[Spoilers] Anyone else really hate the Post Game?

[Hyrulian Panda]

Lemme start this off by saying that Ao's, Kamome's and Tsumugi's routes were all great. Like 8 to 10/10 easy. But then there's Shiroha.... I really cannot stand her. She constantly says how much she dislikes Hairi but then suddenly loves him? She has no development(till post game but I'll get to that) shows the least emotion of all the girls and then they wanna act like this is a big romantic thing because they suddenly confess their feelings. Not really. The only strong feeling I had here was the urge to do a different route.

Then we get to ALKA.....and boy does it go down hill. I'd probably put my enjoyment of Shiroha's route at a 3/10. But ALKA? Solid 1. So throughout the game I thought Umi was a great character. She was interesting but kinda mysterious with her own things going on. Really was wondering what was going down when she progressively got less skillful at stuff but then they just turn her into a baby. And you know what? I can deal with that. Having her turned basically into a toddler to have a route about her is perfectly fine. Know what isn't? Time traveling daughter from the future. You really want to tell me that the evolution of Shiroha's power is time travel? What? Bonus points she traveled back in time to spend time with her mother who will die during child birth multiple times regressing more and more each time and yet all the different paths you play though the game Umi isn't really around that much with Shiroha. Like if it was setup in some way that Umi and Shiroha kept being friends or together on each path to show some sorta connection to Umi trying to spend time with her mother that'd be one thing but just suddenly she's been trying to do that this whole time? Doesn't really add up. Then on top of that we just have to accept the time travel and that Shiroha's future sight(Which we spent time trying to establish wasn't a bad thing in her route) is such a curse that she needs to do everything in her power WHILE PREGNANT to stop the child from getting it? AND WE LEARN IN POCKETS THAT KYOUKO TOTALLY KNOWS ABOUT THE POWER AND HOW TO STOP IT. This whole route is a mess.

Lastly we go to Pockets.....Wow.... Such a waste of time. Shiroha learns everything. She knows everything that's gonna go down at a young age and yet she acts on none of it. Did she forget all the memories her time traveling daughter worked so hard to give her in the process of aborting herself? Really great of you to remember the parting gift of your daughter. No she just decided that the best course of action during the summer that her "true love" or whatever you wanna call Hairi to her comes to the island is to ignore him? Then after she disappears from existence a second time she still manages to leave the rainbow plane behind. This answers no questions. Who was Hairi's Grandma? Why does Kyouko seem to know everything? I think it was implied that Shiroha's mom gave up her life so Umi could get back the 2nd time to tell the young Shiroha everything but hey you couldn't have just appeared like a week or two before her pregnancy and say "Hey don't stress out about this or your gonna die and then all this will happen"? Nah lets make everything that we as the player did throughout every other route completely meaningless. True ending is clean shed and learn how to cook some fried rice. Woooooo.

They really dropped the ball here with this ending straight from "The Butterfly Effect" staring Ashton Kutcher. This is the same BS ending they pulled in Little Busters and yet they somehow did it worse here.

Final Thoughts: Ao best girl. Kamome's route felt incomplete and ended on a total downer. Iam very much looking forward to Reflection (at least 2 of the 4 routes....maybe 3 but I dont think I wanna get anywhere near that Umi Route. How you gonna go date your Cousin Daughter from the Future.)

[Systemspace]

It really just does not work very well here and none of it is really... well, it's just not emotional or something.

When Shiroha died giving birth, it was just written in like 3 lines of Hairi going "Oh my god we have a child!" and them promptly only saying "SHIROHA? SHIROHAAAAA!" and thats it bye bye shes dead ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ she just noped the ♥♥♥♥ out to live in the past or something. KK.

The only person I was invested in was Umi during the final routes lol they made it pretty difficult for me to care about shiroha or hairi

[Shiroha]

Dosukoi!

[FireFistYamaan]

Can't agree honestly. While Shiroha was my least favorite girl at the end of the 4 heroines route, she's now better than Tsumugi Ao is best girl, agreed.

But I personally thought that Alka and Pocket were fantastic! The "magic" is a key classic but it was a lot better executed in Summer Pockets as opposed to their other VNs. Because it was integrated into the story and world early on and the point of the story wasn't to understand how the magic works, instead it was about about how it was used.

Keys works are VERY character focused, that's were they shine!

I do hope that they clear somethings up regarding Kyouko and grandma in reflection blue, aswell as that MUCH needed Miki route

[Hyrulian Panda]

After having a bit to cool down off the ending I have some new thoughts.

1. Shiroha is still worst girl. Alka makes her like 2000% better than her original route but really. She's still worst girl. The other girls are all more interesting and fun. I would not wanna spend my summer vacation with the rudest girl on the island.

2. The problem isn't the magic itself but the dumbass explanation and rules. This family sees the future which is 10000000% a curse totally is no questions asked even though we spent a whole route talking about how it wasn't a curse nope it's a curse.... but they only get this "curse" if they don't have fun summer vacations? That's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

3. Umi Time Travel Abortion. Literally a plot from Butterfly Effect starting Ashton Kutcher. Just like that movie it's a terrible plot point. I don't see this as some sad sacrifice that was justified because now her mom gets to live. No a life for a life.

4. Umi said she wanted to see her mother. In no route do we see her interacting with Shiroha. At all. If they knew eachother in any way or she was doing stuff in the background with her that'd be one thing but it totally kills her motivation when we don't show it at all.

5. Shiroha learns the truth from Umi in Pockets and does nothing with that information. She has happy summers so she doesn't get future visions? So Shiroha's mom AND her daughter both gotta sacrifice themselves for this? And Hairi (the MC that we been following the whole game. The guy we supposed to be relating to the most) gets the jankest end outa everyone. Fried rice ending.

I'm really not as furious as I was upon finishing it. I understand the magic is just kinda "It's Key that's what they do" but Rewrite did it better. Honestly Little Busters did the same twist and it was just as ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ there as it is here. At least Little Busters main girl wasn't as bad as Shiroha.

Ao spinoff game when.

[JdP500]

1. I don't think Shiroha is rude. You have to remember the first time Hairi talks to her she's in a state of undress and he just won't go away. She also pushes people away because of her abilities and not wanting them to get dragged in. Tbh she was probably my favorite girl in the game, followed closely by Kamome.

2. The way they get the curse is by running away from reality. It's an ultimate form of escapism into the "good old days." The problem is that doing so sets that future in stone and just delays the now-inevitable. It's not about seeing the future. Umi just happens to retain more memories from being in the future than Shiroha.

3. I didn't see it as a butterfly effect at all, really. It seemed pretty simple that if Shiroha never developed that power, then her children wouldn't, thus making Umi's existence an impossibility. Maybe they could have added a line clarifying that, but that's really how it seemed to me, given all the talk about "developing" that power. Pockets's main problem I think is its lack of clarity, not the underlying ideas.

4. Shiroha is difficult to track down, as we see several times. It would also be very weird for Umi to approach her because of the age difference, not to mention Shiroha's personality. Add to this the aloof and somewhat distant attitude Umi herself has developed and maintains through the first couple of routes until she starts to deteriorate. It's hard to imagine an interaction going well. It's easy to imagine Umi being afraid to interact with Shiroha at all, considering the vulnerability it would require. Umi had to regress emotionally until she was able to accept her own feelings.

5. It's not future visions. It's sending themselves to the past. In shiroha's case, the only things she retains are brief memories of the future that caused her to run away. Those are her premonitions. I think this is briefly mentioned in Alka. As far as Hairi goes, I think he gets a good ending. He finally did what he came to the island to do, and it's definitely implied that he ended up with a girl. Umi being born again under better circumstances now that the future where Shiroha dies in childbirth isn't set in stone is possible.

Honestly, I was more mad about Terra's ending the first time I read Rewrite than I was any other Key ending. On a reread, I felt a lot better about it, but at first I thought Kotarou got completely screwed over. I liked Refrain's ending in Little Busters a lot, and while Pockets isn't perfect, I think it's at least satisfying (though Alka was the highlight of the VN for me). By the way, Umi's route in reflection blue is non-romantic. I assume it will deal more with Umi's relationship with Hairi as a dad, which would be awesome.