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

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Shinova

Depends on what your standards are. I've only played one route and haven't touched the game for a long time due to other things and other games, but I liked it, and definetly several ranks above mediocre or meh. If you're the kind of people who are easy to disappoint if a game isn't a historical masterpiece, then yeah you might not like this one.

Lemme put it a different way: If I really liked Clannad, will I like this?

It's really funny so far, but this is KEY and I'm wondering how it handles more emotional stuff.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Lemme put it a different way: If I really liked Clannad, will I like this?

It's really funny so far, but this is KEY and I'm wondering how it handles more emotional stuff.

This isn't Clannad, and there really is no way to predict one way or another whether you will like this based on the grounds that you liked Clannad - the two are fairly different in terms of mood.

That said, i would suggest you do continue for a while. Personally i haven't finished all the routes yet (though i do know what to expect from all of them), but i can say that Komari's route is probably the weakest of them all, and a fair bit of people seem less than impressed with it, so you are not alone in the crowd there. Kudo's was not all that impressive either, though it did have some nice parts ... not the end though.

If you want to see how it handles more emotional stuff, i suggest you go for Haruka's route - which is a quite emotional ride from beginning to end, and probably the most emotion-inducting of LB routes. Yuiko's is not bad on that aspect as well, and Mio's route has a pretty nice melancholic mood to it.

All that said, are you going to enjoy LB ? I am not sure, and neither can anyone else be - just don't give up on the game yet. It is no masterpiece, but it is generally quite good enough, you just happened to stumble in to worst of it from the get go

[Tyabann]

Thanks, although you're somewhat mistaken...

It wasn't me who was disappointed by Komari's route. Was a couple of posters above me.

I tend to have a high latitude of enjoyment for things I already like, so I'm sure I'll love this game then. Thanks for your advice.

[kyosak]

Well I just finished Haruka's route! I enjoyed it MUUUUCH more than Komari's route that's for sure, lol. It don't think its anywhere near the level of Clannad though, I still had this feeling that the game tried to make things more emotional than they really were; no tears for me Q.Q

How is Kanata's route, should I play that next? I'd really like to unlock the ending but I'm not interested enough in the other characters to play through their routes just yet (looking at you Mio >.>)... Maybe Kudo's route next but I've heard terrible things about her's, lol. Sasami and Saya both interest me much more than the main cast but I've no clue how to unlock their routes (pretty sure they don't help me unlock the ending either)! Please give me some route recommendations!

[Sterling01]

Kudo's route is much better in Ecstasy... it's also quite dark.
To unlock Saya's route you have to unlock and finish Refrain.

[Newprimus]

Speaking of EX, I have started Little Busters (on long hiatus) but I also have EX. Should I start over with EX or finish the original, then try EX?

[Sterling01]

Originally Posted by Shinova

Speaking of EX, I have started Little Busters (on long hiatus) but I also have EX. Should I start over with EX or finish the original, then try EX?

Just start with EX

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by kyosak

Well I just finished Haruka's route! I enjoyed it MUUUUCH more than Komari's route that's for sure, lol. It don't think its anywhere near the level of Clannad though, I still had this feeling that the game tried to make things more emotional than they really were; no tears for me Q.Q

Well, to be fair, i found Haruka's route more anger-inducting than sadness inducting, bad as her situation was So while i don't think it comes that far up on the Q.Q meter, it certainly did a number on my rage meter towards certain characters ... i could certainly understand why Riki felt uncharacteristically pissed at points.

How is Kanata's route, should I play that next? I'd really like to unlock the ending but I'm not interested enough in the other characters to play through their routes just yet (looking at you Mio >.>)... Maybe Kudo's route next but I've heard terrible things about her's, lol. Sasami and Saya both interest me much more than the main cast but I've no clue how to unlock their routes (pretty sure they don't help me unlock the ending either)! Please give me some route recommendations!

Kanata's route is ... well, a route for route's sake, and the way you can diverge on it from Haruka's route is not exactly the epitome of believability. As for Kudo ... i haven't played her supposedly improved EX route, but the original, while having some moments, was less than impressive overall, and the ending was a deus ex machina of horrific proportions. Maybe you can try Yuiko instead for now

[Sterling01]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

As for Kudo ... i haven't played her supposedly improved EX route

It's sad to say but the reason I think the EX version is better then the original is because of the scene Key added as a lead up to her first H-scene.

[kyosak]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Well, to be fair, i found Haruka's route more anger-inducting than sadness inducting
[...]
Kanata's route is ... well, a route for route's sake, and the way you can diverge on it from Haruka's route is not exactly the epitome of believability.

This is true, never thought of it that way, lol. I was sort of interested in how much Kanata can redeem herself to me in her route but I guess I shouldn't expect much. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll probably play Yuiko next, Kudo after that. I need to drag through all this asap for Sasami/Saya route's sake!

BTW, did Komari's route change all that much in EX? I had beat her's on the original game so I was going to hold CTRL through the entire thing in EX.

[kyosak]

OK, just beat Kudo's route.

WTF? Just WTF?

The whole route was on the verge of putting me to sleep and then... I am hit with an ending that made absolutely no sense, LOL! I don't know what I just played!

[Tyabann]

The more I hear about this game the less I want to play it... Thanks guys. >_>

[plmko]

Originally Posted by kyosak

OK, just beat Kudo's route.

WTF? Just WTF?

The whole route was on the verge of putting me to sleep and then... I am hit with an ending that made absolutely no sense, LOL! I don't know what I just played!

Personally I find that very common with alot of Key games (on the contrary of what people say). Tomoyo after was suppose to be quite emotional and good, but I just found the ending pretty random (the epilogue). I'd probably describe it as quite forced into terms of emotions it is trying to convey.

[Sterling01]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

The more I hear about this game the less I want to play it... Thanks guys. >_>

You should really just try it out for yourself...

[kyosak]

Aha, sorry if I came off really negative; I'm not trying to discourage people from playing the game! In fact, out of the 3 routes I've played so far the only really bad thing I can say about the game is Kudo's route (I actually enjoyed Haruka's route A LOT). From what I've read, all of the individual routes are supposed to be pretty disappointing anyway. Refrain is supposed to be good enough to more than make up for the mediocre routes. Yuiko and Mio left until I can finally get to Rin!

I've heard that getting Rin's bad end affects her behavior in the other individual routes but I haven't done that... Shouldn't be a big deal, should it?

Also, I've been using a text hooker to play the game so there were a couple of details I wasn't clear on in Kudo's route...

Spoiler:

Did Kudo's family survive? What exactly was the object that Riki passed onto Kudo when she was chained up?

From what I understand Kudo's mom passed away (not sure how) and the object was a piece of a rocket that Kudo had since she was little...

[Klashikari]

The routes are "disappointing" if you have too much expectations.
From a neutral point of view, if you cast aside Kudo and Komari, the rest is pretty fine, so long you have an interest/fancy about the character. If you start to compare however, it is sure weaker compared to some routes of previous Key games.

And Refrain is just the real dish.
As for Rin, yes she will have some subtle but noticeable changes, and Riki will have the same treatment, but more scarce (though the start is pretty blunt).

[Tyabann]

Well, that's somewhat of a relief.

Though Kudo and Komari are my favorite characters so far from what I've played of the patch, so eh.

[kyosak]

OK, just beat Yuiko's route!

I enjoyed the route very much! I like how the members of little busters played a bigger role and the interaction between the male characters and Yuiko's teasing had me laughing out loud many many times! Art wise Yuiko didn't really attract me, but having played the route, she is such an awesome character. ^^

With that said, I'm left wondering if the game will give any better explanations for these mysterious endings... Haruka and Kudo's routes were pretty straight forward story-wise, but Kudo and Yukio's endings left me confused and clueless, lol.

Spoiler for Yuiko ending:

It seems like Riki is living out a dream? From what I understand he allowed Yuiko to feel emotions she was unable to feel in the past (such as love) and this change in Yuiko caused some sort of paradox that f'd over the universe? I can't quite grasp if this is changing Riki's perception of the world or the actual world itself...

Even though the whole situation left me quite confused, I felt a real connection between the characters this time around. Yuiko's loneliness and the existence of the relationship somehow being erased from the world affected me quite a bit more than I expected!

BTW, 雨のち晴れ is such a great song!

[kyosak]

Just beat the game~

I NEVER cry watching movies or anime or reading a book but oh my god...

Spoiler for refrain:

Kyousuke/Masato/Kengo's departure scene

had me on the verge of bawling, LOL!

Refrain had me so damn confused until "that scene" but wow, all of the secrets were so unexpected to me; I guess I suck at picking up the hints through the routes, lol.

With that said, refrain made me a stronger believer in how weak the side characters were, lol. The epilogue scenes not involving the main 5 failed to affect me, though refrain convinced me that this is a very small issue! The male characters were so amazing~

Saya, Sasami, Kanata... Wonder which I should play first!

[ASR1FanSubs]

wait, is there an English patch for this?