Completely Lost

[☆Emergency Food☆]

After playing Kaori: After Story, I wanted to try out a VN with more content. I chose this one since it was on sale.

It was an engaging experience, don't get me wrong. But a serious issue came up as I was making my way through the first playthrough. After getting a feel for the characters, I wanted to complete the Misaki ending first because she's the one I enjoyed the most. The only trouble is I ended up on the Mashiro ending... somehow.

The game didn't give me any clues as to how to aim for a desired ending. I looked at guides on Steam and the web, but they all say to pick the same choices for each character... what? That alone makes zero sense. I want to avoid spoilers at all costs, so video walkthroughs are not an option. That being the case, how on Earth am I supposed to get a desired ending by random guessing?

I want to get all endings and achievements, of course, but I want to do it in the order I choose, which now is Misaki>Asuka>Rika.

I legitimately do not understand what to do, having never played a multi-character VN before. This has me quite frustrated and my enjoyment of the game has been seriously impacted. Given how one playthrough took me over 20 hours, I don't have time to waste struggling and failing to complete the endings in my preferred order.

Could someone who has more experience with this game give me a clear and simple breakdown on how to get Misaki's ending that I can then apply to Asuka and Rika?

[Mysterio28]

Once you reach the end of the common route (before the game branches off to each of the girls routes), you're given a few dialogue choices. The first dialogue choice is for Asuka for instance. If you choose the first option, then you'll start down her route, but if you choose the second one, it'll move on to the next girl. Like Asuka, you'll given another dialogue choice. Pick the first and you go down that girls route, and choose the second to get to the next girl. Just be sure to save when you get to Asuka's dialogue choice and just pick the second option for all the dialogue choices until you get to the girl who's route you want to go down then pick the first one. After you finish her route, reload the other save back up (at the first dialogue choice) and just repeat the process 2 or 3 more times to go down the route orders you prefer.

[☆Emergency Food☆]

You know, I realized after completing the first playthrough that saving before the dialogue choices would allow me to rewind. Doing so would eliminate the issue of being locked into a route different than the one I wanted.

Basically, I pick option 1 until I get to Misaki, and from then on I pick the options the guide lists for her specifically in order to remain on her route? Now those are instructions I can follow.

I appreciate your straightforward advice. I should be able to handle things without issue now. As they would say in Japan, arigatou gozaimashita!

P.S. I remember picking option 1 for Asuka because I wanted to help her as I would a person in real life. That started me off on her route, but I didn't comprehend how the game operated then ha ha. I must've deviated later down the line in an attempt to end up on Misaki's route, but I ended up on Mashiro's instead. Ah well, it's been a fun learning experience!

[Mysterio28]

Yeah this is one of the more simpler VN's for going down all the girls routes where you only have one dialogue choice to answer. There are some VN's that have a ton of dialogue choices throughout the game and depending on what choices you choose throughout determines what girls route you start going down, and some of those choices aren't very obvious what the long term affect will be. In those cases even I might turn to a guide or walkthrough or something if I can't figure out how to get down a certain route on my own. Still a fun experience though.

[☆Emergency Food☆]

I see quite clearly what you mean. I'm hooked on VNs now so I'll definitely be trying out more in the near future. If they get more complex than this game I'm probably gonna have to consult a guide for sure.

Thanks again for the aid. I dove into the genre rather suddenly so I'm not surprised I had a rocky start, but I'm getting a good grasp on how VNs work now.