Wow... another extremely rare five star from me. Usually I save these for completed VN's, so this one is even more rare.
Intertwined starts off with a fantastic premise, six degrees of separation. Ask a math nerd or sociologist for the finer details, but the basic point is that even with a large population there are a surprising number of first and second order relationships between complete strangers.
Every character has a complex story that fits like a fractal puzzle piece in this VN. Even the apparently out of reach characters are three dimensional with interrelated needs and motivations. I discovered this two chapters ago and with chapter seven it just keeps getting better.
I start the game with my own personal hi-jinks... I call it my "normal" play-through where I act as myself, ie; don't stick your dick in crazy, hold back until you get to know the lay of the land (er... ladies)... that kind of deal. For a lot of VN's, this is also an amusing way to totally break the story and play-through. This is one of the very rare VN's that actually allows you to be a celibate monk and yet still gives you massive amounts of story that entertains. Honestly, it's a viable strategy for this story, and also probably a good safe and realistic methodology. The hidden social connections do come out pretty quickly and you get the feeling that you may have dodged a number of bullets when you do this.
You also get the opportunity to be nice without immediately jumping into sex. This is actually pretty refreshing. So many VN's automatically leave the choices to either be a complete douchebag, or stick your dick in crazy. This played a surprisingly important factor as far as my rating goes because it is so very rare.
Once I took the plunge and pursued my interests on later play-through's, it just got better. You get so much story with cool interactions, but there is even more when playing hot. It seems as if you cannot get all the stories in a single play either which is excellent.
The visuals are on the high end of the scale, but they do fall short in production value. This is usually the big tipping point for a five star rating. While this one gets that fifth star for superb story, don't imagine the visuals to be lacking. Like most of the better visual novels there is still a lot of love put into the models themselves. The poses, clothing, and ages seem to be crafted pretty well. Sure, the MC seems a bit older than stated, but not to the extreme that some take it. He's fine, and I'll accept "18" for him. What's even better though is that most of the characters, especially the parents, get to be seen at several ages that do look pretty natural.
What should be a failing is that once you realize just how interconnected everyone seems to be, you start to expect it everywhere. That's where the good writing comes into play. Back in chapter five I was imagining some problematic revelations, and by chapter seven I am feeling SO MUCH more certain that some of these may actually happen... and I can't wait to find out for sure.
If you want some good hot vanilla sex at a decent pace, you got it here. If you want a story that really engages you though then this will amaze you.