Late as always, but I finally got to play through all of Little Busters, and I thought I’d write some of my impressions of the game here. Note that I played the original version of the game, so the added scenes and route from Ecstasy and Perfect Edition were not included.

The game has several character routes with a suggested play order, in order for you to get the most content available from them all, so I’ll list them and my thoughts in said order. I won’t spoil too much (apart from one route), but if you haven’t read Little Busters yet, and don’t want your experience to be too sullied by information, you should probably not read this yet!

Also, this is going to be a long read….

Here is the premise of the game:

You play as Naoe Riki, an orphaned kid who lost his parents when he was very young, and was cast into deep depression and solitude. One day he meets a group of children that call themselves the “Little Busters”, self-proclaimed warriors of justice, who bring him along in their silly games and dangerous antics. Through them he finds a new light in his life, and the gang stays together for years to come, until the time where the actual game takes place. The gang’s leader, Natsume Kyousuke, one day decides that they will take up baseball in their free time and win a game. And so the story begins.

The music and art in the game is very nice. Especially the music – there are many of the tunes that I really like, and very few that annoy me (VN’s often have plenty of the latter). The art might take a certain taste, I know a lot of people who don’t like the style in Key’s game very much. There are certainly CG’s that look a little odd or lazy, but most of them do their job well, and they all have nice and vibrant colours.

First:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxRFNZIJ6Ek&w=420&h=315]

The intro movie. I have to mention this – 10/10 and would watch again. And again. And again. I love the intro movie for this game, and have done so since years ago when it was first released. The song and the imagery is lovely, and works so well in conveying the initial theme of the game – childhood and having to let it go.

Common Route:

This is what you have to play through every time before the story diverges into the different routes of the characters. Small variations happen every time you play, adding more scenes and crazy activities that the Little Busters do to pass their time. The plot stays light-hearted and funny throughout, and I must say I really enjoyed it – from the cute little baseball and fighting minigames, to the silly things that Kyousuke manages to get his friends to do. You get to know the characters and how they work together as a group, and it’s very amusing to see. Kyousuke is always awesome.

I must say I adore the sprites used in the baseball minigame. They are very nicely made, and portray each character so well – I love seeing them run around and be cute on the field. (No Komari, I’m not looking at you. Go space out somewhere else.)

The fighting minigame isn’t interactive at all, sadly – you can see the characters get random crazy weapons from a slot machine, then duke it out according to their stats and items. It’s still strangely amusing to watch when you get used to it though, kinda like a race where you root for your horse to cross the finish line first. And all the silly weapons do entertain.

Komari:

Had to start with this one, huh…? I must admit I’m not a big fan of Komari. Every time I play through this game, apart from when I had to get her route, I choose to stay faar away from the rooftop and her bothersome “I’m cute and missing half a brain” voice. She spends most her time eating sweets on the rooftop, and during baseball practice she will run around with no particular purpose, other than occasionally getting in the way of the ball. (I find those moments very amusing. Sorry.)

As the baseball match has come and gone you progress into her route, and the other characters start to slowly fade away as the story centers on Komari. This begins with her being a terribly good-willed person, who talks Riki (the protagonist) into helping her with charity work at an old folks home. As is always the case with these kinds of stories, you will soon learn that all is not sunshine and rainbows with Komari in spite of her usual demeanour, though she’s not even aware of this herself. Slowly the plot unravels, and happy-go-lucky Komari will be faced with the severity of life and go through a terrible breakdown – which you can save her from!

As mentioned I’m not a big fan of Komari. She annoys me a great deal, and as such the ending didn’t have a great impact on me. The story was decent though, even if suffering some bad attempts at explaining the issue from time to time. But this will get much worse in other routes! OH TRUST ME, this is nothing.

And then of course there are the Komari panties. If you’re one of those people who like to have a shiny “100%” mark in your CG collection, you will have to play through the game 3 times with different choices of doughnuts (huh?), and in that manner get to see Komari wear a different pair of undies when she later falls over and shows them off to the protagonist. I guess this is something… if you really like doughnuts.

Kurugaya:

Kurugaya Yuiko attends Riki’s class, although she acts much older than most of his classmates. She is the tough big sister who will defeat anyone opposing her, all the while giving sage advice to Riki (or so she thinks), and tease the more shy girls at every opportunity. I really liked this char. While she obviously takes a liking to Riki straight away, and becomes a member of Little Busters and their baseball game, it soon becomes apparent that she is very inattentive to the fact that Riki also becomes more and more attached to her. Rather than being dense to the fact, it’s clear that this is something she just doesn’t see as a possibility from the beginning, and as such doesn’t consider any of his approaches to be of a romantic kind.

Going from Komari and Rin1, Kurugaya’s route takes a much more supernatural turn as it progresses. The concept is interesting, but it always feels like something is missing. There are many details left out of the story – why do these things happen? What are the things hinted about her past, do they even matter or were they just added as an afterthought? Kurugaya herself keeps mentioning that she functions as a robot, unable to feel any proper emotion in regards to what goes on around her. I don’t feel this was played on properly in the story though, as it also in the end just feels like an excuse of hers as to why she doesn’t return Riki’s approaches straight away, rather than being the reason for what goes on to start with. All of the information given always feels like it is supposed to lead to something more, so when the story ends, you can’t help but feel there is something missing which could have been interesting.

Kurugaya’s story is a bit special though, in that you get a little more in her true ending, which can only be unlocked after you finish “Refrain”.

Haruka:

Haruka is another one of my favourites. While her voice does get annoying at times (sorry, Haruka), she is a nice character with a complex story. Sometimes more complex than it needs to be. Like with Komari you will soon find out that everything isn’t as peachy with Haruka as she pretends for it to be, except in Haruka’s case she herself is painfully aware of this fact. As the story progresses you see how all her happy antics are just an attempt for her to act more human, as well as rebel against her unfair origins and upbringing. The bullying that escalates throughout the route was severe enough to make me want to kick in the face of a certain other character at times.

I find it refreshing that Haruka herself isn’t spotless either. Due to her circumstances she will at points be driven to hateful actions and opinions herself, and I almost expected to see some blood spilled at one point. (Sadly it didn’t happen. Aww.)

As for the past that caused all these things to happen… it felt very contrived at parts, and too complicated. It felt like it tried to be something taken out of Higurashi, which is detrimental to both the story and Haruka. I’m sure the same circumstances could have been brought about in much simpler terms, which would have been much easier to relate to and follow. Especially when the characters in the story are expected to explain these circumstances – they will almost always choose to do so in the most long-winded and confusing manner possible, maybe to try and drown out the possible hard-to-believe parts, or just to make it sound more interesting and mysterious than it really is. This gets quite annoying in the long run though, and only gets worse in other parts of the game. I’ll get back to that later…

Kud:

Or: Kudryavka Noumi. This character ranks very high among fans of visual novel heroines, and she even got her own expansion. I cannot for the life of me see why. I wonder if it’s the character design. Though, look at those eyes! Look at those alien eyes staring into your soul!

I won’t be able to hide that Kud is my all-time most disliked character in this game. And it’s not just because of her terribly annoying personality and voice – her story is awful as well, and the ending almost made me regret reading it in the first place.

Some spoilers ahead.

You spend some time with Kud, helping her find a room-mate and preparing for her school tests, as she is terribly bad in english and wants to improve. Soon the story moves in a direction where you will get the impression that this is all about her twin-nationality, as well as her sad feelings about not belonging among the people of either country. Classmates will make fun of her bad english and foreign looks, and for a moment I also considered if we were going to have another bullying story, like with Haruka. This is wrong however, as that is only one of her insecurities, along with a soon surfacing fear of not being able to live up to her famous mother’s legacy. Through bits of news in the cafeteria TV you will soon be able to see what is going to happen a mile away though, as the media speaks about an upcoming rocket-launch in Kud’s home country, one which is lead by her mother.

Then things take a strange turn. After a disaster strikes you get the option of supporting Kud’s idea of going “home” to see her mother, or stay and be safe with Riki in Japan. The choice for the good ending is to send her off. Into a death trap. Both Riki and Kud are obviously aware that doing so will most certainly spell a tragic end for Kud and her family, and the two will never see each other again. Yet she takes off, for some reason only contacted and aided by her country’s embassy – menacing people in suits who gives her the plane ticket – rather than her grandfather who is her supposed close family and guardian in Japan. Where did he suddenly go!?

And of course going “home” really is the death-trap they expected. The whole explanation for the situation in her country is confusing and vague in itself, but you’re obviously just supposed to not bother with details too much, and go with the flow anyway for the sake of plot. Kud’s fate seems sealed, and in a quite tragic and gruesome way too. But wait!!! Just as all seems dark and hopeless, something happens….

MAGIC!

That’s right. Magic literally happens, for no apparent reason, as you read the text. And with this deus ex machina, Kud somehow comes home, gets reunited with Riki, and all ends well(?). This all happens after a terribly pointless speech about being a cog in the world’s grand mechanism, which keeps repeating itself without making any more sense than it did the first time. But we’re being sentimental here, people! Just go along with it!

If you choose to have Kud stay in Japan, she is forever tormented by guilt by not having ventured into certain death to meet her mother one last time, but her mother’s fate seems to be the same no matter what you do, and in the end she is saved from what must be a terribly traumatizing experience.

Like in Kurugaya’s route, a few things are also mentioned in this story that give you the impression that they were supposed to be important, yet are never touched upon in detail ever again.

But I digress. Sorry, Kud fans, but her route makes no sense to start with, not to me. One can argue that maybe “Refrain” explains how this could be done (and then again it doesn’t), but even so the story should still feel somewhat believable while you are reading it. This does not.

Mio:

It’s time for the book girl. Mio is the usual quiet, bookish type, who will always sit outside beneath her tree and read, while the Little Busters mess around. In the end she catches Riki’s eye, and he manages to convince her to come watch them play baseball. After a while she becomes their manager. Which means just sitting around and watching them play, while she has tea with the teams other two utterly useless members, Komari and Kud.

(By the way, try and hit their lunch with your ball while you practice. It’s funny.)

Most of Mio’s story is terribly uneventful. You go eat and read with her under her tree, and after a while she starts lending you books. You get constantly reminded of this poem about a seagull that is very important to her – you won’t miss out on it, it will be mentioned and recited again and again. The closer you get to the end, the slower things seem to go. Line after line of text that I couldn’t help but feel was terribly unnecessary, and in the end just made any emotion evoked by the tale feel forced and drawn out for far too long. This is a general issue with many visual novels, I know, but it doesn’t make it less tiresome.

Soon the supernatural background for Mio’s problem presents itself – and after ploughing through more walls of empty text, you finally get closer to unlocking the plot. Mio isn’t the worst character in the game. She’s terribly dull and uninteresting, but the further you get, at least some sort of personality emerges, and you can somewhat relate to her being the “invisible” girl in class that no one really pays any mind to. But the writing destroyed any chances of my really caring about what happens to her – it just goes on for too long, once again constantly repeating itself throughout the climax, talking about seagulls and colours and whether you can blend with other people or not. Like with most of the other endings, it just struggles too hard with trying to sound deep and emotional, and I just wanted to yell “get on with it!!” at the screen.

This time I didn’t bother with the bad ending as I could pretty much figure out what would happen in it anyway, and I felt like I’d die if I had to read through more of those endless lines of nothing. Sorry Mio, you join the trio of useless routes who feel terribly unnecessary and forced in this game.

Rin 1+2:

Rin! She is the “main” girl of Little Busters, the same way Ayu, Misuzu and Nagisa were in Key’s previous novels, Kanon, Air and Clannad. Her route is split in two – one which you can play at any time, and the other that unlocks when all other girls are cleared. I’ve decided to write about both of them together, which is why I saved her for last.

The writing in this route doesn’t waste half as much of its breath as it did in some of the others, and the story flows much better, as it did in the common route up until now, which is nice.

Rin is lovely and cute and all kinds of adorable – I guess the Natsume family has some good genes. Rin loves cats, and spends almost all of her breaks playing with cats in the courtyard. She is also terribly shy and bad at dealing with people, and only really feels comfortable around the Little Busters – Riki especially, as the two of them have shared a special bond since they met years ago. In the beginning someone will suddenly send her strange messages by attaching them to the tail of one of her stray cats, and in this manner she is presented with several tasks that she has to fulfil. If she does, the “secret of the world” will be revealed to her, or so they promise. Riki decides to help her out, even if he is sceptic about the perpetrator’s intentions with these messages.

Rin sticks to Riki like glue, and watching their relationship move from childhood friends and onto something more is very sweet and awkward, as I imagine it very well could be. Of course everything takes an undesirable turn as the route progresses into Rin2 – something doesn’t quite go as it did the first time around, and Rin and Riki’s peaceful days start to fall apart. Riki tries hard to fix the issue, but you can tell from a mile away that his solution is not going to hold, and you can just wait for things to go horribly wrong. And then comes Refrain.

Refrain and final impressions:

Refrain is where the overall plot reaches its climax and comes to a close. Looking at all the previous paths, common route and Rin2 makes up the first half of the actual story, where Refrain is the latter half.

This can be felt on the writing. As mentioned with Rin, there is far from the same useless repeating of facts and meaningless fluff, giving it much more impact, and making it a more enjoyable read overall. At least for me it really managed to hit home when it was supposed to – from peaceful to downright creepy, and heartbreakingly sad.

A cause of this is possibly having several writers. That, or they became terribly sloppy when it was time to write the other routes, who are not really that important to the main plot of things. To add insult to injury Kud gets a comment in the epilogue that I felt just cemented her “good” ending as being utterly pointless.

I’m not going to say much about what happens in Refrain itself, as it’s not possible to do so without giving out a lot of spoilers, but I’m definitely going to recommend it. If you can get past the shortcomings in the routes you have to clear before getting here, you’re in for a real treat.

After you finish Refrain you get the chance to enter another segment that lets you change the ending even further. I personally found this segment very clever, as you have to choose the right way to carry out some tasks to be successful – and the clues on how to do it have been hinted at throughout the main story all along, if you paid attention. This really lets it all come together, and illustrates that all that the characters had to work through mattered in the end, much more than they had hoped for.

And then of course there is the final ending credits roll – I don’t remember enjoying watching credits roll by that much in recent times. For once I feel sad that there is no shiny “Credits” button to be found in the game menu.

All in all Little Busters is a great visual novel. The concept is told much better when it finally gets down to it, and the main characters of the Little Busters are amazing. It’s great to finally see characters like Kengo and Masato, who feel like actual people belonging to the plot, rather than just filling the role of “idiot friend” – something much too common in this genre. Unfortunately the routes for other characters than Rin just feel too forced and empty, and especially some of them are like an exercise in filler. They feel like they are made to be dramatic for the sake of drama, filled with forced and poorly described plot-tools, and therefore fall flat more often than not. They are there because they “have” to be: a visual novel of this kind needs several routes with a colourful cast of girls for the readers to fall in love with – sometimes more than actually telling an engaging story.

That’s not to say all the characters are bad – while I do have my gripes with some of them, they all do serve a purpose in the story, and they should definitely be there. Routes might not have been necessary though, apart from making us aware of one particular plot hook, giving us chills whenever that voice would remind us of what is happening in the background. At any rate, they could have been much shorter.

Last but not least! Time for me to rank the characters from most to least favourite:

• Kyosuke
• Rin
• Kurugaya
• Haruka
• Komari
• Mio
• Kud

Yes I had to sneak Kyosuke in there. If Kengo and Masato was on the list, I’d put them somewhere in the top as well.

Now excuse me, I’m going to watch that final credits roll again.