Rewrite, yo. I was sad when it ended.
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Honestly they didn’t even need that last scene for closure, because the moment immediately before it answered any of the questions I had about the ending. But I didn’t dislike that last 5 seconds.
There probably would have been tons more questions left if the Another Ending had been canon. It probably would have made me scream even more over the fact that there was so much crap missing from the whole project.
[quote=“Bizkitdoh, post:101, topic:811”]
copout
[/quote]Come on Biz, you can’t really call this part alone a copout. The entire last arc was really the copout. And I wouldn’t really call it a tease. It was past the end, an “epilogue” of sorts. I doubt they’ll ever explore that part much farther than they did in the anime.
Well yeah 
I wouldn’t prefer the alternate end to the aired end, but it’s a neat idea. As far as being bothered by it though, I mean well it’s straight forward. He stays and continues the process of assisting those who had a bad time in life.
And really it is meant for closure because otherwise you’re left with nothing about the status of the characters (which would be mad cool and fit the theme)
I mean, how would you feel if you got nothing? They’re dead, game over? Would be quite interesting to say the least. Do you feel happy that they’re happy but gone, or do you feel happy that they’re moving towards something new? The last segment is most certainly to appeal to fans that ‘hey, they’re moving forward’. That’s what the whole final arc is about.
Well sure, it’s all connected. Doesn’t make it any less true for that specific instance.
OMG This bad end was the first ending I got when I started LB… I died that day. Needless to say, her arc remained as my favourite pre refrain. And Wakabayashi’s voice acting was soo good during the scene when she was deciding whether to go back to her home country or not ;w;
Looks like my opinion has changed after all. I think I’m going to vote AIR for now.
A thousand year curse tormenting an entire race of beings and an ancestry of people, a constant cycle of despair and death, you see Misuzu and others a victim of this and how cruel and hopeless the situation is, and in the end the result is the same for her, an unfair death.
The very nature of the curse is extremely sad, a curse that hurts people that attempt to be friends with you? That’s horrible!
It feels like the only truly happy part of AIR is right at the end where Haruko takes positive things from the whole experience and moves on with her life.
I think out of all these choices that I have experienced, AIR had me feeling very sad for the longest period of time.
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I wonder if I should vote… I have read only two Key works. I’d rather not, I don’t have authority to choose, since I don’t know how sad are the others.
I’m going to respond with “which KEY work pulls the strongest emotional crying response” instead, because sadness is a bit different, I think. If you’re talking strictly about crying from sadness, I haven’t cried to a KEY work like that yet. All my emotional response is more focused on the beauty of what happened.
In that regard, Angel Beats pulled the biggest response from me, very closely followed by planetarian. Angel Beats! anime spoiler: No doubt that’s because of my background; having a show be about people finding the meaning to their suffering in love and moving on to Heaven is like a dump truck of beauty-feels on my heart, especially with the knowledge of the life of divine love that follows them in Heaven.
Planetarian spoiler: And planetarian was similar: the meaning of Yumemi’s life in love (“Don’t let Heaven be split in two”) was beautiful and filled with love.
tl;dr: they made me cry because of the beauty of selfless love.
If we’re talking liters of tears shed, then probably Angel Beats. I mean, the premise alone is pretty tragic from the get go. young people dying tragically after living painful lives, then ending up in purgatory? I mean, think about Iwasawa and Otonashi- they had finally found something that made their lives worth living, only to die while they were still teenagers. But then you watch them disappear one by one as they finally do what they should have been able to do while they were still living. I want to say I was crying for most of The second half of that show. There may have been some pretty impactful single scenes from other series (Refrain, After Story, etc.), but Angel Beats just doesn’t let up. At all.
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Tomoyo After and AIR were close for the story as a whole. I voted Tomoyo After because I didn’t see that ending coming, whereas I expected the ending for AIR to be approximately what it was on my first play through.
I’ve decided to disqualify planetarian from my list of candidates due to being a kinetic novel. The lack of choice means that you as a player can’t experience the futility of making choices that won’t affect anything. Being aware from the onset that there aren’t any choices at all somewhat diminishes the impact IMO. (Planetarian was really great though.)
LB! and others don’t apply for me because they all have happy endings. However, among these, I have to say that LB! did get the most feels from me. Especially during refrain… Just wow. Shizuru’s route in Rewrite was also really great for that. (The other routes didn’t affect me nearly as much as hers though, so not Rewrite.)
AB! is… well, I’d rather wait until playing 1st Beat before deciding. I only cried once, at the end, while watching AB!. Otherwise it was just a bit depressing. (Pacing problems diminishing the effectiveness of the story, probably.)
I edited the original post to clarify it. Like you said, they’re quite different things.
Also, who voted for Harmonia?
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Hmm… I voted LB, but now I’m beginning to think Air might be sadder…
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Tomoyo After and AIR are tied for me. CLANNAD and AS are sad, but TA was the one of the series which really got me shed my manly tears. Even the soundtrack alone is enough to make me feel the feels again.
Rewrite’s Sizuru route is a tearjerker, but Rewrite’s overall is too epic instead of sad, so I don’t vote it.
As for LB and AB, well, I just don’t feel sad. Emotional, yes, but not to the point that I got to shed my tears.
Please vote, I want to know too.
It’s tough one… Funny fact?
I’ve struggled quite a bit in order to decide between two stories.
Then -watching the results so far- I’ve noticed that those two are sharing the #1 position.
(Spoilers, intended to be read for people who knows all the series),
— and after you make YOUR own vote!
I couldn’t decide between AIR and Clannad. Many others were considered, of course.
But I won’t mention which one “won”, just in case there are curious eyes here. I’ve selected one that it is a true tragedy for those who (like Maeda stated) truly understand its finale. You know which one.
Gonna keep rolling with what was saddest to me.
Still Little Busters!, yep.
Gotta go with Little Busters. Clannad was my first, and it holds a special place in my heart but the whole concept of Little Busters is soul-crushing.
Also, there are some weird parallels between Little Busters and the Drawn to Life series, which were the first games that ever made me cry (that was back in elementary school). Basically, in LitBus we find out that the world was created by the mc’s friends to prepare him for a world where almost everyone he cares about is dead. In the Drawn to Life series you have a cutesy little world that has been taken over by shadow. Once you defeat the villain however, you find the purpose of the shadow. The whole world was the creation of a boy named Mike who fell into a coma after a car accident (which killed his parents). It is heavily implied that the shadow is what kept Mike in his coma, and while clearing the shadow wakes him up, it effectively kills all of the characters you interacted with over the course of two games. I think the subliminal connection I made between the shared theme of “auto accident creates world where the game takes place and everyone is dead at some point” made LitBus that much sadder. Though, to be fair, LitBus has a happier ending in that no one dies, but in DtL Mike’s parents are indeed dead
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What the fuck? I had no idea such an innocent-looking game as Drawn To Life had such a dark plot!
Reminds me a lot of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Though in that game the world being a dream is less a twist at the end, and more a gradual truth that is unveiled to you as you play. By the end of the game, when you’re facing the final boss to ‘wake up’, you’re doing so knowing that all the characters in the dream will no longer exist once you’re done. The game doesn’t shove much cutscenes or dialogue at you, but when you really stop to think about it, it’s pretty deep.
I totally forgot about Link’s Awakening! But yeah, the big difference with that and DtL is that DtL shoves it’s twist at you after you beat the final boss. It’s really dark for something from the team that brought Scribblenaughts haha
For me, Clannad anime was a stub in my heart. I have very few spoilers for After Story (although quite important ones), but once again, those were few. So, I didn’t knew what to expect. I didn’t even knew Key’s “fame” and style…
And it was it was shocking. At the same time I’ve laughed out loud -literally- with this anime like very few times in my life while watching something.
I love it because it is so positive in serious situations (that’s one of its major virtues for me). And have great sad yet useful reflections from and for real life.
(Air spoilers)
But now that I’ve seen more than 70-75% of everything related to Key works… I’d say AIR is the saddest, instead of the great Clannad. It’s truly sad, a tragedy. Tradicional "happy endings"aren’t always guaranteed in Key’s works, which makes Key’ stories wonderful.
And LB will come 2nd or 3rd (haven’t finished all the routes yet)…
Therefore: — Quick answer? AIR. No doubt!
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Well, Clannad has 2 very sad moments…
Then again Little Busters! is continuously sad from some part in the Refrain route. IMO also has the saddest character route; Haruka (maybe tied with Yurippe; but AB isn’t near as sad as Refrain or AS)
So LB is the saddest for me
Probably my favorite games on the DS. The gimmick is the main attraction, and it kinda covers up the iffy platforming. Great story though.
You need to get the original versions though. They rereleased the second Drawn To Life as a child-friendly version.
I’ve never really thought of it when talking about Litbus though. They definitely feel different.
