LogFAQs > #980277168

YU-NO
Ever17
Fate/Stay Night
Steins;Gate

much as i'd like to fit higurashi/umineko on i just don't think they had enough of an impact. and bigger series in the west also just have the issue of having too many entries to pick from without an overwhelmingly clear frontrunner to point to as "the one that did all the work to popularise the series/genre". nearly went with clannad admittedly though since that's pretty safe to call the biggest key title at least (just... still not really by much). arguably it is bigger than some of these four but i think these had a bigger impact on the medium overall. oh yeah and ddlc is maybe worth bringing up too, but i feel like the genre's moved backwards in mainstream appeal since its release if anything (early to mid 2010s, any vn project would get funded at a moment's notice, now not so much), despite how much of a hit it was with stream-based audiences for a time.