Routes? [LOW KEY Spoilers]

[max]

Oi, I'm sorry if someone's already asked the same exact thing, but I've got 30 hours logged into this already, consisting of two playthroughs. Though, my most recent one was rushed and only took 3 hours. Not to mention, I got the same bad end. Twice.
My first playthrough, I played it blind. I guess I ended up choosing mainly Mayuri choices, but the flower never ended up blooming in the end, Suoh messed up at the Feast, and Mayuri left her for dead.
My second playthrough, I specifically wanted Rikka's route, and chose EVERY single choice in her favor. I even got a bunch of different cutscenes I had never had before, specifically with Erika, but my flower shrunk. All the way back to a bud, in the middle of the venn diagram. It seemed like I was on Rikka's route nonetheless, until Chapter 8. And the same thing happened. Suoh spontaneously fell for Mayuri, she messed up at the Feast, and the game ended in a bad end.
Now, this is disappointing to say the least. The same bad end twice?
I'm aware that you need to do Mayuri's route first to do Rikka's, since the second game canonically sets Mayuri as Suoh's girlfriend from the first game, though I'm wary of playing through it again only to have the bad end a THIRD time.
Knowing me, I'll play through it again for sure, skipping a majority of the dialogue, just to get Mayuri's route, but do you know how to get Rikka's route, in the end? Without my flower outright shrinking and Suoh falling for Mayuri with a bad end anyways?
Thanks!

[pktazn]

You have to get Mayuri to meet you in ch.8 after the Feast (since there's actually a lot more that goes on after that point) in order to reach Rikka's end in subsequent playthroughs.

To my knowledge the flower has to bloom in order to get Mayuri's true end and not the bad end.

However, going for Rikka's ending will always cause the flower to shrink back into a bud cuz symbolism or something. When you can get her ending, you'll get a choice on whether or not to accept her (Rikka) while they're in the classroom in chapter 7 so it won't stonewall you into the bad end for Mayuri again.

[Marillon]

Whenever you make a choice, there will either be a green or a yellow glow on the flower. You need to choose most/all of the green choices to get Mayuri's true end, otherwise your flower doesn't bloom all the way and you're shafted into her bad end. I did this by quicksaving before every choice that I wasn't sure of and check to see if it was the green one. If not, I'd just reload and pick the right choice.

Once you get her true end, you unlock Rikka's route, and will be able to get her good end. I'm not sure if all the Rikka choice scenes are locked until you finish Mayuri's route or just her ending, so you'll have to see that for yourself. Also, I believe there's a "skip to next choice" option at the bottom of the screen somewhere, so no need to skip through text you've already read, if that's what you were doing.

Also, the flower shrinks from Rikka's choices regardless of whether her route is unlocked., because Rikka's choices mostly involve choosing to give into your anxieties and not grow as a person. I found the choice system really interesting in that sense, most choices have no real impact on their own, but as a whole they shape Suoh's feelings and attitudes, and that's what determines how things ultimately go.

[max]

Originally posted by Marillon:

Whenever you make a choice, there will either be a green or a yellow glow on the flower. You need to choose most/all of the green choices to get Mayuri's true end, otherwise your flower doesn't bloom all the way and you're shafted into her bad end. I did this by quicksaving before every choice that I wasn't sure of and check to see if it was the green one. If not, I'd just reload and pick the right choice.

Once you get her true end, you unlock Rikka's route, and will be able to get her good end. I'm not sure if all the Rikka choice scenes are locked until you finish Mayuri's route or just her ending, so you'll have to see that for yourself. Also, I believe there's a "skip to next choice" option at the bottom of the screen somewhere, so no need to skip through text you've already read, if that's what you were doing.

Also, the flower shrinks from Rikka's choices regardless of whether her route is unlocked., because Rikka's choices mostly involve choosing to give into your anxieties and not grow as a person. I found the choice system really interesting in that sense, most choices have no real impact on their own, but as a whole they shape Suoh's feelings and attitudes, and that's what determines how things ultimately go.

Originally posted by pktazn:

You have to get Mayuri to meet you in ch.8 after the Feast (since there's actually a lot more that goes on after that point) in order to reach Rikka's end in subsequent playthroughs.

To my knowledge the flower has to bloom in order to get Mayuri's true end and not the bad end.

However, going for Rikka's ending will always cause the flower to shrink back into a bud cuz symbolism or something. When you can get her ending, you'll get a choice on whether or not to accept her (Rikka) while they're in the classroom in chapter 7 so it won't stonewall you into the bad end for Mayuri again.

Thanks, both of you! I already knew most of this, but now I at least know playing through Mayuri's route won't leave me absolutely disappointed with a bad end.