Another August, and another record of over 140 visual novels. Amatsukaze contains serious gameplay elements, so I don't include it in the race. I'll name Koisuru Otome ~Shikigami 2008~ VN of the Month, but will have yet to decide whether it's a masterpiece.
Foreword: I'm not a big fan of raiL-soft, absolutely hate Albatross Koukairoku. But their first game Kagerou Touryuuki is probably the best game ever done by them.
Foreword: Never faced crossovers in visual novels before, so expectations ranged from weird fandisk to something like Soukou Akki Muramasa since I rated both original games high.
Foreword: Could not miss probably the best game in the series. All conceptual things are given in a different review (1), so I'll slack with just an impression.
Foreword: I fell in love with this game after reading a long French review a long time ago (1). Imagination went wild back then, but only now I can finally play it.
Foreword: Was a difficult choice, in the end just chose Garden because it had slightly better scores and impressions than competitors within the month.
Year 2007 is great for bringing two full 10/10 masterpieces Draculius and Dies irae and many more very nice visual novels. You all know that winner is Dies irae as it's probably main visual novel of all times. First version from 2007 was quite raw, and there are some funny negative reviews from 2007-2008, but light found inner strength to polish this version and even freely give away it to original buyers. New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2007 with songs.
Dies irae is VN of the Month. Oh, well, now there won't be intrigue about VN of the Year. Himawari is another masterpiece. For review I chose Love & Dead by LiarSoft in hope for absurdist comedy.