Time-travelling Helios is even more negative about the route than current-day Helios?! 
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Wait, so what about her True/Good Ending? What happened to Sasami in her True Ending? Does she come back to the real world after coming to terms with her pet cat’s death? She’s still there in the real world, isn’t she? From what people are saying, her Bad Ending was flat-out ridiculous in that Sasami disappears from the real world due to still being in the dream world and everybody except Riki forgetting who she was. What? Doesn’t this contradict the rules of the dream world before?
In fact, what happens in her True Ending? Can someone explain it to me? There isn’t a detailed summary about any of Sasami’s Bad and Good/True Endings, so I’m hoping someone can explain it for me, especially those that got her both of her endings.
In her true ending she and riki get back to the real world. They both remember the incident and i think Rin, Komari and Kyousuke also remember it (it’s not explained properly just hinted).
So, Sasami and Riki got back to the real world in her true ending? Not only that, they both remember the incident as well? Huh, that’s good, but I wonder, doesn’t Sasami come to terms with Kuro’s death? I love that she does come to terms with her cat’s death, but I wonder how that will work out? I guess she has Riki with her to help out, huh? What do you all think about this?
Not fully but she stops blaming herself for not searching hard enough for kuro and also kuro forgives her for not recognising her. You can tell it at the end of her route she buries kuro by digging up the grave herself and giving her a final resting place.
And yeah i read that post, it’s not like I’m going be online whole day and beside I’m in a different timezone than yours it’s 12 Am here. If you were just asking a confirmation then okay.
Huh, that’s nice, seeing Sasami giving Kuro a final resting place. I’m glad that she can at least move on to the future with the friends she made with Riki and the other Little Busters. I still consider the Bad Ending to be idiotic as well as dumb because it contradicts everything about the dream world in the other routes pre-Refrain.
Even if they are, they may be occupied elsewhere and just taking a quick look, so try not to nag people until you’re sure they just forgot after a while.
The most ridiculous thing (more than her ending) i find in this route is that her falling in love with riki depends on a can of ‘Mon petite’.
‘Mon petite’!!! Seriously a bunch of cat food makes her fall for Riki. Did they even wanted to treat it as a real route when they were making it. This makes it seem like her route was treated as just a gag route and nothing more.
Well that was all pretty meh, some enjoyable moments but I lost interest long before the end. Then again I’ve never had a pet and don’t have much “animal empathy” so the whole weight of the good end was lost on me. I did think I would like Sasami once we got to the point past seeing her just as Rin’s nemesis but it never really happened. So, my new least favourite route.
As per Saya though, I consider this route as a bit of a bonus so doesn’t affect my rating of the whole LB! package.
The relationship between Sasami and Riki was a bit forced, but I still enjoyed the route. Learning more of the rules behind the Dream worlds is fun for me.
From what I’m aware, World Masters can leave whenever they want. In Kyousuke’s case, he could come and go, though time resets in the real world when he does. Other than from Sasami’s bad end though, we don’t know what happens if a non-Master is left behind in a world that hasn’t served its purpose. Kyousuke made Riki and Rin leave through the school gates, but he could have ejected them himself if he so wanted. He could have done that with Saya too.
I don’t think the bad end should be taken too seriously, but my guess is that Sasami’s body was absorbed into the collapsing dream world. Everyone’s memories of her were also absorbed, leaving nobody save Riki to remember her. The only other possibility I can think of is that she’s in a coma, but then Komari would have still found her body at least.
It’s difficult to retain memories of the Dream World founded by regrets and emotions. Kuro’s wish was for his (or her?) emotions towards Sasami to be conveyed, so she retained the memories pertaining to those emotions. Riki remembering was likely due to his strong will (again, emotions) to help Sasami and Kuro. These emotions also carried over to Kyousuke and Komari. While they didn’t remember the details, they felt that they had to support Sasami as she buried Kuro.
As for how Riki managed to get back into Kuro’s Dream World, it seemed to me like he created a small Dream World of his own while he was in limbo and used it as a tunnel of sorts. The piano in the background that Riki so graciously acknowledged, reminded me of Kurugaya. Maybe there’s a connection?
Sasami’s route also suggests that there are many Dream Worlds created through strong feelings of regret at the brink of death. Some of these Worlds don’t succeed in serving their “purpose.” If they do, sometimes a miracle can occur as a result, as we’ve seen with Riki and Rin.
I also think Kuro chose Riki to support Sasami because he felt (subconsciously?) that Riki was best suited to help fulfill the World’s purpose.
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Huh, that’s true. Sasami’s route reveals that there’s the possibility of other dream worlds existing, as seen with Kuro. Komari and Kyousuke gain emotions from Kuro, so they, along with Riki, will support Sasami as she buries Kuro? So, we shouldn’t take Sasami’s bad ending too seriously, right, considering that Sasami still has the chance to get out of that Dream World? I mean, Riki still remembers her.
For her good, true ending, at least she was able to reconcile with Kuro and get back to the real world to bury her/him? Also, she has the support of Riki, Kyousuke, and Komari to help her? Is that right so far? Wait, Sasami does come back to the real world along with Riki, right?
Aight so.
My mindset for this route is ‘It’s the meme route, go into it expecting silly jokes in a silly situation’.
And that’s what I got, this is some A+ comedy, some of LB’s best, this was the best way to do this, Sasami was already something of a joke character so this is a natural progression, seeing her utterly self destruct on a moments notice fails to ever actually get old, she’s hardly the deepest or most complex character but she’s definitely fun and far from the worst either.
I terms of the memeroutery I had been expecting it delivered in spades, I’d even go as far as to say the silly rules that bind Sasami to Riki’s room to force them to interact so that the route can even exist is good purely because of how absurdly forced it is, and then something unexpected happened:
It stopped memeing and got really good.
So first off, it’s pretty neat to see some dream world mechanics explored, the scene with Kyousuke is great, how he describes that he just had to find the right radio frequency to connect to RIki in that world is hilarious in it’s absurdity, it’s so Kyousuke.
BUT I CAN’T DEAL WITH THAT SCENE AT THE END WHERE SASAMI PLAYS WITH KURO ONE LAST TIME.
I simply cannot keep my shit together reading it, every other line is another knife in my heart. I’ve already gone on record calling out the scene with Miles in Rin2 as one of the best scenes in the VN but Sasami playing with Kuro is that times fucking ten, because this has a really good build up, and you know that Kuro has had a bad life and just wanted this and didn’t even get this in reality and it’s playing Song For Friends and the CG is of them both as children to remember a time before it all AND I. CAN’T. DEAL. WITH. THIS.
This scene alone could carry my opinion of the route pretty high up by itself, by all means, but that memery isn’t a bad thing either, the transition is surprisingly smooth between the two, I have no qualms about not just simply calling it the second best character route in LB, but a hell of a lot closer to Haruka’s than you might expect me to say.
FOR REAL I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS.
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After finishing Refrain earlier today, I read Sasami’s route all in one go. It’s not the strongest route, but it was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. The ending teared me up a little, but something at the end really bugged me about the route.
Kyousuke was able to contact Riki inside the dream world. I’m not going to question how he was able to do so, as I don’t think there’s really enough information to say anything other than “He’s Kyousuke, he can do anything.” Note that I haven’t read the other two EX routes yet, so maybe those have something that deny this theory.
Assuming that Riki talked to the real Kyousuke (meaning it wasn’t a fake Kyousuke created by the cat in order to lead Riki towards the truth), that means time in the real world was still moving while they were in the dream world, and it was probably at the same pace. After all, Kyousuke couldn’t notice anything was wrong if time was basically frozen, meaning some amount of time passed in which he noticed multiple people were in the dream world.
This means that Riki was unconscious for probably a week, if the time they spent in the dream world was 1:1. However, we see Riki waking up normally in his bed towards the end of the route, as if nothing happened. It’d be normal for him to wake up in a hospital, but not in his room, given he probably would have died for dehydration or something along those lines.
It’s safe to say that because of this, Riki woke up in his bed on October 24 (if I remember the in-game dates correctly.), as he entered the dream world sometime during the 23, most likely. Assuming my reasoning is correct (it isn’t), this means that Riki and Sasami (and possibly a few others who woke up after the Kyousuke call) woke up in a different timeline. This means that there is potentially a timeline where Riki, Sasami, and maybe a few others never woke up, or were swapped with their alternate timeline versions.
Of course, that’s just me looking way too hard at a plot hole or I just missed a mechanic regarding the dream world. Besides that, I was a big fan of the route, although leaving the romance ambiguous was a bit weird. I guess it makes sense given this is post-Refrain where there isn’t a canon romance (as far as I know).
TL;DR The Kyousuke call reminded me of Koizumi from Haruhi, and I tried to apply time travel physics to fill in a plot hole.
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Finally finished this sucker of a route a few minutes ago, and I have to say…I’m a little disappointed. Not that I thought the route was bad by any means, but it just didn’t feel as interesting or emotional as Kanata’s route.
So Sasami has been one of those characters whom I thought might benefit from a route, if only because of how much attention she was given in the original release of LB!. She’s rather haughty, thinks of Rin as a rival and Kengo as a love interest, and has a cult of girls following her all the time. Needless to say, the reason she is in the Busters’ world at all is somewhat of a mystery, until the nakige gods smiled upon her after the release of the game and said, “Let there be feels.” 
I was honestly surprised to see Sasami’s route deliberately take place after the events of Refrain. I was excited for the possibilities that could come from how Sasami acts in the real world, rather than being a construct of someone’s mind. Speaking of which, this route all but confirmed my suspicion that the Busters’ world was constructed from memories, as that would explain how Riki was able to venture to certain places far beyond the school on multiple occasions. However, this route also expresses the limitations that arise from trying to sustain a world by oneself. I feel this route helped clarify a lot of details in regards to how worlds are created, which does seem quite interesting.
As to the content of the route, well…it’s a mixed bag. The story isn’t quite sure whether it wants to be a romance on top of a mystery or not, and while the fluff used to pad the route is entertaining, there wasn’t really anything in this route that gripped me emotionally aside from the ending. As a result, this route feels a lot longer than it ought to be. Speaking of the mystery aspect, it was fairly easy to guess early on that Sasami had turned into a cat, as well as the fact that the cat Sasami took care of as a child was the one running the world. I appreciate Tonokawa’s efforts to misdirect the reader, but he’s never really been known for subtlety. 
I didn’t get a chance to really talk about this with Kanata earlier, but I think the EX character themes are phenomenal in getting the player ready to romance these otherwise ‘unromanceable’ characters. “The Cat, the Glass and the Round Moon” feels like a reflection of Rin’s theme in this instance, its upbeat energy and elegant melody demonstrating how similar and yet how different she is from Rin. It’s also a really catchy theme, so…thanks for the earworm, Maeda. 
Well, that’s about all I have to say. This route didn’t so much change my perspective on Sasami as it warmed me up to her as a character. I just wish this route offered a little more than it gave us. Anyway, all that’s left on my plate is Saya, and I hope this one will be the best out of them all. 
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What the heck? Why? I wasn’t expecting much. I even knew the plot from the OVAs… So… why?
Even though it’s just Sasami… just Sasami… where did all these feeeeeeeeeels come from?! T_T
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From Kuro.
Not from Sasami.
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Sasami’s route refelcts what I feel to be the most airtight writeing in the entirety of little busters. That is not to say that its innternal consistancy or general content are in any way head or shoulders above that which has been observed thus, but rather that the methods of storytelling and the pacing are some of the finest the game has to offer.
Little Busters and by extent more or less every arc in the studio key games have a tendancy to follow a general sort of foremula. That being an opening section that is light on content but heavy in jokes and slice of life material that hints at some character conflict followed by a defining tragic event that leads to a downwords spiral of despair before a final uplifting conclusion. While this foremula is maleable it is certainly present. Now let us compare how certain arcs utilize that foremula.
Kud and Kanata suffer, to different extents, from dissonance between their slice of life portions and their heavier portions in that the content is largely separated between the two segments. It’s easy in this way to think of their arcs not really “starting” until the content grows darker. With Sasami, her struggle is omnipresent in the fact that it is physical. This allows for the narrative to present jokey and light elements to itself while also pushing forward the core plot, as opposed to presenting the jokey elements and only after that introducing the core plot. The result is a narrative that does not waste time. Even when it meanders, as it does later with Kengo a bit, the story has much more of a present and definite drive to it than, say, Kud’s arc. This also applies to the romance, which is done in a much more tangible way than Komari for example. Sasami and Riki have moments of closeness, atraction, and emotional bonding leading up to the inevitable confession in a way that feels much more real–like Kurugaya–than some of the other heroines. It’s scenes like discussing Riki’s past and sharing a meal between tears that really sell me on the romance.
This compositional deftness is also to say nothing of the themes of the route itself. While Kanata’s route focuses on the theme of empathy, natural as it is related to Haruka’s route which discusses the same things, Sasami lingers on regret, guilt, and what it takes to grow and to move on from the past. As I disicussed with the good boy Eisen, the tone and the thematic framework are very similar to Kanon in that way. Much like the girls in Kanon, Sasami’s character struggle is how she is trapped coping with a long time loss and doing so poorly. She carries a regret about her due to never being able to find Kuro on that day, a regret that informs her actions at present–though not quite to the extent that it did for the Kanon girls. The final message is the same as that presented in Kanon: when faced with loss one must never forget that the ache they feel comes from the love that was so integral to them.
The ending of the arc is fantastic in a number of ways. Sasami is able to let go of the regret that she felt for so long as she and Kuro both feel the mutual love for one another that had been lost many years ago. Furthermore, Sasami herself is able to learn greater empathy, accepting that Kuro never hated her and of course going as far as to happily join the little busters at the end. Once again and for the last time, the circle of friends has grown one person larger. The characters are able to accept the inevitability of loss, but go on remembering the love they felt far into the future.
None of this is to say that the arc is perfect. As Natsubae and plenty of other have discussed, the mechanics of the Kuro world are in many ways contradictory to those established in refrain. Furthermore the red herring about Sasami and Kengo is a bit too obviously a red herring for the segment to not seem like a waste of time. And even the premise itself, as my lad Zosonte pointed out, is by nature of its existence a forced excuse to place these two characters who otherwise would not at all talk to one another in a situation where they can grow close. However, the emotional heart of the story and the direction is stunning and the ultimate message is so relevant to the rest of the story, about how nothing lasts forever and it is because of that that we must make the most of the time we have, that it feels and works perfectly as a cap off to the narrative, even if it is not necessarily so.
Furthermore, to quote a scholar, “I do like the black lace.”
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So, I’m done with Sasami as my first EX route.
The route’s strong start was really appreciated by me. There is some really good quality time with the other member’s of the little busters, and all in their even stronger post-Refrain bonds. Also, being post-refrain, it could more openly adress the other routes, which showed itself later with a scene where Haruka and Kanata show their bond. Aikawa-kun gets a mention as well, great!
We also see a lot of Riki’s growth here, he really is much more independent.
The route itself - I agree with a lot of @EisenKoubu said. The mystery aspect was mostly pretty obvious - I figured out most of it long before it was even began to be questioned by Riki, which made a lot of his figuring things out and generally staying in the dark about things a bit boring and frustrating. I also agree that aside from the other Busters having more screentime and the ending, the rest of the route is mostly just mediocre, even a bit boring.
As for learning more about the dream worlds: yeah, there was a lot to learn. Especially that most creatures can have one, and that was not just a one time incident, but a general thing in the world. Timelinewise, I interpreted it as the whole dream just being about one night in reality, however long it was in the Dream World. Maybe no time at all. Aside from that, it gets funky. Kyousuke communicating with Riki might just be a strong wish to do so, which resonates with these worlds made out of dying wishes. I have no explanation to the disappearance of Sasasegawa Sasami though. It works as a bad end, but it has no substance on the so far established rules of these worlds.
The transforming into a cat also was totally unnecessary for Kuro’s world. I did not mind it, but in the end I agree it was just a tool to force Sasami to interact with Riki.
Now the end did hit hard. This time we are confronted with actual death, not just a seemingly inescapable one coming up. I, unexpected, cried harder during this route than any other. However, that might have been due to being in a different situation. I had to deal with the death of my grandfather a little more than 1 week before reading this route, and while I am able to move on quite well, but it may or may not have been a part of why this affected me more strongly than routes before it.
Let’s get to Sasami as a character. I don’t actually have too much to talk about her. Her impression is pretty much the same as in the common route, but stronger. She is still very tsun. She ultimately has good intentions, however, her tsun aspect overshadows her dere a lot.
Kuro on the other hand is just such a good and strong character. Not only did he recover from a really bad start into life and build trust to his new mother quickly, he also stayed strong through all the trouble, including Sasami not recognizing him. I am happy his final wish was fulfilled.
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Sasasdhgbgds’s route, from what I’ve observed, has been pretty much joked as the salami of the EX sandwich, and basing on the scores up there and the current discussions it’s not particularly well-received. And you know what classical piece (I may as well bring this up early) is also treated similarly? The 2nd Movement of Moonlight Sonata.
It’s very true that the very familiar 1st and 3rd movements are abso-frickin-lutely amazing, so when you sandwich such a light and simple movement between these two, it’s definitely going to get buried down. I think that’s what happened in this route.
Well, the thing is, I actually quite like the 2nd Movement. Salami’s route, especially quite a lot.
One, the route had really good moments of levity. The jokes were funny but never felt too repetitive, and the Kud fluff was actually entertaining.
Second, I was amazed with how well the story fleshed out Sasashfdskhfs as a character. Sure, she was kinda-annoyingly cartoony at first, but getting into the route, we get to find out about her as someone with actual motivations and goals for herself (which I felt was sadly rare among Key heroines), a drive to actively change the dynamics in her community, a crush that felt realistic, romantic feelings that contrivances aside progressed naturally, and an emotional conflict that IMO felt grounded.
Sasadfhsakjdfh’s conflict is that she regretted abandoning her feline friend in the past, and she handled that by making herself feel hatred and doubt – by assuming that the cat may have hated her – if only to distance herself from something potentially sad. That reminded me a bit of Komari’s situation, and while I like Komari route, I’m glad Tonokawa was finally able to utilize its kind of conflict in a way that felt more grounded. Also, Sasasdhsajhgs’s reaction is pretty consistent with how she often distanced herself from other people by being tsun, which is a nice touch.
Lastly, I didn’t expect to cry but I frickin’ did. Idk, I never really had a feline friend, but Sasajdfsah fearing that Kuro may have hated her was relatable asf as someone who has feared that towards actual people.
The route wasn’t perfect though. I didn’t have that much problems with the inconsistencies, like I don’t think the bad end contradicted anything that has been so far established considering it was never really established beforehand what would happen if you get trapped in the artificial world without resolving the creator’s wish, or maybe I’m just missing out on anything more.
Rather, it’s more about Riki’s lack of eye for boobs all the plot acrobatics the story took to justify all the contrivances it established. I have to give it to this route for trying though; the payoff for all that was oddly satisfying, like finding out why Riki is even involved in the first place.
4.5/5, Salami Sasasdjalshdfag went from “meh” to “possibly best girl” real quick I still can’t believe it
P.S.: The necessary flags made zero sense like wth how do you even logically get to her route without a walkthrough
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I think people exaggerated how rigid the rules of the world are. The magic in LB! is actually soft* as fuck because none of the characters understand it. They mostly just stumbled upon things that worked in their favor.
*Reference to Sanderson’s Laws of Magics
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