Neccesary to play all routes?

[Erin]

Is it neccesary to play all routes in visual novels? ive finished the main route of tsukihime and it took me very long to do so but i see people saying you should play all the routes even though its alot of repeated stuff and i feel like playing all routes makes it so your decisions in the first playthrough didnt matter, should i force myself to play all tsukihime routes? Or move onto the next VN i want to play? im conflicted on this so thats why im asking for opinions.

[Dreamysyu]

It depends on a visual novel. In most cases, it makes sense to play all routes. Usually, it is possible to skip the text you've already read in the previous routes, and the new ones give a lot of new content. Generally, most plot-focused VNs are written in a way that they only give a complete story if you read every route.

In case of Tsukihime, you should definitely read everything if you want to get the complete experience.

[alexfang452]

You don't have to read every route if you don't want to.

Personally, I read every route that a VN has so I can see everything that the VN has to offer. If I did not, then I would not have read through one of my favorite heroine routes. 

Edited July 29, 2024 by alexfang452

[Clephas]

It depends on the game.

In the case of Tsukihime, the reason people encourage you to play all the routes is because the experience only grows richer with each route, and in the case of games in the same genre (known as chuunige or action fantasy) the story is frequently only partially told in any individual route.

In the case of rom-coms, sol, and the like it is perfectly fine to just play the route of the heroine you like the most.  In fact, the vast majority of people do just that.  However, if you were to play Tokyo Babel or Dies Irae, both games pretty much require you to play all the routes to get the full experience.

Honestly, it is up to you in the end.  Even with rom-coms and the like, there are some VNs that benefit immensely from playing most of the routes, like Kin'iro Loveriche.

[LostPomegranate]

I second what Clephas said really. Personally I'll play each route in every VN I read out of curiousity and/or to be able to experience it in its entirety. With Tsukihime specifically it's set up so that the info you learned in the first route is applicable in the next - especially considering it has an enforced playing order. I would also mention some VNs have a "true route" or "true end" that is only visible if you've completed most if not all of the others.

 

Again though, you bought it, read it however the hell you want to. As long as you're buying the game and supporting the developers, no one should really care how you read it.

[Erin]

1 minute ago, LostPomegranate said:

I second what Clephas said really. Personally I'll play each route in every VN I read out of curiousity and/or to be able to experience it in its entirety. With Tsukihime specifically it's set up so that the info you learned in the first route is applicable in the next - especially considering it has an enforced playing order. I would also mention some VNs have a "true route" or "true end" that is only visible if you've completed most if not all of the others.

 

Again though, you bought it, read it however the hell you want to. As long as you're buying the game and supporting the developers, no one should really care how you read it.

Where can i buy tsukihime? i thought it wasnt avalable for purchase anywhere, ive been used a web version that a friend sent me.

[Erin]

Also thank you for the replies everyone ive decided ill stick to tsukihime and persevere and try to get through all the routes ( •̀ ω •́ )y

[LostPomegranate]

Original Tsukihime you can get second hand physical copies of it, but they're a bit hard to come by nowadays since a lot of people see them as collector's items nowadays. Given the timing of your post I honestly thought you were referring to the remake of Arcueid and Ciel's routes that just came out last month, which is on Nintendo Switch so you could buy physical editions or download. The stories are decently different between the two, but original includes the "Far side of the moon" routes that I personally really enjoyed which are currently in the works of being remade, but it will likely be a bit on those.

[Clephas]

The remake is pretty good, but it actually gets better if you've played the original, if only because the differences are interesting.  The remake has infinitely better battle scenes, visuals, and music...  There are also huge changes in antagonists and stuff like descriptions of the mythos go into more detail and are more interesting to read than in the original.  I'd say that the action scene visual quality is about at the same level as Light at its peak (in terms of aesthetics), and the actual detail and writing is just a step or two below Light's second team (the non-Masada team).

[Okarin]

Depends on the game.

Some games you can just grab your favorite route -or the one you have time for- and call it a day. I have seen some strange people who made a point of playing a route a game, "because it was the MC's true love" or something.

But in plotge and a lot of moege, you need each route to round out the overarching plot. Not to say there can't be filler routes (Lukako?), plot-wise (Lukako brings little but I guess he can brighten up some people), but they will be more the exception.

You should acknowledge that VNs as a whole are long-ass games and the lack of gameplay can make them tedious. I can totally see getting burned out with Tsukihime because I was with Fate Stay Night. I'm waiting for the official TL to replay it properly. It's not strange that a game like Tsukihime remake would take you around 3 months or more of playing consistently (but assuming you won't be very addicted).