The first time I've played a Visual Novel, back in 2014, with Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, I had a mixed feeling about it. While I was enjoying the plot, I found it strange to call it a "game" since the only thing I needed to do was sit back and read it. But after a couple of hours, my opinion changed: It was one of the best experiences I had reading something.

Visual Novels usually don't have a lot of gameplay, in fact, some of them are just text, images, and voices. No gameplay other than pressing a button to scroll text. Others have some choices that affect the plot, while a few of them even let you take control of the character and do stuff. Even so, VNs comes to consoles and PC as "games".

I'm currently playing... No, reading, "Witch on the Holy Night". While it doesn't have any gameplay at all, it will almost certain enter my top 5 Visual Novels of all time.

What about you? Do you read Visual Novels? What are your favorite? Mine are:

1 - Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

2 - Chaos; Child (Witch on the Holy Night will probably take this place)

3 - V.G. NEO

4 - NEKOPARA

5 - Root Double: Before Crime / After Days - XTEND Edition

I do not know where the line is drawn. If the Ace Attorney Games are considered visual novels then I like them a lot. But I have not tried out many others. Usually I do not like the art style, Japanese anime extreme eyes and other body features is often an instant no for me.

Not really. I have enjoyed a few like the Ace Attorney games and 999, but I really dont play them anymore.

Honestly no... I rather read a good book, or light-novel/manga/manhwa ect.

*edit:
Just saw posts above....  is Ace Attorney considered a VN? O_o'   I didn't assume it was.

If they have some additional gameplay features, yes.

Sunrider for instance is a visual novel... but also has quite hard turn-based space combat and you need to upgrade your ship and riders (mecha) to keep up with what gets thrown at you.

1. Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward
2. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
3. AI The Somnium Files
4. Danganronpa
5. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim(I consider this a VN no question)

I don't like the dating/romance ones, but each to their own.

Edit: I got the Zero escape names mixed up 😅

The closest I have got to playing a visual novel is Hotel Dusk and Last Window, which are story / dialogue driven and have VN elements, but are also gameplay heavy.

I've always been intrigued by 999 and its sequels - just never got round to them.

I first thought you meant comics, like some classic Frank Miller stuff or something.
In a "game" form, nah.

I've actually softened a bit on visual novels, after playing some classics of the genre. A story can be so good that you can start to overlook the mechanical shallowness. That said, I think there's a hard cap on how good a visual novel can be, because they're so light on gameplay.

The best sort of visual novel isn't really a visual novel at all, in my mind. It's something like Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, which I'd describe as an adventure game with visual novel elements. And those novel elements represent a larger puzzle to be solved, not just a story to be experienced.

It's a long time since I've played any, except trying a bit couple Japanese PS1 games on emulator, either for curiosity and interest on franchises or to brush up my minimal ability to read katakana.
There was a point long ago that I played VNs, but same as reading books, that has come down about 90% along decades for me.