Little Busters - Game Discussion (Little Busters & Ecstasy!)

[boggart]

Woo... thanks for that Shinova! It's alright, I can follow the instructions okay with that first link. I can't believe people had the time to do this already. O_o Geez... and they even have suggested save points... LOL

[Newprimus]

I think you'll want to restart each time though since I've heard of new scenes popping up and stats carrying over and so on.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Looking from LB back to Kanon, Why do I get the feeling that when Yoshiyuki Tomino shed his exoskeleton of depression the result was Key's Jun Maeda. Let's look at some things here:

- Both like to write extremely depressing and melodramatic stories with fantasy elements in a modern setting.

- Both are lyricists who write the lyrics for their respective works theme songs.

- Both seem (seemed) incapable of writing happy endings for their characters (and appear to hate them) and like (liked) to kill them off before the story is finished.

- The main character of their stories often appear to have an anti-social side to them (and sometimes family troubles) and in some cases can be very domineering of the women around them.

- Both oversaw something of a revolution in their respective genres in which they wrote and introduced more complex themes into areas that were once considered fairly shallow forms of entertainment.

[Overture]

Is there a guyXguy ending?

Hahahahaha...

I'm serious.

[Newprimus]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

- Both seem (seemed) incapable of writing happy endings for their characters (and appear to hate them) and like (liked) to kill them off before the story is finished.

- The main character of their stories often appear to have an anti-social side to them (and sometimes family troubles) and in some cases can be very domineering of the women around them.

Well there's a difference between killing off a character and a character dying because of good plot reasons. And domineering? When? You have not seen domineering until you see real domineering men in sadistic hentai, or say in School Days.


As always you never fail to hold an opinion that runs contrary to everyone else's common sense.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Shinova

Well there's a difference between killing off a character and a character dying because of good plot reasons. And domineering? When? You have not seen domineering until you see real domineering men in sadistic hentai, or say in School Days.


As always you never fail to hold an opinion that runs contrary to everyone else's common sense.

Not Opinion, Observation and Comparison.

I've got a real question about the game this time. So during the demo era of LB there was that picture of the battle. I get the sense from the discussion that this was turned into a real function for the game and that stats are important. My question is, how does it work and is it a fun element in others opinions?

[boggart]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I've got a real question about the game this time. So during the demo era of LB there was that picture of the battle. I get the sense from the discussion that this was turned into a real function for the game and that stats are important. My question is, how does it work and is it a fun element in others opinions?

It's basically run on the side of the plot, as in the loser of the battles gets a nickname decided by the winner of the battle. There's no real importance plot-wise, except for the fact that your stats that you acquire while training in the baseball side-game help in certain areas of the battle.

I don't mind the battle system, but it does get boring after a while. XD

[Orrin]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I've got a real question about the game this time. So during the demo era of LB there was that picture of the battle. I get the sense from the discussion that this was turned into a real function for the game and that stats are important. My question is, how does it work and is it a fun element in others opinions?

There are some battles in the game that you have to watch, they're mostly just for laughs though. Then there are minigame battles that you can turn on and off as you please, during the game there are specific points at which you can start these types of battles (usually 2-3 times a day).

When a battle is started Riki first runs around to find another character to either challange, swap equipment (not weapons they are always random) with or be challenged by. When a challenge is accepted the real battle can begin, from here on everything is automatic except that you can have a little impact on which weapon you get. When the battle is over some other characters might also engage in battle which you get the option to either watch or just hear the results.

The winner of each battle gets to switch places with the loser on a ranking system and give him/her a nickname.



Then there's also Rin's missions at night in which she usually get to fight a couple of times (also optional), if you manage to win these you will get some equipment for Riki.

There's also a baseball minigame were you can train some stats, I actually found this more entertaining then the battles. You get to control your character here with your keyboard and mouse. Your goal is to hit the as many balls as possible that Rin throws at you in the direction of other characters to get some stat-ups, some characters will also throw the ball back at you so you can hit it again to make a sort of combo which will in turn give even more stat-ups. These training sessions also occur once or twice each day.



The real point of the training is however a baseball game two weeks from the game's begining, that's why every character gets stronger.

[Newprimus]

You can use the keyboard? Geh.

[boggart]

Originally Posted by Shinova

You can use the keyboard? Geh.

:O You didn't know you could move Riki around with the keyboard?? LOL

[Newprimus]

Damn, everytime Rin threw that ball towards the right I kept thinking, "Come'on girl, I'm here, not there," and now I find out it's my fault, lol.

[MeganeShounen]

Originally Posted by Orrin

Something a friend pointed out:
You weren't kidding when you said that you could hit other characters with the baseball... you knocked Kud and Komari out cold.

[boggart]

Reminds me of when I knocked out Komari... haha... that was quite hilarious at the time. But wow... talk about 'hitting two birds with one stone'. LOL

[Newprimus]

Mio's too smart to get hit, she just knocks it back with her parasol though.

But I've knocked out just about everyone else that's knock-outable.

[shadowplay]

I may be early in the game (around 20th) but I'm already bored of the game, will typical Key's emo-drama starting to happen any time soon? I'm not too fond of all the comedy, silly fights and well... baseball. And Komari appears too much like just another generic Key girl, Rin is bit better with her tomboyish neko charms.

[roan]

Originally Posted by shadowplay

I may be early in the game (around 20th) but I'm already bored of the game, will typical Key's emo-drama starting to happen any time soon? I'm not too fond of all the comedy, silly fights and well... baseball. And Komari appears too much like just another generic Key girl, Rin is bit better with her tomboyish neko charms.

the melodrama doesnt really start until you reach the 2nd rin route.

the individual scenarios (komari, kudo, mio, haruka, yuiko) are regarded as being mediocre, but the refrain scenario makes up for it.

personally, i didn't really feel any charm in the individual routes so i eventually just started ctrl skipping through them. you might want to do that.

for an idea of how the game will eventually turn out:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm775887
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm763477

[boggart]

As a first timer at Visual Novels, and Key, I thought the Komari route was quite powerful. But then, I haven't reached the other routes yet, so I can't really compare. But if you go into the game not having the highest of expectations as, I guess others who have played Key games before have, it's rather quite enjoyable.

[Sushi-Y]

Originally Posted by boggart

As a first timer at Visual Novels, and Key, I thought the Komari route was quite powerful. But then, I haven't reached the other routes yet, so I can't really compare. But if you go into the game not having the highest of expectations as, I guess others who have played Key games before have, it's rather quite enjoyable.

I just finished my first playthrough without any guides or spoilers of any sort. Ended up with Kudo's route.

I don't know about others, but I found the ending to be pretty hard-hitting.

Of course, there are a lot of things I can complain about, such as how the route lacked focus until the latter half, as well as the somewhat unreal development near the end. But all in all, I found myself plainly attached to Kudo and Riki's bond and the struggle they went through. Even in CLANNAD, I found some of the routes lacking because I simply could not attach myself to the characters. Kudo's route, in that respect, was at least more fulfilling than those. The best part, I think, is that sense of urgency and anxiety I felt as the development got heavier and heavier.

In any case, I'm satisified that I still managed to get into the game even with the new staff. I hear that the Refrain route is where the good stuff lies, so I'm certainly looking forward to that too (if not only because it's probably the last story Maeda Jun will write for Key games).

Oh yeah, the baseball match ended with a 3-3 tie for me. ^^; I tried reloading a couple of times after getting a 2-2 tie, but ended up with crazy bad results (12-0 or something), so I gave up when they tied again.

New game... I think I'll try Rin ("bad" end?) next.

[Orrin]

My favorite route so far has been Kudo's, it might have started out a bit slow but it really did redeem it self during the end and I won't be able to forget "that" CG for quite a while...

I did also like Haruka's route quite a bit, seems to me as 城桐央 has written the best scenarios amongst the new writers. I haven't finished Anego's yet so I can't say for certain and I haven't been able to get into Komari's character so it might have affected some of my opinions of her route. Same thing in Clannad for me also, in my case I just couldn't get Fuuko.

Rin's scenario seems to be very good (who knows maybe even as good as Clannad's Afterstory), I have some theories as to which direction it might go but I'm probably way off. I did enjoy the short part that was playable before the bad end, somehow just seeing Riki and Rin paired up makes it enjoyable for me and it's also the part of the game that has brought me the most laughs ∑(∵)

[Leo_Otaku]

I have a question, do the male characters get to have any sort of routes?