Poll: Which is your favourite Key series and why?

Key Discussion
#104

Clannad for sure, I’m not sure I have the articulation skills to explain precisely why I love the novel so much though. It was one of those reads that made me think, “There is probably no other story that does what this story does as good as this story does.” The only other time that’s happened has been when I first read Song of Ice and Fire.

I’m really glad to see that Little Busters is the top-rated series here though, I’ve loved what I’ve read of it but for some reason I felt that there’s been a lot of negativity surrounding the franchise, even before the anime.

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#105

The more popular something is, the more opinions there will be.

And yeah, Little Busters!, plot was beautiful. But CLANNAD’s plot, I think it was sadder. I mean, in CLANNAD, (after story spoilers) Tomoya lost Nagisa. Nagisa had a choice to give birth to Ushio or stop the pregnancy, and she didn’t want to stop it because she didn’t want to take someone else’s life, for the sake of hers. Then Tomoya and Ushio don’t even meet, until like what, 5 years later. We learn about the hardship and pain Sanae was in. Then in the end, Ushio dies in daddy’s arm, after only a few months of living with him. Then she created the illusionary world, risking her own memories, since she didn’t remember them. Being so cold, and being so lonely in that deserted world, without any memories, all to save Tomoya from despair. What a great daughter.

While Little Busters!, was quite sad, but it didn’t really click with me. (Refrain spoilers) how they created the artificial world for Riki and Rin, yet they weren’t quite dead yet, during the process. The world was to make Riki and Rin stronger before the forsaken time comes.

I still find CLANNAD’s plot sadder, due to the loneliness she must have felt, with nobody but someone who couldn’t even talk.

#106

Clannad is the best out there for me. Never have I seen such a beautiful story contained in the middle of all the tragedies present, the lessons I learned from Clannad is something I hold firmly in my heart. It changes my perspective of what family is, why I am born in one and why they are important to me. It is one of the things that changes me, from hating my family to slowly but surely appreciating my family more and more.

Here I declare that Clannad is without a doubt one of the many inspirations and ideals I have in my life.

4 Likes
#107

I actually like Rewrite the best, because it (Rewrite post-common spoiler) covers more than just a small town or school. Rather it is a work by key that is much grander in scale and the main protagonist has to deal with issues regarding the whole world.

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#108

But then couldn’t you say the same for charlotte? but then again charlotte was poorly executed so w/e

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#109

CLANNAD and Little Busters! are both great, but for me, I have to choose CLANNAD. Personally, family resonates with me much more strongly as a theme than friendship, and CLANNAD is the definitive Key story about family.

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#110

You, my friend, have just made a statement that generally sums up my reason of loving CLANNAD more than the other Key series

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#111

I’d have to say little busters.
For some reason it just resonated with me. I watched the anime and played the vn during a somewhat hard part of my life and it allowed me to take my mind off of real life. It taught me that friends are forever (before then I was never able to keep one for more than 3-ish years) that people can emotionally strong through hardships, and suicide is never an answer Thank you Mio~. LB led me away from the shonen genre (not that its bad) and into the world of Key. The only downside for me I guess is that Rin’s route impacted me so deeply it sent me into recluse mode, and I haven’t made any new friends since June’15, But it’s not as bad as switching schools or anything and I was unable to get into any new anime at the time. That’s just how much impact it had on me, and why I Iike it.

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#112

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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#113

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.

#115

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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#116

A Misuzu lover! <3

There aren’t many of those these days! :minaamor:

#117

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.

#118

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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Which Key story carries the most powerful message, in your eyes?
#120

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 1 hour unless flagged)

#121

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.

#122

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 :wink:

so yeah,
RITORU BASUTAZU SAIKOOUUUUUUUUUU

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#123

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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#125

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.

6 Likes
#126

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!

1 Like