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Finished the Emi path. It was fucking great. The whole plot seemed really well structured and very complete. It was a little boring at the beginning, because things went way too smoothly, but then again, that only emphasized the problem in the relationship between the two that dominates the third act.

Panty Supervisor wrote:Finished the Emi path. It was fucking great. The whole plot seemed really well structured and very complete. It was a little boring at the beginning, because things went way too smoothly, but then again, that only emphasized the problem in the relationship between the two that dominates the third act.

I saw you mention that you were going for this route hoping that it would mend your emotional self after going through Shizune's path. So. Was it what you expected?

I've played through Shizune's, Emi's, & Rin's path so far, and I have to say Emi's route is the best so far. I couldn't believe the plot twists involved; at least a gallon of manly tears were shed by me while playing for Emi.

Not to take away anything from those who wrote the other girls' storylines, I have to give extra kudos to the individual(s) responsible for writing Emi's route; Romeo Tanaka himself could not have done a better job IMHO.

Anyone else find the Kenji/Yuuko sub plot thingy the best part of the route, the whole time i found it hilarious and suprisingly intresting.
Still think it would have been better if there was a confrontation between them though

Emi's route was by far my favourite - though I havn't done Shizune's or Rins yet. I found the writing on Hanako's and Lilly's route to be a bit hit and miss - but this isn't the thread to say why, so moving on...

I found the writing for Emi's route to be rock solid - exactly what you'd expect from a professional work. The theme, story, characterisation... it all came together. The weak point - if there was one - was in Hisao's inability to determine where Emi's dad went. Modifying the way it was written would have made it slightly less obvious to the reader, and therefore less frustrating when Hisao didn't pick it up till the reveal.

I was originially put off by the large amount of sex scenes, before I realised - their 18 year old kids. That's what kids do in relationships. It did make me a little unable to relate though, as I'm 30 now, and their behaviour was that of teenagers, just starting to develop the skills to work out problems like this on their own.

*sigh* makes me feel old

An absolutely brilliant effort on the part of the writers. On the other hand, I'd still have preferred the old Emi sprites...

Anyway, well done!

Quick question, do I have to replay through the game again to get the Bad End or can I unlock it with Extras?

I really don't think she's a slut. I think she's just very forward and goes after what she wants. Someone who is forward with the one guy that she likes shouldn't be considered a slut.

Girlfriend who has lots of sex with boyfriend = totally normal girlfriend

Red_Mask wrote:I absolutely love Emi. She was my first path in the demo too. Everything about her path was just amazing. I could barely get past Hanako's path without thinking about what Emi was doing.

I'm right there with you. I wasn't aiming for it, but I just naturally ended up in Emi's path (having never played the demo). I'm blown away. Never played a visual novel before...and didn't expect it to effect me in such a way. Although I haven't tried yet, I have that feeling that it will be a while before I can play through the other paths without feeling guilty about leaving Emi to deal with her problems on her own. Weird feeling being so invested in a game.

Theo wrote:Quick question, do I have to replay through the game again to get the Bad End or can I unlock it with Extras?

If you don't have a savegame, you'll have to play again.

re: Dead Dads and stuff

Was the lack of speculation that the dad was dead by Hisao's internal monologue supposed to keep it a surprise for the readers? He'd have to have known because he didn't seem all too surprised that "visiting dad" meant going to a cemetery.

Thinking back, I am kind of glad that the first time around, I made mostly wrong decisions and had to be bailed out at the Misha decision point to JUST avoid the bad end... The events leading to the end were more satisfying, even if I had to sit through Hisao being a persistent dumbass.

Also, I KNEW she was a butt-slut. ...I mean that in the most endearing way as a converted former detractor. I was hoping to be impressed and Emi did not disappoint.

Let me start by saying I really like(d?) Emi (and frankly I have no idea why other people didn't). Always have ... and, uh, wanted to say always will but I wonder about that. Well, I don't hate her at least but my attitude towards her changed I guess.

Emi wasn't exactly poplar before KS was released and I bet her path won't make her the least bit more poplar ([edit]I wrote the post before reading the thread. I'm honestly postively surprised by all the postive responses. I thought every will do full 'HURR WHERE'S MY LOLI'). Heck, I can already see everybody bashing it pretty hard. I guess it was obvious that her loli genkiness isn't all there is to her (I'm seriously surprised others found the PTSD thing surprising) but seeing her act the way she does later in the game almost makes her look like a burikko in hindsight. Can't tell how much of her behaviour is just a calculated act.

I'm not spoilering all of this because even though it reveals a little about her path I think it's more of a warning. If you're a loli lover you should probably be warned about this development to avoid big disappointment.

But, even though I said all that, I'm not saying the path itself is bad. Due to personal reasons (which I kinda plan to get back to later) I have trouble ascertaining just how much I enjoyed reading it but it was pretty damn realistic.

It rubs me the wrong way because I was in a same-y situation back in the day (actually at the time the demo was released it was still something that needed to be resolved) and I get reminded of it all too much. It's pretty hard to get into any kind of relationship if you value your independence above everything else (or at least you pretend to even though you are just afraid of loss). Doesn't feel too good when someone tries to 'fix' you, too. In a way I'm actually pretty impressed how people manage to work out the right amount of personal space in their relationships.

... I kinda just began rambling there I guess. Sorry.

To sum it up (and plain get back on topic) - while Emi's path wasn't exactly the thing that I wanted to read - as it felt like a ticket to my life three years ago (that and Hisao feels like a bit of drama queen at times, on top of being a retard like others said) - I applaud just how realistic it was (well, sans for the good end I guess). Makes me wonder if it might be partially autobiographical even.

PS I love how talking to Misha seems to magically make all your problems disappear.

SERIOUSLY DEVS WHERE'S MY MISHA PATH

Last night, something really strange happened. I cried.

I'm quite certain I've never cried at neither a game, nor a novel, nor even a film. (And I've seen Grave of the Fireflies. Made me really depressed but no tears.)

But last night, I was playing through the Emi arc and it really hit home when the distance between Hisao and Emi was growing. It reminded me exactly of that horrible, indescribable feeling when you see the girl who once felt close, but now slowly pushes you away from her. The tears did not stop. The text is so well written, I felt like I was in that world. Like I loved Emi yet she was distancing herself from me. It was horrible. It made feel exactly how I felt in a past relationship.

But the tears actually gave me a nice feeling. It's as if I was crying out some bad memories.

Thank you for this wonderful visual novel, Four Leaf Studios.

arisadelle wrote:I really don't think she's a slut. I think she's just very forward and goes after what she wants. Someone who is forward with the one guy that she likes shouldn't be considered a slut.

Girlfriend who has lots of sex with boyfriend = totally normal girlfriend

Yeah this basically.

I'm kind of amazed by how many people think she isn't a virgin and how she's a slut. Seriously. Just because a young woman has a healthy sex drive does not mean that she will sleep around with everybody she sees! That and it's completely normal for women to be interested in things other than missionary vaginal sex. If you think female virgins are completely innocent, just think about how you (assuming you are a man) thought about sex before you got any. Think about how many sex jokes you made before you lost your own virginity. Etc etc.

Anyway I really adored this path. I didn't think the writing was that great in the demo, and was quite shocked to realize that this is my favorite route. Maybe I shouldn't be, though, because I used to get crushes on girls like Emi all the time. :p

I found the ero scenes for Emi to be a little bit jarring (more so for Shizune's path but that's neither here nor there), but it was written well into the story i felt as a replacement for her not being able to run, she needed some other way to suppress her anxiety. I assume that any abruptness in the transition from no sex to sex for most of these characters is a result of not having any ero scenes in their original stories and a desire to make the story make sense for those people who want to play through the game with the ero turned off. Under these conditions most of the sex scenes are going to have a tacked on quality to them no matter what, so I applaud the writer for diminishing the feeling as much as possible.

quellsnarg wrote:just think about how you (assuming you are a man) thought about sex before you got any

Ha. Ha ha. That's a funny joke. It took two minutes. Ha. Haha. But yeah, I don't think it's really out of the question for adolescents to ''have a healthy sex drive'' as a certain someone put it so eagerly. Especially not with someone like Emi.

SERIOUSLY DEVS WHERE'S MY MISHA PATH

There isn't one, sadly, but if you like ruining relationships, you could comfort her.