Games/VNs that transcend the nostalgia filter

What romance games and visual novels from several years ago do you still enjoy today? What stories and games have you discovered, years after they were made, which you like?

For me, I'd have to start with Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side. This is a special case, because while the original game was created in 2002, there were no plans to make any English fan translation until 2010, a while after the Nintendo DS port was released. (The translation was finished late the same year.)

In kind of the same way, there were only vague rumors of any Sakura Wars game localizations until May 2009. When the fifth game in the series was released in English the next year, it seemed a bit old, as the Japanese version had been created in 2005. I enjoyed it, but I felt a bit let down. Too many years of expectations.

So what about you?

Oh my, I just happened upon this thread.

I remember Tokimeki, but my first was Sakura Taisen, which I still play on my Saturn emulator. I never went so far as to go through all the routes, but I had a blast playing it. The OP still brings a huge smile to my face. (Well, actually, it makes me want to go out in a huge steampunk mecha to defend alternate-Taisho Tokyo from demons, but whatever. ^_^;)

Contemparaneous with both of those was the grand dame of mainstream eroge: Dokyusei (同級生) and its sequels, Dokyusei 2 and Kakyusei (下級生). The games were by ELF, and set up the eroge template that would eventually be adopted as standard: you'd go round the town, and talk to different heroines depending on the location, and the route you get depends on figuring out which heroine is going to be where at any given time. I'd say that the Circus games were their direct successor...

Man, that takes me back. (1992!)

Hm... Well, I only got into VNs and similar translated stuff in... 2008? I think. So I would have to say probably Tsukihime. It was one of the very first I ever played. I had no music, there's no VA, the graphics are bad and the writing could be fairly iffy at points. Yet to this day I find it to be one of the best VNs out there. It has a great story and an excellent cast who actually have relations together independent of Shiki, something I find is surprisingly rare. Or when it's done it's not a great job. In fact, looking at the individual members of the cast I have to say that the likes of Arcueid or Kohaku really outshine most of the newer heroines I can think of.

Full voices are a relatively recent thing. Even in Sakura Taisen the voices were reserved for key moments.

The ELF games were completely silent. I don't know what the first fully-voiced VN was.

EDIT: Well, ok, not completely silent; there was BGM.

edited 4th Jul '11 1:57:21 AM by zeroplusalpha

I stumbled into visual novel fandom almost ten years ago. Two of the first few that I read were the vintage Jast/C's Ware games Three Sisters Story and Season of the Sakura. Both included some adventure game elements, such as a system that resembles a limited text parser. I didn't especially enjoy the former, though I found the latter to be cute and just a little thoughtful.

I bring this up because I haven't played either in several years. Not sure how they hold up. Would the text parser-esque elements be enjoyable, or would they slow down the pace? And is there anything remarkable about Three Sisters Story other than the "should the main character use a condom" option?