Yeah. It’s not very scientific, but the idea is that he developed narcolepsy as a defense mechanism against traumatic events that he can’t face. Only problem is that as a result, he has narcolepsy, so it can and will kick in at completely random times. But what’s important is how his narcolepsy symbolises his fear of loss. After confronting that and overcoming it, he was able to be born into a new world where he wasn’t afraid anymore, and therefore his narcolepsy was gone.
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Until he realized at the end that his nightmares were of his parents lying dead in front of him,
I had always thought that his nightmares/narcolepsy had to do with “the secret of the world”. Because they very first line after the OP plays is him talking about having a dream, it seemed to me like the OP was supposed to be his dream. And with all the foreshadowing in the OP, and taking to account the events of Refrain, this actually would have made a ton of sense if they hadnt come out and directly explained it.
Yeah. It’s a bit of a red herring for the secret of the world 
I know I’m late but. Eh, Riki is my least favorite. I know I shouldn’t base my opinion because of the anime, but the visual novel might have featured this also. I really hated Riki’s overused story about how when he was alone, Kyousuke and the Little Busters gang came and cheered him up. The first time in Komari’s route was just perfect, but seeing how he kept dragging on that story for every other route after Komari’s was kinda just lame. Riki in my opinion, is weak. Not because of his physical strength whatsoever, but because of his narcolepsy and his bad choices he makes, I mean, the artificial world kept resetting due to the poor choices he made, and I know that happened in the visual novels for some of Key’s other games too, but he kept getting the bad ending unless Kyousuke said something. If Kyousuke didn’t say anything, the good end wouldn’t have been unlocked. Kyousuke would have been a much better MC. Not to mention the ending. Rin was the first to remember about the ending when <Rin and Riki forgot all about Haruka, Mio, Kurugaya, and all the other girls from the LB, and they just remembered the original LB gang. Rin was the first to remember the LB gang, every single one, while Riki was basically being a dimwit and not even remembering the girls that he invited to be part of the LB group.> I found that part the most irritating. Riki is by far one of the worse MC’s for Key in my opinion. I think Yuichi would have been a better MC. I loved Little Busters, I’m just not a fan of who the MC’s are. Rin and Riki’s love didn’t even speculate until Refrain, which was also considered the end.
I might have done the spoiler tag wrong, forgive me .-.
Uh… No? Kyousuke had like… Zero to develop? And Yuichi isn’t even really explored, besides he’s already a protagonist, he has nothing to do with LB! Unless you write a Kanon x LB! crossover with Yuichi as the protagonist…
Still. Riki is the last choice for me.
That’s a fact, not an opinion. It’s the whole idea behind the VN.
I don’t think they used that idea in any VNs pre-Litbus.
But then there would be no… point. There’s no development to have with Kyousuke that is as expansive as Riki’s. It wouldn’t fit with the background of the story either. Can Kyousuke even help with the cast’s regrets as well as Riki did?
That ship was pushed in the anime. It wasn’t as in-your-face in the VN.
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Yeah the whole point of Riki’s character is that he is weak, and Kyousuke made the secret of the world so that he could become strong enough to survive without the rest of the gang. It’s funny how the points you hate about him are exactly the points that were intended by the author. I honestly am not such a fan of Riki but I appreciate his place in the story of Little Busters
One thing I like about Riki: he is easy to self-insert, so the whole VN experience with him as the protagonist feels a lot more “close” to you.
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Though that would mean most routes were pointless. Most routes he went through didn’t even help Riki become stronger, he was just a bystander.
WHAT?! Of course they helped, that was their main purpose! I’ve never seen the anime, but seems like it’s lacking a lot of information…
Of course, the characters did help in general, but their back stories didn’t help anything. It was all over the place to the plot. Also, if you didn’t see the anime, then I don’t think you should be even making points about this topic. Unless you played the visual novel.
…
You realize that most people here are making points having played the visual novel? If anything, I’d say you shouldn’t be talking about this stuff without having read the visual novel, as you’re clearly missing lots of crucial information.
This isn’t a Riki Naoe in the Little Busters! Anime Discussion, it’s the Riki Naoe discussion, so you should expect people to take everything about his character into account, namely the visual novel.
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I played the visual novel. sigh
No no no no. The routes were “simulations” created by the Little Busters’ minds, specially Kyousuke’s, whose intention was to make Riki become stronger. Each of the girls had their own regrets, and they would like to have them fulfilled before leaving the world; but this was combined with Riki needs to become stronger.
Since you didn’t play the VN, you didn’t notice that after each route, Riki changed and became more self-confident, some lines were changed in the common route. When you say the routes were all over the place to the plot, you’re seriously wrong. It clearly shows how bad the anime was in handling those information.
And always when you help others, you need to increase your self confidence and self esteem. It doesn’t apply just to LB!
And @LinkThinks , it’s not like this. He’s watched the anime, so he has the right to discuss about Riki. The topic didn’t specify Little Busters! anime, VN, manga or whatever. If it was like this, we couldn’t even be discussing Nao from Charlotte, since we haven’t watched the anime…
All of them did. He was the one pushing everything forward in pretty much every route. The heroines did their own things of course, but Riki had to deal with it all too. Every bit of drama was something that both Riki and the character of focus worked through, whether it was Kud’s family situation or Kengo’s opening up.
Someone else’s backstory doesn’t have to effect the main character. The back stories matter little anyway outside of Haruka’s and Komari’s route, and bits of Kud’s route. You put a big emphasis on backstory… but, for example, the backstory in Haruka’s route is like… a blip in the route. It’s like 1/10 of the VN content iirc. Kud’s backstory is a paragraph about her grandparents and a couple sentences about her mom. They are tiny tiny aspects that, although shape a part of what made the heroine, have little affect on the characters in present times.
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I didn’t like the CG’s. Rin’s CG’s looked too thick if you get what I mean, though I did like the CG’s for other characters. Also, I did play it, though since I watched the anime first, I kinda got bored. The visual novel, the first 50 minutes of it were basically the first 5 minutes of the first episode, and I wasn’t to fond of the fight scenes, so I didn’t bother to finish it. And from what I’ve heard, Ecstasy modifies each route with the 3 new routes too, so I’d rather just wait for that.
@Kotarou out of pure curiosity, have you read the rest of the thread from before your post? Because, your opinion will be your opinion, and I respect that; but Riki possibly being my favorite protagonist, I would love to try and change your mind.
First, if you want to actually know what the creators intended with this story and these characters, read the VN. Remember that the anime is an adaptation (and not even a very great one), and by definition, it is impossible for an adaptation to express the exact same things as the source material.
Now, you say Riki is weak. But the fact that you have finished the story still holding that opinion makes me feel like you didnt understand or something.
(Im really proud of that post, so you could probably go read it and understand, but I’ll reiterate anyway.)
Weakness is a very human characteristic. We are all weak. We are all in need of saving in some way, but at the same time we all have the capability to save others.
Riki’s story is repeated so much because it is literally his life. It is his existence. Riki could not have survived on his own. That is the point of the World Where Nothing Happened. It didn’t keep repeating because Riki kept screwing up. It kept repeating until all of the regrets had been fulfilled. As Kyousuke’s regret was that he would be leaving Riki and Rin alone, the world wouldnt stop repeating until Riki and Rin were strong enough to survive on their own. Of course Riki would fail sometimes. Its cliche but true: we all make mistakes.
Its not like he was “cheating” or something because Kyousuke was helping him. It was Kyousuke’s goal in the first place. The “true end” is an embodiment of Riki’s strength, not Kyousuke’s.
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Well now, there’s where you have it very very wrong.
A lot of people here are saying how you should read the Visual Novel, but I think even just watching the anime suffices. Let me bring up two examples off the top of my head:
Komari’s story: In the anime, he also makes a picture book that helps Komari realize the truth of what is happening. He could have just run away from that, or just left Komari as she is (which he actually does in the VN’s bad end), but he doesn’t; and that makes him stronger
Mio’s story: He could have also just left Midori as is. Heck, because of Midori’s taunting, he almost did so. But he became strong enough to fight that and look for the real Mio. This happens even in the anime, I believe
I could make one example for every route but I don’t have much time now, so I do hope I get my point across
