I don't actually remember the first visual novel I've played, but it was probably some obscure mobile otome game that I'm never going to encounter again. The first VN I've played and remembered by name is Nekopara, though.
I like mystery murder stories with a good twist in general, so it was right in my alley. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the pink blood but that's pretty much a nothing burger.
Katawa Shoujo. I've only ever finished one of the routes. What I like most about it is its history. Not many visual novels can claim to have come from a ragtag team of imageboard members...
Yume Miru Kusuri was also my first one, I remember to ask some who played a lot and recommended this to me, after that I wanted more... That's was years ago, almost forgot how all started, now I feel nostalgic thanks for reminding maybe i will re-play it
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.