chibiforte

I finished both routes, already, but I didn't previously feel like making an entry for either one.  But, now that I have some time, I'll just combine my thoughts on both at the same time.

I really enjoyed the Kotomi route.  She is just such a likeable character in many reguards.  I want my future girlfriend to have her personality.  And she suffers from a tragic past, which contributes to her fractured psyche.  Although, one thing I noticed about the route that was different from the anime was that they actually did not have many references to God in the show, and yet there were a few instances in the game that kind of took me by surprise.  

Things like Kotomi trying to get Tomoya to read the Old Testament was interesting to me, with what she had to say about it (which was actually handled with some degree of respect, as opposed to what you'd find in America).  She mentioned how it's an adored book all around the world, having been translated in many languages, and that her favorite story was Noah's Ark (which, to me, is a rather strange and interesting choice, but whatever).  But specifically stated that it was such an amazing Book that while even scholars would read it with fervency, it can even be understood by a small child.  So, I enjoyed that, and if I had the chance to sit down with this fictional character, I'd specifically ask if she picked up the underlying message (the "velvet thread", as it were) in the historical accounts.

I also noticed that her parents, the scholars, weren't precisely string theorists like many fans of the show believed.  I recall a specific line from an anime that was expounded upon in the game.

"Those who pursue truth must not be arrogant. Just because it can't be proven scientifically, you must not laugh at miracles. You must not deny your eyes the beauty of this world."

Once he said that, he mentioned something about the world being made of harps, or something like that, and that's how Kotomi got her name.  I'm kind of fuzzy on the details from that part.  And in the anime, after that interesting bit of info, the conversation shifts.  But in the game, her Dad mentions something quite straight and to the point.  I believe Kotomi asks why the world is like that.  And what is his answer?

"I believe it's God".

That particular line is what got me.  They didn't mention that in the show, and it disappoints me.  That's why Kotomi made that promise to God about being a good girl in the first place at a pivotal point in her story, and yet... it's just somewhat confusing in the show when she mentions the promise.  I don't know, I guess it can still be understood, but it loses some of its impact.

And the previous statement REALLY got me.  It sounds like he's positing an argument from design, which is something I believe wholeheartedly.  The specific parts of his statement is also quite revealing, and it's almost like Kyoto Animation is making a statement against the so-called "scientists" today.  Let me explain: 

"Those who pursue the truth must not be arrogant".  This is exactly the type of thing happening with leading atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who simply mock the very idea of God, and, if I may say, are quite arrogant in their claims.  They almost say that people shouldn't even challenge what they have said, and any opponents should just shut up (because their opponents are so OBVIOUSLY biased and closed-minded).

"Just because it can't be proven scientifically, you must not laugh at miracles".  Again, this is exactly what we're dealing with in the world today.  Scientists will simply not allow for a divine "foot in the door", as it is.  Their presuppositions automatically assume that there is no chance whatsoever for something miraculous to happen, so that's how they interpret everything they come across.  I believe, and many will agree, that presuppositions are something that should be set aside when interpreting evidence in the way that it is, rather than forcing our presuppositions on the evidence in order to interpret it in the way we want it to be interpreted.  It's the same thing with exogesis and eisogesis, but that's another topic entirely.

"You must not deny your eyes the beauty of this world" This, again, is an acceptable argument from design.  But nowadays, scientists are trying to completely downplay the sheer inestimable complexity of the world we live in today.  This truly is a beautiful world, make no mistake about it.  And yet scientists are trying to make this world seem "normal" and "routine".  And I have to ask, WHAT is normal and routine about this world?  This is a world with so many mysteries that it'd be impossible to solve even a fraction of them!  Science can surely explain the process of how a seed becomes a tree, but it can't answer WHY it happens.  There is simply no naturalistic reason behind why a seed can grow into a tree!  And yet, it happens!  That's just one, single example.  We also have no natural explanation as to why the universe obeys certain laws, either.  Do you want to realize how small your existence is compared to this beautiful world and universe we live in?  Just read The Book of Job, Chapters 38, 39, and 40.  Maybe you'll gain an understanding as to how amazing this world is that we live in.

That was kind of a tangeant... I didn't know I could look this deeply into something from a computer game.

Anyway, as for the Fuko route, it was nice, I guess.  It had the signature humor that was in the anime, but some funny jokes were left out of the show, obviously due to time issues and whatnot.  It was a cute story, and I enjoyed the true ending.

I feel so strange talking about Fuko's route after giving such a lengthy commentary on a certain part of Kotomi's route... xD

I got my new CD in the mail today, the Dragonball one with the long title.  I'm enjoying it very much, and I am surprised it took me this long to buy it.  I guess I just didn't have a chance, before.  But it's good.  A few too many slow songs, but that's okay, they'll grow on me.  The last track is the best, though. <3

I'll post up an entry of the Kotomi route either later tonight, or sometime tomorrow (if it doesn't get lost in the shuffle).  If I tried to post it up now, I'd cry, because it was that sad, yet also very, very happy.  I love her story so much...

I need to make some new icons.  I'm not really sure what to make one of, though.  Maybe Harvest Moon?  Or perhaps one of Vegetto?  Or, maybe, a Forte related icon (considering what my journal name is...)?  I'm not sure, yet.  But I know I'm getting kind of tired of the normal ones.

I can't wait until my Brave Heart CD single gets here, but WHEN is it getting here?  I ordered it either last week or the week before, and I don't even know if they sent it out, yet.  I can't find anything in my Dad's e-mail...

I'm trying to do all this college financial aid stuff, but it's hard when my Mom can't find the time to help me.  I'm not a number person, so I can't say for sure what our income is, nor can I explain anything related to tax information.  This is getting dull.

I haven't been playing much besides Clannad, lately.  I don't know, I just can't find the time to delve into a game.  I'm going to waste all of my video game time once Smash Bros. Brawl comes out anyway, though.  That game is going to rock so hard.  I'm waiting for these people at a website to live stream it, tonight.  It's at 7:00PM, and I'm totally excited to see how the game works out.  The soundtrack is fantastic, I know that much.

It turns out that the theater here has some advanced screening privileges, seeing as how they invited their e-mail subscribers to a free advanced screening of a new movie I knew nothing about.  It's called "Inhuman", and it stars actors from 24 and Prison Break, so I'm excited to see it.  I can bring along four guests, as well, which will obviously be Steven, Ben, Jay, and probably Zach.  We get to have a Q&A session with the filmmakers after the movie, as well, and hopefully some actors will make an appearance.  I'd like to meet Tony from 24, seeing as how they cancelled the seventh season.

I forgot to make an entry about the Sunohara route after I finished it.  Whoops!  Now I can't really remember what the route was about...

But, from what I remember, it was actually a good route.  It provided a lot of backstory for Youhei that I didn't know previously, and introducing his younger sister for longer than a single episode (*cough*) was enjoyable.  It deals with how Youhei has to deal with his younger sister, Mei, when she comes to visit him, but if I go into any detail, it will spoil so much.  I can at least say that it finally explains how exactly Tomoya and Youhei met each other, and I just thought it was a funny moment that it's too good to just describe.

And I think it'd be better to have Mei as my little sister, rather than a certain little girl with red hair... (*cough*) xD

C'mon, people!  You gotta play this game!  It's fantastic, and it's so enjoyable, and I just can't get enough of it.  Sure, I'm taking a bit of a break from it, right now, but I'm going to start again on it, tonight.  I think I'm on the Kotomi route, which I'm QUITE interested in, considering that there's supposed to be stuff that they didn't cover in the anime.  That'll be awesome.

This'll be a short entry since there's not much to say about her route.

I enjoyed myself, for what it was worth.  Yukine wasn't a very interesting character in the first place, and she didn't really change her personality from the beginning of her route towards the end like most of the other characters in the game, but I still enjoyed her backstory.  It was kinda... deep, and you didn't expect that kind of story behind a female character like that.  But I can't say I was really surprised by it, it was just unexpected.  At least they gave some kind of explanation about the lights that Tomoya sees, which I can't remember if I already knew or not, but it was still a nice little side comment.

I'm moving onto the Sunohara Sibling's route, next, which will hopefully give an interesting backstory to Mei, and especially Youhei, since he's a supporting character in every route, seeing as he has the role of comedy relief and as Tomoya's only friend.  It'll be interesting to see how in-depth of a story they give him, or if they almost exclusively stick to Mei.  She didn't have much of a role in the anime yet, so I don't know what to expect.  After that, I'll finally be able to get into the remaining three heroine's routes (Kotomi, Fuko, and Nagisa), and I'm really looking forward to that.  Should make for an interesting week, provided I keep playing and don't drop it for awhile to watch my RAWs of Digimon Adventure.

(I noticed that I forgot to previously put the picture of Kappei in the post about him, so I went and edited the post to put one in)

I decided to play what is considered to be a rather short route, last night.  I accidently overlooked the fact that Yukine's route was supposed to be next, but I can play that next, so I played this one.  There's not much to say about it, however.  Just an addition to the Fujibayashi Twin's route, and something that helps fill in a few plotlines here and there, but without completely overtaking the main route.  It seemed kind of pointless in some ways, but it was a nice side-story, and definitely hilarious on Sunohara's part.  It also added some information for the future Fuko route, so that's a good thing.

Not much else to say about it, really.  Just a bit of a deviation, but not a bad one.  I can't imagine them adapting that entire story in the anime, though, since it was mostly a stand-alone type of story.  Maybe Kappei can work as a cameo, but fully fleshing out his story would take too much from the obviously more important storylines of the Fujibayashi twins and Tomoyo, both of which I want to see as fleshed out as possible.

So, not very important, but still a fun little diversion.  Hopefully Yukine, Mei, and Koumura have scenarios that are around the same length of time as this one had, or else it'll just get tedious.  Unless their stories are really, really good.  Then I don't mind.

I wanted to wait to post another entry until I finished these two routes.  The Misae route is somewhat connected to the Tomoyo route, and if you complete her route before Tomoyo's, you get a bonus scene and an extra light.

I really enjoyed myself on the Misae route.  I didn't really expect anything to come out of it, since the anime has hardly ever touched upon her character in the least.  But wow, that was a good story.  It focused on how Misae became the person she is, as the dorm landlady, and it even takes a bit of a detour into the past to when she was the Student Council President, who is being followed by a young boy who wants to grant her wish.  I won't get into it any more than that, since I've already spoiled some of it, but trust me, this is a good little detour from the normal heroine paths.  I definitely appreciate her character a little more, but I have no clue as to how they're going to translate this into the anime.

The Tomoyo route, though... MAN!  I never cared for Tomoyo before, but I absolutely love her character, now.  It's no wonder she's the only one who got a sequel ("Tomoyo After"), because her story was so engaging... and long, don't forget long (took me three and a half hours or so to complete only part of the route).  It focuses on her friendship with the main character, but also how that relationship with him is hurting her chance to succeed not only in the Student Council election, but her academic pursuits, as well.  Getting into it even more would spoil it so much, so I'll refrain.  But this is a fantastic route, and I enjoyed it so much.

Give me a good story, and I'll love it despite its faults, it seems.  There were a few minor quibbles I had with the routes, but nothing that even remotely tampered with my enjoyment.  I just can't get over how amazing this game is, and if there are more visual novels like this, I want to import them all.  I just wish I knew where to get more translation patches, or else it'll kinda be meaningless to play the game without understanding what's going on...

My thoughts?  Clannad is simply beautiful.  It has plenty of humor, but not too much to where it's annoying, and the deep moments are truly gorgeous.

I'm still just worried that they won't be able to do these routes justice.  The Kyou route would be difficult enough to do, but the Tomoyo route?  Nigh impossible, to me, unless you cut out the ending or change it so drastically to where it's a new beast, altogether.  The only remedy I can see for this is if they animate the Tomoyo After story.  That would be awesome, since I can't play it without a patch (and that version has... stuff I don't care for).  I think it'd be awesome if they made an OVA series that tightly wrapped up Tomoyo's story from this first game, and then moved onto the After story.  I'm sure they could make a four-episode series, since the manga is a single volume that wraps up the entire After story, far as I know.  I'm trying to find the manga, but it's difficult to locate something like this that's actually translated, so I'll probably just get it RAW, and look at the pretty pictures.

I'm actually hoping the Clannad anime gets licensed, just so I can watch it legally with subs.  And so I can buy it for a lower price.  That'd be nice.  Since Kanon and Air both got licensed (and Shuffle! is on its way), I don't see why it couldn't happen.  And I want them to translate the games and release them here.  With the release and success of the Phoenix Wright series, it's obvious that visual novel-esque games can succeed here in the states, if branded properly and rightly advertised.  Why couldn't they release one of these games, here?  If the related anime series succeed, people would obviously like to explore the original story, right?  Put 'em out cheap enough, and I'd buy several copies just for myself.  Or they could translate and release the PS2 versions and put them out for really cheap, considering that it's hardly a problem to put out PS2 games, anymore.  It seems to be the go-to video game console these days for putting out low-risk games.  Or just translate the PSP versions and bring them over, for an even lower risk!  I mean, c'mon, Game Companies, we'd love to buy these games, but you aren't making them available to us!  It can't be that difficult to translate these games if you see these fans putting out patches for them, right?  Just get a small team together, with translators and editors, and just sell us something awesome.  I'd buy it legally, no problem, first day of release.  I'd preorder it, for crying out loud.  And I know so many other people would love to indulge in the games.  It wouldn't sell fantastically, I'm sure, but even a modest success is a success, right?  I'd advertise it like crazy, on every forum I could.

I just want something.  Gimme something.  Anything!

Well, anyway... Tomoyo.  Misae.  You gals are great, you gave me good stories.  I'm hoping I'll be able to continue on the former's route someday in the future.



(I'm so addicted to this game... xD)

I didn't have enough time to make a journal entry before I left to Vegas, hence, why I haven't posted within the last few days.  But that's not what this entry is about, and I will get back to this topic, later.

What I really want to say is how impressed I am with the Clannad game.  I just finished the Fujibayashi Twin storyline, and I must say, I'm so amazed at what they managed to do with such a simple premise.  I finished off the non-essential Ryou Fujibayashi route first, just because I wanted to see what happened, then loaded up my save again and chose the other option in order to go on the Kyou Fujibayashi route, since that's the true route and is the only way you get the "ball of light", as it were.

My thoughts on the Ryou route are simple, since it ended in a fairly predictable manner.  It was never a route that was necessary in order to complete the game (since she's a side character), but because I like Ryou as a character so much (not sure why), I thought I'd take her path, first.  And it was a nice, sweet story.  It resembled a fairly generic romance anime scenario, but because the characters and situations are those that I'm familiar with, it was actually nice to see a sort-of "what if?" storyline.  I know that they're not going to go down that route in the anime, so it was nice to see it represented in some form.  Even though I know it's fictional, I always pull for the underdog in those types of anime series, so it's nice to see the shy, quiet, introverted girl find happiness with a main character (it's kind of like Hinata and Naruto, only less of the male character being an absolute idiot).

My thoughts on the Kyou path are slightly more complicated, but I'm no less happy.  It's just... wow... they pulled off a fantastic story on her route.  I didn't previously care much for Kyou, aside from occasional comic relief in the anime (reminds me of Kagami from Lucky Star), but MAN... I have such an interest in her character, now.  She was far deeper than anything the anime has even hinted at, yet, and I'm just afraid that they won't be able to even do her story justice (considering they're focusing on Nagisa's story as the main one).  There's just no foreseeable way to end this with all the stories tightly wound up and satisfied, at least in my mind...

My only complaint is the fortune telling.  Seriously, I didn't care for it.  They should ditch that aspect in the anime, for real.

I'll have more to say in the future, considering that I have many, many more routes to finish.  I'm probably moving onto Tomoyo's route, next, unless Misae's is important for her route.  I have to check...

Until then, Fujibayashi Twins, you gave me several great hours of gameplay.  I bid you farewell until the next episode of the anime comes out. :3

That's right, who's the one who spent all day yesterday getting Clannad to work on my ever-suffering laptop?

Yep, it's me.  I can now play Clannad.  <3

Between downloading the actual game through the torrent, changing the non-unicode language/region, using some trickery through an emulator in order to get the executable files from the .cdi file, patching the actual game with the English patch, and figuring out why it just wouldn't load up until I changed the region, I'm sure I spent about six hours working on this crazy thing.  Maybe more, I didn't time myself.

All I know is that I'm finally going to play the story to the game that I've wanted to play since last year, and I can play it in my own native language (albeit, slightly gimped, considering the grammar errors).

I win.  Again.

(Don't worry, I'm going to actually purchase a copy of the game when it comes out with the new version, since the original version is nigh unfindable)

Oh yeah, and I also got all A's on my semester report card.  Nice.  I'm upholding my 4.0 GPA quite well.  Next comes college.

And I purchased Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl for the PSP, today.  I don't know when I'm actually going to find time to play it, considering the other games I have to finish, but it's always nice to have a little Harvest Moon to play, right?


The duck is totally stealing lettuce from the bucket.  Little thief.  
And that cow is trying to stomp on the ducklings and chicks.  
Didn't PETA see this before the game was released?