Best Key Final Route?

Key Discussion
#1

This poll was closed on September 26, 2018 due the options being outdated. We will make a new one if there’s interest.

  • AIR
  • After Story
  • Tomoyo After After
  • Refrain
  • After (Kud Wafter)
  • Terra

0 voters

Didn’t make this poll before because I thought Refrain would just utterly destroy all competition, but now I’m not so sure anymore, especially ever since the AIR bookclub happened.

Most Key novels with an overarching plot have a final arc, one that concludes everything. Usually it’s only unlocked by completing all other routes. There are exceptions of course, like how LB! Ecstasy expanded the game even beyond Refrain, but I don’t think any of the extra arc fit the bill of an arc that “concludes the main story”, do they? On that note, I haven’t read Kud Wafter myself so I just put After in the poll. Not sure if it actually belongs there.

This isn’t so much a poll simply about which is “your favorite” of these arcs, but more about which arc do you believe did its job as the ‘final, all-concluding part of the story’ best.

For me, it’s gotta be Refrain. It ties up all the loose ends and makes all the individual pieces from the overall setting and single character arcs work together so well. There’s a subtle kind of buildup towards it ever since the beginning that you don’t even really realize is there until you know about it. I love After Story and Tomoyo After After very much, but Refrain takes it for me. After Story was more of a conclusion for Nagisa’s arc rather than the plot as a whole. Tomoyo After After was better in that regard, but the individual parts of the story are more or less separate from it, and it decides to just focus on the romance; it works incredibly well as the final arc of Tomoyo After, but it doesn’t tie everything together beautifully the way Refrain does.

So, what about you guys?

#2

Not gonna vote, since I haven’t read all of those, but Refrain is my favorite until now.

Now Terra is definitely a big NO. It is inferior quality to all other Rewrite’s routes.

1 Like
#3

Refrain was phenomenal. It completely blew me away and made me cry, and I even lost sleep over it (I finished it at night.) It catapulted Little Busters to the status of most favorite visual novel ever, for me. So, yeah, I’d vote Refrain.

3 Likes
#4

No other choice, but to vote for Refrain. Nothing was ever that good, than this. I just love it.

#5

Not much of a competition here I guess. Definitely Refrain.

#6

Tomoyo After’s final arc. The best part of the best story.

1 Like
#7

TFW no one votes for AIR XP

#8

I really enjoyed reading Terra, but it lets me down with the climax.
It’s either Refrain or Tomoyo After for me~

#9

Choosing between AIR and Refrain is actually so hard.
(This might be loud. LB!: z6911_000071)
http://puu.sh/iXXCd.ogg
Well I haven’t read Refrain in 2 years or so, better wait until I’ve done that.

3 Likes
#10

I absolutely loved refrain but I’m going to have to go with terra, it really did a 180 with the story and not only introduced some great new characters but showed different sides to characters we’ve already met giving you a different perspective on the overall story, and the ending was vey philosophical and deep while I felt refrain had a bit more of a feel good ending

#11

I’m going to give Tomoyo After, Kud Wafter, and the VN’s After Story a try before I vote here. I want to have all the choices available to me with this one.

That being said, out of the ones I have read, Refrain and AIR are some of my favorite story arcs from any Key game. It’s hard to choose between the two. For now, I’ll give a slight edge to Refrain because it gives you the choice for a happy ending or a more ‘realistic’ ending.

#12

Even if all the others were 9.9’.s, Refrain is a 10. Unmatched and absolutely phenomenal for a visual novel to achieve what refrain did.

1 Like
#13

I’m not surprised with most of the responses here; heck, even I agree with them.

Refrain was phenomenal and probably the best single story out of all of Key’s work. Of course, it’s not enough to make it the best key work, but it brings it up a fair lot because of that.

#14

Ughhhhhhh… I can’t decide between Refrain and AIR. I need more time to think about this.

#15

As mostly a Rewrite fanboy, I chose Terra. I loved that story. However, Refrain was REALLY close. They were both exceptional pieces of writing that I enjoyed a lot. Terra really stuck with me though.

These “pick one out of (almost) all amazing choices” threads are like a mental stress test that’s out of control. Surprised my brain hasn’t oozed out my ears at this point.

3 Likes
#16

Asplease.

Refrain is a truck of emotion, what makes you consider putting Air next to it?

1 Like
#17

Because AIR knew that it was enough, and stuck with it. Refrain was amazing, but the ending is full of mixed messages.

2 Likes
#18

It went downhill after a certain point.

1 Like
#19

I put in a vote for Terra. Because we actually get to hear HanaKana speak. After all the suffering we went through, none of the routes ended in a completely happy way.They all implied that the end of the world was delayed, not avoided. The one final timeline where there was a solution, there was still suffering but we were able to finally have a happy ending for at least some of those that we really cared about. There were a few moments that hit hard me in this respect: seeing Lucia with no gloves (meaning she never had to go through that suffering in her route), and the ending sequence showing that the Occult club still lives on.

4 Likes
#20

There’s another final route where we get to hear KanaHana speak, and she’s a lot more expressive in that one :wink: :wink:

4 Likes