KS Rin Story (Major Spoilers)
Rin's story was really frustrating for me to read. Not because I didn't like her, or I found her difficult to understand, but because her story was unforgivably boring until the second half of Act 3. Rin didn't feel interesting enough for me to want to pursue her, and even well into her story I still felt like I hadn't made any progress. It took me several days just to get to Act 3 because I was losing interest so quickly in Rin, and decided that I could be better spending my time. Heck, at one point I almost just quit altogether and started on Lilly. But I persisted, and I'm glad I did.
When I read Rin's story 4 years ago, I did it out of necessity for completion and had no interest in her as a character. I rushed through her chapters, failing to see all the important queues that would have made me enjoy her story. The adult scenes made no sense to me and the cutscenes with art didn't feel important at all. But looking at her story from a fresh pair of eyes, I can see that there's a ton of beauty and craftsmanship behind her story that makes it so much more unique than any of the other girls' stories so far.
The author who wrote for Rin has an amazing vocabulary, first off, and an incredible vision for making these sorts of visual novels. I was having to physically restrain myself sometimes because I was so worried that the decisions I was making weren't the right ones (I ended up with the good ending where they formally become a couple) and I wanted to look up the decision tree and double check. But I'm glad I didn't. Writing several small decisions into the story, while cumbersome in physical written format, felt very nice and made me feel like I was actually flowing Hisao's thoughts as the story progressed.
Until their arguments in Act 2 and 3.
Hisao says that he prides himself on logic and reasoning, but then throws a completely emotion-driven rampage against Rin for things that Rin has told Hisao (pretty clearly, ironically) are not his fault and not something she necessarily wants either. If Hisao really felt the way he was thinking in each chapter, he would have realized that Rin cutting him off to work on her art was not because she thinks he's annoying like Emi, but because having him around (knowing that he likes her romantically, and maybe her liking him romantically too) is something too big and powerful to be clouding her thoughts when she needs to be focusing on her work. She says it over and over again-- she can't concentrate on more than a few things at a time, and her art (once she gets access to the atelier) is of paramount importance to her since she is willingly forcing herself to change at the suggestion of Hisao and Nomiya. Hisao is a begging chooser. Hisao led her to commit to her art, and then got upset when she wanted to stop thinking about him for awhile so she could concentrate on her art. Maybe Hisao is just an idiot, and I was able to understand Rin far better than he could. Maybe Hisao acts that way for the sake of the plot. Either way, it annoyed me.
But Rin and Hisao's relationship arc was nice, if a little fragmented due to the above. I feel like this story was a lot more philosophical than the other three I've done at this point, and made me think a lot more about abstract concepts like subjectiveness and time. It made me feel, rather than I was following a clear and concise plot, like Rin and Hisao were in a bubble of abstraction, and the decisions and plot flow didn't have any absolute direction until Act 4. It was refreshing. Having Rin be off in her own little world was a really frustrating concept to be introduced to so early, but as the details of her life slowly trickled in, it became almost entertaining. Reading between the lines, putting the words in Rin's mouth when she couldn't (and when Hisao was too blind to understand), predicting the next big twist around the corner-- it was genuinely fun once Rin's story caught speed.
But that's really all I have to say. Rin's major conflict felt forced, and it took awhile to get fun, but it ended fun and felt like the beginning of something maybe a little more fun. It's sad that we didn't get to see more, but that's the story I suppose.
Lastly, but especially not least, will be Lilly. This week is my first week of finals, so I'll likely be a few days before writing my thoughts about Lilly's story. But if my memory of Lilly's story from 4 years ago means anything now, it'll be a long post. Stay tuned!
When I read Rin's story 4 years ago, I did it out of necessity for completion and had no interest in her as a character. I rushed through her chapters, failing to see all the important queues that would have made me enjoy her story. The adult scenes made no sense to me and the cutscenes with art didn't feel important at all. But looking at her story from a fresh pair of eyes, I can see that there's a ton of beauty and craftsmanship behind her story that makes it so much more unique than any of the other girls' stories so far.
The author who wrote for Rin has an amazing vocabulary, first off, and an incredible vision for making these sorts of visual novels. I was having to physically restrain myself sometimes because I was so worried that the decisions I was making weren't the right ones (I ended up with the good ending where they formally become a couple) and I wanted to look up the decision tree and double check. But I'm glad I didn't. Writing several small decisions into the story, while cumbersome in physical written format, felt very nice and made me feel like I was actually flowing Hisao's thoughts as the story progressed.
Until their arguments in Act 2 and 3.
Hisao says that he prides himself on logic and reasoning, but then throws a completely emotion-driven rampage against Rin for things that Rin has told Hisao (pretty clearly, ironically) are not his fault and not something she necessarily wants either. If Hisao really felt the way he was thinking in each chapter, he would have realized that Rin cutting him off to work on her art was not because she thinks he's annoying like Emi, but because having him around (knowing that he likes her romantically, and maybe her liking him romantically too) is something too big and powerful to be clouding her thoughts when she needs to be focusing on her work. She says it over and over again-- she can't concentrate on more than a few things at a time, and her art (once she gets access to the atelier) is of paramount importance to her since she is willingly forcing herself to change at the suggestion of Hisao and Nomiya. Hisao is a begging chooser. Hisao led her to commit to her art, and then got upset when she wanted to stop thinking about him for awhile so she could concentrate on her art. Maybe Hisao is just an idiot, and I was able to understand Rin far better than he could. Maybe Hisao acts that way for the sake of the plot. Either way, it annoyed me.
But Rin and Hisao's relationship arc was nice, if a little fragmented due to the above. I feel like this story was a lot more philosophical than the other three I've done at this point, and made me think a lot more about abstract concepts like subjectiveness and time. It made me feel, rather than I was following a clear and concise plot, like Rin and Hisao were in a bubble of abstraction, and the decisions and plot flow didn't have any absolute direction until Act 4. It was refreshing. Having Rin be off in her own little world was a really frustrating concept to be introduced to so early, but as the details of her life slowly trickled in, it became almost entertaining. Reading between the lines, putting the words in Rin's mouth when she couldn't (and when Hisao was too blind to understand), predicting the next big twist around the corner-- it was genuinely fun once Rin's story caught speed.
But that's really all I have to say. Rin's major conflict felt forced, and it took awhile to get fun, but it ended fun and felt like the beginning of something maybe a little more fun. It's sad that we didn't get to see more, but that's the story I suppose.
Lastly, but especially not least, will be Lilly. This week is my first week of finals, so I'll likely be a few days before writing my thoughts about Lilly's story. But if my memory of Lilly's story from 4 years ago means anything now, it'll be a long post. Stay tuned!
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