01-02-2012, 11:06 PM | #1 |
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Little Busters
I've finished Little Busters, and I think it's worth it's own topic! The game had excellent characters, an amazing common route, and a great Refrain route, and was a fun experience overall. If I could rate it based off those three things, Little Busters would definitely score a 9.5 with me. Sadly, the character routes (except for Rin) are poorly written. I'm gonna present pictures this time, because I feel like putting in a little effort for once! There wasn't a character in Little Busters I didn't enjoy reading the dialogue from. Every character was unique, with bright and likable personalities. Some also had good backgrounds, even though some others were a bit...well...didn't make much sense. One interesting thing, is that despite Key usually dominating in female cast, it was the male characters (and Rin) that made the best part of Little Busters. Despite this, the female characters are still great. The females also join The Little Busters along with the original 5 members, so the females become part of a team rather than competing in a harem. General plot- Little Busters is about Naoe Riki. He's a boy with a weak composure and has narcolepsy. The leader of the Little Busters, Natsume Kyouske, decides that he wants to start up a baseball team so they can "enjoy their youth". Riki gathers up several members for the team, and they all bond together as the common route progresses. They spend most of their time doing silly activities until a character route starts. Riki gets stronger as he progresses through each character route. Character Routes Komari Kamikita - Komari's a girl who's always optimistic, and tries her best to make others happy. She's often picked on by the rest of the team, and always gives some amusing reactions because of them. If anything troubling or unfortunate happens to her, she'll often forcefully ask the others to forget what happened. This is kind of a hint for what her route's about. Komari's route is one of the better ones. Sadly, it gets rushed near the end, and it has a "my love will heal your deep trauma!" thing. Haruka Saigusa- Haruka's a loud, energetic, troublemaker. She spends her time either playing pranks on the student council, or doing chores out of punishment because of her doing those pranks. Haruka used to annoy the piss out of me, but she ended up growing on me. Other than Rin's, I'd say Haruka's route is the best. Sure, it had alot of melodrama, but I thought her personal problems and way of handling them at the end were pretty good. Kudryavka Noumi- Kud's a small girl who's 75% Russian and 25% Japanese. She often starts conversations with some terrible, but really amusing Engrish. Kud's an incredibly charming character, and I can't help but smile during all of her scenes. Sadly, her route is the worst in Little Busters. It's just.....very VERY poorly written. There's countless plot holes, and Kud's background itself doesn't even make sense. Like, she traveled around the world with her grandfather, and has only spent a little time in Japan, but despite that, she's fluent in Japanese (and better at it than alot of the other characters), but doesn't know any other languages. I was really depressed at how this route turned out. I really liked Kud, and it was a real shame that her path turned out as bad as it did. Mio Nishizono- Mio is quiet, and really likes reading. Mio doesn't say much, but she's really frank and honest with whatever she has to say, which often results in someone's feelings getting hurt. Every time she's outside, she walks under a parasol for some spoiler telling reason. Mio's route didn't make much sense. I mean, her problem was understandable, judging from her hobby, but it was just a mess. Like how the problem was solved, and how Mio handled it just made no sense. Yuiko Kurugaya- Now we have the mature girl. Though, she doesn't really behave like the typical mature character, and actually pretty childish. She often messes with the other characters. Kurugaya is also abnormally intelligent and strong. Like Mio, Kurugaya's path was a mess. I mean, it was nice that it hinted at what was actually going on in the main route, but I don't like how they forced moe out of her, when she has always been cool as hell. Her route does have one advantage over the others, that being the fact that the original Little Busters play a pretty big role in it. Rin Natsume- The main heroine of Little Busters. She's incredibly shy, and has incredible difficulty interacting with anyone other than the Little Busters. Rin spends alot of time either doing crazy missions with the Little Busters, or playing with a large amount of cats she has. For Rin's route itself, I didn't like the direction Rin's personality went, but that's fixed in the Refrain path. Rin's route is mostly about Kyouske and Riki trying to help cure Rin of her shyness, and help her become stronger and more independant. Rin's route doesn't truly end until Refrain ends. Refrain- After many days of playing through character routes, this comes, and the Refrain route is precisely what I wanted. Refrain is all about the original Little Busters, and is an overall excellent path. It talks more about Kyouske, Rin, Masato, Kengo, and Riki, and goes on about what's going on in the individual plot. While Ayu's route makes you cry sad tears and Ushio's route makes you cry "aww that's so sweet" tears, the Refrain routes makes you cry manly tears. I loved how the friendship between the Little Busters was presented in this path. The explanation as to what was going on in the common route, and lessons in this path were pretty good too. I just wish they put this much effort in the character routes. I've given about as much time to this review as I care to give. Despite the obvious flaws, I fell in love with Little Busters, and I wouldn't mind playing again. Sadly, despite how much I enjoyed it, the character routes were still poorly written, so I'll probably rate it as a 8. Little Busters had so much more potential than that. |
01-03-2012, 12:16 AM | #2 |
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Good review. From what I can see (and superficially discern), the only route I'd be interested in would be Rin's. But then again, this isn't that different from Kanon where the only routes I was interested in were Ayu's (1.0x), Nayuki's (0.5x) and Sayuri's (0.5x because it's not a real route XD, but I had 1.0x interest in it! lol). So I mean, if I could enjoy Kanon, then maybe I could enjoy Little Busters too. I dunno. Then again, I've never actually played Kanon ... or Clannad ... or any other Key game, so maybe I wouldn't like Little Busters. I dunno.
I really liked the bit where you distinguished between what sort of tears the three Key games elicit in you. It's something that's very succinct but also very easy to understand for those of us here in this forum reading this thread, and it helps me to appreciate the sincerity behind your claim that it isn't so much that Little Busters is better or worse than Kanon or Clannad than it is that it's different from them. Kanon is a tragedy wrapped in a sweet candy shell, Clannad is the story of a guy being Candid Camera trolled by the trolliest magical city in the history of the world, and Little Busters is something altogether different. It sounds like it might have been inspired either by fan interest in or team interest in the part in Clannad where all the kids are a part of the Drama Club and are trying to help Nagisa put a play together. Someone must have said, "What if we took that idea and really explored it?" Because the Drama Club always felt kinda dull to me in Clannad and seemed like it was just the writers' way of justifying how all these different girls knew one another and how Tomoya could reach out to any of them; but it sounds like, from what you're saying, the baseball club in Little Busters isn't like that at all. This sounds like it's the story of friendship, of true, no-catches-or-hidden-clauses friendship. So: is Key working on another game yet? Are they taking a rest? Have they already completed work on their next title and I just didn't know? lol What's the scoop?
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01-03-2012, 12:37 AM | #3 | |
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This sounds pretty great. I adore tales of friendship/nakama, especially ones that involve brightening a "lonely" person's life. Will make a note to check this one out. Thanks for the review!
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01-03-2012, 01:58 AM | #4 |
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The character routes must be pretty terrible if they're enough to submarine this VN from a 9.5 to an 8. How about the music and voice acting?
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01-03-2012, 03:21 AM | #5 |
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In response to Suigin's question: Yeah, Key released Rewrite June of last year, which is the title I bitched about having the "This game is Japan only" thing on it. I'm not sure what'll be after that, though. Key released a teaser for Rewrite about a year after Little Busters was released, so if they're gonna announce their next title, I would expect it within 2012-2013. I'm not too terribly pumped up for Rewrite, though, since Jun Maeda didn't do any of the writing for it, and he was the writer for the GOOD parts of Little Busters. Key also released Kud Wafter in 2010 I think, but umm..... I can 100% guarantee you that it won't be your cup of tea.
EDIT: I forgot to mention. Amaterasu is planning on starting a translation project on Rewrite. In response to Doppel's question: I mentioned this in the latest post in my suggestion box, but I'll repeat myself. By visual novel standards, the music in Little Busters is above average. The songs are nice at setting the mood and all that. However, by Key standards, aka, comparing to Kanon, Clannad, or Air, it's a little lackluster. For the VAs, I loved them. Rin's VA captured her awkward speech perfectly, and her VA is part of the reason I always laugh when Rin's agitated. Actually, most of them capture the characters' quirks really well. Like I said before, I've relistened to lines so many times because I just loved how they sounded. I rarely use that feature in VNs as well. I forgot to mention this. I was excited about Little Busters 5 years ago when it released. Obviously, I couldn't play it, but when I saw a translation project going on about 4 years ago, I kept an eye on it in hopes that I'll get to play. 4 years later, this topic happens. Was Little Busters worth the 4 year wait for being translated? I certainly think it was. You're muscle! I'm muscle! LETS START A MUSCLE REVOLUTION! Last edited by big bad birtha; 01-03-2012 at 12:48 PM. |
04-07-2012, 04:38 AM | #6 |
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We all know that Little Busters is getting an anime, but I just heard something that might make everyone want to rethink any anticipation for the Little Busters anime. JC Staff is taking over animating it. This basically means that there's a 95% chance Little Busters will go from a touching tale of friendship to a generic garbage harem. I don't know whether or not I'll actually watch it now. I don't want to watch a good title being shat on.
So yeah, I would really recommend hitting the VN instead of touching what garbage JC Staff turns it into. |
04-07-2012, 12:17 PM | #7 |
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Surprising news. Definitely makes you wonder about Doppel's "KyoAni always does it second" theory though. I hope for your sake that he's right. Would be a shame were this anime to turn out poorly and be the only anime the series ever gets.
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10-07-2012, 03:58 AM | #8 |
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Reviving a dead thread to talk about the anime. Yes, despite what I said last post, I decided to see what the anime would turn into. Obviously I'm gonna judge the animation more than the content since I already know what happens.
Honestly, I wasn't too impressed. Actually, I was pretty disappointed. I'm disappointed they didn't try animating some of the sillier fights. I wanted to see Masato attempt to use a cat as a weapon (the VN makes it out as though the cat just fights for him like a Pokemon). I hope they atleast animate the kick-the-can match. That's too great of a scene for them to just skip. The animation itself just seemed lackluster and dull. There was just no energy in it, and Little Busters is supposed to have a bunch of it. Maybe JC killed all of their budget making Shana III. I dunno, but the parts that normally had me laughing just left me going "Eeeeeh....." |
10-07-2012, 05:57 AM | #9 | |
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Anyway: the cats. Will there be as many cats involved as the opening suggests? Because I'm crazy about cats and if I can stare at cute cats I'll just forget all about the main characters. (Same is partly happening with "K" the anime.) That cat stole the first episode for me. Now that I've seen what sort of route options you have in the VN, I really hope we can cry manly tears at the end of the anime. Going for a girl route would just be underestimating the viewer if we can have the Refrain ending (true ending of the game?). I for one am sick of all the "tons of females trying to jump main male character"-anime we've been getting. How about a female character being jumped by males? Is there a chance in hell we could get that?
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10-07-2012, 08:25 AM | #10 |
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For the cats, it will depend. If it's a Rin scene, of course there will be a bunch of cats. Here's an example. She always has them with her, and even in the baseball minigame, one of your goals is to not hit one of the many cats flocking the field.
Judging from the trailer I've seen, they'll likely go over all of the girls' routes (Not sure if they'll do it in a Kanon/Air-like way or not). Sadly, unless JC decides to improve upon the poor writing the VN gave for those routes, we might have to sit through a big heaping helping of poorly written girl routes until getting to the real charm of Little Busters. When I think JC and plot improvement, I think "bear hydra". For the female characters being jumped by males, you might want to look up "otome" VNs or anime. One interesting scene the anime will likely skip: Spoiler box for you sensitive types, god forbid. It's not really a spoiler, but I don't want my entire post being put in a spoiler box because of this. Spoiler: show |
10-07-2012, 08:41 AM | #11 | |
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As for the spoiler box's contents? *nosebleed* That needs to happen in the anime. NEEDS TO.
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10-07-2012, 05:01 PM | #12 |
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Seeing kaisap's post about the animé reminded me how interested I was in this story when you posted the VN review, so I eagerly checked out the first episode. Set-up seems okay so far. The "cat-fighting" (*shot*) was silly and cute, made me smile.
Just a couple things I'll comment on: Spoiler: show
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10-10-2012, 03:22 PM | #14 |
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I went ahead and watched Episode 01 of J.C. Staff's adaptation of Little Busters. I've never played the game before nor spoiler-discussed it with anybody. Pretty much all I know about it I learned from this thread's review up top or similar spoiler-free reviews. So I didn't really know what to expect going into it other than 1) group of childhood friends, 2) baseball, and 3) not a romantic harem game like Kanon.
I thought the episode was okay. A breakdown of my initial thoughts regarding production elements: Plot: Not much has happened yet and from the look of things, plus bbb's comments about the game, not much is going to happen until ages from now. This is perhaps the #1 reason I think I will table Little Busters for now and check back in once it's almost done airing. Characters: all of them save Riki are lightly charming. However, none of them are charming enough I find myself craving more. There's no Ayu or Sunohara here. Nobody who really demands your attention and makes you go "Wow, what a character!" Maybe that'll change eventually. Animation: Not too bad but an obvious step down from Kyoto Animation. TBH, I think Key fans have gotten a bit spoiled by KyoAni's love affair for all things Key. They're one of the absolute best studios in the business so having them in your corner is better than any fan could've asked for. Now that either they or Key (who knows who's responsible) passed on continuing their exclusive business relationship and now that another studio (J.C. Staff)'s gotten a shot at a major Key work, fans are upset. Well, beyond the obvious step down in quality I don't think they ought to be all that upset! ^^; From what I saw in this episode the animation was around average for the industry today. Maybe not significantly above average, no, but certainly not significantly below average either. I don't look at this the same way I did David Animation's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and go "Whelp, clearly these guys don't have what it takes to compete toe-to-toe with KyoAni! " I'd lump it in with a production like Hunter x Hunter 2011. Voice Acting: They went the extra mile with several of the male voice actors. Canna Nobutoshi (FSN's Lancer) lends his voice to Inohara Masato and Midorikawa Hikaru (Fate/Zero's Lancer) lends his voice to Natsume Kyousuke. Both are veteran voice actors who worked together on the television adaptation of Watase Yuu's Fushigi Yuugi (aired 1995-1996) as main characters Tamahome (Midorikawa) and Tasuki (Canna). Midorikawa may also be familiar to anyone who watched Yu-Gi-Oh! in Japanese as he was the one who lent his voice to Seto Kaiba. The choice of voice actress for Rin seems to suit her from what I've seen so far. Surprisingly she has done very, very little voice acting so far. Even more surprising? Yuki and I already know her from what is apparently her only other listed work on MyAnimeList right now: the little brother's teacher in the short comedy series Recorder to Randoseru. Aside from these an obvious shout-out has to be given to Horie Yui who lends her voice here to ... Spoiler: show Music: didn't really notice it. OP was okay. ED was okay. Neither was particularly memorable for me though. I realize it's hard to copy the magic of Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho or Dango Daikazoku but still. As for some Episode 01-specific commentary ... Spoiler: show
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10-10-2012, 06:16 PM | #15 | |
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Guess it makes sense since apparently she's the original VA in the game as well. ;O
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10-14-2012, 07:56 AM | #17 |
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I'm actually starting to be glad I haven't played the game before watching this anime. Helps focus far more on what the show has than what it doesn't have. ^-^''
But would a 100% re-telling of the original game even be possible in this case? I recall having these same questions with Persona 4: Animated Series because I have played through the game and the anime both added and removed parts of the story. Yet I still enjoyed the experience. *shot for talking about P4 and LB! in the same post* So far, with LB!, I most enjoy scenes that feature the least of the main character. I think we could actually scrap the guy from the show and it'd still work. x.x
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10-16-2012, 02:02 PM | #18 |
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10-16-2012, 03:42 PM | #20 | |
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Spoiler: show
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10-28-2012, 11:10 PM | #23 |
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Oh holy rushed episode 4 was rushed. I was surprised at how brief they made Kud's introduction, considering how she's the most popular character in LB. There was actually alot more to that scene than what was shown. I thought JC would whore Kud out for ratings.
Episode 4 spoilers Spoiler: show Last edited by big bad birtha; 10-28-2012 at 11:20 PM. |
10-31-2012, 03:29 PM | #24 |
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11-04-2012, 03:46 PM | #25 |
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Komari's route went by fairly nicely this episode. Though it's a shame JC didn't fix Itaru Hinoue's case of bad casual wear with Komari. Anyway, comparisons with the VN and all in the spoiler box. Episode 5 spoilers:
Spoiler: show Also something that might interest |
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