Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Even though I know the previous work of the director for that game and knew what to expect, it's great seeing everything come together for that last emotional moment at the climax. I was also skeptical of the use of the third person narration, but even that becomes a key story element. Unfortunately, I can't call everything about that game a masterpiece, because I found some of the puzzle stuff tedious, especially when you're forced to do them multiple times to see the true ending. Obviously I still feel like the story shines through enough to be talking about it here.
I remember that same feeling playing Ever17. Going through every route eventually became a little tedious, but the payoff of that final route had me the moment The Kid realizes he knows Sara's name without ever hearing it (even though they fuck up that reveal pretty bad in the English translation). I was definitely saying "oh shit!" aloud then, quite often t after that. From there, there's a new revelation in pretty much every scene. It's even more amazing now having seen the ties with the first game and the sequel. Now there's that killer wait for the final game to be translated (I'm not including Code18 because everyone who worked on the series split off to do their own things after the acquisition by Cyberfront). Oh, and the shorter wait for the sequel to 999.
I don't want to make this a list, but I had to mention Katawa Shoujo because it's a marvel of a thing, especially considering its roots. Better than a lot of commercially available VNs and a gem from out of nowhere for me.
Hmm, now that I've replied, I don't dare go look to see if I'd already done so. I feel like I've seen this or a similar thread before.
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