Katawa Shoujo
Unlike every other visual novel on the list, Katawa Shoujo is 100% free. If you haven't read a visual novel before, it’s certainly not a bad place to start. Katawa Shoujo revolves around Hisao Nakai, a boy living with arrhythmia. Nakai’s condition causes his heartbeat to become irregular and his parents decide that he would be better off enrolling in a school for disabled children. Katawa Shoujo is a story about living with disabilities and it handles each with great care and understanding. Each route explores various disabilities and shows how each of the characters break the stereotypes usually given to them without making it the very thing that defines them. Surprisingly thoughtful, given it started out on one of the boards in notorious internet hive of scum and villainy: 4chan.
Muv-Luv
Judging from the cutesy art style and often cliché themes, you’d be mistaken to write Muv-Luv off as another romantic comedy, but this visual novel delivers an action-packed saga full of emotional twists and bleak scenes. The Muv-Luv series is considered by many to be the gold standard by which the visual novel genre is judged, partly due to its complex story, deep characterization and excellent mecha design. If you can make it through some of the visual novel’s weaker arcs, you’ll be rewarded in the finale. Muv-Luv isn’t afraid to tackle some dark themes, so don’t be fooled by its innocent looks.