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Hanako > Lilly > Rin > Shizune = Emi

That is how it has been since I first heard about this game from that doujin concept page, and is how it shall remain until I have finished it to completion at an indeterminate point in the future.

I was initially all for Misha...until I discovered a Misha route was probably not even possible in some alternate universe. I wasn't annoyed for very long though; I discovered the wonders of Emi soon afterwards. There is potentially so much more to her than people seem to assume, and she seems genuinely concerned for Hisao's wellbeing. I'm also very curious about Rin's route, for reasons that are fairly obvious and have been mentioned before.

I guess overall my standing is something like this:

Emi =~ Rin > Hanako =~ Shizune > Lilly

I'm not really for Shizune at all, to be honest. She is pretty cute though, and it will be interesting to see how Hisao manages to deal with her disability, and to see how Misha plays out her role in Shizune's route; it's silly to think that once Hisao learns sign language, Misha will be dropped like a frivolous mess of WAHAHA~!

Hanako and Lilly are both reasonable characters, though I feel that there is by far much more potential in Hanako's route, even if both paths were made to the best possible standard. Hanako has lots of past trauma/emotional struggles/barriers to overcome/etc.

before i played the game i thought i would like emi,, but when i met rin i changed my mind pretty fast

rin is niiice

At first I though I would like Misha/Shizune, I changed my mind and definitely like Lilly more. It might be because of my sight impairment, or because I like her calm attitude towards everything.

Before Act 1 I thought that Hanako was going to be the waifu, but that changed to Rin after playing it. I ended up with Rin on the first play-trough and it seemed very natural.

My initial expectations going into the game were Shizune -> Rin -> Lilly/Hanako -> Emi. I played it in reverse order (Emi, the least favorite, first to save the best for last) After one total play-through I'm thinking that it's Shizune/Lilly -> Hanako -> Rin -> Emi. (poor Emi)

Shizune- I kinda ping-ponged on her. My initial assumption was that I'd like her the most, but as I played through the other routes I really found her and Misha's constant exhortations to join the student council a little annoying. I think that was more to do with "No no, I'll get to you later; stop bugging me so I can focus on the other girls" than any lack-of-quality. Her personality was a little hard to get a handle on, partly because Misha does all the talking for her (thus making it hard to figure out where her opinions/dialogue starts and ends) and partly because she was very different from what I expected. In the end, though, I think she's still my favorite. Her competitiveness annoyed me at first, but I eventually came to see it more as a way of reaching out to people; her 'tricking' Hisao into going to the festival with her was kinda sweet. People say she's not a tsundere, and I'd agree that she's not a typical one, but I think there's still that aggressive way of dealing with people juxtaposed with the isolation and weakness of her disability. (it must get lonely with only one person who really understands what you're saying)

Lilly- I didn't really know what to expect from Lilly at first. Her character design didn't grip me like some of the others did- she's the pretty foreign (but not too foreign!) girl. When I played her path, though, I really got to feeling that she's got some depth. The whole graceful, ladylike exterior is a part of her, but there's more to it than that- you can tell when the cracks start to show during the school festival and her fight with Shizune. You can tell that she's trying to be this nice person; she actually is like that, but she's still a human being and can only take so much stress. Getting her away from the shop to just enjoy a day with Hanako and Hisao was very rewarding. Her path also felt the most 'natural' to me, even before Shizune's. The thing about that one is the girls basically throw themselves at you from Day 1, and the conflict is whether or not to accept. On Lilly's route, it's much gentler- you meet her, run into Hanako, and things develop from there. One thing I'll like to see is how her behavior towards Hisao changes; right now I think that she still sees him as someone to shepherd like Hanako, and not really as a love interest.

Rin- I really kinda have two minds about Rin; on one hand, I really like her characterization; she seems very real and interesting to me. She came across as strange without being alien, and as quirky without seeming like an idiot. (I love Osaka from Azumanga Daioh to death, but Einstein the girl ain't) On the other hand, her path felt rather artificial. You don't really spend time with her except when she's painting, and when you find her in town that one night...and lunch, now that I think about it. Still, there isn't a whole lot of actual back-and-forth interaction happening, like there is in the other routes; it feels more like you're simply reacting to the weird stuff she says/does. Of course, that is part of her charm- she's not a normal girl, and you don't have a normal relationship with her. Part of it might be the circumstances- you only see her when she's obsessing over her mural in the days leading up to the festival. The end to her path was abrupt and weird, but still probably the most fitting one that she could have had. I totally SQUEEE!!!-ed when you wake up to find her leaning on you. I'm very looking forward to how she and Hisao deal with art club together; I think that will give her a chance to grow in a more 'normal' setting.

Hanako- I really liked Hanako's path, though part of that is because 90% of it was exactly the same as Lilly's so far. I think she's definitely a major moe-blob, and it was immensely satisfying to see her warm up to you as the days wore on. I don't have much to say so far, since the real 'meat' of her storyline won't be gotten to until the full release, but there were a few little touches that I liked. Her little game of not stepping on certain tiles was so pathetically adorable, partially since I tend to do the same thing unconsciously if I'm not careful. (or try to measure my pace on sidewalks so I step on each section the same number of times) The best part was at the end, when you share that quiet game of chess; it gives a hint that she's more than just a moe-blob, and a whole person who just happens to be cripplingly shy. The more we see of Confident-Hanako, the better in my opinion. I was also happy to see that in Lilly's ending she had a place; I'm hoping that there will be some sort of happy ending for her there as well.

Emi- I wasn't really impressed with Emi before playing; she seemed like the short, energetic girl who's super-happy all the time...and that's kinda exactly what she is. I think that her route was the weakest, though the part where Hisao pushes himself too far was definitely an interesting one. I've seen her described as the "least disabled" of the girls, and I don't think I'd dispute that notion...so far. There's a couple of hints that she's not all sunshine & lollipops, like when Hisao has to get the stuff off the upper shelf for her or when she berates herself for not thinking when racing him. It's not that I want her to go all emo on us, it's just that right now she evokes more fatherly and older-brotherly emotions in me than romantic ones. She's more like an energetic kid-sister than a love interest. All that said and done, though, I still like her; I like all the girls, and definitely will play through every route. It's just that some are more interesting to me as a matter of personal preference.

I'll most likely play through the full game Emi -> Rin -> Hanako -> Lilly -> Shizune. Unlike some a lot of you, I prefer to start off with what I think will be the weakest and build up to the best part- end on a high note and save the best for last. Of course, my opinions might change after playing Act 1 a few more times. We'll see! (not like I don't have time, right? ;D)

At first I wasn't really sure wich route I should aim for... Then I met Lilly and was totally smitten...
However - after playing for a while (and multiple interactions with Rin), I tended more and more towards Rin.
I don't know why, but somehow she really got me interested in her. Maybe it's because I like weird and/or
intigruing characters. So in the end I wound up with Rin (with a slight detour at the manly picnic of course XD).
Though next time I'll aim for Lilly...

Yeah!
At first I preferred the girls in this order:
Hanako > Lilly > Shizune > Emi > Rin
Now it's like this:
Rin > Lilly > Hanako > Shizune > Emi

The question, due to not being speficied, can be answered in multiple ways. I will divide my answers in to two categories: which girl I preferred for a relationship, and which I preferred overall as just a friend. Please note that the second set of preferences is based only off the first Act that has been released as of November 14, 2009.

Before playing the game, going off just the pictures I had seen and their disabilities and thus, not knowing their personalities, my preference was:
For a relationship: Hanako > Lilly > Shizune > Emy > Rin
For friendship: Lilly > Hanako > Emy > Shizune > Rin

After playing the game and completing it to it's full extent, my preference is now:
For a relationship: (Hanako or Lilly) > Rin > Emy > Shizune
For friendship: Lilly > Rin > Hanako > Emy > Shizune

Explanations:
Emy: At first glance from the picture, I thought she would be the sterotypical "zomgisohappy" girl, which turned out to be true after I played the game. Ideally, while it is good to have a cheerful, playful side to enjoy life, if you are like that all the time and can not be serious, then you fit that stereotype, and I can not have a serious, thoughtful conversation. Thus, not a good choice, either for a relationship, or friendship.

Hanako: After looking at the picture, I again believed she would be the stereotypical "moe" girl. I was indeed correct in my assumption, but, sadly, I have a soft spot for said women. Men are genetically hardwired to want to protect women, after all. I played her next to Lilly for a relationship because, the way I look at it in real life, it is a "game" where you need to build up before you are rewarded. Incidentally, Hanako seemed like the one who would take the longest to do so. I prefer a challenge like that; if it is extremely easy to get what you desire, then it is not really worth it. Friendship wise, due to her shy nature, I could not take her out often to have fun, thus why she ranked lower there.

Lilly: My assumption here was that she would be a "you are beneath me" type of character. It turned out that she was the antithesis of that. I ranked her the highest on both because she was easily the character I respected the most, a big point in both relationships and friendships. The fact that she near-always talked in a genuine, polite manner, yet still showed her emotions, made me respect her instantaneously. Hell, I was happy just talking to her normally, just due to the way she acted. It is rare that I find such a person, which is why she is the highest on both preferences. Relationship wise, I still see a challenge in there, even if it is not as big as Hanako's. Her demeanor is more than enough of a selling point. Friendship wise is the same; her personality would make it enjoyable to hang out with her any place, any time. She is easily my favorite type of person, both in game and in real life.

Rin: I thought Rin would be a completely shut-out emotional girl. I was completely wrong. Her personality surprised me the most; I never expected she would be a philosophical person. She is probably the person who I would have the most interesting conversations with, which would never bore me. Relationship wise, she is second just due to her monologues alone. I did not place her first, though, because overall, from the first Act alone, she seems more like a friend than a future romantic partner. Though like I said, I would never get bored from the conversations we would have. Friendship wise, it is the same concept. She would be great to hang out with due to, again, her cool personality.

Shizune: Ah, Shizune. I first thought she would be like just the average person. Man was I wrong. She ranked the lowest on both preferences just due to the fact that she is a manipulating son of a bitch. I despise people that "unknowingly" force you in to doing something. I would have even done some of the stuff she manipulated Hisao in to if she had just asked. But no, she went the other route. If she had not done so, multiple times, she easily would have ranked higher. It is fun to have someone with a competitive spirit in them, but if they are going to manipulate you in to things, then hell no. I hate you Shizune, I truly do.

I originally went for Hanako, but I've definitely become a Rin and Lilly kind of guy.

Okay this is the way my list goes: [Rin - Hanako - Shizune - Lilly - Emi] :This is the way it started and, until the full game, will continue to be.

I like Rin the best.She was the girl that attracted me to the game in the first place.

To be honest my taste in girls not of the real world (read anything from a fictional source) is pretty set so my choice in which girl I preferred from the vn didn't change very much. Though I do enjoy Lilly's route I happen to enjoy both Hanako and Shizune equally as my favourites, I guess something about women with either a strong confident streak or being extremely shy (two extremes if you will) makes me happy.

As for Rin and Emi, Rin is too much like someone I actually know who scares me very much at times and as such even though I made the effort to get her route I didn't enjoy it as much as the others. As for Emi, well... let's just say overly happy people aren't my cup of tea and leave it at that, though oddly misha didn't bother me at all, I guess everything can be made better with a little Shizune

Bleh, I've ignored this thread but it just keeps working its way to the top of the list on the Public Discussion board, so I feel obliged to make a post.

Since the initial point of the thread has been ignored (as it was about whether we've changed our minds due to multiple playthroughs, not what our opinions were after a single play of all paths), I'm gonna go with the current trend and basically just state my opinion after playing all paths. Much like Allaulten, I definitely make clear distinctions between how I react to people depending on the intended intensity of the relationship, as a girlfriend isn't just a "better female friend than your other female friends", so I'll draw the same "relationship/friendship" line that he did.
Friend: Lilly = Rin > Emi > Hanako >>>> Misha > Shizune
Girlfriend: Lily >> Emi >> Rin > Hanako >>>> Shizune > Misha

Shizune: ................Ugh. From the beginning I could tell that Lilly was probably going to be the best in every respect, so I was already trying my best to avoid Shizune's path...which takes a bit of effort on your first playthrough, since alienating any of the girls apparently gives you the Kenji end, yet Shizune and Misha are absolutely determined to drag you around everywhere with them. They do their best to take over the entire game by forcing themselves on Hisao and scaring off any girl that gets near him, and it's infuriating since just telling them to fuck off so you can focus on people who treat you like a sentient being rather than a possession isn't a valid option. So I made sure, on my next playthrough, to go with Shizune early and see if I could find anything redeeming enough to allow me to put up with her nosiness as I went for the other girls in future. Turns out that being nice to her doesn't make her take over your life any less; instead, Hisao just devotes more and more time to Shizune and Misha to the exclusion of everything else in his life, even his classes. Setting a great example there, Student Council, especially when you two then go and whine that Lilly's allowing someone else to help her out with her work for the festival. I found it vaguely interesting that Shizune's bossy personality would imply that she's the most independent and yet she's second only to Rin in her dependence on another person at Yamaku, but, like everything else about Shizune, that just made her interesting to analyze from an outside perspective. As amusing as observing her may be, interacting with her is not a pleasant experience, even without accounting for the fact that you have to do so through an incredibly irritating intermediary. Congrats on being the only person in the game that I dislike more than Misha, Shizune! Your theme should be High Tension, not The Student Council; whenever Hisao sees you approaching I'm sure that's what he hears in his head.

Misha: Shizune with less intelligence and more irritating habits, but thankfully also a lot less bossiness, which makes her slightly more tolerable as a friend. The stupidity drops her even below Shizune in the girlfriend category, though. I wouldn't've put her in the above list at all due to her being a secondary character, as I didn't place the far more likeable Yuuko there, but I felt like doing so just to establish how low Shizune ranks as a friend.

Yuuko: Cute (just below Emi, easily crushing Hanako in moe-ness aside from the fact that Hanako is literally burnt), seems fairly intelligent, but obviously not developed due to her role as a minor character. I have a strong feeling that, if she were a central character, she'd rank second on my list of people to befriend and certainly be a contender in the relationship category. I didn't put her in the above lists, but I'm basically describing people here in a similar (reverse) order, so you can figure out where she goes.

Hanako: She's easy to pity, but pity is not a good building block for a serious relationship in my book, though apparently most people disagree. Breaking her out of her shell would be a fun challenge for me, and under that shyness she seems fairly intelligent and the kind of person with whom you can just sit around and relax. Her disability wouldn't get in the way of a friendship after her shy shell's been cracked, though there should be some level of physical attraction between people involved in a more intimate relationship, so I can't see her as a real option for a girlfriend. But for the above reasons she'd be a good friend.

Emi: Characters who are cute and know it aren't as shallow and easy to write as people here seem to believe. Emi's well aware of her appearance, joking to Hisao about the power of the Ibarazaki Pout. It's evident that people treat her as immature because of it (the Nurse, Shizune -- though she treats everyone like that), and her clumsiness and endlessly cheery attitude exacerbate the issue. The incident with the paint cans obviously gets to her partially because her height, or lack thereof, adds to the effect of making her seem like a little kid, and the only way she knows how to show that she isn't one is to excel at something and thus be respected, hence her obsession with running. She's a deeper character than Shizune and Hanako, and the way she helps Hisao is exactly the way I'd like a good friend (or girlfriend) to help: teach people to help themselves rather than doing things for them, in this case getting Hisao into good exercise and diet habits. Her disability shouldn't get in the way of a serious relationship if she's good enough at moving around on a bed without her prostheses. Great friend, good girlfriend.

Rin: A brilliantly-written character. With by far the most difficult disability to handle out of all of the girls, evidenced by her complete dependence on Emi for assistance every morning, her straight-forward personality and occasional wackiness still give the impression that her disability doesn't exist despite, amazingly, her openness about discussing it. She's overall pretty intelligent, though her inconsistent thought processes make her give off impressions alternating between sheer genius and utter stupidity. She's exactly the kind of person with whom you can just sit around and relax, as her festival end basically goes, and yet offers great conversation, too, since she's entirely capable of being serious when you're in a less random mood (not that I am very often). Her disability makes more physical activities generally impossible, of course, which means you can't hang out with her by skiing or rock climbing or something, and sex would be significantly hampered by her lack of arms, so for both of those reasons she wouldn't be the best of girlfriends in my book. (inb4 "epic Rin footjob ftw")

Lilly: Easily the most intelligent of the girls, she's quite good at reading people, which is all the more impressive since she can't read body language for obvious reasons. She's quiet yet fun, can blink between funny and serious in an instant based on the situation, is comfortable enough with her disability to be placed in a position of responsibility at the school and even takes care of the not-at-all-disabled Hanako far more than the latter assists her. Conversations with her are relaxed yet engaging and seem to be able to address any topic. Her disability is normally fairly crippling but she handles it quite well, especially in the familiar environment of Yamaku, and with a little help from her boyfriend she'd be able to function just perfectly in most situations. It does limit her abilities in several physical activities and prohibits things like watching movies with her, unfortunately, but she's simply fun and smart enough that I'd put up with it.

Kenji: Best relationship ever. Too high to put on the above ranking lists. 'Nuff said, man. 'Nuff said.

Before I played, I decided to go straight for the moe-blob, Hanako, having a soft spot for those types. After the first play through, I really liked Lilly, as was stated before, she turned out not to be the "You are all below me" type, and the way she always remains calm and collected appeals to me. She seems... more mature than the othes. Rin amuses me, and kinda reminds me of myself, the whole, abstract thoughts, appreciating silence. Only difference is I suck at art. Then, I played for Emi. Bouncy and fun, nice enough, but doesn't really get much attention from me. And finally Shizune... Not a lot to say, other than she really quite annoys me.

tl;dr: Hanoko <-- Lilly <-- Rin <-- Emi <-- Shizune.

Rofl @ a tiny post that still bothers to say "tl;dr", one post below my wall of text.