SubaHibi is linear. It has the classic fake freedom: there is only one true ending and only one path to it. Any choices you make are either right or wrong, and the wrong ones are promptly punished.

(And, in my opinion, it's one of the worst things ever written.)

As Subuhibi is one of my all time favorite VNs, I feel obligated to strongly disagree. Here's a flowchart of the game. https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/71pc08/subara...

There are many equally valid "true" endings, not counting all the side endings. Sounds like it wasn't your cup of tea, that's fine. No VN is universally loved.

Also bonus link to one of my favorite tracks in the game: https://youtu.be/dQ5g1Va7CjI

The quality of the story is a matter of opinion, but the linearity of the story is objective fact. Just look at the chart you posted: there is one linear story to follow, with just occasional branches to alternate endings or splits that immediately merge back together.

Most VNs are structured as routes. There are a handful of independent stories. The reader not choose how the story will unfold, but rather chooses one of several linear stories to follow. I would classify that as a fundamentally linear story. The fact that the route is chosen by a choice in the middle is not really different from choosing the route from a menu at the start.

SubaHibi is even more linear than that, because the playing order of the routes is enforced. There is one "True" ending, which is required to be completed last and is the only one which resolves all the mysteries.

(I say the True ending resolves all the mysteries, but the mysteries were resolved to my satisfaction by the end of It's my Own Invention. That wasn't by design, though.)

So it's linear if you ignore the parts that aren't? Without a walkthrough and a some meta experience with VNs it's pretty easy to end up somewhere other than one of the four true endings and walk away satisfied.

Anyway we aren't going to agree here. I am interested in two things: what VNs you do like... and what VNs you would consider non-linear. The discussion can't really continue without a point of comparison.

I am sincerely curious what you consider a non-linear VN. Maybe I've been unconsciously avoiding them so my perspective here is too skewed. Do you perhaps mean VNs where you choose where to go each day, e.g. さよならを教えて～comment te dire adieu～?