I love Air. I love the the way the timelines and stories come together and I love the way I cry everytime. Most of all I love Misuzu. Key has many great heroines but Misuzu will always be my #1.
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My vote goes to Clannad because Clannad changed me the most. Angel Beats!, Kanon, and Little Busters! are all also favorites of mine.
I decided it doesn’t really matter to me which one my absolute favorite is because I love them all regardless.
Don’t just invalidate someone’s spoiler tag immediately! Tag that stuff.
(Little Busters) It’s one of the meanings that people have got out of her route. Yes, it didn’t happen, but the scenario can be interpreted as partly a metaphor for it.
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A Misuzu lover! <3
There aren’t many of those these days! :minaamor:
My favourite series is Clannad. It really touched my heart. Why? Well, the heart knows no reason. I myself can’t put a finger on any single factor. But whatever be the reason, Clannad will always hold a special place in my heart.
I forgot that I never actually posted in this topic, only voted. I think I originally voted Clannad but that changed to Harmonia. It’s a bit lonely with 0% of people having Harmonia as their favorite but oh well. The reasoning behind Harmonia taking the spot of my favorite Key series is in the Harmona General topic (spoilers in the topic) here.
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I am really happy Rewrite is leading with 27%. Now I liked the series a lot especially because it was my first ever visual novel. The soundtracks were amazing and the monologue which appears before the opening was enough to hook the readers to find out what happens next. There were a lot of amazing soundtracks such as Tabi by Jun Maeda, Scattered flowers by Ryo Muzutsuki and Yuriha by Orito Shinji. I also liked how the opening song Philosophyz strangely matches well with the storyline. Also, Yami no kanata e will forever be my most played soundtrack. Also, my personality is similar to Koutarou’s and I could relate to him really easily. Although there were some plot holes in each route, I liked how it gets revealed in the other routes and finally in Moon and Terra. Plus, doesn’t the title itself sound cool? I mean the word Rewrite itself suggests some cool stuff will happen.
Come on LB team, don’t slack off!
I’m sticking to my guns here and voting LB. There’s just so much I love about it, but before that let’s compare it to its main “competitors”.
Rewrite: Rewrite in and of itself is an amazingly written piece of art. It’s so deeply layered and intricately woven, I keep finding new things to think about everytime I see it again – and that’s 3 years after finishing the visual novel itself! Romeo Tanaka, and of course the rest of the team, are extremely talented. And don’t get me started on that amazing soundtrack. Though still, I didn’t pick this is because it’s a bit “outlandish”. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s fantastical and it’s unpredictable (I mean who would have thought about making a VN based around environmental concerns?) and it takes you on a grand adventure. But I love Key the most when it’s close and relatable to our own lives, something that rewrite is unfortunately not.
Clannad: Clannad fits the bill of being “relatable”, but it has a few glaring problems. Honestly if Clannad was just After Story, I’d pick it in a heartbeat. But unfortunately, the main bulk of Clannad non-AS has bad to average writing that I find a chore most of the time. The music isn’t that memorable save for a few pieces here and there (in contrast to rewrite which OST I listen to at least once a month), and the art… yeah, I know it’s an old game, but can’t say that was even good for its time. Though one advantage Clannad does have is that it has an amazing anime adaptation, something that can’t be said for the other 2.
Little Busters, on the other hand, has none of those problems… or maybe just a few of them, I admit. Refrain might not be as good as After Story, but as a whole LB is a much more complete package. The heroines are interesting and decently written, the soundtrack is good (Rita is amazing, why isn’t she doing more songs!?), and it probably has the best and funniest common route of any VNs I’ve played. But most of all is that LB is extremely relatable. Riki is your average high school student, living out his daily life, worrying that eventually, good things have to come to an end. I honestly think everyone’s who’s been through high school has experienced this for themselves. It’s a very sad feeling, and one that I can make a personal connection to.
I can probably go on and on even more about how much I love this thing, but I’ll save it for the bookclub later 
so yeah,
RITORU BASUTAZU SAIKOOUUUUUUUUUU
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Wow. You listed out the pros & cons of every series. This might actually help people in voting. (whispersTeam Rewrite let’s keep it up!!!)
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Funnily enough my opinions on those VNs are completely opposite to yours. I’d struggle to call Rewrite well written, but a few good scenes, an interesting world, and a brilliant ost keep it going. The VN hinges on the bait and switch of the route-splitting scene to hook a reader, but may ultimately fail at doing so.
I’d completely swap your paragraph on Clannad with your one on Little Busters. Clannad’s strength was the large amount of similar but different routes, revealing a real contrast to Tomoya and Hikarizaka. Most of the routes (including the many joke ones) are fairly original when coming from Key, and they are placed in such a way that you bob from genre to genre as Tomoya slowly changes… Comedic>Bittersweet>Dramatic>Relaxing, etc… The fact that each route has a distinct and different end goal (bar Tomoyo + Nagisa as they act as parallels) makes each route engaging as an individual tale, while also adding to the overall story.
Little Busters on the other hand doesn’t care at all about routes. They are low quality, knockoffs of past Key tales, executed in ways that aren’t as easily accessible as Clannad. It does have a few highlights, overseas conflict being the big thing that had hardly been done before. Unfortunately the VN’s reliance on unoriginal dramas and the magical revelation that has little interesting baring on previous routes is very hard for me to ignore. It has none of the contrasting storytelling of Clannad due to each route being effectively a closed off instance, and almost every route follows the exact same structure leading to a predictable and unsatisfying conclusion. Little Busters boiled down to the good stuff is a Common route and an ending, although the ending has a lot of storytelling issues in of itself.
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Ouch. I can’t say reading your post didn’t hurt. All your arguments against LB are valid, and I admit they’re very real flaws. Though in contrast to you, I really don’t see them as major. I can’t say that LB was predictable for example, and it’s probably due to the fact that I played LB before Clannad (or Kanon or AIR). So for me the predictability was in the other direction.
Our differing opinions are also probably attributed to a difference in taste, seeing as how I thought the overseas conflict route (I won’t mention the heroine since that’s a spoiler) was pretty terrible. It was original, sure, but the events leading up to it felt unorganic and forced.
The one thing I can agree with you on little busters is that the self-contained routes were a bit messy. They very barely tie in with the other routes, and in the end Refrain doesn’t even acknowledge them.
But in the end it wasn’t something I minded too much. When I’m playing a VN I prefer to focus on what’s in front of me, and I tend to forget the overarching plot. The self-contained routes were like mini-stories that could stand up on its own. Or as you’ve said about the routes in Clannad, they’re engaging as individual tales.
Which is the exact opposite of how I feel for the Clannad routes. Most of the routes in clannad I feel were a chore, and I was eager to get it over with and just get back to the main story. It was more about what a specific route had to do with the main story rather than the route itself. Clannad has a plethora of routes, and you mentioned the changing from genre to genre was a good thing – for me it just ends up like they all feel inconsistent with one another.
I guess in the end it boils down to a difference in tastes. Enjoyment is subjective, and we all have different values and biases. That’s what this poll is about, after all!
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That sounds… odd. CLANNAD’s routes were, for the most part, totally unrelated to the overarching story. Nothing in Kotomi’s nor Kyou’s nor Tomoyo’s route had anything to do with the main story, and stood up very well as their own stories. They were, in essence, mini-stories that could stand up on their own. Not to say Little Busters isn’t like that either, but CLANNAD is even more so.
But yeah, enjoyment is subjective, and if you found CLANNAD’s routes a chore, there isn’t much we can do about that 
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All opinions and views are purely subjective, but while I may be less experienced with every Key Visual Novel and anime adaptation I still think Clannad is the best series Key has. Keep in mind that the opinions of other Key series I share are based mostly upon the animes, since I haven’t read many Key VN’s at this point in time.
One of the big standouts in my opinion in both the Visual Novel and the anime of Clannad is how much the protagonist changes. Sure, there is ample change in many of the protagonists in Key’s work but Tomoya I felt like had his personality brought out differently in each character’s route and interactions with him. His gentle side was brought up with Nagisa and Ryou, his patient and dedicated side with Kotori, his immature and introspective side with Tomoya, his cruel side in Sunohara… I could go on but I think I made my point. This made the protagonist be more than just a self-insert one since he had a bias one way or another. This is especially evident when comparing the anime adaptations, since I felt like both Riki and Yuuichi, for the most part, were written as a typical self-insert Visual Novel protagonist.
Another big thing character wise is the characters themselves. Clannad does have the advantages over others wherein we see where the other characters go after High School and even at times get further development from them in After Story. Now many of the characters across all Key series all had individual goals and motivations but Clannad shows what the characters ended up doing and how they fit into society now while also helping Tomoya grow in some way. It made the characters feel more real (by real I mean like I felt as if they felt like they gave the illusion of being real people I knew in real life) and I felt like each end in a route had a meaningful impact on everyone. Additionally, people entered and re-entered his life and they all felt vital and purposeful in pushing Tomoya, the themes, and the narrative forward in a cohesive way. To an extent, this can also be argued for Little Busters, but I didn’t feel as if they were quite as real. Sometimes, I felt like the characters were a bit hollow or because of the anime adaptation, they weren’t given sufficient time. That view may change when the LB VN releases on Steam, but we’ll see.
There is also the setting to consider and while I like the more realistic and plain locales of Kanon and Air, I feel as if they town itself in Clannad was its own personified attributes. The environment the characters are in plays a pivotal role in their development and I feel like since the town was given frequent mention by Okazaki and especially Akio, it made it feel like less of a backdrop and more of a real place where people exist in. It shows the suffocation, idleness and gossipy that a more secluded and rural community has as well as the tight-knit and closeness as well. It also highlights how much memories and events are tied to a place as the characters discuss their pasts with Tomoya. It creates and influences their outlook immensely and I felt that is a unique thing that most Key series don’t always have.
In a given Key series, there are a few tracks I find myself returning to relisten and relive memories. With Clannad, I felt the entire soundtrack was filled with memorable track after track and eventually it became nearly impossible to pick my favourite. The intro music I felt was soothing and calming, setting the mood perfectly when loading the game each time. And that goes for the rest of the soundtrack too. All the tracks were memorable in their own way and stood out to me, making an unbreakable link between the song and the scene where it plays in.
Lastly, to every Key series, there is going to be a differing level of emotional attachment to them because of how they relate to each of them. Clannad for me was by far the one I related to the strongest. Without going into a lot of detail, I have often questioned the true implication and meaning of the word “family”. Clannad showed a different perspective and presented its own thematic definitions of it and I saw the importance of having that family unit exist in one’s life. In comparison to the others, Clannad’s themes were very potent for me and were things I really needed to hear when I watched/played it.
Again, this is all just opinions but for the following and various other reasons, Clannad will always likely be my favourite Key series.
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Having read my share of VN’s, one thing I’ve kept a close eye on is not just how a VN can be judged as a single piece, but how it can be judged by the quality of all it’s individual facets. Story, soundtrack, art, engine. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s a summary.
I’ll talk about art first. There’s a distinct difference between art “quality” and art “style”. I think many of us would admit that the art of say, Clannad, was pretty low quality. Yet many of us still greatly enjoy the art. I assert that this is because the art in Clannad is in a style we enjoy.
Next is soundtrack. I think, even more so than art, soundtrack (including voices and SE) can make or break a VN. For all the VN’s I’ve really enjoyed, I can think of at least a few tracks off the top of my head. But for the ones that left no impression, nothing comes to mind. I have a perfect example of this for me, that is, the VN Shadows of Pygmalion. I would say that it has a mediocre story, and outright bad art, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. This is because the soundtrack is absolutely sick.
As for the engine, this is probably the aspect I give the least thought too, but every now and then you just get a VN that barely runs properly and fucks up everything else you’re trying to do on your computer, so I do think it has to be considered. And it can be frustrating when you can’t do certain things with one VN that you’re used to being able to do with others - like access the music and CG galleries at the same time (or at all).
Finally, story. Overall, this is probably the most important aspect, but I don’t think it can carry a VN on it’s own.
It’s very easy to look at Romeo Tanaka’s works in this way, specifically Rewrite, Cross Channel, and Yume Miru Kusuri. Rewrite had pretty much perfect of all four aspects (in my opinion), and it’s not even comparable with the other two to me. Yume Miru Kusuri, even though it had the same writer, was mediocre in my opinion, and I’ve come to recognise that it’s because the soundtrack and art were just not up to the same standard as the story. Cross Channel is a happy medium, with an extremely solid art, story, and soundtrack, but not excellent of any of the three (and to be honest, a kind of annoying engine).
Rewrite is the only VN where I’d feel comfortable giving a perfect score in all aspects. The art is by far the best of any VN, in my opinion (I’ve considered Harmonia before, but that overly moe art style kind of gets annoying after too long, and it even starts to hurt my eyes a little. Though Harmonia was short enough for it not to be a problem, admittedly). I’d feel comfortable saying that Rewrite has perfect of both art style and quality. As for soundtrack, I don’t think I need to say anything. I think music appeals to instinct/emotion, so we could sit here all day and argue whether it has a better or worse soundtrack than say, Little Busters, but I think it’s the undisputed best. There’s almost nothing more I could ask from the engine, except for maybe a rewind function. And lastly, the story. People have always told me I think too much, but I’ve never engaged in deep, meaningful thought like when I read Rewrite. There’s also the way the story manages to cover all the bases of storytelling perfectly. The shounen action of Chihaya’s route, the romance of Akane and Lucia’s routes, the horror and mystery of Lucia’s route, the tragedy of Kotori’s route, the way the Terra route brings everything together, I could go on for years. It has my favourite MC of all time, and though I’m not a whiny high school girl, both my favourite ships of all time: Kotarou-Chihaya closely followed by Kotarou-Akane.
And after all that, my favourite Key VN is Little Busters!
LB gives Rewrite a run for it’s money in a number of ways, and though I could talk about how I still think Rewrite’s art, soundtrack and story were just better overall, I’d say the area where Little Busters falls behind in my mind is that it doesn’t engage the reader in thought as well as Rewrite does.
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I like most of the Key series,but so far i realy love Litlle Busters,It’s realy touching visual novel with friendship and other things.
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Huh, I’d give it good marks on music, but everything else it kind of struggled with. Art was inconsistent and at times nonexistent, the story was an uncoordinated mess, and I didn’t even care much for the heroines.
My “perfect in all aspects” (if I had to choose) would go towards Kara no Shoujo. Amazing art, amazing music, amazing voice acting, really good story, and… Well, let’s not talk about the engine.
Once you get to Angel Beats (or even Holy Breaker) you realize how outdated Rewrite feels.
My favorite Key series is Rewrite for several reasons. Firstly, Lucia, who is best girl in anything ever is from Rewrite. The other girls aren’t half-bad either (Except for Akane, she’s a bitch). Secondly, it pretty much has everything in it. It has drama, it has comedy, it has romance , it has action, it has fantasy, a little bit of sci-fi, and even environmental themes. There’s stuff for everyone here.
Clannad, it was such a great experience watching around 50 episodes of such a consistently good show with my friends so it was also the one that gave me the most good memories as well. A huge reason why Clannad is my favorite is because I cannot think of a single character that wasn’t great in the show despite the modest cast size, especially based Akio, since even my other favorite shows occasionally have the mediocre character thrown in there but not with clannad.
Not gonna lie though, at first when I heard the name clannad I thought it was some fantasy adventure thing because I thought it meant armor clad.
Clannad, mostly because it was my first and because Tomoyo is my waifu, but also because I really liked the family interactions and Tomoya and Nagisa’s growth as people. My main complaint with Clannad is that Tomoyo lacked screentime in After Story, but I guess that’s what Tomoyo After is for.
