The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass (referred to as just Sekimeiya from this point onwards) was a VN gifted to me by a friend from /vg/ during Christmas. It's one of the very few OELVNs I've read and unbeknownst to me, it has quite the reputation. I started reading through it on January 1, 2024, and despite the fact that I had already finished it on January 14, there were still mysteries I couldn't really grasp, details I missed, etc., so I found it appropriate to replay it when I had more time to judge it accordingly. The VN itself encourages this as you unlock "tips" after finishing it for the first time, which gives more context to the scenes, highlights things you might have missed during your first read-through, etc. Along with this, although the true ending is explained pretty well after finishing the game, the same can't be said for some of the other endings.
This is a mysteryge, and according to one of the posts I read after finishing the game, it's one of the best ones that have come out recently. However, the original poster also mentioned that this doesn't mean Sekimeiya is a good mysteryge, just that current mysteryges are bad. I haven't played many mysteryges, but I've consumed a lot of media that has time travel. Some of them good, some of them bad (mostly bad). So even though I'm unsure what exactly makes a mysteryge good, I know what makes a time travel story good: sticking to the rules set by the narrative. In my opinion, Sekimeiya does this well enough. Up until the last chapter (which explains a lot of the mechanics and mysteries), I never felt like the game was being unfair. There are a couple of eyebrow-raising things in this chapter and they become even more apparent in a later playthrough. It would be a spoiler to go into it, so I'll avoid doing that, but I felt like the game was playing by Jimmy Neutron rules at some points. This is all due to the fact that it tries to juggle many concepts utilized in time travel stories instead of sticking to a handful of them and utilizing them really well.
One thing I liked, which many people (including the friend who gifted me the game), will probably dislike, is the requirement of prior knowledge when it comes to time travel "jargon" and a basic understanding of how some of the concepts work. Terms like causal time travel, loops (and infinite loops), bootstrap paradox, etc., are thrown around and although they are given a rather basic explanation, this explanation doesn't suffice. Now, this may be seen as the developers being inexperienced in writing (from what I understand, this was their first VN), which undoubtably is true in some instances, especially regarding characters and the game being too wordy (come on guys, this is an audio-visual medium, you don't have to write everything, we can see it on the screen), but I don't think the same applies in time travel jargon. Each time travel story will have different rules and explaining the rules of this one makes the story unfold (if you have good reading comprehension and can keep track of many things).
Still, this doesn't make solving the mystery trivial. There were numerous times in my second playthrough where I had difficulties keeping track of characters' movements, intentions, and much more. I should also mention that the game has amazing features to help you solve the mysteries. Each scene has a brief summary; you can also take notes for each scene. Jumping to any line in the story and playing through that section is possible. There's a chart (you unlock after finishing the game) that I won't go into too much detail about, but it's essential to understanding the story. A map is also present, that's useful for one of the time travel mechanics. Using all these features, and information you gain from your initial playthrough (and additional notes you can get in your second playthrough), you are expected to solve the mystery. The game is rather ruthless in this aspect as some mysteries are hinted towards but never fully explained as the developers expect you to explain it in your own way. You have been given all these tools, right?
I enjoyed my time with Sekimeiya. It's not a VN without faults, but it is one that I'll keep remembering. In fact, I'll probably replay it in the future, which isn't something I do with most VNs. I'm looking forward to the developers' next project.