That was going way too far overboard with the offtopic rambling. I try to bring it back on topic.
But this time i'm going full on recommending "weeb stuff", so that might not be the most popular thing to do here. But frankly, I still did not find anything close here to a work like
Muv Luv Alternative. Which imo is one of the best written science fiction works on the visual novel market. The detriment it has, there is a whole game, which is mediocre to set all the character backstories and do the heavy lifting introducing the cast and that is about half as long as Alternative itself, the original
Muv Luv. So similar to things you usually hear a Trek fan or Stargate nerds talk about some "rough early seasons", this is very comparable to it. The og game is not sci-fi however until the end when it switches gears setting up the world Alternative will continue to play out in.
But I can not rage hard enough against anyone trying to tell you to "just skip" the og game and only play Alternative! Do not do that! At most, you can skip some routes if you really can not stand it, but you should not skip the whole thing! If you do, you will lessen the weight and impact, Alternative has way too much to be worth saving time like that. That game relies entirely on the connection and attachment to the characters you got from playing the prequel, like every well written follow-up story should do.
The next one I recommend I'm not quite onboard with calling a "Masterpiece", but it's still incredibly well done. And a style of writing, which even in japanese vns is not seen that often.
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is the name of it. It's placed in an alt History 20th Century Japanese setting, which uses its characters to give each and every one of them philosophical ideals to be rooted in. The entire story hinges on this approach and weaves its narrative around it. There is not much else like this on the english speaking market.
The next one is a classic I wanted to mention, even if it might not be as "accessible" to a general readership. Both
Fate/ Stay Night and the semi-sequel
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia are still pretty damn great even to this day. The basic idea it's a world where magic and science combined, but otherwise it's similar to modern day japan (as in early 2000) aside from that twist to it. Ancient Magicians created a ritual called "The Holy Grail War" in which prominent figures of History and Mythical Legends serve as familiars to the participants fighting in a death match. The last man standing gets the "Holy Grail" to grant his wish. This being Japan, of course the cast consists of late teens and young adults. That's just the hurdle you have to get over. Most Japanese media put their target audience age demographic on screen to do their storytelling with.
I close my recommendations on something funny and upbeat. So the Last one
Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! This is one of the funniest vns I know of. It's a student school setting, but the twist is the world is basically Dragon Ball Z and so the School is centered around Martial Arts fighting. And instead of Goku we have the chicks you get to bang being the strongest in the setting. However, the writing is very mature and adult, there are both sex jokes and fucking very frequently in this game. They do some pretty edgy humor at times. It's just amazing to watch all of this unfold! You get the impression of the setting being alive, and there is a real friendship and group dynamic going on with the cast as well. This is not just the usual Dating Sim fare, where you have the feeling the world is suddenly dying around you once you pick the chick you want to play the route of.
The sequel
Majikoi S does some things differently and introduces stronger male fighters as well. But I want to stay on the first game mainly, because S is mostly just fan service and porn, a collection of side characters and sex with them and very little story. It has way "more content" as in doubling the routes, but it also about halves their length, resulting in routes lasting maybe 3 to 5 hours at best very frequently. The main cast from the first game gets sidelined pretty hard too. So to me, it's far worse than the original game.
One final thing which is imo not ideal is the translation. Both the
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and the newly commissioned and released one at the end of 2020 from publisher JAST USA which the links here in the forum point to do have problems. And while the fan translation being inconsistent can be explained away by different teams completing different routes over many years separately from each other. The changes in character the official translation did, is imo just not true to their personalities anymore. Especially the protagonist got changed so much, he doesn't even speak like he belongs to this group of friends anymore - despite having grown up with them! Frankly, I would not read the JAST version. (and I tried my best with it as it came out) Furthermore, Majikoi S as well as the Majikoi A FanDisc only have fan translations done by the same group, called "Maji Translations", so it makes more sense to read their version if you continue on with more Majikoi anyway. Nicknames, the way they talk with each other, honorifics, it's pretty much a consistency thing across the board.
Ok...that was about all I wanted to suggest. I do hope these recommendations were helpful to some! And that I did a decent job of bringing the thread on topic again with this post now.
