Ryou and Kyou's routes are just frustrating, not enough branching [SPOILERS]

[Luiz_Alex007]

I decided to play the Ryou route, so I looked on Aspy's guide on how to trigger it. Turns out Kyou's route is actually the same as her sisters and you HAVE to start dating Ryou. Well, that by itself is awful and made me feel very sorry for the younger sister (Ryou) Still, the worse part is that I actually feel in love with Ryou and decided to choose her route. Except for one singular choice that sent me down on Ryou's route permanently and made no sense!

When the sisters asked me whether I like short or long hair, I was honest and chose long hair. That was it, I simply chose it and it then sent me down Kyou's route. I actually looked up on the guide and it said that was the wrong option for Ryou, but there were others down the road and those I dutifully chose on Ryou's favour. I most honestly did NOT want to hurt Ryou nor Kyou, but I had already dated, fallen for and kissed Ryou. So, even after Kyou's feelings were revealed I wanted to stay with Ryou.

Summing it up, just because I like long hair, I was forced to break the heart of the girl I wanted to end up with to be with her sister. It was an awful experience, simply because I chose one option that wasn't correct. And, if I didn't care for the characters enough, I wouldn't even play. Instead, I had to go back to an older save, lie and watch a scene that actually made me cringe, the sisters making plans to keep Ryou's hair short just to suit me , and the sudden end of Ryou's route. Whereas Kyou's route actually dragged on by having me date, kiss and fall for Ryou just to break with her later on and end up alone, as I hadn't chosen Ryou's choices.

Honestly, I feel like the devs just mixed the twins' routes too much. Even if they had to save time or whatever went through during development, they really messed up there. After all, if they actually made the player go through one route to access the other, they should have realized and put failsafes, be it a final choice between both sisters or overuling one initial choice that was technically in favour of K by three or four clearly in favour of R. Otherwise, this was a frustrating mess.

PS: So far, I only felt like the Sunohara Siblings route was satisfying. Nagisa was very on rails generic and Misae completely let me down without a proper ending. Now, I am starting to fall behind my initial assesmente of the game, that each route is a straight miss or hit.

Edit: Spelling

[phoenix_overkill]

I was playing my first blind play through and did the same thing you did. I prefer long hair irl, picked it and the conversation in game seemed to go ok. I've seen the Kyou arc in the anime so I know where things head. As a result, I don't practice kissing, I buy the tanzanite, I kiss Ryou in the fortune telling booth and finally I decide to walk away instead of running out at the Sunohara confession.

The first person perspective plus the game characterizing the main character as something that I don't feel is perhaps my biggest issue with the VN. I don't feel the way Okazaki does and a few choices I made were based on how the game writes him to be rather than how I felt. I hated all the forced back of Okazaki's mind, pain in chest, something doesn't seem right statements. When really I just liked Ryou. In the end, I get the bad Kyou ending I've betrayed Ryou, comforted Kyou and end up with neither. I then check the guide and see the single choice I made that ruined a good Ryou ending.

[Luiz_Alex007]

Originally posted by phoenix_overkill:

The first person perspective plus the game characterizing the main character as something that I don't feel is perhaps my biggest issue with the VN. I don't feel the way Okazaki does and a few choices I made were based on how the game writes him to be rather than how I felt.

Definitely agree with you on that front, there are several moments when the "right" choices were not what I wanted to say. No route did this feel stronger than Nagisa's, but this one also felt really weird. I rather liked Kyou and sympathized with her character, but the way he reacted in this one, even after repeated choices in Ryou's favour, was really annoying.

[Undying Zombie]

Yea I have to say I would have liked it if Kyou had a route that did not involve dating her sister first.

Between the two of them.. To me, Kyou just fit Okazaki better. ( That and I ended up liking her character more... and I actually started disliking Ryou a little due to some things she was doing. )