I would recommend starting with well - known developers in the visual novel industry. For instance, Key is a very popular developer known for emotional and story - rich visual novels like 'Clannad'. Their works often have high - quality art, engaging stories, and memorable characters. Additionally, you can ask your friends who are into visual novels for their suggestions. They might introduce you to some hidden gems.
You can start by checking out popular gaming platforms like Steam. It has a wide variety of visual novels, both free and paid. Another option is to look into dedicated visual novel websites such as itch.io. There are also some forums like Reddit's r/visualnovels where fans discuss and recommend different visual novels.