Your gateway VN?

first i played was The Sagara Family

Mine, oddly enough, was Umineko No Naku Koro Ni.

The way it happened was, I saw Higurashi and loved it, then watched the Umineko anime because I liked Higurashi. Loved the anime, then saw a bunch of people here talking about how terrible the anime was... so I decided to check out the game for myself to see what I was missing.

As one can tell, it's a rather odd gateway VN, being a Kinetic Novel and also just... being itself, but it got me into the medium and it's still my favorite out of all the VNs I've played, so I regret nothing.

If Ace Attorney counts then that. If not, then Chaos Head and Steins Gate.

My first VN was an infamous nukige eroge ( Bible Black) my friend showed to me as a joke about a year ago. It's no longer troped here with good reason. Though its content was repulsive, the writing was just decent enough to get me hooked on V Ns.

My first real VN was Fate Stay Night, like so many others here. Leaping from nukiges to something quality and professional made the experience of seeing the medium used for artistic purposes all the more awesome and profound. I played FSN every day for two weeks, have still been replaying every now and then. I've tried out Fate Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, CLANNAD, School Days, Cross Channel, Saya No Uta, Katawa Shoujo, nukiges not worthy of mention, and some really obscure stuff in this already-niche genre since then.

edited 25th Feb '13 6:29:58 PM by AmateurPolymath

If discussing which "vanilla" VN was my first (In that it had no unusual gameplay elements, just story), Fate/Stay Night. If the term is used "loosely", Devil Survivor 2.

edited 2nd Mar '13 5:04:47 PM by SalmonPunch

Elven Relations.

Juniper's Knot, a kinetic visual novel by the little-known Dischan.

Or perhaps Professor Layton, if that counts as one?

edited 15th Feb '14 6:54:07 AM by ObasaReisan

Ace Attorney probably was the first VN I played, though I didn't know what a VN was at the time.

Beyond that, naturally, Fate Stay Night.

I think that was Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni… I remember that I was watching the anime and wanted to have all the clues available to solve the mystery. I failed anyway . But I was quite fascinated by the possibilities given by this format. Some of the scenes made me literally lose my appetite (good god Rika's suicide in Meakashi-hen…) and some made me actually cry… For now all I have read is 07th Expansion's VNs (When They Cry, Higanbana and Rose Guns Days) and Fate Stay Night (that one is difficult to avoid, isn't it)… so yeah, I've really read only one "ordinary" VN with routes and stuff. I'm also thinking about starting Steins Gate one of those days (or Chaos Head if it needs to be read first).

Now like others here, the true story is that my first VN was Bible Black, but that one doesn't count.

edited 11th Apr '14 3:09:28 AM by Lyendith

Muh first would be Katawa Shoujo since it was one of the few ones that works with a Macbook. Afterwards it was Fate/stay night on the PC. If Phoenix Wright counts, then put that before Katawa but I personally don't count it so nope. Now I've added Sci ADV, Grisaia, Saya no Uta, and obscure hentai ones into my list, along with some others still in-progress(Tsukihike most notably).

I am ashamed to admit I never quite found the motivation to download and try Bible Black.

The first one I ever played was Narcissu. After that, Umineko. Loved both.

Probably Katawa Shoujo or Planetarian, I forget which I did first.

Kana Little Sister for sure! Gosh that game. It has been upwards of five years now and sometimes just thinking, reading or listening to the tracks causes to weep for a while

Fate/Stay Night

It really depends on how you define it. :P Higurashi was the first that I ever heard about, Ace Attorney was the first I watched, Juniper's Knot was the first I played anything of, and Ghost Trick was the first I actually completed myself.

Clannad would definitely be mine.

I would say my gateway into the world of visual novels would be runaway city.

Fate for me as well. Unless you count Sengoku Rance as a VN.

don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story.

Japanese-origin, part of CLANNAD or all of Saya no Uta.

Kanon, back when it was first translated in 2009. I immediately fell in love.

Holy crap, I just learned Sprung is a visual novel. I have no idea how I got my hands on that game when I was seven - maybe it was my mom's?

So yeah, that was my first.

The Higurashi anime was where I first became aware of and curious about Visual Novels. But it wasn't until like a decade later that I actually played one in the case of Long Live The Queen. It and the Hateful Days pair were the first things I bought off Steam (not counting TF 2 since it's F 2 P).

Yume Miru Kusuri was my first visual novel. I really like all three main heroines, but my favourite route is still Aeka's. Mizuki's story got really over the top at the end and Nekoko's arc was a little lackluster (I wish the developer could spent more time on her real self). Aeka's story-line was simple, but therein lay its charm. What really stood out in all routes was that the 'H-scenes' were all integral to the narrative and were not just thrown in because it is a visual novel. In fact I was really glad for the experience at the end of the visual novel, which says something because I only tried Yume Miru Kusuri out of curiosity.

For me, it was Demonbane.

I've heard about it beforehand, mostly about how the characters were powerful, and I researched a bit out of interest. Then, I discovered it was an eroge novel with a freaking good story, so good that people barely cared abou the eroge. That sealed the deal, and I downloaded it.

Still one of my favorites to this day.

Dangan Ronpa for me. I played Katawa Shoujo, but Danganronpa is just so interesting to me.