Am I the only one that enjoyed Shizune's route?

[bradpara]

I would like to say that I am also one of the people that enjoyed her route. I found it ti be a nice little Slice of life story that required you to pay attention to what was happening and read between the lines in order to truley "get it" there is also a good analyisis of it on the Path thread as well.

Sure it is in not the romantic soap opera that Emi's is or the Deep Philosophical Mediation one finds in Rin's path. But on it's own merits I found it enjoyable.

[Pl4t0]

least vocal?

interesting choice of words

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

I really liked Shizune's route, or maybe it was that I liked Shizune's character the best. Competitive and a bit playful despite how wound up she was with the Student Council. I was in student gov't in highschool so I could relate to how she wanted the Student Council to have more responsibilities because that really was the whole point of having a student gov't. Her ending though really was pretty anti-climatic. I think the real issue was that there really wasn't much conflict in her route so most people feel it lacked depth. I'd say I liked Lilly's route the most because the ending was such a rollercoaster but I think Shizune herself was the heroine I could relate the most too.

She was also the only one that had a sprite with the :3 face, abominably cute.

As a matter of personal preference Shizune appeals to me more than the other girls, which I think really lends itself to my enjoyment of the path and allows me to excuse some of its shortcomings. But I have to agree on the lack of conflict near the end - it's not that the thing with Misha wasn't huge or powerful enough, just that the direction it took afterwards was less than climactic. Thoughtful, cerebral, and emotive no doubt, but it lacked the sort of pace or impact that I think we were all expecting. Nevertheless, I think that the ending to Shizune's route actually had far more to do with Hisao than it did with Shizune - there's a moment of clarity she has after the second H-scene where she comes to terms with her own nature, but she's already a fully formed character, and her arc has more to do with figuring that out than actually changing in any meaningful way (which is fine, and actually a welcome change of pace).

It ends on the note that Hisao wants to go back and teach, and moreover it spends the better part of last two acts (especially when he gets Iwanako's letter, which is very important) detailing how Hisao does a complete about-face, which I think is something a lot of people fail to realize about the path. In the other paths we see Hisao gradually accept his new life and move on, but nowhere else is it as pronounced or profound as it is here. He is not grudgingly accepting his fate as a scienctist, walking backwards with his back to the future and his eyes on the past. Instead, we see Hisao wake the hell up. He begins to make conscious choices and sees his future as this very real, tangible thing. What got me the most was the observation that his life could sputter out at any moment due to his condition, but that he would soldier on regardless.

Shizune's "saying" is: "Can you tell me what you think?" Shizune's path is the one in which Hisao grows the most - he really starts to think for himself.

[Pl4t0]

I found it ti be a nice little Slice of life story that required you to pay attention to what was happening and read between the lines in order to truley "get it"

Sure it is in not the romantic soap opera that Emi's is or the Deep Philosophical Mediation one finds in Rin's path. But on it's own merits I found it enjoyable.

Indeed, well said.

[pieaholicx]

I really enjoyed Shizune's route, though I have to agree that the ending was a little anti-climatic. I actually enjoyed the fact that there was only one choice in her route, as it matches her very straightforward personality.

[Atti]

I certainly don't think it was bad. Rather, it is flawed in a way that detracts from the whole without tarnishing the individual pieces that are, in fact, great.

I feel that the story the authors were telling wasn't long enough to merit a full 3 acts, much less with almost the entire focus on three characters. What was there was quite strong, but it felt like it was spread too thin. To continue the metaphor of butter on toast, I'm not complaining that the butter was bad, rather it was very good and I'm disappointed that so little was spread over so much toast.

[Drake]

Her dad isn't really ashamed of her, he's just tsundere.

He does care for her, I think that much was made obvious. But he also has his own outlook on things, much like Shizune, and has a hard time expressing himself outside of insults.

Totally tsundere.

[Chiv]

So far after playing all the route's besides Rins, Shizune's route is my second favorite. I liked Emi's the most, but was not all that impressed with either Lilly's or Hanako's. Shizune's path has the most depth to it I think, but it's also the hardest to get at.

[TOZ]

Shizune's route seemed to be the worst of the group in terms of abrupt scene changes. There were far too many times when I paused and thought 'wait, where are we now?' There were a few points in the other routes that I got that same feeling, but Shizune's was more pronounced.

[Guest]

I for one was extremely glad that Shizoooooon didn't turn out to be tsundere. I fucking hate tsundere.

[Snorri]

Hope you don't mind if I copy-paste my big reply from the main Shizune thread

Overall, it was a good path, but not quite as good as Lilly's. The whole path was fairly stable, with no major ups or down. In the beginning I thought it was a bit difficult to see the difference between Misha's own words, and when translating Shizune's. But soon enough I learned how to see it. Shizune was an interesting character to say the least. But didn't feel much affection from her, which makes sense giving her personality and handicap. It felt more like Hisai and Shizune were more 'friends with benefits' rather than a couple. At some some points she cared more about her duties and work than herself and Hisai and Misha. However, I have only played three paths so far, but Shizune has the hottest sex scenes so far. Especially when they have sex in the class room.

Even though Misha is not one of the five girls you are meant to befriend and date, I'm glad she had a significant role in Shizune's path. You could say that the Shizune path is a twofer. Misha was a little annoying sometimes, but over time I began to appreciate her a lot more. When I saw the opening video for starting Shizune's path, and saw Misha observing Shizune and Hisao being happy together, Misha's smile faded, I knew there was going to be some sort of triangle drama between the three of them. I thought at first Misha was going to fall in love with Hisao, but I was a little surprised to learn that she in fact loves Shizune. I really disliked Misha's new hair cut. Her old one was not that good either, but the new was definitely something downhill. The short hair did not fit her at all. It felt like something was missing, unfinished.

I was very excited that Misha had her own sex scene, although I wish it could have been a little longer, and perhaps more intimate. A bit more feeling between them would be nice. Misha looked a bit bored. Also, her short pink hair made her look too similar to Rin. I don't believe Misha had sex with him to get back on Shizune. I got the feeling Misha was feeling lonely and miserable. She needed to be comforted. She could not have that comfort from Shizune, especially after she was rejected so long ago. So, she sought it from Hisao. I was a bit confused and surprised that Hisao barely did not think at all about the fact that he cheated on his girlfriend. Honestly, I think a better bad ending for Shizune would be she finds about what he did with Misha. It would be very dramatic. Imagine a mute girl crying. Delicious drama I say~ It could also help teaching guys (and girls) to be faithful and not fall for temptations, even when their friends need to be really comforted.

I would also liked to have a couple of more scenes with Shizune's dad. He was royal asshole 24/7. It could be shown that he really does care for his daughter, but in a weird way. I didn't even get that feeling. At first I was thought he was suspicious of Hisao because of his unknown intentions with Shizune, which is understandable.

[konoa]

Shizunes was the first one i got. I loved it, it didnt have as much conflict as the others sure, but it was good anyway. Reminds me of my own time at highschool. A few major conflicts and the rest of it was just good times. The ending is almost exactly how my highschool ended so i sorta just made up the ending as how my current relationship is going. (im living in another town 30 minutes away in college, shes in her last year of highschool still at the school and we go on dates on the weekends)

And i probably was like Shizune a bit, always competitive and biting off more than i could chew. I literally had problems with clubs because i tried to join too many (somewhat to try and break out of my shyness) and they started meeting at the same times for some of them.

[Carnificus]

I liked Shizune's route, all of the routes were well written, but Shizune's just seemed to lack the drama of the other routes, and the main point of drama that was in the game was geared more towards Misha than Shizune, which I felt definitely took away from Shizune and Hisao's relationship.

[quellsnarg]

Nevertheless, I think that the ending to Shizune's route actually had far more to do with Hisao than it did with Shizune - there's a moment of clarity she has after the second H-scene where she comes to terms with her own nature, but she's already a fully formed character, and her arc has more to do with figuring that out than actually changing in any meaningful way (which is fine, and actually a welcome change of pace).

It ends on the note that Hisao wants to go back and teach, and moreover it spends the better part of last two acts (especially when he gets Iwanako's letter, which is very important) detailing how Hisao does a complete about-face, which I think is something a lot of people fail to realize about the path. In the other paths we see Hisao gradually accept his new life and move on, but nowhere else is it as pronounced or profound as it is here. He is not grudgingly accepting his fate as a scienctist, walking backwards with his back to the future and his eyes on the past. Instead, we see Hisao wake the hell up. He begins to make conscious choices and sees his future as this very real, tangible thing. What got me the most was the observation that his life could sputter out at any moment due to his condition, but that he would soldier on regardless.

Shizune's "saying" is: "Can you tell me what you think?" Shizune's path is the one in which Hisao grows the most - he really starts to think for himself.

This is why Shizune is my favorite of the girls, and why I think Hisao is by far the most mature at the end of Shizune's route. For the record, I don't think Shizune's route has the best writing and it isn't the best overall, but it's my second favorite, and I think the conditions of the route are the most favorable for Hisao going into adulthood.

I think another thing that turned people off of this route is that people were expecting a really romantic ending like in the first act - but I think Shizune and Emi in particular did something that none of the other girls did - prepared Hisao for his adult life with arrhythmia and made him a stronger person (either emotionally or physically).

One thing about the path that I really liked was how Hisao didn't really mope about his condition and how Shizune never really mentioned it, and he didn't even tell her on screen. In the end it didn't really matter with Shizune, and I don't think Hisao held himself back because of it as much.

I actually did find the ending to be romantic, though, albeit in an unconventional way - the ending was about three friends who are probably going different ways, but will always love each other. Will Shizune and Hisao stay together romantically? I don't know! But it doesn't particularly bug me if they don't, because they had both become stronger people from their relationship.

Also, I totally don't understand people who say that Shizune has no character. She's funny, kind, and even though she's a bit of a hard-ass, it's only because she sincerely thinks it'll make Hisao/Misha/whoever better people and the rest of the school happy. I'll admit I didn't like her character the first time I played the demo, but my opinion did a 180 when I played her route. But seriously, as funny as Emi's route was at times, I think I laughed the most at Shizune's route because she's very playful.

[Pl4t0]

I think another thing that turned people off of this route is that people were expecting a really romantic ending like in the first act - but I think Shizune and Emi in particular did something that none of the other girls did - prepared Hisao for his adult life with arrhythmia and made him a stronger person (either emotionally or physically).

...

I actually did find the ending to be romantic, though, albeit in an unconventional way - the ending was about three friends who are probably going different ways, but will always love each other. Will Shizune and Hisao stay together romantically? I don't know! But it doesn't particularly bug me if they don't, because they had both become stronger people from their relationship.

Also, I totally don't understand people who say that Shizune has no character. She's funny, kind, and even though she's a bit of a hard-ass, it's only because she sincerely thinks it'll make Hisao/Misha/whoever better people and the rest of the school happy. I'll admit I didn't like her character the first time I played the demo, but my opinion did a 180 when I played her route. But seriously, as funny as Emi's route was at times, I think I laughed the most at Shizune's route because she's very playful.

Yeah, the ending was very different in that it put Hisao's life in perspective. I'd like to think that they did stay together romantically, but it treats the end of this story as the beginning of the rest of Hisao's life - not a big giant "PERIOD" on the end of the plot, and as you said: "I don't know!"

[Ockbald]

I loved act 1 and 2.

Disliked act 3 for several reasons, most of them are in the fact that the game throws all this conflict at you and then never resolves or deals with it. A very random sex scene occours and you barely interact with Shizune on that trip at all.

Act 4 was...Weird. Several things in this act seem rushed to me, and the Misha conflict was interesting albeit under developted.

The fact that Misha ends up almost the same in both endings also is a missed oportunity.

Shizune to me was a route that crammed too much stuff together and didn't really developt anything. When it got something right (The chess scene vs. Hanako) it did so masterfully, when it did something wrong (Act 4 Misha dialogue) it lacked any interesting conclusion.

Overall I enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the same as the others. I haven't done Emi yet.