Felt I should mention a really great indie visual novel style game called Slay the Princess. It isn't really unknown as its sitting at 97% positive on steam with nearly 24,000 reviews, but still worth mentioning here. Not usually my style of game as I can't usually just sit down and basically read a story much anymore. Blame ARPGs for frying my brain I guess.
But the writing, voice acting, setting, art, and music are all amazing in this game. Seems like a silly premise that might have a "haha!" style fourth wall twist but... it's a lot more than you'd think. It's got some slight horror elements, psychological horror, romance, and a lot of introspection on your part as the player. I'd say more but I'd really like people to go into it blind if at all possible.
I say if you're looking for a great story, you can't go wrong with this.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989270/Slay_the_Princess__The_Pristine_Cut/ (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989270/Slay_the_Princess__The_Pristine_Cut/)
This is a fantastic game. I just picked up a copy for my partner the other day and it's just got that beautiful combination of styilized art, good storytelling, a compelling reason to keep playing, and just enough psychological horror to make you have to rethink a lot of things you take for granted on a day to day basis.
Yeah it's a really great experience. I need to keep going and get more endings. The same team is also making another game in the same vein called Scarlet Hollow which apparently has an absurd amount of constantly branching paths based on small decisions. Still in early access (4 of 7 episodes complete) but I'll probably pick it up some time:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/Scarlet_Hollow/ (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/Scarlet_Hollow/)
Apparently Slay the Princess was kinda their short term side project compared to Scarlet Hollow. And the devs posted something to the effect of "exponential branching paths are no problem if you just keep writing".