My first VN was fate/stay night which was amazing. And later down the line I played hollow ataraxia and fate extra, even if extra is more of a game than a VN.
And then my second VN was monster girl quest. Which was also amazing. Amazing story amazing art, amazing music and so on.
Then I tried one of the more generic harem VNs that I can't even remember the name of. Something about a guy who transferred into an all girl's school or something. Got bored after the first route. And it caused me gave up on VNs for several years.
Until i discovered Muv-Luv. I don't really remember how I heard about it, but I played through and adored the trilogy to death. And even a lot of the spinoffs.
And then baldr sky came out and was recommended by some of the people in the Muv-Luv community so I tried it out. I really loved it, but never finished all the routes because I got super busy with work. I've been really meaning to go back to it at some point.
Also the kfc game is somewhere in the middle there. That was a fun short ride.