The first half of the story follows high school student Tomoya Okazaki, who has turned to delinquent behavior after numerous life stressors including the death of his mother, his father’s alcohol and gambling addiction, and physical abuse that prevented him from joining the basketball team. At the beginning of his third year, Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, who couldn’t join the now-disbanded drama club due to an illness. Tomoya spends his time helping Nagisa rebuild the club before the story transitions to the second half, which extends over seven years. Tomoya and Nagisa are married, but complications in childbirth leave him a single father who can barely function. After his daughter inherits her mother’s illness and dies, Tomoya’s grief creates an Illusionary World, where he can bring back Nagisa and the baby if he collects enough “lights,” which symbolize happiness.

3. Policenauts (1994)

Policenauts is an older visual novel game that takes place in two years: 2013 and 2040. In 2013, Officer Jonathan Ingram of the Los Angeles Police Department became one of five police officers who received space training (hence, Policenauts) to protect the first functional, self-supporting space colony called Beyond Coast. While testing a space suit, Ingram ends up drifting into space, where he is presumed dead. However, he is found 25 years later, alive and asleep due to the suit’s cryogenic survival system.

Now, in 2040, Ingram returns to Earth and becomes a private investigator in Old Los Angeles. His former wife – who remarried after she thought Jonathan had died – asks for his help in finding her missing husband. After initially refusing, Jonathan reunites with his former LAPD partner when his ex-wife is killed. The two uncover a drug and organ trafficking conspiracy, which the missing man was a part of and murdered for when he tried to back out. 

2. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (2023)

The game takes place in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan in the 1980s, where many citizens become afflicted with deadly curses. Some of the victims include Yakko Sakazaki, Tetsuo Tsutsumi, and Harue Shigimi, three of the main characters. Players can alternate between the stories – or chapters – of each character as they try to uncover the mystery of the curses. Certain choices can lead to a character’s death, which brings the player to an earlier scene to alter the outcome and trigger an alternate survival path. 

As stated in its title, the game features seven mysteries: The Beckoning Light, Everburning Lantern, Fool’s Procession, The Foot-Washing Mansion, One-Sided Reed, The Haunting Clappers, and Whispering Canal. The mysteries (in order) are as such: an ominous flame – possibly a benevolent guide or a malevolent, misleading monster – that Ho’onji residents see at night; a never-dimming lantern that keeps people safe from what lies in the dark; the sound of a musical procession that can’t be found; a giant, bloody foot that demands to be washed every night; an unrequited love where the man cuts off a single arm and leg of his victim; a night watchman who hears but can’t find clappers who warn of a fire; and disappearing fishermen who hear a voice from the canal telling them to “leave it behind.”

1. Witch of the Holy Night (2012)

The best of the visual novel games is Witch of the Holy Night. It is a prequel to Tsukihime, which follows protagonist Shiki Tohno, a high school student who sustained a life-threatening injury that gave him the ability to see “death lines.” These death lines – which break when something dies – give him intense headaches, so his magician teacher Aoko Aozaki gives him special glasses that block the lines. 

In this visual novel, players get to see Aoko’s backstory. After moving to Misaki town, she begins learning sorcery from the witch who lives in an old mansion. Aoko’s family owns the land Misaki is built on, so she is tasked with protecting it from intruders. However, an unknown intruder starts disrupting the bounded field that keeps Misaki safe. While trying to find the intruder, Aoko comes across a young boy named Sōjūrō Shizuki, who lives with the two magicians. Later, the protagonists learn the intruder was Aoko’s sister, who was at the location of a metaphysical world called the root.