Finally! I’ve gone through all the standard guys in the game and gotten their ending! I’m feeling very satisfied now, I’m not sure why.

Well well, Sakurai Ruka huh? I believe I’ve referred to him as a slimebag and a borderline criminal in the past, but I take those words back now. He’s not such a bad guy at all. The Sakurai brothers just act tough to begin with but when you get to know them they’re really very sweet.

Ruka’s route was far less boring than, say Arashi’s or Shitara’s, but the boy himself didn’t move me. As befitting the main character, though, all his CGs were great. I only wish I’d gotten more of them, but what’s why these kinds of games have so much replay value. You get some fun events on his route too, like the school trip where you and Ruka and Kou sneak out to eat crabs and get caught by Himurocchi, and so on.

Ruka himself…well, he’s a decent kid. He starts out friendly to begin with, but it’s a friendly flirtatiousness designed to prevent anyone from coming too close. Once you get under his skin and he falls in love with you, he’s much more honest and forthcoming and I like that Ruka much better. I’ll put him third behind Kou and Konno because while I like him, in general those sensitive “boo hoo, I’m afraid to love because I’ve already lost so much boo hoo” guys always piss me off. Give me Konno or Kou any day.

And you know, the game did give me Kou! For no reason at all! I don’t know what I did but by third year Kou was in love with me and asking me out on dates and stuff! Okay, okay, maybe I did give him handmade chocolate that one time, and I did give him birthday presents twice, but that was it! Honest!

He’s a bad brother, seriously. How dare you fall in love with your little brother’s girlfriend! And how dare she accept your dates and go out with— *gulp* So! Anyway! Thanks to that, I got a three-way relationship by accident! You’ve heard of those, right? If you raise Ruka-Kou/Konno-Shitara/Arashi-Junpei’s affection to similar levels, you start being able to hang out with them together! Go on dates together, walk home together, and there are plenty of joint CGs you can’t get unless you do the triangle relationship. Because I was doing a three-way at the time, I got a joint CG for the school play, which was Romeo and Juliet with a twist and sooooo funny! I’m grinning just remembering it :D.

Eventually I felt a little guilty, so I turned Kou down a few times and before I knew it the three-way option was gone. After that I just had to work on my stats for the next few months and then get the Ruka ending! Yay! I’d like to go back and do another three-way sometime, but there’s still a couple of character endings to get, starting with Oosako’s…I really don’t want to do him. Starting with Taira then, but not just yet.

Up next, Radiant Historia is out! It sounds like a cross between Chrono Trigger/Cross (travel to the past to change the present) with hints of Stella Deus (world being swallowed up) and people say it looks like Radiata Stories, which I’ve never played.

I’m a sucker for lovely dreamy cover art like that, so I’ve been waiting a long time for this to come out! Plus I watched the trailers and the battle system looks like it’s turn-based (I hate Action RPGs), but not a bland “just mash X” kind of system, so it’ll keep me on my toes. Not to mention the promise of multiple endings means there’ll be lots of replay value,I hope! Time to play!

Get, but do not want. What do I do with him now, throw him away? Anyone want a free Junpei? Anyone?

His route was really bland. His CGs were bland. His activities were bland. His Christmas CG…wait, I don’t even remember what CG you get for his Christmas, is there even one? Plus since he’s a junior you don’t get to go on the school trip together. The school play with him was hilarious though, I actually laughed out loud at that bit.

All in all he’s a nice enough guy, but he seems really shallow to me. And the sad thing is, you can tell he’s ‘acting’ shallow to try and seem ‘cool’, but that the real Junpei is probably a very interesting and sensitive guy. For example when you ask him about his hobbies, he says “fishing” then he takes it back and he’s like…I forget what he said, but what’s wrong with liking “fishing”? Why can’t he be true to himself? My hope for his route was to steadily peel away the layers and see the “real” Junpei beneath but no dice. He maintains the facade till the end. He has a lot of growing up to do before I’ll ever consider him a serious romantic prospect.

Of course, part of the reason is that I just didn’t like his looks. Especially his weird sleepy-eyed face, those cheap-looking ear studs and that spiky hairdo. His voice grated on me after a while too. It got so bad after a while that whenever I’d run into him at school I’d be like *grooaaan* not you again… “Wanna walk home with me?” “Ugh, oh very well…I guess.” Whereas whenever I ran into Kou (which was often, I dunno why he seems to like me), I’d be like *yaaay, Kou!* “Wanna wa–” “Yes yes yes yes!”

The only plus to Junpei’s route – apart from the school play I mentioned earlier – is his straightforward confession. Most of the other guys come out and tell this loooooong story for like 5 minutes before they finally get to the “I love you” part, but Junpei comes right out and says it. Then he goes into the long story part, but at least he got to the point right away. Massive props for that.

This game really does have a lot of replay value. I’m on my 6th replay now, going through Ruka’s route. What I really want to be doing is dating Kou again (forgive me, Konno-sempai!!) but fair’s fair, I’ll give each of the characters a shot and then we’ll see.

I’ve still got the Oosako-sensei save I made long ago before I decided I didn’t really want to do his route yet. So Ruka -> Oosako -> Taira (secret character).