Foreword: I've noted the series quite long ago, but only when approached 4th final work decided to play the prequel that's directly connected with 4th part.
Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou and Rookies are the masterpieces of January. But Rookies is a more traditional story-focused visual novel with charming characters and lots of kind humor. Rookies is VN of January 1997.
The best year so far, actually. I really hope that I'll be able to say the same about every forthcoming year. 84 works during the year amounts for an average of 7 works each month - a very saturated year.
After starry October nothing really shines this month. If we narrow down the candidates I'd have to choose from Mashou no Kao, High School Days, Sotsugyou Shashin 2 ~Raspberry Dream~, Tsuioku and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hihoushima Arata Naru Sangeki. Last one is out as PS1 exclusive (win version nowhere to be found). Sotsugyou Shashin 2 is out as a difficult type of game for modern players. Tsuioku is way too obscure. High School Days is a really nice game, but even warm vanilla school game can't really invoke much interest with poor graphics and no voicing. I can't believe myself, but I'm nominating Mink's Mashou no Kao as VN of November 1996. This crazy nymphet game has a strong personality and leaves a lasting impact through the years.
Foreword: I did not want to review it. But then I watched the hentai OVA of its preuel - Mystery of the Necronomicon (黒の断章 Kuro no Danshō) and it's a total blast. I highly recommend to watch it to everyone. A very memorable and bloody occult detective story. There was no anime version of the sequel, so I rushed in.
Foreword: I hate bakage. And yet I'm reviewing yet another bakage. Why? Mostly because together with YU-NO, these are the last two works of the Great Elf/Silky's team, after that Elf is going to loose too many staff members and is going to rerelease old works for Windows, stamp eroge works alongside with slice of life works. No more crazy adventure spirit afterwards. It's a historical moment to visual novels industry. Oh and I liked the two hentai OVAs of it immensely back then. I'll assume everyone seen them since I'm going to compare these works.
Kakyuusei and Es no Houteishiki are masterpieces of the month, but my favorite is Es no Houteishiki and furthermore it's played like a regular novel and can be enjoyed nowadays.
Foreword: Cyberpunk erotic action police story made me really curious. I was very skeptical of the Sammies review since he spent too much money to get windows version and turned to hate this work. And so I went to check it out myself...
There aren't masterpieces this month. My personal favorite is San Shimai due to it being my first visual novel, but I rate DIES IRAE even higher and nominate it for VN of the Month.
There are no masterpieces this month. I would not like to nominate bakage a winner and I have a bad aftertaste from Start Trap and Shizuku, so VN of January 1996 is Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon