THE visual novel of all time

[Buwako]

im currently downloading clannad to my laptop rn which got me thinking of the question, "whats the best visual novel?" as there are a lot of amazing stories from these types of games. although i think i have my own personal answer to this, im curious what others think is the greatest they have ever read.

 

[MagicalMiku]

Clannad and Kanon are probably the best classics, but in general, all Key titles are very good:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(company)
Then of course there are so many different genres of visual novels, think of Steins Gate, Fate series, Doki Doki Literature Club, Danganronpa and Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) series. And there are also adaptions from manga and anime, for example Haruhi Suzumiya (the PSP and PS2 titles are soo good).
In terms of platforms, for PC both Steam and GOG are good for visual novels, for some you might need other websites like DLsite. For consoles, PSP, PS2, PS Vita, PS3, PS4 and Switch are very good.
What I can recommend is VNDB website (sadly its founder has passed away recently..):
https://vndb.org/

 

[Buwako]

Clannad and Kanon are probably the best classics, but in general, all Key titles are very good:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(company)
Then of course there are so many different genres of visual novels, think of Steins Gate, Fate series, Doki Doki Literature Club, Danganronpa and Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) series. And there are also adaptions from manga and anime, for example Haruhi Suzumiya (the PSP and PS2 titles are soo good).
In terms of platforms, for PC both Steam and GOG are good for visual novels, for some you might need other websites like DLsite. For consoles, PSP, PS2, PS Vita, PS3, PS4 and Switch are very good.
What I can recommend is VNDB website (sadly its founder has passed away recently..):
https://vndb.org/

ace attorney is probably my favorite visual novel series, although i dont consider it the best one i have read. it might be hard to understand, but i kinda see something being the "favorite" and something being "the best" as separate. not to say the best cant be your favorite, but favorite is a little more subjective than best, if that makes sense.

a while ago while downloading roms for my ds i found a haruhi suzumiya vn that i downloaded and played a little, and soon after doing some research on the game i found out that it was based off the anime (i didnt know about haruhi suzumiya at the time) and its on my anime watchlist now, but i think it will be a good while until i get to it

 

[MagicalMiku]

absolutely watch Haruhi Suzumiya (season1+s2+movie), then read all the books. It's incredible and unique, my top 3 of all time.
About the "best" visual novel, I really think most of the Key made visual novels are among the best. Also To Heart series is a classic much beloved.