Ever17 (spoiler thread!)

I personally played it as Sora>Tsugumi>You>Sara>Kid Coco, and I thought that was pretty much the perfect route to playing this game, because what happens is that I had the feeling that more and more stuff was being revealed as I progressed through the routes. The reason I think playing Sora before Tsugumi works better is that Sora is really the least informative of all the routes, in terms of actual plot points it reveals. Instead, what it does is it gives us oblique hints as to the mechanics behind what is actually going on, and so is more heavily theoretical or philosophical, I guess. So having that as a foundation to view the rest of the routes is beneficial, I think. Whereas if you played it the other way around, Sora's route would come off as a disappointment because you have this huge reveal in Tsugumi's route, whereas you get nothing of the sort in Sora's route, which has plot developments very much confined to your relationship with Sora.

In short, I like to think of Sora's route as the necessary "exposition" route, while you really get to the meat of the story with Tsugumi. If that's the case, it makes more sense to get the exposition out of the way, before jumping into a story that you can really sink your teeth into.

So if you want the story to keep getting better and to have more and more interesting plot reveals as you go, Sora>Tsugumi>You>Sara is the best. Play it in any other order, and it doesn't feel like you're making progress, at least to me.

I can see the merits of starting with Tsugumi, because apparently a lot of people don't like the Sora route and starting with it might turn people off. I personally enjoyed Sora's route, even with all the awkwardness and the exposition, and it made me want to play more of the game, so this order worked perfectly for me.

You's route should definitely be before Sara's. Since the Kid's route are a reaction to Takeshi's, I think it makes sense to start with a Takeshi route. Beyond that it probably doesn't matter.

Honestly, there's also some value in playing it blind. Just pick the choices that make the most sense to you and see where that takes you.

apparently,the recently released 360 port forces you to play as Takeshi in the first playthrough.

^Makes sense, but potentially spoilery?

^^I played it blind my first time and got Sora's ending. :)

I played it blind, and got You's good end, then Sara's. Then I decided to go look at their respective bad ends before moving on to Takeshi's routes. Picked up a walkthrough when I got sick of only getting bad ends for Sora and Tsugumi.

The questions raised in Kid's routes were really what kept me going through the game. Of course, I can only speak for myself.

edited 11th Dec '11 4:26:44 PM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I played it blind all the way through, and got Tsugumi -> You -> Sora -> Sara.

Edit: I was intrigued enough by a game explaining things like decompression sickness.

edited 11th Dec '11 7:11:03 PM by Clarste

RPGMania2 on Youtube has the 360 soundtrack. wow Drittes Auge has become insane.

Spoilery obviously, especially with title translations.

Das Absuchen might've been my favourite track in the original... Or Drittestock. and they both remain my favourite tracks. <3~!

HOLY CRAP IBF NOTFALL

edited 16th Dec '11 2:02:28 AM by Jaabi

WEBSITE | WEASYL

Oh lord, what did they do to Qualle ;_;

Qualle is pretty much the same? There are piano versions of the character themes now for some reason. You might be thinking about them, and yeah I'm not that fond of them. But they've done the arrangements of old tracks justice all round.

Je nach, I'm especially glad to see is just the same. (I think it was just the PS 2 version that had a different version actually.)

EDIT: So apparently there's a new route and it takes place AFTER Coco's. It's apparently called the Blick Winkel Route... it's about Blick Winkel traveling to the other routes and giving them Happy Endings instead of the sad/bittersweet ones they had.

Okay this is interesting I'll admit, but it runs into the problem that, like in Steins;Gate, there's only one timeline. Each playthrough changes history, and the old one ceases to exist. It only remains as memories to the player, allowing things to change in the first place. Steins;Gate is different; but the nature of a singular "active" world line is pretty much the same.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:42:49 PM by Jaabi

WEBSITE | WEASYL

That's stupid. First, the Kid's endings were happy enough. Second, the entire point of the story is kind of missed there.

Yeah, wouldn't that create a paradox with Takeshi's endings? Didn't Coco's route already invoke that paradox?

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Well, anyway, the new release is stupid and makes the answers to the story either blatantly obvious like with Tsugumi, or it contradicts the actual original information. So I personally don't really care about it and won't be paying much attention to any new developments that get reported here.

Yeah, hence the one timeline deal.

Been flicking through the Animesuki thread, seems that the CG with everyone sitting at the table is a trick. Those that shouldn't be there didn't show up in Takeshi's route. I'm still wondering about alt-outfit Tsugumi though. I'll forgive them if both outfits appear in both routes, even if it's kinda stupid.

However on the other side of things, you're forced tho play as Takeshi in your first play through. (Which is a shame, because I went Sara-Tsugumi-Sora-You in my PC playthrough, and starting with Kid made things much more mysterious.)

WEBSITE | WEASYL

Um, Qualle is not the same at all. This version uses some tones that take away much charm from the song. Or maybe it's just me. ;_;

As for the route thingie... that's just stupid. But we'll have to wait to see how it goes, who knows, perhaps they manage to pull it off nicely. I don't think that will be the case though.

Okay, so, I know I said I wasn't going to pay attention to further developments about the 360 release, but I have Ever17 on my watchlist. So I just watched someone helpfully add several tropes that make the entire thing sound like bad fanfiction.

* [[spoiler:{{Tykebomb}}: In this version, Hokuto and Sara were trained to be agents of Leiblich, teaching them how to use weapons and various other things. However, Hokuto was removed from training when he was 11 after he protected Sara from a bomb she accidentally set off, injuring him badly. This allowed You"haru" to use her influence to get him out of there.]]

Since the 360 version seems to be adding a significant amount of new content, should it be given it's own page?

Now Bloggier than ever before!

Probably not. What's usually done in that case is the two are split on the same page, with a header like, "These tropes apply to the original... these tropes apply to the remake."

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.

Well, it took a long time, but I just finished Coco's route a minute or two ago.

That's got to be the single highest degree of Holy Shit Quotient in any work of fiction, EVER.

Also, that ending song...taken in context, it's like the happiest piece of music in the world.

edited 17th Jan '12 9:08:05 AM by RiotousRascal

Yes

You mean Aqua Stripe? It's a bit engrish-y for my tastes, but other than that I'm pretty fond of it.

Now Bloggier than ever before!

Oh my god there's a manga out for it. You can see Takeshi on the very first page.

....

I am speechless.

Checked out the manga. So far it's pretty much a straight adaptation of a Takeshi path (The three chapters out so far go as far as the Dawn morning of the 2nd day*

). There are a few minor changes, which probably result from this being apparently an adaptation of the remake.

Now Bloggier than ever before!

How do they handle the... you know, THE TWIST? I cant imagine an Ever 17 manga or anime precisely because of THE TWIST.

Has a compulsive editing and re-editing disorder.