Little Busters! ‘review’
Little Busters! was released on the 27th of July and is the latest major game release by Key since the release of Clannad in 2004. So after a week of playing I’ve finally finished it and I thought I’d take a shot at writing my thoughts. However I learnt that I suck and it took me 3 days just to write my thoughts.
I’m commenting largely on the story since that is what the game is all about. The review is split according to each writer and the characters that he wrote for.
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Scenarios written by Tonogawa Yuuto (Komari and Kurugaya)
Kurugaya’s route was pretty hard to understand on the first playthrough, but becomes a lot easier to understand after finishing the game. I liked the character, but the scenario itself felt very awkwardly written.
Komari’s story on the other hand was alright, but it wasn’t anything special, and although it had certain nice scenes, none of it really had any impact and I couldn’t even get teary eyed at the emotional climax.
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Scenarios written by Jouki Rio (Haruka and Kudo)
Haruka route wasn’t bad, there were quite a few emotional scenes and I liked how it ended. But yet again it wasn’t anything special and it didn’t really feel as sad as the game tried to make it seem.
Kudo route is… bad. It’s ridiculously bad. I don’t think there’s much more that I have to say. I really liked Kudo as a character too, with all her wonderfully bad english. Playing Kudo route a 2nd time after finishing the game does bring new meaning however, and it makes more sense, but… that’s not how it should be done.
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Scenario written by Kashida Leo (Mio)
Personally I thought Mio’s route was probably the best one out of all the individual character scenarios(not saying much). I liked the swimming part. Mio was pretty cool as a character too. Still no tears however.
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Scenarios written by Maeda Jun (Rin and male characters)
Rin’s route was awesome, I thought the usage of the ascii art in her messages was very well done. The little changes in her character were great when going through the game, and she was a very good boke character (though high kick tsukkomi is great too).
And the final scenario. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you’re buying and playing this game just for the final scenario. I had seriously thought Little Busters was a failure till I got to the final part. Man I love Maeda Jun’s male characters.
Oh yeah and the kinniku end. That is awesome.
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Conclusion
Storywriting aside, the many mini-games that were in the game were also notably fun and well made, and the music was alright.
I had almost stopped playing the game till somebody told me that the game was all about suffering through the individual stories to get to the awesome final scenario. But overall I think the game was worth its time.
‘Little Busters!’ also marks the end of Key for some, as writer Maeda Jun has announced that it’s time for him to retire from scenario writing. With Maeda Jun down, there aren’t any scenario writers left at Key that worked on Kanon, Air, or Clannad, as all the other main writers had either left or was fired. (Though some of them still work within VisualArt’s, just not with Key)
This sentiment is only further strengthened by how the only parts of ‘Little Busters!’ that was really well written was by Maeda Jun, who writes the story for Rin and the male characters (which makes up the main scenario). And also that music composer Togoshi Magome has quit and Orito Shinji has recently commented that it’s almost time for him to leave too.
Personally after seeing the skill of the new writers, I won’t be touching Key’s next game unless somebody tells me it’s really good.
