Rewrite & Harvest Festa

[Ekureiru]

I've begun to consider starting Rewrite, now that I've acquired and properly gotten it working.

Considering I'd be using Google Translate like with most untranslated novels, I would likely move along at a snail's pace, but it seems like the effort would be worth it (since I can restructure and get the gist of the sentences after correcting their failtranslations via Google). I've also noticed upon looking through some of the VN's menu that KEY has finally come up with a replacement for the REALLIVE engine, and it looks freaking amazing in my eyes.

[Watanuki-kun]

If it works for you can you please tell us and say if it's worth it?
If it does please explain how you did it ^_^

[Jao]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

The only animation studio I believe can pull off a decent job is KyoAni, considering the relation it has with previous KEY games. I'm afraid that other studios might have budget issues doing long series and will try changing so much that they butcher the story.

I'd like White Fox to do it. They're doing an excellent job of adapting Steins;Gate and their character designs for Rewrite are already made and pretty much perfect.

[Klashikari]

I really doubt White Fox can sustain such a long and erratic franchise though.
Steins;gate is much more mood heavy, and I honestly can't consider them with a proper budget to put it bluntly (well huke style is definitely not possible to reproduce in an anime fashion, that's a given). Production wise, White Fox aren't anything stellar, on the very average spectrum in fact.

[Jao]

Then maybe PA Works. I just can't see KyoAni doing this.

I'd love it if they did, though.

[Balzac]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

If this game ever gets animated, I hope that it is ~50 episodes. Since the heroines' routes are mutually exclusive, but still important, the anime should have something similar to the story arc "reset" in Higurashi.

The only animation studio I believe can pull off a decent job is KyoAni, considering the relation it has with previous KEY games. I'm afraid that other studios might have budget issues doing long series and will try changing so much that they butcher the story.

I also want Oppai Route as an extra episode. Maybe even an episode where

Spoiler for Terra route:

Moon!Kotarou and Terra!Kotarou (maybe even Pochi?) are interacting with each other along with the heroines. I just want to see the reaction Terra!Kotarou has when he meets his older self. Kagari and Kotori also need more love outside their own routes.

Could anyone explain how the "resets" are pulled off or explained? Because

Spoiler for Rewrite:

I'm not really sure timetravel is used here.

Oh. oh, and Kagari should have an entire episode devoted to her magical-girl persona.

[etalocohc84]

Originally Posted by Balzac

Could anyone explain how the "resets" are pulled off or explained?

Maybe Higurashi was a bad example, but it's valid since

Spoiler for Higurashi and Rewrite:

Higurashi doesn't have time travel, it is more about alternate universes.

What I meant is that the first several episodes has the character introduction and Kotarou along with everyone else joining the occult club. Afterwards, Kotarou chooses only one specific heroine and goes down that path until the ending. The following episode jumps back to when everyone recently joined the club and Kotarou chooses someone else. A different example of the "reset" would be the anime Amagami SS.

I believe that Rewrite cannot follow that same direction that KyoAni made with Clannad in selecting one main heroine from the beginning and then briefly going into other heroines' route (but cutting off at Kyou and Tomoyo's route before going to far into it). The reason is that

Spoiler for All Routes in Rewrite:

the main heroine is Kagari and selecting Kotori as the "main girl" will anger the fans when we reach Terra route. Also, Kotarou can't help Kotori, Gaia and Guardian all at once. I also want to see Kagari "destroying" the world, but that conflicts with endings like Shizuru killing Kagari and Lucia releasing her poison.

Side note: I heard Angel Beats was supposed to 24-26 episodes but PA Works was forced to compress it to 13 episodes. That's why I didn't feel PA Works was ready for Rewrite. I guess PA Works is fine too.

[minhhuywiki]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

Side note: I heard Angel Beats was supposed to 24-26 episodes but PA Works was forced to compress it to 13 episodes. That's why I didn't feel PA Works was ready for Rewrite. I guess PA Works is fine too.

I don't like art character design of PA Works
Maybe with artwork of a Na-Ga (Angel Beats!), they did well. But this is Hinoue's artwork, I do not believe they perform well as KyoAni or White Fox.

[Balzac]

Well, in my opinion, Rewrite is more likely to be anime-able than say, Little Busters!, being that it has lots of action elements that would be termed to be marketable. Then again, I wouldn't know the current trends in the anime industry, not being an avid follower of that media.

An example would be that I haven't watched the Clannad animation yet, which I know concluded a long time ago. (though I have watched the majority of Angel Beats!)

[Leo_Otaku]

Originally Posted by Ceral

KW is pure slice of life and that unspeakable stuff... it is very unique. By the same token so is Rewrite, but people were calling for a Kud Spinoff, she was the most popular character behind Rin. The idea was great, a VN completely devoted to slice of life, romance and one main interest. On a character that was very popular.

Leo, you're very brave to be on this forum if you're going to be avoiding spoilers! I wouldn't even google something with the word rewrite in it . In fact you remind me I shouldn't be here till I'm done with the true route. I spent this entire day writing Lucia essays...

I heard Saya was most popular at least from Ecstasy, and Kyousuke as well (why shouldn't he get a game! I want one so bad!). I think it was in the memorial set. I think if Maeda was writing it I would have been more excited regardless who's spin off it was.

LOL I really want to know people's opinions of the game so when I get around to it I won't be let down. I like reading people's reviews.

Originally Posted by Balzac

That would make for a very annoying girl, following the trend seen in Key games.

I've only ever played 2 or 3 otome games, and I have some reservations picturing a Key protagonist insinuating herself into the other male leads' lives, uncovering their secrets and whatnot. And then in the end, becoming their personal rock..

I don't know. It'd look interesting, and Key has proven it can make likable male characters and apply the Key formula somewhat to them. Making them into leads though, is more than just a shift in focus for Key...

It would depend on the heroine's personality yes, but they did make MOON (use in caps not to be confused with rewrite's moon arc, ) so it wouldn't be so far off from having a heroine as a lead. Plus I really love KEY males. I wish they had more background for them. Also as being female, having KEY like story with male characters would be really great.

[Ceral]

Just finished Terra, I never believed that this game would be this disappointing. I felt like I just read a 2nd Akane route, not something worthy of being called a "True Route". This route had everything I hated about this game, drawn out scenes, politics, overdoing it on the sci-fi, and boring action/espionage scenes that don't get my adrenaline going. And probably the worst offender, that the heroine was missing most of the time. Of course, this being the last route, I really hoped that the entire cast would play a large role, not just one heroine, but I couldn't even get that.

Spoiler for All Rewrite:

For this entire game, I felt like the heroines would return in the end, which they did, but I thought they would return to play a larger role in the plot and have some decent screentime. Since they were always separated from each other in the individual routes it would have been nice to see them work together and stay alive for the conclusion. And I'm not talking about something like the Moon route, that fight scene was just comedic. Shizuru dying to a slip, Lucia and Kotori getting 3 lines in the actual fight... it felt like that fight scene was written up in one night.

Just a few random thoughts(It'd probably take me several pages to voice what I really feel.):
-Ultimately I think it's a decent game, but from the expectations I had from all of the media and from the trial, from all the good things I heard about Romeo, this game is a big disappointment.
-The character designs are amazing, they make characters from other similar mediums look years old, the personalities are unique and multi-dimensional as well,
-I really hate that they spent so much time on explaining the plot every route and all of the politics. And it's always repeated every route, I swear if I have to have about G & G and how they relate to K one more time...
-I find it strange, Kotori gets so many illustrations devoted to her, and she is marketed so much, but her role is rather small in spite of all that.
-80% of the cgs are of the bishoujo-tachi too, but coming out of the terra route, the game seems to be quite lacking in using the casts' charm.
-In the end I think this game has more in common with A Certain Magical Index than any past key game.

Spoiler for The plot:

Two sides, fighting over possession of one girl. Summoners vs Ability Users. With the hero having a special ability of his own. With a lot bishoujos that hang around the hero, but who don't ever truly star.

Rewrite just being more mysterious and dark, with an absurdly convoluted plot device added to the plot to justify the multiple routes.

[Xyphon101]

I wish I knew japanese SOOOO bad right now.

[Jao]

Originally Posted by Ceral

And probably the worst offender, that the heroine was missing most of the time. Of course, this being the last route, I really hoped that the entire cast would play a large role, not just one heroine, but I couldn't even get that.

uh

I'm not even done with the character routes yet, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Terra is Kotaru's route. Kagari has a route. It's called Moon.

Just like, you know... After Story was Tomoya's route and Refrain was Riki's route.

So yeah.

[SupaPhly]

Originally Posted by Xyphon101

I wish I knew japanese SOOOO bad right now.

I know that feel. bro
and reading these people on this thread talking about different routes, characters and stuff and the fact that I bought this game (like many other key games) is making it harder for me lol

we'll just play the waiting game and see who in future will start a translation project

[Xyphon101]

Originally Posted by SupaPhly

I know that feel. bro
and reading these people on this thread talking about different routes, characters and stuff and the fact that I bought this game (like many other key games) is making it harder for me lol

we'll just play the waiting game and see who in future will start a translation project

Yeah.. I've tried learning Japanese before but I just find it really hard to learn it over the internet. I'll probably try again in the future but I think it would probably be best to take some real tutoring, which I plan on doing in the future, but right now I'm only 16(or, tomorrow I'm turning 16), so I'm going to wait until university.

[Ceral]

Originally Posted by Jao

uh

I'm not even done with the character routes yet, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Terra is Kotaru's route. Kagari has a route. It's called Moon.

Just like, you know... After Story was Tomoya's route and Refrain was Riki's route.

So yeah.

Wrong, Terra is more like

Spoiler for What route Terra is about:

Kagari's true

route. Not that it matters what you label it, but IMO Refrain was the

Spoiler for Little Busters:

"Little Busters" route since it focuses on all of theguy's origins instead of just Riki.

It really doesn't matter though, it's obvious they are not following previous templates for their games.

Spoiler for Rewrite Ending:

Anyway, in the end they do come together which sort of proves that my expectations were correct. But it's done in such an anti-climactic way that it just was not enjoyable. In the common route they're willing to do anything to save the occult club, throughout all of the routes, it's obvious that the occult club is very important to them, I can't count how many times they reflect on how much "Fun it was even though it was a short time." I thought it would be much more befitting had Koutaro actually aimed to get to the occult club back someway in the end to make the grand finale(He gets his consciousnesses back like in Moon or something similar, where he realizes what's important to the "old/new him") If the writers don't want it to be about the occult club, how come they have to boomerang it back to them at the very end... the focus of the game is just all over the place. It's like they know what a good story should be like, but they go off on so many tangents and when they come back to what's good for a brief moment, the climax just seems cheap.

[Ceral]

Not much discussion of plot here, I thought it was very complicated and left a lot open to interpretation. Anyone able to give a good summary of how the different events occur?

My interpretation:

Spoiler for All of Rewrite:

Koutaro exists in one dimension at the start of the game, and based on his choices, he branches off into multiple dimensions for all of the heroines. This theory is based on information from the Moon Route, where Koutaro has memories from all the different lives he lived and that there are many different branches which the world takes, as explained in Kagaris' research.

After completing the five main routes, Kagari puts life in all of the dimensions on "hold", since the Earth is dying in all of these dimensions. She does this so that she can perform a 2nd "rebirth". She isn't able to find a perfect solution though, however Koutaro helps her to find a solution that is "Uncertain", which at least means that there is hope. Somehow he summons the girls and Yoshino & co. Also of note he can't die until the invasion begins. It seems that they are able to make it in time and life is reborn on earth. However Kagari stays on the Moon, and all of the characters we know cease to exist? I'm a little hazy on this, this seems so harsh, the last battle really didn't let the heroines shine much. Lucia and Kotori get like 3 lines in the fight... . This seems to be the real ending to the game if we continue along the path set by the 5 main heroines. They end up sacrificing themselves to bring life to Earth once more.

Then Terra route begins. Koutaro is now older, but they are in the past. It seems like time has rewinded. Pretty much all of the past routes have been erased. This route is pretty much all about saving Kagari. Something interesting happens here in the bad ending, Koutaro gets killed by Kagari and wakes up in his room where he is about to go to middle school. Is this a precursor to the five main routes? Anyone able to explain how he goes from a 20 year old to going to middle school? There is a record of Koutaro from when he used his powers in elementary school, so when Akane read that record, she should probably have noticed how old he was? Since that record is there, the school would probably know too... (Maybe Koutaro wakes up in a different dimension?)
Anyway Kagari gets the good memories she wants, but she says it's already too late... I don't know, I have to read this part again, but I guess Earth will die soon anyway. So Koutaro gets reborn, and the girls somehow find eachother, and Koutaro takes them to the moon where life is born there and the occult club lives happily ever after on the moon or something...

My Japanese is horrible, anyone have anything to add or disprove? I don't feel like I grasp this sci-fi part of the story too well. Some help would be appreciated.

[Ceral]

List of random thoughts about the game after playing, also thoughts on specific songs of the soundtrack. Somewhat of a semi-review :

Spoiler for All of Rewrite:

-Great soundtrack, many a scene was made epic by the music.

-Best Songs:
-"Scattered Flowers" - Love this song. This is like the song for friends instrumental of Rewrite. I cried maybe 3 times during this game. The first time was when Chibimoth died, I don't think I cared for Chibimoth much, but the graphic with the music... somehow it did it for me. This is when the game really picked up for me. This is when this game went from a 6/10 to a much better rating.

Philosophy of Yours - When this song played during the final scenes of Kotori's route, I felt like I was suffocating. Those scenes were so intense, this song created a very mysteriously melancholic feeling. It's sad and desperate, it feels like it's egging you to go on all the way to the end even though the end will be sad. You have to do it! Great compliment to Kotori's route. Every moment that this song played, my view of this game improved. Every moment that was intense, sad, confused, tragic, Kotori's route was very boring for most of it, but those last scenes with this song, almost made this game a 9/10. If we ignored all the other routes, perhaps this game could be considered close to a suspenseful masterpiece.

Phobia - My favorite fight song. How underused it was though. This song makes fighting fun! I guess it speaks to the amount of fights that you can consider being written to feel as being "fun". Fights aren't supposed to be fun, but I like them to be if I'm reading or watching about them. This game didn't have too many happy memories. If they could have made more scenes where this song was appropriate, we'd have a action masterpiece I think. I'd love to see more scenes with this song with Koutaro fighting alongside the heroine.

Rewrite Instrumental - The epic fight song. Should be played during the epic climactic fight scene of every route. The piano entrance is so epic, the guitar/synthesizer sounds like it's screaming "I'm gonna kick your ass!". Sadly, not many appropriate scenes for it except for the fight with Midow. Great scene there. This is when I really got into Chihaya's route.

Reply - Probably my favorite song. Lucia owns this theme, I think of the date and when she visits during Chihaya's route. Very sweet and sentimental tune. It's like the "The place where wishes come true" (Negai kanau Basho)of Rewrite.

揺葉- Lucia owns this again. After the kiss, and during every moment that Lucia & Koutaro are in love... I still can't believe Lucia would try to kill Koutaro after affirming their love.

-Koutaro says he won't let go of her a second time when she meet's Lucia at School right before the disaster. He says he won't let go of her a second time, a second time at the top of the tower during the "Climax" of the route. This really hurts his credibility and the stories credibility that they will leave happily ever after. That, and they fought after making the oath the first time. The second oath is hard to believe.
Scene Shifts There - This song is the epitome of heroism and sacrifice.The first time I heard this song was the first time I got immersed into the story. The first time I couldn't put this game down and stop thinking about it. I heard it during Kotori's route when she saves Koutaro. This song made that scene seem so heroic, it was the first moving scene of this entire game for me. This was also awesome during Sakuya's departure.I'm kind of sad that they didn't create a better, more heroic situation to play this song in the entire game.


Philosophy of Ours - So poignant, gotta love that orchestral feel. Again, wish they would have made the scene they used this in more epic. The song itself is amazing. It sucks that Kotori/Lucia got like 3 lines in the battle for all creation. And how do you have an epic battle scene with one of the heroines dying by slipping... ugh... they're turning this game into a joke. Waste of a great soundtrack.
Honesty - The first tender scene of the game had this playing in it. Wish they had more opportunities to play it more. I remember Chihaya's bike ride and sitting on the bench with Lucia before the disaster when this song plays. Helps make any sentimental scene more memorable.

"To you who never lies" - I was so confused when they played this during Lucia's route. I knew this was supposed to be a sad moment, with her departing like that, this should have been a very dramatic and emotional scene, it was, but not enough to make me cry because I was also so confused. Perhaps that was the point of the scene, to feel sad and confused, hmm perhaps they made a good use of a song for once! For some reason it reminds me of the theme of love from Final Fantasy IV.

Philosophyz/Traveller/Vocal Equivalents - Wish I could say I loved these themes, the songs themselves are top notch, they just didn't evoke any emotion out of me during the scenes that they played. Philosophyz is an A+++ song though, wish the rest of the game felt like this song. I really didn't care for Kagari... doh. Philosophyz guitar version is so awesome, how the hell did that the battle scene that was written up pass muster... Jun Maeda and whoever wrote that scene dropped the ball big time.

Character Themes and Common Route themes - I pretty much liked all of them. Even the mappie song is catchy. All of the character themes are catchy save Kotoris'. The soundtrack was overall a great success.

Finale - Gives me the creeps.

List of thoughts:
-Every girl has an extremely tragic past. They're all basically orphans from an early age(Shizuru and Kotori's parent are "Alive" but they cannot talk to them like real parents.)
-There are a lot of choices where you have no choice.
-Lucia should meet Misuzu. The two cursed girls have so much in common with eachother.
-As much as Kotori gets marketed as the main character, she plays a side role at best. Since she's missing from everyone elses route I thought there would be something more mysterious to this that would play a role in the plot later on.
-I love how one of the writers gets us immersed in the action sequences by writing about how Koutaro has only ever done so and so in a game.
-I came into the full version liking all the characters, but after playing my opinion has changed wildly. I liked Lucia's tsukommi side from the start. Her dere side was quite a surprise. She may not really be a clean freak, a lot of her "heroic qualities" are manufactured from her past, her way of thinking is sort of force on her, which is disappointing, but it's counteracted by being able to relate to her. She seems mentally unstable. Her "good" qualities are not perfect because of this. It doesn't seem you can trust what she says, because of the stuff that happens after the date, you must really question her loyalty.
-At first, Kotori appears to be a fun character with a bit of an anti social side, later on we find out this side of her stems from her being arrogant and introverted as a child. She never really endeared me, I ended up not caring for her much at all at the end.
-Shizuru has a bit of personality, I'm a little fond of her. Appearances are deceiving though, instead of being a bubbly cutie, shes' stoic and her personality is pretty dry. The exception is that she is a little mischievous at times. When she's spying on Lucia and doing her cat smile, she reminds me of Konata. She's the only character without a bad side or any faults but she doesnt' get to show enough of her personality in this game.
-Chihaya, ended up being too predictable at the end. She really doesn't have any bad qualities, it's just that she isn't very interesting. She's perhaps too easy to understand.
-Akane, her tsukommis which were funny, but she has nothing but negative personality traits. Hesitant, anti-social, easily corrupted, broken.
-Aside from the character designs this game registers about a zero on the moe scale. One exception is Lucia's dere side, the moe for that side of her is off the charts.
-The Mappie didn't add much. I liked the instances where you able to walk around with a heroine seeing their reactions was great, but there were not many chances to do this. The Mappie disappeared after the common route. It would have been cool to see this used during say the "dates" with Kotori/Chihaya/Lucia. Or to have separate dates with each character.
-During many points of playing this game, I thought it felt a lot like Final Fantasy VII or Xenogears from the amount of fiction/action/suspense. I think this game might do better as an RPG with a lot of movies and cut scenes, a la Xenosaga.
-For an action game, didn't feel much epicness or heroism outside of Chihaya's route
-The game was good, I can see multiple genres working in the future, the problem with Rewrite is that a lot of the scenes were very weak for their respective genre. E.G. The only good action scenes were in Chihaya's route, the only good Horror and Romance was in in Lucia's route. If the action scenes in Lucia's route were good, the plot explanations were kept to a minimum, and the psychological problems with Lucia didn't seem like they were beating a dead horse at the end, we might have a masterpiece of a route there.
-Chihaya's route was the most complete one. And it would fit the bill for a shonen action work. I said earlier how the 2nd OP represented shonen action and I questioned why we were getting excited about a shonen action visual novel... I dunno, just adding this comment because it just seems ironic now that one of the best parts of the game was shonen action(That I thought of).
-The player is forced to play the best (IMO) routes first. Seems that Key was conscious that the rest of the game was lacking.
-The common route is enjoyable but the genre changes to actual occult research activities and random grey sky teleportations hurt the flow of it rather than provide a good chance of pace IMO.
-In the July Issue of Key Station, Itaru Hinoue asks for the game to be a "Battle Game", but in the end Tanaka thinks that the game has turned into a sci-fi game.
-This game is much more darker and psychologically complex than most 18+ games, yet it is all ages.
-After having so many mini games in LB, this game may be a little bit too novelish.
-Most of the common route is packed into the trial game. Probably not a good idea, since most will skip the common route when they get the real game and create a few months disconnect when playing the real routes.
-Some of the most fun scenes are during the common route when you have the choice to pick between which heroine you want to hang out with. These chances were very scarce when compared to Little Busters which had all sorts of "mini dates" everyday.
-They had a lot of pointless dates. For one week Koutaro talks to Chihaya about some movies, and that's it! Surely they could have added some scenarios to spend time with other characters or do personal occult research, or something! Later on the just skip days/weeks...
-Lucia and Shizuru's routes both seemed to have a lot of potential. But fell short of being masterpieces.
-Lucia has no sense of smell or taste, but she complains about the smell of alcohol in Shizurus' route and talks about how she couldnt care less about the taste of the dinner during the date scene (implying that she has taste.)
-Lucia says that she feels human warmth for the first time when Kotarou hugs her. But she already cried on Shizuru''s bosom about her wanting to make up with Chihaya. Also she had her sensei comfort her when she was a child.
-Lucia is 5-6 inches taller than the other characters, and only 2-3 inches shorter than Koutaro, but she's the same height as Akane/Kotori/Chihaya in all the cgs.
-Kagari is about as moe as an apple.
-Key is against recycling!! Going green won't save the world!
-The script is so big, but feels so lacking.
-The lack of any feel good or sentimental/poignant climaxes in the entire game probably hurt my view of this game more than anything.
-Shizuru and Kotori's routes are so short! They're like half the other ones. Strange quality control.
-The plot feels like it took a page out of Toaru Majutsu no Index. Summoners vs Superhumans. 1 girl with the power to destroy the earth.
-Kagari is very creepy at times. I wonder what that smile was all about? I might have to re-read my favorite routes someday in the future.
-The common route and the heroine routes are so very different. The next game Key makes is gonna to be really interesting. Can't say I'm a fan of slice of life games that turn into full on action/sci-fi games. In Rewrite parts are so long and so separated, it's like they're two different games rather than complimenting eachother. I could take slice of life + action alternating, but the full on genre shift is nasty.
-This game is so long, I feel like I played Kotori/Chihayas route a year ago. If they got rid of Kagari and Akane, this game might be a 9/10 for me. I think I still might give this game a 8/10, at least a 7/10.
-I think Tanaka was responsible for the parts I didn't like. Honestly, a lot of his writing looks like he just wrote to put a lot of filler in. I kind of hope they get rid of him. If Hinoue asked for a battle game, and she designed most of the plot elements of the game... I hope she doesn't get much input next time.
-A fun/heroic battle/romantic-comedy would be fun to read about. Such a game would probably never be able to be as poignant and sentimental as LB or Clannad, but hell it would be fun.
-The lack of gory cgs really hurt this game. There is a lot of blood and guts, dead corpses, and everything, this game was a lot uglier than you would think looking at the gallery. Unlike other save the world games, this game is a lot more suspenseful and dark, it's not an adventure but a struggle for survival. Staring at a black screen during the action scenes got really tiring after awhile.
-The review feature at the end is pretty cool. I hope everyone tells Key how much they hate the finale! Cya later Romeo?
-So many cgs of the girls, so sad that that they focus so much on the plot and not the girls, what happened to my bishoujo game...
-The tagline, "Can that fate of her possibly be rewritten?" looks like it was written for Moon Kagari, but did anyone actually empathize with her? She's the embodiment of the moon, she nor her twin never do much to endear themselves to the player. There's pretty much nothing that the playe can relate to. It's like saving a rock, I seriously couldn't care less. Couldn't we save someone who is more moe, that I actually care about?

What do you guys think of the Rewrite gear? What was it's role? Did it actually serve any gameplay purpose for the player? I think it provides some very important clues to the story.

Spoiler for All of Rewrite:

It seems to be a gauge of how strong Koutaro is and how close he is to going crazy. But there seems to more to the gear and Koutaro's power than that. The hand moves forward everytime Koutaro rewrites himself/uses his power. If he uses his power too much, one of two things occur: In Chihaya's route if he goes past 12 o'clock he turns into a magical being/human hybrid and he loses his ability to think for himself, and he becomes a creature of destruction. It also seems that he goes past 12 o'clock in the Terra route. Here he turns into a tree and is revived later as a magical being when the girls make a contract with him. These two plot points seem to be rather contradictory, although we don't see the gear in the Terra route until he is revived, but he definitely goes over some sort of limit.

Simply using his power too much does not make him go crazy in every route.

It says that his life energy is used everytime he uses his power. So I'm thinking using his life energy up and going past 12 o'clock are not the same thing. It seems quite obvious that he would go past 12 o'clock before using all his life energy. Does this mean he only gets a gear if Kotori/Kagari save him? (By the way, Kotori is given something to use to save Koutaro in that scene, I wonder what was that object? Inochi? Aurora?) Koutaro gets a gear with a hand when at the end of Terra route too... So it would seem that the gear is related to having a contract with someone. And like other "mamonos" he probably borrows inochi and if he runs out he turns into a zombie/creature of destruction. If this is true though, how come Sakuya is able to bring him back if he uses up all his life energy? Koutaro seems to be a special case however, as he has life energy of his own, but then how come he would go crazy then if he still had his own life energy?

All of this begs the question, how come a contract is able to be made with him in the first place when he is only just injured? Does he not make a contract then but simply borrow life to heal himself? What is the meaning of the gear then? A gauge of temporary insanity?

Another curious thing is that the hand reverses and disappears completely after Kagari is killed in the Kotori route. His injury also returns. Does this mean all of his powers are now gone? Or only the power that supported him from getting out of the injury? It would seem to be the latter for all of this to make sense. There is another time when the gear has no hand, and that is during the Moon route. He is able to use his power here, and I suppose he has no ties to Earth Kagari. (How come this tie would make him go crazy though? As a mamono he must borrow life energy, he cannot rewrite himself too many times as a mamono or he goes crazy for some reason... Also it seems he has an overabundance of this energy, which is what gets him though all the various pinches he gets in. I would attribute this being that he made a contract with Kagari who is the avatar of the planet who probably has a ton of life energy.)

In Shizuru's route while they share their life, the hand never moves, but it is always there.

Let's recap here: The gear is related to Koutaro's power because the hand moves when he uses it. The hand disappears if Kagari is killed (Which would imply that Kagari is responsible for the hand). Koutaro has had his powers since he was born. If the hand goes over 12 o'clock he goes crazy. He can return from his state of insanity if Sakuya helps him. He doesn't go crazy from the Terra route although he clearly uses his powers too many times to go past 12 o'clock. He has a hand at the end of Terra route. We cannot see the gear for most of Terra Route. In the Terra route he starts to turn into something inhuman, so there is some consistency in him turning into a monster if he uses the power too much. However that would hurt the theory for having an oath being made in order to go crazy. There is no hand in the Moon Route.

Mmm, perhaps Key tried to get too complicated...
I'm going to guess there are probably some minor quests or something that require different gear levels. It didn't seem like it influenced getting into any of the routes or needing more power to move on.

[Leo_Otaku]

I know that Romeo Tanaka is just sort of a guest writer you would say? KEY doesn't really seem to have any writers that stick around much anymore. I wish Maeda had a hand in some of the weaker parts of the game. Maybe we will get some upgrade version of rewrite, or just a spin off perhaps.

[Ceral]

Originally Posted by Balzac

Well, in my opinion, Rewrite is more likely to be anime-able than say, Little Busters!, being that it has lots of action elements that would be termed to be marketable. Then again, I wouldn't know the current trends in the anime industry, not being an avid follower of that media.

An example would be that I haven't watched the Clannad animation yet, which I know concluded a long time ago. (though I have watched the majority of Angel Beats!)

I'm not so sure that Rewrite would be more marketable. Air/Kanon/Clannad were all among the best selling dvd series in the year that they were released. (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...sales+for+2005) and were pretty much always the best selling dvd the week they came out according to ANN articles. If we go by current trends, far as sales go, the genre doesn't matter too much as long as the show is good. There seem to be as many action flops as non action flops. Actually, moe shows without action seem to be the most popular type of series at the moment. It really seems to be about the moeness of the characters and the quality of the show more than anything.

The shows that KyoAni, the go-to studio for Key have so far done:

Originally Posted by Westlo

Kyoto Animation
43064 ** K-ON!
41038 *8 Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
39385 *6 K-ON!!
29146 12 Lucky☆Star
24808 *8 CLANNAD
24346 *6 AIR
19052 *8 Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu ("New Animation")
19884 *8 CLANNAD AFTER STORY
17253 *8 Kanon 2006
14641 *3 Suzumiya Haruhi-chan to Nyoron☆Churuya-san
*8917 *6 Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
*4833 *7 Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid

The one action show on there is Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, which is more reflective of that series' popularity rather than the genre. (Fumoffu is a comedy of the same series' featuring the characters in daily life.) K-ON seems to get by on strength of having moe characters. I really don't quite understand why it does 40k, not much happens in that show . Don't get me wrong, I love me some K-ON, but it does seem like they sell so well because of it's two most moe characters, Mio and Azusa. (Mio Akiyama is the VA that I mentioned sounds like Lucia btw ). Mmm, I bet a show about Lucia would really murder sales.

But, I don't see why LB would get skipped over, on vndb it's rated higher than Air/Kanon/Rewrite. Well, possibly they could try to capitalize on Rewrite's popularity at the moment, but I very much doubt it would do better sales than LB. LB would probably be easier to animate, (I'm not sure, but it seems an action anime would be harder to animate.)

Thinking about it, Rewrite being made into an anime would probably be really weird as far as anime go. Just imagining an anime with it's first half of the series being a comedy/slice of life/occult and then turning full-on into sci-fi/psychological/suspense/thriller later on... I don't think I've ever seen an anime genre shift like that . I'd like to see it though. It might help the action scenes to see a weapon actually hitting something and some gory corpses and stuff. But by current trends, a Comedy Slice of Life like Little Busters seems like it would do swimmingly. Plus I never understood why people think it'd be hard to animate or create a linear script for LB(When Compared to Air/Kanon/Clannad). The main route in LB brings all the characters together better than any of the past shows, and I could easily see them exploring all of the issues the heroines confront in their routes (Except for one, maybe two) without having to "Rewind" the story to erase any relations the main character had. They would pretty much have to rewind every time in Rewrite, just because it's based so much on the plot as much as the issues the heroine confronts. Maybe they could just reset it everytime, more and more anime seem to be trying to capture the essence of what it felt like to play the game rather than trying to make an "anime" out of it. (Amagami SS not following a linear route. Idolmaster doesn't voice or animate the main character it only shows a First Person view like in the game.)

Ultimately though, other than having White Fox Character designs and an OP, I don't know why they would go out of order. Arguably LB has it's own advantages, more focus on slice of life and having heroines be moe, it's been around longer, things I said in the past paragraph etc. I'm not too high on White Foxes character designs either. I find all of Hinoue's original character designs to be absolutely breath-taking. But when I look at the White Fox character designs I don't find them very aesthetically pleasing. Or shall we say moe . It would seem kinda ghetto to use the same OP for the anime as you did the VN too.

BTW Edit: Umineko no Naku Koro ni ***861+***528=*1,389 (13) (Studio Deen)
Ugh, not that it means Rewrite would do bad, but kinda interesting anyway. Never seen the show, but Ryukishi won't guarantee you any sales I guess :P. (1400 sales dvd+blu-ray combined, people discussing sales in the thread say you need 3-5k to break even.)
Angel Beats! 11,802+22,308=34,110 (7) (P.A. Works)
Angel beats kicked ass though(with sales), Rewrite is more similar to this than Umineko. I would guess this is about what Rewrite would do if the animation was good.

Edit: Toei Animation: 8919 *7 Kanon (2002), Instead of getting something animated ASAP, it's probably better that they wait for Kyo-Ani to help out, or A-1/P.A., someone who will take care of it very well. not sure about White Fox, but I'm not crazy about it from the VN's OP (This is Toei's second best selling series too, and they have like a billion series). If you've seen both series, you know that the sales represent the quality of the animation too.

Also most action series are able to boost manga sales from releasing their own anime. So shows like Bleach which don't sell too many volumes, make a ton off of increased manga sales. Since Rewrite probably won't have any new games coming out, they would have to sell more dvds/blu-rays to break even.

Rewrite or Little Busters would both probably very easily do 10k/volume. If Key wanted too, they could easily get a studio to animate their products, many studios would be chomping at the bit to animate one of Key's works. I think the problem would be the quality, Key probably doesn't want any old studio animating their works, if it comes out as bad quality, that doesn't really help them in the long run. It would be better for them to wait for a quality studio to do their work justice and make big sales for bigger profit/reputation.