I’m gonna follow in Cloud’s footsteps and not participate, but I’m finally gonna chip in with the Key appreciation posts.
I wasn’t going to do it because appreciation is one of the many things on my hate list, but I have been going through ONE of my favorite VNs ever, ONE. (It’s a pun!) So yeah, the Tactics VN has inspired me to talk about Key.
Now if you look at my VNDB, very few Key VNs will be highly rated, but Key is my favorite VN developer. My favorite VNs are the ones that tell the best story. Overall, Key’s VNs aren’t great… but in most of their works there is that one route that blows everything else away. I have a saying for my VN reading style: “I want to experience a good story, not a complete one.” Key, for a long time, were one of the best at telling a good standalone story in their routes.
This comes across in my preferences. I will criticize Clannad and Little Busters! whenever I speak my opinion of them, but I’ll praise (for example) Kanon to high heaven. Overall I didn’t like Kanon. Mai’s route however is a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. Meanwhile Litbus throws it’s best parts into a section that relies on mediocre routes (admittedly I liked Yuiko’s route, but that is mainly because it is reminiscent of ONE in a way.)
I’m the kind of person who will praise the FF franchise, because even though I hated every FF game but one, the one I did like is the best game I’ve ever played. Similarly, while I dislike a lot of what Key does, they have repeatedly shown that they can create memorable experiences that outshine any other experiences I have ever read, seen, or heard.
Mai’s route, Tomoyo’s route, Tomoyo After, Yuiko’s route. They are the four reasons I love Key… I loved Key before the latter three of those stories even existed as an English-written story.