This is just a list of games and visual novels that I absolutely adore and I think could be worth both your money and time. And I don't mean that as in "This one is good, you need to buy it" kind, I mean it in the "These are some of the reasons I still have faith in the game industry" kind.

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Silence the Pedant
Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell

My all-time personal favourite visual novel series. A story about a princess and her guardian involuntarily travelling to the other side of the world, and they must make it back to their kingdom to hopefully save it from an attack that was taking place. The story is less about actually making it back home, and more about the story of new places that are visited and new people that are met. If you're going in thinking "GET BACK HOME ALREADY", then you need to slow down and start taking in the atmosphere, because this is definitely more about the journey than the destination.

I put in Silence the Pedant even before it's been released because the demo of it is already looking like the best in the series. STP takes place 5 years before milestone one, so you could technically read it without ever having read any of the others. I also threw in Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell in there because it's made by the same people and, while short, the quality of it is absolutely brilliant. All in all, so far I would pretty much recommend anything by Alice In Dissonance. They haven't let me down yet.

Oh, and if you're going to pick up this series, be prepared to wait quite a while before any new entries. They tend to take a while to come out.

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Niko wakes up in a strange world with no light, and only they can save it. Help 'em out, but remember: you only have one shot. I used to be one of those people who doesn't cry when playing video games. Whenever a sad or emotional scene came up, I would be the first one to poke fun of it. This game changed me and actually made me cry by the time I had finished it. It's also one of the most meta games I've seen on Steam. It's SO meta that it doesn't just make note of the existence of the player who's actually physically playing the game, but actually makes them a character within the game. If you like meta stuff and want something to tear you up, look no further. The only regret I have with this game is that I didn't play it before the Solstice update came out, but eh, what can you do?

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Ok, this game probably isn't for everyone, but I do have to say: despite it looking like a decent metroidvania anime game, this one is actually one of the most intuitive ideas for a game I've ever seen. It's not just a typical "go here, do that, pick that up, go back, kill this, rinse and repeat"... I mean, yeah it kinda is, but the fact that you can beat this game without picking up a single item that isn't forced upon you shows you how much thought was put into this game in the first place. On top of that, the boss fights in this game are a mixture of platformer beat-em-up and bullet hell, which is something that I don't think I've seen before. This is one of those games that I was like "okay, I'll check this place out and then I'll call it quits", only to spend another 3 hours doing who-knows-what because I was having so much fun... Wait, story? Uh... It did have one, but I was too enamoured with the gameplay.

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This is how you do an ARPG. CrossCode about this VR MMORPG type thingamajiggy where people from all over the world play. The way I say it, I can't make it sound cool. What I can say is that the gameplay is phenominal. It's fast-paced but also not something that you can just mash buttons and win. It takes some practice to get good at it but once you do, fighting enemies is one of the most satisfying things about the game. On top of that, there are a ton of different puzzles to wrap your head around. The story is also pretty good for what it is. Not the best game stories I've ever seen, but it's still pretty darn good. I absolutely recommend this one.

Emilie is the best bestie anyone could ask for, prove me wrong!

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Feels feels feels feels FEELS! If you play this game, you will not escape the overwhelming amount of FEELS it throws towards you. You play a boy accompanied by his mother, explore a foreign world and solve puzzles to help other people with their troubles. Then you just want to cry. This game was like OneShot to me, but without the meta. It also has an amazing soundtrack. The only thing I don't really like about this game that the moving and backtracking is a bit too slow. If they added a run button, I wouldn't even have many negatives to talk about to be honest. Still, magnificent game, would absolutely recommend.

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I know what you're thinking: "Oh, this game again? Really? Haven't we heard about it enough already?" I thought about not adding this to the list because everyone's always talking about it. It's as if Undertale came out all over again. But truth be told, this really is a great visual novel. The problem with talking about it is that... you probably shouldn't talk about it with people who haven't read it. Why? Because that'd be spoiling what's great about it in the first place. So if you're going to read it, go in blind. Don't read up anything else about it until after you've finished it. It's practically essential to keep yourself in the dark to enjoy this. Just know that most of the praise and overwhelmingly positive reviews this visual novel has gotten is well-deserved. Besides, it's free! So you don't have to worry about wasting money on this... Unless you buy the Fan Pack DLC, but that's completely optional and doesn't add anything to the visual novel itself.