The first key title I read/watched was Clannad, but I think my favorite overall is Little Busters with Angel Beats being a VERY close second. Beyond hyped for the visual novel of the latter.
That said, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from Key, those are just my top picks.
Wow It’s really hard to pick a favorite of all the things that you really like. The first time I came here I was all over LitBus, but now that I have finished Rewrite, I found that it really hit my shonen heart with all those epic battle and fight, so… Rewrite of the life~!
While it’s messy and there are inconsistencies here and there when you put them all together, I enjoyed each of the route and extras thoroughly, which is rare for me.
That said, I’m really hyped for AB! VN. The quality of the CGs are really improved from the previous KEY series. With the beautiful story that also has some action in it, AB might be my new favorite after finishing the VN.
I guess it’s pretty obvious for me but I’ll try and keep it short ^_^*
So obviously Air is my favourite for a number of reasons (specifically the anime). Firstly, for me it exemplifies how style should be woven into a story, everything is perfect in that regard. The feeling of summer, warmth, the ocean and the sky all marry so perfectly with the gorgeous soundtrack, art and sound design. The only other thing that comes close in that regard I think is Kanon which did the winter theme almost as well as Air did Summer.
Secondly, though also with relation to style, I feel it’s very elegant and understated. I never found it to be melodramatic and nothing ever went over the top, it was very calm and confident in its own style (I know this is vague I just can’t explain it any other way >_<). It didn’t overindulge in “anime comedy” which for the most part I find incredibly cringe-worthy and it didn’t have any fanservice either; any nudity was treated as the story required and not cause for embarrassment or immaturity.
So there’s that, and also the fact that I just love the story and the characters, specifically Misuzu and I also loved the dynamics between Kanna, Ryuuya and Uraha. I’ve always loved the ending in all it’s bittersweet beauty. It doesn’t overindulge in tragedy, there’s always a resolution or an upside to things and all in all it just does it’s heartbreaking scenes in a very quiet, genuinely emotional way.
My favorite currently is Little Busters. The theme of friendship really resonances with me, especially when the theme is so well delivered. As I played through LB, I found myself really caring about each of the characters and their relationships not only with Riki but with eachother. Even with other Key works, I only was really able to find this kind of connection to the characters and their relationships in Little Busters.
I was pretty sure I already wrote in that topic. While I dont like the main protagonist that much, my fav is still Little Busters. It’s overall really well done and I loved almost everything about it.
Oh hey I guess this thread is up and kickin’ again :o
Well, I made this thread back then and labeled it specifically as “Favourite Key Series” as opposed to “Favorite Key Visual Novel” specifically because I personally think that judging a work for it’s sake of being a VN adds a whole new dimension of things to take into consideration. I guess I might be unique in this opinion, but I very much treat VNs as a video game, and not just a medium of storytelling as most would label them as. So, personally, if I asked myself “Which is my favorite Key VN?” I would take things such as choice mechanic and story branching into consideration. By labeling it as “series” I could focus on things related more to storytelling such as characters and setting (even though, for the longest time, I had been undecided). Which is why, in the first poll, I did not consider Tomoyo After as a separate series. Of course after learning more about the series, I realize I am wrong, and Tomoyo After and Kud Wafter definitely do stand alone as their own series, whereas Harvest Festa does not.
Digressing aside, I guess it’s about time I put in my vote for favorite series. See, like I said, for the longest time, I had been undecided about this sort of thing. So I decided to do what I do best: Analyze the shit out of it!
So here’s what I did: I would rate each of the series over certain criteria, then calculate which one would get the highest average score. However, I couldn’t rate them with a simple “out of 10” scale, because then I’d just end up rating all of them 8-10/10 in all of the criteria, and that wouldn’t get me anywhere. As such, my scores for rating would be a rank; The series that I think did that criteria best would have the highest score, and the one that did that criteria worst would get the lowest. That way, being the lowest score would be heavily penalized.
The criteria I selected are as follows:
Now then, onto my ratings!
Characters:
Kanon: 3
AIR: 2
CLANNAD: 1
Little Busters: 7
planetarian: 4
Rewrite: 6
Angel Beats: 5
Little Busters has, without a doubt, the best characters. Quirky but lovable cast, lots of character development, and great involvement between each other. Rewrite takes second, with Angel Beats following. Planetarian was pretty solid, then the rest of the series come after. What I found to have the worst characters was CLANNAD. To be honest, none of the characters really stood out to me. Even though I say my favorites are Ryou and Kappei, I just pick that out of a sense of interest, and can’t really articulate why I like them. Furthermore, the characters don’t really develop much =/ If anything, Tomoya is the only one that heavily develops throughout the story.
Setting
Kanon: 7
AIR: 3
CLANNAD: 2
Little Busters: 1
planetarian: 6
Rewrite: 4
Angel Beats: 5
I find it a bit interesting that I rate Kanon as the highest in terms of setting. Much like other Key works, it has a very mundane setting to it, which I am honestly not a fan of. However it has two key elements that I think drive the story: Snow and Memories. The snow adds this somber tone to the series as a whole, and the fact that Yuuichi has memories with all of the cast which he must now bring up again I feel is what drives the story, and it couldn’t have worked otherwise. I may be a bit biased in picking planetarian and Angel Beats right after as these having more fantastical settings gives it plus points. Rewrite’s was a bit more unique because of the layout of Kazamatsuri. AIR was also a bit more unique because it was a very small, unpopulated town. CLANNAD and Little Busters, however, use the heavily overplayed “mundane high school” setting, and, the way I see it, any other mundane high school could have worked to achieve either of those stories.
Theme
Kanon: 1
AIR: 6
CLANNAD: 7
Little Busters: 2
planetarian: 5
Rewrite: 3
Angel Beats: 4
Like I said, this is one of the more subjective criteria. I absolutely loved CLANNAD’s theme of family, and can relate to it quite a lot. The subthemes prevalent were also ones that I could appreciate as some of them were inherently romance-focused. AIR’s was also really great and I have the bookclub to thank for helping me realize it’s theme. planetarian and Angel Beats once again have pretty solid themes, what with the valuing of life and experiences. Rewrite’s and Little Buster’s themes while, sure, they were good, they just didn’t click with me (and I sometimes felt a disconnect between the story and the theme being presented). Kanon’s simply had no worth for me. It definitely felt like each route was a separate story with a separate theme, most of which really didn’t apply much to me.
Main Story
AIR: 5
CLANNAD: 4
Little Busters: 6
planetarian: 3
Rewrite: 1
Angel Beats: 2
Little Buster’s Refrain was, without a doubt, the best main story in any of the Key games. I would have generally chosen Clannad’s after story after this, but I definitely gained a whole new appreciation of AIR’s main story after having read it. So clannad goes after that then planetarian whose main story was also solid. For Angel Beats, well… I can’t help feeling that the main story was Otonashi’s story, which I really didn’t appreciate much. Perhaps this will change in the VN, perhaps it won’t. Rewrite, however, disappointed me the most with the Terra route. While I think that it is pretty well-written, I still didn’t gain much from it.
Side stories
Kanon: 3
AIR: 2
CLANNAD: 4
Little Busters: 1
Rewrite: 6
Angel Beats: 5
This might be a personal opinion, but I enjoyed each and every one of Rewrite’s side routes. The great part about it is that they all had a different feel to them, which added to the diversity of those stories. Angel Beats was pretty solid in this regard, too; we had Yui, Iwasawa, even Naoi, all of which tackled really heavy themes that I loved. CLANNAD was a bit more inconsistent since some routes I loved, others I didn’t, and Kanon’s was pretty average. However, with Little Busters, I was never a fan of the side routes. A lot of them I think weren’t written very well. Many of them I didn’t even enjoy.
Emotional Impact
Kanon: 1
AIR: 6
CLANNAD: 7
Little Busters: 5
planetarian: 2
Rewrite: 3
Angel Beats: 4
Clannad had the best emotional impact for me. Not only did it have me bawling while reading/watching, it was also one that I could look back and still feel the same emotions about. AIR was a close second and LB was pretty up there too. Angel Beats had one memorable scene for me, but I don’t want to rate it highly just because of one scene. The rest were average, and I guess Kanon was the worst as it imparted not much emotional impact that I can look back and feel the same way towards.
Music
Kanon: 5
AIR: 6
CLANNAD: 2
Little Busters: 4
planetarian: 3
Rewrite: 7
Angel Beats: 1
Rewrite had, IMO, the best music. Quality was great and they fit the specific parts of the story as well. Heck, even Harvest Festa’s BGMs were good. AIR’s was a bit repetitive at times but they sounded soooo good and were so fitting. Kanon’s had this sense of nostalgia that I absolutely adore whenever I hear it. Angel Beats had the worst BGMs though and the GDM tracks really weren’t enough to carry it over.
So, after rating everything with my system, how do the results look? Well I divided the total scores of each by the highest possible max score for each (since Kanon and planetarian have lower max scores) then multiplies by 100 to make it more readable, and it looks like this:
Well whoop-de-doo, AIR and Rewrite are tied… I just don’t know how to feel about this anymore @_@ Rewrite definitely had more solid points for it, but also had things that I think drew away from it’s potential. AIR, on the other hand, was pretty solid in all fields, but didn’t win in any.
It does however give me a good way of looking at how highly I regard Key works. Heck, after AIR and Rewrite, all the other series are extremely close to each other, which accurately represents how I feel about them. Kanon lags far behind, though, and I’m okay with that as I was never a big fan of Kanon.
So I guess you can count me as still undecided for now. I hope Charlotte will be good enough to break the mold 
Unless I decide to add a new criteria, I don’t think these scores will change much. I made these like a month or two ago, and I looked back on them and still haven’t changed anything (except one field where I accidentally put the wrong value in)
Let’s just hope Charlotte has characters as good as LB!, a setting as conductive as Kanon, a theme as beautiful and well explored as in CLANNAD, a story as good as LB!, side stories as interesting as Rewrite, emotional value as intense as in CLANNAD and a soundtrack as good as Rewrite.
I put my hopes into you, Maeda. Impress us, as you always do.
Setting is already amazing, and I would rate that maybe above planetarian or Angel Beats. Characters are good so far, but I have to wait for character growth. I don’t think I can expect much from side stories, but I might be blown away. Main story, emotional value, and theme are still an unknown factor as of the moment. Soundtrack is sounding amazing, but I just hope they use it properly.
That being said, even if I do end up fannboying about charlotte, I will still put in the values in this rating spreadsheet of mine, just for the sake of fairness
Well, your method end up weight Main story and Side stories a little lower than the others. 
My personal favorite is Little Busters, the theme of friendship is very well done, the lack of romance is actually a plus here. The way each route is somewhat related, and transitioned fluidly into “conclusion” route make the story much more engaging.
Don’t want to rank the rest, it’s hard to pick.
Rewrite is brought down by the dissonance of character routes and “conclusion” routes.
Kanon is too bland. Together with CLANNAD, lack reasonable reason to pick the “main” route (maybe i’m just sick of sick girl tropes).
Planetarian is good, but I feel it’s not worth for the money.
AIR, is it that great? Honestly, i’m not even finished reading it. It’s just not my type of story.
Lower? They’re ranked equally.
I didn’t show my formula, but I divided all of them by the total possible score. Which is 41 for planetarian and Kanon, then 47 for the rest. It’s all proportional, don’t worry
I still haven’t read Planetarian… your post makes me want to read it right away.
That’s the problem. Do you really think that setting and soundtrack are as important as the story? Just a question, if you really think, then it’s fine.
Because, like, Kanon was first released with zero soundtrack, so…
The maximum possible score for Main story and Side stories is 6, while maximum score of other criterions is 7. If you just add up or average the data, these two criterion end up with 1/7 less weight than other criterions. To get equal weight for each criterion, you need to normalize each criterion into equal range first. Either by adding a constant (offset), multiplying or other methods.
It’s more obvious when you reverse your method. Get each data into percentage first by dividing with 6 or 7, then average the result that is not zero.
Anyway, it’s OOT and as @sillylittlemelody points out, I don’t think that each criterion weight equally. And you just can’t average ranks for that matter.
Umm, no, its his ranking system. He can do it however he wants. If you don’t like it, make your own.
I agree. After all, it’s something subjective and it’s up to how much importance he gives to each criteria.
I just pointed out in case he wasn’t aware of it.
Yes, I do
N-no… It came with a soundtrack, just with no voices.
Anyways, regarding my rating system, I may as well just bring it up via PM. Don’t wanna clutter the actual topic with unrelated hullaballoo
has to be rewrite, for me at least.
why you say?
Rewrite had its chance perfectly. not a single boring moment, nor a boring route.
I’m not saying that the other works has boring moments or something. but Rewrite was a mixture of the previous works. and it has a deeper meanings. not to mention that Kotarou has more rolls than any other character in Key’s works.
The heroines are awesome, loved all of them especially Kotori and Lucia.
I have a lot of other reasons to love rewrite but if I talked anymore I’s spoil it lol
I really can’t decide between Rewrite or Little Busters!
Rewrite was a great experience all the way through, the story was very interesting and it gave a lot of food for thought, but what really turned me off were the endings. Some of them were awesome, but the majority didn’t suit to my tastes.
(Rewrite spoilers)
Kotori: Felt very inconclusive. Where was she and what happened later? I don’t even know if it was a happy ending or a sad one. Shizuru: Great end, even though I’m a tree now. Chihaya: Right before what appeared to be the end “Giant monster appears from nonwhere!” Also, one punch destroys it? Is this to aru majutsu? [Akane]: Best heroine ending ever! Loved it. [Lucia]: Also a great ending, even if she went crazy in the end. [Moon]: "And then Kashima’s hate traveled through time and space and sent monsters to an unknown time on the moon, just because we need a fight scene here. [Terra]: So Kagari says abusing earth’s resources is OK if we manage to someday colonize another planet? Don’t get me wrong, this ending was beautiful, but it doesn’t feel like the high note closing something so epic as Rewrite needed.
And then we have Little Busters!, which I found not as interesting in story, but had some of the greatest endings. Although I felt anything other than Rin and Refrain wasn’t as interesting, but once you read the other routes again after discovering the secret of the world, you notice many small details in the story that begin to make a lot of sense and realize just how well written and planned it was.
So yeah, when creating my profile I had that dilema filling that information. Rewrite won just because of Oppai ending and Yoshino’s theme xD, but I love both equally.
Maybe when Sekaiproject releases Clannad I can finally decide a favourite after reading it. Feeling The HYPE
Screw it Im switching back to Little Busters! Damn my indecisive mood swings!
Yerian noooooo. You still have to play 1st beat before you say that!
