Ussi
Smash Legend
As an avid visual novel player, I play these frequently. I like to talk about what I play, but visual novels by themselves probably aren't popular enough to have their own thread so I thought i'd make one to discuss about them in general.
So some ground rules:
1. No spoilers without spoiler tags
2. Talk about any visual novel you want besides pure eroge ones
3. Don't talk about the eroge part of visual novels
4. No linking people downloads of games, patches are fine. If you want to find out where to download games, give me a VM/PM
While i said there are no spoilers without spoiler tags, do be warned that there will still be minor spoilers such as names of hidden characters and hidden routes.
so I guess I'll start it off saying I played Clannad over thanksgiving break, finished it completely besides the extra baseball route and Sunohara end. Such a wonderful visual novel i recommend it to everyone and there is no eroge in it as well, so those who want to read a visual novel that is completely story based with no eroge, in fact no direct fanservice, this is a visual novel to play. (There is some hidden fan service in Yukine's route involving some other characters)
Clannad is a very basic high school setting visual novel, nothing can really be said about it besides its a great first visual novel to get into. You play as Okasaki who is a delinquent student and you interact with various kinds of girls. There is also an after story that is a continuation of the main heroine's story, Nagisa.
Each (required) route has a touching story to go with it. If i have to say my favorite routes they'd be Tomoyo's, Kotomi's, then Kyou's route.
I'll probably edit the OP with other visual novels i've played later on.