Little Busters!

Just finished Little Busters!

I give it an 8.5/10.  Little Busters! is a visual novel by genre giant Key.  Released in 2007, Little Busters! came out three years after  the Key classic, Clannad.  In 2008, Little Busters! EX was released, and is an eroge expansion to Little Busters!  A Little Busters! anime was announced earlier this year, and the first episode aired this past weekend.  As a side note, Kud Wafter, an eroge spinoff to Little Busters! focusing on the character Noumi Kudryavka, was realeased in 2010.  There has been no domestic release of Little Busters!

Naoe Riki lost his parents when he was very young.  Slipping into despair and misery, Riki was miraculously saved when he was invited to play with a group of children.  Natsume Kyouske, the charismatic leader of the self-proclaimed champions of justice, the "Little Busters," held out his hand saying "Let's go have some fun."  Riki took Kyouske's hand and never looked back.  Kyouske, his shy little sister Rin, Riki, the good-natured musclehead Inohara Masato, and the stoic kendo ace Miyazawa Kengo spent their times getting into all sorts of trouble under the sun.  Riki's childhood is filled with fond memories of his best friends.

The beginning of Little Busters! takes place during Riki's junior year of high school.  Kyouske, a senior, comes to the realization that after graduation, the team will likely be separated from each other, slaves to jobs/college/etc.  Kyouske wants to go out with a bang, and in typical Kyouske fashion, announces his outrageous idea to his friends at breakfast.  Baseball.  Despite the confused looks of his friends, Kyouske delcares that their final year together will be spent playing baseball, and it's up to Riki and Rin to put together the team.  Five other players must be found, as Kengo declines due to his obligations to the kendo club.  At the end of May, the Little Busters will go up against the captains of every sports team in the school in a baseball match.  Thus begins Little Busters!

Little Busters! is a typical visual novel.  There's a long route (a "common" route) which eventually branches off into six other routes, based on choices made during the common route.  There are six arcs, including two halves of Rin's route, a "true" route for Kurugaya Yuiko, and a final arc, called Refrain, which is unplayable until all other arcs (with the exception of Kurugaya True) are completed.  During Refrain, all of the questions you'll have over the course of the story will be revealed.  The arcs are as follows:

    Natsume Rin                                                                               Saigusa Haruka                                                                             Kawakita Komari

 

 Kurugaya Yuiko                                                                            Noumi Kudryavka                                                                          Nishizono Mio

 Refrain: No spoilers!

Little Busters! added an RPG element to the mix.  Throughout the game, to help break up long blocks of reading, the members of the Little Busters can (and will) compete to reach the top of the ranking list.  Fights break out on the regular using non-lethal items.  Fighting with eel-pies and RC cars is entertaining, and I found myself wondering what crazy item would be used next to fight.  The winner bestows the loser a title which that person must keep until he or she reaches the top spot, or when given a new humiliating title by someone else.  Some of the titles are incredibly funny, especially those given by Kurugaya (ex: Hobby: Repeating the world 'Manhole').  You may notice after completing each arc Riki and Rin both become a little bit stronger.  This helps with the battle system and, later, the baseball match.  After each day in the game, you'll participate in a batting practice minigame, which was incredibly fun (if not simple).  The object is to get your multiplier as high as possible by hitting to the members of the Little Busters.  Some of them will return the ball to you, allowing you to hit it again for a higher multipler.  Sometimes you'll just see a funny animation, like Komari or Kud tripping and falling in the outfield (lol).

The baseball minigame.

The story is great, but I don't think it was as good as Clannad.  Still, there are some very emotional moments during the game.  All of the individual arcs are great, even though I was convinced I would hate some of them (how the hell did you make me like you, Saigusa.. you ended up being like my third favorite).  I really loved Mio's arc.  Typical of a story from Key, I was openly sobbing during some points, especially during Refrain.  Much like Clannad After Story, Refrain is where the core of the story takes place.  There's a very Key-like ending.

Rin gets a title.

In any visual novel, especially Key visual novels, the music is as important (if not more important, in some cases), as the story itself.  Key Sounds Label did a fantastic job on Little Busters!  Maeda Jun, Orito Shinji, and Togoshi Magome (among others) are all masters of their craft.  Even after the fact, listening to the melancholy opening of "Song for Friends" brings a tear to my eye.  These gentleman have the power to make a scene all the more emotional with their wonderful music.  For vocal work, the artist Rita was brought in, which is a big change from the usual Lia.  I think her songs ("Song for Friends," "Sunshine After Rain," and "Alicemagic") were very nice but had a totally different feel from "Tori no Uta" or "Last Regrets."

The game is fully voiced.  Even characters without sprites have spoken lines, which was a very nice touch.  All of the voice acting was good, but Kudo's voice actress, Suzuta Miyako, deserves special praise on the girls' side.  She has a couple heart-melting moments during Kudo's route that are very well done.  What was truly outstanding, and surprising, about the voice work in this VN, was the male's performances (though Riki's CV is female).  Tamiyasu Tomoe (Riki), Midorikawa Hikaru (Kyouske), Canna Nobutoshi (Masato) and Oda Yusei (Kengo) all give very powerful performances.  I've never heard such amazing voice acting from male CV's, to the point where I would rank them above the females.  Remember when I said I was openly sobbing?  Yeah, that was because of the male's performances.  Good stuff.

Little Busters! was the first Key project where Na-Ga took over as head art director.  The characters you've perhaps seen in Angel Beats! are all his, and I think they'll be using him from now on (including the newest Key work, Rewrite).  Hinoue Itaru, the old Key art director, worked closely with Na-Ga on Little Busters!, but you can see a distinct change in the styles, which I liked a lot.  Older Key titles like Clannad and Kanon were Hinoue's works, which are nice but definitely look dated.  Na-Ga's work is very distinctive and has a very modern look to it.  You can definitely see some of Hinoue's influences in his stuff, though, especially with smiles and facial porportions.

In the end, I would recommend Little Busters! to anyone who likes Key stories, that is to say, a slice-of-life funny common route with very emotional arcs (especially Refrain) and a helpful dose of "Key magic."  This visual novel took me about 60 hours to complete, so if you don't have the time for that, I'd recommend the anime.  People have been bitching about the decision to let JC Staff take over the anime, but from the first episode, it's got my approval so far.  However, you definitely won't get the same experience.  I would recommend spending the time and reading it, if you can get ahold of it.  YAJ or Mandarake are good places to look.

I hope you enjoyed my first visual novel review!

"From the beginning, I was always that sort of existence. No different from a cloud blown about by the wind, and eventually scattered."