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categories:

• (F/F, M/M, F/M, etc.) relationships the game focuses on. the protagonists gender is listed first. (i.e. M/F means a boy pursuing girls)
• (*/M, etc.) protagonist's gender is changeable, but irrelevant; usually indicates a self-insert protagonist with no real character.
• (M/NB, NB/F, etc.) characters indicated are openly non-binary or gender ambiguous.
• (free*) game is free in at least one format, but either costs money on another platform or comes with micro-transactions.
• (browser) game can be played directly on the website that hosts it, often a flash game or similar. (/browser/) indicates this used to be the case, but its since been taken down or depreciated. (browser*) means it comes in another format as well.
• (18+, 16+) 18+ features NSFW content and/or porn, 16+ does not but contains material that may still be inappropriate for younger players. 18+* means the game contains NSFW content but requires a patch or DLC to see, and is otherwise SFW.

rubrik:

• overall - average of the main scores. scores are letter grades from F to A, with 'S' as an additional top score for truly outstanding quality.
• plot - the premise of the game. what is this about? the setting, and the ideas that make up the story? focus here is on set-up and potential for interesting interactions, setting, and events. complexity is not itself a good or bad thing; even a slice of life game can have a good score here, provided it understands the limits of the genre and still provides you proper context and cause for the events it depicts. notably, the story does not need to be well written to score highly here. this category is merely about the ideas and their integration.
• characters - this covers both visual design and characterization. whether the characters are likable is taken into account, as these are meant to be dating sims, but more importantly is whether they're three dimensional, developed, and diverse from one another. characters need to have distinct voices. if you take away the names and character art, you should still be able to read dialogue knowing exactly who's speaking.
• writing - this is a pretty self explanatory one, but this category covers not only the quality of the prose but also the pacing and logic behind how the story progresses. all those concepts and keyframes from the plot section: do they land? do they make sense? and as for the dialogue, is it well written and believable? does it sound as though a real person is speaking, rather than a device transmitting information to you? length of the game also comes into play here, as if the game is too short or too long to properly cover the subject material the story will suffer for it.
• routes - my subjective opinion on which routes are the best written or most interesting. does not necessarily overlap with best characters, though they often do.
• gameplay - non-VN sims are scored based on creativity of the game mechanics, balance, how well the gameplay integrates with the story its telling (assuming there is a story), and obviously how fun it is to actually play. VNs are primarily scored on how many choices there are and how substantially they affect the progression of the game. however, a pure VN with no additional features is not likely to score highly here.
• art - covers both the actual quality of the artwork, how well the art style suits the game, and also how that art is utilized. distribution of CGs, for instance, variability of character sprites, poses, expressions. how well the art captures the characters. it also covers other visuals of the game, UI menus and layout and title screens and the like. essentially - if the game looks good, from either a technical or design standpoint, it'll score high.
• sound* - only included for games with voice acting or for which sound is fundamental to the games premise. exception might be made for games with genuinely outstanding music/sound design.