G-Senjou no Maou

While reflecting on my experience playing the novel, I noticed something really odd. I had ignored it then because I still wasn't sure whether Kyousuke was Maou or not. Where did Maou go in Kanon's route?

Somewher.

Like I said, the other routes are barely canon.

Huh. Invoking Schrödinger's Cat, are we?

Kanon's route he 'found love' and decided 'Aw, what have I been doing with my life? It's time I settled down and got me a family.'

Happy end.

But yes, the fridge logic sets in not long after. I mean, the only girl he really interacts with not named Usami is Yuki, and I don't see love developing there.

He does seem to love his parents, at least. Which is a funny thing because his motivation for being evil stemmed from that love.

So. I just finished Haru's route (and skipped by the others when I saw their off-ramps), and decided I may as well read this thread due to Haru being the obvious true ending. This thread clearly agrees, it would seem.

I do have a few things to say though. Firstly, I am among those who correctly suspected Maou's identity before it was revealed. I don't remember if Kyouhei was ever mentioned before the letter from Kyousuke's real dad was shown. Admittedly though, it wasn't much before that when I suspected it, and the only thing which made me realize was when I had time to contemplate it. It was like the makers were saying... "Haru has all these tricky left-field puzzles which she usually solves with ease, so you can have one too."

Secondly, I don't know why, but I never actually got the choice to enter Mizuha's route instead of continuing to the real ending. My only two choices during her arc were whether or not to escort her home, and whether to call the police or wait for Yuki to get to the school. (I know this because I saved every time I was given a choice on anything, once I started remembering to at around the third such choice.)

Regarding the last time we see Gonzou (Who I usually think of as "Gonzai" >_>), I saw it repeatedly said how his reason for leaving the car wasn't to protect Kyousuke, but... what was the reason then? I don't recall if it was ever mentioned. :/

Ah, and one last thing regarding Maou and Kyousuke... if they were the same person, then Kyousuke would have suspected it far sooner, what with Maou having multiple phones with him at any given time, and being available to be called at pretty much any time of day. Or so I suspect.

.

All that aside, anybody have suggestions on which order I should do the remaining routes?

They were trying too hard to push the Kyousuke = Maou theory. I'm not surprised anyone would have misgivings about it even before the slip-ups indicating otherwise.

That is the Mizuha route choice. If you call the cops, you get put on her route.

I think you're referring to Kyousuke's inner monologues when you mentioned 'repeatedly said'? If I recall correctly anyway, it's just him not being able to reconcile the Gonzou he knew all those years with his sacrifice.

The general opinion I've heard is you should get all the other routes done first, then move onto Haru. You could go through the rest by narrative order, I suppose.

edited 16th Jan '12 3:32:40 AM by Thrombin

Fair enough.

That's not nearly as obvious as the previous two deviations were. :/

No, Kyousuke liked to think that Gonzou was protecting him. It was Haru who planted doubt.

So this thread would imply. I however wanted to get the real story done with first so that it stayed in my mind and... solidified as being the right one. I knew that sticking with Haru would bring out the most truths, which I can then use for hindsight when rereading the whole thing (while aiming for a different route).

edited 16th Jan '12 1:04:21 PM by Sabbo

This thread, post 126

I haven't bothered to translate this, but I wish to argue against the idea itself: At the end of Tsubaki's route (if there is both a good and bad end, I assume this was the good), Tsubaki mentions how Haru left town after staying for only a few months. Haru only ever moved house to chase Maou, and since Kyousuke never left town, neither could have Maou... if they were one and the same. If not, then Haru leaving to continue to chase Maou makes perfect sense.

Triple post~

As I read through chapter 3 again - Kanon's part of the main story - I've noticed that it almost explicitly states that Kyousuke & Maou are the same person. To point, there are several bits of conversation and narration which back this up:

Of course, these directly contradict chapter 5, even though if you're reading chapter 5, then you'll also have read the above.

EDIT: Attempting to translate the Japanese text I quoted in my previous post:

...Which reveals nothing, and is most likely talking about the writing process rather than any actual user-end difficulty. The other half just talks about a drama CD and I think saying that Haru & Kyousuke's kid being named Eri. I might be missing something there, but at the very least I'm almost certain it's only talking about a drama CD rather than the VN itself.

edited 18th Jan '12 9:45:49 PM by Sabbo

Quad post!

Don't worry though, this will be my last successive post, as I would now say I've gone through the whole thing... 99%. Sadly, I'm missing Tsubaki's final CG, and relatedly have absolutely no idea how to get her bad end - When I played through her chapter, I don't recall a single moment within 「Tsubaki's Chapter」 where I got to make a choice, unlike both of the other side-routes. Help regarding this would be appreciated.

As for my thoughts on the whole thing... I have come to the conclusion that each chapter was written by a different person, although Chapters 1 & 5 may have been the same person. In chapter 2 and Tsubaki's chapter, Maou was treated as being a split personality of Kyousuke's. In chapter 3 and Kanon's chapter, Maou was treated as being the exact same person as Kyousuke, without even a split personality to place blame on. The writer for Chapter 4 and Mizuha's chapter seems to have had no idea how to write Maou, but instead was good at writing Yuki, hence the blatant refocus. Finally, Chapter 5 of course had Maou's true identity revealed, and the writing style seemed focused on the mental equality between Maou and Haru. This whole idea of multiple authors only surfaced after reading that that was exactly how Katawa Shoujo worked, but it fits the evidence.

As for the heroines... Haru>Kanon≥Mizuha>Tsubaki. I have no idea where a theoretical Tokita route would fit into that list.

Hmm... oh yes, one last thing. I'm not sure if other people read the same game & patch as I did (I assume so though), but I noticed that there was a line in Mizuha's route shortly after the split away from the bad end which remained untranslated. A quick translation of my own tells me that it had something to do with thinking about or considering the future, but a typo in the line - the line started with "Jれは" for some odd reason which made no sense in context - made it difficult to figure out more. I do know that it was Kyousuke saying something out loud though.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and unlike what it seems many felt while I was reading this thread, I wasn't in any notable way disappointed with Mizuha's Chapter. Sure it was different from the Yakuza & Maou-heavy routes aside from it, but I was getting kinda tired of all that anyway.

EDIT2: Turns out Game FAQS has a guide for this thing, so I was able to follow that to get Tsubaki's bad end. Who'd've thought it wouldn't even be in her own side-chapter?

edited 20th Jan '12 2:18:58 AM by Sabbo

Mizuha's route should've been Yuki's route.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who liked Kanon's route. And that's an interesting way to think about it; kinda explains why the routes feel so detracting from the main story.

edited 20th Jan '12 12:20:03 AM by LiberatedLiberater

Yeah, Kanon's route was definitely nice. In hindsight though, I think I should've done her bad end before her good end. Thankfully I had that in mind when I got to that point in Mizuha's route.

EDIT: Oh, and it's not just the routes which had that detraction. In Kanon's storyline chapter - chapter 3 - Maou explicitly said that Kanon was his sister. Chapter 5 turns this into an outright fabrication.

edited 20th Jan '12 12:36:13 AM by Sabbo

Well, Maou is the kind of person who willingly deceives people anyway, so that doesn't seem as out of place.

Maou may be deceitful, but I really don't think he'd stoop so low as to imply that he is the one family member he actively dislikes. I can't imagine the Maou of chapter 5 even considering implying that he's the adopted son of a Yakuza boss.

Yeah, you have a point there.

Still, the obvious canon route is Haru's, so there's not much point in arguing this now. This really should've been a linear/kinetic novel rather than a branching one.

No, he explains that one. He intended to get away with everything by blaming Kyousuke. Fridge logic does strike there, though, when you consider he only told that to Someya or whatever his name was, and then later killed him.

Ah, I just remembered something which bugged me about this.

In the first few chapters, all we had to identify a character was their voice and text color. In the final chapter however, everybody gets their name put on everything they say. (Or at least, that's how I remember it)

I can't think of any decent reason why the maker would do that.

Just so he can Troll us when we least expect it in the epilogue.

Hello!

I'm starting this game today and I'm probably going to be giving my thoughts about the game and speculations as I play through unless you all find that to be annoying. It's not a play by play if you are worried about that.

I don't know any spoilers so I'll try and be careful about what ever other conversations you all are having. Thanks!

I'll try to keep a spoiler policy in place. The thread isn't very active, so any discussions we have will most likely be reactions to your reading. Shouldn't be that hard to keep the spoilers in place.

I'm starting to think that everyone in his class aside from the MC and the new girl are really stupid.

The Bin Laden joke was great, and so was the Perry the Penguin design.

edited 5th Feb '12 11:56:03 AM by EHK

By the way, I recommend you do all the side routes first before going for the main story. They are not nearly as strong and probably won't be as effective if you know something that's revealed near the end.

Is this a VA I should get a walk through for?

I don't think you really need one. Just be nice to everyone and save at any point that looks like it's a choice between involving yourself with a girl and following the main plot.