The path I took was a little odd compared to most of you from what I can tell. My first experience with something resembling eroge was a Flash game I encountered on the site Newgrounds. It was called SimGirls and was somewhat based on an anime from the early 90s (1994 to be exact, according to Anime News Network) called DNA¬≤. (Here is a video of a later version I haven’t played.) A couple years later (I think) I played another Flash game following the same kind of format as SimGirls that was called Ganguro Girl. If it were not for the JList “Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend” t-shirt I received as a gift from my step-father about 4 years ago (I think) that might have been as close as I had gotten. Interested in where he had gotten it (he got it from ThinkGeek), I came across the JList site and the rest is history. I finally bought my first true eroge in the summer of 2007 and have been playing since. My top three games I have completed (in no particular order) are YMK, Crescendo, and Kana.
On an extra note, the first game I played where one of the goals was to bed the girl was the classic BBS game Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD). I fondly remember staying up much later than I should have in high school and connecting to the local BBS on a dial-up modem to try and advance my character and win over the barmaid Violet. I even managed to win over a player character run by someone else who visited the board at one point.
Having liked the Tsukihime anime I found that it was based on some kind of game, and by end of 2007 I finally got to play it. And quickly got completely hooked in it, and soon after in the VN format in general. My second experience were the al|together 2006 games, and after that F/SN and Utawarerumono. And though I played some other things in the year, it was at the start of 2009 that I started playing VN almost full time by moments.
Top 3?
Tsukihime
F/SN
hm, Saya no Uta maybe
I had heard about B games for years - as most people who enjoy anime have - but had the familiar kind of assumptions about them and the people who played them for the longest time. Then one day I was on J-list browsing about for the fun of it and got caught up in reading the synopsis of a few games and thought “huh, this might be worth checking out.” So I found a copy of Hitomi online and gave it a shot. And you know, it was awesome.
There was something about playing the protagonist in this choose your own adventure manga that appealed to me - not to mention it was just dark and sexy, which I enjoyed - so I started looking for others. We had an adult movie and video game store now down far from where I lived, so I rented another game - don’t recall which one that was - and gave it a shot … and while it wasn’t as good as Hitomi, I really enjoyed it. It was different and it took some of what I really liked about crpgs, the character interaction, and brought just that to a game medium.
I think the 3rd game I ever played was Kana … and once you’ve gone Kana you can never go back. So I was hooked and haven’t looked back since.
Top 3?
- “Kana: Little Sister” - the single most touching, heart wrenching game I have ever played. I was depressed for a week afterwords. I don’t think any medium - movie, game, book, play, music - has touched me so much as that game did.
- “Crescendo” - I think it just filled me with such introspection and melancholy that it never quite let me go.
- A toss up between “YMK” and “Heart de Roommate” - the prior was more touching, but HdR was just a lot of fun to play. Of course, “Snow Sakura” had some great characters, and “Sagara Family” was simply the best harem game I’ve ever played … I guess my #3 slot is really up in the air still.
Didn’t we already have this topic? I somehow recall having posted this a few times already…
Anyway, my first exposure to galgames was in '92 when I gained regular Internet access. I don’t recall the name of my first game (some DOS/V game of that time), though I have faint memories of some card game. I wasn’t hooked, though, probably because of my lack of Japanese skills, making me not understanding much --not that games of that era had much plot anyway, but… 
It wasn’t until '94 that I played an erogame that I enjoyed it enough to remember its title, Battle Team Lakers, though I still didn’t have any special wish to look further into the genre. Then, in '96, I was browsing the Anime Genesis images gallery when I stumbled onto Tokimemo (what else? ^^;;;; pics. The long red-haired girl caught my attention and I downloaded the pictures. Little did I know that by doing so, I was putting my soul into a dreaded world… Some weeks later, by a weird coincidence, I found out a page telling me Tokimemo was in fact a game. Out of curiosity, I made some little research about the game… and bought the PSX version at eBay, sealing my own fate.
…or not. If I liked Tokimemo and entered a frenzy fan state because of it, it wasn’t what truly converted me forever to the beautiful girls religion. No, the real culprit was…
Some weeks after buying Tokimemo, I learnt about another game in the same genre on a homepage. You all guessed right: it was Sentimental Graffiti. Thanks to the page’s detailed informations, I fall in love with the gi… game :oops: and decided to buy it. Later, I went from pure console galgames to PC erogames ports, then to PC erogames. The rest is History.
But, it’s been 18 years already since I first played a galgame, heh? Nearly two decades already.
As for the ranking, it’s tricky so I think I’d cheat and choose:
- Gin’iro,
- Fate/stay night,
- Air, Tenshi no inai jyuunigatsu and Sharin no kuni, himawari no shoujo, all tied.
I’m surprised that Demonbane did not make it to Olf’s top three.
My first eroge title would be Critical Point (unless playing Variable Geo on arcade machine counts), which I received as a gift from a friend. Then I started surfing PP site, and found out about GC site also.
My top three titles are
Critical Point
Nocturnal Illusion
Snow Sakura or Shuffle!, it’s a tie
Blame Reica. A 10-scored game has to be perfect (according to my standards), after all.
As a note, Azifu isn’t my favourite galgame character anyway, though she’s 3rd (tied with a few others).
While it’s a lot easier to dis the games one hates that praise what one likes, here are my top three faves–and I’ll be brief:
KANA-Came for the incest, stayed for the story. Used the tissue on my eyes.
CRESCENDO-Wherein I discovered an affinity for school nurses with guilty pasts.
LET’S MEOW MEOW-LONG LIVE THE MEOWTIS EMPIRE!
Strangely, I found B games through Wikipedia. I was messing around one night when something linked me to a page on Kana. I have a huge weakness for little sister incest, so my reaction was basically, “Holy shit, they make games like this? Must Have!” I think I got about 8 games in my first order, most of them pretty mediocre, although Kana had me crying like a baby for hours. I had to finish it in one sitting since I couldn’t bear going to bed on a bad ending.
I’m probably unusual in that I got into B games before anime/manga, which I didn’t start getting into til a couple years later, (off links from this board, in fact). Of course, I now have a 4 foot high stack of anime next to my computer waiting to get watched.
Top 3:
- Princess Waltz
- Snow Sakura
- Kira Kira
Uhhh… I don’t think I can remember my first… I got to VNs after watching nothing but anime for a couple of years. I haven’t seen much anime since I started playing VNs, though… 
- Aoishiro
- Kira Kira
- Saya no Uta
Edit - Nevermind. Just started with Ever17 and liked the genre ever since. My top three changes based on my mood.
I got my first taste of bishoujo and H-games indirectly through CG sets archived in porno galleries back in the 90’s. Though at the time I had no idea what they were from or why the images seemed so random and repetitious and instead focused on them for obvious reasons… :lol: Some time later I happened upon a pirated copy of 3 Sister’s Story online making it my first true introduction into the genre. I played it through and liked it but still wasn’t sold yet.
So long story short I got a magazine in the mail one day advertising some H-games. After seeing so many in print and reading their descriptions I thought to myself why not buy a few and see what it was I was missing? So I did and have been hooked since. And, yes, I ended up buying a legal copy of 3 Sister’s Story. 
My current top 3 in no order are:
Figures of Happiness - A pretty deep love triangle with a twist.
Yume Miru Kusuri - I don’t think I have to explain the merits of this game.
Snow Sakura - Easygoing slice-of-life game with likable characters.
Kinda started when I discovered Rapelay…which lead me to hear about h-games (such as Virgin Roster) but the first VN I actually tried was Kana: Little Sister. From there, I was hooked and I continued to other DO works and other VNs.
Top 3 would be
Sharin no Kuni
Sekien no Inganock
Kana: Little Sister (bc it was my first)
I saw magazine about Knight of Xentar (sp), same game as Dragon Knight. I didn’t get it yet. Until I saw Paradise Heights on computer section at J&R Music World. I bought it and played it.
Top 3
Snow Drops
I forgot other games.
I was introduced from downloading a dating sim, True Love from one of those abandonware sites, I later was introduced to more plot/story focused sort of games with Nocturnal Illusions and later Divi-dead from the same way. Being underage I couldn’t legally buy them anyway, not that that would stop a kid in search of porn though.
Later on I found the Renai Games Mailing list and started following that and that’s how I started to learn more about them and ended up at Haeleth’s Kanon translation project. With the 57% patch release was when I bought my first vn, with the Kanon All Ages CD release.
Top 3 of what few I’ve managed to finish now would probably be:
1: Ever 17
2: Chaos;Head
3: Tsukihime
Although it’s not really a real firm order or anything. Although I bought Cross Channel and Sharin no Kuni, I’ve still yet to unwrap them, I really should play those two at least
Back in 2003 I happened upon a copy of Critical Point that looked interesting. Played the hell out of that game, though I haven’t touched it since probably 2005.
My top 3 are
Yume Miru Kusuri
Critical Point
lots of #3’s, really, so I’ll just name one, Crescendo.
I own most of the G-C and Jast games, and some of the other older titles I was able to get my hands on. I still haven’t played any fan translations. I have a 6 game backlog right now, plus about 4 games that are only half finished, and lately I only play VN’s during the colder seasons so I’m about to dive back in.
Let’s see here. The first game I played was probably over 10 years ago. I think it was called True Love(?) and it was pretty old school. You had to like build up stats for certain girls and stuff. I try to play it now and then because it is a classic… at least for me haha.
None below are in any particular order.
Top 3 (JAST)
Kana
YMK
Princess Waltz
Top 3 overall
Fate Stay Night
Koihime Musou
Sharin No Kuni (?, still playing it but it is awesome so far…)
this is really an interesting topic~~
my first one’s during junior high time: Tsuki: Possession
pretty wild for the first one, since then started hunting down G-collection like the horny bunnies, gonna serve you and come see me 2nite…
since ever 17, my hunting change to any with good story like soul link, snow sakura, t3, utawarerumono, clannad, da capo��s, edelweiss’s, f/sn, g-senjou, kira2’s, koihime, muvluv, princess waltz, song of saya and lastly yume-miru kusuri… (i wonder why it becomes list of my favorites?)
anyway, best 3 goes to:
- Fate/Stay Night (of course)
- Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (long n epic story line)
- Koihime Musou (nice main story, epic side story with all chara)
Back in 2004, I chanced upon the first episode of Phantom: The Animation. Though I wasn’t particularly impressed with the OVA itself, my curiosity was piqued when I learned that it was based off of a video game. I decided to pick up the game and give it a shot, and was impressed by the quality of the writing despite the iffy translation.
Thanks to Phantom of Inferno’s strong first impression, I quickly became interested in the visual novel medium and began looking into the fan translations of No Name Losers and insani, playing through all of their demos to give myself a taste for the genre. I wasn’t familiar with any of the English visual novel publishers at the time, so when I came across Virgin Roster, I blindly decided to give it a shot instead of reading up on its premise. The result… let’s just say Virgin Roster is one of my least-liked titles of all time and leave it at that.
I eventually learned about Hirameki International, Peach Princess, G-Collections, JAST, and Himeya Soft. Suspecting that Virgin Roster might have been an anomaly, I decided to play through DOR, Water Closet, Kana ~Little Sister~, and Crescendo over the span of maybe a month (one at a time, not concurrently). Though DOR was underwhelming and Water Closet flat-out disgusted me, Kana drew me in so much that I decided to complete every ending in that very first sitting (total play time: 24 consecutive hours). It wasn’t until I’d finished Crescendo a week or two later that I confirmed my status as an ardent visual novel fan.
Since then, I’ve built a pretty decent collection of visual novels. It’s not nearly as impressive as Lexar’s, but it’s still pretty big. Note that most of my import games (Ys I-II Complete, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Ys Origin, etc) are not pictured:
Because of the size of my collection, I’ll make two Top 3’s: one for my domestic titles, and one for my imports.
English Releases
- Crescendo
- Aside from being one of the titles that first got me into the medium, the characters felt like real people to me and not just characters in a story. Yuka’s and Ayame’s stories nearly tore my heart to shreds, and it was the second VN to bring me to tears (the first, naturally, was Kana).
- Phantom of Inferno
- A dark but realistic story about crime and redemption, it was my introduction to visual novels. I’ve since replayed the game for the sake of writing a thorough guide (I felt the one posted at GameFAQs was largely incomplete), and the story was every bit as good as I’d remembered it. Emblem of the Sacred Flame (Jouka no Monshou) and Song of Saya (Saya no Uta) helped cement Gen Urobuchi as one of my favorite VN authors.
- Private Nurse
- Private Nurse charmed me with its calming atmosphere, touching story, and beautiful music. Though I don’t really buy the mysticism surrounding Maria, I thought Ayano’s story was especially heartwarming. The stargazing scenes had a particularly strong impact on me.
Honorable mentions include Kana ~Little Sister~, Yume Miru Kusuri, and Figures of Happiness. I have a feeling that Kira Kira, ef, and Suika will rearrange this list considerably once I’ve played through them; the demos have been very impressive thus far (I’m partially biased since I wrote a good chunk of the English ef demo for NNL).
Fan-Translations
- Fate / Stay Night
- Gen Urobuchi has clearly influenced Kinoko Nasu’s writing style; the over-the-top fight scenes feel like they were shounen anime takes on Phantom of Inferno or Kikokugai ~The Cyber Slayer~. Great characters (Shinji excepted for obvious reasons), a deep story that had me break down in tears many, many times (Heavens Feel especially), and a powerful message in each route about one’s own ideals easily make Fate the best fan-translated title I have ever played.
-
Cogwheel Country, Sunflower Girls
(Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo)
- An impressive allegory about the flaws in the Japanese legal system and the abuse of authority. Superb characters, an excellent protagonist, great music; the only thing missing is a truly satisfying ending (the climax was pretty underwhelming, if you ask me).
- Cross Channel
- An atypical-yet-familiar story told in an atypical-yet-familiar setting, with plenty of heartwarming and squick moments throughout. All of the main characters have serious psychological disorders (not unlike Neon Genesis Evangelion), and, when these issues play off each other, the result can be either amazing or horrifying. The time-loop narrative device helps explore all of these possibilities without having to excuse disastrous endings as a “what-if” scenario. Equal parts likable and disturbing, but almost always fascinating.
Note that I’m not including titles that I own and have yet to play or titles I’ve finished but don’t own. Otherwise, Wanko to Kurasou, Planetarian, Tsukihime, Song of Saya, and The Devil on G-String could easily bump Cross Channel off the list.
HimeyaShop, you will be missed.
Wait what, how did you get this? I want it but it’s rarer than Shoin! Unfortunately doujin games have a habit of disappearing forever since they’re sold in such small quantities in the first place and if the circle doesn’t rerelease them for DL sales or something similar they can be nearly impossible to get.
The English translation in this case was released as a standalone instead of a patch. You can find it on the TLWiki project page. For best results, read the novel right after watching the Equilibrium film since it’s the same continuity.
As for importing a legitimate copy, there unfortunately isn’t much I can tell you. I have a long list of fan-translated visual novels that I’d like to buy (Aoishiro, for starters), but HimeyaShop has folded and neither PaletWeb nor J-List has the ones I’m looking for in stock. Without a trustworthy contact in Japan or a reliable middleman service, we’re shit-outta-luck.