Rewrite - General Discussion

Might you know any places which have a good summary of the routes just in case I want a refresher?

So I figure I’d make an overview of the technical changes that were implemented in Rewrite+. For the record, the following features were not added to the Harvest Festa that came with R+. Even though the disc says Rewrite plus version, it’s the same HF as before.

Sound and Visuals
Like advertised, there are voice files for every character that previously was unvoiced. We have a couple of familiar actors appearing, for example, Inoue Kikuko as the home room teacher or Midorikawa Hikaru as friend #64 the con artist. There’s also some meme worthy English.
https://puu.sh/qoGyH.ogg

There are numerous visual tweaks, but the major ones would include the lovely Inoue sprite from Harvest Festa and 2 completely new CGs with some older ones being changed slightly. At the very start of the story, the player is also shown this new mysterious image.


Quality of Life

  • Mappie - if you’re like me, or even if you aren’t, you probably found this little navigation mini game extremely tedious. It still is to a degree, but it’s better than before. No longer are you forced to swipe your cursor over the whole screen like a mad man because all icons are now visible all the time. Icons with specific requirements also have a lock on them as shown here to the left.


  • And the prize for most convenient feature goes to…drumroll… the ability to rewind the game every 5 lines. Key introduced this feature in Angel Beats! 1st beat, and I can’t describe it as anything else but a godsend. Sometimes the game just throws stuff at you that you aren’t prepared for like that first image I posted. Alternatively, you don’t want to save frantically all the time, and this feature solves all those problems. Any tiny mistake and you can just roll back the game: it’s wonderful.


  • However, saving the best for last, we have the greatest feature in Rewrite+: the ability to tweet screen shots from ingame spoiling the shit out of your friends. This feature is so weird and exploitable. 10/10 Would tweet again.
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Not sure if this is the right topic to ask, but…
Is there “Gekkan Terra Radio” available somewhere? The one with Saito Chiwa~ not the one that goes for anime atm, but an original one.
I’m not even sure if anthology disks of it are still being sold.

You might solve it by yourself, but it might help others, so I write some information.
Japanese wikipedia have much information on it.

The CD are available at Japanese Amazon

Some CDs are bonus for the game.

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Yes, thanks…
I rarely ever use Amazon as it is not available here in Russia, so completely forget to check it…
Guess, it should also be available on Mandarake, used though.

One question I have about Rewrite+
Is Kagari character changed in some way?

I’d be a bit disappointed with the actual Kagari of the VN after the anime

@Nemeios Nope, it isn’t.
For anime-like Kagari you have that one OPPAI in Rewrite, and then whole Rewrite Quest + Strange Fantasia + (partly) Kimi no Kioku no Monogatari in Harvest festa!
As it is going to be released alongside Rewrite+ on steam some time unannounced yet, if you can’t read Japanese you can just wait for that =)

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It looks like there’s no information on what was changed in Rewrite+ in terms of plot, so I made short summary on what I found.

  1. No major change in common route and moon route though I found change in moon

  2. Some changes in backgroundmusic

  3. Some changes in Terra

  4. 2 new CGs and 2 little changed CGs

The below shows spoiler in Rewrite+

BGM change
Here are list of change in BGM I found

  • The apperance of Sakuya in Moon (Philosophyz GTver → scene of carnage)
  • The battle with Earth Doragon in Terra(Rewrite inst ver → Philosopyz GTver)
    There might be other changes. I am used to the former, so I was little disappointed at this change and I came to understand how important BGM is in VN at the same time.

Change in Terra and Moon
There’s no major differrence of plot in Moon, but they revised some details and I felt the story became easier to understand because of that.

And the most significant change in Rewrite+ is here in Terra.
First, there are some mention to link between Jasumin, Midou, Temma, Tenjin though it is not meaningful.
Second is the deletion of baton pass scene of Sakuya and Kotarou, so now there’s no reference to Sakuya in Terrra. And instead of that, Kotarou decrypts ■, then he found Kagari’s purpose and the fact he was handed the theory made by moon Kagari and Kotarou and decided to fulfill his mission on his own will.
Third, the last part is described from Kotarou’s perspective and he has the memory on moon including common route. He remembered good memories made with them in common route but decided not to say that to the girls and live as mamono of ship. Then, he found he had to go to meet with kagari and started ‘today’s activity’ like okaken.
(Added in 10/10)
Some experssion are modified in Terra. For example, Kotarou’s complain on the children who cause to stop selling of konnyaku-pan was deleted. Futhermore, in the part Kotarou talks to dying Iko, Iko’s saying that the children in her facility don’t grow up in terms of their mind and have no future was deleted. These change looks like consideration on experssion for who died of choking on food or who have intellectual disability.

New CG

New CG was in Terra

  • Kagari’s confusion scene

  • The last scene including new appearance of Kotarou as mamono and 5 heroines.

Some scene had changed

  • Lucia is not wearing Kotarou’s shirts but is in her underwear

  • After the part of ‘Miracle Adventure’ in which Kotarou tried to rewrite his intelligence, Kagari looked into him
    (The CG was made from common route scene that Kotarou sometimes remember fragmentarily though you don’t understand what the scene was in common route. And you finally understand this was the scene following to Kotarou’s injury by Kagari in Terra’s bad end.)

Therefore, main difference is in Terra route. Personally, I like the older version. Following is my opinion on this revision.
For deletion of batton pass scene, I think it is admittable, the scene seems to make confusion on what the rewriter is. And the scene added there make Kotarou’s action in terra meaningful. I thought the weak point of terra was that Kotarou looked like behaving without free will, but new version made importance on his will and role in terra, so this change might bring more meaning to Terra route. However, I felt difference in writing style and I personally not so like it.

And the revise in last scene seems to seriously altered the meaning of Rewrite.
I think what is good about Rewrite is how it deals with solitude and miracle(奇跡).
In the perfect visual book of Rewrite, the writer Romeo Tanaka said that Kotarou should pay the cost for human future, so the ending was fruitless for Kotarou. In Rewrite, life itself was treated as miracle and he also said that with the world of full of miracle, he should write difficulty in making their way ,so Kotarou should work for future at the cost of his life without complaint then he can arrive at the ending in which 5 girls are chatting without anguish though Kotarou is a bit lonly in them (like CG on moon in CANOE). I know its just one possible interpretation of Rewrite, I think this explanation is really thoughtful.
But this remake seems to weaken the limitation that there shouldn’t be miracle without cost. Kotarou finally remembered his whole life and was able to start his new life. I suspect Kotarou’s effort might be worth it, but I felt the ending become less fascinating because there seems to be less solitude of trailblazer, which was acquired by Kotarou’s giving up of his enjoyable school life or gaurdian life, and the beauty of structure that the moon Kotarou’s wish that someone would find Kagari in moon was miraculously fulfilled unconsciously.
I got an impression like Little Busters! from the revised ending. I suspect that the original ending was not so popular among old key fans and they decided to make the story more optimistic and miraculous like other key works.(Though I think LB!s ending is reasonable, I think it’s not suitable for Rewrite) The change might also make it easy to understand that the Kotarou’s wish in moon was fulfilled finally.

If anyone point out something I didn’t find, I’ll ‘rewrite’ them.

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Desktop accessories that came with Harvest Festa got removed in Rewrite+. Only in original Harvest Festa has them :Chihayasad:

This is cute

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Awwwwwh soo cute! hugs

New CGs for rewrite+ can be seen here:
http://imgur.com/a/Kw9a1
(I do not deserve the credit, someone from the rewrite IM english facebook group shared it, and he found it in MAL)

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In the side-stories of Rewrite, in the chapter dedicated to Shizuru: Lovesickness, Shizuru told, because of her powers, she lost her chance to grow like a normal person.

[spoiler]I found it is perhaps a good explanation to answer to why Kotarou didn’t grow old during his years in the coma. His powers of superhuman disturbs his growth spurt, like Shizuru, who doesn’t wish to grow to stay close of time where she lived with his parents.
Kotarou has only begun to age again after awakening, at the same time that his mental age.

I like better this reason than the other possibility where this is because he is an half-familiar. In the Akane route, he grows up physically during the year under her orders, which brings a little contradiction.[/spoiler]

Concerning growth,

Powers don’t usually hamper people’s growth. Esaka-san and his squad all grew old normally while never losing their powers. Kotarou’s halt in growth really was only due to being a half-familiar. He didn’t age physically within the year of serving Akane. He just looked a lot older due to how much he had changed inside because of his harsh new environment. He THEN aged physically within the city of stone because Kotori had died outside, causing him to lose all his powers. Shizuru probably stopped aging either because she had overused her powers or because the healing drug, or some other that her body produces, simply keeps her young subconciously.

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I still think its a legitimate theory to say Kotarou’s powers were what prevented him from aging.

(Terra)He has the power to Rewrite himself and control the fluids in his body. He uses this in Terra to change his appearance many times. Its possible he unconsciously rewrote his face and body to look more youthful. His aging in the city of stone would then be because he longer has a need to look young; he can move on with his life and age again.

Either way of looking at it is fair, though.

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I’d actually like to ask you about that @Kaze since the discussion is just now popping up on Discord; what exactly are the flaws (and strengths) of Ixrec’s translation? I think not many of us have had the opportunity to compare the Japanese with the English, and I do trust your opinion on this sorta thing

I’ve never really gone through and compared his translations to the Japanese, so don’t quote me too much on what he gets wrong. Generally speaking, however, Ixrec is a very literal translator. This helps make him a very fast translator with few “errors” and the biggest advantage of using his work is that it’s probably very close to being a finished product. The vast majority of us, myself included, read Rewrite from his work and I don’t think any of us thought it was unacceptable work.

Unfortunately, literal translations often end up being, as I recently read one person describe as, technically a correct interpretation but not the right one. Tanaka picks his words very carefully, and there are reasons why he words phrases the way he does. So when Ixrec translates things without fully realizing their meaning and association with the work as a whole, you lose a lot of subtlety going on in the language, story, and dialogue - things that might not be super important to the story but do add to the experience. Most of all though, he just isn’t a very creative writer. Which don’t get me wrong is really, really hard to be. But if you look at the Grisaia or Dies Irae translations, for example, you’ll notice some colorful, expansive vocabulary and very distinct writing styles that help define the work itself. Ixrec lacks that sort of writing ability when he translates, so even if he gets the meaning across, he doesn’t convey the same reading experience. It’s like taking a Shakespeare play and rewriting it in bland, boring English. Sure, the story is the same but the writing quality is completely different. That is what people mean when they say he butchers Tanaka’s writing. Rather, to be fair, this is what people mean when they say any translator would butcher Tanaka’s writing.

Personally, I think the elitists are too harsh on his work when some talk about him “ruining everything,” and I know I’m very grateful for his work no matter how “bad” it may be (at least for Rewrite; Cross Channel is a whole different ballgame and he messed that up bad enough that he also admits it in retrospect). But it’s true that his translations are very subpar and you lose a lot of what makes Rewrite impressive from a literary standpoint, even if you didn’t really miss any major plot points. If it means more people get to experience Rewrite, I’d happily send them to Ixrec’s translations, but if SP is going to retranslate the entire thing, that could be a very good thing that all of us should try rereading for a potentially new experience.

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What about the anime? Did it have any elaborate Shakespeare prose or was that a narration-only thing? Or was it there all along but got lost in the translation?

There is no Rewrite anime.

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uh White Fox made a really nice 2 minute long Rewrite anime so idk what you’re talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yegE5ai9abQ

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