I don't think Hisoka is supposed to be likeable. She essentially exists to be a mirror to Akihiko, which is why her visual design is "genderswapped Akihiko," down to the hair and eye colors. Akihiko had other people, notably Kagome, to anchor him and help him find a place again. Hisoka didn't. This is also why her Avatar has similar powers and why its design riffs on Babylon—it's a knight where Babylon is a dragon. She also pilots it with just one other person, as opposed to Akihiko, who still has all five members of his Comyu... Until the route starts whittling it down to two. She's a walking "there but for the grace of God go I" moment.
Mayuki's route is similar, thematically. Hisoka shows what Akihiko could have been, Mayuki shows how Akihiko can begin to heal and become a normal person. I think it's kind of an important counterweight to Hisoka's route, though it's not all that plot-important otherwise.
Ayaya's route is basically Mayuki's route, except awful. I'm really not sure why it's in the game, other than to weakly justify Ayaya being in the game.
edited 28th Jul '14 12:57:50 PM by Einander
But I'm supposed to be happy at the end of the route when they hook up right? She's not just unsympathetic, she's also boring. She doesn't even get that much focus. It was obvious what the writers were going for with both her and Mayuki, but I just couldn't be bothered to care because I just wasn't invested.
Oh, can I skip Ayaya's route? Because wow am I bored. The only thing that seems like it might be leading somewhere is that the writers bothered to give her uncle a sprite, meaning he's probably the villain and might provide some plot details for Kagome's route.
edited 28th Jul '14 1:19:48 PM by Arha
I don't think you're supposed to be happy. Akihiko would be better off without the parts of himself that Hisoka represents, and his life isn't better or having met and loved her, especially not in the normal ending. It's a tragedy.
They do lean a bit too far on the Shadow Archetype thing in lieu of actual development, though. That's pretty much the central weakness of the route.
And yeah I'm pretty sure you can skip Ayaya's route entirely and not miss anything. There's some foreshadowing, probably? But nothing very important.
I didn't really feel sad or anything either, though. Oh well, not like it matters if I liked Hisoka's route.
Oh good. I was just up to the point of the stalkers attacking Ayaya. Skipping this!
Not sure if I'm going to really like Kagome's route much. Well, the entire novel has been building up to it so I suppose it'll have to be good, but I'm not sure if I like Kagome or not. Too abusive.
Edit: Wait, that's it? ...I uh guess I'm glad I don't have to put up with much more, but I figured I was only about 2/3 done.
edited 28th Jul '14 1:49:24 PM by Arha
Finished Kagome's route just now. It was a good ending. The end of the rampage fight totally redeemed a certain someone. I never really liked the way she was integrated into the story, but I'm totally okay with it if it was all in preparation for that moment. Also glad for the last bit, the story needed it.
All in all, I'd say that Comyu's main flaw is that the atmosphere throughout is a bit too heavy. There's nearly always a good ending, even if it isn't a perfect one, but the story spends a lot of time being depressing on the way there. Sometimes it's a bit much.
Kagome's route is a pretty good example of the True Ending as VN keystone; pretty much everything that's come up before is relevant at some point, pretty much all questions get answered, and in terms of theme and content it's basically the rest up to eleven. That last bit is kind of a mixed bag—it clubs you over the head with its themes as is and it's worse about that near the end, and the "can something happy happen now?" is included in the things that are going up to eleven—but all in all it's the best part of the story.
(That said, personal route ranking is probably Mayuki > Kagome > Benio = Hisoka >>> Ayaya, with the greater-thans being relatively small gaps. I'm kind of a sap and Mayuki's route is a good change of pace, especially if read after Hisoka's route.)
I'd probably rate it around a 7.5/10. Not fantastic, and it has its deadweight, but it's solidly above average. It has songs that make me feel strong things (that aren't blinding hate or rage) when I hear them (We All Live and Die Alone, Overpowering Feelings, A Fairytale to the Future), and that's a sign of a pretty good story!
edited 28th Jul '14 3:20:47 PM by Einander
So far I'd say it's probably Benio ≥ Mayuki >> Hisoka > Ayaya in terms of quality, but I think I liked Mayuki's route more because I like Mayuki more. There's a big gap between the top two and bottom two. I probably like Mayuki the most out of the characters so far.
And yeah, I was just thinking that the endings tend to be oddly happy for something that's trying to be all dark and edgy.
It's probably not a good sign for the story when I just want the protagonist to kill one of the heroines and move on, is it? His hesitation is annoying. No surprise that Kagome controls Sting, really. I feel like applauding her finally finishing up this Hisoka crap.
Past Kagome's first sex scene. Not as good of a route as I was hoping. And I guess I can see where all this is going. Unless this gets much better I'm probably going to say it fills the gap between Mayuki and Hisoka's routes. Watching Mayuki kick Akihito for being stupid makes up for some of the earlier crap, though. Mayuki is great in general.
I still find it funny that all of Gasai's armaments are named for bunny rabbits. Okay, okay, not just any bunnies, but still.
edited 29th Jul '14 1:01:54 AM by Arha
Done. Miyuki's route was probably my favorite apart from the weak conclusion. Benio had the same issue to a lesser extent, though I kinda felt she probably had the best chemistry with Akihito. Kagome had a strong conclusion, but I don't think she was worth what she put everyone through. Well, at least I like her more than Hisoka.
Finally, I liked Izawa a lot. Miyuki is perhaps the only one I like more.
I thought Benio's route had the strongest ending, even after seeing Kagome's route. Probably the strongest part of the VN, period. The talk on the roof was great, the El-Alrairah fight was fairly well done (though I do wish Babylon used gravity for more than "goes fast" and "shield" at some point), the end of the fight was a great character moment for the three characters involved, and "I will deny you" + the talk with Yoruko afterward made it feel like a real victory. It's probably the happiest ending in the VN. I agree on the chemistry thing, too.
Like I said in my last spoiler, totally okay with Hisoka after her scene near the very end. Thematically, that was a really damn clever tie-in, and it made story sense too. Izawa was okay, but he never really had any stand-out moments to me; I think I liked all of the central cast more than him, Kagome excepted. (Ayaya is not central cast. Haru gets points for being a question mark that never really gets explained but comes off as mysterious instead of inconsistent or ad-libbed.)
Well, the gap between Izawa and Benio wouldn't be that big. I think in large part I was just glad that he wasn't a complete idiot loser to make Akihito look good.
The thing with the conclusion to Benio's route is that Akihito's problems with Gasai were pretty vague.
We now have a page for Comyu.
edited 29th Jul '14 9:32:32 PM by Arha
The vagueness is kind of the point of that ending. Akihiko doesn't like the way Caesar is making small sacrifices and doing small wrongs, even if it's ultimately for a greater good. He has no real argument for why he doesn't approve of it, and he knows Gasai's plan is probably for the best. It's just that spending time with Benio and thawing out a little gives him the conviction to do something, even if he's really just lashing out at the world for being unfair.
Gasai's mostly right and Akihito's mostly wrong, but Gasai's a little wrong and Akihiko's a little right. It wouldn't have the same impact any other way.
I'll look through the page again and see if I have anything else to add, but you were pretty comprehensive!
I don't think the vagueness really helps though. "You're a jerky jerkface, you jerk!" "Why am I a jerk?" "...I dunno! Cause I said so! Now let's fight." There's no sense of accomplishment and there's no real sense of weight to his actions.
And when I intend to make a page I tend to gather stuff while I'm reading, so I don't have to try to remember stuff later or anything. If I went and read through it again I'd probably have a lot more I could add, though I suspect I'm not going to reread Comyu apart from Mayuki and maybe Benio's routes.
edited 29th Jul '14 11:14:39 PM by Arha
Amaterasu just released the translation for this one a few days ago. I'm on the second route now. Benio's route was okay, but Hisoka is both uninteresting and unlikable for the whole serial killer and yandere thing.
Hope Mayuki is better. At least I like her. Oh, good, Hisoka's route is over.
Mayuki's route was alright. I like her character, but it left me wondering why the route was in Comyu. Ayaya is kind of boring so my hopes aren't exactly high. Last route before Kagome, though.
edited 28th Jul '14 12:03:07 PM by Arha