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In Case of Emergency really feels like a sleeper hit in the FVN community, which is surprising considering it's one of the most important things a VN can be: Finished. 

ICoE really captures what it's like to be at that weird precipice of finding yourself and feeling like everyone else knows who they are and what they're doing. I don't know if I'm smart enough to use words like "deconstruction" but the novel definitely tackles that escapist fantasy that a lot of people born in the 90s to the early 00s have felt from the pressures of growing up in an increasingly hostile world. If you were the kind of kid waiting for your letter from a magic school or to stumble through a wardrobe into a magical land, until you finally aged out of that age range of "something wonderful can still happen to me," then In Case of Emergency might speak to you. 

Existing in the perfect place between not too long and not too short, the routes and characters are all compelling and interesting, and help provide other mirrors and foils for the kinds of people who might want to just... escape. Still the novel shines the best when speaking to those of us who are kind of mediocre, and have always desired to be something a bit... more.

Cienie is an amazing piece of work so far, and it looks to only get better. A really unique and defining art style, great writing (with really neat Polish/Malaysian pronunciation guides), and an absolutely phenomenal original soundtrack! 

Tackling issues like small towns with no privacy, fractured relationships with both family, and with friends, and the kind of mental illness that makes other people doubt your reliability. The intrigue of the characters is extremely compelling. 

The mystery of the novel is also very compelling. Why have these people gone missing? How are they connected to the main characters? Why are some different?

On top of all this, Cienie does an amazing job with horror, which is often really hard to pull off and even harder to maintain. I can't say much more without spoilers, but Cienie swings almost right out of the gate and every time it starts to let you relax, you're reeled right back in by something just a little more sinister.

It wouldn't be extreme to call Dawntide my favorite FVN out there right now. Everything about this game is amazing, from pretty much every angle you look at it. The art is gorgeous, the music is great (there's a song that I occasionally open the game specifically to listen to), and the writing from the main character's perspective is beautiful in a way that's also very cleverly diegetic.

Dawntide has multiple routes, and wow am I glad, because each character has such a unique and interesting perspective on their relationship to Rliey, the main character. The childhood friend who has been gone for years, the burnt out sensitive soul who is frustrated that everyone is acting like nothing has changed, the trans athlete who is trying to rise above his beginnings, and the mysterious True Love back for a limited time. All of these are so ripe for story, and Riley themself acts as an amazing conduit for the story. 

I can't recommend this one high enough, it's worth the time, and worth throwing some money at if you can!

Burrows is perhaps the hardest on here to recommend. It lives up to its content warnings and more, but at the same time it's also one of the best FVNs currently out there, and those hard to stomach topics are really what helps set itself apart. tl;dr: It's good, on all fronts it presents itself.

Occasionally there will be a bit of raw gore or shock value thrown in, or an ill timed bulge perhaps just a little too defined, but overall it handles its dire subjects with a lot of care and nuance. I don't want to imply that I'm the kind of person who is always on the lookout for something being Problematic, because I'm not and I don't have that kind of time, but Burrows tackles a lot of heavy subjects that I think if it messed up with would make it very hard to read and enjoy the rest of the game... but they nail it with relative compassion each time. The main character is a traumatized queer from the 1920s, the route anchors are all deeply flawed and burdened people who make sometimes make the wrong decisions, but the game itself doesn't necessarily judge them for that, and it certainly doesn't depict them as amoral or unable to recover or enjoy things.

The main character is a disabled, somewhat recovered alcoholic, pansexual idiot, and I say that with all the love in my heart. Grey is one of the hottest main characters out there, and even though his intelligence and wisdom are both severely lacking, he does have a massive advantage over a lot of VN protagonists, and that's his resounding sense of empathy. Grey cares, and he cares a lot. He's not perfect, but he is believable. Out of everyone, he does a resounding job of making me care about him the most. Also he's another washed up 25 year-old, and that's how old I was when I started burrows, so he has a special place in my heart for that as well.

Finally, the porn. I think a lot of mediums that are "something + porn" struggle a lot to fit the porn in. Burrows does a fairly good job of keeping it reasonable, and hot, as well as giving Grey (via the player's choices) the option to opt out of most of the nsfw scenes in the game. It wouldn't be overselling it to call Nikko a pillar of the nsfw furry community, I think, and admittedly he just likes holes, smells, and a variety of other (still relatively tame by furry standards) things on a level that I just don't match. However! It has been toned down for this vn I assume for viewer accessibility, which I appreciate. Still, you can skip it all if it's not your thing, so you don't even have to worry about it. That said, if you are into spice with your meal, there are a LOT of really good dynamics, and they blend well with the characters themselves. I don't think the "does this sex scene serve the plot" argument really has a place here, but I do think that it adds a lot to the characterization of a lot of the cast. As a nice aside, some of the sex scenes do have a degree of, for lack of a better term, after school special to them. A small bit of "sex ed" but in more of a "hey sex is a lot more free form and chill than just topping and bottoming, domming or subbing, and as long as everyone involved is content and consenting, there's not really a way to do it wrong," which is nice. Some might say a bit on the nose, but I think sometimes it's wrong to trust your audience. Also there's trans rep who fucks so hell yeah!!!

All in all, Burrows is definitely not for everyone, and probably not for the faint of heart, but still extremely worth playing. It's one of my personal favorites, and it stands well on its own two feet. There are many unique aspects to it, and still the sum of its incredibly good parts is greater than its whole. I'll throw my weight behind it as a future classic in this niche art-form.

Bisexuals Stay Winning the Game. If you're like me and you love men and also women oh boy is Conway for you. I don't even know how to pitch it beyond that really. It's bi historical fiction with a healthy mix of characters you actually care about and hot smut. It's on a boat, everyone loves boats. The writing is really clever, Nomax's painted art is breathtakingly gorgeous, and the cast is equal parts endearing and charming.

It's nonlinear, which means there's a lot of variation to how you can play it and who you want to hang out with, with lots of painstaking care to give unique dialogue in reaction to how you're spending your time. James is a very malleable main character, but still enough of his own person that he comes off as a bit roguish and a bit silly. I can't help but root for him, and that's not just because I want to see him makeout with his hot crewmates. 

All in all, Conway has a little bit of a feast for everyone, even if you just want to be friends and find yourself on the high seas.

Extremely underrated FVN with good art, intense writing, and excellent production.

Normally when something advertises difficult and unique relationship dynamics, it's a bit of a letdown in the actual game. Not in Minerva. The game has a very small cast, and all three of them feel very solid and fleshed out. The more the reader learns about each one, the more believable and real they become. The dynamics between each individual pair, and all of them together, are both rarely explored in fiction despite being something you see in real life, and believably compelling, without falling into the trap of feeling you're watching some weird psychosexual retelling of No Exit.

The use of sound effects, sprites, computer graphics, and even occasional animation, really elevates this game as something making full use of the medium of visual novels. It's not hard to see this game becoming a future classic up there with things like Echo and Burrows.

Short and sweet, a one sitting game about two long distance partners meeting in person for the first time. I don't want to imply this game is sad by calling it cathartic, but if you have just long distance friendships, much more a long distance relationship, I think this one is a good ideal to aspire to. Beautiful art, beautiful writing, and very, very real.

Kingsguard is like if a 90s bodice-ripper was about a pathetic twink and instead of Fabio as the leading man it was one of 3 furry hunks (and some other side hunks) and also it had a plot where the main character sometimes has agency but in a way that's novel and exciting. 

Truly, I think what makes Kingsguard is the main character, Katan. Seeing him go from pampered prince who thinks he knows what he wants to an actual adult resolved to undergo hardship, take responsibility, and salvage his kingdom, is my favorite part. He understands that he can't physically match the monsters and warriors of his world since he's both human and sheltered. The writing takes advantage of this by letting him solve his problems in more complex ways than raw physicality or sitting back and letting the route anchor do all the work.

A good read if you're looking for something a little horny, a little dramatic, and all around fun to read.

Lookouts is a really beautiful game about T4T cowboys who find shelter and home in each other. It starts out as a standard western pitch, two rival bandit gangs, but centers around the quiet intimacy of shared trauma and campfires. It's good, it's gay, and you can finish it in a sitting or two, with gorgeous art to perfectly compliment the story. Please buy the bonus content because the epilogue comics are so cute.

Many VNs can suffer from having too many routes or splitting the attention from what should be a linear story, but Moonlight Castle does an excellent job of both juggling its cast, and making sure that the rest of the characters that are out of the spotlight still feel like they're living their own lives. 

The cast has some diverse species in it that you don't often see, and the art style is so charming. The sprites are a strong sell that really help bring the characters to life. The original score compliments the royalty free music as well. It's just a solid all around experience for people new to the genre along with those well versed.

Glory Hounds is a cool game made by cool people. Honestly all the charm of comic book, all the glam of a well managed production headed by queer people. 

I'm always predisposed to the main character, but Alex is one of the best ones out there. A perfect mix between lovable goof, burnt out 20 something, and thirsty f... well, I shan't say. The supporting cast are amazing, the villains are charming, and the art style (with fully illustrated backgrounds) really ties it all together. Each issue is its own complete piece which leaves you full and satisfied between updates!

I never know how to pitch Adastra, because I think a lot of the things people want from it it doesn't necessarily deliver... and those are also the same things that turn people off from playing it. I don't want to spoil it too much, but I think it's less of a political intrigue, furry dating sim, smut vn, roman political recreation, or full deconstruction of anything therein... but a story about love, and destiny, and what we make of those two together. I don't know. Even if you love or hate any of the things I just listed, I think it's worth playing. I do think there will be a little more enjoyment if you have some familiarity with dating sims or fvns, just because you can get the little winks when expectations are inverted, but it stands extremely well on its own. 

The writing really carries it. Infamously, Adastra happened because Howly bummed himself out so much from writing the first 3 routes of echo that he stepped away to write this instead. I think a lot of the skills he started to explore and refine in Echo show through wonderfully in Adastra, from moments of intimacy, to arguments where everyone is both in the right and the wrong at the same time. It also has a human protagonist, which I know is a turn off for some people, but I promise it's worth it, and they do utilize Marco's differences from the rest of the cast.

The overall message is, even if Adastra doesn't carry anything for you on the surface, if you give it an honest go, I believe it will still pull you in.

If you've made it through Echo, you owe it to yourself to make it through Arches.

A lot of shit we're not going to get into happened between the creation of Echo and the creation of Arches, so the writing in this one tends to be a lot more blunt and straightforward. However this game acts as a nice capstone to the end of the story of the "echoverse," in part because it's so straight forward about its themes and meanings. Really tries to clear up, as much as it can without betraying the original narratives, any questions about what's what in regards to the happenings of and around the town.

As a personal aside, the other reason I'd recommend Arches is because it does an incredibly, sometimes uncomfortably so, good job of depicting what it's like to be in a relationship with someone where one of you has severe mental illness. Whichever side of that you may fall on, it's worth making it to the end for that as well.

This is a peek into some of the long lost early days of Echo, close to back when it was a project coming from Blackgate. It's not just a museum piece though, it's still worth playing, as whoever Chase chooses here, is the same person he chooses many years later outside Lake Emma. The characters manage to feel pretty consistent between their teenage loser selves and their... admittedly still pretty loser college aged selves. Goes best as a break from the main game right before playing Jenna's route, as she actively references events from this night.

The start of it all. If you ever decide you want to really get into FVNs, or even make your own, this is a must play. 

Echo is something you can see in the reflections and the shadows of a lot of other projects out there. It's low budget, it's gritty, and it's down to earth. It's not perfect, I have felt every human emotion about Echo, and I mean this in both good and bad ways. For better and for worse, this game has long lasting and long reaching impacts in this otherwise very niche medium. It drove me mad for a few years, and sometimes it still occupies my thoughts in new and/or frustrating ways. I could write much more than this blurb about it, but suffice to say, it's got some of the best queer writing I've ever read, and it's something I hope to draw inspiration from myself. 

IMPORTANT: Like any game with choices, you may play it yourself however you want, but I think Echo is best experienced in a specific order. Ironically, that's pretty much the release order, but I've modified it a little. Route order for the best Deep Blue Feeling curated experiences is Carl, Leo, TJ, Flynn, Route 65 (with at least Jenna as a partner, but you may play the others as well if you wish), ideally all of the side stories found hidden in the main menu (but at least Runaway, Phone, and Trip), and finally Jenna's route to finish it out.