OtakuNinja wrote:Boppin wrote:I guess I'm just not sure why people think her route isn't as good as the others.
1. There's only one decision point.
2. She's very competitive
3. Communication problems. At least in the firsts acts.
(Yes, I recognize that you're more likely voicing common criticisms than your personal objections.)
1. More decisions points != better story. Perhaps it would be better to complain that the one decision was obvious. That being said, the single decision and the obviousness of the decision were specifically chosen for the narrative value of that approach. It's not a matter of laziness or a rushed approach. It was a conscious artistic decision. More decision points would have trivialized the impact of the single decision, and would likely have been irrelevant as well.
2. That may be acceptable as a criticism of Shizune, but it's a surface-level criticism. It's like saying Hanako's shy or Rin's spacey. I can see how it's enough to push people away, but it's quite shallow. I'd say a more legitimate complaint would be that it seems she doesn't really undergo character development. That being said, she does develop as a character, but not necessarily in the expected manner.
3. Another shallow complaint like #2. And equally valid against Rin.
More perplexing, considering the in-universe nature of the latter two complaints, it's clear that Shizune resonates with people. She just resonates on the wrong wavelengths, it seems.
At first, I didn't like Shizune, and felt her route was inadequate. But I was self-aware to realize that there were things in the route that I hadn't really noticed on my first run, so I considered it a failing of myself, not the route. A few careful readings later, Shizune still isn't my favorite, but I appreciate her a lot more.