What arc should i try next?

[Fiandra]

Topics like this make me feel like I'm the only one that got any of the bad endings without trying to.

You are not alone.

[Oddball]

Topics like this make me feel like I'm the only one that got any of the bad endings without trying to.

You are not alone.

Which gives me an idea for a new topic!

[Xanatos]

Do Rin's next.

[Xanatos]

Anyone who's unwilling to do them needs to get over it. Hesitation is one thing but you're just hurting your own experience by refusing to finish it.

[Oddball]

I started with Lily, and then played Hanako.So I'm naturally biased.

My friend started with Hanako (and loves her forever), and then played Lily. I think he summed it up as follows.

"Hanako's route is rewarding because you feel like you're repairing something broken. You feel like you're doing a good thing and getting a reward at the same time, but the feels remain relatively childish because you're forced to treat her like a piece of glass. The route is full of full-fledged feels, but it's hard for you to relate to them completely."

"Lilly's Route is rewarding because she's a legitimate person. She feels more real in that you could actually pursue a relationship with her forever, unlike the Hanako route. For some, these feels will feel a little less because they deal with slightly more mature themes, and are more subtle, but long term are more rewarding as feels."

tl:dr; play them both. Also as a semi-spoiler, don't feel bad about Hanako in Lilly's route because it turns out good for everyone, including Hanako, in the end.

I'd have to disagree. I think the game wants you to at first feel like you're repairing something broken, but I think a lot of the strength of the route comes from realizing that it doesn't work like that. You can't fix her. You can help her and be there for her, but she's a person, not an object that needs repaired. Treating her like a piece of glass only leads to the bad ending. The fact that the player (hopefully) realizes the error of their ways just a bit before before Hisao does adds to the effect.

[Xanatos]

My friend started with Hanako (and loves her forever), and then played Lily. I think he summed it up as follows.

"Hanako's route is rewarding because you feel like you're repairing something broken. You feel like you're doing a good thing and getting a reward at the same time, but the feels remain relatively childish because you're forced to treat her like a piece of glass. The route is full of full-fledged feels, but it's hard for you to relate to them completely."

Tell your friend he completely missed the point of Hanako's route and he should feel bad. Seriously...Did he just not pay any attention at all during the route?

[Bacon Elemental]

Topics like this make me feel like I'm the only one that got any of the bad endings without trying to.

Happened to me on Shizune and Rin path

But yeah, finish the bad/neutral endings. Definitely worth it. Even though I did them for completion's sake... I didn't feel any 'completionist' inside me when I watched their bad endings. The very last thing I did in KS was finish Hanako's bad ending. Damn was she scary. I couldn't launch the game again after that. It's like her spirit is going to suddenly pop out of the game and scream at me or something.

[Xanatos]

It's like her spirit is going to suddenly pop out of the game and scream at me or something.

Considering your name, you probably deserved it. High five, man!

[Denouement]

The best part of Hanako's path was the fact that she wasn't this one-dimensional character and was actually a very respectable one. Whenever I first saw Hanako in the game, not even on her path, it ignited feelings of protection and activated those instincts, which was the start of what made this path special. In the end she proved herself to be strong willed and an individual. So ultimately she was "protected" by not having to be treated like she had to be protected. There were similar things in the other paths.

For example, Rin's path was all about understanding, which led to emotionally exhausting existential turmoil and a state of aporia that frustrated the reader, invoking its own feeling just as Hanako invoked the feeling of wanting to protect her. But it is the same with Hanako's, the answer isn't what it seems at face value. Understanding ended up just being acceptance, accepting yourself, then accepting another. That was the understanding of Rin's path. An understanding without having to be understood. In fact those two stand out the most in that regard, but you could gather a similar focus in the others I'm sure.

Emi's path had the crisis of trust, and the way it was actually accomplished wasn't, "Oh, you've convinced me to trust you," just as how Rin's wasn't, "Oh, now I understand you," or Hanako's wasn't, "Oh, now I feel safe." It was trusting that the trust wasn't needed. Hisao said he couldn't promise he'd always be around, but he pointed out that it was the moments together that actually mattered, and they were worth too much to throw away because the future is uncertain.

Shizune's is hard to say because it isn't as much of a cohesive, problem solving path. It is mostly about how people think with how they treat others and what they say, for example, it is repeatedly reminded to the reader that everything Shizune says is carefully measured necessarily because she must sign it, much like writing a letter, simply faster. She has also been doing this her entire life, so she also THINKS and BEHAVES entirely around this concept. So, from what my memory tells me, that path is about acquiring cognizance of what communication and speech is.

Lilly's wasn't so much about a concept outside of just love, Lilly's path did love the best by far. There's the thing about depending on her and her not depending on him, probably arisen from Lilly's likely reluctance to depend on others because she is blind and must do so far too often from her perspective, though this ultimately is just centered around love in an even more broader sense than Shizune's path was about communication.

Started to get off topic in that wall of text. My original point was that there is a motif of ironic resolutions in most of the paths or just plain ironic issues or sources. Looking at them this way, they all have something special and individual about them, they truly in meaning cover different things and do so well, regardless of whether they disappoint some reader's in other aspects. For example, Rin's path was brilliant to me, but it was depressing relative to the others in a holistic sense because Hisao has a tendency to be very impressionable, and as such his personality can shift because of his path. That being said, Hisao doesn't really end up getting to know many of the others girls in Rin's path or planning his future (if I remember correctly), whereas in other path's (perhaps not so much Hanako's? Not sure) there is a more well-rounded experience.

[Xanatos]

[words words word no boobs]

Paragraphs.

That is all.

[Denouement]

I'm sorry it's just that I was trying to express everything that came to mind as it came to mind as I was expressing and everyone says I am strange and I talk strange things so I thought I'd not say strange things but that just makes me think more and new and strange and colorful that was not a good word but maybe you understand anyway and odd things so if I want to say something I don't really know how and then the words are not the same as the thoughts because something goes wrong on the way out but it's not like the thoughts are really the thing I should be saying it's more like the idea of the thought or the idea of the feeling but it's not really either of those because there is no word for it unless I invent a new one which is not really useful so I was thinking if doing things is better than saying so I don't know that when I was typing I was really doing something I shouldn't besides I don't even know if it would be any better if I could just say the thought there is no telepathy that's real telepathy isn't there I think it'd be terrible and useful at the same time but right now I wouldn't mind because misunderstanding is so easy and understanding is not and I thought-- oh and I fixed it sorry.

[Xanatos]

oh and I fixed it sorry.

Much better. Analysis of the routes may be a bit off but I'm watching Christmas stuff so I have no time to do a big post on my own analysis.

[Denouement]

Well critique my thoughts when you're done with the Christmas stuff, I'd love to hear what you have to say. Admittedly, my memory is awful, and lot of what I said in that post was really off the top of my head. In all likelihood some of the things I said might be off.

[Dream]

Curious, i seem to be the only person i've met who didn't try to "take care" of Hanako nor did that thought even cross his mind. What attracted me to Hanako at first was that she was mysterious in a way, and i had the impression that she had an interesting personality. Her shyness was rather frustrating at times but that made the few times when she does take action (the park, after the birthday party, end of Act 2, etc.) Much more meaningful/valuable and precious. That and her honesty and eagerness made her one of my favorite characters in the VN.

[Xanatos]

Curious, i seem to be the only person i've met who didn't try to "take care" of Hanako nor did that thought even cross his mind. What attracted me to Hanako at first was that she was mysterious in a way, and i had the impression that she had an interesting personality. Her shyness was rather frustrating at times but that made the few times when she does take action (the park, after the birthday party, end of Act 2, etc.) Much more meaningful/valuable and precious. That and her honesty and eagerness made her one of my favorite characters in the VN.

Same here.