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
So last night my partner and I decided to go to our first Burlesque. Now we were very excited at this idea. We both love the looks of Suicide girls. We love the Tattoos, the alt look, the teasing way they pose. Just look at this poster here, the girls look so fun and free loving in it, and express what I have always thought of SGs to be. So months ago we excitedly bought tickets and have been waiting for the day to happen.
A camgirl I enjoy watching the shows of and talking to AnnaBee made the comment she felt that SG was not pulling very good dancers for the show and that she felt they were more campy than sexy and not as good as they could have been because of how they were being directed. But I was determined to ignore this thought and watch these girls with my whole heart and support them.
So the venue chosen for Portland, was Roseland theator. Which is a great venue for going and dancing your brains out to Electric, House, Rock and Trance music. But not so much for people chilling and watching sexy dances. I was surprised when I walked in the door to see they had fitted it with seating and it was quite controlled. So we got a seat about 7 rows back on the left side back with a great view of the stage. Pre-show there was some terrible music that was badly balanced blasting over the speakers too loudly. We thought it was just some distasteful pre-show music, until we found out the cute short girl standing akwardly behind an mac on stage was a SG 'DJ' who was actively choosing to play badly balanced music for us. Forgiveable because when the actual show happened the music was better balanced. The first three or so acts were fun.It was novel and exciting and the girls were marginally cute, even though it was obvious most of them were not professional dancers.
The biggest problem of the night was when one of the girls started feeling like she needed more attention. So she called out that everyone should get out of their seats and 'crowd around the stage' because they were going to make the show as 'Punk Rock as possible' suddenly my good view spot was terrible. Tall model girls, men with baseball caps, creepy single guy swirls and masses of humans were suddenly standing between my seat and the stage.My view from that point on was about waist and above of the girls when they were standing straight. They also encouraged everyone to video tape and picture the show. So even if people were short, suddenly their bright camera was up in the air directed at the dancers and further obscuring the show for everyone else! My night was ruined from that point on.
Now the girls were lovely creatures. Albeit a bit thin for my tastes. They put their hearts into dancing, and I guess I will mostly fault whoever directed them for bad taste in music, costumes, and choreography. Amazingly the best song choice imo was the choice they used for the Planet of the Apes dance. The dance for that song had a slightly Japanese/Korean pop star feel to it as well.
So why do I mention that girls needed to keep their clothing on? I have zero issues with nakedness, sexuality or free choice! My issue was this is suppose to be a burlesque right? Then why was most of the entire show the girls dancing around in panties and pasties? I wanted to be teased and enticed. But instead I felt like I mentioned I like the color purple and suddenly my entire house is purple. Too much of a good thing starts being a bad thing! Tease me more, show me less. No really. PLEASE.
Best point of the night? When they asked people to get on stage and strip to win a gift certificate to their website, and this sexy full bodied purple haired girl gets up on stage and starts sexily removing her corset then throws her bra off to show us her lovely, large breasts with no pasties! What a beautiful unashamed lady.
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.
So the game I most recently took part in and beat was Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on my PSP. I really did NOT want to play this. At all. I am not a fan of TRPGs, and this looked like another dull TRPG. But my roomate talked me into playing it. By telling me I had to. Over. And OVER. AND OVER. So I finally picked it up and worked my way though the game.
To start, the plot. I loved this games plot. I thought it was going to be campy, but it actually surprised me with its depth. I really need to start trusting my roomates taste in games. He has amazing taste in games. If he tells me I will like a game I normally do. This is just another prime example of this truth.
The characters are all rounded and grow, and the humor is just a mask over much darker themes. As someone who just lost her Father, this game held lots of themes of parent loss and dealing with becoming despite adversity. Many tears were shed when the red moon rose. I want to cosplay as a Prinny now. As someone who has attempted suicide... I relate to them!
Most suprisingly awesome character? Jennifer! Sure she dresses like a beach bimbo, but don't let her looks fool you! This character is probably the most interesting one in the game. Despite living her life as a side-kick. Jennifer is a brilliant girl. She is confident and true to herself and reflects a human worthy of praise. Again all the adoption themes really got to me, but I enjoyed her growth and revelations. It is hilarious that she is working for a moronic man when her IQ is out of this atmosphere.
Gameplay wise, this game was a grind fest. But I found after crazy power leveling Laharl and a few mages (admittedly I handed the PSP to my roomate and had him do it for me because there is something broken in that man that makes it so he does not hate power leveling). Walking around Terra Earth/Fire/Ice ing as well as Dimension Slashing my enemies I rarely had any trouble at all. Admittedly in this way I cheated.
The end game pissed me the hell off(the normal ending) it really was just not fair. MAJOR SPOILERS: When Laharl cried his line about abandonment and his mother to Flonne I actually had to poker face the intense meh that made me feel. My roomate wanted me to react so I refused, but man on man do I relate as someone who has been abandoned by just about everyone I have ever cared about. The good ending is much more fun. I love flonnes change.
Overall: 4/5 for this game. It was good. But not the best. It is no Persona 3!
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 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.
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