In a 4chan thread such as this one in maybe 2018, I randomly encountered the PC-98. I had never heard of it before. I loved similar art styles from the Sega Genesis and from DOS games, and I had played quite a few DOS games through virtual machines. The Sega CD also had a somewhat similar dithering aesthetic for Snatcher. But there's somthing specifically magical about the PC-98's visuals. The artist could use 16 colors of their choosing out of 4096 (as in, pick 16) and the resolution output was 640 x 400px. They had to use the GUIs of the time, which were like MS Paint.
Most of these games have never been translated, but a few have. Check out these lists for info on which games are best and if they're translated. Also, the game VA-11 HA11-A was based on the PC-98 aesthetic, and I like that game a lot.
