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? -_-
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…
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
I can’t argue about your thoughts on the common route yet, as I’m still in the early parts of the common route atm, and I don’t think I disagree with you. But
Yeah, I’d say Riki has problems with girls when it comes to more private matters (he is notably susceptible to teasing) but the girls don’t have problems with Riki. Riki’s nervousness in the sleepover scene is exemplified by the idea that he could be caught.
Join the club. I like the game, but there need to be people who downplay the experience to meet realistic expectations.
I’m super encouraged to see the conversation picking up, more and more people are getting to the end of Common route and talking about their thoughts and here I am back on May 21st like a nerd.
There are some key highlights of this day that are worth mentioning, and then I want to get into another (slightly more grounded) theory based off some observations I’ve been making, I hope you’ll all stick with me on this one. wipes sweat from brow
So it’s the beginning of week two, the official halfway point as far as I’m concerned, the team still does all the usual stuff planning and practicing for the game next weekend and generally getting into some wacky hijinks (the entire sequence of helping Kud through the maze to the furniture storage room was a particular highlight) and generally causing havoc throughout the school.
Here are some events worth keeping in mind for character routes and future playthroughs:
I think this will be central to Komari’s route, I’ve talked a little bit on the Kazamatsuri Discord about how each of the characters has a ‘sanctuary’ they can retreat to and be at ease when they’re troubled. @Zosonte compiled a nice list for me:
Rin - cat corridor
Haruka - Riki’s classroom
Komari - rooftop
Kurugaya - tea table
Mio - courtyard
Kud - Dorm
These are the settings in which I seem most likely to encounter these girls, and I think it’s no mistake that these sanctuaries line up with that. What interests me about Komari in particular is how she tells us multiple times how much she loves making other people happy, thereby making herself happy, yet her ‘place she can be at ease’ is a totally isolated location. She claims that interacting with people is the thing she most enjoys but wants to be by herself to calm down. I’m not saying this behaviour is strange, far from it. I can relate. I very much enjoy hanging out with my friends and being a goof a lot of the time but it drains me completely. I may be able to relate to Komari a bit here and I’m curious to see how much more we have in common.
It’s also interesting that Haruka is the only one out of these who wants to be around other people for her ‘sanctuary’ but I get the impression we just haven’t seen her special place yet, she seems to have trouble attaching to people in a proper meaningful way, using her identity as “the crazy genki girl” to avoid complicated relationships and situations. Of course, as several people have pointed out, Riki is the perfect character for her to open up to.
Something else that stuck out to me during the shenanigans with Komari:
Komari is writing stories about her classmates, it seems. In a picture book she’s drawing/writing there’s the story of a penguin who can never do anything right (probably Komari writing about herself and her fear that she won’t cope outside of school life, or perhaps concerned that if she couldn’t make people happy she would have no value) and the story of a ‘boy and a girl’ who solve the problems of ‘eight dwarves’.
Two plus eight equals ten guys. I’m a genius!
I’m really really hoping that this story will be updated on future playthroughs to reflect what routes have been completed, that would be some excellent attention to detail. The question remains as to whether this is actually evidence of some omnipotent force that is guiding this narrative, or if it’s just some neat symbolism from the writers. Time will tell! (unless it’s stopped)
I’d quite forgotten how silly Little busters can get. I think this picture speaks for itself:
The guy just really loves his muscles, it’s beautiful
And he gave me some protein for my trouble
In the midst of all the happiness one alone wore a sad face, a poor sweet girl lost all her book in the midst of all the chaos. Though she kept her parasol, she requested the aid of Kurugaya, who roped Riki into it. Honestly Riki is super incompetent in this scene, doesn’t really do anything to help at all and Kurugaya has to detective her way to victory. I wonder if Kurugaya is playing a similar role to Mio as Kyousuke does to Rin? Acting out the big sibling role to help those with a more difficult time dealing with people. Or perhaps it was simply to make sure Mio didn’t run away in tears until Kurugaya could sort everything out? That seems quite likely to me. There was a brief flash of narration that caught my eye:
So, there are a couple of things happening here. Obviously Mio is incredibly distraught over losing her book, we don’t actually know what exactly her book is but I’ve been wondering whether my assumption that it’s a work of fiction has been incorrect, perhaps it’s a diary of some sort, the kind that can hold memories of a better time. I think we can also see how frustrated Mio is that she’s caused trouble for Riki and feels guilty about it. Now, this is just from the dialogue. From the narration, Mio seems to be concerned about getting too close to Riki. I’m not sure how heavy this work is going to get but I am strongly suspecting that she has suffered a past abusive relationship. Whether this is from a bad parent, a romantic relationship, a sibling, I can’t tell right now. My strongest suspicion is that she has been strongly affected by a bad relationship in the past and that her ‘jokes’ are a coping mechanism. She muttered something about Riki sexually harassing her back on May 18th and stated:
I don’t know if this is true, but it’s certainly what she tells herself and Riki. I don’t really know if I’ll be able to handle Mio’s route at this rate, it may crush my soul if I’m anywhere close to the truth.
Before I sign off I guess I’d better address my ‘Riki-coma theory’ because I think I may have jumped the gun a bit on Rin’s name and the nature of the Secret of the World.
So i did some research into narcolepsy (because my curiosity must be sated!) and there were a couple of things that stood out to me, some things that tie into the quotes from the OP quite nicely. So I was just generally researching the causes and I found a number of articles to support my theory, here’s some of the easier to read ones:
Apparently one of the causes of ‘secondary narcolepsy’ is TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. Straightforward enough and not too out there to be impossible. Some of the symptoms even line up, the depression that Riki exhibits could easily be a side effect of some head injury of the past, and the event that caused it might even have been what killed his parents, yet another detail that is mentioned for foreshadowing purposes and then not really addressed. Amnesia is another possible symptom of such an event, the memory Riki seems to be accessing in his conversation with Kyousuke at dusk could be an old fragmented memory blurring with the present. This would present a good case for a theory that doesn’t rely on any time-loop nonsense (although I’m sure there’s some ‘Key magic’ in here somewhere).
Another tangential theory I have involves repressed memories, similar to the idea above that the narcoleptic episodes are representative of Riki remembering something he shouldn’t. The OP has some pretty telling lines of text. In order, they are:
What “Adolescence” do you have?
Do you remember “childhood”
This is a reminder to recollect your “adolescence”.
The irreplaceable one existed there
Hoo boi overanalysis engaged
The easiest way to take these statements is a message from the writers to us readers, that the novel itself is a reminder of our carefree days as a young boy/girl/other but let’s take a look beyond that and make some suppositions. What if it’s talking directly to Riki?
I thought initially that the ‘irreplaceable one’ might have been Saya and was going to talk about her when she showed up, but I guess she wasn’t in the original Little Busters so I’ll be waiting a while for that instead I am going to assume that the ‘irreplaceable one’ is Rin. She’s clearly the main heroine of the story despite having about the same screentime as everyone else so far. She has a hard time talking to people without help and specifically calling people by their first names (a strangely specific quirk but i’m not sure it has any significance by itself) which I’m sure must come from somewhere. Let’s take a look at that OP one more time:
and both equally represented, this isn’t a sequence of people joining the group one by one, this clearly represents Riki and Rin together and then afterwards everyone else hops on the bandwagon. Furthermore:
This line has Haruka in the background but I think it’s pertinent to Riki and Rin’s relationship (this could also be about the relationship between Kyousuke and Saya but I’m gonna keep them out of this for the sake of argument).
If we assume that this line is about Riki and Rin, I propose that the song is a message from one to the other. If we take that argument, a bunch of the lyrics start to make much more sense:
I can’t 100% tell who’s speaking to who here, but these lyrics are definitely pointing towards a tragic incident waaaay in the past and the singer’s voice hopes and believes they can figure out their problems, perhaps with a little help from their friends.
I think Riki is having difficulty accepting some hardship he caused Rin in the past, some terrible event that occurred. The singer is Rin and she’s praying for Riki to overcome his guilt that resides in his memories.
Well, I now have two major theories, both involve traumatic events, neither involve too much weird Key magic, I’m pretty happy with them. It’s just a question of whether said event occurred far in the past or right after the baseball game (maybe both they’re not mutually exclusive theories I think). The primary issue I’m having is figuring out how much of the information I’m receiving was included in the OG Little Busters as opposed to the ‘Ecstasy version’ because that is really throwing me off on some points. Oh well, I enjoy the challenge
This is very interesting. Without saying too much, since you’ll see the other version on a future playthrough I bet, when I got to this scene Riki managed to notice something weird by himself (Mio wasn’t in the courtyard) and basically looked everywhere for her and subsequently was more competent in finding the book. Unless the scene was actually identical and only your retelling seemed different to me.
Super cool, I wonder what choice prompted Kurugaya to help out? It might be because i didn’t hang out with Mio that one time on May 18th (in the name of the common route!) and as such Riki wasn’t as close to her, therefore he didn’t notice her book was missing… Ah! it’s all coming together~
You hit the nail on the head. My first run through common I pursued Mio to the fullest extent, and it was Riki who helped find the book. Mio DOES grow closer with Riki because of it. The next play through, where I pursued Rin, Kurugaya took Riki’s place.
Yeah, I think you’re right. The fact that the girls get angry at the boys, then, would be less a hard and fast rule, and more a collective agreement on the girls part, as it would be kind of strange that the same rule wouldn’t be in effect for girls going to the boys dormitory.
So, I finally finished my reread of the common route and uh boy, I am happy I forgot that much back from my first readthrough of it.
I won’t go into as much detail as other people, but there are a few things I want to talk about for now.
While I forgot most of the scenes from reading before, I did not not forget the general feeling it left me with - and this time just confirmed that feeling by recreating it once more. It’s hard to put into words, but if I would have to, it’s …relaxing, I guess.
While these people are so different and at times maybe a bit annoying, that’s extremely refreshing and it really FEELS like a group of friends hanging out and doing activities together. I wish I would be part of this, and sometimes it feels a little like I am.
Especially with the 5 original Busters you can feel a dynamic of people who have been friends for a long time, even with (or because) stuff like the fighting or Masato being kicked in the face by Rin over and over.
I love the minigames. I did not have all of them, I know there is more, but the ones I did have…let me just say, I could play batting practice for hours. It’s funny, and with a community around me I feel encouraged to do a really long combo…the best I manages so far is 4 though. The other members doing their thing and yelling stuff is the best part of it. Battling had very little options as a player to change the outcome, but they are just hilarous to watch at times (some of them are pretty boring I must admit). Maybe a thing I will skip in the future.
Then there is the actual match and while even that is pretty RNG dependent, you at least have some influence, and it is very detailed and, if you’re like me, end up with a very close score, very exciting.
I want to put a few words to my initial reactions and impressions of the characters. Not long, that will happen later in other topics when i know the characters more:
Riki - don’t have much to say. He is pretty calm I think compared to Tomoya or Kotarou. He is a pretty nice guy most of the time, trying to help (aside from a few dialogue choices you can make - “There is still homework”). Not much more to say honestly.
Masato - He is really kind and can be a really nice guy, but that side shows rarely, but it did a few times during common. Mostly he is a bit stupid, muscle-obsessed and can be a bit teasing especially towards Kengo. I love him. I don’t know him very well, but he is hilarous, sometimes in purpose, sometimes on accident, and with this kinder moments it shows he is not one-dimensional
Kengo - Don’t know him pretty well either. Seems to be serious, but also plays along with some of the goofing around the group does. His rivalry with Masato makes him do not so serious things at times on his own.
Kyousuke . Best guy for me so far. He is very serious at goofing around. He also is an amazing leader of this little group. He also is a bit of a nerd. Kind and helpful while stupid and hilarious at the same time. He knows what to do to push people on the right path.
Rin - she is cute. She is a tiny bit tsun, but not really much. She loves cats. She also is extremely naive and shy. However, she tries to overcome her shyness and so far always succeeded, which is a great trait. When playing with her cats or sometimes just during interaction’s with the other characters she has these really adorable moments. She also tries to be very helpful to others, and kind (aside from to Masato). I like the kind of rivalry she built with Sasasegami, especially since Rin does not seem to think any bad of Sasasegami.
Komari - Extremely kind (I can see a pattern) and very naive. Clumsy and a bit forgetful it seems. I liked her a lot from design when I first saw her, but…I don’t like her as much anymore. I still DO like her, just less. She often seems to be the victim of pranks. Not much more to say about her unfortunatly.
Kurugaya - Angeo is also hilarous at times, but also scary. She seems to be quite intelligent but is also fooling around a lot. She uses a lot of sexual innuendos, I think she is funny, and also does some pranks. She does seem reliable however. And yea, did I mention she is sometimes quite scary?
Kud - Adorable. Don’t have much to say about her yet, she also seems quite naive, but very willing to work to improve. While others find it annoying, I like the way she speaks, it’s her quirk, including a lot of engrish (which is funny, but also does annoy me sometimes when it just gets to much).
Mio - Mio is an oddbird for me. She is very intelligent, she plays along with some of the fooling around “I am grateful to thee”, she also has a very intersting sarcastic humor. However, the way she barely ever shows emotions is super weird to me, and I am very curious to find out more about her and her background. I omce tried to compare her to Edna from Tales of Zestiria - similar humor, but usually less…“dry” way of showing that.
Haruka - haruchin! Best girl contender right now for me. A bit lazy, a bit crazy. She can be annoying, but in a very funny way. I did not like her crazyness when I first read, but maybe my preference in characters or humor changed, but I like her a lot now. I am also really curious what her deal is, what her relation to the disciplinary commitee leader is (there really seems to be one), especially if (and it probably is) her behaviour is just a persona.
I am excluding the ex route girls for now - I know too little about them
For the music, so far most of it is standard fare while being great. It’s hard to describe, very few tracks really stand out so far, but all of them work really really well in the sitation’s they are played in, they never get annoying as well. That happened during the common route of Rewrite as well, similar thoughts, but there were a lot of tracks in the character routes that really stood out, so I am expecting more good songs to come.
Let’s talk about the opening. It is essential to my VN experiences. I watch it after a long pause or before a long reading session. It has changed quite a bit since vanilla, though most of it are additions. I love the song. I’ve been listening to it on loop before EE released to hype myself up and it is one of my favourites on my current playlist. I did not think too much about it, but of course we see a few CGs from the character routes, previewing what is to come.
Finally, a few highlights
Aphorisms. The scene is done so good, with the extra special cut in happening. So much that we have a generator on Kazamatsuri. Kyousuke at his best.
Special shoutouts for the trial of courage. It has so many possible ways it can go and is pretty funny at that seeing the character’s react together.
There are 2 scenes in particular at the end of my common route that are interesting and fuel for potential theorycrafting. I went the Komari route, and I am not sure if they always happen during the first readthrough, only if you don’t for Rin1 or if they are specific to Komari, as such, I will post them in the Komari route thread once I am done with that route. However they seem super intrueging.
I may or may not do additional posts on later runs of the common route when I see more scenes I may have just skipped, and when I’ve done Rin1.
So far, I am REALLY enjoying the bookclub. The posts here and the lot of activity happenng as well as the talks in discord are super enjoyable. Especially @MagusVerborum hyperanalyzing everything has brought me some ideas on what might be foreshadowed I may never have thought about on my own. But aside from him, all the other posts here are also really interesting, seeing how you guys like or dislike certain character’s or other stuff. Thanks at everyone for organizing and participating, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks.
PS: this was not planned to be THIS long. Or take that long to write, Oh boy.
Naturally, this opinion of mine comes from having read the entire VN previously, but I can’t help feeling that that sort of conclusion is totally intended. Yes, Rin IS very much akin to a shy and awkward child (though the authors attribute her more to a shy and awkward kitten), and I think that the story tends to build up from that assumption. So… I’m just trying to assure you that this is, in no way, bizarre characterization. There are people like this in the world, and that’s just the sort of character that Rin is.
Although I do admit that the focus on her backstory, explaining exactly why she is like this is heavily lacking. I think that’s one thing that we may have to believe, taking into her consideration she spent her childhood only with the rest of the original Little Busters and a horde of cats.
I do notice you’ve pointed out your qualms about the rest of the characters but I honestly feel like every single one of those points were intended. I don’t want you to take my word for it, and I don’t want what I say to ruin your experience so that’s as much as I’m allowing myself to say, really.
Alright, I’ve just finished the common route, which means it’s time for my wall of text.
I would say that outside of Refrain, the common route is the strongest part of this entire VN. It’s really little more than a group of friends hanging out and enjoying their youth, but while they’re doing that, we really get to know these characters, while leaving just enough of an air of mystery about them that we feel compelled to read their routes to find out more.
And I really think that characterization is one of the strongest points of the common route. One of the biggest things you learn in any writing class is to show, not tell, and I think they do a great job of that here. They don’t waste time explaining each character’s quirks, they reveal them naturally through Riki’s interactions with them. I think the introduction scenes in particular do a great job of this. For example, when first meeting Komari, he doesn’t just say “Oh, this is Kamikita Komari, she’s a ditz in my class who loves eating sweets.” Instead, we watch as she gets herself trapped under the water tank and offers Riki a metric boatload of sweets, and come to that conclusion ourselves.
As many have already pointed out before me, the humor is another major selling point of the common route. While I understand why its particular brand of comedy can be hit or miss for some people, it keeps me entertained no matter how many times I read it. Even knowing that Masato will be given the title “Waste,” that doesn’t stop me from bursting out laughing when Rin says it.
I think I’m looking at it in a slightly different way than I did when I first read it, too. When I first read this VN 5 years ago, I was in high school, and I didn’t really have any close friends, so the Little Busters were sort of a surrogate friend group for me. But now I’m in college, and I DO have that kind of group surrounding me, and as such, I find myself relating to it in an entirely different way. This time, I understand that longing for things to continue on the way they are forever, and in some ways it really changes the tone of the story. It’s an interesting change in perspective on my end, and I’m looking forward to how it colors the rest of the game for me.
So yeah, Little Busters is as great as it ever was. Onward towards the character routes!
Yeah, I agree that the characters are the way they are for deliberate purposes. I’m not so cynical as to think the writers attached random character traits to an even more random backstory. If I said or implied that before, I apologize. I just feel in a story that’s trying to evoke human emotions that are very close to home for a number of people (particularly in the main group, but they even try to build pathos with the other characters), I’m just having trouble accepting the extremely quirky, extremely bizarre characters who are often awkward, but not in the way I’ve encountered in real life, the social awkwardness. An almost confident, slightly self-assured sort of weird (Komari is the best example). With Rin, it’s entirely possible I just haven’t encountered people like that in my lifetime, which might well be why I find it unrealistic (it does point out a flaw in the “oh, this character HAS to be relatable otherwise they aren’t compelling” I’ve all but used), I guess I just find myself preferring more down-to-earth, easily accesible characters because I feel it’s easier to get into their dynamic from the get-go (having just come from Anohana, wherein Menma is the most caricatured personality, really does make me more inclined to say this) I actually like her dialogues with the LB gang themselves fine, but I feel her dialogues with the other characters are too strange and she seems to bond with them too fast in my taste, at least in what I’ve seen in common. I know she’s unassertive around others, but I find her feeling too comfortable around a bunch of people who are very, very strange sometimes. (Half-sarcastic), besides, I thought kittens tended to lash out with their claws when people got too touchy-feely It’s how she is with the LB gang (though guess she only shows her true colors when she’s comfortable…)
I have to reserve judgment on Kud and Haruka, who I haven’t seen nearly enough of, and Mio, while I have a couple mild qualms, is intriguing. I mean, I can at least understand where they’re coming from in how the backgrounds of these characters at least connect with their personalities in the present (I just feel it’s overbaked in a way that isolates audiences who tend to roll their eyes at over-the-top characters, just remembering that one rather scathing, better thought-out Clannad review on Steam.) I feel it’s a little unnecesarry to distinguish a character, since a good design can do that on its own (though, I will acknowlege quirkier characters makes it easier for them to bounce off and not be overwhelmed by the LB gang’s antics)
Now, with Riki, I remembered some context that explains a number of my problems, so I’m going to reserve judgment until I read a bit more. I, do, however, object to the fact that just because Riki is a little more feminine than the other guys, doesn’t mean he’d instantly get along with all girls, especially since there are some girls who could be more masculine than him. Girls can’t be summed up under such a blanket. Some might find Riki’s passiveness/femininity kind of aggravating rather than endearing. I mean, I feel it’s this kind of broad consensus that leads to the girls befriending Kurugaya instead of being terrified at how sexually charged and aggresive she is (I know it’s just a lame joke, seen in a number of anime but especially considering recent events, it leaves kind of a bad taste in my mouth. It doesn’t help that she’s supposed to be seen as this cool character who the girls look up to. I mean, she outright sexually assaults Komari if you pair the two up in the trail of courage, and ((at least most of the time)) the only reprimand she gets is a vocal reprimand. I mean, Riki doesn’t even try to stop her here. It’s like they’re indirectly saying “Oh, because they are all girls, it’s endearing or funny”, even though that kind of shitty double standard makes absolutely no sense, especially considering Kurugaya is clearly sexually attracted to these girls. It made me uncomfortable there as well, but at least when Sunohara or Akio act perverted ((or in the former’s case, try to sexually assault another character on a couple of occasions)), while it’s played comedically, it’s clear that this is portrayed as lame, disreputable behavior that you aren’t supposed to sympathize with, but instead mock when they get their proper comeuppance ((from a comedic standpoint, of course, certainly not real-world ones)). Kyou feeling up the VERY uncomfortable Kotomi bothers me in the same way, but at least it only happened once, and at least she isn’t supposed to be sexually interested in Kotomi ((though, because the implication of “since they’re both girls, it’s okay” is just as prevalent here, which I despise.)) For contrast on the double-standard, just look at the way ((Mild Kappei route spoilers)) Sunohara’s burgeoning feelings towards Kappei are portrayed. They try to make a twisted joke about Sunohara’s love fantasy being misunderstood by Tomoya as a rape one, they have him literally ‘snap’ and try to ‘comedically’ assault Kappei. The only consolation is he gets ((comedic of course)) comeuppance for it, and he’s not allowed to actually hurt anyone. If you are going to make a big joke out of it, why can’t they consistently portray this sexual harassment and assault as bad regardless of what gender the perpetrator and victim are. I’m just glad Maeda and Key would go to discard ((or at the very least downplay)) this fucking disgusting “joke” that permeates far too much Japanese media in their future works. It’s presence here and in Clannad drags them both down. It’s not even the biggest, or even an important part of her distinct personality, so it could have easily been either removed or toned down so she just liked cute things in general, with no sexual harassment or assault stuff attached).
I definitely agree that these broad personalites give the dialogue a lot of flavor. I just feel it’s sacrificing some of the tonal consistency and the realistic themes the game at points try to portray by doing this, for reasons I’ve stated above.
It’s how she is with the LB gang (though guess she only shows her true colors when she’s comfortable…)