Clannad

Despite being released in 2004 this 50+ hour behemoth is still the gold standard for Visual Novels and arguably Key's best work. It hit me harder when I was in my teens but after revisiting it over a decade later, it's still a great read.

Clannad as a game is divided on 2 parts; the main game where you mostly fuck around with your pals at school and the after story which is about settling down after graduating while dealing with the ups and downs life brings your way.

If you think it's yet another high school romance, I wouldn't be too worried about that; I would describe the game more as humoristic slice of life with a hint of romance and drama where school just happens to be the setting in the first part of the game. The humor feels sometimes a bit forced but it's more often a hit than a miss, and some of the jokes are so absurd that it's hard not to laugh your ass off at them. But it's not all about the humor the game pulls its weight in the other aspects as well, I don't think there is a single human being who can go through after story without feeling emotional.

Overall well written game that never feels like it's dragging on. If there ever was one Visual Novel you wished to play, make it this one - It will reward you for your effort.

I kinda wanna play this again but also I 1. would probably feel horrid about how wasted my teenage years were and 2. would feel like a paedophile. But I also feel like that's why so much of these school-type scenarios exist - because of that whole 'wasted youth' thing, the fantasy of this mythological transcendent high school experience that we never got to experience. Also because anime fans are paedophiles