I'll be honest, the reason I purchased Love Ribbon wasn't because I was expecting a well written story and characters (not that I'm without complaints on these two things) but rather for perhaps the more obvious reason - sister incest.

However, my perversions aside, I was pleasantly suprised by the engaging story that takes itself seriously and deals with the reprecussions of an incestuous relationship - both societally and mentally. And unless you go out of your way to patch the game, adding explicit content, the focus is way more on the inner struggles of the sisters and how they deal with their love for each other than it is on sex (Disclaimer: I haven't played without the patch. But I'm assuming that the two really explicit sex scenes are not in the unpatched version.)

I also found myself attached to the characters. They're given attributes that make them feel more human, which in turn makes them relatable (in the sense that they have flaws, etc. Not saying everyone is going to relate to incest...). And as the story progesses, so to do the characters progress - change or become more open, etc.

However, although I do praise the writing and characters, they both suffer from a flaw that usually keeps me away from a lot of visual novels - they're anime characters. That is to say, the main girl is your typical awkward, shy, quiet, studious, anime girl. A cliche. Now, they took the anime cliches and built on them, but they're still there and it still impacts the overall writing. This could just be my bias. But I'm bored of anime character cliches and I'm definitely tired of visual novels relying heavily on them.

But with that said, I still really enjoyed Love Ribbon. This is an odd recommendation. Because I definitely recommend it, but the subject matter - incest - is rather taboo and could put people off easily. But if you're not completely disgusted just thinking about it, then even if you disagree with some of the points the game makes, you could still enjoy it overall.

Now, if you see "Forbidden sister love" and think "ohhh interesting." Then I hold no reservations in my recommendations and you should buy it.

Edit: No one should feel apologies are needed for loving this. (sorry...but..steam awards)