Poll: Which is your favourite Key series and why?

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 :yahaha:

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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.