Little Busters! Review

[JakeDPhil]

Little Busters! Review.

Thought I should finally contribute somewhat to Fuwanovel and as such here is the review of my favourite VN, Little Busters!

Please note this is my first attempt at a game review.

It will not be perfect. Also, consider this is my personal opinion and your opinions will differ from mine.

Please feel free to post your own thoughts and opinions in the comments.

This review will contain potentially massive spoilers. Do not read if you haven't played and plan to play Little Busters!

The first VN that I played was, like many other people, Katawa Shoujo. This game not only sparked a burning passion for VNs but also a search. A search for sadness. Let me explain.

After finishing every bad, neutral and good ending in Katawa Shoujo, I found myself looking at reviews in order to reconfirm that I hadn't missed a route besides those I had played and beaten. Looking through a fair amount of reviews as well as discussion forums, I found a common theme in all of them. Sadness. Every single topic I read on Katawa Shoujo mentioned how different parts of the game had made the author cry or feel a deep sense of sadness. I felt none of this. The main culprits for making people cry, namely Hanako's route, left me with no sadness or happiness. In fact, the only route that made me feel anything close to sadness was Rin's neutral ending, which left me only with an empty feeling in my heart. No tears.

This made me wonder whether I was indeed heartless like many people had said I was. Thus begun my task to find a visual novel that would make me cry. Onwards I went. Visual Novels passed me by yet none of them made me feel any considerable amount of sadness. The game that came closest to making me cry was Hoshimemo. The ending of Yume's route would have no doubt made me cry if only the scene had lasted longer but since it didn't means that I am writing a review for Little Busters! and not Hoshimemo.

Then Little busters came along and made me cry like I never had before.

What is Little Busters?

Little Busters! is the sixth game by the group Key, also famous for their other titles such as Clannad and Rewrite. The story is centred around Riki Naoe, a high school boy who suffers from narcolepsy, a disease that makes the person fall asleep at random moments without warning. The story tells of Riki and his group of friends, the Little Busters. When Kyousuke Natsume, the group's leader, decides to play baseball, the group slowly starts to expand until the group has 10 members. 9 of them play on the baseball team whilst the other is their manager. The VN is very similar to most others apart from the fact that the common route has a considerable amount of game play involved in the form of a baseball mini-game and a fighting system which pits the members of the Little Busters against each other. A good thing is that if you don't want to play these, they are easily turned off. Throughout the common route you get to learn more about the female members of the Little Busters and dependant on the choices you make it the common route, you will get onto a route with one of these heroines.

Routes

The common route in Little Busters is extremely long but also does a great job of introducing all of the characters without ruining any of their stories. When you choose a route, you are choosing solely based on the personality and physical appearance instead of their problems, like some other VNs. I like this because it leaves tons of room for character development. However, as much as I love Little Busters!, some of the routes are sub-par. I enjoyed Komari's, Haruka's and Rin's routes but the rest are somewhat lacking in story. My lack of enjoyment in the other routes could be because after I had read a few routes I really wanted to get onto Refrain and see how the story developed. Perhaps if I re-read the routes I would find them to be more enjoyable. I found that Nishizono's and Kurugaya's route are almost the same story and both were very confusing. I don't know why but when I had read Kurugaya's route, I felt I had already read and experienced the same exact story from Nishizono's route with a few minor adjustments. Nishizono's route should not have been in the game. It contributed very little to the overall story and for the first part the only discussed topics were books and poems and seagulls. She also had a very boring and irritating character. Kud's route was way too slow. The story only started about three quarters of the way through the route and even then it made very little sense at all. But I won't spoil. Komari's route was heart-warming, especially at the end. Haruka's route was no doubt my favourite because I loved the emotion and story behind it. I loved the characters of both Haruka and Kanata. The rivalry between them reminded me of the relationship between me and my sister, just more extreme. Rin's route is more like a true route/story route due to its tie in with Refrain. Rin 1, the first play through, left me wanting to progress with the story and may have possibly ruined some of the other routes due to my eagerness to get onto the other story routes. Also, Refrain could also be called part of Rin's route since it makes you choose Rin as your partner. Due to my lack of enjoyment for most of the routes, they instead served as a back story to what I believe to be one of the greatest pieces of writing in any of the visual novels that I have played. Little Busters! Refrain.

Refrain is the continuation of the story after the common route and then Rin's route. There is no words that can describe what Refrain made me feel. Every single seemingly unimportant thing in the common route and every part that was previously unexplained is all brought together in a massive festival of feels. The route itself is the after story of Rin Two, where Kyousuke, weakened by his failure at making Rin grow, is stuck in a depressed state. The old Kyousuke is gone and there is something that only Rin and Riki don't know. After the Little Busters split up, Riki fights to keep the Little Busters alive. Following in Kyousuke's footsteps, Riki succeeds in uniting Masato and Kengo and all together they seek to bring the old Kyousuke back. The final farewell is set where the Little Busters used to play baseball together. Through Kyousuke's point of view, we see him reminiscing about all the lost Little Busters members. Right before everyone says goodbye, Kyousuke explains to Riki that the world is not the real one and is constructed by Kyousuke to constantly revert to the start of school term in order to make Riki and Rin grow so that they can survive once they go back to the real world, where they members of the Little Busters were involved in a horrendous bus accident which causes the deaths of all of the Little Busters except Rin and Riki.

After this, the decisions you make decide what happens after Rin and Riki return to the real world. It is possible to get a true ending where all the Little Busters members are saved and it is possible to save no one if you make the wrong decisions.

So?

What makes this game truly brilliant is its use of music, art and story to create an atmosphere. This can be happy, sad, scary. Whatever atmosphere the game needs is done superbly.

In Refrain, you go all the way through the game with all these brilliant characters only to have them disappear on you as well as all you've even known. The scene where the Little Busters say goodbye as well as at the very end when Kyousuke appears in the window brought me to uncontrollable tears and completely broke me to the point where I was unable to sleep because whenever I closed my eyes I could see the crying face of Kyousuke begging me not to go.

Even now, just listening to the title music and looking back at the CGs can bring a tear to my eyes, months after finishing the game. This game absorbed me like no other, leaving me scarred and hurt about having to leave it behind forever. I was even more saddened to find out that the translation for Little Busters! Ecstasy was progressing very slowly. Whether you are looking for a game with a captivating story or with friendship and fun, this game will surely enough appeal to you.

Conclusion

Some of the art was impeccable whilst at other times it was sub-par. The routes mostly had good story and variation but some of them let me down in terms of story and actual development. I should also add the vocal songs in this game are absolutely amazing and the OSTs are also brilliant at creating atmosphere, whether it be happy or sad. A few of them even excel at creating tension and fear. The characters were all unique even if their stories were not and were all an pleasure to be around.(except Mio)

Overall,

Art= Good

Music=Excellent

Characters=Excellent

Routes=Okay/Good

Story=Amazing

I should give this game a lower score due to the less-than-perfect routes but since Refrain was so amazing, I give it a 9/10 and rate it an absolute must read. Had the routes been unique and rewarding, it would have been a solid 10/10 from me.

Thanks for reading. Please give me recommendations on how to improve in future reviews if you would like

[suikashoujo]

Little Busters was the first VN that made me cry, too. Great review; really covered everything good and bad about the game. 

 

(And I loved Nishizono as a character, don't get me wrong. But yeah, I was pretty disappointed by her route compared to the others. Kud's was pretty good, though, as well as the others you mentioned.)

[Flutterz]

Your first pic is broken, reupload it to imgur or something.

[Izuru]

Little Busters Is Full Of Feels~

[OriginalRen]

Nicely done! A proud showmanship for team busters.

[Guest]

I though we were going to regroup all the little busters! reviews under one thread.

 

Good review but a 9/10 when you said you didn't enjoy most of the routes (70% of the game) is a little strange but whatever.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Guest

[Flutterz]

I though we were going to regroup all the little busters! reviews under one thread.

 

Good review but a 10/10 when you said you didn't enjoy most of the routes (70% of the game) is a little strange but whatever.

10/10 - It's okay.

[DoodlyNyan]

I would give Little Busters! 10/10 if only Kurugaya route wasn't disappointing, nevertheless it's still one of my favourite

[dj_saltynutz]

Little busters is AMAZING i read 3 routes and loved it
i wanna read EX but the translation is still in progress and I want them to unpatch the h scenes!