Hello people who stumble upon here!
I wanted to apologize for the inactivity here: school work and other such things have sapped me of any energy I have to really review stuff anymore. I'm leaving this up here just so people can get an idea of some visual novels to check out (and just in case I ever have more time to work on this place), however.
Here is a small list of some VNs/Dating Sims/Companies I highly recommend, to help you out:
Shira Oka: Second Chances: An excellent and long dating simulation game, made in the US, where a boy relives high school several times to help eight girls and two guys. Has many fantasy elements, along with great endings that range from incredible to rule-of-cool to bittersweet. I highly recommend looking around and keeping an eye on this group.
999: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors: A mystery/suspense VN game by the writer of the famous Ever17 series, and one of the few games to make it officially out in English by him. An excellent game, although it's is rated M due to plenty of gore. It's about 9 people who get stuck together on a sinking ship, with 9 doors to get through and 9 hours to do it. The goal is to play through all of the endings to understand what the ship is, who the people are, etc. Has a lot of psycho-analysis and some psuedo science in it, but it's highly enjoyable.
Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, & Avalon Code: Two amazing series (and one single game, respectively) by a Japanese company know as Marvelous Interactive, for the various Sony & Nintendo consoles. The HM games are farming based dating simulations, with lovable characters, great worlds, and a very addicting farming simulation. RF is the same, however, with an RPG element added, and generally considered the more mature older sibling of HM. Avalon Code is unrelated to the two other than by company name, but is an incredible RPG with many dating sim aspects.
Dragon Age: A great RPG with dating aspects for your PC/gaming console. It can be quite graphic however, so it's rated M. Only four characters to actively date, but definitely a worthwhile attempt in the genre.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride: An incredible game in the renowned series. (You do know the DQ series is bigger in Japan than Final Fantasy, right? So big they have to release on non-work days or no work gets done. Do you realize now how incredible this series is?) It's the only game so far with a small dating sim element (three girls and it is rather mild) but such an incredible game/series I can't not list it here. The most recent is an official English DS remake, but there are versions on other consoles, one of the top ones being SNES with fantranslations.
Princess Maker: As you would of seen before, you get the idea of the series from my PM2 review. Most of the games are like that, but notable differences are the changing cast of men you can marry, as well as three girls in PM4, and PM5 takes place in the modern world. An incredible series and one of my all time favorites of raising and dating simulation, I really wish more than an abandoned PM2 original version made it to the US. Avaliable on PC, DS, PSP, PS1, PS2, Dreamcast.
Ace Attorney: I don't actually need to describe these, right? If I do, then you need to stop reading this and go buy them right now. A charming and quirky series for the DS about various lawyers in the legal system.
Ever17: A popular VN, it's officially out in English, and there is a typo patch for it as well. You can buy a very cheap Japanese version for handheld systems for about 25USD, but the one translated by Hirameki will cost more. It's about a group of people who get trapped in an underwater amusement park, and considered one of the best VNs out there.
Fate/Stay Night: Another very popular Japanese VN, with an excellent fan translation at Mirror Moon. Generally considered a must have for hardcore VN fans.
Princess Waltz: One more Japanese entry, with an official US release, an erotic dating simulation about princesses who come to the normal world to fight in a "waltz" for the throne to the various kingdoms. Incredible music (I cannot express this enough) and art, and the characters and plot, while not as involved as 999/Ever17/Fate etc, is quite charming and makes the game one of the top ones to be released in English.
Some companies/groups to keep an eye out for:
SakeVisual: An incredible VN making group, they have just begun only recently, but have made several excellent free VNs and one cheap (but good) paid one.
Hanako Games: A English based VN/Dating Simulations/RPG maker, Hanako is an excellent writer who has many fun games for good prices. On the forums she often links to other visual novels to check out, as well!
JBox/JList: A nice website with many dating simulation and VN games in English and Japanese.
Peach Princess: A company that translated many erotic dating simulation games into English, but also has some milder stuff.
Finally, LemmaSoft Forums is a great place to look up many many free and paid VNs, mostly those made with Renpy.
