I just finished the baseball route today as well. I had go back to the common route to find this event because I had totally skipped it earlier when I first played it. It was so much fun with all the characters coming together to play against the former Koshien members. I would also agree about when Misae was offended about her age and said it with censor tags threw me off completely and I laughed so hard that even all the others said the same line that she said. I think Tomoya learned a valuable experience in the baseball route that he had to come know more about others fighting through their own circumstances and helping others those in need than thinking about himself. Anyway, the beginning when I first played CLANNAD really got me interested quickly as soon I saw the fantasy world and the things that Tomoya was going through with his life. The moment I saw Nagisa standing at the bottom of the hill as her hair sways from the sakura petals made it feel nostalgic and I wanted to know more about her in the game.
Okay I just finished this the day before last! I liked seeing and getting introduced to all of the characters. Characters are usually my favourite things about stories, so Iâll explore my thoughts in depth from my first impressions. I am using the walkthrough choices.
Tomoya is a good lead character. He reminds me a lot of my boyfriend in that he teases and trolls his friends a lot (my boyfriend is a bit nicer about it though 
I like how he interacts differently with different people.
Sunohara I manage to both like and hate. Heâs kind of a sexist ass and I hat that, but heâs very funny and very tragic.
Nagisa is pretty sweet. I feel pretty bad for her though. I know sheâll get lots of development, but for now it was kind of blank for me.
Misae didnât really stand out to me. Nothing against her, she was just more background character to me.
Tomoyo seems like a perfectly nice woman, but her personality doesnât stand out for me. Sheâs pretty violent and aggressive, which is obviously played up for humour purposes, but it still makes me kind of uncomfortable. She was fine other than that.
Yukine I didnât get to see much of, but she seems nice. Looking forward to seeing more because she was pretty minor so far.
Kotomi is weird. It definitely has me interest and wanting to know more about her. I overall like her although I donât appreciate her defacing library books. I guess Iâll find out eventually what thatâs all about!
Kyou was also a bit violent and aggressive for my tastes, but I like how upbeat she is.
Ryou was very nice and sweet and I liked her and want to know more about her. She seems a bit flat so far is my main complaint, but she hasnât had the most development yet.
Kappei was pretty fun and I liked him. I feel about as hopeless as he is sometimes!
Mei I really like so far and she has a cute dress. Also very much looking forward to seeing more from her.
Fuko is probably my favourite so far. Sheâs so random and off that I find it incredibly charming to watch her and Tomoya interact. Looking forward to her route!
The actual ending wasnât my favourite because Iâm not a huge baseball person, but I did like seeing all of the characters interact. Itâs nice when the love interests can react and interact with each other outside of the main character and I hope I see more of that!
This is one of the things that I agree with and something that I think they did really well in the anime. CLANNAD didnât focus on this very much except in some of the routes, but I really love that Keyâs future works all had their characters interacting with each other on a regular basis. (as opposed to having love interests as separate, independent characters)
Oh my, there were some really interesting discussions in this thread that it feels kinda embarrassing that I canât say much about the common route other than how I found it to be tedious at times. T.T
I wasnât too keen with the galge scenes found here; as much as I like Kotomi, I found the scenes with her, so far, to be boring. And I didnât find the scenes in the Illusory World, effectively did it evoke mystique, to be particularly immersive. Nagisa nor Ryou hasnât stood out to me yet. The Tomoyo gags worked the first time, but it got repetitive fast.
I guess thatâs just what happens when I expected it to have a high entertainment value, especially when my first experience of Clannad was the anime. I noticed this from, of all people, Fuuko. I remembered her being my favorite character in the anime because of the hilarious shenanigans with her, but I canât seem to feel it that much here. Props to the anime in vastly improving her entertainment value. XD
Man I must have sounded harsh here, but I did found something to like here. I surprisingly found the savage Kyou to be a highly entertaining character, so she was instantly my fave girl in the VN as far as common route is concerned. I also really like how extremely modest Misae is, repetitive the martial arts joke got. Sunohara is quite entertaining. His joke got repetitive, too, but not as tiring as Tomoyoâs.
And then the two characters in the limelight for being easily the most entertaining characters here: Yoshino and Kappei. Yoshinoâs corn is just too much to handle, and Kappei is just the right kind of wild for me. XD
But comedy isnât just the merits I can give to this route. The scene where Nagisa was beholded by an desolated classroom was a standout moment that I really like. Fuukoâs revelation of her prime motivations is a really touching moment that made me remember why I like Fuuko a lot.
For the baseball route, I followed faithfully this forumâs walkthrough. I like the baseball route a lot, and there were heaps of really fun moments here. Looks like a lot of people here agree that Misae being FWATCHOOO years old was so darn hilarous, but Yoshino making a corny speech only to get a strikeout was just as funny. It was pretty jargon-y though, but it helped that I knew a little bit of baseball so I managed to understand half of what was going on. P: Nagisa and Fuuko actually doing better than Sunohara was fun too.
I really liked the end scene though, where he was encouraged to swing rather than pull off another sacrifice bunt. Itâs like the story is hitting home that Tomoya need not to sell himself short, and treat himself better.
Mygad this got long even though I wasnât really saying much. Iâll try to get this shorter next time I get back here.
PS: Totally love the remastered tracks, especially Baka Futari.
Fuko shines more in other routes to be sure, when she is just a footnote like she is in common. But I consider Fuko my Adopted Soul Imouto so I am kind of biased.
I was actually just thinking the other day that I really want to go back and reread common and the baseball route though because I think it will feel really different once you have played through all the others. It works well as a first route, but I also feel like it might work really well as route to revisit.
Just finished the common route this week! Overall I like how it lets you dabble in every route for a bit. They did a really good job of showing everyoneâs personality and quirks in short consumable bites.
I do think I like the anime version slightly better. In the VN it kinda felt like they were pressed into playing the game without that friendship bond. In the anime, they have known each other for awhile so it felt more natural seeing them come together and doing something amazing. It seem to mean more when they cheer Nagisa on to pitching in the anime compared to the VN. But both are amazing in their own way.
I did find the gun shooting game part of the route to be quite funny and enjoyable. ^^
Interesting how the relationship between characters in the anime are more similar to Kotomiâs route than the actual common route in the VN, heh
Average. Thatâs the word i would pick to describe this route.
It did itâs job for introducing the characters but it was weak in making you feel attached to them. The jokes are weak, in fact i didnât expect clannad would be so full of boob and sexual jokes. The other major parts which rely on screwing up sunohara are only fun at first bit quickly become boring and repetitive. It had some good funny moments though like yoshino yussuke and sunoharaâs conversation over music or Akio-san in the basball route or fukoâs pranks.
It felt like a harem manga at the very best. Tomoya the protagonist who picks up on his friend and is friends with girls(better than his friend sunohara at least), sunohara the friend whose purpose is to be comic relief, nagisa the shy and good girl (a bit mix of komari and rin) , kyou the abusive girl, tomoyo the strong student council president, fuko the dreamy girlâŚand others.
It focused on less group scenes which i think was the weak point. Even in the baseball route where all characters come togather, no one speaks much with each other. Didnât feel like a team in the least.
Canât say i enjoyed this one as the other Vn comman routes.
The early works are like that: most of the time, youâd have a heroine and a supporting cast for her. There wasnât much mixing in between groups. LB! was the first main series game to shift towards greater group mechanics, though Iâd say the trend really started in Tomoyo After, and you can point at things in Clannad that also can be seen as the basis of that shift.
I think you mostly set yourself up to be disappointed by the common route, as it seems like you were expecting the exact same kind of group setting as in a certain other VN. But as Helios already pointed out, Clannadâs focus is different and the entire cast is in no way a big group of friends, though depending on the route some of them will get to know eachother better. I donât think this is necessarily a weak point as itâs mostly just a different setting and not really a flaw in the storytelling, and I actually donât mind it much because I think this has its advantages too when it comes to the plot.
Group was only a minor thing, I was expecting it to be like this, focusing on one character at a time.
My only problem was that the character tropes felt overused (maybe because i read too much manga) and that even as individuals i didnât felt uhhh⌠Connectivity with them but that can be because common route has many branching scenes and i didnât see every one (i followed baseball route walkthrough) so i didnât get much encounter with them, besides nagisa, tomoyo, fuko and sunohara others only got one long scene or two three short scenes.
The major problem with the route was comedy - sexual jokes and making a character gag relief (sunohara) for me these are signs that you are running out of innovation.
How ironic; CLANNAD was one of the best displays of comedy in Visual Novels at the time, and a refinement of the innovative Tactics formula. It was, in my opinion, a perfection of the style used in ONE and Kanon, and probably the final grand iteration of such a style. The comedy was one of the big things that made CLANNAD different.
Ah, I was under the impression that you thought it was one of its main weak points, but I stand corrected. Keep in mind though that the baseball route only serves as an introduction and naturally not everyone will immediately feel connected with the characters. Itâs also good to take the age of the VN into account, tropes you think are overused now might not have been in that day and age, but ultimately if youâre not enjoying these tropes thereâs not much to be done about it.
As weâve discussed on Discord before humour is entirely subjective, I donât think thereâs anything wrong with sexual jokes necessarily as long as they donât cross a certain line. I laughed a lot more in Clannad than in some other VNs and I donât think the type of comedy is any sign of running out of innovation whatsoever.
Like i said. I have read too much manga and so most of the gags that are done in clannad are already seen by me. so it didnât feel different for me at all.
same thing with the tropes relta. if i had read it sometime before i surely wouldnât have found the gags repeating.
I wasnât overwhelmed by the Common/Baseball route but it does its job in introducing the main characters - you only really get to know them all by following the individual routes and thatâs when the VN starts to hit home.
I have just finished the common route, thanks to Kazamatsuriâs walkthrough, and I really enjoyed the jokes with Sunohara, the introduction of the main characters and the baseball match at the end. It was interesting to see that each character has many references to its own route like the students who talk about the ghost of the young girl for Fuko . I really enjoyed it with the parts about the Illusionary world and it wasnât that long too. Now I have to go into Nagisaâs route 
