Still good, with everything but Emi's path complete (not going for 100% completion or anything, just going through each one). Spoilers for the non-Rin, non-Emi routes below.

Shizune's route was interesting but not as entertaining as the others, mostly because Shizune's personality is... well, she's abrasive and not terribly considerate. Hisao plus Shizune plus Misha is an interesting and fun dynamic, but not as compelling as the others. On top of that, there's very little closure - even after the good end, the post-script of the story could have said "and then they went home and never saw each other again" without stretching my disbelief any. Nor did Hisao really get himself together - in the other three routes, he takes hold of the rudder of his own life to some degree, but in the Shizune route it's basically "lol college I guess".

Finally, there's Shizune's dad. I don't know what they were trying to do with that character, but it didn't succeed. The game already has one "let's do a humorous interlude" character in Kenji, who fills his role well. It didn't really need another one who just shows up, ladles out vituperation and abuse to any other character present, then strolls away. If the whole idea was to say "Shizune is like that because her dad is a flaming asshole", that did not come across properly. His inclusion does much less for the story than Akira, even if I think "hey, Saber" every time she shows up.

Regarding Lilly's and Hanako's routes, they're perfectly fine if you look at them separately, but a little disturbing if you take them together. Hanako has a rough time on her own route, working through her various demons. But on Lilly's route, with Hisao taking up more of Lilly's attention, Hanako is... actually better off? She's much closer to well-adjusted at the end of Lilly's route than at the end of her own. Maybe being considerate and giving Lilly and Hisao their alone time let her self-actualize and gain some badly needed self-respect? It's a nicer thought than "gee, Hisao made things ten times worse by being there"...

I'll probably play through Emi's route just for the humor (I'm told there's some comedy gold there) - not really interested in the character archetype. But with three out of five really good paths and one that at least wasn't terrible, the odds are pretty good here...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at 07:38 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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