Arvis

Yes, sorry. I did find several threads relating to the game, but none of them seemed proper for general discussion. Thank you for taking the time to look, though. ANOTHER UPDATE: I am officially on the Kurugaya route, now. Boy was I confused when I woke up on May 28th, made the wrong choice, then was sent back to the title screen. I literally thought the game glitched, so I did the same exact thing to see if something different would happen. I guess that makes me crazy. Anyways, I finally decided to make a different choice and that got me on the route. I am already impressed at the writing in this route, so far. Toward the end of the common route, I felt like things were kind of slipping into a lull with the writing. But the second I moved on to this route, the writing took a sharp upswing in quality. The humor is fun and whip-smart again and I am actually quite surprised at how easily I have been able to buy in to Kurugaya's blossoming backstory. I was worried that she might be "too weird" sympathize with, but I am not having that issue at all. She and Riki have surprisingly good chemistry together, too. I left off at "Operation: Little Love-Love Hunters!" and wished desperately that I didn't have to go back to work. I'm really looking forward to completing this. -Arvis

In the end, I guess I will always see Fal as someone who gives Chris just enough to keep him devoted to her while she maintains her selfish agenda. However, I have already given her SOME credit for coming clean about everything, but... just the manner in which she did it... it felt to me like she did it simply to free herself of the pretense, since she knew she would have to spend her life with Chris to get what she really wanted form him. So she came clean and gave him the choice: be with the real me and all my horribleness, or walk away and lose everything. Yuck. @Zalor: the reason I brought up Hitler (sorry, again, about that) was to show that even people who objectively qualify as "evil" are not defined by their evilness, even if that's all they're remembered for. @Zaka: you know, I have always wondered what kind of childhood Dean Koontz must have had to dream up all that crazy stuff. Him and Stephen King, both. :/ -Arvis

LOL! Ok, now I REALLY feel better. Thank you! -Arvis

Well, that makes me feel a little better. I was so excited for the baseball game and then got slaughtered. It was very discouraging. I didn't expect to win, but... 13-2.... ugh... -Arvis

I don't necessarily disagree, in principle. But I will say that James Joyce's "Ulysses" is regarded in the West as one of the greatest novels ever written, and it is literally nothing but hundreds of pages of mucking around. Every excruciatingly painful detail of one day in one person's life. *shrug* So I think there's room for all kinds of storytelling techniques in Western criticism. Personally, I like being positive about things. But your time is precious and should be spent on things you consider worthwhile. This is how I feel about the SoL in Little Busters. I like that I am just living every day, even the days where nothing particularly interesting happens. Anyways, my latest update: The Little Busters finally played their first baseball game! YAY! I lost 13-2. Booo... T_T Did I do something wrong? Is there any way I can win? I heard that Riki and Rin get higher stats in the "true" route, or whatever. Is that the only time I could realistically win this match? Incidentally, both my runs were scored by Kurugaya, unsurprisingly. She also won the Battle Rankings, too, having suffered only ONE loss the entire time. And, oddly, that loss was to Riki. I may be taking a break from LB for a while now, though, to do something else. We'll see. I won't be starting another VN, though. -Arvis

You are clearly a person of exquisite taste. Kyou really deserved her own "After" story. Alas. -Arvis

And yet it is a fact that there are evil people in the world. I really don't mean to be so bull-headed about this, and I am normally not. But "evil" is a real, actual thing. And if you're a person who does nothing but hurt people while feeling no remorse for it, you're evil. I don't think that's an unreasonable viewpoint. Again, sorry for being so rigid. This is true. However, Chris simultaneously learned the truth about Phorni, as well, which obviously affected his emotional state and reaction. Had Torta known about Phorni, that would have changed absolutely everything, I think. Well, if it were really that simple, Chris could have been with anyone. But it was Arietta's desire that he be with Torta specifically, because she knew for a fact that Torta loved Chris unconditionally and truly desired his happiness above even her own. Again, Torta is not perfect and of course has selfish desires, but her feelings for Chris aren't dependent on them. Ari knows this and knows that Chris would be happiest with somebody who cares about him for who he is, not what he can do. Well, in a work of fiction, how a character is presented is how that character IS, I'm afraid. Beyond that, you are literally seeing what isn't there. She is intended to be a villain, a foil to the twins. The fact that she is really cute and sweet the entire time can make this hard to accept, but it is still the truth. It's what makes her such a great character. I like your point about people who "find love because they are lonely", though. That can be considered selfish, too; getting involved with a person, not because you care about them, but simply because they are there and willing. That bears a certain brand of awfulness, as well, similar to gold-digging. But just like any relationship, real feelings can develop over time, even if they weren't there to begin with. And the opposite is true, too: people fall OUT of love everyday. But that usually only happens when one or both people begin being selfish and putting themselves ahead of their partner. The best-case scenario is an unselfish love based on principle that is requited. And even then, a love like that requires daily maintenance. This is why Torta and Ari are so good for Chris: they're devoted to him. Fal is devoted to herself. As a very happily married man, this is a subjective statement I highly disagree with. I know I am coming off as totally inflexible on this issue, and it's bothering me. I don't want to be a jerk. I feel I need to reiterate that Fal is a great character. But it's her villainy that makes her so interesting. She hurts everyone and helps no one. That is not normal, nor is it acceptable. It's wrong. It's bad. It's what we teach children NOT to be. Nobody should ever be accepting of this behavior, nor make excuses for it. -Arvis

@Zalor: Adolf Hitler enjoyed good music, was a skilled painter, was good buddies with Joseph Goebbels and was Best Man at his wedding. He was well-liked by many and had a very real, complex personality. He was also evil. Fal is similarly evil, and definitely a villain. Just because she is exceedingly complex and well-written does not automatically make her redeemable. You and I certainly agree about Grave and Lise, though, for sure.

So, how will I know once I am done with the common route and am on a specific "heroine track", so to speak? Will it be obvious? Right now I am about two days away from the first baseball match. BTW, baseball practice is one of my favorite parts of this VN. It's really a ton of fun. -Arvis

Yeah, you're definitely right. I think I was a little too negative above, because I think all the characters are fun (even Komari). Besides Rin, I do like Saigusa and Kud is pretty cute. Kurugaya is interesting, as well. Now I feel horrible. I will say that I love love LOVE Komari's "Spiral Of Happiness" philosophy. Honestly, I really think it might just be her voice that irritates me. I think if I were just reading her lines myself that I would like her a lot better. I know I can turn her voice off, but...... eh. I think I'll just try to adjust.

Yes, well said, Zakamutt. But even in something so pure (a desire to be with the person you love), Torta punishes herself for being selfish. She treats herself unfairly, which is why she needs Chris. For Fal to then crush her on top of everything else is just..................... unspeakable. Ugh. It hurts my heart when I think about it. T_T It's true, we must try to think of ourselves about the same amount that we think of others. There's a balance to be had. Fal, however, never considers anybody but herself, and only just barely begins to consider Chris' feelings toward the very very end of her route. Even then, in her bad ending, she treats him like he's worthless and throws him away extremely easily. Evil. -Arvis

So, every time I start a new VN, I always need a place to go to talk about it. Rather than making multiple threads about specific points, I kinda like to have one discussion thread about the VN. I searched the forums here for a general Little Busters thread, but couldn't find one. So here we are. So far, Little Busters is hilarious. I've heard that it's extremely long and time consuming, which isn't great for me because I have very little time. However, I am a few hours into the game now and it feels like I am simply living the day-to-day life of an anime character. And I do not have a problem with that at all. This world and the characters are all so fun, I could spend years here. And considering how many hours some people have taken to complete this game, I think it may be a full year before I finish this. So far, my only complaint is this: all the heroines seem a little..... shallow. They all basically waffle between annoying, boring, and weird. It kinda feels like these are my choices: - Anime Archetype 1 - Anime Archetype 2 - Anime Archetype 3 - Anime Archetype 4 - Anime Archetype 5 - Rin Right now, though, the worst offender is Komari Kamikita (also, what's with all the "K" names?). She's not interesting, not particularly cute, terribly voice-acted, dumb, vacant, and whiny. But, as far as I can tell, she seems to be promoted by Key as one of the main, best heroines. I don't get it. Does she get less annoying later? Or is she always pretty much like this? Anyways, I'll keep posting here as I continue to play through this game. It's been an awesome roller coaster so far, and for now I'm just hanging on and hoping the ride just keeps going. -Arvis

@Zalor and Snowtsuku: Honestly, you make great points and I never really thought that Fal treated Chris particularly poorly at all. Heck, she even confessed the whole truth to him, which was completely unnecessary if all she wanted to do was use him. It's obvious she loves him. She just loves him in a totally jacked up way. It's... it's sort of like she doesn't really know how to love somebody properly. Which I guess is true of a lot of people IRL. And that can mostly be blamed on the tragic circumstances of her upbringing. She's definitely an extremely interesting character, especially as a heroine in a VN. My problem with Fal, though, is not what she does to Chris; it's what she does to Torta. Fal knows the truth about everything. She knows what Torta has been doing, she knows the awful pain that Torta has been through: how she loves Chris devotedly (Torta is very open about this to everyone at school), how she has always loved him, how she lost her sister and has been sacrificing the remainder of her youth in order to help Chris in the best way she knows how. Fal completely understands all of the sacrifices Torta has made and how she has denied herself a normal life simply to help the man she loves. And, knowing this, she thinks "I am going to take all of this away from you to further my career. Tough luck, Torta. Your life is nothing if it gets in the way of my success." That's pure evil. That is what makes her a monster. That she came to love Chris in the end is honestly irrelevant. She is a bad person; irredeemable, indefensible. It's not "refreshing", it's heartbreaking. It's not romantic, it's depressing. How many times has a loyal, selfless person been jilted by the person they love in favor of someone selfish and shallow? It happens way too often in the real world and I fail to see what's romantic about it happening in a VN. Every time the cheerleader snubs her devoted childhood friend to date the quarterback, Fal wins. Every time the plucky, nerdy girl gets rejected because her friend is interested in somebody prettier, Fal wins. Fal represents all that is unjust and tragic about love and romance. She should be given zero votes, and may God have mercy on her fictional soul. The reason I said that "people who prefer Fal over others have something wrong with them" is because I stupidly thought that the above viewpoint was both self-evident and intended by the author. But considering that it appears that I am in the minority here, I'll concede that I could be the one way off base. If there is anything wrong in my above analysis, please point it out to me. All the above being said, though, she's a flipping fantastic VN heroine. What other VN would have the guts to make the main villain a playable heroine route? Dang this is an awesome VN. -Arvis

I don't see Ever17 on that list... O_o -Arvis

Have you read Symphonic Rain?

Appreciate it. And no, the minigames are fantastic. I love them all. -Arvis

Well, that is definitely good to hear. I'm leaving work for lunch in 5 minutes and will be reading more of it then. I'm really excited about it! I honestly have no clue what's really going on or where the story is heading (I assume it'll be pick-a-girl-and-go as per usual VN formula) but I wouldn't have it any other way, for now. Once I have played through once I'll think about using guides for other routes. I'm curious what turning off all the "mini-games" will do. Or rather, what difference keeping them all on makes. -Arvis

So, I started Little Busters this weekend. Let me tell you: I was NOT excited to begin it, AT ALL. I kept wanting to start Steins;Gate or If My Heart Had Wings. But I decided to give Little Busters a chance. It took about... hm.... 60 seconds to win me over. I think I have played for maybe an hour and a half and have already laughed like a dozen times. And I don't mean chuckles, I mean full-on obnoxious guffaws while my wife is trying to watch tv. Switching directly from Symphonic Rain to this is......... quite a contrast, to say the least. All the silly game mechanics are just... just AWESOME. The constant "Mission Start!"s, the battle sequences (why can't Rin beat that Sasegami-or-whatever chick?!), the baseball practice; all of it is so hilarious and so great! I am in heaven reading this. On top of that, the soundtrack is incredible (although, so far, there are a few tracks that are more obnoxious than anything) and the story is intriguing. I can see why everyone recommends the VN over the anime, although I do plan on watching it once I finish. -Arvis

Dang, once you complete the game, you realize that the "bad endings", especially Fal's, are REALLY bad endings. Ugh. I'm getting sick just thinking about it. Anyways, I took a month off from SR, but I finished Phorni's route (and therefore, the game) this weekend. Simply incredible. I stick with giving this VN a 10/10. Although I predicted the major "twist" surrounding Phorni, I was surprised to see that the game treated it like you SHOULD have figured it out well before Chris does. This whole VN was just... so well-written. Who here believes that Symphonic Rain is "a novel about lying"? One last thing: these poll results on this thread have new meaning to me now that I have finished the game. I appreciate that all the characters are interesting enough to warrant this completely split decision, but I simply MUST express my real feelings: everybody who voted for Fal or Lise over Torta, Phorni, or Arietta has something really, seriously, deeply wrong with them. There really has to be a complete lack of normal empathy and goodness to actually PREFER 1) a selfish, awful manipulator, or 2) a child with no personality, over the selfless, earnest, heartfelt devotion of Torta, Phorni, or Arietta. -Arvis