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Eclipsed

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Posts posted by Eclipsed

  1. Okay so, hear me out, there's been a long ass drought of Ace Attorney, and so you should totally checkout Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane. It's a heavily inspired Ace Attorney indie VN that'll make you feel right at home. Kinda pricey at 20 bucks, but you get the standard 5 case Ace Attorney experience with all the fun point and click exploration/investigations and climactic cross examinations with moderatos and allegros and slightly over the top characters you could ask for. And yes Arcane is in the title because there's also magic. Like, this 'dumbass noble mage totally used the magicks to commit this crime' type of magic 💀

    Spoiler

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    ?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Lett^This clown here's Nick- I mean uhh Tyrion Cuthbert (Teer-ee-on? Ty-ry-on? Cooth-bert???). Yo Idk dafuq kinda name the devs were going for, but at least he got the desk slams like Nick.

     

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    ^This cutie here is Maya Fey. She's a mage named Celeste this time around, and Tyr's actually competent sidekick/bodyguard. Btw Tyr has his own built in Athena Cyke's Mood Matrix via his "Eye of Horus" where he can involuntarily pick up on people's thoughts and emotions (yellow text + purple/blue emojiis above). Kind of makes him overpowered at times with the level of omniscience he can get but it's cool. Not every day you get a protag who can Maximillion Pegasus Millenium Eye these fools

     

    ?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Lett^This hottie's Aria Steelwind. The female Miles Edgeworth I guess. She's cool. Ice princess type.

     

    There's also romance, if you care for that LOL!

    Spoiler

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    ^Ngl i wouldn't ship Nick and Maya, but Tyr and Celeste? sign me up

     

     

     

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    ^They totally did Aria's cool calm and collected ice princess persona DIRTYYY lol ❤️

     

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    Go play it

  2. Yaho, time for another one of my sporadic shilling of the few VNs that I've read over the past few months.

    SHINRAI -broken beyond despair- it was an alright Halloween Party murder mystery between 10 middle school friends. What's great about it is that you can have totally logically sound but incorrect deductions at the very end as to who the master mind is and you'll feel like a total dumbass afterwards when the protagonist realizes her mistake. 7/10

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    "Remember, these are a buncha middle schoolers lol."

     

    Fragment's Note+ & Fragment's Note 2+ This was apparently a mobile-VN made 10 years ago, remade for the Switch recently as + versions. Gee, wonder how their sales went lol. Anyways Fragments Note is a standard charamoege high school slice of life, with the twist being that in the first game the protagonist's future daughter travels to his time in order to prevent a tragic fate that would befall him if she were to not intervene. That's pretty much the only thing that kept me interested in this VN, cuz I just can't with HS SoL nowadays lol. 7/10

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    "Guys I'm not a Lolicon I swear lol, but Miu is just too cute."

     

    Fragment's Note 2 is an indirect sequel taking place 1 year later at the same high school, but with a different protagonist. What I found particularly interesting is that this protagonist was only briefly mentioned in the first game, and now he has his own story! Talk about Ascended Extra. I'm a sucker for these types of continuity in stories. Even better, one of the unromanceable heroines from the first game (because plot) is actually romanceable this time around hehehe. Unfortunately, most of the plot is wasted on the protagonist's trauma, because a core theme of this VN is to conquer your inner demons and move on type of deal. 7.5/10

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    "^This here's Ayame. And hori shi she might just be my most guilty pleasure character ever lol. She's the doting gentle older sister type. Totally gives my pink-haired heroine bias a run for its money"

     

    Paranormasight: Hoh boy, if you are ever looking for a supernatural battle of wits murder mystery, look no further. Paranormasight's gotchu covered. Simple premise. 7* Mysteries of Honjo, 7* Curse Bearers with relics/kill methods based on those mysteries, and you're in for a good time. Only gripe is the whole deathnote-style kill or be killed thriller gameplay is literally reserved only for the PROLOGUE, yes only the PROLOGUE, and the rest of the game after that is piecing together the mystery/lore/character motivations and does away with the climactic character confrontations. Also kind of short, clocking in only 10-15 hours. 8/10

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    "Give me a 30hr VN that's purely more about these type of character confrontations sizing each other up before going for the killing blow and you'd have a masterpiece lol"

     

    Yurukill: Four pairs of "Prisoners" and "Executioners" are taken to a 'theme park' Yurukill Land and the winning pair that makes it through all the 'attractions' will get the Prisoner exonerated from their crime, with the Executioner having any wish of theirs granted. This VN seriously doesn't know what it wants to be, murder mystery, escape game, Danganronpa logic puzzles, bullet hell shoot 'em up... it implements all of these mechanics, so like a jack of all trades but master of none. Fun enough though. 7/10

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    "Totally unrelated comment, but Rina totally looks like someone who would appear in like Fata Morgana or something LOL"

     

    Suhoshin: Another short (~5-7hrs) murder mystery VN (see a trend here?) this time taking place in a more medieval setting. Interesting, up until you get to a certain midway point and get one of those infodumps that totally ruins the intrigue because the characters just know too much about what they are dealing with at that point. 7/10

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    "Oh yes, you'll totally always frustratingly be one step behind the killer lol -_____-"

     

    Currently reading: Kunado Kokuki Gee, Purple Software really liked the Kotodama gimmick that they made in Amatsutsumi didn't they >.>. I didn't get very far in Amatsu before I got bored of the high school SoL as usual, but Kunado Kokuki is set in post apocalyptic man vs machine setting and the Kotodama gimmick is quite intriguing there.

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    "And let's be real, Haruhime (center) is a God-tier heroine lol. Ruler of the nation, gorgeous as fuh, and has the same exclusive Kotodama powers as the protagonist. It's a match made in heaven."

  3. I've red a handful of VNs over the past few months but never got around to really doing one of my usual misc. thoughts/comments 😅

    A Clockwork Ley-Line: good if you're still into SoL high school setting, except make it in a magic school setting. There's not really heavy emphasis on the magic itself ie. no classroom infodumps about magic and/or students learning about magic and battling each other sorcerer vs witches style, just mainly protagonist Koga Michiru and friends from the Bureau of Investigation club running around trying to capture rogue magical artifacts that cause supernatural shenanigans to occur in the school, with an overarching mystery regarding the school itself. Trilogy, so you have plenty of time to get attached to the cast and watch the blossoming romance between Michiru and main heroine Shishigatani Ushio. Now that I think about it, I actually didn't finish this lol, stopped early on in the last episode because life so I'll pick it up #soon. 7/10

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    "Ya, the Bureau totally works for the sake of the school and aren't a part of any sketchy conspiracies :wink-1:"

     

    Corpse Factory: randomly tried this OELVN, yes you read that right OEL, ENGLISH VN, and surprisingly had a pretty good time with it. The English voice cast was decent enough that I actually listened to most of the lines fully instead of my usual half-listen-but-then-move-onto-next-line-before-audio-finishes for regular JVNs. Plot was alright, was mostly intrigued by the characters themselves and how messed up in the head they can be. 8/10.

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    "Yeah... I've never actually watched DEATH NOTE (i know, blasphemy, sue me), but I'd imagine there's some inspiration taken from it..?"

    Spoiler

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    "Uhh... yeah, keep dreaming bub."

     

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    "...And you can keep dreaming too LOL"

     

    Process of Elimination: The Detective Alliance consists of 100 super detectives that have a particular special ability and they are trying to capture "The Quartering Duke" a criminal mastermind who's been on a killing spree. 14 of the detectives get isolated trapped at their very own Detective Alliance Headquarters, murders start happening, and chances are the mastermind is among the 14...Yup it's a Danganronpa offbrand isolated murder mystery setting type with a quirky cast each with specializations, but hey you have technically 14 Ultimate Detectives this time around so how hard could it be to find out who's the mastermind :makina:?

    The "investigation" and eureka! segments are played out as strategy RPG gameplay where you turn based move characters to points of interest and analyze evidence. Not as flashy as Danganronpa's classroom trials, and overall most of the murders and cases are pretty meh and ultimately the confrontation with the big bad totally falls flat and totally cannot hold a candle to Danganronpa's Hope vs Despair shenanigans, but it was fun enough. 7/10

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    "^This here's 'Ideal Detective', and yeah, they totally made her such an ideal type lol. Btw the protagonist is known as 'Incompetent Detective'"

     

    Umineko: When the Seagulls Cry: Sigh, yes, I finally got around to reading the masterpiece that is Umineko. I red someone say that Umineko's mass 10/10 ratings is from survivor bias- this thing is LONG, like probably the longest VN I've ever read, and took me like 1-1.5months on and off casual reading to take down lol. The 75hr length estimate on VNDB is no joke. And that's just for Ep 1-4, with 5-8 also being another 70+hr estimate!!! And so the people that did manage to finish were the ones that thoroughly enjoyed and thus were able to make it to the end.
    Umineko's very good. Especially for its time. It's basically a murder mystery with an emphasis on battle of wits on whether it was done via a witch/supernatural or whether everything could be logic'd out and the culprit was human with realistic methods. It unfortunately kinda... devolves and drags later on, but I enjoyed my time with it. 8/10

    "^If you don't get absolutely hooked on this VN by the time you reach the end of Episode One and hear this BGM, just drop the VN."

     

    Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. Spike Chunsoft's latest Danganronpa x Al: Somnium Files had a baby. Technically not a pure VN since they have enough adventure game aspects so this game got the Zero Time Dilemma treatment on VNDB but yeah. 

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    "If you enjoyed Danganronpa's Classroom Trials this game implements some of that, and if you enjoyed Al Somnium Files' quirky female companion or the Somniums this game also implements some of that via Shinigami and the Mystery Labyrinths. Play it."

     

  4. You ever been like, well gee, I blitzed through the entire Ace Attorney Trilogy + 3DSilogy and maybe played the spinoffs like Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 'cuz you just gotta have some more cross examination funzies and wish they would just release another Ace Attorney by now?

    Not me

    Well there's a VN called Ouka Sabaki / Master Magistrate that should give you your courtroom trial VN fix

    Set in 1850's "Bakumatsu Era" Japan, you play as up and coming Magistrate (last) Ooka Shimei, and you got all the classic Ace Attorney inspired elements: a quirky but well meaning cast and an episodic story that goes in Slice of Life -> Case -> Investigation -> Trial format

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    ^Gal on the left is Rimu, your resident discount Ace Attorney's Maya Fey. Classic genki sidekick support to the protagonist.
    Broad on the right is Sakura, the classic hardass "Pfft, protagonist is too soft, I could totally do his job 1000x better than him".


    The courtroom trials don't really play as bombastically as Ace Attorney's iconic Cross-Examination segments but they're passable. In general everything is slightly not as over the top and there are some good moments to be had. As Magistrate, Shimei is Judge Jury and Executioner; there's no back and forth defense lawyer vs prosecutor going on here.

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    ...Did I mention Rimu is best girl? I just love it when VNs take the time to have different hair styles for a heroine. Rimu's hair down is to die for LOL

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  5. Felt in the mood to read some trapped VNs, idk why 🤷‍♂️ happy holidays 🎅🎄

    Killer Queen - it's a 2006 isolated trapped / killing game ruleset type story. Being 2006 it's one of the earlier attempts at such a genre, and boy does it really show. I totally didn't care for the characters, and the shit that happens was very yawn inducing, nothing special and just drags. Doesn't help that the protagonist is a total pacifist, geebus writers that ain't gonna work in this type of narrative rofl 5/10. There was a remake in 2008 with a bit more moeified artwork and a more fleshed out story (~2-3x the length of the original) but not translated.

     

    The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass - Ok so, you want some trapped mystery sci-fi and you've already read all the Root Doubles and Ever17s and Zero Escapes, look no further. This VNs got 8 characters trapped in a gemstone exhibit museum called Ashiya Tower centered around the mysterious gemstone- the Sekimeiya itself- and they'll be in for a world of mindscrews- including you.

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    The blue haired gal above is Shiroya. Best girl of course.

    Sekimeiya's made by amateur group Trinitite (their Twitter page says "Three people working to create plot-focused visual novels") so it unfortunately means that there's only like 10 CGs in a 25-35hr reading experience, and no voice acting, but other than that this VN is pretty well made.

    The writing is... very dense, to put it lightly. This is a VN where you can and will easily lose track of wtf is going on simply due to its sci fi mystery nature and so by the end of it when it is truth seeking infodumping time and the VN starts recapping everything and asking you to fill in the blanks it can be very :makina: but everything IS technically answered and/or can be deduced. The protagonist himself Atsuki can get very longwinded when something mindscrewy happens and it can be tiresome to listen to his self theory-crafting (which he will do ALOT):

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    5 minutes later something happens, and then you'll get another wall of text like this, no joke.


    There is a built in chapter/scene summary where you can input your own notes, an ingame map of the building, and a backlog where you can literally Cntrl-F to search through the text to help you keep track of things, but I just powered through this VN and took the twists and turns as they came without stressing too much being on top of things. You should pretty much be able to theorize the bigger stuff going on, and it's just the little nuances where you'll just have to take the L because yeah like I'm gonna remember what X person did Y time ago after A person did this B time ago etc etc.

    You only get access to the absolute disgusting mess of a flowchart when you finish the game and I guess want to spend additional time bridging the gaps of whatever you might've missed:

    Spoiler

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    🤮

     

    ~~
    8/10 Here's my end results lol. They had the gall to have an entire stats thing of what % questions readers got right and whatnot. Pretty interesting stuff though.

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    I got 41/94 (43%), putting me right in the middle of the pack of ~63% of players getting 30-49% of the ?'s right. Top 5% of readers who got 70%+ ?'s right: I call BS LOL they must've used a walkthrough or something!!

  6. Summer Pockets Reflection Blue

    ...I'll be honest, I'm like, totally a grandpa now and so if I red Summer Pockets like 10 years ago back when I red the other Key SoL funstuff like of Rewrite / Little Busters maybe I would've liked Summer Pockets a bit more and included it in my SoL Hall of Fame, but nowadays it's just not really my cup of tea anymore lol 

    To be fair I didn't make it to the true route/ending to get to the good ol' KEY magic bits but mannn I ran out of steam hardcore after going through the four main heroines and not being interested in the Reflection Blue heroines. I'll check it out sometime later when I'm in the mood for SoL

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    ^...Because I wanna do dirty things to you, Shiroha- I mean uhhh, for safety reasons!

    But yeah, gorgeous visuals and whatnot, but just not in the mood for slice of life atm

     

     

     

     

    ~~
    Okay so, Meteor World Actor. I know, wtf is that title right?
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    ^It's a police/crime VN set in a futuristic fictional world that has superpowers and fantasy races like Elves and Segitts. I know, what a weird mix right?

     

    The protagonist is (first name) Ruka Hiryu, a detective from the outcast sideliner "13th Division" of the National Police Agency (NPA). He's an antihero type with a bad attitude, slacker work ethic, and pisspoor financials but is competent enough to hold his own when it matters (sometimes) (every now and then) (maybe)

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    ^That's Claris, Ruka's Elven kouhai rookie partner who just joined NPA but got shoved into the troublemaker 13th Division 'cuz she's an elf. Racial discrimination at its finest. Ruka likes to belittle and bully her but as you can see she can be pretty feisty herself.

    The story plays episodic, which each major case-of-the-week focusing on certain characters/heroines while giving more insight into Ruka's character and his longterm motivations.

    The cast is diverse and fantastic. Most of the time people are just bagging on Ruka for being a worthless good for nothing detective but there is a good sense of unspoken camaraderie between the cast
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    ^Ruka only lies 125% of the time, nbd

     

    It unfortunately ends in a cliffhanger, because eff you that's why, but don't worry, you can read the sequel Badge and Dagger, but that'll also end in a cliffhanger right when they get to the good bits with getting ready to hunt for the big baddie, because again eff you. Except this time the sequel sequel is not out yet sadface

  7. ^"If you're not tired of the KEY formula yet, want another dose, but don't have time for behemots such as Clannad or Summer Pockets - go for it"

    Sold. I already have Loopers on my Switch but haven't gotten around to it; but I'll definitely move it up on my to-do-list 😛 

    ~~
    AI: Nirvana Initiative was good. If you liked the general reading experience from The Somnium Files you should be able to enjoy this as well.

    The Somniums can be solved more logically this time around instead of having to trial and error yolo choosing random actions and hoping for the best so that's a plus.

    The dual-protagonist system is... unfortunate; splitting screentime between Mizuki and Ryuki definitely imo weakens the both of them than if the VN focused on just one of them. Ryuki was aight, but ngl would've totally preferred Mizuki to be the sole protagonist cuz bias

    The big twist... was a whole bunch of "...that's it?", especially with how it'll literally, and I mean quite literally, be told to you upfront in plain English handholding spoonfed style after a certain part in the story. It's VERY underwhelming.

    8/10. I gave the first game 8.5/10. The first game just keeps you hooked with the always-a-step-behind murder mystery. Second game tries to be grand with the whole Nirvana Initiative plotline and falls flat

    ~~
    Currently reading the most randomest thing ever, Making*Lovers. If you're ever in the mood for a legit dating sim where the narrative is all about a modern day no-relationship-experience whatsoever young adult male protagonist meeting a likewise no-relationship-experience whatsoever heroine by some contrived circumstantial chance, they awkwardly hit it off, but slowly and surely fall in love as they get to know each other and involve in each others' lives, this thing will be quite a treat. No overarching plot or common routes here, the entire focus of this VN will be on the protag and the heroine of your choice's fated encounter and blossoming romance.

    If you don't got a thing for the sassy just-an-acquaintance from the good ol' college days, ya oughta rethink your life decisions:

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  8. Here's a hot take

    How the hell did Subahibi get an overwhelming majority 9+/10 ratings (avg 8.68) on VNDB?

    Yeah, sure, innocent lighthearted SoL beginnings turned GOTCHA! pyschological multiple viewpoints wtfmux that rabbit?! delusional EnDSkY savior bonanza

    But nothing that made me feel like goddamn, this is a 10/10 masterpiece!@#. 

    I gave it a 7/Good. Gets too rapey at times. And Takuji can go suck it.

    ~~
    I feel bad for people who followed 9-Nine since its first episode released in 2017 and had to wait until 2020+ to get the final episode. Idk how episodic releases fare against just making one complete VN, but whatever floats your boat. I got the luxury of finding out about this VN in 2022, so huzzah me, can just marathon the whole thing!

    9 9 was fun. It's another modern day high school setting with a dash of the supernatural/superpowers. Good balance of highschool SoL Romance and Supernatural Overarching Plot Build Up to keep things interesting, with 4 Episodes to keep ya busy and add to the superpower lore(each Episode is dedicated to one of the 4 heroines, yee Enforced Route Playthroughs). The payoff when you finally get to Episode 4 is similar to, if not only a fraction of, the payoff you'd get from making the trek from Muv Luv to Muv Luv Alternate. Things can get pretty high stakes and epic, just don't uh, overload. Heh.

    7/10 Ep 1-2,
    8/10 Ep 3,
    9/10 Ep 4.

    ~~ 
    I was gonna do a misc. thoughts for both Subahibi and 9-Nine, but uhhh I kinda got too lazy, srrz. And I kinda just wanna start reading:

    Spoiler

    AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative Story Trailer - YouTube

     

  9. Mbn to be able to re-read VNs; I apparently red Princess Evangile like 6 years ago and gave it a solid 8 and it was definitely at the time one of my favorite charamoeges. Recently I tried re-reading like Little Busters! and Grisaia no Kajitsu, both of which are literally like my second and third VNs, but nope I remember just barely enough that they're both completely a drag for me to even bother continuing 😪

    Over the past month I finished the otome Bustafellows. I ended up giving it an 8.5/10, so same rating as what I gave for the likes of Code;Realize and CollarxMalice. But I think I enjoyed Bustafellows a bit more than those two, so maybe 8.75/10? LOL But VNDB doesn't allow such a blasphemy partial rating oh wells

    What makes Bustafellows so stellar is if you particularly enjoy a cast that has superb camaraderie, friendship, familial bond etc with each other. Bustafellows is ALL about that life. The setting of New Sieg (fictional modern US) with its corruption-behind-the-scenes and band of five heroes each having their own place in society + heroine protagonist all living under the same roof banding together to do vigilante work just allows for many funtimes. 

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    What a solemn group picture LOL

    Every Hero route will have the protagonist-heroine Teuta meddle with his private affairs, eventually culminating in them falling in love along with the other Heroes stepping in with the "Yo, we're bro's, let us help you out!" to resolve the conflicts. It's a good way to make use of all the characters without doing the whole out of focus thing.

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    YO, BRO'S BEFORE HO'S


    Teuta herself is one of the more vibrant heroine-protagonists I've had the pleasure of reading. I don't even remember Ichika's or Cardia's personalities- I think they were stoic and realistic, or whatever genericness that allowed the reader to self-insert better. Teuta's strong willed, positive, and speaks her mind. She's also FULLY VOICED, can you believe that? At first it was off-putting for me- usually I don't like my protagonists voiced because it slows down my reading and whatnot- but at the end of the day having Teuta voiced for Bustafellows with all of her emotions ended up enhancing the narrative experience so much more than if I were to just use whatever headcanon voice I conjured up for her.

    The romance is exquisite. Teuta conforms to her Hero of choice EXTREMELY well it's almost shocking how "made for each other" Teuta is able to be with each Hero, vs. some other VNs where sometimes you just laugh at how quickly and abruptly some pairings get together. It's probably partly because it was by design here- a majority of the Hero route flags are triggered by a 'personality' test Teuta takes during the common route and so yeah, the pairs do naturally end up having much in common.

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    The sassy and snarky playboy Helvetica

     

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    The playful self proclaimed "Underworld Boss" Scarecrow

     

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    The overly stoically logical Mozu

     

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    The lone wolf badass Shu
     

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    The charismatic and dependable posterboy Limbo

     

    ~~
    There's plenty of supporting cast as well that adds to the one-big-happy-family-that-has-each-others'-backs theme. Teuta in particular has two lifelong childhood friends Luka and Adam who will make sporadic appearances throughout your time with Bustafellows and they're always a treat to see because you just know whenever they pop up that they'll take care of Teuta. She really is the central pillar that joins everyone together in this VN.

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    Luka and Adam are probably some of the best side support characters I've had the pleasure of reading. Their "lifelong friend" status really made me appreciate them.

     

    And so, you may want to avoid stumbling into some of the bad ends. Overall they're pretty mild, but some can get JARRINGLY dark. Teuta's a great protagonist, and everyone loves her, but she's not invincible 💀

    SUPER SPOILERS AND PROBABLY NSFW:

    Spoiler

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    Un. Be. Liev. A. Ble. 

    I legit had to take a break, can't believe my girl Teuta got offed in such a gruesome way...

     

  10. Fatal Twelve. It popped up randomly in the Switch store the other day, jeez y'all gotta market better!

     

    Fatal Twelve is a, uh... battle of wits style battle royale death game? Except there's no hard violence- no epic Fate/Stay battles to the death. At the other end of the spectrum, there's no glorified verbal debates like Danganronpa's Class Trials. That's probably my biggest first impression disappointment going into this VN lol.

    The basic premise is that 12 people died, and through an enigmatic process called Divine Selection they are put through a 12 week altered reality where none of them actually died. The goal? To eliminate all other participants via weekly Elections in the Court of Fate. Other than that they are relatively free to do as they please with their newfound time. In order to Elect someone, a participant must have their opponents' 1) Name 2) Cause of Death 3) Life Regret. An eliminated participant will have their death become reality once again, and any physical actions or influence they made between their original death and the current present is erased. The sole survivor of the Divine Selection gets the privilege to defy fate and live on while the rest perish as fate originally intended.

    The whole process is supervised by none other than Parca, a snarky self proclaimed Goddess of Destiny.

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    Yo you're cute and all, but, I mean, wtf kind of name is Parca?

    The 12 participants all have different backgrounds and circumstances ranging from mafioso, wealthy businessman, housewife, single old man, smuggler, rich indian prince, female child, and of course, our protagonist, your every day ordinary high school male high school female with a delinquent appearance: Rinka. She really is just a high school kid, as she mainly spends the first half of the Divine Selection just mulling about her school's upcoming culture festival and friendships, with her research into the other participants being limited to really amateur attempts such as trying to Google them on the internet. The adults do all of the heavy lifting, forming alliances and long con betrayals. 

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    Who looks more out of place here, the handsome Nigerian Prince or the delinquent schoolgirl lol.

    The story plays episodic/weekly, with the first few weeks being easily forgetful since they were used to eliminate the fodder cast and establish the mechanics of the Divine Selection as well as give you a feel for how the other participants are going about their days. Might as well have called this VN Fatal Six, since that's when the remaining cast get to have some better interactions and scenarios with each other. As I said earlier, the weekly eliminations in the Court of Fate also leave much to be desired, as those segments really lack any climax feel. No oomph. One person just Elects someone, calls out their name, cause of death, and regret, and that's it. Moving onto the next week.

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    YO I FEEL SAD THAT THE DIVINE SELECTION ELECTION ELIMINATIONS BASICALLY BOIL DOWN TO LIST YOUR OPPONENT'S 1-2-3 LINERS AND NOT HOUR LONG DANGANRONPA CLASS TRIAL SEGMENTS
     

    Pretty curious to see how this can end, like if there'll be any jaw dropping twists or if it'll just end straightforwardly.


    ~~
    Another VN err otome that just came out today that I've been waiting for is Bustafellows. For some reason I thought this was made by the same devs IdeaFactory/Otomate who made the blockbusters Code;Realize and CollarXMalice, but apparently not. Still looks like it has the potential to be included in the list of high quality otome VNs that everyone who gets into otomes should read though.

    You play as Teuta, a cheerful 21yo freelance journalist living in modern fictional U.S. New Sieg. Looking for her next scoop she happened upon one of the heroes, Limbo, a famous skilled arrogant lawyer on the side of justice. Hoping to catch an interview she calls out to him, but much to her shock he just collapses and dies, blood pouring out of his chest.

    So what does she do?

    She timeleaps one hour into the past into the body of another in order to warn Limbo about his impending doom.

    TKoiN0l.jpg

    3ms8g6P.jpg

    ...Oh yeah, this should be good.

  11. Oh god I think I'm gonna become hella spoiled by Yuzusoft

    I forgot that they actually put in the effort to change character sprites to go in tandem with what whatever the characters are currently saying. Bless whoever they hired that has enough OCD to take the time to do all of that.

    It actually makes me want to listen to the entire dialogue rather than doing my whole min/maxing sweetspot reading because it really does amplify the reading experience significantly.

    ~~
    Anyways I ended up going for Riddle Joker, cuz I need me some high school superpowers

    Friggen' Himawari, bless its the-whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-cough-Aqua-Best-Girl took a whopping the entirety of Episode One+Two for me to finally settle down and really start enjoying the narrative for what it was, but Riddle Joker was instant hook line and sinker for me and I'm enjoying everything right off the bat.

    Protagonist is (first) Satoru Arihara, a combat-capable-but-slacking-in-studies realist high school boy and he's part of a secret organization of "Astrals" who seek to use their powers for the greater good, vigilante style.

    His latest mission: to infiltrate the nation's first prominent Astral education/research facility.

    He has a younger sister, too. Foster sister. Nanami Arihara. And man, every VN I'm reading lately is making me realize I'm simply the siscon type, godhelpme, Nanami is fantastic. She's the well meaning younger-than-protagonist-but-responsible/mature-enough-that-she-essentially-takes-care-of-him-like-an-older-sister-type, but she's very, very shy/introverted around others and will have her vulnerable moments where she'll call "Satoru-kun" the coveted "Onii-chan" instead. She's also Satoru's partner in crime in the secret organization they're in, so they have that dynamic going on for them as well. Jeez, what more can you ask for in a brother/sister relationship?

    8EHIKpi.png

    I'd go straight back to sleep all day errday, just so I could get awakened again and again and again by such a kawaii sister lel.

     

    But step aside Nanami, first impression best girl hands down goes to:

    Ayase Mitsukasa.

    X3rysgO.png

    Anyone who knows me, knows pink is an automatic win, no questions asked. Pink, responsible role model, student council president...all this is about as common and standard as it gets but I shall never tire of it heh.

    Now, I would've been fine with Ayase as is because I'm ez, but hoh boy this oughta be fun(SLIGHT SPOILERS):

    Spoiler

    r4b57z2.png

    SHE'S A FAKE GOODY TWO SHOES LOLOLOL WELL PLAYED, YUZUSOFT!!!!!!!!!! WELL! PLAYED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     

  12. Aaand I feel jipped again LOL 

    I finished Himawari.

    Asuka's route for me was like

    An anthill

    Compared to the Mount Everest that was Aqua.

    See, there's this enforced playorder thing

    So the writers know that you know all about the plot shenanigans that Episode One and Two foreshadowed, with Aqua's route being the route of choice to conclude them, so there's no need to regurgitate all that jazz again.

    So what does that leave for Asuka? 

    Absolutely NOTHING!

    It's like they ran out of gas. Here I thought there would be one last curveball, an Episode Three, a true end, grand finale, idk, something! But Asuka's route ended up being as standard of a heroine route as one could imagine.

    Asuka herself is a decent heroine though, I'll honestly just take anyone over Aries, so she was a solid 7/10 enjoyment.

    hSDncy4.png

    Yeah, sure Asuka.
    What's truly frightening, I'd say, is getting all hyped up after finishing Aqua's route and wondering just what the writers could cook up next, but then you appear with all your mediocrity and make me depressed.

     

    ~~
    Even Aqua becomes strangely philosophical during Asuka's route:

    auiw8cA.png

    WTH, WDYM AQUA?? YOU AND YOUICHI HAD LIKE THE BEST ROMANCE EVER.


    ~~
    Neglected to do a misc. thoughts/spoilers so I'll do one now. It'll only cover Aqua though LOL

    Here, have some Techno '48. Though, it should really be renamed into Night of Aquarius or something :makina:. This BGM was totally made for her.

    SUNFLOWER SPOILS

    Spoiler

    From Episode One we learn that Aqua is sly, mysterious, and combat capable. She's also a lightweight when it comes to drinking and outright vomits on Youichi as he was lap pillow resting on her (Jfc, that was both hawt and disgusting, way to create the perfect fan (dis)service scene, writers). 

    She turned out not to be a Woman in Black in the classic conspiracy sense, but rather she hailed from the influential and powerful space pioneers the Saionji Group, and was sent to Earth to recover the escaped and now amnesiac Aries. Upon tracking Aries down however, Aqua ended up delaying her reports to the higher ups in order to join Youichi and friends' Space Club funtime shenanigans- That is, until Aries recovered her memories after a botched rocket launch experiment programmed by Aries herself resurfaced her inner guilt:

    VjweEt0.png

    What was Aries at fault for?

    She was the one who programmed the software for the Spaceplane's trial flight to space two years ago on August 23rd, 2048 that ended in disaster. A bug in the software cost the lives of 518 passengers, Youichi's family included, with Youichi being the sole amnesiac survivor ever since.

    Play time was over. It was time for Aries to return back to where she belonged- back to the space station Sunflower. Youichi promises to plant as many sunflower seeds as he could and awaits for the the day he would get to see Aries again.

    Aqua's parting words:

    mwU5uEb.png

    Cue generic dimwitted protagonist replying with "Oh? Who else found salvation?" :sachi:


    There's just one particular unanswered question by the end of all this that's bugging the hell out of Youichi though.

    While Aries restored his memories of his sister: personality, appearance and whatnot, there's one teeny itty bitty thing he still doesn't remember:

    mAjNpFO.png

    Her name.


    ~~
    Cue Episode Two!

    Spoiler

    I really appreciate Himawari devs for going this route with their narrative. It's not too often you get to have a heroine's backstory explored in such a way. I swear I wish VNDB didn't outright state that Aqua is a protagonist in their character tab; I would've gotten 1000% more hyped by this transition. I'm easy to hype up. And please.

    Episode Two takes place in August 2048- a few weeks before the Spaceplane Incident. Aqua and Aries were born and raised on the space station built by the Saionji Group: Sunflower (Good look getting an Earthpassport). Their lives are routine and mundane- help out occasionally with Professor Souichirou's research and whatever else the Saionji Group requests of them, but other than that they are relatively free to do as they please in their respective rooms. Peaceful, but boring. And lonely.

    Curiosity finally getting the better of them, Aries and Aqua eventually hijack an escape pod and set course for Miyaura, the town where 'she' lived. Before they are able to make much progress though, they are intercepted and recovered by a Spaceplane heading to Sunflower boarded by none other than 'she' herself.

    The sister whose name Youichi spent the entirety of Episode One tormented by with his amnesiac curse? Treated as common knowledge here in Episode Two and instantly 'spoiled' through Aqua's perspective. 

    'Her' name is:

    TnZewVD.png

    Aoi.
    And she shrekts poor Aqua at video games, at cooking (I LOVED that cheap crumbling food SFX whenever Aqua presented her cooking btw, absolutely hilarious), at pleasantries, at genetics, chest size, the list just goes on and on...

    Aqua is labeled a 'failure' compared to Aries and Aoi: her cell manipulation powers are not as potent, she is reliant on a daily injection dose of a certain red liquid medicine to be in good health, and she is the most rebellious of the trio. But hey, if there's one thing I think Aqua beats the two at hands down, is basic hotness. Aqua's hawt. Dangerously so. 

    I kind of wished there would be more scenes involving the AAA Club, but sadly the video game scene and Aoi x Youichi first kiss gossiping scene are all we really get. 

    We also didn't get to see any routine military training Aqua was exposed to. It's not like you can get that level of proficiency hanging out in your room all day, and Aqua grew up with Aries who definitely didn't display any combat expertise so I would've just liked to see how she got to be so capable and badass.

    Instead, the majority of Episode Two is spent with the single most glaring flaw in all of Himawari: Amamiya Daigo. Mamamiya, this guy is so obnoxious and pervy in a such a bad way he makes Naruto's Jiraiya look tame in comparison.

    Seriously, I thought it would be a one off thing for him to pin Aqua to her own bed like a thirsty perv, but he does it basically every day. Then he starts doing her daily medicine injections for her, and the writers even managed to make that process awkward and fetishy af. And then Aqua just goes along with all of his antics, constantly complaining about how annoying he is and how she wants things to go back to normal and basically justifying her inaction the writers' ineptness for creating a more plausible scenario. Downright disappointing.

    6I9vZdH.png

    TOIdrKa.png

    Heh, I wonder if Youichie classified as Aqua's ideal. He's definitely the nice guy type, so 'gentle' is checked. As for 'mature'... well, he definitely didn't act immature at least I guess?
     

    The Akira Daigo Akari flashbacks were good. I always like me some predecessor storylines and seeing how they affect the current generation. Very fascinating to see how Akira was a rather normal, ambitious guy back in the day before he became the cold, tyrannical smug ruler of the Saionji Group that he is today. Liked Akari's supposed acceptance of her dying fate, only for her finally crack and scrawl the walls in a sea of "I don't want to die" blood messages. That was some sweet, sweet tragics. Enjoyed the red herring carrot danglings as to the possibility of Aqua being Akari's (or even Daigo's) child, and the resulting Aqua = Akari identity crisis via Lunar Virus and inheriting memories jargon.

    Aqua finally standing up to and almost killing Akira was a poggers "You go girl!" moment. It was the moment of badassery I was waiting for, complete with classic corporate overlords engineering their own demise trope. Too bad Daigo stole the show and it turned into a mere fist fight. We at least get to hear the reason Akira lost his way for our troubles:

    KbseMYt.png

    A simple, yet surprisingly human reason. Coupled with his nice guy actions in Aqua + Asuka routes later on, this guy truly was just a misunderstood guy who just came off as a villain based on his very crude way of interacting with people (along with reader assumption that there just has to be a bad character somewhere, and he naturally fits the bill). I guess it should've been obvious- he never really did outright evil things- in fact early on in Episode Two, Aqua and Aries tell Aoi that he shaved their eye brows as a punishment one time. Shaving eyebrows! Whatta ruthless dictator!
     

    Did NOT like the whole Daigo being trapped in the past, unable to move on from Akari, and ESPECIALLY did not like the unforgivably sin of him seeing Aqua as Akari. It was the final nail in the coffin that writers had prepared, their last 'fk you' trump card, to kick all pro Just-Let-Aqua-Be-A-Badass fans while they were down. Aqua just couldn't catch a break in Episode Two...
    zq5p8tN.png

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    Yo dw Aqua, like I said in a previous post, ultimately I appreciated Episode Two despite how utterly screwed you got, both literally and figuratively, because it really did make your eventual romance with Youichi THAT much more potent...

     

    The climax of Episode Two was great. One of the better "it was all in vain" tragedies I've had the pleasure of reading. See, you go into this knowing it'll obviously end with the SAN-DA079 Incident, but I was still caught off guard with how exactly it went down. "Hoh, maybe Daigo intentionally crash landed onto the moon again out of some twisted romantic desire to be with Akari. Huh? It wasn't intentional this time around...? You sure? Wait- Aries was the one who programmed their escape pod...? Wait- what day is it today? August 22... twenty four hours before Doomsday? O SHI-"

    Daigo, having been entrusted with Aoi by Akari, opts to make the grand 20+ hr trip to make it to the Earth-facing side of the moon so they could send an emergency warning. The price? It was a guaranteed one way suicide mission due to their limited oxygen reserves. He tells Aqua to stay put, wishing for her to live on, but after a few hours her helpless lovesick self commits her cardinal sin: "screw everybody, I just want to be with Daigo!" and she chases after her desired prince- despite completely knowing it would only serve to slow him down and seal the fate of those 518 souls. 

    Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity and all hope being lost, the two being on their last breaths, they finally catch a glimpse of the glorious Azure Planet. Could it be? They actually made it?! Quick, check the time!

    ...

    ...

    1 minute.

    It was only a mere minute past midnight, a single minute past the scheduled launch. But that was one minute too late. Daigo, the fabled hero who abandoned his first love Akari, now he couldn't even make good on his promise to protect Aoi. He failed. His story was now over, and it ends in pure tragedy. He was man who was tormented by his past and utterly consumed by it. On his dying breath, he manages to bring up the subject of names. Thinking Daigo finally remembered her for who she was, Aqua eagerly awaits his words. That's all she really wanted- to have her name called one more time by the man she loved.

    rOjioOQ.png

    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF. Can I just give Aqua a hug now? Even on his deathbed, the oaf she loved couldn't even acknowledge her existence. That's just so tragic. NOTHING went right for Aqua. I'm surprised she didn't just give up on life or heroic BSOD right then and there.

    CC8n02p.png
    SS grade tragedy. *Mwah*

     


    ~~
    And there we have it. Armed with the extensive knowledge obtained from Episode One and Two, we are finally able to dive into Aqua's route in all of its righteous glory.

    Spoiler

     

    There's just something really, really fun about being able to go through a heroine's route after going through her backstory with her as a flippin' protagonist. Pretty much all of Aqua's interactions and mannerisms during her route are able to be traced back to what she experienced during Episode Two. The 'reader omniscience' was done extremely well here, and really served to augment my enjoyment levels of this route to all time highs.

    Montage

    Spoiler

    48Lz2FZ.png

    LOL says the girl who 'willingly'd' let her personal space get usurped and casually went along with all the secka harra by some random dude over 3x her age!!!


    0NlO5F0.png

    ^ was in response to when Aqua called Aoi one time but pre-amnesiac Youichi picked up:PqIrN3n.png

    Aoi describing Aqua as being the grumpy one is actually pretty interesting, because Aqua was only really was sassy with Youichi (in which Aoi wouldn't be around for any of that), Akira and Daigo. Her interactions with Aoi and Aries however should've been more on the relaxed and pleasant side.
     

    GYjjDVf.png

    Mmmm, idk, Daigo sucked big time. Though tbh, Aoi wasn't really anything special herself either. Man, Aqua Youichi, you two had terrible first loves! Just get together already!
     

    x4Nf9HM.png

    Hm. Y'know at first, I was kind of like, "Wait, I never really saw Aqua not being a morning person during Episode Two.."
    You know why? There were no day/night cycles on the Sunflower. Being able to sleep peacefully on Earth was a luxury Aqua never got to experience. So it's just outright adorable to see her finally get to have such a lifestyle.


    If there's one thing that I'll unfortunately have to thank Daigo for however, it's for all of his perversion antics finally rubbing off on Aqua, making her quite the flirtatious seductress herself. Paired with Youichi's closet pervertedness, the two really made for a stellar and hilarious romance. 

    Spoiler

    N8qHwO8.png

    Nothing, Youichi. You're a growing, healthy boy.

    qFZ1F5D.png

    Man, being around Aqua you're bound to be aroused 24/7

    LzfgwIN.png

    In front of the other heroines too? How bold!

    vMaMrLu.png

    Youichi's closet perversion was infinitely more entertaining than that oaf Daigo. This was how it should've been done.

    DZvmj32.png

    ^WTF LOL! Yo, I usually don't do H-scenes, but I think I'd make an exception for Aqua. Just sayin'.

    But we gotta stick to all ages, so I'll settle for the H-scene replacement V-scene:

    giTgC9f.png

    I'd let Aqua suck my blood all day err day. But first, brb gotta go to the moon to get infected.


    Simply delicious. That's all I really wanted from Aqua. A smokin' hawt romance. Writers are 100% forgiven for the atrocities they made Aqua go through.


    There was a particular bad end midway through the route that legit made me drop everything and stop reading for like a day just so I could mourn properly.

    Spoiler

    Ffjjn9s.png

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    BJ7eeMc.png

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    This ending speaks for itself. It's just so utterly tragic I bawled my eyes out like no tomorrow. I questioned earlier why Aqua didn't just instagib herself on the moon the moment Daigo died. And this was why- she *did* die that day. It just took her two years to realize that.

    Brb time to go cry some more.


    Ok!

    But luckily, we have nice guy Youichi here to save the day!

    KLYMyda.png

    I'm such a romantic sap. I just love Aqua's story- she was a lab rat who was born and raised in isolated space, labelled a failure, lived her entire life in loneliness without any purpose, had her heart toyed with and broken by some failure of a hero who ultimately died without even acknowledging her existence... Then she meets your everyday high school nice guy and she is finally able to find salvation and meaning in living. The power of love truly is astronomical.


    ...And who dares to meddle with such a fantastic romance? It's none other than:

    lqZ4QG0.png

    FUKO ISOGAIII!!!!!!! Jfc Aries, you were already on my negative points list, and after this stunt I think you just cemented yourself in my worst heroine hall of fame!


    I get Aries though. Look what Aqua said at the end of Episode Two: that those precious few moments with Daigo were worth more to Aqua than the lives of hundreds. That's the reason she sealed the fates of those 518 passengers on the SAN-DA079. Her love for Daigo was just that strong.

    Then now all of a sudden she's able to forget all that that ggez style after finding a new man?

    7ZsL8JJ.png

    Apparently yes. I don't blame her though. The girl's been through alot. Let her be selfish once in a while.

     I swear, Go, the scenario writer for both Himawari and Island, must've had an interesting first love experience since they're core components to the romance in both stories. Daigo couldn't get over his first love Akari and dies in vain as a result. Aqua was on track to follow a similar fate, but found salvation in meeting Youichi.

    Youichi could hilariously at this point though just say trololol thanks for the sexy times Aqua, but now I'm gonna go back to my first love Aoi via Aries-Lunar-Virus-memory-inherit shenanigans.

    hxcnEi9.png

    Fairly eerie ending. Souichirou did say that if the Lunar Virus made it to Earth that the consequences would be apocalyptic. Could it be? That the crimson sunflowers are symbolic for every human life taken by the virus...?


    I kind of wish the Aries/Aoi thing was explored more in like separate or finale route. Having it shoehorned into lategame Aqua just felt like unnecessary last minute drama and the implications were not fully as fleshed out as they could be in a more dedicated route.

    Akira turning out to be a fake villain / actual nice guy after all was hilarious. I absolutely hate asshole villains who are evil just for the sake of being evil, so it was very pleasant to see that this guy was just horrifically misunderstood all this time:

    X3NU9yy.png

    It's even elaborated on during Asuka's route, where Akira is absolutely shocked that Asuka found him unbearably intimidating when he never intended to be so, and even Aqua starts lamenting that maybe, just maybe, she was just being stubborn about his evilness. Also, I wonder if it was one of Akira's private evil pleasures to finally claim Aqua as his daughter. Aqua Saionji... l0l.


    Souichirou's plan to 'save the world' via orchestrating the SAN-DA079 crash by having Aries compile the bugged code as well as the list of all virus infectees to be the sacrificial passengers was a dark reminder that Souichirou really was a man who was dedicated to his research and "the end justifies the means" mindset. Overall I really liked the writers' use of the SAN-DA079 Incident. It served to give this cast of characters one hell of a narrative to give to us. And I can't believe they really went for "The incident was an accident -> Aries was the cause of the accident with her bugged code -> Souichirou premeditated the whole thing". Each revelation had pretty big implications during the narrative they were revealed in.

    There was one glaring problem with Souichirou's drastic actions though. Just a small one, really. I swear.

    zdSRZ2c.png

    Aries made an antivirus. Literally within three months. RIP 


    Time stopped for so many people as a result of this tragedy. And it all could've been avoided.

    Hmm. Perhaps that was why I was so hopeful that there would be an Episode Three. A grand finale route. A True End. 

    Or maybe I just read too much Key lately l0l.

    But I mean, there's a lot of narrative lamenting about the 'what could have been' throughout the entire story, and how many tragedies were a result of a seemingly insignificant blip: 

    ZNIHbsQ.pngShO6tba.pngurxLKnX.png

    Considering the setting involving space as well, I totally thought writers would be gearing up for like an eventual space time multidimensional parallel universe narrative shift or something, where the cast would be able to prevent the SAN-DA079 Incident entirely, Youichi x Aoi would become a thing, and Akira Daigo Akari would get the neverending childhood they so desired.

     

    But thinking about it now, I'm glad they didn't opt for that. What's done is done. Everything that happened in Himawari served to kick this cast down and keep them down. They could either remain shackled and succumb to the past, or persevere and try to strive for the future. Episode One-Two-Aqua is my headcanon. With the dual protagonist narrative and the first love shackling past plot elements, everything really does seem geared to set up these two for their stellar success of a romance.

    I'm actually a bit sad, because I don't think I'll read about another heroine as in depth as Aqua for quite some time. Like, what other heroine would get a backstory where she's a protagonist, before you even get to do her actual route? Reading Asuka's route after Aqua's was relatively painful- it was so standard, so average. It just paled in comparison to Aqua's

    Aqua best girl.

    Just uh, don't lap pillow her when she's drunk LOL

    N131BIl.png

    Yup, Aqua really has been one hell of a girl from start to finish...

     

     



    ~~
    Whew, my fingers are tired. 

    I've been wondering just wtf I could read next, as is the norm when I finish a VN. I kind of want the standard high school romance setting with a pretty cast and SOME plot going on to keep me entertained.

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    Ah!

    Yuzusoft.

    Haven't checked them out since the Noble Works and Dracu Riot! days :makina:

    It's a tossup between Riddle Joker's high school supernatural powers and Senren * Banka's countryside fantasy. I'll end up reading both anyways, Yuzusoft is always yummy, but for now I'll preview both and see which one I wanna read first

  13. Himawari really is a VN that can only be appreciated as a whole, not by the sum of its parts. For some reason it really took me some time (Had to finish both Ep 1 + 2; a week) to get into the "honeymoon" VN reading phase where I spend my days itching to get home so I can read some more.

    Episode One was (enjoyment factor) a 5/10, a SoL sloggy grind with one of the most meh poster heroines ever via FUKO ISOGAIII Aries, with Ginga's discount S;G Okabe personality running the show not really helping either. Episode Two was a 6/10, intriguing, liked the setting/narrative change, but overall experience ruined by LOLOL YOU THOUGHT AQUA WOULD BE 100% GRISAIA YUUJI COOLIO??!! NAWWOPE!!! Watch her flail around like a headless chicken and get trolololol'd by one sided upside-down-spade shenanigans. Exaggerating, but yeah. Don't fall for the get overhype :)!!!! -> get disappoint :(!!! trap.

    These two episodes combined however finally set the stage for Aqua's route, and at the end of the day I now appreciate Episode Two because it was what sowed the seeds that ultimately culminated into the rather heartfelt (and delicious!) romance between Youichi and Aqua. 9/10 enjoyment factor. 

    WASw0Yq.png


    I enjoyed Aqua x Youichi so much, I actually don't want to read the next heroine route (it's an enforced play order). Considering everything that happens in Himawari up to this point, these two MUST be the canonical pairing, right...? The story HAS to be made for them. So why wasn't Aqua's route meant to be played last...? Guess I'll find out.

  14. @Asuka I don't play too many gameplay/rpg VNs, last one I played was like Yumina the Ethereal years ago which had some dungeon crawling bits that I loathed (I just hate dungeon crawlers in general and can't fathom how people find them enjoyable). I guess if you just want the story try looking for a super easy/story mode setting, if not then go look for handholding walkthrough, and lastly screw everything or ggez just gitgud

    @Vernon hehe, the best thing about Kyou route is how many times you get to hear her classic frustrated "AHH mou!!!"

    ~~
    Finished Episode Two of Himawari

    ...

    I feel slightly jipped.

    They done Aqua dirty here. The entirety of Episode One you are disillusioned into thinking Aqua'd be this enigmatic, cold hardcore badass, which she still is technically, but she was totally someone's private evil fantasy and the amount of times she's put into awkward, vulnerable, outright provocative positions and sheds her tough exterior for the whole lovesick stuttering mess of a damsel in distress routine was downright disappointing. I get it, it's to fulfill whole "cold on the outside, warm on the inside" trope but forgive me if I just wanted a full 100% awesome this time around.

    Here, I'll do her some justice and hype up what her story should've focused on more of.

    First, here's a somber space theme:

    ^It was apparently only 20 sec so I extended it, which holy hell I didn't even notice that during the VN, but apparently most of the BGMs on Blank Note's side were about this length. They're an amateur group, so kudos to them for making a bunch of catchy short themes for this VN.
     

    This is Aqua:

    a2sHhSv.png

    Naturally, a character of her stature would have the following goodies:

    UlQYjCi.png

     

    rQZOYew.png

     

    See? Pretty interesting sounding stuff right? The times her story focuses on subjects like this, it gets pretty good.

    BUT WHAT DO WE MOSTLY GET?

    Spoiler

    x0lJuCC.png

    Her being a lovestruck fodder eye candy mess with a random obnoxiously perverted guy over 3x her age.



    ~~
    Ultimately tbh Episode One and Two were kinda sloggy to go through, I'd say they're both 80% mundane SoL and 20% intriguing backstory/revelations. Episode One gives you the Muv Luv Extra treatment, only there to establish the characters and very sparsely carrot dangle some bigger picture plot shenanigans. Episode Two covers the backstory of said bigger picture shenanigans but through a different perspective and leaves more to be desired as it focused on more... erotic matters.

    Looks like I don't get instant access to Muv Luv Alternate / Episode Three though: look at this Scene Select; Episode 1 & 2 only cover the first 3 Tabs! Jeez I'm slacking, and there are 8 Tabs wtf.

    9sHEkqr.png

    I'm guessing Tabs 4-6 will be heroine specific, cuz I'm currently on Aqua's, and then finally 7-8 will be the finale. I dig it. Feels like a good length. Can always appreciate a VN storywise that does the whole Part 1 - SoL Part 2 - Backstory Part 3 - Finale to get you invested.

    P.S. Aqua's helpless damsel in distress girliness in Episode Two is forgiven for pre-Episode Three's:

    jKF1Kjt.png

    That's how you do it. Just make her pure moe as FUH if she's not going to be badass

     

  15. @adam good to hear. Umi is already high up in my first impression best girls. Which, jeez, ever since Hoshimemo's Chinami I thought I would never like the younger relative heroine type but lately it looks like thats becoming one of my forbidden yum yums. I still want that character route, as unneeded as it may be, and in general I ended up deciding to wait for Reflection Blue more 'cuz I know I'm gonna feel really ehhhhhhh going through the entirety of vanilla Summer Pockets solely due to Osborne Effect

    @storm Hoh... I looked at the VNDB tags of Summer Pockets. And Nakige is apparently one of them ;-;

    ~~
    I finished "Episode One" of Himawari; apparently the VN is broken into multiple episodes, dunno how many.

    First, I get to nitpick the scenario writer who did Himawari and Island. Even though technically these two VNs are almost a decade apart, old habits die hard I guess and they do the same destiny-like "yo this girl looks so damn familiar, just who is she?!" meeting l0l

    q2XifRi.png

    Oh god please don't let her end up being what Rinne ended up being LOL

    We have amnesiac high school male protagonist with a passion for space Youichi meet fellow amnesiac Aries after she crash landed into the area via UFO, prompting Youichi and his bromate Ginga, president of the school Space Club (complete with S;G Okabe chuuni personality), to start pondering about all sorts of wild theories as to her origin and purpose. Is she an alien? Are MIBs going to show up eventually to cover things up? For the meantime, Youichi decides to shelter Aries.


    Aries turns out to be surprisingly normal and not alien- she's innocent, naive, childlike. The days go by peacefully...

    wvJ6rJ6.png

    Y'know, sometimes I laugh at how in the VN realms, characters spend only like a few days or like a week together and all of a sudden that's enough for them to act like they've known each other for entire lifetimes >.>


    And then, an actual MIB- or should I say, WIB, appears! Just who is Aries, really?

    jze3va1.png

    Aqua's hawt. Even better? She's voiced by the same VA as ISLAND's Rinne- Yukari, who has been my flavor of the month guilty pleasure nowadays. Even better? In Episode Two of Himawari she-

    Spoiler

    is the protagonist. POG



    Space (and sunflowers) is the highlight topic of choice in this VN, and Youichi's dream is to make it to the moon. There was an unfortunate rocket launch accident that happened in the town 2 years ago, and this incident is treated as the crux of all issues- it's the source of Youichi's amnesia, which will probably lead into more GOTCHA! revelations regarding Youichi, Aries, and the town's past.

    Btw, I'm getting a nasty case of the "it's a small world", cuz like I just went through CLANNAD recently, and Aries is flippin' voiced by the same VA as FUKO ISOGAIIIII. GODDAMIT. CAN'T TAKE HER SERIOUSLY NOW. Guess that VA is the go to for childlike heroines.

    And another jab at creator's stagnating creativity: Aqua and Karin are clones
     46524.jpg48885.jpg (256×300)

  16. Ok so

    Y'know how I'm high off the CLANNAD hype train what with spending a month reading the VN and then watching the anime (which btw, I'd vouch for Tiago's "just watch the anime" if you just want to experience the story that is CLANNAD because, yes, the anime is imo the "definitive" edition of CLANNAD and is easily 9+/10 compared to the 8/10 I gave the VN simply because instead of doing the usual "trololol anime is too rushed, trying to condense a 30+hr VN into 12 episodes ggez RIP," they actually manage to condense the BEST parts of CLANNAD and cut out all the fluff; like I said, I spent a MONTH reading the VN which was a slogging, isolated behemoth and the anime cuts out that slogginess while capturing all the main story beats wonderfully and involving the cast more often in the story). Not to say I regretted reading the VN; I'm the type who loves reading the VN and then watching the anime to see everything animated. And I may have enjoyed the anime even more because of having read the VN first and being able to see everything they did right.

    But I digress. I needed more Key, so I was about to yolo-screw-waiting-for-Reflection-Blue,-it's-just-four-extra-heroine-routes-and-I-definitely-skipped-like-half-the-heroines-in-CLANNAD-wcgw- and dive into Summer Pockets, but then I ran into:

    dyUeral.png

    Umi. This ISLAND Rinne clone complete with a sailor hat is quite the cutie, has pink hair, BUT SHE ONLY GETS A ROUTE IN REFLECTION BLUE?!@# FK ME

    Still tempted to just yolo read vanilla Summer Pockets, but goddamn why did Key have to shoot themselves in the foot by releasing a 'definitive' version of Summer Pockets, thus making everyone do the whole "Oh, don't need to buy base Summer Pockets then, just wait for Reflection Blue!!" 

     

    ~~
    Blah...I'll wait. I'm not really the type to double back for extra content, so if I read SP now, there'll be like 0% chance for me to bother with RB.

    I think I'm gonna check out Himawari: The Sunflower. It's another Frontwing thingy with the same scenario writer who did ISLAND, and we got the same amnesiac protagonist, multiple route mystery, science fiction tags... Err, I hope it's not TOO similar l0l.

    Sidenote: jfc Naruto just had to grow up and and have a daughter named Himawari and so she litters the search results page -.-

  17. @poltroon Yeah, that's totally my impression I got from just watching ep1 of CLANNAD- that it was able to condense the best parts. Cuz the VN really drags at times. Err, a lot of times, actually.

    Really looking forward to banding together the cast. The isolated thing really irked me and was probably what made me gave the VN an 8 lol

    @Bredan np, glad you enjoy reading them. They do take some time to create but overall I enjoy making them. It's one of the best ways for me to get closure on a VN before I go into post read depression 😂

     

     

     

  18. BLnjuYX.jpg

    I also tried my hardest... not to cry ;-;


    ~~
    Missed opportunity btw not having Town, Flow of Time, People as the VN's title theme btw. I would've always looked forward to booting up CLANNAD if I had this boppin' theme to listen to:

     

    First thing's first: my original statement of being a seasoned veteran and not knowing how CLANNAD garnered 9+/10s ultimately held true for me. I give it an 8. LOL PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME, DON'T WORRY, 8 ON VNDB = VERY GOOD! AND CLANNAD IS VERY GOOD!!! SoL is just not my thing anymore. Totally for the record though, if I read this say, 5 years ago, I definitely would've given it an instant 9.5+/10 and slap it in my hall of fame in a heartbeat. I'm just old nowadays.

    CLANNAD is a story about a high school male protagonist, Tomoya, who was raised by a single failure of a father. He attends one of the most prestigious schools in the town, Hikarizaka, due to his exemplary basketball skills. Unfortunately, due to a scuffle with his father one day, Tomoya ends up injured and loses his ability to lift his right shoulder, forcing him to quit basketball. Losing his way in life, time stagnates for Tomoya as he goes about his days meandering without purpose, becoming labelled a delinquent by his peers in the process. Until one fateful day where he meets a girl underneath the sakura blossom trees...

    *Checks VNDB* jeezus christmas my synopsis sucks LOL

    But yeah, this VN is essentially 100% pure SoL about a high school delinquent boy going about his days, trying to find his way in life. If you come here expecting late game Little Busters Key Magic Tragics or Rewrite uber narrative shifts I'm sorry to say you'll be disappointed; late game for CLANNAD is simply high school delinquent transitioning to post high school life and dealing with the trials that await. Coming of age slice of life is the name of the game here, and CLANNAD is probably one of the best in the business for this type of narrative. So make sure you're in the mood for this before you spend an extended amount of time on this like me (cough 1 month; my first save file is literally May 18 and today is June 17 ggez) 

    That being said, finally time to talk about Absolute Spoilers:

    Spoiler

    Tomoya graduates, but Nagisa falls ill again and is held back a year. That SUCKED. She only made it through the current year because Tomoya was there with her, and now she'll have to go it alone for a whole 'nother year...? What a slap in the face, and then she even failed to get anyone to join next years Drama Club, and ultimately spent that school year in true solitude, having made 0 new friends...
    It was kind of glossed over in the writing, but that was actually so fking sad in hindsight. Literally the only thing that kept her positive was knowing that at the end of the day would come home to Tomoya. Knowing Nagisa, that probably truly was enough to keep her going.

    She even falls ill towards the end of the year AGAIN, god this girl can't catch a break. Thankfully she is able to barely graduate this time around, but she was bedridden during the actual ceremony.

    So +1 Tomoya Point for gathering the highschool crew (and Youhei without his blonde dyed hair LOLOL) and hosting a small graduation ceremony for Nagisa. Wholesome as fuh. 

    Liked the Tomoya getting a job and adjusting to the working life bits. I'm also in the early-mid young adult life stage so it was a nice read that I could relate to some. Though, idk about moving out and having a kid...

    Wait, a kid..?

    FjRSbxl.jpg

    WAIT, WHEN DID YOU TWO NAUGHTY LOVE BIRDS SNEAK IN THE SEXY TIMES? 

    LOL TOMOYA WTF!!! SLOW DOWN, YOUR LIFE IS MOVING WAAAY TOO FAST!!! 
    I SPENT A MONTH READING YOUR HIGH SCHOOL MEANDERING ROMANCE BITS AND THEN IN JUST A DAY OR TWO OF READING NOW YOU'RE MOVING TO YOUR OWN PLACE AND MAKING BABIES?!!@#%!!!@#%!!

    But alas, cue the Key Tragics... Nagisa's unknown condition flairs up so much at the peak of her pregnancy that the doctors outright fear for her life and recommend she abort. She's a strong independent woman though, so she convinces everyone to let her have the child. 

    SlsakQO.jpg

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    Yeah, you did good, Nagisa...
     

    ...Fk, I'm tearing up now as I type this ;-;;; Need some good crying music, stat! Give me... Roaring Tides 2. It's damn legendary:


    ~~
    What I definitely would not do though is FKING ABANDON USHIO FOR 5 GODDAMN YEARS JESUS CHRIST WTF WAS THAT MORON THINKING??? HE ACTUALLY TURNED OUT WORSE THAN HIS OWN DAMN FATHER THAT HE SPENT THE ENTIRETY OF THE VN CHASTISING AND BEING OBNOXIOUSLY RESENTFUL TOWARDS!!!

    -999999999 Tomoya Points!

    Like I get it, losing Nagisa who was basically his sole reason for living at this point Blue Screen of Death'd Tomoya for the second time now (the first being when he injured his shoulder and hadquit basketball). But seriously, I thought he would've at least had some shred of parental duty or Nagisa's-dying-wish to be the best father he could be, but NOPE. Nada. Zilch. Had Sanae+Akio not been there for Ushio, just wtf would Tomoya have done? Completely forsake his own daughter? Leave her up for adoption? ..That actually sounds like a good idea for a sidestory- a story where Ushio grows up neglected and then tries to find her parents, only to find out the bitter truth. Time for CLANNAD Ushio: After After.

    OEUTOIY.jpg

    LOOK AT THIS CUTIE!!! HOW DARE YOU ABANDON HER FOR 5 FLIPPIN' YEARS YOU UNFORGIVABLE TWAT!!!! Ok, done ranting..

    Kind of surprised Akio didn't punch Tomoya's face in during those 5 years. 5 Years is a LONG time- it's actually twice as long as Tomoya x Nagisa's entire relationship at this point. Hell, Nagisa's been dead longer than Tomoya's been with her alive.

    Anyways, thanks to Sanae's meddling (btw, she is some insanely S tier wonderful parental-side support character, her positive influence on the narrative has been REDONKULOUS, seriously), Tomoya is able to rekindle his relationship with his daughter AND his father (the father bit actually felt anticlimactic, though I understood it from a Tomoya-was-just-stubbornly-immature-this-whole-time character development perspective). Did I say Sanae is wonderful? With how many stories out there that have completely absent parents it's remarkable how much the writers here let her impact the story.

    pDyi4AD.jpg

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    ^The stack of Dangos increasing every year is classic example of a minor unique detail that had SO MUCH meaning; I really came to enjoy and appreciate seeing those things sitting in the background.


    Aaaand just when life seems to be going good, it just HAS to kick you down to the ground.

    Ushio ended up inheriting the same unknown prolonged feverish condition Nagisa had,

    gJnl61s.jpg 


    And she...

    n1y54QN.jpg

    Passes away in Tomoya's arms.

    GOD.

    Was this the moment that broke readers, the moment that made them decide CLANNAD was a masterpiece? Perhaps. But I don't think so. Sure, there were some good tears to be had here, but I think it was the entirety of the journey that Tomoya endured up to this point that makes CLANNAD wonderful.

    He started off as a delinquent laughing without a care in the world throughout high school with his buddy Sunohara, to having several chance encounters with various female strangers, befriending them, falling in love with them, and experiences firsthand the joys and importance about coveted themes revolving around family, one's dreams, reason for living... Then he becomes an adult, starts fending for himself and his loved ones, trying his best to make an earnest and honest living... only to have it all come crashing down by nothing other than cruel reality.

    uG6AZck.jpg

    ^With the deaths of Nagisa and Ushio, all of the dreams above shattered in an instant, scattering to the empty void...

    And with that, CLANNAD is officially the best tragedy VN I've read to date. Bravo.

     

    ...

     

    ...

     

    ...

    Spoiler

    JUST KIDDING LOLOLOL CUE THE KEY MAGICZ

    JFGGZyg.jpg

    YO WE'RE GONNA BE REALLY META AND SAY YOU LOOPTY LOOP BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE VN WHENEVER YOU COMPLETE A ROUTE. MULTIUNIVERSE PARALLEL UNIVERSE WHATEVER YOU WANNA CALL IT, JUST GATHER 14 LIGHTS BY GRANTING PEOPLE'S WISHES AND DESIRES AND EVENTUALLY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO GRANT YOUR ULTIMATE WISH!!!

    Thematically from a gameplay perspective and if people didn't have easy access to walkthroughs/actually wanting to play this blind, I can totally see people not getting the true end so easily and having to grind for days trying to gather the 14 Triforce shards as some part of long "they EARNED their happy ending!" quest for Tomoya to finally achieve:

    Stt8XZc.jpg



    Ah, the feels ~~



    ~~
    I'm totally gonna watch the anime next, and I'll update this post on my thoughts on whether newcomers who are thinking of getting into CLANNAD should read the VN or just watch the anime.

    I did watch the first episode though, and as someone who spent a month reading CLANNAD, I can already tell it's gonna be INSANELY good. All of the character introductions are ON POINT, everything from Tomoya x Nagisa's fated encounter; Ryou's clumsy shuffling fortune cards; Kyou's uber powerful dictionary throwing prowess; Tomoyo's ass kicking badassery; Tomoya x Sunohara's ridiculous bromance; even Sanae's "my bread is only good for... x" QQ.. Everything is EXACTLY as I would've imagined it to be animated. The animated world bustling with people feels alive compared to the limited 200X VN sprites. They even use the VN BGMs, same VN title OP song for the anime OP, and Nagisa's theme from the VN gets lyrics and becomes a flippin' Dango song for the anime ED. The heart and soul of VN CLANNAD is there in the anime.

    Spoiler

    YACB327.png

    Colorless world...

     

    qAyL4kU.png

    ...That fills with color upon hearing Tomoya's words to just find new things to look forward to

     

    ~~
    nokM9XF.png

    Clumsy Ryou card shuffling. Totally loved how it was animated

     

    MlZ6Qq1.png

    WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH watch out for Kyou's dictionaries of doom!

     

    aYy6WaC.png

    Sanae's bread. 'Nuff said

     

    31zUUJt.png

    My personal favorite, Tomoyo stomping the delinquents complete with a 1 sec spectator view to show how that ass whoopin' was over in a flash

    Can't wait to see Kotomi, and the roden- err, Fuko.

    Oh, and Tomoya sounds hawt voiced. It totally makes sense why all the heroines fell for him now :sachi:

     

  19. Nagisa Furukawa

    KC6W4VP.jpg

    ^Miss little CLANNAD poster heroine in her prime right here, making everybody proudz :')

    I've been slogging through CLANNAD for several weeks now, and it's only during Nagisa's route that they finally officially dump the OP on you, so saving her route for last I was like l0l really??
    yChYZaI.jpg

     

    Her route though was... surprisingly average; not much to say. Nothing special or out of this world happens. But at least Nagisa in general finally grew on me. I disliked her meek softspoken personality at first but she becomes less reserved and speaks her mind more often later on while maintaining that same slow, gentle demeanor. Very wholesome to be around.

    ...Which is why it is absolutely hilarious that Tomoya pervs out on her at the randomest moments. He's a pretty reserved protagonist overall in that aspect, so I just burst out laughing here:

    AJdKpej.jpg

    Really, Tomoya?? You're with one of the more wholesome heroines and this is what you scheme?!  

    Out of all heroines I'd rank the route quality Kotomi > Tomoyo > Nagisa >= Fuko >= Kyou/Ryou > Others

    Speaking of the others, sorry I ran out of gas and had to speedrun Misae, and literally Ctrl-skipped skimmed through Kappei. Just gib me them lights!

     

     


    ~~
    And so... I've finally reached Awesome Stuff. Wish me luck.

    Spoiler

    okhvbK2.jpg

     

  20. Kotomi Ichinose

    CeeBWE1.jpg

    I'll be honest. Of all heroines in the history of heroines for me, I think Kotomi gave me the worst first impression ever. 
    But she grew on me fast, and her route's GOOD!

    Here we have this enigmatic girl who you'll only happen to meet if you decide to skip class and wander into the library. Btw, someone at Key must've had a foot fetish, because the writing absolutely had to point out all the damn time whenever Kotomi would take off her socks and go barefoot whenever she sets up camp in the library l0l.

    For some reason this gal reads through books at lightning speed, occasionally taking out some scissors to snip out some pages. Just wtf is she doing...?

    Spoiler

    I think what made Kotomi's route pretty enjoyable is the fact that it actually feels more like a true common route than the common route itself- in that its SoL scenes actually banded together some of the heroines and set up a central hub for them to interact in via Furukawa's Drama Club (in which Key would later reintroduce this same formula into their later work- Rewrite- via having the Occult Club for all the cast to mingle in).

    That's something that up until this point I felt CLANNAD was lacking in severely- interaction between the heroines. You literally only get Tomoya + Sunohara or Tomoya + Heroine, and to hell with everybody else. Thankfully for Kotomi's route a major plotpoint is Tomoya trying to introduce Kotomine to the other heroines in an attempt to get her to socialize more. As a bonus, bro Sunohara actually becomes out of focus during this semi-harem route, because God knows what would happen if he saw Tomoya hanging out with four girls.

    Anyway, like I said, Kotomi gave me a pretty bad impression with just how shallow and awkward her first interaction was with Tomoya (which was the point, because of her solitary lifestyle up until now). 

    But she grew on me- and Tomoya- fast. I have a hard-on for genius heroines, dunno why, but it typically overrides any of their faults for me and Kotomi is no exception. Sort of like, "it's k, am genius". For the record If Ryou or Fuko were genius types I'd overlook their shy introverted socially awkward traits in a heartbeat. Not that Kotomi's intellect was ever really highlighted or the primary focus of this route, other than:

    92qH2gh.jpg

    NGL, would've loved Kotomi to have a bit more extended genius dialogues. Instead, Key used all that buildup for... a cranegame LOL BRILLIANT!

     

    xjycnig.jpg

    Furukawa, Fujibayashi sisters, Kotomi. A decent groupie.
    Lowkey a bit sad that (so far?) there isn't a scenario where ALL the heroines could interact together; we're missing like Fuko, and ESPECIALLY Tomoyo here! Though, I guess it makes sense, since those two are underclassmen...

    Banding together the squad was touching. Everything from Kotomi's first meeting with a heroine and fearing that they would be a bully...

    kaAKhkf.jpg

    Yes, the very gentle Nagisa and the timid and softspoken Ryou are totally bullies >.>. Kyou's totally a bully though. 100 perce- *WHACK*

     ...To them gradually warming up to her, caring for her and even putting up with her horrific violin prowess...

    J0JLZLL.jpg


    The cast become close enough that they even crash Tomoya x Kotomi's first date...

    NiOdZ9D.jpg

    Yo dw Kyou, in another timeline I totally do this and that to you when we're alone too.

    ...and unite together to come up with a plan to help Kotomi during her hour of need:

    laCJsoQ.jpg

    LOL WHATTA DEAD GIVEAWAY NAGISA WTH!!! BUT YEAH, NARUHODO, I SEE, EXCELLENT IDEA!


    The whole Tomoya x Kotomi being forgotten childhood friends with Tomoya being the sole culprit forgetter felt a bit far-fetch'd, but this was year 200X so I'll be lenient. A bit surprising that Kotomi is the heroine of choice for this, I totally would've thought that this type of 'plot twist' would be reserved for poster heroine Nagisa, guess I'll just have to see what her story will really be all about.

    Shed some tears at the parent's final dying letter teddybear suitcase traveling the world birthday gift. Felt large scale, grand. And romantic af.

    CBj0uCJ.jpg

    7UmzjHB.jpg

    ;-;

    ~~
    ~~
    ~~
    ~~
    ~~
    ...A FORESHADOW TO THE SECRET OF THIS WORLD??

    yBytLBX.jpg

     

     

    ~~

    Tomoyo Sakagami

    8o9tNDW.jpg

    Aha, it's first impression best girl time. Former delinquent student turned model student Tomoyo meets former model student turned delinquent Tomoya. Confused? It's k, just swap your (A)pples with your (O)ranges and you're good. 

    I don't know what Tomoyo or Tomoya mean in Japanese but I'm surprised noone really comments on their names being so close. Well, other than Bro Sunohara who calls the two the Tomo duo.

    Tomoyo's a great heroine. You know how Tomoya with all these blind choices kinda gets to choose which heroine he gets to harass until he finally enters her route in which he'll then go out of his way to meddle with said heroine's affairs? With Tomoyo it's the opposite- once you enter her route, SHE'LL go out of her way to meddle with HIS affairs. Which involves Step1: Waking him up so he can go to school on time.

    Spoiler

    Unfortunately, the two enter a sort of forbidden romance: Tomoyo is aiming to become the student council president, and so going out with a delinquent with poor academic standing and no plans for the future like Tomoya would only serve to hold her back and hinder her. 

    yZ9gyjh.jpg

     

    EVERYONE realizes this, including Tomoya, and he falters, ultimately going for the "I'll only drag you down, you need to leave me and go do the successful!!!" route, much to Tomoyo's dismay. She never gave a damn about all of the social standing and expectations, she simply loves Tomoya and wants to be with him; to hell with everything else. But Tomoya is too stubborn, and they break things off amicably:

    sVlMkhu.jpg

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    ~~
    The romance between these two was mature and frisky. If this VN wasn't all ages I'm sure they would've had an H-scene every few scenes or something with how often they would kiss LOL (which always led to more drama and drama amongst society BOOO)

    y1w1tMm.jpg 

    ❤️❤️❤️ 

    It's hilarious, because with some heroines like Fuko you'll legit end the route with the two finally confessing their feelings to each other, and here we have these two always getting it on nearly at the start of the route.


    ~~
    When all's said and done, Tomoyo achieves her student council president goal of saving the sakura blossom trees or w.e. But at what cost...?

    Lm9cf97.jpg

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    And Tomoya FINALLY gets it through his thick skull. They love each other, and to hell with everybody else! 

    Tbh I would've liked it Tomoya had a character development growth arc instead, where he would strive to become a better person worthy of standing by the Tomoyo's side. But it's ok the power of love conquers all.


    ~~
    ...I have Tomoyo After. Should I just take a quick detour and read this before continuing CLANNAD? LOL
    HI DEF MODERN-MOEIFIED TOMOYO ❤️ 

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    Nagisa, Tomoyo, Kyou, Ryou, Kotomine, Fuko, Mei. I'm lowkey running out of gas, but will keep chugging along.

  21. Ah, CLANNAD being a "hunting VN" Tiago mentioned makes sense, along with his recommendation to just watch the anime. There's a lot of fluff to the VN in general, and the gamey route trial and error yo-if-you-got-nothing-else-better-to-do,-especially-back-in-200X,-then-you-might-as-well-just-grind-this-VN doesn't really hold up by today's standards.

    Ryou+Kyou's routes actually highlight the hunting-ness of this VN quite well.  I spent the longest time ever trying to get Kyou's end. Ryou's was easy enough, because Kyou literally spoonfeeds you everything and if turns out you gots the hots for Ryou you can climax so quick it feels anticlimactic. 

    lp4Kmpt.jpg

    WAIT, REMOVE THE R, I WANT TO PAIR UP WITH YOU, NOT RYOU!!

     

    ...But should you listen to your heart and lust for Kyou during the Pairing You Up with Ryou Plan...

    Spoiler

    Ooo la la, I don't think I've read anything in all the VNs I've read that actually involved twin love triangles, as cliche as this type of situation sounds LOL

    Pretty simple, Ryou has the hots for Tomoya, and everloving onee-chan Kyou decides she'll try her best to matchmake the two. 

    lprA7Yo.jpg

    No no no no- you're not the 3rd wheel. Replace the K with an R!! K! WITH! R!!!

    The whole thing feels forced- and that's the point. Ryou is pretty disappointingly about as shy and helpless as Fuko without her oneechan to support her, and even bro Sunohara will question the authenticity of the relationship:

    wIDbt3y.jpg

    My man, for once you and I agree.

    Writers I feel actually did some big brain here, because if you're like me and struggling to get to Kyou's end, it actually synergizes with the actual narrative of Tomoya's frustrations on why he's stuck with Ryou when his heart is clearly with Kyou.

    Ea8f9tr.jpg

    How do I feel...? "Ryou, your sister's hot".

    And btw, Kyou's end is so out of reach because in addition to having to choose easy pro-Kyou choices like Long Hair instead of Short Hair and Amethyst instead of Tanzanite, there's also the "gotcha!" choice where YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO CHOOSE TO KISS RYOU when the time comes, as unintuitive to getting Kyou's end as that completely sounds, otherwise you'll be locked into the default bad end where neither of the twins gets romanced. 

    But once you finally trial and error the choices right, then the truth comes out:

    A4AD22H.jpg

    .Ooof.............Well, it's okay Kyou, I still believe you're a really nice girl with the best chemistry with Tomoya of all the heroines

     

    Other than that, not much else to say. Kyou is so far one of my favorite heroines. Just an overall pleasure to be around. Ryou on the otherhand is, sorry, a pretty bad heroine; I don't know if writers meant for her to be a legit one or a side one with Kyou being the actual heroine, but yeah. Her best moment in the VN for me unfortunately was when she made her final stand to stay with Tomoya. Actually made me feel a bit guilty.

    Spoiler

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    ~~

    P.S. Who needs Long or Short hair?

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    MEDIUM IS WHERE IT'S AT YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

     


    ~~
    Yukine Miyazawa. Who the heck is this nice girl, just chilling around the Reference Room like a side character but actually having a dedicated route if you harass her enough?? She totally is a symptom of VNs trying to bump up their route/heroine count back in the day!

    nFoRJOb.jpg

    Yes. The other day I tried to get together with this girl- Kyou, but it turns out she was trying to get me together with her twin sister, Ryou, and then there was this rodent whose problems completely overshadowed my relationship with Nagisa...

    But she's nice enough. Apparently she's so nice, she has amassed a sort of following- a bunch of well-meaning delinquents who would come visit her in the Reference Room every now and then to just vent about their problems while she would just stand there and listen.

    Tomoya also gets enthralled by her pleasant charms, and finds himself coming to visit her more and more...

    Spoiler

    Not much goes on in Yukine's route, it was actually surprisingly short and so I totally knew her route existed just to pad the heroine count. I wonder what other 'heroines' will get the same treatment..

    A core theme for Yukine is to give to others. Give to others, and someone will give to you. It goes full circle. Yukine has amassed quite a following for her kindness:

    1t8aDVt.jpg


    ...but ironically even though everyone views her quite fondly, they forgot one thing: to actually GIVE to her. Everyone was always afraid to break the status quo, to go the extra step...

    zaUcDFz.jpg

     

    ..And so Tomoya gets dibs. 

    q2wiRu1.jpg

    YA SNOOZE YA LOOZE SUCKERS!! YUKINE IS MINEEEE

    As side heroine-ey as Yukine was, I enjoyed her SoL portions the most so far. She was a very pleasant heroine to be around.

     

    ~~
    Mei Sunohara. Huh? Sunohara?! 

    fg5JiEA.jpg

    -SHUTS THE DOOR- NOPE. I'M TURNING OFF THE VN NOW. ANYTHING SUNOHARA-RELATED BY DEFAULT MUST BE TOXIC- Huh? You're telling me you have the same VA as Rinne from Island? NICE TO MEET YOU!!

    This is the writers' "Hey let us finally make you appreciate the bro side character" route where they bring out the big guns and throw in his kawaii little sister where you're like, there's no way these two are related!

    The lengths Mei goes to to bring Youhei back to his glory days was touching. 

    Spoiler

    Screw the soccer team btw. Key did a pretty decent "can only watch in vain" scene via having them do their 'practice' session with Mei as their ball fetcher. I felt the hopelessness and despair lol.

    GkhrcJM.jpg

    ^Happens after the climax of the Sunohara route. I don't know if it's awesome translation+editing, but in general sometimes the writing in VNs is such a pleasure to read. I like these extended self monologue narration+opinion segments

     

    ~~

    Random tidbit: sometimes so weird how out-of-focus the rest of the characters are depending on whose route you're on. For Mei's route, Nagisa is basically a complete stranger and yet her mom Sanae ends up agreeing to become Youhei's fake girlfriend because "he's wearing the school uniform that Nagisa goes to -> he must be Nagisa's friend (he doesn't even know her this route) -> he's a good guy" LOL talk a bout a stretch.

    Also realized that there hasn't been much Key Magic Tragicks, at all really, since Fuko's route. wth man!

     

    ~~
    Idk all the available routes, but uhhh Nagisa, Tomoyo, Kyou, Ryou, Kotomine, Fuko, Mei. Probably gonna try to do Kotomine->Tomoyo->Nagisa. Overall VN's looking really subpar-average, I still can't fathom just wtf can happen come lategame to 9+/10 tier this.

  22. On 5/30/2021 at 3:02 AM, Mr Poltroon said:

    @Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world.
    In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

    Very interesting. I'll definitely check out the anime after I finish the VN. Out of curiosity though, did you watch the anime or read the VN first?

     

    ~~
    I'm slowly but surely making progress with Clannad. I went for a "see as many scenes as possible" playstyle for the common route, which btw can I just rant that I absolutely HATE the numerous blind choices? As a completionist that wants to see everything, this just makes things infinitely more tedious.

    ...Aaand I landed straight onto Fuko's route.

    I'm assuming she's supposed to be the starter route heroine of sorts, because I totally went ham with pro-Nagisa choices in trying to help her set up her damn Drama Club. And Tomoya totally confesses to her, and the two officialize their relationship, but then all of a sudden this timid mousy girl appears, and it's let's drop everything  we're doing and help her?! Like, I even opted to NOT help Fuko and that just resulted me in getting the default common route abrupt "yo you didn't lock onto a heroine trololol back to title screen" end! 

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    YOU'RE A WIZARD, HAR- I MEAN RODENT, FUKO!

    Fuko's cute enough, but sadly that's all she really has to offer, and probably why it took me almost a whole goddamn week to finish this sleeper route. She's this very shy first year who runs away from scary strangers and utters few words, though when she's around Tomoya she's comfortable enough to be snarky. For some reason though, she is always seen carving these wooden stars and trying to give them to people...

    And so cue SPOILERS:

    Spoiler

    Like I said, it took me almost a week of paltry 30min-1hr readings until I finally decided yo let's just finish this today, TODAY, and finally blitzed through this (or rather, I finally got to the Key Magicks Bits so I was able to read without being bored to death)

    Fuko's been carving these wooden starfishes and offering them to people because she wants to invite as many people to her beloved sister Kyouko's wedding. Meddlesome Tomoya and Nagisa are like, she's the cutest thing ever and so they help her. Pretty basic, snoozeworthy stuff. 

    Oh by the way, Fuko had an accident two years ago so she's been comatose ever since, but somehow she physically Astro-Projectioned herself onto the school. They let you know this pretty early on in the route, but things don't start picking up until Tomo x Nagi decide, "Hey, if we can see Fuko, and everyone else can see her too, then Kyouko will definitely see her!" and try to set up a meeting between the two:

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    OOOOOOOOF!@# 

    Yo I swear up until this point you could see the snooze bubbles on my face LOL. Then I finally woke up and could read the rest of Fuko's route no problemo


    That's something Key does very well imo- Countdown Tragedies. Like, you KNOW your time's coming to an end, so you're kind of bracing for that moment to come, going through all the phases of denial and whatnot, and when the tragedy finally comes, all that bracing was for naught and the dam breaks releasing the river of tears. Not that I bawled like crazy or anything during Fuko's route, but I did get a good dose of feelsies and shed a tear or two.

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    They start off pretty subtle, first mentioning that students were no longer even acknowledging Fuko when she was trying to give them her starfish. Maybe everyone is just annoyed with her by now..? But then good ol' bro Sunohara forgets her- well, that can just be written off as he was never really invested in her anyways- Oh no...the ENTIRE Furukawa family including the great Nagisa who's been very supportive of Fuko 'til now forgets her?!

    That leaves... just Tomoya...the sole survivor

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    And yet, even he falls victim to the Key Magic Tragics:

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    Attaboi Tomoya! Yes, you still have Nagisa. Now can we pick up where you two left off before not-a-rodent Fuko squandered all the screentime?!


    It was a slow, heartbreaking countdown to Fuko's cease-to-existness that was pretty well done and almost makes up for me having to slog through her SoL bits.

    I think I would've bawled HARD if they went for Fuko actually dying in the end, to be honest I would've liked this route a lot more if that ended up happening(I'm a total sap for tragedies) but yeah we gotta go for the happies!

    tdAgJP3.jpg

    I'm hoping there'll be at least one actual tragedy in this VN. If EVERYTHING gets a 'cop out' yo it all worked out :D happy end, I'll legit be a bit disappointed.

    ~~

    Random tidbit:

    I utterly cannot believe that the devs actually wrote this route with a "(not) in a relationship with Nagisa" flag in mind LOL. Like seriously, depending on if Tomoya is going out with Nagisa or not they literally had to have Nagisa's VA voice out all her lines for this route TWICE, one for calling him "Okazaki-san" and another for "Tomoya-kun". Unbelievable. And whether the two are going out or not affects whether you can have Tomoya romance Fuko, in which you get the alternate ending CG dialogue instead:

    YabEkiM.jpg


    Fascinating that the devs ended up doing this.

     

    ~~
    Kyou seems like a fun heroine, based on her common route banter. I'm gonna try to do her route next.

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    Your sister's hot.

     

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