Air

Air is Key's debut as a visual novel studio, before Kanon and Clannad established it as a genre benchmark: it tells the story of Yukito, a traveling illusionist, and his encounter with a girl carrying a secret tied to a century-old legend, in a story split into arcs that blends light comedy with an emotional drama that proved hugely influential. This Dreamcast edition brought that story to Sega's console at a moment when the genre was just beginning to move beyond Japanese PCs.

Its anime adaptation, years later, made it known outside Japan too, though the game itself never left its home market. For anyone who can read it in Japanese, it remains an important piece of visual novel history.