Following the previous post, it’s time to cover the guys I did get in Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4, also in order of increasing desirability. Major route spoilers ahead, stop now if you plan to play this game.

Nagi – Chihiro’s childhood friend with the terribly-explained story. I should at least credit him for getting me interested in the game. I did his route after Tooya’s, so I had some idea of how the game was “supposed” to go. Then came the unexpected turn of events in chapter 5 which made me sit up and take a real interest in what would happen next. And what happened next was so stupid and horribly-written I came very close to quitting.

His story: Nagi was born into the royal family (meaning he’s related to Chihiro, but it’s never explained how) but was abandoned as a baby because of his magic powers. He was picked up by an old warrior who taught him everything he knew and then died. Somewhere, somehow, Nagi met up with Kazahaya and Chihiro and fled to the modern world with them. This “somewhere, somehow” should be a very important part of the story but again, no explanation.

In chapter 5, Nagi and Chihiro get themselves killed fighting the Black Dragon, but Nagi’s dragonballs magatama help them return to life. Since that magatama is a two-of-a-kind royal treasure, this clues the scheming advisor Lady Sai to the fact that he’s royalty. There’s a problem with this turn of events, however. First off, if that’s the case then Iwanagahime should have recognized it as well, way back in chapter 1. More importantly, Lady Sai should also recognize it whenever she runs into Nagi on any other route, since 1. he wears it out in plain sight and 2. the abandoned baby was also named “Nagi”. Even allowing for the fact that she’s old and possibly has bad eyesight, her officials also know about the magatama, but nobody ever mentions anything except on Nagi’s route. That makes no sense.

Back to the story, Lady Sai talks Nagi into kicking Chihiro out of the line of succession and declaring himself king. She’s hoping he and the dragon will kill themselves so Chihiro can take over later. So far, so good. Nagi doesn’t have a problem with that plan, because he, too, wants to lead the army against the Black Dragon and sacrifice himself to kill it so Chihiro can be queen of a free, safe country.

The part that gave me a headache was… Why is everyone following this upstart from nowhere? All the soldiers that pledged allegiance to her, the people she saved, those who had been in her service since chapter 1, they all kick Chihiro out on the spot and follow Nagi. The official reason is that she sucks at fighting and isn’t suited to be a leader but:

1. The whole point of the queen in Toyooshihara is not to be a war general but to be the dragon’s priestess. The entire story hinges on that fact. How can you possibly toss her out and pick a king who can’t hear the dragon’s voice?
2. Everyone knew Chihiro sucked from the start when they chose her to lead. Why is this suddenly an issue now?
3. If the problem is the battle that was lost at Izumo, Nagi was there too and he was just as useless, so demoting Chihiro because of that makes absolutely no sense.

Back to the story again. Chihiro refuses to give up. She and the gang find Nagi facing off against the Black Dragon and the Tokoyo army on the beach. This, of course, makes no sense either: in the previous battle at Izumo, the Dragon killed tons of Tokoyo soldiers including, apparently, their king. Assvin, Saty and Shani have all withdrawn and returned to Tokoyo. Which means the Tokoyos have no reason to follow the dragon into battle, which also means Nagi had no reason to get himself proclaimed king just so he could lead the entire Toyooshihara army against them, which also means… AAARGGGH, THIS WHOLE ROUTE MAKES NO SENSE!!!!

*huff huff* Okay, forget the analysis. To cut a long story short, everyone works together to defeat the dragon, Nagi realizes how important Chihiro is to him. He confesses to her on the beach and they hug. The end. …Wait, the end here? What’s going to happen next? Will Nagi abdicate? Will he remain king with Chihiro as his queen? Will she become queen and marry him? What? What? Don’t leave me hanging like this! AAAAARRRRGGHHHH! Worst. Route. Ever.

Futsuhiko – Numbskull! Cretin! Traitor! I liked him until I did his route, now I want him to die in a fire. I liked his looks, I liked his naive but passionate nature, I liked that he was a loyal, hard worker. What I failed to notice is that he is also an idiotic MORON. His route sees him angsting over a major issue which is coolly tossed aside at the end and never referred to again.

His story: The game started with Chihiro’s sister eloping with her lover, which brought ruin to the country of Toyooshihara. Turns out that “lover” was Futsuhiko’s older brother, which brought shame and disgrace on his family and got them banished from the capital. Quite naturally he is very disturbed when he finds himself falling in love with the princess and on the verge of committing the same crime his brother did.

The story in this route is that Lady Sai (yes, that same Lady Sai) spread a rumor that Chihiro had summoned Toyooshihara’s dragon god. Chihiro had done no such thing, of course, but she had been in contact with the Black Dragon and knew he was trying to destroy humanity. When the Black Dragon appears, the people rejoice thinking he’s their savior. Chihiro says nuh-huh and shoots him with a holy arrow, and Lady Sai goes berserk and has her locked away until she agrees to pull out the arrow. Lady Sai sure picked up the idiot ball on this one. She wants the dragon freed because the people will panic without a dragon but… uhh, won’t they panic even more when he starts burning and frying, you know, everyone?!?

[Btw, I wonder why no one noticed that this dragon is black while their guardian is supposed to be the white dragon…]

Well, Lady Sai is a jerk, and probably senile to boot, so we can excuse her, but… Why is Futsuhiko helping her?!?! Why is he trying to convince Chihiro to free the dragon? Why does he value his family name and his status over his loyalty to the princess? I thought you loved me, you gutless traitor! 布都彦の馬鹿！もう知らない！

In the end he has a sudden, random change of heart and helps Chihiro flee the capital and meet up with the rest of the gang. They charge back into the capital to find that Lady Sai has also had a sudden, random change of heart and is now fighting the Black Dragon. Only she knew he was dangerous from the start, so why is she only now turning on him? This makes no sense at all! (you might be seeing a pattern here, but it’s just your imagination)

So we fight the dragon and kill it. Somewhere in his pre-fight spiel the dragon casually tosses out the fact that he killed Chihiro’s sister and Futsuhiko’s brother, but no one takes him seriously because, duh, that’s totally not important. One dead dragon later, Chihiro is now queen.

Well now! Things have come full circle! What happens to the forbidden love between Futsuhiko and Chihiro? You know, the forbidden love that supposedly destroyed the country the first time around? The forbidden love that has tormented him since he met her in chapter 3? The forbidden love that everyone has been throwing in his face throughout his route? Well, whaddaya know, guess it wasn’t so forbidden after all, because they’re dating now. With everyone’s full knowledge and approval. In other words, it was a taboo when their siblings did it, but now it’s perfectly fine for the Queen and a servant boy to carry on a very public affair. But that makes no……. my head hurts.

Oshihito – Hmmmmmmmmm………. There’s something wrong with his face. His looks change slightly from angle to angle and from CG to CG, so I’m still not entirely sure what he really looks like. Personality-wise I don’t think he and Chihiro are a good match. Oshihito is so strict with himself and everyone else, she’d probably never be able to really relax and be herself around him. No fun being with someone when you always have to mind your P’s and Q’s.

Well, that’s my theory of what their relationship would be like, anyway. I have no way of proving it because Oshihito’s route is not romantic. At all. At best you have the very beginning of a romance that gets cut off before it goes anywhere.

His story: We find out that Oshihito is so strong because his twin swords are cursed and are eating away at his life. Although Chihiro gets him to promise not to use them, he does anyway and dies at the end after saving her life. At that point nothing particularly romantic has happened between them. Oshihito has gained a little respect for her as a leader (dunno why) and she’s getting along with him a little better. They make a promise to go see cherry blossoms together, but that’s all the progress they’ve made when he croaks. The end.

Well, not quite, there’s a second ending you can get using the cleared save data from this ending. This time they finally get to see the cherry blossoms, and they faintly remember promising to see them together – even though that happened on a separate timeline a la Radiant Historia. Now if people can vaguely remember things from other routes, then how come nobody takes a second look at the magatama Nagi is wearing…. No, stop. I’m just depressing myself now.

Oshihito and Chihiro have a nice time looking at the cherry blossoms (it really is a nice CG) then suddenly he starts spouting all these lovey-dovey lines about how he wants to be with her forever even though they never had anything close to that kind of relationship before. Or maybe he was thinking them to himself, even though he’s never thought such things before. It’s very bizarre. That’s one route that needed a lot more development. It could have been good, but it wasn’t.

Tooya – My baby~! The route I was most happy with, simply because I like Tooya. I just do. Even here, though, I had some problems.

His story: To summarize, Tooya and Chihiro turn out to be the reincarnations of the first-ever miko and her lover. They couldn’t be together because the miko died after sealing the Black Dragon away using the White Dragon’s power. Now they’ve been reborn, they’ve met again, and this time they manage to seal the dragon without killing Chihiro – by using the power of nature. She becomes queen and I’d like to think they live happily ever after. You know, apart from the fact that as queen she probably won’t be allowed to marry someone like him.

Anyway, it’s a very sweet and affectionate route. I wasn’t sure what to make of Tooya when he showed up and started calling Chihiro his “wife,” but he soon grew on me. I think it was sad that he became human on his route though. Now he can’t see or hear the spirits any more, his magic isn’t as effective, he doesn’t seem to have any friends, and Chihiro is so busy governing that she probably doesn’t have much time for him. But he’s content with his fate, and that’s good enough for me.

There’s just one tiny little problem though: I hate reincarnation romances! They’re so cheap! They’re like a cheat button for lazy writers who don’t know the first thing about developing a romance. I mean, things were going very well between Chihiro and Tooya before the massive, abrupt leap from “fairly close” to “our ancestors were lovers so we must be lovers too!” rather ruined things for me. However since I believe they would have developed a relationship anyway even if the writers hadn’t rushed them, I’m willing to put it behind me.

Chihiro – I did her solo route as well. It’s the most likely one you’ll get without using a guide to fulfill all the bizarre obscure event requirements for the guys. Luckily it’s also the route that makes the most sense. Chihiro ends up as queen and everyone goes their separate ways. It’s also probably the happiest ending since, as I’ve noted, there’s no guarantee she’d be allowed to marry whoever she fell in love with anyway.

The post-game “Grand Finale” chapter allows her to run around the capital after she becomes queen and talk to most of the characters. Kazahaya is just hanging around being irritating as usual. Sazaki got a boat and became a merchant. Assvin is king of Tokoyo. Hiiragi vanished into the blue. Saty probably isn’t dead. Chihiro also gets a special event for those whose routes she has completed:

Nagi uses his magic to create an illusion of the modern world for her. Dunno why he bothered, it’s not like she’s ever said she misses the place. Tooya takes her for a walk or something and tells her he loves her. Aww~ You sweetheart. Oshihito has that cherry blossom scene I mentioned earlier. Futsuhiko… That guy has mental issues. Throughout the game he’s been all stiff and formal around her. Now he takes her to a festival in his hometown where anyone can say anything they want without punishment and starts hitting on her like a 10-cent gigolo. It’s so out of character for him I have to think he’s crazy. WTH is wrong with you, Futsuhiko? You just couldn’t resist ruining the game for me one last time, huh?

You know what, I’m gonna go now. I still have enough steam in me to do a final roundup of Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4, but just… not today.