Prologue and common route is rough. Like, the prologue goes on for a good
five hours without any sort of player decisions until the very, very end, and the one choice you do get only affects the scene immediately following it. The common route also kinda shares that problem of taking an unreasonably long time to get to where you can actually choose where to go, and I feel like a
lot of the mandatory scenes feel like padding or could have been made optional just to give some more sense that you are actually in control of what you're doing. Like, how many breakfast scenes at the Tokisaka household did we really need? And then when you finally do get to start making choices as to where to go, there's only like four decision points in the entire common route to begin with.
It does pick up a lot after finishing that though. The "middle route" as they call it branches off into four distinct paths, with each focusing on two heroines except the last one which is just the start of the Arisu route and which is locked off until every other route has been cleared. While on a personal level I feel like these middle routes are largely kind of uneven in that in all of them I found one of the options far more interesting than the other (For the record, Nino >>> Sorane, Hiyori >>> Miu and Shiina >>> Chiyoko), fact is that by this point in the story they do shed a lot of the fluff from the common route and start actually setting up plot- and character-details in earnest. Though... if I'm not mistaken, if one does not enter the Shiina/Chiyoko path here, those two just completely disappear from the game at this point. I mean I guess it's understandable since they aren't part of Ichito's friend group, but it is kinda strange how these two are the
only characters who just completely vanish from the game if you don't get their routes.
Then when it gets to the actual individual character routes, from what I've played so far I would say...
Nino > Shiina > Sorane > Hiyori > Miu > Chiyoko. Though I honestly can't say I've
outright disliked any of these routes, though I will absolutely criticize Chiyoko's route for its utter lack of substance. I very much feel like she was invented first as a supporting character for Shiina, and then they decided to give her her own route at the last second just because it wouldn't make sense for her to not have one. Miu is also kinda in this boat, though she still comes out somewhat better because her route at least
has a plot, even if it is minimal. And then the remaining four routes... all throw some sort of massive curveball to the plot that is certainly interesting, though at the same time I find myself wondering what the eff the writers were on when they came up with this stuff. Like, Da Capo is certainly no stranger to fantasy elements and some pretty out-there concepts, but
feels like a new kind of bizarre. And yet... I cannot deny that these bizarre twists have made these routes
very memorable. Hiyori's twist hit decidedly less hard than the others though but that was mostly because... I played Miu's route before hers and that one had the same twist. At the
start of the route rather than the end of it. Yet somehow Hiyori's route did far more with the idea even if it established it much, much later.
In terms of characters...
-Hiyori is best girl. Full stop. She was absolutely awesome from her first appearance and while I was in some ways a bit let down by her route, the interactions throughout it were absolutely on-point.
-Shiina is a
very close second for me. Prior to playing the game I saw her character description listing her as being a "quiet girl with a bit of a toxic tongue" and I was just like "Well that sounds
awesome," and indeed, she did not disappoint. I could watch her deadpan-ly trashtalking Suginami all day. Her interactions with Ichito in the later parts of her route were also
ungodly adorable.
Quite a shame, then, that the direction her story ended up taking made it much harder for me to fully appreciate her...
-I did not like Nino at first. Though honestly part of that might just stem from me not liking
Ichito, and all the elements of his personality that I do not care for being on full display whenever Nino is around. (Mostly I just can't stand just
how often he does the "You look so much better with a smile!" thing, just
gah stop.) The fact that she's... basically just Nemu for the fourth time also didn't really help. I did finally start to warm up to her when playing through her route though. Which, even before that I was actually still excited for her route because I saw plenty of potential for interesting developments in there, and as I said before I do think it is the best route I've played so far, but... yeah my first impression of her was anything but good.
-Sorane... I liked her route. I thought the direction the plot took there was interesting. But
oh my god do I ever just
not care for this kind of character. It's not that she's unlikable or anything, the "sweet and caring older sister-type character who is also a superb cook and really good at any other kinds of housework" archetype just
bores me to tears.
-Miu is a fairly cute and charming character whose main problem is that she exists constantly in the shadow of Hiyori and basically anyone would look bad in that situation.
-Chiyoko I initially just outright disliked, finding everything about her to basically just
scream "Stereotypical teenage girl." Her
own route also does next to nothing with her. But... she is actually really good in her supporting role in Shiina's route, which is again what I feel like she was first envisioned for anyway. Still, I think she's kinda just stuck at the bottom of my tier list by default, between not having an interesting route at all nor having really any sort of particularly compelling character traits.