Little Busters! - Common Route Discussion

[StarfishBender]

One thing I’m finding a bit tricky now is knowing which new scenes I see are

a) “shared” common route scenes only as a result of different choices from earlier reads; or
b) brand “new” ones as a result of finishing Rin1 and Komari so far and now in the middle of Yuiko.

It kind of gets difficult to know sometimes if things should be discussed further in the characters’ routes topics or the common…because newly available scenes could be regarded as spoilery?

Bear in mind on my 1st read I went for minimal interaction so as to get the bad/generic Common End; I didn’t really mean to skip Mio but I’m already on Yuiko and so on the 4th read through. I suppose I could pick Mio at any time after I finish Yuiko as long as I do Haruka and Kud in that order?

I read through the sleepover scene for the first time in this 4th readthrough, and it just seems a bit odd a as that makes it feel Riki has “regressed” a bit after the “progress” made finishing Komari. OTOH perhaps if you read this on first playthrough and not subsequently that doesn’t apply so much? Not sure if I’m making any sense so if not just ignore my blabbering…

I definitely see already just how convoluted this all is and just how hard it must be write a walkthrough for it all. Even now I only have about 20% of all the CG, 40% of the Busterpaedia entries, but over 50 hours of reading!

[Aspirety]

May 23. “Isn’t it a great morning, dear fellows?” After a morning greeting by Kyousuke, we get a scene with Kud talking to her roommate in the corridor on the way to class, or at least I think so; she was interacting with Komari for me. We have the next mission for Rin, “Perform a riposte on 2-E3”. If you don’t want to get on Rin route, it gives you one last chance to back out here. If you continue on, you get a very quick and fun minigame about performing violent ripostes, or tsukkomi on Masato.

If you go get a drink, we get the first proper introduction of the the head prefect, Kanata Futaki. She’s presented as a villain from the very onset by scolding Komari and Riki for sitting on the lawn, and what interests me about this scene is how it illustrates how the antics of the Little Busters certainly aren’t appreciated by everyone.

And then bam, Kurugaya to the rescue. She criticises Kanata’s behaviour, and Kanata is surprisingly receptive. We don’t know what’s happened between these two, but their relationship is very interesting. They’re complete opposites with very opposing worldviews, yet somehow they seem to share a bond of mutual respect.

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but from the 22nd of May onward with the Little Busters fully assembled, you can jump out of batting practice mid-way to listen to what the girls are doing, and you get funny scenes with the girls asking Kurugaya for advice. This one is about Haruka asking Kurugaya how to make her boobs bigger, of course.

There’s also a scene here where Mio adds everyone in the Little Busters to her phone’s address book, which highlights some great group dynamics, and Masato’s complex about having only Riki and Kyousuke in his call list.

In the cafeteria we have Masato’s “magical endless katsu”, and at night we have…

All of Rin’s night missions from the 22nd on are replaced with group scenes like this, so look forward to it. This one is pretty funny, and interestingly the first playthrough is the only time you can actually skip it. The highlight for me this time was how Kurugaya completely sees through everything, and instead enacts a live version of Kyousuke’s One Question One Answer.

Kyousuke’s impression of Bob is so beautiful to listen to, makes we wish we had the entire Q&A voiced.

---

Also, as @Naoki_Saten requested, I’ve prepared a chart of all the character relationships as of the common route 1st playthrough!

Little Busters! Relationship Chart

Feel free to leave comments to any adjustments you feel I should make. It was a lot of fun to put together!

[Bonecuss]

@Aspirety

[Tidulimar]

Alright, second readthrough done, Rin1 route. I guess I’ll talk about it here

(as such, spoilertagged for Rin1 content)

First of all, Rin is quite interesting that she keeps going with all the tasks because “it’s fun for now”. I guess it’s cool to shake up your daily life.
I think however that’s a lot what contributes to a certain trend I have seen during her route: she starts getting more and more selfconfident. Especially after you are actually on her route.

I was very surprised when she proposed starting to date. With a lot of confidence as well. Out of the blue. That’s part of what I said about her getting more confident. I also think the little we have seen of Riki and Rin as a couple is just SO cute. Once more, I like Rin a little bit more than before.

Btw Rin, how hard is it to remember Sasami’s name correctly? I mean it is hard to say fast but it is not that hard to remember. It’s hilarious and a bit ridiculous at times on how different she calls her. Speaking of jokes, Masato is the victim of sooo many gags this time:

Let’s get into the serious stuff.
First off all, I noticed there are quite some lines that must be different in…a different situation. The route itself seems to have some variations in itself, which is cool.

"Quote, using this instead of spoilertag for better readability

This group we’re hearing about, only if you’re on the path for the good end by the way, really reminded me of our Little Busters. So what if that’s our traumatic event, that Riki is pushing away here as having happened to someone else, and that Riki and Rin are actually the two students that survived?

I agree with VyseGolbez here, I think that might be the case. In addition, something might have changed in Rin’s behaviour in spring? Would fit into that.

Obviously, Riki is very upset - more than everyone else in the group - of Rin potentially leaving. I am pretty sure this is not just because she is his girlfriend, but because Riki does not want to change his good times with his childhood friends. From the end of the route, I think that’s what we’ll go for when doing Rin2.

There is also a line about crossing the border between reality and dream. That may mean narcolepsy, but might also be a hint to the secret of the world (given the theory of dreams or brain trauma that I support)

There is also Rin’s cats being all over Riki in a scene, and Riki saying “It’s not something mysterious like magic, I’m just physically unable to move”. It could just because of the cats, there might also a hidden second meaning in this. Maybe I am just trying to find foreshadowing by now, when there actually is none (too be honest, that probably is the case…whatever)

The only lines I think are important but cannot really make a lot of sense of is “But at that time. — We hadn’t even come to know love yet.” I am curious to finding out (and/or hear other people’s theorycrafting).

(maybe I will just use [details] the next time for this kind of spoiler post)

And now, I am quite excited to finally go into blind territory! (might still post something if common route presents me with some cool new stuff that I missed before and is worth making a post about)

[wha2les]

So I sped through the common route and Rin1 (just to make sure I would make it), and man there is a lot of plot to think about.

So while I am still digesting and throwing the story around in my head, I must comment on the game play.

The way the plot works, the developers knew that the actions would be quite repetitive. So they implemented that battle ranking and ball practice. This works fabulously with the story! Every so often, as you click through, sometimes new and strange would occur. Some example includes the new and random pitches that Rin throws at you during practice. The first time she threw that Purrve, I must admit I made a fool of myself haha.

There are some RNG in terms of battles, and people reaction to you, but it really works towards gripping you and luring you into the story more and more. You can really deeply skew the competition so that your favorite character becomes top of battle ranking, or get more of those angry Rin pitches when you decide to hit the cats.

Another thing is that most of the choices in the common route doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in terms of direction of the story. You could either go the faster route that goes directly to the next plot line, or you can take detours by choosing more CGs.

These things really help give you incentive to invest more time into the route. It help you stick with the story, builds character development, provide entertainment as much or as little as you like. The ability to tailor the experience to your preferences really make the experience unique and enjoyable for new Vners.

[Natsume]

Yeah. There’ve been a couple of very smart approaches to common route perspective in visual novel history, but personally I’ve always found Little Busters’ way of writing its common route to be simply endearing.

Whether you speed ahead or not, it offers enough choices so that it’s never really the same even through different playthroughs, and the minigames are fun enough in their own regard to be worth the detour (God knows I usually hate things that distract me from the plot). I appreciate how the entire staff just took the idea of “friends messing around with each other and making every day entertaining” and incorporated it in the common route itself. As I said, pretty damn endearing.

[wha2les]

I agree. Considering that Clannad is the only other common route I ever finished (so I’m an expert right?), I must say that I prefer the way Little Busters does it. But though it wouldn’t be weird if Clannad followed what Little Busters did (so more like anime i guess), Little Busters core of coming together as a group would make it weird if Little Busters did things differently.

[cjlim2007]

I’ve always felt like Key novels are idealistic in some way. They tend to have hope for the good of people and humanity. Some might even say that Key novels believe in the good intentions of people. But idealism doesn’t have to be just about if people are nice to each other. It could explain how people behave and connect to each other. In Little Busters, the band of misfits–this group of friends–meshes really well. They are eager to just joke around with each other and do stupid and spontaneous things. So here are the questions: Do you think that the Little Busters truly reflect what a tight friend group is like? Is this type of friendship practical for our real life application? Do you think that friends like this exist in the world? Is Key just taking large creative liberties for the sake of reader engagement? Is it too idealistic? Would you or have you applied this ideal in your life? Bonus: What is youth? Did you remember to collect your adolescence?

[Zeldamaster7453]

As for your bonus question, Yoshino is still trying to figure that out.

[MagusVerborum]

RIN1 TIME

I’m experimenting with ‘details’ boxes this time and since we’re attempting to protect hose of us who haven’t already finished Rin1 I think this is the perfect time to see how they work. I’m going to be dividing up my thoughts/analysis of this route into some primary sections, to make it all a bit easier to sort through/read. Since there are no ‘days’ in the character routes i figure it makes sense to just do each as one big post and clarify things as we move through the bookclub. With that said, let’s head right to the obvious starting point, the present!

The Present: Rin as a Character

This is Rin’s route, and as i’ve covered she’s the ‘main heroine’ of our novel, so i’ll expect there to be a heavy amount of foreshadowing in this route in particular. Also, since we’re no longer in the Common route i expect almost every scene to relate explicitly to Rin or Rin’s relationship(s) with Riki. With that out of the way, we get introduced to our first conflict:

This gosh darned letter. Honestly it was the most confusing part of the entire route for me, the introduction of apparent fan favourite Mutsume Suginami, a quiet girl who’s really into Riki who hasn’t had the courage to approach him. She only confesses to Riki at the machinations of her friends who deliver this letter to Riki’s locker. Soon after Riki talks to his friends about what he should do, Rin confesses to him and they begin their long-lasting relationship.

So, why on Earth does the Rin route start with the confession of an entirely different character? Because the friend’s pushing of Riki and Suganimi mirrors Kyousuke’s manipulation of Rin and Riki to get their relationship to blossom. By situating them as both catcher and pitcher forcing them to ‘rely’ on one another, by delivering their tasks which they can only accomplish if they work together, by generally pushing both of them to face challenges and overcome obstacles he is encouraging them to accept their feelings for one another and to confront their dark past but we’ll get to that later and to start a relationship.

The relationship unfolds slowly, like, iceberg slowly. Even the Titanic would have time to get out of the way. The preparation for the visit of the advisory board was particularly amusing, watching Rin having absolutely no idea how to deal with authority other than by fighting it, and Riki supporting her mostly quietly while Kyousuke coached her. A certain scene later on seemed to represent their relationship in the context of the wider ‘Little Busters attitude’ particularly well. Riki and Rin are alone in Riki’s living space and they have an adorable back and forth on how they can ‘deepen their relationship.’ I discussed this fairly thoroughly in my post on Riki, but he is no regular harem protagonist. In most novels this would be the H-scene, the big payoff, the moment that the reader’s fantasies come to life, but this hardly seems to cross his mind as an option. Instead, he decides they should go out on the town. I think this is pretty telling of Riki, our protagonist, in terms of how uncomfortable he is with the idea of progressing this relationship, and of change. Rin herself is pretty bad at people and I believe only took the initiative of proposing a romantic relationship because of Suginami’s interest, she only said anything because a threat prompted her to.

BUT (and this is a big but) she did ask Riki out, she did go through with the Secret of the World task with some light prodding from Riki (failing to do so gets you a bad end) and she does consider moving to a completely separate school when she gets the chance to. She has shown significant growth as a result of the quest to find the Secret, the baseball pitching, Riki’s relationship deepening, and even her rival with Sasami. Riki connects her personal growth all the way back to the first delivery of Lennon’s letter, something that he used to be excited about but now seems to loathe.

Talk about a correlation=causation fallacy!

The point is, Rin has shown that she can change and Riki doesn’t like it. I do find it very interesting that Rin considers moving away from Riki so soon after starting going out, but I get the feeling that if Rin were to head over to the school then Riki would have gone with her. Kyousuke explains that she’s been picked in order to introduce positive influences into the other school after a traffic incident occurred that killed everyone of the students involved except for two. The incident left an impression on the school that can only be fixed by people like Rin with their excitable demeanours and smiling faces.

Speaking of which, I neglected to mention that there is another symbolic meaning we can take from Rin’s name. Bells can also be used to symbolise happiness in Japanese society, I think that it is very fitting that she would be the one to bring ‘happiness’ to the other school, especially as the spiral of happiness is a theme of this novel. Anyhow, let’s move onto more depressing matters in the past!

The Past: Narcolepsy and other Traumatic Incidents

So if you’re a crazy person like me you would have noticed that rather than the novel emphasizing the number of students killed in the accident it decided to tell us how many survived the incident. Since the most prominent placement of ‘the two’ in this novel so far is Rin and Riki I have to assume it’s them, especially following my analysis of Riki’s narcolepsy, which was mot likely caused by Brain Trauma which in term was most likely caused by either a tragic accident or someone deliberately giving him the injury. Of the options i selected a motor vehicle as the most likely suspect. I’m fairly certain that the incident mentioned by Kyousuke (who is very knowledgeable about the whole thing despite it only being mentioned that day to him by Rin) involved Rin and Riki. I’m unsure whether Rin and Riki were shuffled over to this school after being in that incident or if we’re dealing with some shuffling of details due to Riki’s state of mind. If we are dealing with a comatose state with some lucidity then his mind is most likely shuffling his memories and blending them with fantasy in order to process whatever happened to him.

The biggest point of confusion for me is still when exactly the brain trauma occurred. Typically amnesia only affects events either before or after the instigation. There seem to be memories missing from all different parts of his life, so I have to assume it occurred right after the big baseball game. Maybe it was a rainy day and Rin pitched poorly and clocked Riki in the head? Or perhaps my van-crash theory still holds some weight? But then why is there also a traffic accident? And what exactly happened to Riki’s parents? I think that regardless of the overarching plot Riki is messing up the chronology of events and is being very selective about what he remembers. He’s certainly using what he remembers of the loved ones around him and how they coped with their problems as a crutch to cope with his own incident. Which brings me to…

The Future: Riki's Fear

The future. We are spoken to directly by some unknown entity at the end of the route and hoo boy this was fun. I was a little spooked to be honest, but I was too very happily screenshotting every single line to be anything but excited as I progressed through the final moments of Rin1. The voice says exactly this to Riki:

“Congratulations on making it this far.
But nothing has started yet.
Things will not go so easily.
That path which you didn’t take…
Try to accept it next time.”

On a surface level this seems to be fourth-wall breaking, the voice is urging the player to check out the other routes. On this level it would be cute but due to the ominous presentation it simply can’t be that simple. On the next level i and a few other theorists have thought it might refer to a choice that we don’t have access to in Rin1, a choice that will only become available to us after completing all of the heroine’s routes and coming back for Rin2. This choice has to be to allow Rin to leave to the other school. This in itself is all well and good but i think we can break down the meaning of this choice into a bit more detail.

Even after seeing the value of progressing his relationship with Rin, Riki despises change. He just can’t handle it. He is so incredibly fixated on the idea of the happy times continuing forever, it’s been repeated continuously throughout the common route and is setting up what i believe to be the central conflict of our main character:

Resistance to change
Why does this matter? Well, he’s in control of all of this. This entire setup is one big way of Riki attempting to face the pain he’s in outside of this world’ when he waked up. In fact, I would even say that he ‘fears’ change

Darkness is representative of the passage of time, as indicated by multiple instances in this route when Riki and Rin are out on the town and passage of time is indicated by a black screen with a series of dots in the text box, the same thing is seen in this end sequence here. Riki fears the darkness because of the implication, he doesn’t just ‘fear darkness’ (because that’s stupid you fear what’s in the darkness) rather he fears waking up from this dream he’s in, this ‘sanctuary’ he’s discovered where he can avoid dealing with his trauma and just be safe. The choice that the voice is referring to isn’t just to let Rin go to the other school but is symbolic of allowing change into his life, and to progress time. He will continue to repeat this period of time until he can learn to accept that he can’t stay locked up in his own mind forever and that he will have to take responsibility and act with the power of his friend’s memories behind him.

Especially Kyousuke’s.

Kyousuke in this coma-scenario is basically Riki’s subconscious will to live. Riki seems to be somewhat aware of this, realizing at the last moment that Kyousuke is responsible for the letter, knowing about the visit to the school, the traffic accident, everything. Kyousuke may be my favourite character simply due to the reach he seems to have in Riki’s universe. At least in this route the entire two week period has been engineered with the goal of pushing Riki and Rin to the other school, so that they can confront their past demons. How do I know Riki knows? Well:

Oh yes, Riki knows. He just won’t consciously acknowledge that Kyousuke could be behind the letter due to his idolisation of the man. Anyway, Kyousuke is Riki’s will to escape from the stagnant state and accept change, and Rin is the light at the end of the tunnel or the bell ringing through the darkness.

Ching

The Bonus: Rereading Rin1

Bonus Round! So i was going to check out some of the other choice options and was holdin ‘c’ like a madman, and was pleasantly surprised to uncover a number of scenes which only occur after having completed Rin1 once before. It’s fairly straightforward, generally Rin is much more competent at behaving properly, even trumping Kyousuke a few times, and she earns herself a crazy new success sound that sounds like something out of a 90s gameshow.

Of course, I would be remiss if I were not to mention Kengo’s uniform.

Continuity confirmed!

The situation has clearly ‘evolved’ from last time, to the point that Kyousuke ‘remembers’ the fact that the visitors mentioned Kengo’s lack of uniform from last time and as such told him to shape up this time. Looking good kengo I still don’t think we’re dealing with a supernatural timeloop or simulation in the story, that would be a little too far out of what i expect from the novel, but i think this is more likely a result of Riki’s subconscious understanding the people around him better, remembering the way that they changed as he got to know them better. I believe that by the time we get to Refrain almost all of the characters will have changed such that we can see a significant difference in the way the common route unfolds.

Oh my goodness did you actually read all that? Thanks! Well then, let’s lay down some Key Topics:

First, obvious one, what do you think of the coma theory? Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think!

Second, how do you feel about the novel’s concept of a sanctuary? Are they a positive or a negative thing? Does it depend on the person or circumstance?

Thirdly I’d like to hear your thoughts on Rin and her place in the story. Do you think she’s fun? Annoying? Adorable? Crazy? What would change your mind?

And Fourthly, (spoilers for Rin1 in case you’re scrolling through): I didn’t talk about this (but I have my theories) who do you think the mysterious ‘voice’ is at the end of the route? Kyousuke? Rin? Riki? …Suginami? Does it matter?

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go see if i can’t catch a little ‘free-dom time’ over with Mio. I hear there might be (minor spoilers?) some birds?

[Zosonte]

I like your coma theory. To me, Riki feels like less of a character (in a good way) and more of an extension as the reader’s inherent nature to belong and fit in. It’s hard for me to relate to him, and my inherent biases toward Key’s works lead me to believe there is much more going on here.

I like the idea and symbolism of sanctuaries that Little Busters presents. I think it’s good that, in this scary and unknown world, there are safe places for us to retreat and feel warm and happy. I think it’s telling that Rin and Haruka’s sanctuaries are the only ones that are involve other living beings.

So far, I’m not really fond of Rin. She sort of straddles the line of tsun and your typical shrinking violet character. She doesn’t have the typical quirks Key gives their heroines, so by comparison to characters like Komari or Kurugaya, Rin doesn’t really stand out. What I don’t like though is that she’s one of those characters that are physically abusive toward the comic relief, in this case Masato. It doesn’t matter if Masato’s a dumb musclehead, if it were the other way around it wouldn’t be acceptable at all. I wish this double standard was pounded into dust and swept into the wind, because that sort of spontaneous and violent trait is just cringy and ruins a character for me, it doesn’t matter who it is, male or female.

[Echo]

First, obvious one, what do you think of the coma theory? Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think!

Thirdly I’d like to hear your thoughts on Rin and her place in the story. Do you think she’s fun? Annoying? Adorable? Crazy? What would change your mind?

I personally find her as an interesting character. Something I researched upon recently and it turns out that bells are a symbol of “expansion of consciousness”. You probably know where I’m headed with this right ?
Yeah, knowing Rin means bells, this could be that Rin is helping Riki gain his consciousness which in turn would be his strength.
At the same time however, I feel [Rin 1] Rin is not the one behind the voice and is actually Kyosuke. While I’m saying this I’ll try to explain what I earlier stated in another viewpoint :
Rin is Riki’s expanding consciousness, and Riki is Rin’s strength. This is proven by the fact that Rin states “the people around her” as her reply to the factor which drives her. Why I’m saying this is because, this would mean Rin and Riki need each other for each other’s growth. If so, it’s highly likely that [Rin 1]the culprit behind the voice is Kyosuke who want both of them to grow out of their shells and that Riki and Rin are both in a coma state.
…
Or that’s what I think

[StarfishBender]

Do you think she’s fun? Annoying? Adorable? Crazy?

Yes.

All of those and often at the same instant. I did actually like her character more after playing through Rin1. I’m on Haruka’s route now and still keeping an open mind about the “big picture” but it’s less easy to comment on the Common Route now in case of inadvertant spoilers and because of skipping/choices mean that there are so many ways in which our experience of it can diverge.

EDIT: BTW I’m taking quite a liking for the Dorm Head as best girl

[Naoki_Saten]

Bonus: What is youth?

Youth is a period of time when you grow intelligent enough to begin to understand complicated and serious aspects of life like society, future, or the world, while still having the energy, the freedom and the free time to do what you want without being shackled by duties and responsibilities. You’re allowed to act on your impulses and make a couple of mistakes without them having life-changing consequences. It’s a time where the world still seems to be full of possibilities you can choose from. A time when not knowing your future is a hopeful, not a dreadful, feeling. A time when your everyday life was neither a chore nore a fight for survival, but a fun and fresh experience you wished would continue forever.

Basically, youth is a time that will never return once it’s over and which we longingly look back at for the rest of our lives. A time associated with unmatched happiness and freedom, when the fears that bring us to our knees today and in the future have not yet existed.

Even those who have managed to find happiness after becoming adults look back fondly at their youth, for those are still two different kinds of happiness.

So, if I answer this question last, I might end up ruining the day for a couple of people, so I’ll change up the order a bit ^^

Do you think that the Little Busters truly reflect what a tight friend group is like? Is this type of friendship practical for our real life application? Do you think that friends like this exist in the world? Is Key just taking large creative liberties for the sake of reader engagement? Is it too idealistic? Would you or have you applied this ideal in your life?

While the Little Busters reflect a group of friends that’s closer to being idealistic than realistic, it’s far from impossible for such a group to exist. Real friends are like that. We live in a time where adding someone on facebook is mistaken for actual friendship, but true friendships do exist.
However, like any interpersonal relationship of value, they require a lot of time and work. Compatibility is a great factor, since it decides how much fun, (which is subjective,) the concerned parties have while spending time together. So it’s not like every random group you put together to have fun with will always become a merry bunch of friends, but sometimes it does. People are complex, so compatibility isn’t easily calculated. You just gotta go for it and see what happens.

To me, the Little Busters reflect what true friends are like. You have fun while you’re together and you can count on them to back you up when things get serious.

Most people surely have a couple of true friends, although putting together such a large group of them might prove difficult. If I compare my friendships to those of the Little Busters, I conclude that, in their essence, they are the same.

Of course, this VN is fiction, created for the sake of entertainment. It’s bound to be more enjoyable than an average individual’s personal experiences, because as I have previously said,

This right here is the childhood and adolescence of everyone’s dreams.

And I don’t see a problem with that. What we are being shown is not a pipe dream. It’s not a copy of someone’s past, but everyone should be able to relate to the Little Busters thanks their own, similar experiences, however many or few they may be.

[StarfishBender]

Do you think that the Little Busters truly reflect what a tight friend group is like? Is this type of friendship practical for our real life application? Do you think that friends like this exist in the world? Is Key just taking large creative liberties for the sake of reader engagement? Is it too idealistic? Would you or have you applied this ideal in your life?

To me it certainly represents an idealised version of group friendship but that’s only my own schoolday experiences of course. I had a couple of best friends and a circle of friends but it was nothing like that shown in LB, and I can’t imagine us ever getting organised to play another team at any sport (soccer would be the most likely for those so inclined but none of us really liked the sport that much).

Also my school was boys only which does change the dynamics quite a lot, plus the age grades are different here so we don’t have “high school” for 16 - 18 YOs. At 16 here all the focus is on study and exams and by 17/18 people leave their school to go to college or work so groups therefore spilt up and start to go separate ways. There are quite significant changes in personal development in one’s teens so this kind of group would be most likely at around 15 YO here, before exam pressure, which is I think a little younger than the LitBus group.

So based on my teen experience there are creative liberties in LitBus but that’s not a problem as drama is so much a matter of “what if” anyway, and a broader selection of character types with their own issues is probably more interesting than the usual fairly stereotypical teen drama on TV for example.

[VyseGolbez]

Do you think that the Little Busters truly reflect what a tight friend group is like? Is this type of friendship practical for our real life application? Do you think that friends like this exist in the world? Is Key just taking large creative liberties for the sake of reader engagement? Is it too idealistic? Would you or have you applied this ideal in your life?

Like others have already said, the friendship displayed is actually not that far from reality. During my last years at school, I’d even say I had a similar group of friends, and in my old class (had to repeat a year because of health issues) a few of them went to a vacation together and just decided on a whim to play DnD for the first time for all of them, and when they talked about that, it sounded like they had a blast. Also that meetup was after they already left school, and we all know that it’s a lot harder at that point to meet up like that.

[Naoki_Saten]

When I first played LB, I had saved the Rin route for last. After seeing Riki experiencing different kinds of romance with different girls, I was curious to see how this one would be handled. In the first place, it was difficult to imagine Rin in any kind of romatic context since she didn’t exactly give off girly vibes.

So, how did Rin1 play out?

I was elated to see how simple it all was. No harem conflicts, no love triangles, no osananajimi romance drama. Riki and Rin had been reminded of the fact that Romance is a thing, so they just went for it without thinking too deeply about it. It all seemed so obvious.

And also:
“By going out with Rin, won’t I be able to stay with everyone?”
Actually, that’s kind of a lame reason. But since it’s working out so well, why not?

I have to say, though, the way Riki handled Suginami’s confession was not ok. I know Riki couldn’t help it, being a complete novice at this, but it’s still not ok. He went around telling everyone about his girlfriend, and by the time he had decided to inform Suginami, she already knew. This is kind of a huge dick move. Suginami confessed to him and he replied he needed more time. But right on the next day, she heard rumors of him hooking up with a different girl. This hypocricy must’ve felt incredibly shitty to poor Mutsu, who still tried to be positive about it. Bad Riki.

“But at that time.
---------- We hadn’t even come to know love yet.”

The route progressed, but the relationship between Riki and Rin didn’t. It felt different from the romance in the other routes. Sure, there was a bit of awkward blushing, Riki did not slack off on dutifully providing support and Rin tried her best, but it didn’t result in progress. Well, romance wasn’t exactly the focus and the route wasn’t long, either. But still, they didn’t take the next step, and as a reader, I didn’t even know what the next step should be.

I hoped it would be only a matter of time, but all they ever did was playing house. It wasn’t just Rin. Riki was still immature, as well. This became obvious when Rin was asked to transfer to a different school. He hated the very idea of Rin leaving, lashed out in opposition and became downright desperate. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that there is a correct decision here, especially considering that Rin hated the idea as well. But the way Riki acted was just so pathetic and it really put his weakness on display. He couldn’t even tolerate that Rin had acted kinda mature by considering the transfer when she was asked to and tried to deny the little progress Rin had made. He tossed around excuses and big prases like “strenghthen our relationship” or “let’s be together forever”, but the way he acted made it plainly obvious that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

In the end, Riki played the boyfriend card, knowing that Rin would do as he asked. At some point, he got assaulted by narcolepsy, but peacefully accepted it, thinking that he had nothing to fear with a reliable girlfriend by his side.

But was she really that reliable, when it was him who had made all the decisions?

[TomoyaOkazaki]

Hmm, I’m not sure what to say about this route other than…
Wow

I don’t think I’ve ever been so endeared to such ridiculous characters. Masato is obsessed with muscles, but is one of the most lovable guys I’ve ever seen. Even during his crazy antics, all he really wants is to hang out with Riki, and he’s always trying to help out in his own strange way. Komari likes sweets waaaayyyyy to much, but her simple philosophy of happiness and the joy she tries to bring to everyone are just delightful. Rin is quite catlike, she even grows cat ears when she gets angry; at the same time get her fired up about something and she’ll try her best! Mio’s soft, gentle composure is refreshing, and she does try with her sense of humor. Kud is a little clumsy, but she has her own “very foreigner” way of becoming closer to Riki, and her love of Belka and Strelka is infectious. I didn’t get much of a vibe from Kengo, but he remains very dedicated to his training, while still making time to be with everyone during meals and in the evening. Haruka, of course, is always causing trouble. While that’s not exactly an endearing trait, she has an air about her when she’s acting as a genuine friend that you can’t ignore. I don’t know where to begin with Kurugaya, I’m not sure if I should be concerned with her behavior, or simply enjoy the fact that she has no filter, and somehow is an absolute genius while still acting as freely as she pleases.

Lastly, we have Kyousuke.
He’s one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever seen in anything. He acts so absurdly, and at the same time has the most maturity out of the entire group. Kyousuke seems to almost have an aura of leadership about him, I was drawn to it and I’m not even in the story! He takes the basic idea of having fun while he still can, and turns it into a journey of meeting people and bringing them together as friends. This thought however, is where I pause to question, exactly how much did he do to actually bring them together?

It certainly feels like he’s the one who’s always there, gently nudging everyone closer. Of course, the person actually talking to them is Riki, or by extension you the player. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as I go through the other arcs.

Thinking about Rin1, the ending was fantastic; the way it cuts out of the blue to those lines of text asking you to try again, it sort of seems like the game is aware it’s a VN, but we’ll see (if I remember correctly this doesn’t happen in the anime, or at least not in this way). I did enjoy the bit of their relationship that Rin1 shows, although it seemed like Rin wasn’t really involved; Riki basically did everything except initiate it. I look forward to seeing if something changes in Rin2.

One final thought; it makes me curious the way that certain bits of certain scenes are repeated day after day. The most noteable example is how Riki thinks they’ve deviated from their original mission, etc, every time they have a night mission with Rin. Not sure if it has any meaning, it just stood out to me.

[wha2les]

Now that I have finished digesting my thoughts, I must say this VN really intrigues me. On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything that really would suit my taste. I have no interest in baseball, so having the game center around the sport to move the story forward strangely gripped me. Rikki himself as the main character wasn’t all that endearing to me. He is a kind character, and shows signs of a natural leader, but his personality demeanor doesn’t strike confidence in building up the character. The day cycle, being centered around school and practice, can only vary so much. All of these factors can make the plot seem slow and repetitive at times.

However, it is the supporting casts really made the game interesting and gripping. The strong willed personality of the male supporting cast was great! They had their weird quirks that really complemented each other, especially in those slap stick comedy moments. The strong willed and disciplined Kengo, the more childish Masato, and Kyousuke who share traits with both.

The female cast had a variety of personality which made every interaction refreshing and interesting for sure. From the strong-willed female cast members to the meek cast members, there is something for everyone. The snippet of human interaction also allows you to understand the personality of each character enough that you can decide on who you can start first. The foreshadowing is great and the mysteriousness that each character exhibits continues to draw you in.

Rin 1 really changed the tempo and color of the story. You hear about the car crash, you see the serious side of Masato, and you see the first real conflict in the story. All this ends with a cliff hanger?! No matter how you feel about the story, the innate human curiosity will cause us to dig deeper into the story just to see what happens in Rin 2 later on.

Overall, I could say that I came in with some hype, struggled to get into the story, and really enjoyed and anticipating of what is going to come next at the next route.

[Naoki_Saten]

Fun facts:

Surely, many of you have noticed that the first line of the game, “Kyousuke’s back!” is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu, who also voiced Aizawa Yuuichi in the Kanon (2006) anime adaption?

Then, those who have watched or read Clannad may have noticed that Sasami’s 3 minions sound kinda familiar.

The most obvious case is the one on the left: Watanabe Sakiko. If you thought she sounds an awful lot like Fuuko, you’re right. She’s voiced by Ai Nonaka.

In the middle, we have Kawagoe Rei. She’s voiced by Akemi Kanda, who also voiced Fujibayashi Ryou.

Finally, the one on the left right is named Nakamura Yukari and she’s voiced by Ryou Hirohashi, the VA of Fujibayashi Kyou. (Yes, this is a tiny bit confusing)

So we might as well call them the cameo trio

What do you think about the relationships between the newly inducted members of the Little Busters and the original gang?

Aspi’s chart is helping a lot, but I do think there are two new members that stand out in particular.

1. Komari. First, there’s her tireless attempts to become Rin’s friend. Then there’s her social skills and tiny contributions to the Little Busters group as a community. For example, she got some Donuts on May 20 (Sun), so she goes over to share them with the original Little Busters. She quickly received recognition for those things and also for her personality that simply makes her comfortable to be around. Riki realized at some point that Komari has a notable amount of influence among the Little Busters. On May 23rd, she motivated both Kurugaya and Kyousuke (who hates cleaning to the point where Riki is the one coming over and cleaning Kyousuke’s room!) to join the others on cleaning the clubroom. On the evening of the same day, there’s Masato’s “The 1st Let’s Make Kyousuke Wave the White Flag Championship~!”, which everyone misunderstands as an attempt of actually competing with Kyousuke and they therefore leave. Well, who was the one who got them to return, cleared up the misunderstanding and got them to participate after all? Fue? It was Komari!

2. Kurugaya. She’s already got a decent reputation before joining the Little Busters. Kyousuke, Masato and Kengo recognize her skills. We sometimes get the vibe that she might be about on even ground with Kyousuke if both were to get serious. The girls, despite being somewhat wary of her predatory tendencies, actually depend on “Onee-san” occasionally. Kud will ask Kurugaya for help with finding her a roommate, and Kurugaya is already experienced in it since she has helped several people with just that. If Riki gets a bit closer to Mio, he will handle the search for her book, with Kurugaya providing support. If he doesn’t interact with Mio much or fails at helping her with the book, Kurugaya is the one to take care of the problem and also to bring Mio to the little Busters as a manager.