![]() If you just want a dating game there are better choices. Overall - Little Busters! is not perfect, especially in the earlier parts. In terms of extras there are the standard music and CG modes. There are also various minigames (see screenshots above), which I enjoyed greatly but can be disabled if one wishes (they do not affect the plot significantly). Otherwise the game has all the standard features, wrapped in an extra shiny GUI. Unfortunately it seems to use some sort of DRM that requires the disc to start the game, this is extremely annoying (my only system complaint). System/Extras - Little Busters! uses Visual Arts RealLive engine and runs only on Windows 2000 or newer. This is the strongest part of the game and more than makes up for any flaws in the earlier sections. At this point, LB sheds its galge skin and Key tells the story they meant to and with near-flawless execution. After clearing this rather unusual story, a new option is added to the title menu: Refrain. After clearing the individual routes Rin's character route can be played. While these two aspects of the game (the only aspects promised by the box) together make a quite acceptable galge, it is the third part that pushes the boundaries. The weakest, Kudo's route, was a bit of a trainwreck but certainly not boring. The (non-Rin) character routes are some times a bit messy but engaging. A lot of effort went into writing this section and it shows. The trunk is enjoyable enough, lots of humorous scenes and side plots are peppered thoughout as well as minigames. Story - The story can be evaluated in three parts: the trunk/common route, the individual routes, and the Rin/Refrain routes. This was a nice touch, and helps us get a feel for Riki as his character development does impact the story. That being said, in minigames and scenes with perspective shifts the protagonist was voiced. Voicing is expensive but since this was a sure-fire hit they ought to have spent the money (but as a sure-fire hit, they felt no need to bother?). Key is small but certainly one of the top in its field, one would think they could hire (or double up on roles) to voice a few lines here and there for side characters. Voice Acting - The characters that were voiced were portrayed deftly and even though there was some role doubling each character was clearly distinguishable and cast well. I don't know if there is such a thing as a perfect soundtrack but I have yet to see better. The range on the BGM is quite impressive from tracks that are barely music to vocal insert songs and transitions aren't too heavy. The only track I disliked was Nishizono's theme as it seemed a bit too somber, but that's a minor quibble. Music is of course used to set the mood of the scene but each heroine has her own theme as well. There are over forty tracks, including multiple ending vocal songs. I use some BGM clips for ringtones and have the CD set on order. ![]() Some scenes were crying for event CGs and just didn't get them while, other scenes could have probably done fine without (not that I mind those). That being said, the CG distribution is a bit uneven. Event CGs were lush and well framed but were not exclusively focused on showing off the girls but rather on pushing the story forward. Background were carefully crafted and built up the story successfully. The retro-sprites for the batting game are quite adorable. Even the protagonist, Riki, had quite a wide variety even though they weren't used except in the rare perspective shift. Tachi-e character portraits had a lot of variation and detail for emotions, lighting, and posture. Graphics - Key's art is always a love it or hate it topic, I obviously do like it. It was worth it.įor summary and character information please see this post on Wakeless Days. ![]() It would have been easy to give up and say "I've gotten the endings for my favorite girls, I'm done with this" but I heard good things about some unlockable path and I kept pushing. Not wanting to fall behind on other (English) titles I read Little Busters off and on completing a route every once in a while. A bit of hacking (by other people) and a lot of command line typing (by me) later and I had a folder of text files I could put in a HTML wrapper and use rikaichan to read. Its been a long time since I started Little Busters, I remember receiving the box, starting it up and realizing I needed to get the script out of that little text window and into something a bit more dictionary friendly. I have no connection to any translation effort, nor am I skilled enough to attempt one. This review is based off my readings of it in Japanese while learning Japanese.
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