How do you choose your first route?

[Lord Squiggles]

So with the recent release of the Hoshi Ori patch, I began pondering once more on the age-old question that I feel like every reader here as at least asked themselves once and that is which route should I pick first? Just as it is in real life, first impressions are very important, after all the first route you pick generally gives you a rough idea of what you would come to expect from the rest of the story. In my experience, starting off with a strong route that I generally like gives me a much better outlook of the overall VN even if the next route ends up being bad, as opposed to starting with a route that's bad or something I dislike which can have me just straight up dropping the VN or at the very least taking extensive break from reading it, even if the other routes are good. So how do you guys choose your first route when you choose to read something new? 

[r0xm2n]

I don't know how I pick my first route. I just do, on a spur of the moment. Maybe one of the girls stands out in some way.

Of course, sometimes my first route is a random "Game Over" non ending, because I'm non committal...

[Lord Squiggles]

1 hour ago, r0xm2n said:

I don't know how I pick my first route. I just do, on a spur of the moment. Maybe one of the girls stands out in some way.

Of course, sometimes my first route is a random "Game Over" non ending, because I'm non committal...

I guess that's one way in choosing what route you want, unintentional bad ends generally kill momentum for me though unless I actively seek out those endings.

[Seraphim]

Since quite a few VNs should be played in a particular order to enjoy them to the fullest, I usually use walkthroughs and just go with whatever order they have.

In the case of Hoshi Ori, I'm using this one, since there isn't one available in English yet (afaik).

Edited April 6, 2019 by Seraphim88

[Stormwolf]

If i REALLY like the vn then i pick the heroine i like the least and in that order. If it's a "mehh" all around vn then i just do the best one and be done with it.

[onorub]

I just go for the love interest that seems to have the most chemistry with the protagonist.

[yelsha57]

I use a walkthrough, but if it doesn't require a walkthrough then I'll chose one. I like to save the best herione for last.

Edited April 6, 2019 by yelsha57

[Formlose Gestalt]

3 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Since quite a few VNs should be played in a particular order to enjoy them to the fullest, I usually use walkthroughs and just go with whatever order they have.

In the case of Hoshi Ori, I'm using this one, since there isn't one available in English yet (afaik).

There is an english walktrough for HoshiOri:

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/21841-hoshi-ori-yume-mirai-star-weaving-☆-dreaming-of-the-future/

It is based on the japanese walktrough you been using.

[Seraphim]

Oh, thanks! I didn't get any results when I tried searching for it before.
Kinda weird to put Touko's route after Rikka's in the walkthrough, when the description says that Rikka's route contains spoilers for Touko's. I'll do Touko's first if that's the case.

[Clephas]

I pick by the 'unusual'.  The unusual can be personality, their stance in regards to the protagonist, if they are non-human, or their social position.  I usually pick osananajimi heroines last.

[Mr Poltroon]

3 hours ago, onorub said:

I just go for the love interest that seems to have the most chemistry with the protagonist.

Yes, this seems like a good description.

When nobody in particular stands out as being a good match or being placed in a position where the protagonist would get close to them, I pick my favourite...ish? Favourite or second favourite.
I often like more than one or two characters, so I can't quite tell who my favourite is beforehand.

[TexasDice]

A popular strategy is to just go for the girl that shows interest in the protagonist the earliest (I c... I mean scientists call it the low hanging fruit solution).

Me, I'm a wild card. I just go for whatever and usually end up with a route I don't care about in my backlog because I couldn't restrain myself from saving my favorite for last.

[bakauchuujin]

Usually I save the one that seem to have best romantic chemistry with the main character for last and for the first one I tend to go for characters who have funny personalities (trying to go for a more comedic route as the first one).

[novurdim]

I often don't have the drive to finish everything so I just go with the one I somehow managed to like the most in the common route...

[Lord Squiggles]

7 hours ago, Mr Poltroon said:

Yes, this seems like a good description.

When nobody in particular stands out as being a good match or being placed in a position where the protagonist would get close to them, I pick my favourite...ish? Favourite or second favourite.
I often like more than one or two characters, so I can't quite tell who my favourite is beforehand.

I guess my style would be similar to yours, but in my case I choose my second favourite as the first followed by my least favourite, repeating the cycle and saving my favourite for last which at the very least guarantees that I have an end goal to strive for without burning myself out.

7 hours ago, Clephas said:

I pick by the 'unusual'.  The unusual can be personality, their stance in regards to the protagonist, if they are non-human, or their social position.  I usually pick osananajimi heroines last.

A fellow man of culture saving the childhood friend as the finale. 

[wyldstrykr]

whatever i want.... thats why i like da capo 1 choices because they let me what i do what i want. will almost always end up to no girl ending tho.

if im forced to pick, ill use t!choose or !choose

[Clephas]

54 minutes ago, Lord Squiggles said:

I guess my style would be similar to yours, but in my case I choose my second favourite as the first followed by my least favourite, repeating the cycle and saving my favourite for last which at the very least guarantees that I have an end goal to strive for without burning myself out.

A fellow man of culture saving the childhood friend as the finale. 

More like saving them for the spot I'm most likely to ignore entirely... osananajimi paths are mostly all the same (exceptions exist, but those are in plotge, not charage) and the relationships with them tend to be predictable and boring even by the standards of otaku media romance.

[Lord Squiggles]

4 hours ago, Clephas said:

More like saving them for the spot I'm most likely to ignore entirely... osananajimi paths are mostly all the same (exceptions exist, but those are in plotge, not charage) and the relationships with them tend to be predictable and boring even by the standards of otaku media romance.

I guess that's also one way of handling your least liked route. I don't really know why, but for some reason I tend to gravitate more towards the childhood friend character in visual novels as opposed to other media where I generally support anything but the childhood friend.

[Clephas]

51 minutes ago, Lord Squiggles said:

I guess that's also one way of handling your least liked route. I don't really know why, but for some reason I tend to gravitate more towards the childhood friend character in visual novels as opposed to other media where I generally support anything but the childhood friend.

Speaking from experience, the two most common 'main', 'central', 'secret', and 'true' heroines are lolis, osananajimis, or both.  The reason for lolis is that from the turn of the century to about 2012 Key's influence on the industry was still strong, both in the tastes of the users and in the tastes of the artists and writers.  It's only in the last seven years that that trend has mostly gone away... but osananajimi heroines are still going strong *sighs with disgust*.

[Freestyle80]

Its mostly a random decision, if they do something interesting in the common route i might gravitate more towards that particular character but I do keep in mind of a heroine 'not' to read first though

I try to keep best for second last or last

Most of the time there's atleast 1 route i skip completely, typically the Loli routes  like Mahiro's one in SukiSuki was just wrong :S

[nihilloligasan]

I usually start off by picking the options that I would most likely choose in real life and go with whatever comes at me. I do everything else on a whim.

[ChaosRaven]

I usually start with the routes of the girls that appeal the most to me. Typically, that results in starting with the elder ones and then go down the age ladder until the loli routes start, which I then skip.

[MIUUZICK]

It depends. If it's a plot heavy VN with probably a recommended route order, I either follow it or guess it myself (it's usually not that hard to guess tbh), and when it doesn't matter, I do my best girl first so that way I won't be thinking about how much I want to read her route already when I'm on someone else's route.

And sometimes, I just choose on the spur of the moment, like Grisaia, I was hesitating the whole common route between Sachi and Michiru only to end up on Amane's first.

Edited April 8, 2019 by MIUUZICK

[Stormwolf]

20 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

I usually start with the routes of the girls that appeal the most to me. Typically, that results in starting with the elder ones and then go down the age ladder until the loli routes start, which I then skip.

Haha, funny how similar we are in preferences 

[AustriaVNFan]

A pretty interesting question. I usually have a pretty clear heroine ranking after the common route. When I have to choose the first route I usually pick the one in the middle place or the one before last place. So let's say I have 5 heroines that are ranked 1 (best) to 5 (worst). Then my order would PROBABLY (there are always exceptions) be 3,5,4,2,1 or 4,5,3,2,1

I guess this is because starting off with the least interesting heroine seems too discouraging, but I always want to save the best for the end because that keeps me going! Although sometimes it happens that the route I thought would be the most boring turns out to be the best or at least very good (like Kazukos route in Majikoi)