AIR - Common Route Discussion

Key Discussion
#81

Well, he’s dead as far as Key is concerned. And pretty much dead in terms of composing music. But no, not physically dead.

[quote=“Aspirety, post:79, topic:902”]
Since we’re running on a tight schedule I’ve organised between myself, Biz and Pepe to try and handle it tonight. If you want to serve as chronicler for future routes though, that would certainly be appreciated!
[/quote]Sure, thats fine, I’ll just help wherever you need it :thumbs_up:

#82

Oh. That’s a bit of a distasteful joke :V

#83

I felt the same towards Natsukage. I guess I never realized it, but Jun Maeda is probably my favorite composer in Key as well. Even in Little Busters, my favorites are mostly his works, followed by Shinji Orito’s XD Sorry to sidetrack your fanboying over Magome Togoshi.

But yeah, back on topic, AIR OST is really really good! And pretty much all of the tracks are good. I think I may have found something that tops Harvest Festa’s OST in my book. Like I especially like Esoragoto because those “suspense” tracks are usually the ones I find the most boring in the other Key works, but this is a huge exception to that rule.

I guess my only qualm is that Path in a Field plays waaaay too much. I love it, yeah, but it gets tiring after hearing it too much :frowning:

It’s kinda hard to get that since we all have different reading speeds and whatnot… >_<

#84

No, Maeda’s almost certainly my favorite too. And I really like Shinji Orito’s stuff a lot too. Although from LitBus I think I liked PMMK’s music (Born into this World, World Where Nothing Happend, Regret, Parting of the Boys, Clear Weather after the Rain) more than Orito. Honestly those 5 that I mentioned are the only ones I love from Togoshi, and I wouldnt have even brought him up if Reminiscence hadnt just blown me out of the water. ^^;

[quote=“Pepe, post:82, topic:902”]
I guess my only qualm is that Path in a Field plays waaaay too much. I love it, yeah, but it gets tiring after hearing it too much
[/quote]Lol, I didn’t even have to look it up or try to remember which track that was to know exactly which one you’re referring to XD

1 Like
#85

After you get out of the common route it’s heard less often
The track that starts to get played WAYY too much is “Futari” (but I absolutely adore that track so that’s fine with me ^^ but if you don’t like it then I’m sorry you gon hear it lot)
At least it isn’t like “2 steps toward” from Kanon. I can’t even get 2 seconds into that song without being super annoyed from its complete overuse.

Jun Maeda is my favorite composer out of Key as almost all of my favorite Key tracks were made by him. The whole AIR ost is just so relaxing to listen and fits the game so perfectly. Natsukage, Futari, Denshou, Futaboshi, Yosou, Kotowari, Enishi, Giniro, Kaisouroku, just everything.

The only track I really don’t find myself enjoying is Minagi’s theme.

1 Like
#86

I just finished the common route! V! I was a kid I last watched the AIR anime so reading the VN feels like I’m seeing it new. I got the bad end after I took Kano’s handkerchief, which kinda stung since I enjoyed Kano’s scenes a lot, especially the wrestling part and Potato. I headed off to the bad ending leaving an angry Kano behind and that hurted.

More so, I love Yukito and Haruko’s relationship. They make an odd and funny duo, and it sort of reminded me of Tomoya and Akito’s relationship. I like how both try not to make things too sappy though there’s that nagging feeling after when Yukito leaves Haruko alone.

Potato deserves a story of his own. That dog (???) has character.

Natsukage blew me away.

And Kano’s theme~ Feels like morning. A good one.

It kinda threw me off too. Feels like I was playing an adventure game but it sort of fits Minagi’s sense of humor, in a strange way. Would have preferred a softer, quiet tune for Minagi though.

1 Like
#87

You may wanna spoiler tag this one because it seems to me that that is actually Kano’s Bad End, and not the common bad end XD

This so much! Like, we all know Haruko doesn’t like weak guys, but Yukito definitely isn’t a pushover, so it’s fun to see them at odds with each other :smiley:

#88

Hm, that sounds like you ended up with the wrong bad end. Did you follow any of the walkthroughs?

#89

Edited! No wonder the ending felt bitter. Thank God for Misuzu and the giant riceball. Lighten up things a bit.

I didn’t follow the walkthrough =/ I’ll play through it again for the common end. Seems like I enjoyed Kano too much. Or maybe Potato.

Yeah. I enjoy reading their petty fights. Actually, I enjoy Yukito’s connversations with the ‘adult’ characters like Haruko and Hijiri. It’s always Yukito who’s doing the teasing to the younger girls so it’s funny whenever the roles are reversed. I think Haruko and Hijiri really enjoys his presence; somehow a break from their jobs and from taking care of their sister/kid. Yukito’s the kind of person who you could treat both like a child and an adult XD

2 Likes
#90

Here’s my timeline of events for the first three days!

17th/18th July

  • Title menu. “The days which are wrapped in the scene of summer and to pass gently. An encounter with the girls repeated in the sunlight. Summer continues to where as well. She is waiting in the air.” Select “Dream” from New Game.
    “My child… Please listen carefully to what I have to say. What I’m about to tell you is very… very important. This is the reason for everything we do… A legend passed from parent to child across generations… It’s a story about a long, long journey… “AIR”.
  • Begins with a dream of soaring through the clouds, flying toward a destination. Turns out it was Yukito’s dream on the bus.
  • Opens his eyes to the mundane summer scenery. The smell of exhaust fumes, splinters from the bench… He’s broke, and tries to make some money by impressing some kids with his puppet houjutsu. They’re unimpressed and kick his doll away.
  • He becomes absorbed by the view of the sky as he looks up, recalling the dream he had just before. He sees a bird fluttering toward the sky. He tries closing his eyes hoping the bird will take him with it.
  • OP plays. “Farewell.” Wakes up. Thinks he heard someone calling to him. “It’s too sad to think about…”
  • Yukito passes out from hunger. Wakes up in fishermen’s union, is given a giant rice ball by the woman there. Goes searching for his puppet.
  • Meets Misuzu. He keeps trying to get away from her but she persists, trying to get him to play with her on the beach. She manages to find his puppet for him. He eventually relents after she offers to feed him some ramen, and he goes home with her.
  • Phone calls.
  • After dinner Yukito tries to get some sleep, but Misuzu’s Mum crashes into the garage on her motorbike. We’re introduced to Haruko. At first she’s reluctant to let him stay, but she ends up taking a liking to his attitude, and lets him stay. “What’s his name?” “Tabuchi-san.”
  • Yukito is unable to sleep, and ends up chatting with Haruko after getting caught fishing through her fridge. If you choose one option you end up drinking with her, if you choose the other and ask about her husband she gets seemingly uncomfortable and leaves Yukito alone.

19th July

  • After promising to take care of Misuzu, he accompanies her to school. She plays with a crow. She has the feeling that “There’s another me in the sky.” Yukito says that the person he’s looking for is the other Misuzu. We learn of Yukito’s mission to find the girl in the sky. He continues the journey without ever fully understanding what it means.
  • He does some more failed puppet shows, spends time with Misuzu at the house, chats with Haruko at night. He introduces them both to his power, “houjutsu”. He criticizes Haruko’s parenting and calls her old, pissing her off.
2 Likes
#91

I found that to be the best part of the bad end XD

How could anyone not?

oh yeah, dem Kano haters xP

So here’s my recap for the next two days:

20th July

  • Misuzu ends up being late for various reasons (apologizing for stealing milk, buying breakfast), and she pretends to be on time by only going in after break time ends
  • “Does time exist for the wind” monologue
  • Misuzu does a picture book for her homework, and draws Yukito a (shitty) map while waiting for break time to end
  • Yukito looks at and is disgruntled by the map. Embankment is him with a “bowling ball” and pictures of Misuzu drinking juice, playing cards, etc, all around the map
  • Suddenly, a strange creature that says “Piko” appears and steals Yukito’s puppet. He follows it and they end up at the bridge and he falls into the stream
  • He meets a girl with a bandana on her wrist and can talk with the creature, Potato
  • Yukito can ask about the bandana but she keeps it a secret. She then asks “Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could use magic?” before leaving
  • He figures out that the “cards” on the map mean she is playing bridge, to note the bridge
  • Yukito returns and meets with Misuzu. Asks her to redraw the map She does this when they return home and, but forgets to cook lunch
  • Yukito[‘s puppet] gets hit by Haruko’s bike as she is going to work, and offers to buy him a new one. Ramen Set count +1
  • He tries to earn money at the shopping street and fails, but runs into Potato again, and meets the doctor, Kirishima Hijiri, who seems to know Potato
  • Meets up with Misuzu in Takeda store. Discussion about Summer: “It’s memorable because the seasons leave on. It won’t leave an impression if you’re in the same place all the time. You’ll always remain the way you are now.”
  • Skip to nighttime, Haruko gets home, and returns with a stuffed Sloth for Yukito
  • Because Yukito won’t accept it, Haruko asks for him to pay 10,000 yen for it, and keeps his puppet hostage in the meantime
  • Misuzu goes to sleep, and Yukito finds Haruko not drinking for once. He finds out just how lonely Haruko seems to be and realizes she probably enjoys watching other people encounter misfortune
  • Haruko offers to find him a job, one where he goes around all day

July 21

  • The neighbor, Kawarazaki, offers Yukito a job collecting recycled goods
  • Yukito heads on to “Sakuma’s Recycling Shop” for the job and is given a 2-wheel cart
  • (if you choose Haruko’s offer yesterday) Haruko finds him and offers to bring him to the job, but changes her mind after Yukito makes a mistake in turning (or jokes around with the cart)
  • He lugs the cart around town and eventually arrives at a train station, where he meets a kid trying to blow bubbles who mistakes Yukito for a “devil kidnapper” and hits him before escaping
  • Yukito goes door-to-door but nobody seems to have any stuff to give him, and he returns to the recycling shop empty handed
  • While glooming about the money situation, Misuzu finds him and asks him about what happened. He refuses to talk about it and Misuzu’s pestering is stopped by her seeing bubbles floating around
  • The bubbles lead to the train station, and Yukito wonders why Haruko said leaving by train is impossible
  • They see a girl playing with the bubbles, who Misuzu identifies as Minagi Tohno, her classmate, and has the best grades in school
  • Misuzu seems overly startled by interacting with Minagi, but Yukito encourages them to have a better discussion
  • They’re suddenly approached and Yukito is attacked by the girl he saw earlier, and is introduced as Michiru, Minagi’s self-proclaimed best friend
  • Minagi also thinks that Misuzu and Yukito are lovers after he is introduced by her
  • They part ways with Minagi, and Misuzu explains that the station is abandoned, and she suggests to add it to Yukito’s map
  • Yukito falls asleep and Misuzu updates his map
  • Haruko wakes him up by force-driking and eventually returns his puppet
3 Likes
#92

This is impossible, there will be some on here who say otherwise but quoth the Pepe…

I enjoyed Yukito’s interactions with Kano more so than the other two heroines in the common route (given its becoming more and more clear you can “dip” into the character’s scenes by accident and still not end up on their route so who knows what you are and aren’t supposed to see but I’m respectfully ignore that point). Potato is just the icing on the cake and I don’t mean like the icing on a plain cake where without the icing the cake is bland and boring and you don’t want it anymore. I mean more along the lines of like a Red Velvet cake where its fine without the icing by the icing just makes it that much more enjoyable.

TL;DR I’ll take one Kano with a double layer of Potato.

Oh Pepe caught an error in your recap…

there we go fixed it for you.

2 Likes
#93

Well I’m not the one who decided he wanted skipping rope for breakfast! winkwink

#94

I got the common end, I think! V!! And all the talk about cake made me want one. Without the Potato icing of course.

Here’s what I think about the girls so far:

Kano is the ideal girl. She’s always bursting with energy and her sunny personality oddly fit to the serene setting, like the bridge or those times when Yukito is alone She just appears, or rather, Potato just pops out and you end up following the dog. Sometimes I can’t tell Kano scenes apart because of Potato. Sometimes I can’t tell Potato and Kano apart.

Misuzu-- What I like about Misuzu is that she has her own noisy and quiet moments. She likes talking to Yukito a lot but her silent side shows up from time to time too. You could get a glimpse of how lonely she must be before Yukito came, just by looking at her and hearing Haruko’s stories. Misuzu’s loneliness bears a stronger impact when seeing Haruko’s lifestyle, and it’s interesting to see how they cope with each other.

Minagi. I didn’t enjoy her scenes much because Michiru keeps butting in. Michiru’s the Potato to Minagi, except that she talks and needs to work on her manners. I don’t get why she hates Yukito. Meanwhile, Minagi and Yukito’s conversations is a dead air. There’s nothing much to say about stars in the middle of the day, I guess.

Still loving Haruko~

1 Like
#95

I think that makes them a very good counterpart to each other. It solidifies the fact that she always says “Nee, poteto~” and potato always agrees. It’s just super fun to watch!

Arrrgh there’s so much I want to say about that but it happens in the common route that leads to Misuzu’s route… So, pre-misuzu route spoiler: It’s really interesting how much she enjoys playing around with Yukito but Yukito just keps bullying her. It’s the kind of friendship that she needs, because she herself can’t make friends the “normal” way. Haruko does say that whenever Misuzu gets any friends, she starts to break down. Which explains A LOT why she always asks if Yukito is her friend. And Yukito, being the jerk-with-heart-of-gold he is always denies it. That’s what makes their friendship perfect. Misuzu gets the friend she needs but her psyche never registers him as a friend, ergo, no problemo. Though I guess it might become a problem in her route proper? I forgot what happened in the anime :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s really fun to see Haruko’s interactions with Yukito. There’s one voice track that I really love listening to in the first day, when Yukito plays around with her and she shouts “Ia ia, ia ia.” I think these are the most entertaining parts of the common route (aside from Ramen Set)

And yeah fuk michiru. I can’t stand people who feel no guilt over hurting others.

2 Likes
#96

[quote=“Pepe, post:94, topic:902”]
And yeah fuk michiru. I can’t stand people who feel no guilt over hurting others.
[/quote]Knowing whats coming up from having seen the anime I know whats they are setting up for with her…doesn’t make me like her any more because of the attitude though. But in the anime their interaction felt different somehow, almost more like a brother and sister fighting, but so far in the VN it just feels like she is just being a jerk to him for no real reason other than “hey I’m a brat”

#97

I think it also explains why Misuzu keeps her distance from Haruko IN the common arc. I found it odd that Misuzu keeps telling Yukito that she likes Haruko a lot though they barely talk to each other. Their sloppy lifestyle works because of Misuzu’s condition. I hope the VN explores what it takes to be Misuzu’s ‘friend.’ The anime sort of rushed things up and it was kind of confusing, now that I remember it.

Michiru is annoying. Weird, I’ll probably like her if she was a tiny furry animal. Like Potato.

Michiru overpowers Minagi’s scenes, in my opinion. And Minagi’s mind sort of flies away whenever Yukito does talk to her. It’s the ditzy, dreamy girl again =/ No wonder I enjoy Haruko a lot. She’s the most realistic character to me, even when being funny.

2 Likes
#98

So, I’m really pushing it here, but I decided to join in.

I played the game only a few months ago (summer was coming to an end when I played it), but a refresher is good.

Just completed the first two days (the 17th doesn’t really count though). I’m remembering just how horrible Tabuchi Yukito is.

[quote=“Misuzu, post:21, topic:902”]
Yukito is so mean to Misuzu and it breaks my heart cuz I just want to cuddle with Misuzu and feed her chocolate while wearing dinosaur onesies ><
[/quote]I feel the same way just from the memory of my last play-through and barely starting it up again today. (Juice incident.)

[quote=“Aspirety, post:79, topic:902”]
Just a reminder guys that there’s only 45 hours left until we record the podcast! Please make sure you get your contributions (discussion, fanart, pre-recorded messages etc) in by then so we can incorporate them into the podcast! :slight_smile:
[/quote]Looks like I’ll have to blast through the common route quickly (less than 24 hours now) to make it in time!

Side note: Tori no Uta is my favorite Key OP.

4 Likes
#99

Anime only guy here I can confirm this to be true. I’ve watched the anime…well sorta (long story) but I don’t feel like I have a firm grasp on exactly where the story was going with Misuzu. Not sure if they rushed it to fit in all in or just adapted it really poorly, but I really looking forward to finding out more once we reach her route.

#100

Yukito isn’t bad. He’s one of the kinder Key protagonists.