Rin's Path discussion *spoilers*

[Rinbro]

This is quite the nice read:

[Fronzel]

I admit it may be a bit much to think that Aura specifically planned it this way...

I don't know about that. The Act 2 title card has Hisao reaching out with his hand for Rin, but she of course only has the empty sleeve of her shirt there.

[nyttyn]

Despite this being the route that made me think the hardest, it is also at the same time leaving me quite wordless.

So i'll just make a list of comments.

The first H scene was utterly brutal. Goddamn. Easily one of the single most heart-wrenching things I have read. It just make the second one that much more satisfying.

The metaphors please me.

The cinematic is probably tied with Hanako's for best. It helped capture the essence of the route beautifully, and managed the rare feat of being completely different the second time you watch it, deceiving you into thinking it was straightforward on the first watch.

Romance in Andante II -The one that plays upon the second H scene- is quite possibly one of the most touching songs I have ever heard.

Rin's third (fourth?) title card doesn't feature Hisao. Fitting, in a way. The rest of them capture the feel very well.

So overall, I think Rin's path is my favorite. 5/5. Deep, powerful, symbolic. It isn't Rosseau. It isn't Titanic. It isn't the Illiad.

But what it is...is far more then enough.

[KaneTaker]

Just hit chapter 3 so skipping most of this to avoid spoilers. The scene in the atelier (which felt awkward but...somehow right). Anyway...hope I'm on the right path for the good ending, but I honestly just can not tell. Its been touching in a VERY different way from the other paths. Frustrating too because Hisao is so clueless.

[panique]

Going through again to play Lilly's path, I paid a little more attention to Hisao's first interaction with Rin.

She seems far more relaxed and easygoing in this part. It's a kind of strange change to how she is in the rest of her story arc.

[KaneTaker]

Very good point. Makes me think that things aren't really different, its just that her facade is hard to get beyond. She may seem calm, but once you actually start to understand her...theirs a lot more going on below the surface.

[KaneTaker]

Uuuuggh...got a bad ending because I second guessed myself. Glad I saved before that one...

[nyttyn]

On a amusing note, Rin's path is easily the single most complicated of them all in terms of branching paths.

SPOILERS! Flowchart: http://filesmelt.com/dl/KatawaShoujoFlowchartv27.png

Rin's path is the clusterfuck of orange in the bottom middlehalf.

[KaneTaker]

*sigh* And that was the only choice I got wrong. Got the happy ending. So glad he finally got it. That was beautiful.

HOLY CRAP that flow chart is nasty. Wow...I don't know if I can go back for the neutral ending. That happy one was just...so beautiful.

[Rivan]

I an currently doing Rin's path along with the other girls, and it is very interesting and well-written so far.

First of all, refusing to use flowcharts, I go with instinct OR, whenever I cannot just use that, I throw a coin - this seems quite a fitting way to resolve choices in Rin's case, actually.
I hope I am not going to get a bad ending or anything, but, regardless, I'd be glad I've done what I liked to get into it.

As far as the path of Rin goes : I am utterly amazed. I thought I was going to have problems because, while Rin seemed quirky and overall interesting, I seriously don't think I'm in any way equipped to deal with artists...

Yet, even given the weird way she often communicates this, I am utterly stunned by how easy it is for me to relate to Rin's problems and issues, including her perceived "getting dumber" and her problems relating to others and saying what she truly means even if she wants to.
I am also taken in by her story progression and writing. Rin finds herself severed from society and, to a lesser extent, the world; it's interesting how her disconnection from these things and Hisao was symbolized with her lack of arms, occassionally. Actually, this is the entirety of what Rin seems to symbolize - she's that occassional feeling of loneliness, disconnection, lack of understanding of and from others we sometimes experience.

I find it really hard to stop playing and I am really taken in by her path. I wonder how the ends will work for me.

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

I like this comparison of Rin's path vs. Shizune's:

[crystal]

Rin's was my least favorite in that I found it the most boring. For 2 main reasons. First off all art in general bores me. And Rin is no where near as funny in her path as in others(or Act 1.)

I like this comparison of Rin's path vs. Shizune's:

Haha that's awesome.

[KaneTaker]

Wow...I found her to be funny throughout despite the dark times. But, my humor (and my friends) tends towards the odd and absurd just as hers does. We are (mostly) musicians though.

[yipyapper]

Rin's path was so well written... one of my favourite stories of any book, my favourote realistic onee. When I mean realistic, I mean not like LOTR but something that is possible.

Anyway, the entire story made me close to sheddibg manly tears, but as show in my signature, that quote made me cry for the first time in years, the hardest I have ever cried. It was out of happiness.

I will replay Rin so many times it will he the death of me.

[Guest]

This path was physically painful for me to play through because of how much I felt like I could relate to Rin. I'm autistic. I'm not sure exactly what was up with Rin, but I really, really felt like I could relate. So much of what she said throughout the path - it just made so much sense to me, and then Hisao wouldn't get it, and I'd get really frustrated. Hisao was trying so hard to understand her, and he was having so much trouble with it... but it made sense. Everything made perfect sense.

That moment when Rin collapsed in the art gallery was really, really painful to watch. I just sat there looking at the CG in some kind of empathetic horror. That's exactly what it's like.

Somehow, I didn't cry during the Hanako path at all, but Rin's saying "It's all right to be me after all." in the good ending made me just lose it. I was just so sad and so happy at once. I want to believe her and to agree with her. I want to believe it's all right to be me, too.

I am also autistic, and, like you, felt physically pained throughout much of Rin's path. When Rin got overwhelmed by questions during her art exhibition, right before she sank to her knees, I thought, "please don't get sensory overload!". When Rin got yelled at by Hisao and then the art teachet, and said that she didn't know what was wrong with herself, I didn't feel too well. I don't know how many times I've asked myself that question, that longing to feel understood by others but never able to express myself.