Rewrite & Harvest Festa

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

Spoiler for Answer:

Yes, the amnesia thing is justified and comes back later. You won't understand right now with just this partial patch, but there is some subtle hints in the other routes.

Well, that's good then. Because that part was really, really dumb.

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

If you want a more satisfying feeling to Kotori's route, I guess you have to wait until Harvest Festa is translated since people feel that Romeo worked really hard to write a good conclusion for Kotori.

I actually enjoyed the conclusion of the route (and the scenario overall) but it was absolutely ridden with plotholes and inconsistencies. It's like Romeo didn't even care about what he was writing and phoned the whole thing in without looking at his notes or anything.
Oh well, onto Chihaya for more inconsistencies I guess. I sure love this game.

[etalocohc84]

Now that I have reread the heroine routes in English, I believe Romeo secretly disliked some of the characters the other two writers created. That's why Kotori's and Akane's routes practically didn't feature Shizuru, Chihaya and Lucia at all. On the other hand, Ryukishi07 was fine with Chihaya and Shizuru, but refrained from using Kotori and Akane.

[Mazyrian]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

Now that I have reread the heroine routes in English, I believe Romeo secretly disliked some of the characters the other two writers created. That's why Kotori's and Akane's routes practically didn't feature Shizuru, Chihaya and Lucia at all. On the other hand, Ryukishi07 was fine with Chihaya and Shizuru, but refrained from using Kotori and Akane.

Chihaya could have perfectly appeared in Akane's (maybe Shizuru also). But other than that, for the most it made sense to me that the other heroines don't feature in each route.

Spoiler:

Being one of the main forces of Guardian, Shizuru could have appeared in Akane; but once Kotarou becomes involved with Gaia or Guardian it makes some sense that the heroines on the other side (and Kotori) would stop appearing.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by etalocohc84

Now that I have reread the heroine routes in English, I believe Romeo secretly disliked some of the characters the other two writers created. That's why Kotori's and Akane's routes practically didn't feature Shizuru, Chihaya and Lucia at all. On the other hand, Ryukishi07 was fine with Chihaya and Shizuru, but refrained from using Kotori and Akane.

Errr... no, for plot reasons, I hardly see possible to see everyone in the same route all the time. It wouldn't make sense at all otherwise.

[Balzac]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

I actually enjoyed the conclusion of the route (and the scenario overall) but it was absolutely ridden with plotholes and inconsistencies. It's like Romeo didn't even care about what he was writing and phoned the whole thing in without looking at his notes or anything.

I'm not aware of any plotholes within the Kotori route itself. The only inconsistency I know of involving Kotori/Kotarou is one that exists even after clearing the entire game. (which is in the list of the unanswered questions/plotholes in Rewrite) Would you be able to list out those you've seen so far?

EDIT: I'm not convinced the writers would be prejudiced against specific characters. It's just that the plot didn't need them during that specific heroine route

[etalocohc84]

Maybe I thought too much into this, but I felt Chihaya should have most definitely appeared in Akane's route.

Spoiler for Akane's Route:

I assume Chihaya ran away from Gaia since Akane blatantly lied to Kotarou. However, based on her feelings in Chihaya's route, I thought Chihaya would never leave unless something extreme happens. I'm also surprised that Shizuru never confronts Kotarou at all.

I will take back my previous statement about writer bias. It's just reading the heroine routes and thinking about what happens in Terra route, I felt Romeo could have expanded the story with some other characters.

[Balzac]

Spoiler for Rewrite complete:

Well, one could think that the heroines from the other side, or even those of the same side, were killed in battle. A blase assumption, true, but it's not like there isn't precedent. (like Lucia in Sizuru end or Moon route in general)

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Balzac

I'm not aware of any plotholes within the Kotori route itself. The only inconsistency I know of involving Kotori/Kotarou is one that exists even after clearing the entire game.

I sure love them inconsistencies. Why is a retail game this unpolished? It's terrible that this was allowed to happen.

Originally Posted by Balzac

Would you be able to list out those you've seen so far?

None of it is really that important, just horribly egregious.

Spoiler for Kotori route:

• Soon after Kotarou finds his way into Kotori's magic grove, she summons her mother momentarily. Kotarou is surprised by Rikako's sudden appearance, but after the scene ends neither he nor Kotori mention either of Kotori's parents again... until their appearance late in the route, where it's revealed that they're Familiars. At this point, Kotarou reacts as though he believed both Rikako and Keisuke were at their 'jobs' overseas this whole time.
• In Kotori's route, Kotarou suddenly 'realizes' that Chibimoth is actually a pygmy mammoth, triggering a vomiting fit (in much the same way Inoue did when trying to remember her experiences, something that isn't followed up on at the time). Yet, in the Common Route, in a scene I'm pretty sure that Romeo wrote, Kotarou is perfectly capable of recognizing that Chibimoth is a mammoth and even confronts him with this knowledge without issue.
• At the very start of the route, Kotarou learns that Aurora can cut everything (except konjac). However, later in the route when he's training against a Treeman, he claims to be unable to do any damage to it with Aurora. Unless Treemen are immune to it, or made of konjac, this seems a bit odd to me.
• Finally, while this is a more general issue, it really struck me hard in Kotori's route. The game, for whatever reason, assumes that the player did the Treeman quest on October 30th (Kotarou even recognizes them) even if you didn't. These sort of assumptions occur during the common route as well.

Rewrite clearly had next to no QC work or editing done on it at all and could have been far better than it actually is if any sort of attention had been paid to those things.

[Balzac]

Spoiler for Answers:

Soon after Kotarou finds his way into Kotori's magic grove, she summons her mother momentarily. Kotarou is surprised by Rikako's sudden appearance, but after the scene ends neither he nor Kotori mention either of Kotori's parents again... until their appearance late in the route, where it's revealed that they're Familiars. At this point, Kotarou reacts as though he believed both Rikako and Keisuke were at their 'jobs' overseas this whole time.

I think Kotarou just assumed it was something Kotori made because that scene was her showing off her power to him. Now I would agree, that maybe some form of inquiry, however light, at that point in time from Kotarou about her parents would've been preferable, even if Kotori had to lie. As it was, it was like Kotarou didn't care for her parents just so long as he saw his love again. This explanation would then account for Kotarou's open-mouthed surprise at the revelation later on.

In Kotori's route, Kotarou suddenly 'realizes' that Chibimoth is actually a pygmy mammoth, triggering a vomiting fit (in much the same way Inoue did when trying to remember her experiences, something that isn't followed up on at the time). Yet, in the Common Route, in a scene I'm pretty sure that Romeo wrote, Kotarou is perfectly capable of recognizing that Chibimoth is a mammoth and even confronts him with this knowledge without issue.

I believe it was mentioned that Kotarou was "half-aware" of the truth about Chibi-moth, but somehow a part of his brain refused to acknowledge it. It's even sort of used for comedy in Common. This sort of cognitive recognition resulting in brief, severe mental backlash is echoed in other routes, most primarily Moon.

It's also kind of reflected in Chibi-moth's sprite itself. "Normal" Chibi-moth kind of looks like a cute fluffy dog still, with only the barest hints of a trunk, so one might glimpse that extraneous part and think "Must be my imagination". Kotori route changes the sprite to a blatant resemblance to a mammoth, sort of reflecting Kotarou (and the player's) perception of Chibi-moth's true self.

At the very start of the route, Kotarou learns that Aurora can cut everything (except konjac). However, later in the route when he's training against a Treeman, he claims to be unable to do any damage to it with Aurora. Unless Treemen are immune to it, or made of konjac, this seems a bit odd to me.

This is kind of a plot point if I remember correctly, so spoilers. (Though wasn't it already explored adequately in Kotori's route...? I don't recall concretely.)

Finally, while this is a more general issue, it really struck me hard in Kotori's route. The game, for whatever reason, assumes that the player did the Treeman quest on October 30th (Kotarou even recognizes them) even if you didn't. These sort of assumptions occur during the common route as well.

I thought one had to go through the Quest to even get to Kotori, or am I wrong? If one could enter without seeing the Quest, then it shows it was supposed to be intended, but maybe some sort of miscommunication between writers and programmers caused it to develop that way. I have the impression VN heroine routes are developed in a vacuum, with some things slipping through because the details were either taken for granted, or thoroughly missed. Though I have to say it is a very minor and forgettable detail for me, as reader.

[Tyabann]

Thanks for responding.
Like I said, they're not really the biggest of deals and I liked the route in spite of them. It's just that they emphasize how... unfinished the game feels to me. Maybe the purported "good routes" will be much better, I don't know.
I kind of wish we'd gotten a rerelease instead of a fandisc, the latter of which, from what I've heard, also feels fairly unfinished in certain instances. It's rather sad.

[Dizzyworld2]

I finished Chihaya's route today and I can see why some people call her route the Sakuya route

Spoiler for thoughts and questions:

I really don't know how to respond to the Sakuya monster appearing and Midou lending Fuego to Kotarou. I didn't like how the route just ended as a happy ending, excluding the death of Sakuya. It is certainly nice to see that many things had a good outcome but... the amount of them is unsatisfying (Well, this could be because of the amount of tragic stories I've read recently)

Anyway, I have a few questions regarding her route.
What happened to Lucia? Shizuru said that she couldn't move in the conclusion. (if this question is answered her some other route, please tell me that it's a spoiler)
Did Kotori escape or did she get detained by Gaia? I'm assuming that she ran away when Akane found the Key.

Now that I have the longest route out of the way, I'll be tackling Shizuru's route.

[Linkark07]

Originally Posted by Dizzyworld2

I finished Chihaya's route today and I can see why some people call her route the Sakuya route

Spoiler for thoughts and questions:

I really don't know how to respond to the Sakuya monster appearing and Midou lending Fuego to Kotarou. I didn't like how the route just ended as a happy ending, excluding the death of Sakuya. It is certainly nice to see that many things had a good outcome but... the amount of them is unsatisfying (Well, this could be because of the amount of tragic stories I've read recently)

Anyway, I have a few questions regarding her route.
What happened to Lucia? Shizuru said that she couldn't move in the conclusion. (if this question is answered her some other route, please tell me that it's a spoiler)
Did Kotori escape or did she get detained by Gaia? I'm assuming that she ran away when Akane found the Key.

Now that I have the longest route out of the way, I'll be tackling Shizuru's route.

Spoiler for Response to your Spoiler:

I assume that is a spoiler about Lucia. Just gonna say that afer you play Lucia's route you might understand why Shizuru said that. And about Kotori, I'm sure Akane let her go after she found Kagari.

Yeah, I agree about the part of Sakuya. It should have been called Sakuya's route instead of Chihaya. Still, it was enjoyable. Loved Kotarou's iteraction with Sakuya and Chihaya.

[Snuffle]

This game is sure making me lose A LOT of sleep for it having such a large cast of likable characters.

So far I've finished Chihaya's, Akane's, Kotori's, and Shizuru's route. I'm not really in a hurry to begin Lucia's route since I'm not fond of violent girls, but I have so much momentum going right now that I just might go for it.

Spoiler for Chihaya route opinion:

This has to be my favorite route, it was so much fun watching Kotarou and Chihaya interact with each other. Whenever I see these two in the same scene, there is almost always a good chance I will like something about it.

It was great to see the potential of what Kotarou's power can do, which was severely lacking in other routes besides Akane's. Out of the 4 routes that I've played so far, I would have to say I liked Chihaya's ending the most. The other stories are just too damn depressing and the "WTF WHY!?" moments causes me to want to hate some of the other stories.

I did not really understand why the Sakuya monster showed up or as to why Akane desired to summon it. The monster is meant to destroy the world is it not? I thought her objective was to "renew" the world with greenery.

Spoiler for Akane's route opinion + Very minor part referring to Chihaya's route:

Probably my favorite character and a with a route which I can actually accept. Kotarou makes really good use of his powers here and is possibly the only route in which he becomes a killer, which I found to be a nice compliment to his character considering his professional position in this story.

Out of the 4 route's that I've played, I find that this route so deserves an 18+ version. It's so damn obvious these two are having sex, at least once, but it's possible there two places as to where it could fit in. They become so close and passionate that I would have to be in denial to think they're doing otherwise.

The scenes where Kotarou had to help evacuate people all by himself went on twice as long as I would have liked... It was just getting so boring, just find your girl already!

The fight with the T-Rex revealed as to why Kotarou could not defeat that Iron Ore monster in Chihaya's route despite his growth there power wise was larger than Akane's route. That little tidbit kinda bugged me.

The ending is something I can agree with. At first I thought they were going to get banished to the surface, but instead, they are sent to a remote part of the artificial town. AFAIK, Harvest Festival does not have an after story for Akane, which is disappointing.

Spoiler for Kotori's route opinion:

Kotori stupid, Kotori is stupid, Kotori's stupid!

I understand you don't want to get attached to other people because of what you have to do. I understand that you don't let people get to attached to you because you don't want them to worry. And I understand that you are afraid to be with Kotarou because you are concerned as to weather his feelings are his real feelings or your deep desires ordering him.

But why the hell does that even matter!!?? If I "made" a girl fall in love with me, who would never betray me, would always be there for me, etc. etc. I would take her! Does she even realize that if she really is controlling Kotarou's thoughts, it would be IMPOSSIBLE for him to fall in love with anyone else because SHE is the one that desires HIM to LOVE HER.

I'm not too fond of Kotori, she's weird in a good and fun way, but she constantly denies how she really feels.... That just gets annoying.

However, I really did like that scene where she had to carry him to the hospital. And she most likely was scared to see him because she probably thought his feelings would be different/changed since Kotarou is full human again.

Spoiler for Shizuru route opinion:

CUTE CUTE CUTE!
ADORABLE ADORABLE ADORABLE!
MAID MAID MAID!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOO!!!
OMG WHY WTF WHY WTH IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!???!?!??!?

Translation:
Shizuru is so cute.
Shizuru is so adorable when talking to Kotarou
Kotarou buy her a maid dress!!! Don't buy her fish!!
Shizuru!! why did all this happen to you!? You don't deserve this! Kotarou this is your fault!
Kotarou! You piece of sh!t!!!! Someone PLEASE explain to me as to why Kotarou stayed behind instead going with Shizuru to the shelter..... I mean.... FU<K!!! I HATE THIS ENDING!!! I love the route a lot, but I HATE THE DAMN ENDING! This just makes me angry and depressed at the same time, and I don't like that. I pick a girl, read her route, I expect my persona to fall in love and end up with her! I mean... WTF!!??

Whew... that took a long time.

BTW, does anyone else think this game has a serious lack of CGs and special effects for the battles? Key should learn from TypeMoon.

It's hard for me to pick which my favorite heroine is. It's most likely Akane, she is just oh so pwetty. My rankings probably goes like this.

1. Akane , 2. Chihaya/Shizuru , 3. Kotori/Lucia

Although, Lucia is still unknown to me, I very highly doubt I will put in the 2nd place area. Her appearance, personality, and voice don't really do anything for me. But I do like how she always plays the tsukkomi role with Kotarou when making fun of Chihaya being a mecha. Also, I like it when her voice goes really high pitch when screaming lol.

[Mazyrian]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

Spoiler for Shizuru route opinion:

Kotarou! You piece of sh!t!!!! Someone PLEASE explain to me as to why Kotarou stayed behind instead going with Shizuru to the shelter..... I mean.... FU<K!!! I HATE THIS ENDING!!! I love the route a lot, but I HATE THE DAMN ENDING! This just makes me angry and depressed at the same time, and I don't like that. I pick a girl, read her route, I expect my persona to fall in love and end up with her! I mean... WTF!!??

Spoiler for Shizuru's ending:

Kotarou was draining Shizuru's life; were they to go to the shelter as they were, she would just die. But once the link was broken, now it was Kotarou who would die; his chance of survival was to rewrite himself. But IIRC that would take some time, so he went full power and rewrote himself enough to survive the apocalypse, turning into a tree; the idea was that once Shizuru came back, she would heal him.

Spoiler for Harvest Festa Shizuru's story:

Which seems to be what actually happens.

[Snuffle]

Originally Posted by Mazyrian

Spoiler for Shizuru's ending:

Kotarou was draining Shizuru's life; were they to go to the shelter as they were, she would just die. But once the link was broken, now it was Kotarou who would die; his chance of survival was to rewrite himself. But IIRC that would take some time, so he went full power and rewrote himself enough to survive the apocalypse, turning into a tree; the idea was that once Shizuru came back, she would heal him.

Spoiler for Harvest Festa Shizuru's story:

Which seems to be what actually happens.

Spoiler for General Harvest Festa Question(s):

I was under the impression that that Kotori was the only one that got an After Story in Harvest Festa and the rest (well maybe not Chihaya) were side stories/extended common route of the other character stories. I thought that because I skimmed a bit regarding the Harvest Festa content. So are all the routes considered After Stories? I doubt Akane's is after the seeing the bath CG.

[Mazyrian]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

Spoiler for General Harvest Festa Question(s):

I was under the impression that that Kotori was the only one that got an After Story in Harvest Festa and the rest (well maybe not Chihaya) were side stories/extended common route of the other character stories. I thought that because I skimmed a bit regarding the Harvest Festa content. So are all the routes considered After Stories? I doubt Akane's is after the seeing the bath CG.

Spoiler for General Harvest Festa Question(s):

Indeed, only Kotori and Chihaya are proper after stories. Shizuru follows the oppai ending; but at the end you see a CG that would follow her ending from the original.

[Balzac]

EDIT: Sorry, I was going to point out something about all of Harvest Story's routes when I realized none were talking about Moon or Terra yet. One thing I can vaguely say is: they are indeed "after stories" in the general sense but in another sense they aren't...

[Tyabann]

I just finished Lucia's route and Jesus Christ was it ever good, especially after the first three I played. Pretty much everything I could have wanted from a route in this game.
I hope Akane's is as enjoyable because I'm already so satisfied that I really don't want to play it.
Scratch that it was equally amazing just in a completely different way. My love for this game is now genuine instead of ironic.

[minhhuywiki]

Excellent MAD (notice: will spoil all content)

Spoiler for Spoil MAD:

[RedKey]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

I just finished Lucia's route and Jesus Christ was it ever good.

Right? I especially liked

Spoiler for Lucia route. Also a bit of Higurashi.:

the sunflower scene when Itsuwaranai Kimi e starts playing, basically all the fight scenes (I was actually yelling YEAH GO GET HER KOTAROU in that badass Katana vs Aurora scene with instrumental Rewrite), and I recall being like "what do ghost stories even have to do with the plot" at first and then "holy crap it was her all along" once the revelation about Haruka came about. (I didn't yet know much about Gaia and Guardian, as I played her route right after Kotori's )
Learning how she was used as a guinea pig as a kid was really heartwrenching, though.
But I already liked Ryukishi07's writing before, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't betray my expectations.

Also, I may be biased here but Lucia's "disease" which poisons and kills the entire city reminded me of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, which gets subsequently covered up just like the Kazamatsuri incident.

And that's an awesome MAD indeed! I'll post one of my favourites too~ again though, spoilers for every route.

Spoiler for ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ: