There are a few routes you’ll want to re-read after completing the VN. Don’t worry about any confusion.
Generally, if you are confused by an anime or a VN, just go through to the end and most things will be explained.
Again, what was this conflict? Why was she always so afraid to be with her family? Why was she not with her family in the first place? And what the hell is this crazy island of Tevua with this unique culture and for some reason is doing crazy rocket experiments?
Yes, I kinda got that feeling from it, but again, why? What the hell happens when she goes to Tevua? Is she actually captured and or is it all just metaphorical torture? The latter probably makes more sense in the scheme of things, but then why set up the whole thing with rocket launches and civil conflict and all this crap that wasn’t explained? Honestly, it would all make more sense if they had been planning Kud Wafter from the start.
I can agree with the first part of that, but I don’t think needing to help Riki is very relevant to Kud, at least in her mind. Obviously helping her was part of his learning and growth, but in fact I think Kud was pretty selfish, running away from someone who cares about just for this self-inflicting torture, and requiring him to save her later.
Honestly I just took that as another reference to the secret of the world, as it is in every single other route
I haven’t seen the anime yet, and obviously revisiting the story would probably help at least a little with all this. And I really did mostly enjoy it while I was reading it, a lot of this is afterthoughts.
The world is based off of memories, and that’s the most convenient memory she has that can be repeated for Riki’s sake I guess.
My speculation on the ending is that in the real world she was actually left in that prison for a lot longer, and someone else rescued her. But it’s better for Riki’s feelings and stuff to save her instead.
the one doing rocket experiments are not the Tevuans, but the Russians (correct me if I’m wrong), and after years of living together, the Tevuans want them to go away from their island, hence the conflict.
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@Bonecuss Oh yeah, I like that theory!
@Akito Ah OK that makes more sense. That very well could have just been a detail I’d forgot
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Kud route? Yeah average.
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nah, don’t worry about it. Kud Wafter is great. unless of course you don’t like lolis and/or porn, in which case… well there’s an all ages version, right?
All kidding aside, Kud Wafter actually has a pretty good story and doesn’t have anything absurdly supernatural happen (aside from the usual Key magic) if I remember correctly, so at the very least it probably won’t confuse you as much as her route in the original game. speaking of which, I think it was covered in some of the spoilers below your post, but if you’re not reading those then the gist of it is that 1. Refrain does add some explanation as to why/how what happened in Kud’s route happened and 2. it still doesn’t really make it a good end to her route.
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Tevua was a small country in a union that was abandoned due to its bad economy and “gained” independence, but they couldn’t manage stability on their own. While in the union the lands were colonized by Russians, Americans, and various other people. A conflict between the natives and these new people started to brew once the country’s economy plummeted. The colonists blew all the country’s budget, hope and pride on a space program. They needed something to set them apart from the rest of the world! So they made a rocket… that blew up and killed the people who would be seen as heroes. Someone needed to be blamed, and as such, the people in charge of the space program were primed targets for the natives. Kud’s mother was a staple name, so she came under fire. It was really just an excuse for the two ages of Tevua-people to fight. Kud was afraid of both walking into a war, and discovering if her mother was still alive or not.
Kud spent her childhood traveling around the world with her grandfather (probably her grandmother too.) While Tevua was her home country, it wasn’t suitable, mainly because its education system made use of English, something Kud was bad at. The only other country Kud had a strong attachment to was Japan because of her grandparents.
(Refrain spoilers)
She wanted to return home and make her mother proud, but it didn’t work out that way. Her mother presumably died in the war, and Kud regretted it.
In the dream world, Kud gets to revisit this tragedy, and tries to make sure her family stays safe. She gets captured by the people after her mother, and takes her mother’s place. In the anime she is actually captured, but it’s hard to say in the VN since it treats a lot of things with a “dreamlike” approach. The reason those things were set up is because they reflected real-life events. You say Kud is selfish, but whether she goes or not is Riki’s choice. Kud doesn’t have the courage to be selfish without someone to encourage her. Kud wasn’t selfish - Riki was selfless.
If that’s not a good enough explanation I can go and make a timeline. It’s hard to do this without going too spoiler-ey because I want the non-refrain readers to be able to understand this too.
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Actually, I believe in the real world, she didn’t even go back to Tevua. That, I believe was her biggest regret that caused her to think she was useless. She felt like a useless gear because she did nothing to help the situation of her mother. At least, that’s what I think about it and why I think the ending resolved it.
Now, in reply to @EisenKoubu, well… I really don’t know what to say. I really enjoyed Kud’s route but I am well aware of the flaws, and I’m not even surprised people hate it. But it gave me feels and that’s what I’m after so… I can’t complain about it 
Yes, the flirting and studying and discussing about her issues with feeling alienated were, in a way, pointless. They weren’t resolved in the end and, really, the only part that actually had a significance on her route was everything after they announced the struggle in Tevua. Everything before that was, while somewhat entertaining, still not significant to the ending.
Plus the romance wasn’t even nice xP Haruka’s route had pretty nice romance even though it wasn’t so significant to the route. Then again, most of the other routes in LitBus had pretty bad romance and I never thought highly of them.
Also, I believe the NSFW CGs he are talking about are the body painting. I honestly don’t see them as much of an issue, really.
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Ah yep that seems to be more likely.
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@Takafumi No that was a really good explanation. Thank you, that was extremely helpful.
(Which is part of why arguments that Rin is a bad character because of romance elements are shitty excuses in the first place) But yeah I agree. IMO the goal of Little Busters! was always Refrain, and the romance was just the most-money-making and a very sensical way to get it there.
Anyways, I’ve talked a ton about why I was disappointed in Kud’s route, but similar to @Pepe I really did enjoy it. For me, the whole cave scene was kinda one of those “I’m not complete sure I should be so attached and sad, but screw it, feels feel good” moments.
And the most important part, possible unique to me, was the moment when she steps out of the cave. You see, I had been listening to the LB! OST for awhile by that point, and there was one song in particular I really liked, that I had listened to over and over again, yet had never heard it in game, and thus never knew the meaning behind its name. And Kud is released from those chains, and she steps out, and goddamn it starts to play. It fit the scene beyond perfectly. It starts of so calm. Shit the CG was drawn so perfectly for it too. And then right at the “volta” of the song, the climax, Kud exclaims “LET’S RETURN HOME!” And everything fell into place. Literally one of my favorite scenes of the whole VN.
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OHHHH MY GOD I KNOW THAT ONE
This one right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mou4vxbqHGA
It’s still the Little Busters song that makes me feel the most~ Even more than Song for Friends or Boys don’y cry
Oh my bad, that’s not the one That’s the ending song
(I still love that song though)
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Oh yeah, Clear Weather After the Rain is gorgeous too. I can’t believe they only put that in there twice. I was trying to make my writing more interesting and stuff by only indirectly naming the song. Sorry I confused you XD
I will restrain myself from dropping a bunch of music analysis in this topic, but I just had to bring up Lets Return because that scene pretty much made the whole route worth it for me.
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Ame Nochi Hare is such a beautiful gem of a song and it’s such a shame it gets overshadowed by Song for friends and Alicemagic
Ame Nochi Hare is my fave of the main ending themes of Little Busters ^^
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Kud’s route is hard to understand. There’s a lot of information thrown in like puzzle pieces. And it requires a lot of thinking (also, Refrain knowledge is a must) to put this puzzle together correctly.
I’m pretty sure that reading through this entire topic explains pretty much everything about Kud’s route. I myself have written many detailed explanations. The only thing not explained until now was the conflict in Tevua, but good guy Takafumi took care of that now ^^
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Thank you for this beautiful explanation.
This makes things a lot clearer for me now
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I agree with everything you’ve said about Kud’s route. I do not completely hate the route, but there are so many problems with it that keep me from fully enjoying the route.
What about the scene where Kud is in chains and is half-naked? That one was probably the most offensive, and it kind of killed my immersion during the ending.
Oh that too. Well I didn’t find that offensive at all but to each his own
I guess the point was for it to be offensive because they were being offensive to kud
(well more like abusive but I was trying to make a thing)
I feel like I should throw my interpretation of Kud’s route in here. (Refrain spoilers!)
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The romance between Kud and Riki was both touching and rushed to meet the demands of the story at the same time. Now, I’m not that skilled at finding forced romance, but I feel that it could have been handled a lot better than what I got. I feel tempted to just take apart and rewrite Kud’s route to have a much more naturally-paced relationship and a more meaningful ending.
I’m a romance nut, too. I like writing romance all the time. But even I understand that these kinds of things aren’t supposed to happen as quickly as they did in Kud’s route.
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