Long Live the Queen is out on GoG. I believe this is the first visual novel that GoG has released, if it isn't, just keep reading.

So, in light of this momentous event, or my personal ignorance, let us post our favorite visual novels. Please give a review of at least one of the titles you list

For me, I'm going for Magical Diary: Horse Hall, which is also available on Steam. First, one must move past the Harry Potter comparisons that a magical school game is going to engender. Magical Diary has you make your own student, a girl from the mundane world who is new to the school. The game is a fun introduction to the Magical Diary setting, which is intended to provide more titles in the future. The characters you meet in the game were fun and had personalities I enjoyed seeing and interacting with. There was some fun diverging story branches and clever romance options to pursue.

The game is structured around going to classes and preparing for the magic tests you have to take. Each test in in a very small dungeon, presented in a grid-based first person mode. There are multiple magical solutions to most of the puzzles. Outside of the test/study portion of the game, the storyline branches based on a more than a few decisions you can make, from befriending the half-demon Damien, becoming the halls mail courier, or spending time with on of your roommates semi-delinquent brother ,and more. This game had me playing through it three or four times to interact with all the characters and see all the different paths I could take.

While I'm not a heavy Visual Novel gamers, other VN's I've really enjoyed include: Cute Knight, Cute Knight: Kingdoms, Date Warp, and Loren: The Amazon Princess. And I almost forgot, Princess Maker 2. A series which taunts me with many a game I might never play.

Edit: Several people have already mentioned adult games like Bible Black and the X-Change series. Please indicate that a title is Adult when you list it. I recommend using (A) for the purpose of this thread. I do play adult games, but let us not send someone who isn't interested in them careening towards such titles without an appropriate warning.

Aselia the Eternal. Part visual novel, part turn-based strategy.
Shira Oka. Much more "pure" visual novel, with stat building to overcome certain challenges (stats saved for subsequent playthroughs, which is required to get to the real ending).
Koenchu! The tale of the voice actress. (こえんちゅ！) Also pure visual novel, requires some real-world knowledge rather than stats to pass a few challenges. I did enjoy this one, though the translation was less than stellar (looked very much "Google translate" in some parts, and others were missing entirely - I have no idea if or where a patch ever appeared, though I remember a couple forum posts somewhere where the author and another person talked about improving the English translation, the place I bought the game still has the same version for download that I got).

Beyond those, I cannot remember having played any officially translated or English-language ones that did not have sexual scenes.
Kana: Little Sister and Katawa Shoujo are both very good (the latter is free), but do contain sex scenes.
Clannad is another, child-friendly one I'd love to buy in English, but the only way to get it that way is to use a fan translation which last I tried, was quite lacking (and my Japanese is still far from being up to par).

Bible Black, of course.

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity: one of my favorite games of all time that really opened my eyes to how games can be used to tell truly incredible stories.

Have other visual novels ive yet to look at but Katawa Shoujo seems to be the big one for me.Nice plot.Good dialogue & artwork (im a sucker for classic anime/manga artwork)Lots of good endings (and bad).

hm thankyou for drawing my attention to long live the queen, might have to try it.
I have some mixed feelings about pure "visual novels"... i much prefer games like phoenix wright and 999 that have more interactivity. But i did play ever 17, and it was very good.

999 (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) and Virtue's Last Reward (the sequel) are my top 2.

Virtue's Last Reward pretty much revolutionized the genre. While many VNs tend to make you replay them several times to get the "true ending", VLR makes this process extremely simple so that you don't need to replay the whole game to get to the branch you need to reach, and not only does it do this but it incorporates it into the story so it makes this feature part of the story. If you're a fan of movies where death is imminent.. you'll love both 999 and VLR. They both include so many elements that I'm fond of.. horror, survival, suspense, great characterization/story, etc.

I don't think I've been as emotional over any VN as those 2. Ever 17 is great as well.. that's the game that got me into the genre.

Analogue: A Hate Story

It's pretty awesome stuff.

I have played other visual novels but uhhhhhhhhhhh they're....... not for kids. X.X

Have you played "Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story" by the same woman? I liked most of it, until the weird privacy screed at the end kind of derailed everything.

It's also freeware, for anyone who's curious.

Yeah the story in that was kind of ruined by the end, but the dialogue was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing through the entire thing lol.

My most favorite non-sexual VNs would come from the Ace Attorney & Prosecutor series. In those games, you either defend or prosecute someone at trial, seeking inconsistencies in their argument to unravel the truth. While linear, the series has a great deal of charm and intelligence.

Most of the other VNs that I enjoy contain sexual content, but there are two mainstream VNs that were made by someone you may recognize: Hideo Kojima. Snatcher and Policenauts are their name, and the pair are very much worth playing if you got the chance.

School Days HQ

Steins Gate

Eve: Burst Error

DearDrops

My Girlfriend is the President

Yumina the Ethereal

Aselia the Eternal

X Change Series

Bibile Black

Yes, I have. I find it to be enjoyable but I find the ending to be bit too preachy for my liking.

I don't know if you can consider Phoenix Wright a visual novel.

But Tokimeki Memorial is a pretty ground breaking though. You have to juggle between studying, sport, keeping the relationship with friends in black and the girl you want to woo in gold. And let me tell you, even the girls we consider friend can be pretty dangerous if we ignore them for too long. I mean seriously, I don't talk to you for half of the semester and you start talking bad about me behind my back with the girl I like? THAT'S NOT FAIR!

Seriously, play Tokimeki Memorial.

My favorite so far is fate/stay night. A game I hope comes to GOG.