When you read a Key visual novel, 3 things are guaranteed: laughs, tears, and baseball

Little Busters! and CLANNAD are legendary visual novels made by VisualArts/Key. Key specializes in making spectacular "nakige" visual novels (a subgenre that focuses on lots of comedy and character development to make the player attached to the characters as the game transitions into very emotional scenes) and Little Busters! is among one of the best nakige stories I have read in my entire life. I would go as far as to say it is my favorite experience in reading visual novels. While I do feel CLANNAD's After Story knocks Little Busters out of the park in terms of gut-wrenching depression, Little Busters feels like it is a more cohesive package. It still offers a highly emotional story, a higher quality OST, better comedy, and better character development. There was not a single dull moment I felt while reading Little Busters as every minute I spent reading felt as if it was made with love and quality.

In Little Busters!, you play as Riki Naoe. A member of the Little Busters created by Kyousuke. Riki is an extremely weak person that suffers from a crippling disorder, narcolepsy. The Little Busters are a circle of friends that Kyousuke formed in his early childhood and continue to remain friends all the way to their high school lives, going as far as to all go to the same boarding school. The Little Busters originally composed of: Kyousuke, Rin, Masato, Kengo, and Riki. To Riki, these four friends of his are his saviors and very valued friends, saving him from the despair of his parents' deaths during his childhood. As the group of friends spend their youth in high school, Kyousuke, being the oldest member of the group as well as being a senior, suggests they should do something before he graduates from high school and before becoming very busy trying to find work before graduation. Because it's a Key visual novel (LOL), Kyousuke suggests the team should play.... BASEBALL before Kyousuke graduates. There is one massive issue however, in order to play baseball, the Little Busters need to find 10 members in total. This event marks the start of the common route.

The game's common route is extremely comedic and very lengthy. It focuses on finding students to join the Little Busters and play in their baseball team. There are lots of fun optional minigames that occur during the common route such as the battle system and baseball practice. The common route specializes in developing the characters of the Little Busters with the use of music, top quality comedy, CG's, character interactions, and more. The common route has a lot of choices that don't impact the story too much, which allows the common route to feel more fresh as you replay through it after you complete each route, choosing a different choice than you did last playthrough. In addition to this, aspects of the common route change after some routes. An example of this would be (minor spoiler: Changes to Kengo in subsequent playthroughs of the common route after completing Komari's route).

As you reach the end of the common route, some of your choices will lead Riki to be locked into a certain route. You will need to play through the Rin1, Komari, Mio, Kurugaya, Haruka, Kud, and Rin2 routes in order to unlock the Refrain route. These pre-refrain routes focus on developing the specific character in classic Key style. You may fall in love with a certain route due to the character's quirks, feel attrached during emotional scenes combined with the music, or feel attached to a character due to their backstory. These routes all invoke a sense of emotion while they vaguely develop the plot of the Refrain route. Some routes such as Kurugaya's and Kud's routes seem to be confusing until you realize that certain aspects of their routes were allusions to the events of the Refrain route (Major Spoiler: Kud's major realization after the TV broadcast implies a double meaning, it could mean she remembered the events related to her mother or that she remembered everything that happened in the Refrain route which is further supported by her mentioning of the field trip). I enjoyed all the pre-refrain routes and they truly do reach an astonishing level as you find foreshadowing in them after completing the Refrain route. One last thing I would like to add is that the music and voice acting in these routes are very good. It allows the emotional aspects of these routes to feel more alive and helps the reader (cry more lol). The Refrain route utilizes the music in the pre-refrain routes by developing the music. For example, lyrics may be added to pre-refrain music or melodies in the music or certain songs that seemed to evoke happiness are turned into songs that evoke sadness.

To play the Refrain route, the reader must first complete the Rin2 route, which serves as a prelude to the events of the Refrain routes as well as adding or developing the layers of mystery to the plot. The Refrain route is the highlight of the game and punches you in the gut so hard. I will try to speak as little as possible about the plot of this route as it's best experienced as it is. The music in the Refrain route becomes exponentially more emotional as you read through the emotional scenes of the route. It's the culmination of the mystery, previous character development, music, and CG's that makes the Refrain route the masterpiece that it is. If I had to describe the feeling without it without going into spoiler territory, I would say it matches the gut-wrenching emotions felt in CLANNAD's After Story route combined with Steins;Gate's brilliant execution of mystery.

Going past the Refrain Route, you can unlock alternate endings as well as play the 3 Post-Refrain routes (also known as the Ecstasy routes). Kurugaya and Kud will have an alternate ending available as well as unlocking the Sasami, Kanata, and Saya routes. I really enjoyed the Ecstasy routes and felt they added a greater depth to the pre-refrain routes as well as the Refrain route. Saya's route definitely stands out the most here as I really enjoyed her unpredictable personality combined with her unique dungeon crawler minigame and comically over-the-top plot. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Sasami's and Kanata's route however, as I felt they did a very good job in answering "what-if" questions and in developing the universe of Little Busters! And of course, I can't forget to mention the other comical endings that are unlocked such as the Muscle Sensation ending where Masato convinces everyone to be addicted to shouting muscles leading to a muscle cult where the Earth explodes due to everyone shouting "Muscles! Yay! Yay!" (Top tier comedy).

In conclusion I wanted to thank Jun Maeda as well as the entire staff of Key/VisualArts in making this masterpiece of a visual novel. I will never forget the laughs and tears shed.