Kira Kira

On Chie's route. After that, I'll do Sarina's route then Kirari's last. This game is three acts long right?

I think it's three, yeah.

Finished both Chie's and Sarina's route. Chie's was much better. Sarina's wasn't bad, but it needed more Punk Rock Spirit.

Onwards to Kirari!!

Finished Kirari's route, both endings. Normal route was infinitely better. True route wasn't particularly bad, but it just couldn't compare.

On Kira Kira curtain call right now. I can't help but like an honest protagonist like Souta.

... He's a bit TOO honest, but that's okay.

edited 2nd Mar '12 8:37:02 AM by encrypted12345

I know. That's why I like him. He's just so hilariously simple minded and straight forward that he's lovable.

Also, Kirari's good route is indeed, not nearly as good. But after you finish Curtain Call, you'll like it a lot more, trust me.

Yup. Finished Curtain Call, both parts, and loved it. My heart moved at the end credits. Definitely a great VN, both Kira Kira and it's fan disk. I suppose Dear Drops will be added to my ever growing backlog...

Started the fandisc. It was kinda hard to get into at first, but I'm starting to like it after the character development of their band set in. I don't like the protagonist that much, though. Doesn't have the same flair as Shikanosuke. I'm amused that Shikanosuke's sister finally has a face now, though.

^ Indeed, that was funny.

I'm kind of amazed at how many people prefer the normal ending of Kirari's route. Yeah, bittersweet ending, more artistic than happy ending, but honestly, I just know too many people who live like Shikanosuke does in the final act of that route, and are miserable so much of the time, the ending just makes me kind of sick inside.

edited 13th May '12 9:41:50 AM by Desertopa

It's pretty much a fact that he gets better after that, and really it's extremely fitting as a foil to the rest of the routes and the rest of the story as a whole. The True End kind of feels tacked on in comparison to avoid the depression of most of the Normal End.

He gets better than the nadir of depression he was in before, but getting over his past doesn't mean that his present isn't pretty lousy compared to what it could have been.

It ends on an up note, but the situation is familiar enough to me that I automatically fill in the "and what next?" with "not much, ever, and he slips in and out of severe bouts of malaise."

ETA: It reminds me of an anecdote from an author's memoir, about a guy he'd worked with as a social worker. The guy was tormented with guilt due to having caused his and his girlfriend's daughter permanent neurological damage, essentially turning her into a vegetable, by shaking her in a fit of rage. His girlfriend forgave him and was willing to stay together with him, but he felt unworthy of her forgiveness. The anecdote ended on a positive note, with a guy who'd grown up in a really toxic environment and never had positive expectations for himself learning to forgive himself and move on and try to make something of his life. Except, because this was real life, and the author was actually an experienced social worker, he noted that although he didn't keep in touch with the guy, odds are that it ended badly, with a relapse into crime and domestic strife. Sometimes a happy ending boils down to ignorance about what comes next.

edited 13th May '12 2:58:53 PM by Desertopa

In a literary sense, it was much better than the good end. It develops Shikanosuke's character much further than the good end does. The Good end sorta felt shoehorned in tbh. Though Curtain Call gives it a much better conclusion.

I agree that the "true ending" was inferior to the normal ending in a literary sense; I wasn't that happy with that one either. But the normal ending still made me feel sick. The finale didn't feel like "he's moved on and is going to be okay," it felt like "this is a relative high point in a mostly lousy outcome." In real life, when you're living in circumstances that aren't conducive to long term happiness, and you resolve to move on and accept happiness in your life again without a significant change to your external circumstances, the result is usually backsliding into malaise.

It's similar to how I feel about "happy endings" that are achieved by uniting two characters who've fallen for each other over the course of the plot, but haven't demonstrated any signs of long term compatibility. You could say "well, the story clearly indicates that they're happy together at the end once they're not suffering through all sorts of danger and hardships." But given a realistic outlook on relationships built on infatuation cultivated in dramatic circumstances, I'm left assuming they're probably going to end up unhappy together and break up.

edited 13th May '12 3:20:46 PM by Desertopa

The significant changes to his life are...

a) He's got a decent band set up together, and he's made that his focus.

b) He's moved on from Kirari, said what he needed to say, and felt what he needed to feel.

No one really mentioned that it was happy, just that it has the most emotional conclusion. The Good End only works because it adds on to the fandiscs and whatnot.

And, according to the fandisc again, Shikanosuke and Kirari are doing pretty fine despite having fallen in love during dramatic circumstances.

I wasn't referring to Shikanosuke and Kirari as a couple who aren't compatible, I was just using that as a common form of allegedly happy ending I find unsatisfying for comparison.

Shikanosuke has a band which he's decided to make his life focus, and he's moved on from Kirari. Do people I know whose circumstances resemble his tend to turn out happy? Overwhelmingly, no. If I'd played the game several years ago, before I knew a lot of people living similar lives, I don't think the ending would have hurt so much.

Maybe that was the point, lol.

Well, it definitely made all the other endings feel happier in comparison.

I didn't think about it that way before, but now that you mention it I guess you're right. At the time I preferred the True Ending simply because I felt the Normal Ending was pointlessly nihilistic (for lack of a better term, sorry my words fail me at the moment). Having a little bit of trouble maintaining interest in Curtain Call because of Kamidori and Diablo III.

Yeah, that's why I'm usually rooting for the types of characters who already demonstrated some long term compatibility as friends, relatives, etc, before the whole plot with the dramatic infatuation.

Though I'm not all that pessimistic about other characters either. It's true that the chances of random teenagers staying together with their first love are low, but they are not exactly zero, either. These stories are already idealized in many respects, so it doesn't take much suspension of disbelief to say that they also happen to capture the fate of the more lucky few, rather than the random average.

Back on topic of the Kirari endings, I preferred the good one. It wasn't overtly happy either, compared to 90% of the story, it was still quite dark, but not so much that it would feel off compared to the rest of the story's world.

Finally completed the game. I dropped it for a few months half-way during Kirari's route, having finished the two other ones. Chie's was good, Sarina's was okay, and Kirari's were rather mediocre, and I also prefer her normal over her true ending. I usually get emotional when reading Visual Novels, but I only really got anything from the two first. If this game is better than the sequel, I'm probably not touching that one.

I enjoyed Kira Kira, but thought Dear Drops was kind of eh. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't have suffered for giving it a miss. If you thought Kira Kira was only okay, I don't think it'll be worth your time.

Deardrops isn't a sequel. They just take place in the same 'verse.

Perhaps they meant Kira Kira Curtain Call.

edited 18th Jun '12 6:34:55 AM by Arha

Does anyone know who voices the lead singer of Star Generation. I swear it's Masaaki Endoh.

Yep, it's Masaaki Endoh. His voice is, like, unmistakable. But anyhow, for confirmation, it was him who was singing the Star Generation songs at the OVERDRIVE Live event way back when, too.