Little Busters! Why is it worth playing?

[crunchytaco]

I'm having trouble getting past the intro. I thought the two guys introduced at the beginning and the mini-fight game was really stupid. I've had this game sitting on my computer for 4 months and I still haven't passed that part. I heard a lot of great things about this game so I was wondering when does it get good and what makes this game so memorable for people?

[Kaguya]

Well, to be fair, the game isn't worth mentioning if not by the true route. I think it's pretty average, even then. Plus it takes quite some time to get there.

[Guest]

The characters are all well designed, the music is incredible but the game is long, the routes aren't really good except the true route and the art is disputable (it's a KEY game so you like it or not).

I'd say there are lots of better VN's to read before that one.

[Nosebleed]

Little Busters is by no means a masterpiece. It's definitely Key style so you either like it or not.

The true route is great, some of the other heroines' routes are okay but most are rather average. (Haruka best girl<3) But they're also the only interesting part of the whole thing in my opinion. Little Busters' greatest asset is really its characters.

The common route is really long though so that's something you'll have to get over, I'll admit it myself the common route is pretty lame and uneventful for most part and not that interesting. 

[~K.S~]

Well Little Busters was my first & still favourite vn .Liked all the characters . I enjoyed all the routes except for Kurugaya's route (ugh) .

[Life]

Out of all the VN's I've read, Little Busters still remains one of the best for me (It's the only piece of media/game that I've actually cried to). Personally, it is also the only VN that gets better every subsequent time you read it. Comedy is always subjective so sometimes it just can't be helped not to like the common route but the character routes are what only starts to weave everything together. The main reason people like it so much is through refrain. Even though the other routes are either hit or miss, refrain a display of childhood innocence and ideals just so simple the story appeals to many people. There are also subtle hints... everywhere. Even at the very start many of the hints you see you won't understand until you figure out the whole story such as this (You've already read this part).

[crunchytaco]

Thanks guys. This was all informative enough for me to make a decision to clear some hard drive space. I don't have a lot so I needed it. Maybe I'll come back to it when I've ran out of VNs to read.

[Okami]

Little Busters is by no means a masterpiece. It's definitely Key style so you either like it or not.

The true route is great, some of the other heroines' routes are okay but most are rather average. (Haruka best girl<3) But they're also the only interesting part of the whole thing in my opinion. Little Busters' greatest asset is really its characters.

The common route is really long though so that's something you'll have to get over, I'll admit it myself the common route is pretty lame and uneventful for most part and not that interesting. 

 

I actually think that common route was better than most heroine routes.

 

Here's my opinion about LB!:

 

Coomon Route is nice if you like Moege and comedy 6/10.

 

Most heroine routes ware pretty poorly done, they weren't very romantic, aren't that interesting, and things tend to be pretty dragged out but they do give you some character development. So they are not really bad but not something that I would call good either 5/10.

 

True route (Refrein + Route before it) is best part of VN and it was pretty good. I won't say much about it for the sake of not giving spoilers but if other heroine routes ware more like route before Refrein it would be a lot batter VN 7/10.

 

Overwall 6.5/10

[Nosebleed]

The thing is the story of the common route just didn't captivate me in any way.

Sure the comedy is nice and the characters are good too but as far as plot it's reallynot that interesting in my opinion. It's just highschoolers preparing for a baseball game for most part with some events down the middle that are mostly for comic relief that, again, is nice but that's all there is.

 

At least in the individual heroine routes, despite most of them being rather poorly done story wise, brought out the character's personality and that's what I enjoyed seeing the most. Being able to connect with the characters is the thing i most like about a vn and that's why I enjoy the individual routes more than I do the common one in this case. They give me the feels I need~

 

Obviously the true route is the best part of it but the common one that supposedly builds up to it (not counting Rin 2 here) is rather poor to say the least.

[Nosebleed]

You can theoretically just go for the true route without the others but the fact that there are other routes is actually used in the plot of the story although what happens in those routes isn't so I'd say you can go for it if you really want to.

But the fact that you need to complete the rest of the routes to get to the true one is still a plot element nonetheless, it's not just there for the sake of it.

[Life]

There is a reason the other routes are there. Other than that though, the other routes give many hints that help with the story.

[Okami]

On 5/31/2014 at 5:01 AM, Nosebleed said:

The thing is the story of the common route just didn't captivate me in any way.

Sure the comedy is nice and the characters are good too but as far as plot it's reallynot that interesting in my opinion. It's just highschoolers preparing for a baseball game for most part with some events down the middle that are mostly for comic relief that, again, is nice but that's all there is.

 

At least in the individual heroine routes, despite most of them being rather poorly done story wise, brought out the character's personality and that's what I enjoyed seeing the most. Being able to connect with the characters is the thing i most like about a vn and that's why I enjoy the individual routes more than I do the common one in this case. They give me the feels I need~

 

Obviously the true route is the best part of it but the common one that supposedly builds up to it (not counting Rin 2 here) is rather poor to say the least.

 

I am not arguining about that one, sure nice comedy and nice moe characters is all that comon route has to offer but I think that that is enough to be something that you wouldn't call poor atleast.

 

 

 

 

You should at least read a common route + Rin second route before refrein.

Or you could watch a first season of Anime and then go for Rin second + Refrein (= true route).

[Decay]

The fact that the common route actually had a goal and an actual story arc puts it above 90% of all other moege common routes, which are usually just character introductions followed by really standard slice of life stuff. Criticizing it for having a weak story seems really strange considering the genre of VN it's in. Sure, it wasn't a particularly strong story but I still thought it was an enjoyable lead-in to all of the heroine stories, I like how it evolved over time as you finished more routes, and how that ties into the true route. I honestly couldn't have asked for much more from the common route.

[Guest]

The common route is long and nothing happens, that's a fact. There is comedy, but comedy can't fill a blank for more than 8 hours.

 

And the routes were ... too much.

The game takes 5 girls with lots of problems and makes a group with them.

Most of their issues are so unique that you have to wonder how so many girls with problems are gathered in such a small group !

Coincidence ? Yeaaah sure.

 

And most of the time their traumas are overdramatised or are so big that it becomes ridiculous.

[Decay]

The common route is long and nothing happens, that's a fact. There is comedy, but comedy can't fill a blank for more than 8 hours.

 

And the routes were ... too much.

The game takes 5 girls with lots of problems and makes a group with them.

Most of their issues are so unique that you have to wonder how so many girls with problems are gathered in such a small group !

Coincidence ? Yeaaah sure.

 

And most of the time their traumas are overdramatised or are so big that it becomes ridiculous.

Sure, comedy can fill in that gap. Why not? People really praise the Grisaia no Kaijitsu common route and it's even longer than LB's and even less stuff happens in it.

 

As for the abundance of drama in the heroine routes, this is a VN we're talking about, right? Would you rather have the routes be really simple and boring?Sometimes it's overly melodramatic, I'll agree there. But you make it sound like all of them having drama at all is a bad thing and I don't really understand that complaint.

[yashasupercow]

DUDE,why it's worth playing,i gave you two reason
1.the anime version SUCK!
2.this visual novel is awesome!

[Guest]

Sure, comedy can fill in that gap. Why not? People really praise the Grisaia no Kaijitsu common route and it's even longer than LB's and even less stuff happens in it.

 

As for the abundance of drama in the heroine routes, this is a VN we're talking about, right? Would you rather have the routes be really simple and boring?Sometimes it's overly melodramatic, I'll agree there. But you make it sound like all of them having drama at all is a bad thing and I don't really understand that complaint.

 

Grisaia's common route actually did a decent job in individually presenting the characters. In LB, not so much (not at all to be precise)

 

As for the routes, I think it's just too much.

Drama is good and necessary in KEY games, but why did all the girls have such huge problems ?

I mean Haruka's route for example, what the heck ? There is nothing more unrealistic than her story simply because they tried too hard to create drama resulting in a route that didn't make any sense.

Maybe that is the thing that I didn't like. the drama didn't feel natural at all.

[Life]

The common route is long and nothing happens, that's a fact. There is comedy, but comedy can't fill a blank for more than 8 hours.

 

And the routes were ... too much.

The game takes 5 girls with lots of problems and makes a group with them.

Most of their issues are so unique that you have to wonder how so many girls with problems are gathered in such a small group !

Coincidence ? Yeaaah sure.

 

And most of the time their traumas are overdramatised or are so big that it becomes ridiculous.

The main thing with the common route is that I think it's the closest you can ever get to a true slice of life. You go through almost every moment of the protags life within the common route and I'm surprised that they were able to make the common route as interesting as it was with that theory.  

The point that all 5 of the girls had problems is through the secret of the world. It wasn't a coincidence because they all had regrets and were brought together for that reason particularly. The five routes are to help them move on from their regrets so they can die peacefully. I do admit that it was overdone during some parts but I think they were getting at the whole death regrets idea so they intentionally gave over dramatic scenarios. After all, Angel Beats was literally Jun Maeda using the concepts in LB! and exploring them in a more straightforward manner

[Wahfuu]

Little Busters was an insanely influential VN for me, and I love it to death, but it's flawed to the bone. It really depends on how much you like Key's approach to storytelling, magic, whatnot. It doesn't have much of a plot, alot of the drama is kinda whatever, and the heroine routes range from god awful to decent at best, imo. But, the true route is basically made for people who believe in friendship and the concept of it. It's rich with power of friendship and such and such, and to alot of the english fanbase, extremely heavy on the emotions. So, take it as you will.

(Honestly my biggest issue with Little Busters is that all the routes choose to focus on very ill-developed romance instead of the central theme of friendship. It makes the message really inconsistent.)

[Okami]

Little Busters was an insanely influential VN for me, and I love it to death, but it's flawed to the bone. It really depends on how much you like Key's approach to storytelling, magic, whatnot. It doesn't have much of a plot, alot of the drama is kinda whatever, and the heroine routes range from god awful to decent at best, imo. But, the true route is basically made for people who believe in friendship and the concept of it. It's rich with power of friendship and such and such, and to alot of the english fanbase, extremely heavy on the emotions. So, take it as you will.

(Honestly my biggest issue with Little Busters is that all the routes choose to focus on very ill-developed romance instead of the central theme of friendship. It makes the message really inconsistent.)

 

I agree with this and I am a hardcore romance fan, well I would still prefer a decent romance in those routes rather than more theme of friendship but between routes as they are now and theme of friendship from common route friendship would probably be a better choice.

[Darklord Rooke]

The common route is long and nothing happens

 

And most of the time their traumas are overdramatised or are so big that it becomes ridiculous.

 

Those are my thoughts as well.

[astro]

I'm having trouble getting past the intro. I thought the two guys introduced at the beginning and the mini-fight game was really stupid. I've had this game sitting on my computer for 4 months and I still haven't passed that part. I heard a lot of great things about this game so I was wondering when does it get good and what makes this game so memorable for people?

It's not worth playing. The whole common route is pointless and ridiculously long. The mini-games are repetitive and aren't even fun. Even when you get to the routes, only the Refrain end is arguably worth shedding a tear for. I personally dropped the game halfway through the common route, and asked my friends for spoilers.

 

TL;DR - Watch the anime.

[Life]

TL;DR - Watch the anime.

I'm going to be the person who says that you should definitely not watch the anime without the intent to read the novel. It isn't the worst but it's a pretty horrible adaptation.

[astro]

I'm going to be the person who says that you should definitely not watch the anime without the intent to read the novel. It isn't the worst but it's a pretty horrible adaptation.

Well I mean, I found it a whole lot more interesting than the novel itself - and shorter, too.

[Life]

Well I mean, I found it a whole lot more interesting than the novel itself - and shorter, too.

I guess it all comes down to peoples tastes.