Never thought I’d ever have bragging rights, though honestly it just makes me look like a hopeless case. So at the end of the year I thought I’d check how many galge I played this year. Big mistake… 80. Yeah. Bundling the split-up releases together would lower that number a bit. Honestly, I don’t even like galge. I’ve said this more than once: I play them because I hate half-finished anime productions, hate the dumbass plots of light novels, hate the endless circular storytelling of light novel and manga serializations. The only place I can get my Japanese-style fix and a clean, fast story conclusion is a galge—rarely do you see a galge end with “wait for the next volume,” and, bluntly, in a game the protagonist always ends up banging a girl instead of waffling between an ever-growing harem. I hate being called a “landmine checker” and I hate it when people read my impressions and go “I like big dicks and big tits, if you’re playing adult games don’t act all high and mighty”—but somehow I ended up playing this many anyway. So people say: you’ve played so many, you should recommend a few. Thinking back over the year, there really aren’t many that deserve the word “面白い.” Most have janky art and nonsensical stories. Recommending the better ones spreads the gospel and saves people some detours—that’s worthwhile. I’ve already eaten shit; sure, part of me enjoys watching others fall into the same pit, but I’d rather watch the ugly bastards who read my warning and dive in anyway. So let’s go. No particular order, just as they come to mind.

One big reason I play visual novels is that I want to see all kinds of stories. Light novels and anime rarely give you a strict narrative—mostly they hand you a premise and an opening, then it’s expand, expand, expand. You’re just getting into it and suddenly you’ve caught up with the latest release, so you’re stuck waiting week by week while the author drags it out until the heat death of the universe. By the time you finally get an ending, it’s either an open-ended nothingburger or a total trainwreck that leaves a bad taste. I went through that with two manga and decided never again. Most visual novels at least have a clear main storyline. Even if the first half is all tea parties and slice-of-life, there’s a necessary main arc and climax that drives the ending. That’s why a lot of moe-focused games I’ve played eventually throw in some plot development—no matter how well it’s written, at least they make a token effort, tell you the story is over, and give you a Happy Ending. Well… Yukikoi Melt (ゆきこいめると) is a complete outlier. The whole game has basically no obvious main plot—it’s a pure slice-of-life work, so slice-of-life that there’s nothing but slice-of-life. How pure are we talking? Have you seen GJ-bu? Have you seen Non Non Biyori? Have you seen Yuru Yuri? Beyond a premise and a setting, do any of them have a main storyline? No, right!? That’s exactly the style of Yukikoi Melt. If I had to describe it, I’d call it “four-panel manga” style.