Poll: Which is your favourite Key series and why?

Key Discussion
#41

I think Youhei’s route was one of the best parts of Clannad, if not the best. Without it Youhei is just Tomoya’s punching bag. With it you see that Tomoya and Youhei are friends.
After Story is only worth reading if you liked the Furukawas though, so skipping that is okay.

Only two parts of the VN that I liked. Yuiko’s route is personal preference of course, and you probably won’t like it if you don’t like her… but you have to read Refrain. I don’t like Rin or Kyousuke, who take up a lot of time in Refrain… but without Refrain… Little Busters is garbage.
Refrain makes it all worth while.

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#42

cough controversial opinions cough
Say what you want. To my mind, LB contains the two most emotional non-main-girl routes in all of Key.

#43

#takafumipls

After Story is one of the most important parts of Clannad, really. You don’t need to like the Furukawas for that because, after a certain point, it isn’t even about the Furukawas anymore; it’s about Tomoya and Ushio, and I think that is the most significant part of Clannad.

Not quoting the above statement, but I kind of agree with you on this one. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it garbage, but without Refrain, Little Busters would be a pretty standard vn with drama. Kind of like If My Heart Had Wings.

Not to say it’s bad without Refrain, it just makes it ten times better

#44

I would agree with this 100 percent. Without Refrain Little Busters becomes middle of the pack in terms of VN’s in my opinion. Is it bad? Not by any stretch but is it something special? Not really. But it does go both ways you couldn’t just have Refrain without the relationship building that happens in Little Busters either, they go hand in hand like…two things that compliment each other…?

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#45

Absolutely one hundred percent orange juice

[quote=“Takafumi, post:41, topic:742”]
but without Refrain… Little Busters is garbage.
[/quote]Nyyoooooooooo… because there’s still Mio ^^

And then there the fact that Rin2 and Refrain are technically separate, but at the same time couldn’t stand alone…

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#46

You may wanna spoiler-tag that, I think?

that being said, I didn’t like Rin2 that much XD

#47

Sure, i’ll spoiler it if you think so.

[quote=“Pepe, post:46, topic:742”]
that being said, I didn’t like Rin2 that much XD
[/quote]I’d love to hear why, since you’ve never posted in the Rin topic. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Personally Rin2 is one of the parts that makes Little Busters! my favorite, a large part of it being because of its ending. (Although like I said Rin2 is largely amazing on account of and only once you understand Refrain)

#48

Oh yeaaaah you’re right >_< I’ll get on that later today~

#49

After a certain point being the final arc. There’s a lot more to after story than the final arc, and I won’t judge it positively because a small bit of it was good >.> AS relied on you liking specific characters.

That constitutes as garbage. I’m the type of person who throws copper coins in the bin.

Sure there is pet pet

I didn’t say you should skip the rest of the VN. I said it’s not worth it if you don’t read Refrain.

#50

I plan to reread the whole VN when the official translation is out. I definitly won’t skip it this time.

Wish someone had told me that earlier :smiley:
I liked the Routes before Refrain and I don’t think its garbage without it. But yeah, Refrain raises the VN to a whole new level.

#51

“Clannad would be average without After Story”
“Little Busters would be average without Refrain”

Guys, is there really a need to go out of your way to point that out? MOST games wouldn’t be half as good as they turned out in the end without their true route. After all, if there’s a true route, there are two strategically smart things that writers should do to improve their stories:

  1. Use the side routes to build up for the true route.
  2. Concept-wise and story-wise, the true route is absolutely supposed to be the best of all routes in the game (thus, writing a side route that’s better than the true route would be considered a bad move)

Sometimes, if the setting of a game is very complex, a side route would be come a “sacrificial lamb”, an info dump, losing a great part of its potential (like Kotori’s route in Rewrite).

Let’s take a look at what would happen if you take away the true route of certain games.
Muv-Luv would only have 2 worthwhile routes without Alternative. Unlimited would be utterly pointless.
G-Senjou would be worthless outside of the common route.
Ever17 wouldn’t be what it’s praised so much for.
Symphonic Rain would be somewhere between ‘ok’ and ‘mediocre’
Rewrite would lose a lot of what makes it so good without Terra. I’m saying that even though I really didn’t like Terra.

Only games that either don’t have a true route, or have a failed true route (like Hoshimemo), wouldn’t suffer tremendously from having their true route removed.

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#52

Clannad is very character route focused. Litbus is very final-route focused. They are two different VNs. You can skip AS and not miss anything but an extended Nagisa route. Refrain however is an actual conclusion that the rest of the VN is dependent on.

#53

Well uhhh… Just personal opinion, but I don’t feel this way about Rewrite ^^;
I would have liked it just as much even without Terra or Moon. But yes, for most games, that is the case… I guess that explains why many games that don’t have “true” routes just don’t feel as exciting as the others.
I think I explained this in an earlier post here:

So this whole “true route carrying the game” I think really fits in to how people decide whether they consider a series their favorite. At least, that much is true for me

#54

I agree with this.
You can play any route of Clannad and feel conclusion and happy with the route and that is was complete. Heck you can even play Nagisa’s route and not go into After Story and still feel pretty happy with it (although you still would be confused about the illusionary world).

Most of the routes in Little Busters you can’t say the same about.
Komari’s - yeah. Rin1 - definitely no. Kurugaya - definitely no. Haruka - yeah. Kud - for the most part no. Mio - yeah. Rin2 - definitely no.

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#55

Isn’t the title a bit… Wrong? Tomoyo After and Kud Wafter aren’t series, they are part of one. It would be more appropriate “Best Key Work”, wouldn’t it?

Also Rewrite Harvest Festa is missing. And please don’t put Charlotte and Harmonia there for now, to avoid trollers.

As for my favorite Key project it’s Little Busters! I loved Rewrite, but I didn’t like Terra. I liked both LB! routes and Refrain, so…

#56

I second the motion.

My favorite is Angel Beats! for sure. The setting itself directs the story to questions about the meaning of the character’s lives, and the mystery of What Comes Next - both of which intensely interest me in my line of work. I think i’ve written a lot more about this elsewhere, but it’s definitely my favorite anime. I have high hopes for the VN!

#57

Seems like my original answer was eaten when the poll was fixed, so…

Definitely Little Busters. It has the most loveable cast of characters ever and I enjoyed every second I spent with them. I was so easily pulled into their struggles and the drama surrounding them that I found myself mercilessly toyed with on an emotional level. And it was amazing.

Refrain, to this day, is my favorite single plotline in anything ever. While After Story did make me cry more, Refrain had a far bigger lasting impact. After reading it, rereading the fun times in the common route makes me genuinely happy from the bottom of my heart.

Second place easily goes to CLANNAD and Tomoyo After, but there is a gap between those and Little Busters they just can’t quite close.

2 Likes
#58

When I first finished Rewrite I didn’t expect it to stick with me. Since, whilst it was grandiose, it didn’t immediately seem to have alot of … sticking power? My first look at it made it seem hella clunky, which is something I had seen other people say about it.

But here I am a couple of years later and somehow, the more I’ve thought about Rewrite the more cohesive a piece it has really seemed. It’s grandiose nature has become over shadowed by how intimately cohesive as a whole it is. At first I found it’s ending to be (Rewrite ending, not overtly described but better safe than sorry) something of a cop out. The rest of the work being far far more moving than those final scenes, as touching as they were. But looking back, by making the ending so bittersweet. By not having this grand universal answer to how we should live… It strikes me as a far far far more powerful piece than I first found. Something similar to how Welcome to the NHK dealt with it’s themes

Mind you if it wasn’t for this it’d definitely be Little Busters. Since that’s far more explicitly cohesive a piece than the rest that I’ve seen/played.

#59

I moved 2 posts to an existing topic: Rewrite - Terra Route Discussion (Spoilers)

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#60

Wah- did I really say that…? Must have voted right after I had finished Little Busters!.. Well screw that Im changing my vote.

ANGEL BEATS! ALL THE WAY! I don’t even care if the VN wont be released for 3 MORE DAYS! 3 MORE DAYS! 3 MORE DA- the trial was enough to prove just how hype this thing is.

Sure, the anime isnt great (comparatively). A certain person we all know would even go so far as to say its shit. But it showed the most potential I have ever seen… ever. And the OVAs and Heaven’s Door and Drama CDs and the trial have only served to further prove that that potential can and will be fulfilled.

but anyways as I was saying THE HYPE TRAIN’S STIlL GOT PLENTY OF ROOM! (hell, we have five more volumes to get to, so this isn’t gonna end for awhile XD) 3 MORE DAYS! 3 MORE DAYS! …

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