Wall Of Text, White Infodump, White Infovomit. You get the idea.
Miyoshi Yuiko
My favorite route as it starts off nicely, pulls off the "always loved you but never had the courage to confess" scene beautifully, has plenty of good friendship and fun playtime scenes, culminates in an awesome boss fight that reminds me of E×E's combat scenes, and then ends without throwing away everyone but the girl. Every other path, it's like the world has ended and they're the only ones left dammit.
Or maybe it's just because I like friendship stories over love stories. I cried the most on the Little Busters path in Little Busters! anyway; even more so than how much I cried for the other 5 girls' paths put together.
Now Playing: Rapids by Famishin, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) OST (a.k.a. Boss Fight BGM)
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:12 AM): Refitted with spoiler tags.
2008/09/29
エロゲー： 夏空カナタ ―沙々羅―
Big white patch of nothingness, Round 2!
Shichijou Sasara
At the local festival Asakura Souta meets a young girl named Shichijou Sasara, who appears to not know money is required to buy food. After getting hooked into paying for her, he finds that she has been in a "hospital" all her life and so lacks basic knowledge about the world around her. Thus begins their friendship as he continues to teach her more about the world around her. Around this time, he chances upon a cave deep in the woods and is acquainted with Kyougoku Fumio, the blind and frail priestess of the local shrine, and Ashikaga Sadamichi, Fumio's guardian as well as an agent of the secret service who has a crush on Fumio. Further conversation with all three parties reveal that Fumio is actually Sasara's mother. However, Fumio has avoided Sasara ever since she was young, leading Sasara to hate her own mother.
By a chance accident brought about by a sudden earthquake, Souta is seriously injured and on the brink of death. Ashikaga then brings both Souta and Sasara to the cave deep in the woods, where Sasara recognizes Fumio to be her mother. Fumio then gets Sasara to strongly wish for Souta to be healed, activating a wish-granting System of the Island and completely removing Souta's fatal wounds.
Having delved too deep into the secrets of the Island now, Ashikaga and Fumio then reveals the truth being the island of everlasting summer Tougen Island: the Island itself came into existence thanks to this System, and is the main sustaining force behind the entire Island. Should it fail, the entire Island will go down with it. Furthermore, only a select bloodline of people can act as the sustainer of the System, this being Kyougoku Fumio. However, sustaining the System has lead to her failing health, as evidenced by her now completely gone eyesight and her repeated coughing of blood. The next in line to be the sustainer would have been Sasara had Fumio not insisted to Sasara's father, Shichijou Katsumi, on leaving Sasara alone. It is because of this and her failing health that she has hidden herself from Sasara all these years. Despite all this, Katsumi continues to attempt to keep Sasara secluded from the world: it is hinted that the "hospital" Sasara has lived at her entire childhood is merely her own room.
As Fumio nears her end and Katsumi grows more impatient and overbearing, she and Ashikaga decide to have Sasara escape the Island with Souta before Katsumi makes Sasara the new sustainer. Determined to reconcile the relationship between mother and daughter before the escape though, Souta goes to various lengths to have mother and daughter convey their feelings for each other, culminating in a festival built entirely for them to have fun and remember the good old times again. Against Sasara's wishes for her mother to "stay by her side from now on to make up for everything" however, Fumio could only whisper to herself "I'm sorry".
After having successfully evacuated the entire Island (under the cover story of a imminent underwater volcano eruption) soon after, Souta and Sasara prepares to leave the Island, only to be stopped in their tracks by a deranged Katsumi, who shoots at Ashikaga and decides to have Sasara stay behind after all. It takes the combined efforts of Fumio, a critically injured Ashikaga and Souta to knock Katsumi out. However, in the struggle Fumio is left on the last leg of her life, leading her and Ashikaga to have Souta drag Sasara away and escape the Island on the last boat as they attempt to sustain the Island long enough for everyone to get away, revealing that Fumio never intended to leave the Island with Sasara.
As the Island crumbles, radios in the proximity pick up a signal generated by Fumio's last wishes to the System: a infinitely looping message of Fumio's finally words to Sasara. "I hope you will be able to walk a path of happiness from now on. Farewell, my dear Sasara."
END 1
A few days after the Island collapses, most of its people have now built a temporary settlement in a nearby island while awaiting notice of their relocation. Souta receives a call from a fellow agent friend of Ashikaga who is helping Sasara to settle into a new life away from Katsumi. The agent tells Souta to pass a message to Sasara: that she will now have a new birth certificate created for her, so she can choose to change her name if she desires to. Sasara decides immediately with a bright smile that her new name will be Kyougoku Sasara...
END 2
A year after the collapse of the Island, Souta and Sasara revisit the site of the Island to pay their respects to Ashikaga and Fumio, as well as to show that they have led a happy life since then with the introduction of their daughter, Shiono...
Oh god I was crying all the way while typing up the third last paragraph. Family love endings are beginning to jerk my tears ever since CLANNAD.
Just so I can induce some squick into the hearts of the non-eroge playing readers, the difference that decides which END you get is by one simple decision: whether Souta shoots his load onto Sasara or into Sasara. Ha ha ha.
Now Playing: Just Like Back Then by Famishin, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) OST (a.k.a. Sasara and Fumio touching moments theme T_T)
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:08 AM): Refitted with spoiler tags.
Shichijou Sasara
At the local festival Asakura Souta meets a young girl named Shichijou Sasara, who appears to not know money is required to buy food. After getting hooked into paying for her, he finds that she has been in a "hospital" all her life and so lacks basic knowledge about the world around her. Thus begins their friendship as he continues to teach her more about the world around her. Around this time, he chances upon a cave deep in the woods and is acquainted with Kyougoku Fumio, the blind and frail priestess of the local shrine, and Ashikaga Sadamichi, Fumio's guardian as well as an agent of the secret service who has a crush on Fumio. Further conversation with all three parties reveal that Fumio is actually Sasara's mother. However, Fumio has avoided Sasara ever since she was young, leading Sasara to hate her own mother.
By a chance accident brought about by a sudden earthquake, Souta is seriously injured and on the brink of death. Ashikaga then brings both Souta and Sasara to the cave deep in the woods, where Sasara recognizes Fumio to be her mother. Fumio then gets Sasara to strongly wish for Souta to be healed, activating a wish-granting System of the Island and completely removing Souta's fatal wounds.
Having delved too deep into the secrets of the Island now, Ashikaga and Fumio then reveals the truth being the island of everlasting summer Tougen Island: the Island itself came into existence thanks to this System, and is the main sustaining force behind the entire Island. Should it fail, the entire Island will go down with it. Furthermore, only a select bloodline of people can act as the sustainer of the System, this being Kyougoku Fumio. However, sustaining the System has lead to her failing health, as evidenced by her now completely gone eyesight and her repeated coughing of blood. The next in line to be the sustainer would have been Sasara had Fumio not insisted to Sasara's father, Shichijou Katsumi, on leaving Sasara alone. It is because of this and her failing health that she has hidden herself from Sasara all these years. Despite all this, Katsumi continues to attempt to keep Sasara secluded from the world: it is hinted that the "hospital" Sasara has lived at her entire childhood is merely her own room.
As Fumio nears her end and Katsumi grows more impatient and overbearing, she and Ashikaga decide to have Sasara escape the Island with Souta before Katsumi makes Sasara the new sustainer. Determined to reconcile the relationship between mother and daughter before the escape though, Souta goes to various lengths to have mother and daughter convey their feelings for each other, culminating in a festival built entirely for them to have fun and remember the good old times again. Against Sasara's wishes for her mother to "stay by her side from now on to make up for everything" however, Fumio could only whisper to herself "I'm sorry".
After having successfully evacuated the entire Island (under the cover story of a imminent underwater volcano eruption) soon after, Souta and Sasara prepares to leave the Island, only to be stopped in their tracks by a deranged Katsumi, who shoots at Ashikaga and decides to have Sasara stay behind after all. It takes the combined efforts of Fumio, a critically injured Ashikaga and Souta to knock Katsumi out. However, in the struggle Fumio is left on the last leg of her life, leading her and Ashikaga to have Souta drag Sasara away and escape the Island on the last boat as they attempt to sustain the Island long enough for everyone to get away, revealing that Fumio never intended to leave the Island with Sasara.
As the Island crumbles, radios in the proximity pick up a signal generated by Fumio's last wishes to the System: a infinitely looping message of Fumio's finally words to Sasara. "I hope you will be able to walk a path of happiness from now on. Farewell, my dear Sasara."
END 1
A few days after the Island collapses, most of its people have now built a temporary settlement in a nearby island while awaiting notice of their relocation. Souta receives a call from a fellow agent friend of Ashikaga who is helping Sasara to settle into a new life away from Katsumi. The agent tells Souta to pass a message to Sasara: that she will now have a new birth certificate created for her, so she can choose to change her name if she desires to. Sasara decides immediately with a bright smile that her new name will be Kyougoku Sasara...
END 2
A year after the collapse of the Island, Souta and Sasara revisit the site of the Island to pay their respects to Ashikaga and Fumio, as well as to show that they have led a happy life since then with the introduction of their daughter, Shiono...
Oh god I was crying all the way while typing up the third last paragraph. Family love endings are beginning to jerk my tears ever since CLANNAD.
Just so I can induce some squick into the hearts of the non-eroge playing readers, the difference that decides which END you get is by one simple decision: whether Souta shoots his load onto Sasara or into Sasara. Ha ha ha.
Now Playing: Just Like Back Then by Famishin, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) OST (a.k.a. Sasara and Fumio touching moments theme T_T)
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:08 AM): Refitted with spoiler tags.
エロゲー： 夏空カナタ ―茅羽耶―
Finished NatsuKana today, so I thought I'd make a post to write down some story summaries. No, not a review. This is more like a notebook thing to remind myself of the story.
I'm a nut at reviewing stuff anyway. All I can ever say is "ehh it's fun" or "eww get that away from me" anyway.
Obviously, spoilers galore, so highlight for em.
Kousaka Chihaya
7th December. Asakura Souta meets a girl, Kousaka Chihaya, who is planning for her father's birthday 3 days later. He helps her come up with ideas for a present, and finally on the third day as the present is ready, both realize that they have a crush on each other, and share a kiss under the sunset.
10th December. Souta runs into Chihaya and finds that she brushes him off for being too friendly to "someone she's just met for the first time". Her father, aware of his actions the last 3 days, approaches him and reveals the reasoning behind her behavior: ever since an accident where Chihaya fell off a cliff and nearly drowned, she has been afflicted with anterograde amnesia and is only able to remember new facts up to 3 days before her memory reverts to the morning of the accident. Since then, she has been repeating the 3 days of preparations leading up to her father's birthday as, in her father's words, "it's better to see her happily preparing for his birthday than to see her in despair from learning about her own condition". Despite cautioning from Chihaya's father to not involve himself with her any further, Souta decides to overcome this despair and continue trying to befriend her, essentially repeating her actions from his first 3 days with her.
13th December. After successfully reenacting their "first meeting" again, she accidentally overhears the locals's conversation about the date, leading Souta to his first experience of having to break the truth to her, as well as her wish to have Souta stop trying to befriend her as she does not wish to hurt him anymore. Despite her pleas, Souta successfully convinces Chihaya to try to overcome her amnesia as his first attempt is put into action: filming a video message to herself and recording her memories in her diary in order to try to break her amnesia.
16th December. The video message is shown to Chihaya after her expected memory wipe, and along with the encouragement of everyone Chihaya decides to face her condition head on, culminating in her deciding to get a haircut from Souta. The 3 days end however with Chihaya's father delivering a cryptic message to Souta: come early tomorrow and be prepared.
19th December. Souta visits the Kousaka residence and finds that Chihaya has once again lost her memories, along with her new haircut. Her father finally breaks the truth to Souta: her memories weren't the only thing reverting every 3 days. Whatever major accidents or physical changes she experiences during the 3 days, be it a major cut or a hair cut, would disappear along with her memories, leading her father to deduce that she wasn't simply unable to retain her memories; she reverts to a state where she haven't even experienced those memories. Despite these new revelations, a change suddenly occurs in Chihaya: she suffers a serious fever and begins to remember pieces of events that she had already "forgotten".
22th December. Chihaya's amnesia is gone and she has completely recovered her memories previously lost to the amnesia. However, her physical condition continues to worsen, culminating in herself beginning to "fade out" from time to time. At this point, two minor characters, Niki Yuubari and Ashikaga Sadamichi, who have continued to discreetly discourage Souta from continuing with his affairs with Chihaya reveal their true identities as secret service agents charged with keeping the secrets of the Island under wraps. They finally expose the final mystery behind Chihaya's mysterious condition to Souta: she had passed away because of the accident, but the wishes of her parents activated Tougen Island's mysterious wish granting System and caused the System to absorb her into itself, allowing it to bring Chihaya back as a phantom. However, the System is unable to retain the form of a human being for long, so it has to revert Chihaya's form every 3 days to allow her to sustain her form.
Unfortunately, to sustain the System a person acting as a sustainer is required. The current sustainer, Kyougoku Fumio, has however reached her limit, as evidenced by her blindness and failing health. This causes errors such as the increasing happenings of earthquakes around the Island and, more importantly, the System's inability to continue to revert Chihaya's form, thereby overloading and causing her failing health.
END 1
Soon enough, Chihaya completely fades away from existence. As a last ditch attempt, Fumio, touched by the love between the couple as well as feeling partly responsible for being unable to sustain the System, uses most of the last ounces of her remaining life to perform the System's secondary function: create a new sustainer. A function previously thought impossible to perform anymore due to the loss of ancient documentation stating how to "feed vital information" about the new sustainer to the System, Fumio realizes that when the System absorbed Chihaya, it might now have enough information to recreate her as a sustainer instead of reviving her again. Sure enough, the rescue attempt works, bringing her back as a sustainer.
However, Chihaya and Souta are now faced with another critical decision: with a new sustainer born, the secret service will not hesitate to arrest her as a replacement for Fumio. Despite Fumio's attempts to persuade the couple to escape the Island, Chihaya and Souta decide on saving Fumio this time instead, and Chihaya chooses to replace Fumio as the new sustainer.
Cut to two years later, Souta has permanently moved to the Island and has secured a living there while continuing to visit Chihaya every night. It is shown that Chihaya is beginning to show similar symptoms as Fumio, indicating that she will eventually end up like Fumio...
END 2
Soon enough, Chihaya completely fades away from existence. At this point, Souta's strong wish for them to have met earlier once again triggers the System, sending him back to the 10th of August: the day of the accident. Due to the System faults though, his existence in this past is nearing fading, as was Chihaya nearing her end. This results in him failing to prevent the accident from taking place in time. However, he succeeds in rescuing her from drowning instead, right before he fades away from the past.
4th December. It is Souta's first day at the Island. As his friends come to pick him up, he runs into a girl who appears to know Souta, and who claims Souta had saved her from drowning a few months back...
My MSN personal message right now is "Magical Good Ends ruin all the drama :/". It's not that I don't like seeing the guy and girl get together safely again, but it'd actually be nice if they could just forgo the stupid magics and just do a realistic ending like say, 50 First Dates?
Oh wait, this is Anime Land. Kanon, Da Capo, so on and so forth. No wonder there's always magic.
Now Playing: Refrain by Sakakibara Yui, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) ED
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:07 AM): Refitted with new spoiler tags.
I'm a nut at reviewing stuff anyway. All I can ever say is "ehh it's fun" or "eww get that away from me" anyway.
Obviously, spoilers galore, so highlight for em.
Kousaka Chihaya
7th December. Asakura Souta meets a girl, Kousaka Chihaya, who is planning for her father's birthday 3 days later. He helps her come up with ideas for a present, and finally on the third day as the present is ready, both realize that they have a crush on each other, and share a kiss under the sunset.
10th December. Souta runs into Chihaya and finds that she brushes him off for being too friendly to "someone she's just met for the first time". Her father, aware of his actions the last 3 days, approaches him and reveals the reasoning behind her behavior: ever since an accident where Chihaya fell off a cliff and nearly drowned, she has been afflicted with anterograde amnesia and is only able to remember new facts up to 3 days before her memory reverts to the morning of the accident. Since then, she has been repeating the 3 days of preparations leading up to her father's birthday as, in her father's words, "it's better to see her happily preparing for his birthday than to see her in despair from learning about her own condition". Despite cautioning from Chihaya's father to not involve himself with her any further, Souta decides to overcome this despair and continue trying to befriend her, essentially repeating her actions from his first 3 days with her.
13th December. After successfully reenacting their "first meeting" again, she accidentally overhears the locals's conversation about the date, leading Souta to his first experience of having to break the truth to her, as well as her wish to have Souta stop trying to befriend her as she does not wish to hurt him anymore. Despite her pleas, Souta successfully convinces Chihaya to try to overcome her amnesia as his first attempt is put into action: filming a video message to herself and recording her memories in her diary in order to try to break her amnesia.
16th December. The video message is shown to Chihaya after her expected memory wipe, and along with the encouragement of everyone Chihaya decides to face her condition head on, culminating in her deciding to get a haircut from Souta. The 3 days end however with Chihaya's father delivering a cryptic message to Souta: come early tomorrow and be prepared.
19th December. Souta visits the Kousaka residence and finds that Chihaya has once again lost her memories, along with her new haircut. Her father finally breaks the truth to Souta: her memories weren't the only thing reverting every 3 days. Whatever major accidents or physical changes she experiences during the 3 days, be it a major cut or a hair cut, would disappear along with her memories, leading her father to deduce that she wasn't simply unable to retain her memories; she reverts to a state where she haven't even experienced those memories. Despite these new revelations, a change suddenly occurs in Chihaya: she suffers a serious fever and begins to remember pieces of events that she had already "forgotten".
22th December. Chihaya's amnesia is gone and she has completely recovered her memories previously lost to the amnesia. However, her physical condition continues to worsen, culminating in herself beginning to "fade out" from time to time. At this point, two minor characters, Niki Yuubari and Ashikaga Sadamichi, who have continued to discreetly discourage Souta from continuing with his affairs with Chihaya reveal their true identities as secret service agents charged with keeping the secrets of the Island under wraps. They finally expose the final mystery behind Chihaya's mysterious condition to Souta: she had passed away because of the accident, but the wishes of her parents activated Tougen Island's mysterious wish granting System and caused the System to absorb her into itself, allowing it to bring Chihaya back as a phantom. However, the System is unable to retain the form of a human being for long, so it has to revert Chihaya's form every 3 days to allow her to sustain her form.
Unfortunately, to sustain the System a person acting as a sustainer is required. The current sustainer, Kyougoku Fumio, has however reached her limit, as evidenced by her blindness and failing health. This causes errors such as the increasing happenings of earthquakes around the Island and, more importantly, the System's inability to continue to revert Chihaya's form, thereby overloading and causing her failing health.
END 1
Soon enough, Chihaya completely fades away from existence. As a last ditch attempt, Fumio, touched by the love between the couple as well as feeling partly responsible for being unable to sustain the System, uses most of the last ounces of her remaining life to perform the System's secondary function: create a new sustainer. A function previously thought impossible to perform anymore due to the loss of ancient documentation stating how to "feed vital information" about the new sustainer to the System, Fumio realizes that when the System absorbed Chihaya, it might now have enough information to recreate her as a sustainer instead of reviving her again. Sure enough, the rescue attempt works, bringing her back as a sustainer.
However, Chihaya and Souta are now faced with another critical decision: with a new sustainer born, the secret service will not hesitate to arrest her as a replacement for Fumio. Despite Fumio's attempts to persuade the couple to escape the Island, Chihaya and Souta decide on saving Fumio this time instead, and Chihaya chooses to replace Fumio as the new sustainer.
Cut to two years later, Souta has permanently moved to the Island and has secured a living there while continuing to visit Chihaya every night. It is shown that Chihaya is beginning to show similar symptoms as Fumio, indicating that she will eventually end up like Fumio...
END 2
Soon enough, Chihaya completely fades away from existence. At this point, Souta's strong wish for them to have met earlier once again triggers the System, sending him back to the 10th of August: the day of the accident. Due to the System faults though, his existence in this past is nearing fading, as was Chihaya nearing her end. This results in him failing to prevent the accident from taking place in time. However, he succeeds in rescuing her from drowning instead, right before he fades away from the past.
4th December. It is Souta's first day at the Island. As his friends come to pick him up, he runs into a girl who appears to know Souta, and who claims Souta had saved her from drowning a few months back...
My MSN personal message right now is "Magical Good Ends ruin all the drama :/". It's not that I don't like seeing the guy and girl get together safely again, but it'd actually be nice if they could just forgo the stupid magics and just do a realistic ending like say, 50 First Dates?
Oh wait, this is Anime Land. Kanon, Da Capo, so on and so forth. No wonder there's always magic.
Now Playing: Refrain by Sakakibara Yui, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) ED
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:07 AM): Refitted with new spoiler tags.
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4th December. Asakura Souta arrives at Tougen Island, as he has been doing every year. Every year, he comes to Tougen Island during his holidays to visit and have fun with his friend Rokkaku Gorou and cousins Miyoshi Yuiko and Futaba, as well as to help out at his aunt's pension for some extra pocket money. This year was to be the same as every other year.
However, due to a little misunderstanding, Yuiko accidentally confesses her feelings for him ever since they were kids. Amidst the misunderstanding, Souta finds that he has feelings for Yuiko too, and finally they confess to each other again and become a couple.
The happy days were not to last though, as Yuiko eventually digs up an artifact of their childhood days: a simple card game they were addicted to back then that Souta and Gorou appear to fear. A chance run in with a group of three trouble-making tourists reveals Yuiko's forgotten past: 8 years ago when they were kids Souta, Gorou and Yuiko were assaulted by a similar group of three tourists looking for sexual entertainment. As Souta and Gorou were beaten up by the tourists, and Yuiko about to be raped, a giant spider surfaces from the woods and captures the three tourists, dragging them deep into the woods. Yuiko soon suffers a slight trauma resulting from the assult, but Souta and Gorou both remember the creature: it resembles Yuiko's favorite card from the card game they used to play often as kids, the powerful "8-legged Darkness", with the effect of "removing up to 3 targets from the playing field every turn".
It is later reported that the three trouble-making tourists they ran into earlier have turned up missing too. Subsequently, they are confronted by a woman, Niki Yuubari, who reveals she is of the secret service and knows of the incident 8 years ago, as well as confirming the suspicions of Souta and Gorou: the giant spider was indeed created by Yuiko as a result of the Island's System granting her wish for "someone to protect her" back then. Faced with these facts, as well as Yuiko's resurfacing memories, Souta and Gorou are forced to spill the beans on what they know to Yuiko.
The friends, along with the help of Niki, decide to take down and stop the giant spider once and for all. Niki comes up with a theory that if the giant spider was from the card game, the creature should bend to the rules of the card game as well. True enough, as the four draw out the giant spider and begin a round of the card game, the giant spider stands still, awaiting Yuiko's turn. Souta and Gorou utilize the tricks they often used in their childhood to cheat and attempt to draw a card, the "Silver Slingshot", able to "instantly kill any bug type creatures". As the giant spider slowly takes down Gorou and Niki, Souta remembers the "8-legged Darkness"'s final effect: "after removing its 9th target, it will be destroyed along with its summoner". Souta manages to acquire the "Silver Slingshot" at the last moment and destroy the giant spider before it can claim its final victim and Yuiko.
However, this sends Yuiko into a coma, as she continues to have nightmares while in her coma of the day 8 years ago. In a final act of desperation, Souta, remembering the story Niki told them about the System, makes a wish to be strong enough to protect Yuiko again. This throws him into her nightmare, as he summons enough courage in himself to stand up to their attackers and rescue Yuiko from her nightmare. As Souta awakens from the dream, he finds Yuiko awake from her coma in tears, thanking Souta for coming to save her.
Forward a few years, Souta has graduated from school and has permanently taken over his aunt's pension business together with Yuiko, as they live happily ever after, surrounded by his friends and his love...