Or, more accurately, GET in the case of Ritsu and Kyouya, sorta GET for the others. I saw all their events, qualified for their true endings in all cases, but the only confession scenes I cared about were Ritsu and Kyouya. The others I watched 5 seconds of and skipped the rest.

Koei made it much easier to get multiple guys in one playthrough in La Corda d’Oro 3 compared to previous games. Even a full harem ending isn’t that hard if you plan carefully and follow the in-game directions. But since they’re so readily available, you don’t get as personally invested as you do when you have to reload three different saves just to try to get an elusive guy’s ending. You don’t have to plan which guy to get first or whose story you really want to see, because you can get them all without trying. I don’t know if I would have felt more passionate about the LC3 guys if I’d had to work harder for them, but I do know I’m less passionate about them because I was so busy juggling different guys simultaneously.

Kyouya  Kisaragi

I liked Kyouya’s route because some of it resonated with me. Since he’s Kanade’s childhood friend, he shows up in all kinds of unimportant scenes, so let’s narrow it down to the ones that matter. Basically Kyouya hates getting advice from others when it comes to his music because he feels like different voices drown out his personal style and expression.

However, as the story progresses he’s confronted with Myoga’s overwhelming talent (in-story only, actually he’s not that special, but work with us here). Then he realizes that the heroine Kanade has improved dramatically by working with and getting feedback from others. Should he ask for help? Stick to his guns? His pride says he’s got to be wild and tough! What to do, what to do…

So he sulks and agonizes over it for way too long and eventually decides to man up. He gets all kinds of advice from people like Daichi, Ritsu and his senpai in the orchestra club and lo and behold, he really does improve (in-story only, actually he doesn’t change much from when you don’t do his route but let’s all pretend). So his is the second route where a character really changes from start to finish, though this time Kanade-lurve is only indirectly involved.

To get his Golden ending, you have to let him use Maestro Field in the final concert. He pulls it off, the applause comes down like rain and he’s like “Wow, it was all worth it!” and I’m kind of happy for him. His confession scene is him straight up telling Kanade he loves her as a girl and not as a childhood friend, and then she says she loves him back even though no such loving has been demonstrated throughout the entire route. But he’s happy with that and so am I. It was fun, apart from Kyouya’s whiny phase.

The reason I say Kyouya’s route resonated with me is because of the whole feedback on music thing. In my case it’s not because I’m too proud to get feedback, I’m just not in a position to have a teacher right now. Since picking up the piano again a few years ago I’ve been flying solo, and getting good that way is really hard.

Some of the comments Kyouya gets in the game hit a sore spot, like him bluffing his way through tough passages… stop spying on me! Or not even trying to play songs he doesn’t like. Ack! How did you know? There are so many questions when you’re on your own: Am I playing this part right? Why am I struggling so much with this song? How can I do this better? Even if it’s just a hobby, you can only get so far with self-recordings and Youtube videos. So once again La Corda d’Oro has convinced me to make lifestyle changes and seek some help, at least from those who know better than me. Thanks Koei, I (almost) mean it.

Ritsu Kisaragi

Kyouya Kisaragi’s dull and overly serious older brother. He’s kinda boring and can’t even take a joke so I wonder what persuaded me to do his route. Hmmm…

The world will never know.

Lessee, what were the key takeaways from Ritsu’s route? He injured his wrist due to a fall/deliberate push a year ago and had to adjust his playing style to compensate. Now he can’t play for very long, which means he doesn’t have a future as a professional violinist. Luckily he has a huge interest in building and repairing instruments, so he doesn’t seem to mind too much.

TBH the whole injured wrist thing sounds “off” to me. Isn’t it too soon to write him off like that? Has he been professionally evaluated by multiple specialists? His own brother didn’t even know he was hurt, so do his parents even know? Or care? If I sent my talented kid to an expensive music academy and he got injured, I wouldn’t go “Welp, find something else to do” would I? This situation had better be addressed in the Another Sky fandisc or La Corda d’Oro 4 or I’ll call shenanigans.

In any case, Ritsu knows his time is almost up. He wants to bring glory to the orchestra club and also show his gratitude towards the club advisor who encouraged him when people were being all snarky about his talent as a first-year. And that’s why he’s so fixated on winning the Ensemble contest with everyone this year.

To get his golden ending, you have to get your skill up to level 16 so you can practice the only quintet piece in the game: a string arrangement of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.” A more anemic and insipid arrangement you will never hear. Even full string orchestras lack that bombastic sound needed to express the full “pomp” of the song, how much more three violins, a viola and a cello. But it meant to be symbolic of all the hard work we put in together to get to the finals, power of friendship and all that.

For Ritsu’s confession, I wasn’t really paying attention, but I think he said something about only being focused on music at first, but now he’s having a lot more fun and laughing a lot more because she’s around. I don’t remember any “I love yous” being exchanged, but that’s okay. The more stoic approach fits his character better anyway.

Daichi Sakaki

…Okay, so he didn’t have a hidden dark side, sue me. But he does have a not-so-secret annoying side. It comes out in full force when some guy tries to ask Kanade out and Daichi’s like “Get lost, we have to focus on the contest.” Then he starts talking about how his feelings for her go beyond just a senpai-kouhai thing… whoa, whoa, I thought you said we had to focus on the contest?

That was his major event. The rest is normal stuff like him helping you retrieve a score you left at school, or visiting you when you’re ill with a cold. He says he took the Seiso Academy entrance exam just for fun but got serious when he met Ritsu and heard him talk about winning the Japanese contest. And you learn he used to play the guitar in middle school, but now he’s good enough with the viola to make it to the national contest, sugoi~.

At one point his parents send him pineapples and he offers you a bit. If you dare say you don’t like pineapples, *SMASH* friendship ended with Kanade! That’s right, he loves her so much he’ll actively destroy her relationships with other guys, but diss his favorite fruit and you’re done. If that’s the kind of shallow guy you want, you’re welcome to him. I peace out’d during his confession and got on with my life.

Sousuke Nanami

Diffident kouhai from Amane Academy. Kanade encounters him trying to smash his cello because he thinks he’s not good enough. After she talks him out of it, he repays her by treating her to lunch at the Chinese restaurant his family owns. Mmm, delicious.

Nanami’s confidence issues continue for a while, but if you train his skill up to level 14, he’ll get chosen to replace Hido as the cello player on the Amane team. This will happen even if you don’t help him train, but then you won’t get his route.

Then he whines and waffles some more about not being good enough, because there’s a cello solo part he wants to play but Myoga won’t let him because it’s not Myoga if he’s not being an overbearing jackass. Like, why would you let the cello player pick a song with a cello solo and then NTR him with your violin?

But don’t worry Nanami, Kanade’s got this. She stalks Nanami through his depression and he eventually musters the courage to tell Myoga he wants to play the solo, right before they go on stage. He even has the boldness to promise that Amane will win the contest if he plays. Thus you get to see his Maestro Field and everyone gushes about the beautiful music he drew out of his cello…

…but of course Seiso Academy wins anyway because if we don’t we’ll get a Game Over. Koei is so cruel. I really wanted to see Myoga and Amamiya’s reactions after the promise fell through, hehe. Instead, alas, the game cut straight to the confession sequence. So I thought, maybe Nanami will bring it up? But no, it’s just blah blah blah I love you. Yeah, I know, I’m very loveable. *skip*

Houzumi (can’t remember his first name… Tatsurou?)

Someone disputed my claim that Houzumi is violent, but I personally counted 6 times when he hit Arata and two more times when Arata begged him not to hit him. The verbs used are 殴る and グーが出る, i.e. not frustrated little love taps but full-on punches. This same Houzumi idiot got his team disqualified from the previous ensemble contest for fighting, and instead of learning his lesson, the only thing he’s learned is how to pick his victims more carefully. Couple that with his grating, raspy voice and you get a character I really don’t like. I just got him because routes are so easy in this game.

I forget the bulk of his events. There was one where he bought Kanade a phone strap, then accidentally broke it, then bought her another one later. Then later on Yagisawa nominates him as the next club leader and he’s like no I can’t and everyone’s like yes you can and he thinks about it for a while and decides he’ll do it. His leadership style is “yell at and beat up anyone who disagrees” and he isn’t even that talented a player so the Shiseikan orchestra club is totally done for. But that’s totes not my problem so I don’t care. Also I skipped his confession scene so please fill in the gaps with your imagination, thanks.

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Final Opinion

That’s it for almost all the routes. I’m skipping Toki Housei’s ‘cos I don’t care about him. That’s also it for La Corda d’Oro 3 and me. The Full Voice Special version has a few extras like Contest Mode and some after stories, none of which I’m really interested in.

So here are my final thoughts on the game: the guys are weird and boring, the gameplay is too easy, the music selection is pitiful, I’m sick of listening to string arrangements and I don’t ever want to play this again. The only guy I really liked was Yagisawa, the only route I found interesting was Kyouya’s. That’s bad. But on the plus side, there’s no where left to go but up. Maybe Koei learned from the mistakes of this game and La Corda d’Oro 3: Another Sky and La Corda d’Oro 4 are much-improved sequels. We’ll find out when I play them in a couple of months. In the meantime, it’s good to be done.

Next up: I feel like Gust owes me a good game after the disappointment of Atelier Ayesha. Normally I like to let some time pass between game installments, but this time I’m diving straight into Escha & Logy. Will Gust redeem themselves or am I doomed to more tears? Stay tuned to find out!