Stars so far.) With that being said, I think it's time the list got an update. This time, I'm not going to categorize my reasons for not playing each one at this time; I'm just going to talk about why I'm interested in them.

Now, before I get to the list, here are some honorable mentions!

Now, onto the list!

Admittedly, my love for Key has dwindled a bit over the years; I blame "The Day I Became A God" and "Prima Doll", two not-so-special anime, for this. It's almost as if Key lost that spark in their previous works that made its audiences cry. That said, I'm still interested enough in Key's works to put two of their games on the list, and Little Busters is one of them. While it's not my all-time favorite of Key's works, I have a special place in my heart for the Little Busters anime, especially Refrain. Thus, if I ever get the chance to play the Little Busters visual novel, I'd be open to taking it!

On my previous list, G-senjou no Maou was ranked at #2, so since it's from the same developers as the Sharin no Kuni games, you could consider Sharin no Kuni to be its replacement on my top 10 list, even though it's ranked significantly lower. In any case, the premise of Sharin no Kuni seems really interesting, and the art looks pretty! With that being said, WHEN IS FRONTWING GOING TO RELEASE THE ENGLISH VERSION?! It's been years since it was announced, and it's still not out! Oh, well. I guess I can wait for word of the English version being canceled. No, I need to stay positive! An English version is going to come out!

Funny enough, I finally found the full version of this visual novel's opening song while I was working on this list, and I am listening to it as I'm writing this part! Anyway, it's 2024, and I'm still in love with the premise of My Girlfriend is the President. I have been for about 10 years now, back when I was definitely too young to have known it existed. Unfortunately, I can't find any Let's Plays for it on YouTube anymore, and I wasn't quite done with the Let's Play I had been watching before it disappeared; thus, I can't experience the rest of the story without the sex scenes. Oh, well. At least I can feel proud of JAST USA for donating the money from a sale for this game that they did a while back to Ukraine!

If anyone who may have come across this post even thinks about saying that this game copied Doki Doki Literature Club, I will hit you over the head with a baseball bat for your idiocy. 

Mind if I borrow that bat for a minute, Miyuki?

Okay, I won't actually do that, but seriously, even if Doki Doki Literature Club came out before the English version of You and Me and Her (and has probably amassed more popularity), I'm pretty sure the Japanese version came out before DDLC was even conceptualized! (It came out before DDLC, for sure.) That being said, I do like DDLC, and I welcome any visual novel that shares similarities with it! I even watched a bit of Bijuu Mike's Let's Play of it a few years ago, which made me even more interested! So yeah, in conclusion, I'm quite interested in You and Me and Her.

I had never even heard of IxSHE Tell until NekoNyan was about to release their English localization of it on Steam, but learning more about it made me very interested. From what I've heard, the way romancing girls works in this game is quite unique compared to other visual novels. The concept seems cute, too, even if it's not as unique as the gameplay. Need I say more? No, I don't think I do.

Look, I acknowledge that the original visual novel for One is what led to Key being formed, which I'm grateful for, but when I watched the anime adaptation back in 2014 (the non-hentai one), I absolutely hated it. It had ugly animation, so-so music and voice acting, and a story that would probably only make sense to someone who had played the original visual novel. I almost dropped this 4-episode OVA, it was so bad! With that being said, I'm sure the me from back then would be shocked to see One in my top 10 list of visual novels I want to play, even if I'm talking about the remake. However, I did play a bit of the demo for the remake, and holy crap, it was so much better than that pile of feces! It had a classic visual novel charm to it with the addition of updated, gorgeous graphics! Yeah, needless to say, if I got the chance to play it, I'd be willing to.

Oh, and can one of the anime studios in Japan please produce an anime adaptation of the remake? Preferably one that is a TV series and not an OVA series that makes no sense. Thank you!

Dracu-Riot was #7 on my original list. Let's see what I had to say then, shall we?

Yeah, sounds about right. Well, in regards to my reasons for being interested, anyway. The English version still hasn't been released yet, and in fact, it'll be NekoNyan that will eventually be releasing it instead of Sekai Project when the time comes. Looking forward to it either way!

You wouldn't believe how excited I got when it was announced that the HD version of Mashiroiro Symphony would be getting an English translation. While it may not have the most original concept out there, I absolutely adored both the anime and the manga adaptations, so I'm definitely interested in playing the visual novel! I want to see Ange's route, gosh darn it; she's not the main heroine in the anime or manga adaptations, but I love her! Speaking of Mashiroiro Symphony characters that I love, a route for Sana will be released as its own game. I'm looking forward to that, too!

Kanon isn't necessarily my all-time favorite anime (or even my favorite visual-novel based anime; that honor goes to Shuffle), but it does have a very special place in my heart. I absolutely love the 2006 anime, and I even found the 2002 anime to be at least somewhat good! It was also Kanon that ultimately led to my introduction to visual novels in general, given how it led to me watching Clannad, whose visual novel version was the first visual novel I gave a chance! Needless to say, I'm pretty eager to play the visual novel version of Kanon should an official English version come out. I'd buy it day one, even if I have to go bankrupt for it!

EDIT 05/17/24: AN ENGLISH VERSION IS COMING OUT ON STEAM! Bankruptcy, here I come!

On my previous list, Inochi no Spare was ranked at #3 behind G-senjou no Maou and Grisaia, both of which I have played by now. Even though my top 10 list of visual novels I want to play has shifted quite a bit, it still led to Inochi no Spare becoming the #1 visual novel I most want to play. Sure, I've listened to "Liblume" enough times by this point for me to not feel like crying to it anymore, but it's still a gorgeous song! Combine it with the gorgeous artwork and an interesting-seeming story, and it's easy to see why I'd want to play this visual novel as badly as I do. Now, if only it'd get an English translation!

....Preferably an official English translation, not just a patch.

Anyway, that'll do it for my top 10 list of visual novels I want to play! Luckily, most of the visual novels on this version of the list either already have English releases or will have one in the future, so who knows? Maybe six years from now, I will have actually played all of them!