Sure, she talks a little bit more with everyone, but we don’t really see much evidence of this, instead relying on the game to not-so-subtly tell you she is changing. However, and I don’t know if it’s due to a poor translation, poor writing, or both, Rin never really grows as a character throughout the course of the VN. Riki becomes an interesting and fleshed out character, and the story takes some intriguing steps forward. In this case, that route belongs to Rin, and there is an obvious difference in quality between it and the other routes. Now, being a Key work, there is naturally a “true” route. Yes, they each have individual routes that give them more depth, but the shenanigans they get up to in the first few hours don’t change in the next twenty. While all of the characters are enjoyable at first, they end up turning into one-dimensional generic character archetypes.

But, since this is a Key work, it all makes the common route extremely long. On their own, many of these little activity arcs are rather enjoyable. What starts off as a cute little story about building a baseball team turns into the story of a large group of friends and their daily random activities throughout the year. Once all of the characters are introduced, the common route really kicks into gear. This is where we are introduced to the remaining members of the Little Busters! gang, but it’s also at this point where things start to go downhill. In order to do this, however, he’s going to need more members to fill the roster. The gang then wonders how to spend their school year, until all of a sudden Kyousuke decides to put together a baseball team. It’s an entertaining opening that does a very good job of setting the scene of this VN. Rin easily dispatches Masato using her weapon of choice, a cat. This serves as our introduction to one of the Little Busters! mini-games, a randomized battle/fighting game type thing that ranks you based on your performance. One thing leads to another, and Rin ends up fighting Masato in a battle set up by Kyousuke. Kyousuke has returned to school, causing a major ruckus on the campus. That leaves us with Riki, the newest member of the group, and our protagonist. Rin is the quiet yet ferocious type that often puts Masato in his place, often violently.

Kengo, the most distant member of the group, is the calm, cool, and collected type until Masato, the group clown, tries to pick yet another fight. Kyousuke acts as the leader, often mediating conflicts and coming up with activities to fill their free time. Within the first few minutes, we also discover the natural hierarchy of the group. They make up the Little Busters!, a group of friends that have been inseparable since childhood. In quick succession, we are introduced to our princpal protagonists: Riki, Kengo, Masato, and the brother-sister duo of Kyousuke and Rin.

Visual novel little busters ex