If you haven't played Fruit of Grisaia, you might want to check that out first, since a huge chunk of this game's content is a direct continuation of those branching "different love interest" storylines. Technically, the "main story" chunk of "Labyrinth of Grisaia" is a prequel to Fruit, but I personally enjoyed reading it after experiencing the main story of "Fruit of Grisaia."
Fruit of Grisaia started off the series with a tale of a guy who had a mysterious past, who reminisces and monologues internally, often about how he doesn't fit in with regular society very well, and considers how his "odd government job" factors in to him appearing a little off to a lot of people. Because of the nature of his secretive government job, he can't go to a normal school and ends up being in a group of a half dozen odd individuals, all girls except for him. Actually gives me Dexter, the TV series, vibes regarding the frankness of the internal monologues. He has a heart though, regardless of the extreme nature of his secret job, and he ends up diving into the tragic and/or dramatic backstories of his new classmates, and tries to navigate and maybe help them with their sometimes life-threatening personal problems. Labyrinth of Grisaia's "main story" chunk acts as a prequel to Fruit of Grisaia, and tells the origin story of the main character, which feels poetic and natural after visiting all the 5 girl's origin stories in Fruit.
I personally kinda love the stupid characters and the story, the writing feels like some grizzled writer (or multiple writers) really knew their ♥♥♥♥, and almost everything feels natural instead of forced like some kid's fanfic in middle school. I don't know too much of the back story regarding the development of these games/VN's (visual novels), but it does feel like somebody in charge takes it insanely seriously up there- the vibe I get is that FrontWing, the developer, has a grizzled staff with a very long history making hentai/porn based visual novels, honestly the main story feels like just a regular writer was in charge, and this was like their magnum opus. The story seems like it was made with the intention of making it good whether there was graphic porn/hentai or not, and I think that's an extremely rare standard for a "porn/hentai" game. In some cases I feel like the porn actually takes away from the realistic, deep vibe of the story, but such is the risk of trying to make any porno. So you might not miss out on anything if you opt for this cesnsored Steam version.
That being said, the Steam version is missing all the porn in the original Labyrinth of Grisaia. That probably wouldn't bother a decent amount of the audience, but there's also apparently censorship regarding some dirty jokes and other silly/offensive comments, which kinda puzzles me. I find the game very charming, especially in the "honest," uncensored nature of the writing. Even the very depressing parts of the story really hit deep, and it feels like there is intent in telling a true story or something resembling real life behind it all. I actually found myself in tears quite a few times, sometimes even happy tears. Which I don't get very often when I'm watching a movie or playing a game.
A bit of a guide for how to view the stories here, as they are directly following the events of the romance partner you choose in the first game; there are 5 "After Stories" in total, one for each of the love interests. I would one of the Love Interest's routes in the first game, Fruit of Grisaia, and then immediately follow up with that character's "After Story" in Labyrinth, and then do the same for each other character. They're long ass stories, and pretty in depth. So in other words, and depending on whatever order you pick the love interests, I would for example, if I romanced Yumiko first in Fruit of Grisaia, I would finish her story, then skip over to Labyrinth of Grisaia and continue her "After Story." And then I'd go back to Fruit and play Makina's love story, finish that, and continue the story in Labyrinth, etc, etc. That felt like way smoother sailing than playing all the content of Fruit of Grisaia, doing all 5 love interests one after the other in the first game, and then watching each "After Story" one after the other. Maybe you have a better memory than I do and want to marathon one game after another, but I found that following each individual unique timeline route to the end the best way to experience the stories. Also it's worth noting that each of the individual love interest paths are all basically not considered canon, especially if you're viewing the trilogy in the uncensored format, which you'll find out why if you play it to the end in Eden of Grisaia.
But at any rate, these games are super charming, I mostly enjoy the silly banter of each and every character in these games. Michiru might be my waifu, despite her seeming like the "dumb one," but she has some seriously dramatic and serious moments that hit me right in the feels pretty often. Probably my least favorite love interest was Sachi, because I kinda don't buy her story in general. As a supporting character I feel her, but in her romance story, I kinda don't get it. It was definitely interesting and different, but maybe just a tiny bit too interesting. Mostly the dialogue in her romance route story just seemed repetitive, with so many "thank you very much / ohaio gosaimus" and "yes, certainly / wakarimasta," just constantly, and she was always so timid and whiny. Even after she starts "manning up" she still stayed really whiny. I like the character, I just didn't buy her attitude in the love interest story. The thing that got me was how different she was before "the accident," she was super outgoing, assertive and confident, but the accident devastated her personality and overall made her pretty detached. But after she gets some "therapy," she still just seems really robotic and whiny like how she is when she's her detached stelf. So I kinda feel like there was some lost potential there.
The story sticks with me though, so there's definitely something attention grabbing there, even with my least fav character. So that might be the biggest best takeaway honestly.
