discussion What are some games that surprised you with how good it was and it became one of your favorites?

[shaiko]

church of vice

 

[Fish6969]

Mist… there is no reason I should like that game… few characters, grindy at times, etc.

Really deep into it now and it is getting a bit”ground hog day” ish. So I haven’t finished it (three months since last play)… but never thought I would get this far.

 

[rocketsheep]

Now & Then. I really didn't have high hopes. I am not into dark themes or horror, even if treated humorously. When the 'zombie apocalypse' suddenly became a joke that somehow everyone kept mentioning, I had completely missed the memo and never got the point. But this game was supposed to be good and it was supposed to be better than The Interim Domain by the same developer, which I found a bit strange but overall quite OK. (The Interim Domain was still unfinished at the time. I haven't played the final version yet.)

Turns out Now & Then is a complete story with a proper beginning and a proper (though not very memorable) end and a proper plot in between. It has a large but not extreme cast of characters who feel like real people with real problems. It's long, but not so long as to overstay its welcome. Basically, this is a pretty decent novel, but in the form of an AVN, where this kind of quality is not expected. A large part of it is also a pretty good road movie in the form of an AVN. Also, very important for me: the zombie stuff isn't overdone. It's just some more or less realistic pandemic that causes civilization to break down so this story becomes possible.

 

[RemoMe]

Book of Lust would be it for me.

 

[somedude95]

My journy down the adult VN started with a Petal among thorns. Great daddy daughter stuff, awesome writing, good designs. Now that I've looked around a bit, Blackheart is one of my fav developers and right behind him is Ketzal. They both make amazing games and have some petite models in them. Blackheart for the darker side of things and Ketzal for the loving relationship stuff. They both have a good catalog of games to choose from, I highly recommend checking them out.

 

[Cybercatman]

I think the main one for me would be My New Family, the image did not do much to interest me, but i was bored and did not had anything better to do at that moment but giving it a try, ended up absolutely loving the characters, mainly Lucy and Sun

 

[Tisty]

For me is mist. If not because of the high rating and reviews i would never even thinking about trying that game by just looking at the thumbnail of the game. After trying it holy the game is good. graphics and animations are top notch. Not many games and devs out there able to create such good facial expressions of their characters

 

[josuke]

first time playing bone tales the manor was amazing

 

[josuke]

and probably the game that put me on bestiality tag

first time playing bone tales the manor was amazing

 

[Faturek]

Once in a lifetime
I was very skeptical, but now it's one of my absolute favorites.

 

[rojomanuel]

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find the words to describe how good this one made me feel , looking forward for games like this one​

 

[SophieTheCutes]

Somebody already said Friends in Need, but I'm saying it again because it's still good.
Harem Hotel was one of my first hentai games, and I fully expected it to be trash. It surprised me by actually making me cry at one point, and by generally being compelling. It doesn't get updated much, and none of the stories are fully complete, but there's a solid amount of content and likeable characters.

 

[lak]

Back door connection

 

[Gaminggxz]

East block is really good but there still isn't much scenes kind of a slow burn

 

[Burgouis]

Hillside. Beautiful girls and a great plot mean that you don't even care that it's barely NSFW.

 

[jeff1005]

Cosy Cafe, Eternum and Waifu Academy spring to mind as VNs that I was very pleasantly surprised with, although being rather dubious at the start.
My all-time favorite was MIST, but I was hooked by its storyline from the very beginning, so doesn't really count in this particular thread.

 

[DMarc1387]

For me, it was an abandoned HTML, transformation, (I HATE TF games), game called "Strange Times at Scholman High". Don't even know why I tried it, but it was so well written and engaging, that I was really disappointed when I got to the end. However, it had a lot of replayability as there were several different paths.

Damn, now I'm bummed again that it's abandoned!

 

[User_159114]

The Headmaster

 

[BoofyMagic]

love & sex second base

 

[thisdf34]

For me the best one is Mist, it has a good story, good animation and it is ending, although I feel like there could have been more, it ended very well.

It's a full complete game that is consistent and felt like it had a beginning/middle/end. A rarity.