Man, it must be psychological torture for my readers, sometimes... I guess that explains why there have been so many comments made about pounding through all 400,000 words in one sitting, though.SpunkySix wrote:Yeah, I played about three hours one session and then two and a half the second, and the time between the first and second session absolutely killed me.Sea wrote:I don't this I've ever played KS not in 4 hour or so chunks and then though about nothing else till I got back to it.icannotfindausername wrote:As much as that is a valid argument I don't think I'm strong enough for that, I mean, this game man... When playing through a route I could not think about anything else but the well-being of that character, and having to step away from the story just seems to taxing to be worth the reward, in my opinion at least.
Anyway, on the topic of Rin: that was the first route I played. Evidently getting onto her route is a statistical anomaly, but that's beside the point. The thing that makes it stand out against all the other routes is that the plot doesn't have anything to do with her disability.
In every other route, it's something that features rather heavily, or is implied, at least:
In Shizune's route Hisao has to learn sign language, obviously, and there's an implication that Shizune isn't just deaf physically, but also somewhat on an emotional level; she lacks empathy, and misses emotional cues to the point of treating her best friend as though she were a puppet.
In Lilly's route, obviously she's blind and sometimes isn't completely okay with it, but it also becomes a sort of metaphor for the conflict between staying at Yamaku or going to Iverness. Blindly following her father's beckoning, she very nearly throws away the life that already makes her happy.
In Emi's route, not only are there occasions where her lack of legs crops up as a point of contention - when she ends up in a wheelchair, for example - but it turns out the events that resulted in their loss also took her father, moreover resulting in her being unwilling to commit and generating the major conflict.
In Hanako's route, the events that resulted in her scars also caused the psychological trauma that has left her with crushing anxiety and occasional panic attacks. Despite the assumed internal struggle that implies she's much stronger than she looks, people see her scars, observe her behavior, and end up pitying her, which is how Hisao nearly implodes their relationship.
Conversely, in Rin's route, her lack of arms and the fact that she paints using her feet and such is just a novelty. It's treated similar to the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings movies: they show you they're small every so often, but otherwise it isn't mentioned. All the conflict in the route comes from Rin's artistic talent, the pressure being put on her to succeed, and the resulting identity crisis that drives a wedge between her and Hisao.
Now, I was able to latch onto that conflict easily because I've been through something like it; I was something of a brooding artist back in high school, myself. Anyway, the reason people might not "get" her route is that it isn't a generalized teen angst tale like the others. Emi has daddy issues. Shizune lacks empathy. Lilly can't see what she has in front of her. Hanako isn't seen for the strong person she really is.
Rin, on the other hand, is trying to figure out who she is in the world, what her life means, and find some way of expressing that in her own terms. Basically it's a more complicated problem than the others, and usually something one doesn't face until sometime after High School. Rin isn't worried about social cues, or what her parents think, or how people perceive her. Essentially she's trying to figure out who she is, what she wants, where she's going, how to get there, and when.
TL:DR: Unlike the other four routes, Rin's is an existential tale, rather than one about teen angst.
