VN Choice advice for those new to playing in Japanese

First, don't even consider playing a VN in Japanese if you don't have the grammar down.  If you have the grammar and a moderately large vocabulary, kanji weakness can be got around by utilizing the Translation Aggregator/Jparser combo I mentioned in the previous post. 

Second, pick the level of game you want to challenge.  Moege (games that focus on cuteness and simple stories) tend to be easy to read, with short lines in simple Japanese.  If you prefer action VNs, you will be in a bit of trouble, as the language used in such games tends to be more complex. 

Third, pick your strategy.  If you choose high-difficulty games from the very beginning, you will improve your skills that much faster.  However, in exchange, you probably won't get everything on your first playthrough.  For action/fantasy VNs this actually makes it fun to come back later and enjoy the game a second time.  Also, if you pick a high difficulty game early on and switch to an easier one after, you'll find that the comparatively easy language makes your playthroughs that much more smooth.  If you pick a low-difficulty game, you'll probably be able to muddle your way through it with crappy Japanese skills, but at the same time, your skills won't improve that much playing them, if that is one of your goals.

As an example of first choices, I picked Jingai Makyou and Dies Irae for my first two games, simply because they were in my favorite genre.  While I already had a good grasp of Japanese, these were two enormously difficult games to play.  When I picked Draculius and Tayutama for my next two games, the difference in the linguistic levels made for an easy playthrough.  I plowed through better than a dozen high-level games in the months after that, and I eventually got to the point where I could play most VNs with a speed approaching two thirds of that of my English reading speed.