Haruka’s route is probably one of my favourite Key routes so far. I’m a bit late to the discussion and as people went into great detail regarding the route recently I’ll just mention some of my overall thoughts and impressions.
As I progressed through the route I came to like Haruka a lot. First she just seemed like a goofy troublemaker up to no good, but boy there’s a whole lot undernearth the surface here. Towards the end I came to like Kanata a great deal as well. Her confrontations with Haruka throughout the route made a big impact on me, I found myself wondering why Kanata was being so mean to Haruka and what exactly was going on between the two. I felt really bad for Haruka and, like some other people mentioned before me, her family is absolutely despicable and I find them unforgivable. In the end I felt just as bad for Kanata considering she went through misery too and was forced to treat Haruka the way she did even if she never really wished to do so. The scene where they finally come together was very emotional and one of my favourite scenes in the VN so far.
Haruka’s relationship with Riki was nicely developed and I can only be glad Riki was able to be such of a good support to her. She and Riki stopped eachother from going over the line if I remember correctly, because I think at some point Riki was about to hit Kanata and then later on Riki stopped Haruka from going too far as well. Had either of them not been stopped things probably would’ve ended up a lot worse. I also read the bad ends, and boy these were quite painful. The one bad end where it was implied that Haruka committed suicide ended up confusing me a bit. As Riki’s narcolepsy started to kick in Kanata tells Riki again to stay away from Haruka and to “not ever get close to her again.” But if she actually committed cuicide isn’t that pointless to say? Or it might also simply be a thing of her already referring to the next playthrough where you have to make the choice again, though that kinda breaks the fourth wall I guess.
Like Naoki posted a while back I do think it’s likely Kanata ended up having feelings for Riki too (makes sense considering she has a route too I guess), and while she was seemingly joking around about her taking Haruka’s place next to Riki I do think she did was serious to some degree. It was interesting to see that apparently with contact lenses and the same hairstyle she looks almost identical to Haruka. Besides hair colour I never considered them to be that similar in appearance, Kanata’s eye shape seems to be quite different too but maybe I can just attribute that to her generally having different expressions from Haruka. Though I still find it odd considering they have different fathers, but enough nitpicking, it’s not like I find it a big deal.
The only other thing I want to mention is that the story doesn’t feel completely finished. While I love the conclusion and the fact that the biggest issues between twins and their parents were resolved, the family issues on the other hand are still very much present. The family itself is still as messed up as ever and I doubt they would just leave Kanata, Haruka and their parents alone after everything that has happened. Makes me wonder if Kanata’s route will expand on it and how similar her route will be compared to Haruka’s. I’m looking forward to getting there.
