Clannad: Tomoyo Path

 Well THAT was an emotional trip. Clannad. The game that can make the most hardened warrior sob in their blankies. Well I can't say that Tomoyos route is an exception.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I started this route quite a while ago, and only just now finished it because for some reason I had it in my head that I would not enjoy this route. I had it wrong. Tomoyos story is touching and heart warming and leaves nothing to be desired.
The romantic aspects of it happen rather suddenly to be honest. One moment we were friends having lunch the next we were kissing. She comes to my home every morning to fetch me and drag me to school on time. My best friend and I are famous for being late and she is insistent that we come on time.

There is humor interlaced into the story, as she has a slight obsession with beating my best friend up, and a huge part of her plot is her abusing him for being an annoying prick.

The depth of the story comes when Tomoyo admits to you that she comes from a broken family where everyone is cold and unloving towards one another. They are family in name only, and she seeks the ability to smile and feel joy with her little brother. A little brother that because he was so miserable at his families lack of love tried to kill himself. She wants his first day at highschool to be a truely happy one with no tears, and is striving to be the student body councilor in hopes of saving the Sakura tree lane that they have to travel to on the way to school.  The feelings that flow through my body as I relate to her sadness at her family being cold and Tomoya(the main character)s equal sadness at the lack of his families love.  On a personal note my partner and I are both not close to our families. Events have happened that have left both of us feeling cold and alone in this world and like Tomoyo and Tomoya we realized that happiness and family is about the people who make up your family who are even just friends. Not the people who raised you.

The most heart wrenching part of this story for me is when Tomoya starts feeling depression over the fact he is stagnating and Tomoyo is popular and going to succeed his utter dispair at the fact and knowledge that she will graduate and leave him behind and that everyone will leave him behind took me to the moment when I was 18 and all my friends left. My best friend Ali was going to school and so was Janna, but there was a moment when Ali's parents divorced and the one thing I thought would stay constant. Ali's little brother Evan, left with her mother to Missouri. I was left feeling utterly abandoned and alone in life. I made terrible decisions trying to cure that sadness. Unlike my life, Tomoyo comes back and tells Tomoya that being without him was not worth the success to her and that she loved him. They end up back together.

 Before I play the next route on Clannad I think I will venture on to Tomoyo After and play my way through it at least once. Wish me luck. I am looking forward to the hentai elements that Clannad lacks and Tomoyo After offers :-p

Hakuoki: Demon of the fleeting blossom: Okita Route (yes, spoilers)

 So my first play through of the first USA released ladies focused PSP Visual novel. What a mouthful. Normally I play VNs directed towards gentlemen where you spend your time dating lovely ladies and getting up skirt shots. But this is a different feeling all together!   Funny enough I read the manga this VN was based on back in the day when they first started releasing Shoujo Beat, the old girls manga magazine in the US titled 'Kaze Hikaru' . This VN has similar themes to it and I think is based on it. Don't quote me on that!

So on to my feelings about this VN route. I played it while suffering severe depression over my Fathers death (yes, yes you are tired of hearing about it I get it) The dark themes were wonderful to wallow in. I felt the characters despair and sadness and this route was full of these emotions. (HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD KIDS!). Okita's route is a very sad one. It ends in a mutually sad way with the characters fading into death together, so I just wallowed in my sadness with them.

Okita's route seems to explore the ideas of what is ones meaning in life, what are you living for, why do you do the things you do. When faced with the reality that everything you care for and depended on is falling apart, what choices do you make? With the main character on his side, he seems to endure, but without her he dies(yes I found some fun bad endings). Realizing that your body is not ideal and will keep you from doing the things you want to do in life is so depressing. I've been struggling with many of these feelings myself.  I found myself not wanting to put the game down after I got past Chapter 2, I needed to know what would happen.

I really wonder if The heroine is injected with the fake demon blood in the other routes like she is in this one. It was a pretty dramatic turn of events. Having your little brother be so bitter and evil as to wish you unhappiness in life would be a terrible fate. Yet in a way she found happiness in her illness. To live out your life just being with someone you love can't be the worst of fates.

Da Capo:Mako Route

Da Capo:Mako Route (zomg spoilers!!)(also adult concepts)

So I finally finished Mako's route. I did NOT enjoy this route. Mako wants to be fake boyfriend girlfriend to ward off suitors she is not interested in and I get roped into it. Truth is she really likes the hero, and is being a coy bitch, and pretending our relationship is fake while all along really liking me. I felt so deceived. I dislike deception. So this really angered me. The sex scene felt very wrong. I pound away her virginity mercilessly from behind like an animal. At least the main character had the guts to feel like the tool he was after this scene. In the end I decide 'oh well I love her' and we end up together. *feels shitty some more...* Anyone else want to put a severe time limit on this relationship? I hope that Sakura's route is better. I have been avoiding hers because it is so Loli.

Clannad: Misae Path

Clannad: Misae Path(spoilers!)

Finally got a copy of Clannad working on my computer. Just finished Misae's path. This is a very sad story. I *cried*. No sex was had. It is more a story of companionship, healing and stagnation. I really like Misae. She is very endearing. I am glad I played her path first. The photo above is from the anime, Misae does not have any CG in the game. Probably the shortest route in the game.

Speaking of short routes, I am ALMOST done with Mako's route in Da Capo... but meh I don't like her. Will post about it once I finish it.