the Danganronpa series. I found it surprisingly good and I even went and watched the tv series that bridges the second and third games. The plot starts off the same way in each game where a group of kids find themselves kidnapped with no recollection of how they arrived in their current situation and are forced to kill each other to survive the situation as they scramble to uncover the truth before they’re killed. Each VN can be played as a stand alone entry but it’s far more enjoyable to play them successively because the overarching story connecting them is woven into each. There are no branching paths in this game but it’s straight up a good story.
the Ai: The Somnium Files series does have a branching path structure and is designed to pickup very easily from any scene in the tree to come back and explore later. Indeed you are invited to explore the timelines Because you’ll be prevented from progressing too far in one timeline if you don’t know the relevant information you need to continue that is explored in another path. I haven’t played the sequel titled The Nirvana Initiative but it was recently on sale on steam for a pittance so I had to pick it up.
I’d add to the same vein as others in this list
Somnium files was excellent, and the sequel was also good.
Both are titles I’m very interested in picking up. Looking forward to expanding my VN repertoire