For the choices: they added a neat thing in this version where a line or a choice is marked in a different color (which you can set in the config) if you already read/chose it. Actually you can limit it to only choices or turn off completely. That’s how I will keep track.
Back in the original I just checked if a choice was critical for the route i was going for, and if not, checked if it was critical for another route - if so, I knew which answer I would take anyways later down the line and went for the other, which worked fine 90% of the time as well. Luckily with the new coloring we don’t need to worry about that.
2 Likes
I think this is one of those ideas the author had when he first wrote the scene, but didn’t really pursue as the story progressed. It suggests that Rin is pretty popular with the boys. This is mentioned a few times throughout the VN (I remember three instances), but never does become relevant. It’s not unusual for a female character to be populare with the boys just for her looks, but since “Rin-sama” is so different from the way Rin’s character is displayed throughout the rest of the game, leaving that part in her introduction scene does strike me as a mistake.
A very important point to make. If you’ve been living in several different countries while you were still developing, it’s bound to have a massive impact on your personality. The first and most obvious one is that everyone, especially kids your age, don’t understand your way of thinking at all. I’m speaking from experience here.
Many people assume Kud is just quirky and weirdly talking for the sake of being a popular moeblob, forgetting that personalities aren’t just a patchwork of different character traits that are decided on the roll of a dice. And we all know how much thought Key puts into all of their characters, even those you’d think are mere comic relief.
In other words, hating people for the way they talk is totally fine? Is it ok for me, then, to hate people for, say, their accents, especially if they’re hard to understand? Is it fine to refuse communicate - which is the foundation of understanding - with them? I don’t think so. Speech is a part of the personality, but assuming that someone is a horrible person because they don’t adjust the way they speak to what I find pleasant is just as superficial as, say, judging people by their looks.
8 Likes
Well I don’t know what difference the baseball practice makes to the game as I was leading 5 - 2 at one point despite not having a clue what the options meant on the choices! Lost 11 - 5 in the end, but I figure it’s really not important for the first time - and what happens in the time-out talks has an almost Marx Brothers like quality, so that was fun. I actually think it might be better to lose first time out because it gives you a longer term target and another reason to keep going through all the routes to see what happens next time (whether I’ll feel the same if I never win is moot…).
Anyway, onward with rejecting everyone!
Oh and Rin won the battle ranking, Riki 3rd it seems.
EDIT: and the (or a ) bad end! Well now I have a baseline to judge what happens when I pick a “Proper” route with Rin.
1 Like
I advise you to pay attention to the common route as you replay it on your grand quest. Some scenes are commonplace, while others only appear depending on your choices. Oh, and be careful, because sometimes, new options are unlocked depending on your progress.
As an example for the former, curing lovesickness is a Rin event that requires you to make specific choices to get, while the “I love you” is a set event that’s always occuring in the common route. So while it would be interesting to see you pursuing the secret of the world, but finding the Illuminati instead, paying attention to the consequences of common route choices will certainly help you avoid confusion.
3 Likes
I agree it would 
I’m generally aware that events and scenes will change depending on my choices, I have to assume that if I hadn’t chosen to run after Rin so many times I wouldn’t be doing these tasks at all, and as @StarfishBender mentioned they’ve been getting completely different scenes to me.
That said, this route focuses heavily on uncovering the secret of the world, and as such I’m assuming certain scenes will line up better than in other routes. I’d rather assume that there’s more meaning here than less and on a second read through adjust my strategy based on how things line up.
And yeah, that last little bit of the most recent day was thrown in at the end mostly because I don’t have any extra evidence surrounding the scenes from yesterday, it really was just a chill day!
Illuminati aside, I took the opportunity on May 20th to travel off campus with Kyousuke. I appreciated the opportunity to actually spend some time with him, though it was short when all was said and done. I was kinda hoping something crazy would happen on the one day when we didn’t have school but oh well, maybe on my next run through.
I’m getting a better idea of Kyousuke’s character, he’s able to read the room without pausing for a second and frequently exaggerates his seriousness to comedic effect. His ‘almost donate ten thousand yen’ stunt was pretty hilarious. He handles the spotlight very well, and frustration from the other characters only fuels his silliness:
I find it very impressive that he manages to travel from place to place job-hunting all the time, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts he seems to be somehow everywhere and nowhere, doing the most work of the entire team. He manages the baseball team, job-hunts in far off places, and has the time to cheer up Riki when he’s feeling down because Masato and Kengo are busy (though they show up later when Kyousuke calls them so eh that couldn’t have been that busy). Just goes to show the understanding and authority that Kyousuke has over the group.
I’ve been wracking my brain thinking about this quote here, when Kyousuke uses his credit card to withdraw 10,000 yen from an ATM:
Kyousuke praises the usefulness of the credit card, but Riki ponders that without the card the ATM would be, well, kind of sad. I wonder if this is specifically commentary on Riki and Kyousuke’s relationship, Kyousuke ‘unlocks’ Riki’s personality and allows him to shine while in their social group. or perhaps the other way around? I think this is a good metaphor for how the different personalities interact, and highlights the theme that the ‘ripples’ in the title screen screensaver represent, how these characters are only able to be as fun and lively as they are because they bounce off of each other, and are able to share their experience together. A single one of them alone would surely be a sad and silent human being…
And then we came to arguably the most important decision in the entire game:
DONUTS
As you can see, I chose ‘light strawberry’, the obvious choice. Rin joined me in my love of pink sweets and then the entire group sat in a circle and shared half of their donut with someone (except for Masato who wolfed his down in one go, and Kengo who was happy with no filling at all). Better luck next time guys.
I’d be curious to see who chose what so, I’m gonna leave a poll here. What flavour did you pick and why was it strawberry?
- Basic Donut
- Chocolate Striped Donut
- Light Strawberry Donut
0 voters
EDIT: Why does no one like strawberry 
13 Likes
Ha, I picked chocolate striped because, you know, chocolate 
(IRL I don’t eat doughnuts, too much sugar), not that I remember what happened after. Now I have started anew on the Rin route, and yes some new scenes already obviously with Rin’s tasks ( and very helpful to set the options to show choices I previously made ). Now the “Secret of the World” does provide quite a good hook that I missed out on with my choice first playthrough, though I suspect it may not be earth-shattering.
Starting to like Rin a little more (despite the cats) but that will be for Rin’s character discussion on the other thread. I did note that ending the Bad Common route and then new game did set the stats back to default and there was nothing new in the prologue although I gather that when you finish a character route they keep their own old stats?
2 Likes
I love how you pointed out the importance of this choice 
Of course, there are no meaningless choices in life. One of the few lessons I learned from Little Busters 
1 Like
Man, I can only speculate as to how this choice will ‘ripple’ throughout the story. I’m definitely getting some Higurashi vibes from this setup.
2 Likes
I picked strawberry in hopes it would win me brownie points with Komari.
I’m curious about something. As someone who has never played the original or Ecstasy, are the Komari up-skirt cgs from the original version of the game or did they come from Ecstasy? If the former, did they decide to censor them by zooming in the image in Japan once Ecstasy was made all-ages by console editions? Or is this bit of censorship exclusive to the English edition? It’s lewd, for sure, but I wouldn’t think they’d censor it in Japan unless it was actual nudity and or porn.
Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the anime already, but I have to admit, I’ve felt the visual novel is a mixed bag so far. The main guys are consistently hilarious, avoiding the stock tropes bromantic foils in anime often fall into (they’re not perverted, they’re not excessively lame compared to the main character, etc.). As an earlier user here pointed out, Masato’s just an awesome bro. Even his off-beat muscle-obsession is portrayed in a way that doesn’t make me feel it’s too off the wall for a real human being. His chemistry with Riki feels laid-back in such a way that makes it easy for me to believe they’re friends. As far as the group dynamic goes, Kengo feels a little redundant so far, considering his straight-man role is most consistently filled by Riki (his only notable difference is his rivalry with Masato), but his normalcy is often a nice break from the weirdness.
One of my main beefs so far has been the redundancy of the story structure. As others have pointed out, the common route kind of hits the same beats every day, and I can’t honestly say the day-to-day variations are all that entertaining. The end of day “Rin infiltrates girls’ dormitory to hopefully improve her social skills, only to get pounded”, isn’t particularly amusing, and seems more mean-spirited than anything else. I mean, she really doesn’t deserve it, and a lot of her failings are the LB gang putting her up to weird stuff. It’s framed as them trying to help her, too, which just puts a bad taste in my mouth. Additionally, There are only so many seinfeldian conversations Riki can have with X or Y heroine that he plays along with, carrying an air of superiority along with him, before it gets rather stale. Oftentimes, I find it difficult to even follow the humor in a particular scene (maybe it’s just a stiff translation. I don’t remember having such issues in Clannad). I feel like the heroines oftentimes (Komari is particularly prone to this, but I even see it from Mio and Kurugaya as well), engage in these confusing, almost otherworldly conversations about something completely arbitrary. I feel like there is potential humor in such a situation if the conversation starts off normal, but derails into inanity (I feel like most of the Tomoya and Sunohara conversations were built on this), but because the vast majority of the characters are so bizarre and quirk, we just progress from weird to weirder. Whenever girls like Komari and Rin go to Kurugaya for advice and she gives them obviously BS advice about the best way to seem more confident or engaging, and they take her advice unironically, it doesn’t just make them seem awkward, it makes it seem like they have the IQ of raw sewage. Just because Rin is sheltered by the admittedly rather quirky Busters doesn’t mean she’s had no exposure at how normal people behave, she’s been to school (plus, Riki, is by all accounts, a pretty average guy in day-to-day interactions). When she does this sort of thing, she feels less like a believably shy and awkward character, and more like a shy and awkward child in a teenager’s body (As someone who’s talked to shy and awkward teenagers ((and been one myself)), this sort of bizarre characterization is frustrating to see). Her hiding behind another Buster when asked to introduce herself to Komari also frustrated me, as this is behavior only someone who is literally a child would do. She just hasn’t been believably sheltered enough to act like this (this is behavior about as strange as some of Kotomi’s behavior in Clannad, and ((Early Kotomi route spoilers)) and she’s had no meanginful interactions with anyone for several years, while Rin has had a strong circle of friends . I have similar issues with Komari. Her overwhelming exuberance and lack of ability to detect social cues for certain situations speaks far more like a child than a teenager who goes to an actual high school. Her confusing, well-articulated in a way a child would approach the manner way of speaking just isn’t believable in the context of her being a teenager. ((Komari route spoilers)) even knowing what happens in her route doesn’t really justify this in my mind . On the flip side, Kurugaya’s teasing isn’t so much the problem (although I dislike the idea of casual sexual threats and implied attempts at sexual harassment funny, because it wouldn’t be funny if she was a man), but the way she approaches it. If she regarded her victims with any manner of intelligence, she would be more savvy about it, but the fact that she instantly regards them as naïve children (or waifus) right from the get-go illustrates the issue with the character-crafting from the start. Heck, even Mio is subject to this, even though someone who is book-read should at least realize how strange some of the behavior is (though, I could give her the benefit of the doubt and say she’s just trolling). I get these optional talks with the girls are supposed to build chemistry, but they kind of feel like a try-hard kind of “Isn’t this such a weird thing to say or do? Isn’t that hilarious that the girls are so stupid, they don’t get what they’re saying is kind of dumb?”. I also see a kind of inherent assumption here that all of these girls would get along pretty much on the fact they’re girls, an assessment I don’t really agree with (Rin, in particular, isn’t quite as prudish as I’d expect her to be at points. Even if she hides it out of fear in front of strangers, she’d at least vent to the other Busters).
For me, Riki isn’t a particularly interesting character until far later on. Here, he just acts like any blandly straight-man, self-insert MC would in these situations. It’s hard to pin down a personality for him beyond “generic nice guy”, with his only reason for standing out being how bland he is compared to aggressively quirky cast around him. He’s only awkward in ways that hint at more interesting moments to come, but otherwise, is perfectly capable of speaking on similar wavelengths to the bizarre personalities around him. I just can’t believe the chemistry. Someone savvy like Kyousuke I could see knowing how to talk to bond with odd-balls like Komari and Mio, but an average joe would likely awkwardly lurk away after a couple of exchanged sentences with these people. Granted, Riki’s been around oddballs all his life, but he kind of owes them, and has had years to get used to them. These people are strangers, and I just find it hard to stomach that he’s so effortlessly able to endear himself to them just on the virtue of being a normal guy, it frustrates me. Key’s earlier protagonists have had a bit more variety to their conversations, and display a bit more social grace and are quirky in a charismatic way (Yuichi and Tomoya are the obvious examples), but it’s kind of disappointing to see Key (at least at this point in the story), default to particularly annoying stock tropes like this one.
The mini-games are a nice change of pace (though, admittedly, I suck at them, so I was blown out at the baseball game). I appreciate the fact that they allow you to turn them off, though, since if you’re really not into them, they do kind of break up the pacing quite a bit. I cannot at all complain about the presentation, though, with the character designs being more reasonably moe than earlier games, rather than the exaggerated eye shapes of earlier titles, the background art, the bells and whistles of how you can rewind at fast speeds, there’s nothing to complain about on a presentation front. I’m just finding the writing rather lackluster so far, unfortunately.
5 Likes
@DangoDaikazoku - I have to agree with many of the points you make, I have been finding the humour and irony rather forced at times compared to Clannad, which why I haven’t been as enthusiastic about it as I hoped I would be.
Certainly Riki really is quite bland so far (with no obvious stand out appeal as a centre of attention), though the character routes may well change that. I think I may get a bit fed up with the common route after a few more runs through (since I’m taking the advice of starting a new game each time), even with skipping, because Clannad at least had the long Baseball Route as an interesting first out alternative to picking a purely single character driven route. Still I guess I might find what the hell a “drag bunt” is after the Xth baseball game!
On the one hand it’s good that unlike Clannad the reader isn’t being manipulated into feeling the game is all about the well-being/dreams of just one girl with everything else secondary to that ( although for all I know, being mostly unspoilered perhaps Rin may take this role to a degree), but in order to lift the VN I am hoping that my vague suspicions of all is not what it seems is borne out. The mystical element of Clannad was what added that extra something special which is just lacking for me thus far (and I liked Nagisa from the start, which helped!).
2 Likes
I’m certain there’s more going on behind the scenes than what we’re shown, there’s got to be a higher purpose to all of this. Unfortunately that’s exactly why I suspect Rin will become the main girl and be the catalyst to progress the plot forward, inherently giving all the other routes less value. It’s the main concern I have right now, but for at least this moment we seem to be getting a good balance of everyone and I hope the novel can keep up the pace and not shelve anyone towards the end of the story.
5 Likes
The common route. This is the beginning. The foundation. As Aspi said, this is arguably the most important part of LB because everything else is built on top of THIS!
The VN is so good at reconnecting to this part. The common route is in constant change. Every time you complete a route and play through common again, you’re sure to find something new, something that will remind you of the dynamics of the Little Busters’ everyday lives.
And it’s just SO. MUCH. FUN!
You never get bored of the their antics and the way all these unique characters come together to make something new and chaotic happen every day. This right here is the childhood and adolescence of everyone’s dreams. Led by Kyousuke, the Little Busters spend their everyday lives doing what they can only do now: fully enjoying their youth. Kyousuke always pushes the team forward, no matter what might cause the members to hesitate, be it Kengo’s seriousness, Rin’s shyness or Riki’s common sense. He goes out of his way to put the least confident members of the group into the center, pushing them into getting active, giving them opportunities to experience something new and supporting them at everything they do.
Notable observations:
While Riki seems like a rather generic character right now, a particular trait is pretty noticeable: Most girls (Mio being a notable exeption) seem to completely drop their guard around him. Remember Kud’s introduction scene? Riki could march into the girls’ dorm like no one’s business while any other male would get heavily punished for even attempting to cross a certain line of defense. Heck, the Little Busters girls even drag him to their otherwise all-girls sleepover! So his meek, kind of feminine appearance does include some benefits. And Riki himself doesn’t have any problems dealing with, touching, or generally being around girls.
The roles of the Little Busters members are not set in stone. Riki is often the straight man, but he’s never too proud to just do the muscle dance with Masato. Kyousuke sometimes proposes things so ridiculous, that even Masato, the supposedly dumbest member, can point out every reason why the presented idea is so wrong. Kengo? Hahaha, Kengo! Once you make some progress, you’ll understand why I’m mentioning him here. Kurugaya seems invincible most of the time, but even she can’t deal with Komari-Max sometimes.
10 Likes
Kengo shook me with his… how should I put it? Performance?
I have my doubts on that though, even though the VN never explicitly states it, they are likely playing along with Kurugaya as it’s more fun that way. I believe my IQ is higher than that of raw sewage, but I do some dumbass things with my friends just because it’s more entertaining. Also the VN didn’t say how they cleared up those messes with the “victims”, which might be because there were no “victims” from the start, they were all just having fun.
I’m pretty interested in Mio right now, even though I just finished Komari and am running Rin1. Mio really doesn’t give me much to guess at other than she’s probably gonna disintegrate when in contact with sunlight or something (that’s mostly the case when dealing with parasol-carrying characters). She doesn’t seem to have an obvious tragic backstory, and her relative quietness stands out in this noisy bunch of people, which probs mean she’s hiding something personal, but then again, who isn’t in this VN? -_-
2 Likes
I keep finding more and more events in the common route where he’s indeed being surprisingly negative. Suspecting the sender of Lennon’s letters is one thing, since dude’s fishy as heck, but he’s also quick to assume that the disappearance of Mio’s book was a prank (giving the reader the option of agreeing or disagreeing with him) and he also questions Haruka’s motives at least once when she does something good. That kind of makes him deviate from the way I remembered him (namely more cheerful), and I was really wondering why he would think like that… and then I had to mentally slap myself for forgetting. Of course it makes sense! (Refrain spoilers!!) He’s got narcolepsy for the same reason, after all! His greatest problem is still there! Merely being a Little Buster didn’t completely cure him from his troubles, of course some dark thoughts would sip through! I was a fool for thinking he could be all happy-go-lucky all the time.
Once again, a surprising detail to our seemingly bland, generic protagonist’s personality…
4 Likes
The point about the other male characters not being “lamer” than Riki is a good one, I’ll admit.
As for Riki himself, he’s a bit more negative and what not than I expected. I’m glad he’s not prone to dickishness the way Tomoya can sometimes be, though.
Let’s do Kurugaya and Haruka next: I don’t really like the way they treat Kud as of right now,
I’m kind of tired of "Kurugaya is the one who is good at things, and everything, the other girls aren’t (EXCEPT WHEN IT’S BASEBALL AND YOU WANT HER TO DO WELL) I like her otherwise. Maybe one day, this sort of character will find a male protagonist that reacts to them more realistically.
Haruka can kind of depend from scene to scene for me so far.
Kud and Komari have more or less dispelled my earlier concern. It may have just been that these two are more straightforward nice than some of the others. I’ve actually started Kud’s route, so I won’t get further in there here.
Honestly, as many characters as we already have, it could be doing a much worse job of balancing them.
Mio is…maybe my least favorite girl? It’s uncertain?
Well, if Aspi hasn’t erased me yet: I don’t dislike her, but she’s a little rough with you, I guess? IDK, she’s just a bit off-putting right now.
So, Rin1, huh? That sure didn’t get a reaction from me. Yep.
Was little busters always this weird!?
Is the thing I took away most strongly from my first run though common(with Rin1).
The humour in this game is absolutely bizarre. It’s random, strange, and with a colourful assortment of reactions from a colourful assortment of characters.
It’s fantastic, I had concerns about LB’s ability to hold up, what like 8 years after I first read it, but it’s sheer chaotic charm endeared me instantly. Several of the jokes had me audibly laugh, Kyousuke’s Q&A is just like an hour of pure shitposts, it’s incredible.
Aside from that I actually have quite little to say, I actively seeked out options which lead to shorter scenes due to having a decent idea of what each choice meant, and knowing they were scenes with girls who were not Rin, as such I had a very streamlined Common experience. I’d like to include major common scenes relating to each girl in their own thread so this post may perhaps end up a bit barren.
So lets begin with. The Secret of the World. There’s a secret in this world, it’s a beautifully worded line, it tells Riki, it tells the player, there is mystery. I spent a long as time as I waited for the game to slowly be translated way back when, wondering what the secret of the world was, it’s amazing to have that secret looming the entire game, and it’s just as satisfying to replay while knowing what that secret is, off handed remarks here and there which are meaningless unless you know the secret. Very exciting stuff.
Moving on to the characters, none of which I shall anayzle is great detail here, save that for the routes. S U C H P E R S O N A L I T Y MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. This is good, even with the extremely limited screentime most of them got due to the choices I made, common does it’s best to lay their personalities on the table, Masato is the hyper enthusiastic idiot, Kengo is the dead serious idiot, Kyousuke is the charismatic idiot. Rin is turbo spaghetti, Haruka is sheer chaos, Kud is lolibait trash, Mio is the queen of lowkey savagery, and Kurugaya couldn’t be any further from my taste if she tried. All of these traits are shown clear as day. Most important is definitely Riki and Kyousuke’s dynamic. Riki is meek, negative and a follower while Kyousuke is the charismatic god brimming with possibility and fun. Kyousuke is Riki’s ideal, his endgame, both of them want this. This is established straight away and helps to tear Riki away from being your eyes to the game, but rather his own character. Also all that glorious homoerotic subtext.
It also gives tiny hints as to what’s to come in the routes, there was a Haruka scene that took a light jab at me already, but I shall leave it at that.
Oh yeah this game is about baseball. OH BABY BASEBALL PRACTICE.
Day Game, the wonderful music that plays during baseball practice is astronomically good, it’s my favourite track in the game. The atmosphere of baseball far outweighs the unengaging gameplay, rather, it complements it, you’re just hitting balls while the busters run around, talk shit, drink tea, and get mad at you for hitting cats while the masterful track that is Day Game sets the atmosphere with perfection. The final practice that takes place at night is my absolutely favourite, I can play this minigame for hours and just soak in the ambience.
So how about that other minigame, the absolute insane one with ridiculous titles, ridiculous weapons, and overall a completely ridiculous circumstance (“sorry, person who ask me a question, I need to go wander to find stronger guys”, “oh yeah fam no problem”), it’s not quite got the charm of baseball practice, but it’s so over the top it really makes for a fun distraction, although one I prefer to turn off for most runs. However much like the world, there is a secret to this minigame, an utterly fantastic secret, I hope the first timers can find it.
THE OP
Personally I think OC Little Busters >>>> Ecstacy and it has way better instruments.
Overall it’s a good OP, perhaps a little generic since it’s mostly just a character introduction with CG’s flashing across, the most standout part is several characters with varying emotions on their faces flashing by under a thick water effect while a calmer part of the song plays.
That and the quotes that flash by in the intro:
What ‘adolescence’ do you have?
Do you remember ‘childhood’?
This is a reminder to recollect your ‘adolecense’
While rather engrishy, the message is clear, don’t forget your childhood, don’t hide from your past. A theme of LB.
Last off is one more quote that comes later:
“The irreplaceable one existed there.”
Whatever could it meeeean~
As for the song, it’s probably the better part of the OP, it’s IMMENSELY singable, my biggest issue is that the Vanillia version is absolutely the superior version of the song, while EE uses the Ecstacy version of the song.
AND ON THE TOPIC OF MUSIC, LETS TALK ABOUT THAT. I’ll be using the names of the tracks featured in English Edition which might confuse some oldies since Translating is H A R D. Character themes will be skipped in favour of routes, that includes Boys Don’t Cry.
Starting off with the title music, A World is Born. That’s some good ass music, the initial slow piano part perfectly fits the faded image of the child Little Busters, calming, evokes the past, but this song really gets good at that DROP, it’s filled with so much emotion, as it slowly ramps up, I couldn’t ask for a better Title Screen music.
Up in the Morning, Quiet Hubbub, My Brave Smile, Slow Curve, Girls at 4:30 PM, Ticktack Routine, Race. All of these are the everyday themes, I dislike none of them, they’re great tracks to listen to as you make your way though the days, shoutouts to Slow Curve in particular which is A M A Z I N G.
Thin Chronicle, Parhelion, If I Realized in Time, Two Sugars. These four are more mysterious and serious themes than the previous batch so tend to see more uses in Routes, none the less they’re all fantastic.
Mission STARTO. Mission Possible ~But Difficult~, Heroic Battle, Unpleasant Experience, and…seriously they called this track Mortal Combat? That’s bad!
Either way these tracks are great, they sound like cheap ass free RPGmaker battle themes which is great for the goofy ass shit they play too.
Mortal Combat is of particular note, that shit is boss music, and it’s some fiiiiiiiiine ass shit.
oops that took 2 hours it was supposed to be quick
17 Likes
I am really interested by the interpretations of Riki as a character so far. It’s making me think a lot about previous games I’ve played and which protagonists I’ve enjoyed/disliked playing as the most.
Generally speaking (in term of video games, at least) most MCs are purposely written to be malleable, especially in games like these where there is a degree of choice, limited or otherwise. Since we are essentially acting as Riki’s subconscious by steering him in the directions that we want to go, the only extra layer we would get would be from what he actually does, says, and thinks without our influence.
That’s why I think the most interesting thing about Riki in the common route are the constant references to the effect of: “I wish these sunny days and fun times would never end.” Riki is clearly smart enough to realize that he’s moving out of his adolescence, but finds himself wishing for it to stop anyway. That’s where the negativity stems from; a perception that once Kyouske is gone, life will never be as fun as it once was. This is even though he could rationalize with himself that he will still have another full year with all the new friends he’s made, but that never seems to occur to him. He’s simultaneously trying to come to terms with his impeding loss while also making the most of the time they have left. He’s thinking ahead, just too far ahead, because he doesn’t believe he or anyone else is strong enough to fill the void Kyouske will leave (even though it feels like that’s exactly what he’s being groomed for, although he doesn’t appear fully aware of it).
I know people were kind of referring to Kyouske x Riki in a tongue and cheek manner, but after going through the common route a few times now, I think the relationship between Riki and Kyouske is actually supposed to be the focal point of the whole thing. I don’t think that before the baseball game Riki ever realized he’s probably always been Kyouske’s second in command for the Busters the whole time, possibly even before the events of the game. When you look at how easily Riki either takes what Kyouske says and expands on it, or outright challenges him, it’s feels like he’s capable to be just like his mentor/idol, but just doesn’t see it. He positions himself as a follower, but he consistently and constantly contradicts that by stepping up to the plate (pun totally intended).
Maybe I’m overanalyizing, but for those reasons, he’s yet to really strike me as bland, but maybe stagnate and indecisive at times, which I’d say has more to do with his major flaws rather than a critique of his character overall.
6 Likes
That’s something that confused me a bit; no one seems to notice/care about Riki being in the dormitory during the first scene with Kud, even the dorm heads, but in the sleepover, they make an active effort to hide Riki from the dorm head once they get him in the room? Why wasn’t Kud concerned about that in the previous scene? Is she simply ditzy?
Your last line about him not “hav[ing] any problems dealing with, touching, or generally being around girls” almost sounds like he just agreed to the sleepover without any qualms whatsoever and just thought it would be fun to hang out with friends with no fear of sexual tension. Riki is actually a bit hesitant and awkward at first, but is pushed on by Kyousuke, and then the player gets a choice on whether he goes. Once he’s there, he’s clearly hot and bothered by Kurugaya’s coming on to him (and in the original, hearing the girls bathing as well). That all seems like unordinary behavior from a well-behaved teenaged boy towards a circumstance such as an all-girl sleepover to me.
I feel like if they downplayed Riki’s dryness and serious nature with the other girls and emphasized a more earnest, open-mindedness (perhaps motivated by his desire to please Kyousuke), I would have less qualms with him so easily being able to connect with girls. Him being able to cut loose with Masato (a friend he’s known for years) on occasion when he’s in a good mood is not the same thing as being able to totally get a stranger simply because we need a romance to happen. I just have trouble buying it.
Key games’ senses of humor are often very broad and very quirky. Slapstick violence abounds and a lot of shouting frequently occurs in the humor (if it doesn’t just indulge in the downright bizarre). Were Komari/Rin/Kud supposed to be aware that Kurugaya’s jokes were jokes, it’d be far more obvious they were playing around. They are all fairly on-the-nose characters who aren’t shy about their opinions. I don’t think Komari’s capable of that level of trolling/sarcasm, neither do I see Kud being capable of such a thing. The distress seems too genuine. It doesn’t help that both Kurugaya AND Riki seem to come to the conclusion they’ve been fooled with no resolution beyond that, suggesting we’re just supposed to take it at face value.
A mild complaint I have with the baseball minigame, I just remembered, is how the pacing comes to a complete halt whenever I whack one of the cats. If Rin got mad and threw at the same time, it’d be fine, but it takes a good five to eight seconds for her to throw again, which adds up when she’s throwing twenty balls per session.
I apologize for being so negative. I don’t hate this game. I have enjoyed parts of it. I just felt it was worth noting I’m simply not getting the overwhelmingly positive response I’m seeing on this forum and elsewhere. Perhaps it’s partially because I just came off of Anohana, wherein characters can be a little quirky, but the humor is often dialogue based rather than broadly slapstick, or weirdness-based, and the characters themselves are a bit more grounded in terms of the way they talk and engage with each other.
4 Likes
There are 133 QR Code messages, lots are references to other franchise too, like Death Note, Haruhi Suzumiya, Dragon Ball, etc. Really enjoyed reading most of them, kyousuke sure has a lulzy sense of humor.
2 Likes
