Every once in a while, when discussing Refrain, someone will eventually throw in something like “It woulda been better if only Riki and Rin survived.”, “Key magic ruins everything.”, “Maeda should stop being a wimp and kill off more characters.”
The last two aren’t even limited to LB discussions.
I find those statements really annoying. I can’t agree with those statements.
The ending of a story is very important. It has the potential of completely changing the meaning of the entire story.
So let’s think about the consequences of a sad ending. What would change if Refrain ended right then and there, with the hospital scene, where only Riki and Rin survive?
Little Busters is a story of friendship. With the sad ending, it would instead turn into a story of loss and moving on. Very beautiful and sad, bittersweet if you want, but to me it would still be a waste. Throughout the whole game, we have been watching Riki form new connections and foster his relationships. We have witnessed the power of love and friendship facing the hardships of life and growing stronger in the process.
Only so that all of it would be thrown out of the window in the end for the sake of realism?
The imaginary world has been created so that Riki and Rin would grow strong enough to face the tragedy of losing all their friends and move on. So the player has basically spent the entire game making Riki stronger. For what? For the harsh life ahead of him that the player will not get to see except maybe in a short epilogue? You have accumulated something, then you lose all of it and you won’t even see your effort bear fruit. LB is different from a certain other Key story where you get to see a character cope with his loss for an extended period of time as his life goes on.
You made sure that Riki won’t die of sadness, and all you get at the end of the game is the knowledge that Riki won’t die of sadness. You don’t even get to watch him not dying of sadness. You don’t get to watch him put his accumulated strength to use in order to move on.
Whose idea of a ‘better ending’ is that? The entire character cast is working towards reducing the damage of the inevitable tragedy at the end of the story, so that we can watch the inevitable tragedy occuring and the story ending after that? How is that better than the characters actually gaining something in return for their struggle - and we get to see their effort bear fruit - by finally preventing the tragedy from occuring?
And most importantly, the sad end versions of Riki and Rin are weaker than their true end counterparts. Remember what came after the hospital scene? Rin decided to become stronger, so that she’d be able to take action at the scene of the crash. Riki faced his greatest weakness. He accepted his birth, finally overcoming his narcolepsy. Saving everyone was impossible precisely because, if Riki stayed behind, his fear of loss would trigger his narcolepsy, thus knocking him out and Rin would be too shaken up to be of any help.
If Riki and Rin had given up, they wouldn’t acquire this finaly piece of strength. They’d be able to somehow cope with the loss, but some weakness would still remain. For all we know, Riki’s narcolepsy could grow worse. And Rin would still be heavily relying on Riki instead of becoming more self-sufficient.
For these reasons, I find the happy ending of Refrain far more meaningfull than the “more realistic” sad ending alternative.
