The Story Writers Oughta be Shot (Spoilers)

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Okay… I really liked Crescendo. The graphics, the involved story, the deep characters… but they did a really nasty thing at the very end.

Having clawed my way through the various characters’ endings (actually, finding the “good” endings wasn’t too tough, if you thought about it), I’d have to say that most of them were good. They all had a bitter-sweet element to them (well, most of them, anyway), since, in some cases someone had to be hurt in order for Ryo to find his love (although, I like the Kyoko ending, since Kaho has Tomanori waiting for her–Tomanori is just too good of a guy…), or, as was the case in Yuka’s ending (which I also liked–something that surprised me, since my feelings for Yuka mirrored Ryo’s… I pretty much despised her in the beginning, and only played her path to complete the game, but came to find her inner purity and fragility something to be cared for), there was a great deal of angst, and a nearly fatal tragedy that led to Yuka’s ultimate "redemption."

There’s a scene, though, that should have given me a warning… I “went to the movies” with Kaori, and found that the movie playing, which they called “Love of Life,” was Kana: Little Sister. It kind of cracked me up at the time, but it was an indicator of things to come…

After finishing up Kaori’s story, I was feeling pretty good about the game–lot’s of happy endings, you know–and started up again to fill in some of those missing CG’s. And I had a new option! So I took it, and found Miyu. As soon as they started talking about her being in the hospital, I thought to myself, “No… she’s a ghost!” because of the surrealistic nature of their encounter. Turns out I was wrong, but not far off. It’s not hard to play through Miyu’s path, either, and by the time she had made love to Ryo and begged him to forget about her as he falls asleep, and then her death is announced at the graduation ceremony, I’m starting to get all misty-eyed. And then her mother gives Ryo the picture, and Ryo realizes that he was Miyu’s first and only love, and runs to the music room to find it empty except for the recording of her preformance…

Well, anyway… what had initially been a game that ended on kind of an up note was now a game that ended on such a melencholy note that I was thoroughly depressed. The story writers oughta be shot… Now I’m going to have to go back and play through one of the other stories nice and slowly again just to cheer myself up about the whole game…

#2

Heh!
If it weren’t for your " ", I’d almost taken your post seriously.

Well, as a matter of fact, I have troubles to decide which of those two I like better: Crescendo for its vast variety of storylines and endings or Kana - imouto that makes you care about the characters more…

Probably because both are masterpieces in their own right. If you want to go to Japan and kill of an author, Spec and I have a few suggestions for you that deserve more of your attention. But we usually call that Katana-time instead of relying on simple firearms…

#3

Heh… well, I was half serious. But maybe I’m enough of a masochist that I enjoy that sort of thing. After all, I’m eventually going to have to go back and play Kana so that I can get the endings and the CG’s (my hard drive crashed a while back and I lost everything).

But I was seriously moved by the final ending, and I did go back and replay the Kyoko ending just to cheer myself up (although I gave myself the luxury of saving and sidetracking at a couple of key points just to get a couple of extra CG’s ).

I’ve gotten used to the idea of–at least in bishoujo–the Japanese seem to take perverse pleasure in killing off pivital characters… sometimes in the middle to motivate the plot, and sometimes at the end to add sorrow to an otherwise happy ending (I don’t know why they go in for that sort of thing–I think it’s tradition). Chain did the latter thing, when Takeshi–desperately trying to save at least one of the players in the drama–finally couldn’t save Megumi, since she threw herself into a bullet’s way to save the man she loved, even though he had been using her. It sucked, since I’d been hoping against hope that Takeshi could save her.

Katana-time, huh? Well, I suppose that’s appropriate enough, although I’ve only been trained to use of Western blades, and I only have a longsword sitting handy in my living room. Still, I suppose a katana would be a more appropriate weapon of choice to use on freakin’ Japanese writers who draw you into a story and then make you suffer

#4

Heh, well I wouldn’t exactly call it a perverse pleasure…

Death has always been a good plot device. And if it comes at a point where you care about the character dying, then somebody probably did something right. If you didn’t become emotionally involved in some way, you wouldn’t care if the character lived, died, or moved to California and opened a pickle stand.

#5

I think that is what makes, at least some of these games, really stand out, the manner in which they are written actually makes me care about characters. There are not many games out side of the Bishoujo games that such a thing can be said about as with some of those others, if one of the characters dies the thought sometimes comes up of “and who was that again”?

It still amazes me each time a new one of these games is found to have that emotional pull, that it has such a powerful emotional pull. Three games come to mind Private Nurse, Kana and Crescendo with such a pull and I wonder if LMM will have or Sakigake might have such a pull.

A pickle stand?

#6

Yeah… but sometimes they just seem to torture you with it. I played through Kana constantly being torn up inside because I knew she was dying, and kept hoping against all hope that the story writers would find some miraculous way to save her. The Miyu story in Crescendo was just as bad, since I had the gut feeling from the get-go that Miyu was dead (well, as it turns out she wasn’t dead, but was as good as, and it wasn’t really her, but kind of an astral wish projection) and if Ryo ended her path like all of the others by falling for the main character, he was in for a doomed relationship. When the final picture of Ryo leaning against the piano holding the photo of him and Miyo as he wept came on the screen, and Miyo’s last words to him superimposed on the image: “Promise… that you’ll forget me.” I’m thinking, yeah, right, like that’ll happen. And there’s that damn lump in my throat. And somewhere, a Japanese story writer is snickering and thinking, “Damn, this is good…!” Death that simply moves the story along because you cared for the character doesn’t seem nearly as tragic… at least to me.

#7

Yes but aren’t these scenes much more memorable? You mention parts of scenes and I can picture them clearly in my head from playing them through, can you say the same about other scenes where the death simply moves the plot along? Maybe they are less tragic but to me at least that also makes them less memorable and by far not as powerful.

[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 07-06-2004).]

#8

This is why Cresendo is still my favorite game. the story is just awesome it’s bittersweet, not sad like Kana. Plus the protagonist is not some wussy or a pervert like many of the games. You actually have a relationship with the girls before you get in the sack with them.

#9

That’s true… and bittersweet describes Crescendo well. Almost every story has some amount of sorrow to go along with the happiness (that’s why the Miyu ending got to me… there wasn’t really any happiness in it at all). And I agree… Ryo was an interesting character. I could empathise with him on several levels (my step-father adopted me when I was a very small child, but I didn’t learn the truth until I was 16… I could understand Ryo’s sense of betrayal as his concept of family came shattering down). I may have to look into Private Nurse if it has a similar amount of emotional impact. Maybe I am a masochist after all…

#10

Crescendo is one of the few games that, and perhaps this is what makes it bittersweet, no matter who is choosen at the end, excluding Miyu’s ending for a moment, where there was for me a sense of happiness and also a slight sense of sadness in particular toward one, two or three of the characters not chosen depening on the ending. Miyu’s ending was just very emotional on a level near Kana (not sure another one will ever fully equal that emotional level) without that sadness toward those not chosen.

To create such a story where I can be happy at my choice and yet feel slight sadness for those not chosen makes this one of the best games I have ever played.

[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 07-06-2004).]

#11

I agree… although the Ayame and Yuka endings didn’t have the loss factor for the other characters that the other endings had. But they carried their own sense of tragedy. Still, the writers ran you through the angst and sorrow so that the final joy of the endings were that much better–I still feel that Yuka’s story is one of my favorites (which still surprises me… I think it hit home with me on several levels). The ending I felt worst about was the Kaho ending, mostly because Kyoko didn’t have anyone to turn to like Kaho did in the Kyoko ending–granted that Tomonori was there to comfort her, but it was just as a comforter, not as anyone special. She ended up with the greatest sense of loss in that ending. But then, she was one of my particular favorites, too, and I hated to see her so hurt. But that’s what made Crescendo such a good game–the fact that I was able to develop a sense of empathy towards the characters that was deeper than what is usual in most of the other games that I’ve played.

#12

This thread totally brings me back as it’s been a long time.

Private Nurse is also a great game… A GREAT game I am telling you. Actually, it’s one of my favorite games.

#13

Reading this discussion about death and sad ending’s reminds me of one game that just missed being great because it avoided a tragic ending. I’m thinking of Snow Drop, the game with the Yuki-Onna (Snow Lady) back story. If it were true to the legend, Minoru would have given up his life for a night of passion. It was still a good game with terrific music and artwork, but they should have included that fatal scene.

#14
quote:
Originally posted by SCDawg:
A pickle stand?

Shouldn't you be used to the fact that I sometimes make odd references? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Just kidding. While Private Nurse definitely had emotional impact, I still can't stand the protaganist. It's not often I get such a strong desire to beat my game alter-ego over the head. (Which reminds me, did anyone ever find a translation of Maria's voice-over in her ending?)

As for Snow Drop, in a way they did include a fatal scene for Minoru. (And I'm not talking about the bad ending.) While he didn't die literally, he lost his future, more mature self when he chooses the Yuki-onna. He was stuck in a "younger", fantasy filled persona.

#15

Dying to self is tragic, but it doesn’t seem to carry the impact of actual death, as in Kana, or the (god, I’m still bent over it) Miyu ending in Crescendo. The writers also have a way of making death a merciless, unpunishable opponent–even when it is tangible. In Chain, when Yano had finally been caught after brutally murdering three people and accidentally (and tragically) killing Megumi, Takeshi bitterly notes that Yano will only be put away for maybe 15 years at most, and then be back out on the streets to attempt to exact his vengeance on the person he was originally after in the first place. Death’s Angel is unstoppable.

So there’s a couple of nods to Private Nurse, with a caveat about what a jerk the protagonist can be–I’ll have to take that into consideration, since one of the things that made Crescendo so moving for me was my ability to identify with the protagonist, and in the case of Kana, the protagonist was a sympathetic character once he started growing up. I’d hate to keep feeling like I wanted to beat some sense into the main character at every turn when I’m trying to enjoy being torn up by a story…

#16

I’m with you on Kyoko’s ending…

Having just found out that there’s an ending on Kana: Little Sister where Kana survives, I’ve reloaded the game on my system, and have spent the whole day fast-forwarding through the game to try to achieve various endings. God, I’m depressed now. But I figure that it has to do with Taka giving her a kidney transplant, since I ran into that ending (which I hadn’t before), and that’s an angle I had thought of the first couple of times I played the game (“Jeez, guys, why not just give the poor girl a kidney transplant and let her live?”). Of course, the ending I found had the transplant fail, but there’s always hope. And I had forgotten just how evocative a piece of music “The White Season” was. I can’t understand a word of it, but every time I hear it, it tears me up. It’s got to be one of the best written and performed pieces of music that I’ve encountered in bishoujo, and quite possibly in my limited anime exposure. It certainly captures the mood of the game exceptionally well. Oh well, back to rescuing Kana…

#17

Well, I imagine that it can’t be too bad, considering all of the other endings… I figure if she lives as a result of a kidney transplant, then her major issues are solved (since her problem is renal insufficiency), so she can live a normal life. And since she and Taka are not actually blood-related, their brother-sister relationship shouldn’t stand in the way of a happy resolution, either. I’m holding out hope that the story writers, in this case, gave us one good ending to work with, while the rest of the endings are apparently Taka’s various ways of dealing with the grief of Kana’s death. But be prepared to work for it–there are something like thirty decisions that you have to make throughout the game, and I’m not sure exactly how they affect the outcome. And death is obviously the common outcome (and believe me, if you’ve got any compassion, it’ll tear you up). However, those comments aside, I would highly recommend Kana for story, graphics, music, and character development… it is an excellent game.

[This message has been edited by Wolfson (edited 07-07-2004).]

#18
quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
However, those comments aside, I would highly recommend Kana for story, graphics, music, and character development... it is an excellent game.

... and that's exactly why I can't decide if I like Crescendo or Kana better:
Crescendo offers very different storylines, while Kana has ony one (with a few path-variations that all lead back to the main line and also a few differnt endings).

But during this one storyline, we follow Kana and her life over several years of her life and learn to care more about her (and the other Characters as well, because Yumi wasn't bad either) than we ever do during the stories of Crescendo that are VERY short in comparison to one playthrough of Kana.
... ah well, at least it worked for me this way.

But on the other hand, some events in Crescendo are heartrendering as well as comical and thus give an interesting emotional mix...

*
* story detail spoiler
*
Broken up omiai, anyone?
*
* end spoiler
*

#19
quote:
Originally posted by Unicorn:
Broken up omiai, anyone?

Eh? *obviously missing reference somewhere*

By the way--spoilers are okay in this post: that's why it says (Spoilers) in the heading... I expected that I'd be talking about a couple of endings, and that other plot elements would come up. Anyone who doesn't want to be encountering spoilers shouldn't be reading this thread, simply because it says (Spoilers) at the beginning.

That having been said... I have to agree with you... Crescendo does do a good job of laying down the characters in a very short period of time, but Kana takes you through almost all of Kana and Taka's life, which gives you a greater sense of closeness to the characters. And, as you say, even Yumi becomes integral--you have to feel sorry for her in many ways. I guess the only surprising thing about the endings for Kana is that there are so many ways for one to experience death... if you think about it, there are just as many paths for Kana as there are for Crescendo--although, apparently the writers opted for different tactics: in Crescendo, they gave us a lot of "good" endings with one hidden "bad" ending. In Kana, there are a lot of "bad" endings, with (apparently) one hard-to-get-to "good" ending.

#20

Wolfson, you can find the translated lyrics to ‘The White Season’ here:

http://www.g-collections.com/soft/03kana/song.htm

The first time I read them (and many times afterwards), I found myself bursting into tears. I agree - it’s a wonderful song in its own right. Haunting and evocative.