Let's Play Little Busters!

[Karifean]

Let's Play Little Busters!

Prologue

Hello fellow readers! I've decided to do a written Let's Play of a game called "Little Busters!". I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I will

But first, what exactly is Little Busters!? It's a Japanese visual novel that was never released outside of Japan. It's made by Key and is often considered their signature work - not necessarily their best, but if you wanted to describe what Key is, you would just point to Little Busters! and there you go. It was released in 2007.

And why do I want to Let's Play it? Simple: It has one of my absolute favorite casts of characters and storyline to date. I just want to share this experience with you. You may or may not have already seen the recent anime adaptation. If so, I would greatly appreciate your attention, as I do consider the original visual novel to be quite a bit superior to the adaptation - you may end up very much enjoying this LP! And if you have never heard of Little Busters! before, but I did catch your interest if just slightly, well then, I strongly urge you to either stick with me, or read it by yourself. It's worth the time investment, most certainly.

Speaking of time investment, this LP will take quite some time. Little Busters! is often approximated at 50+ hours to complete and I will be taking screenshots of maybe the majority of lines in this game. Still, if you could take the time to follow me on this journey, that would be great.

This is a visual novel with choices. When they're only minor, I will mostly pick one and roll with it. For others, I will be asking you, the readers, to choose what path to take. Look forward to it^^

Next time we will be clicking that New Game button and get right into it. Enjoy - Little Busters!



Direct links to specific parts

Chapter 1

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8
• Part 9
• Part 10
• Part 11
• Part 12
• Part 13
• Part 14
• Part 15
• Part 16
• Part 17
• Part 18

[Shauna]

Awesome. This should be interesting.

[Dat Matt]

I will do everything in my power to ensure that we choose rin. Rin is love, Rin is life.

[Karifean]

Mio is the true love, and life. Where is that from anyways?

I forgot to post this before: the Main Menu music.


So soothing... feels like a calm before the storm.

Well, without further ado, let's get started!





As the lights converge, our journey begins.

Chapter 1: General Route

I will be spoilering out all the parts of the LP so as to make navigating this thread a bit easier.

Chapter 1, Part 1


Sunday, May 13th. This is where we start. We take on the perspective on a boy called Naoe Riki, as a loud voice awakens him from sleep.




Don't you just hate it when your roommate gets up in the middle of the night and runs off to fight for no apparent reason? Masato runs off and Riki follows him.

Music for this part: Mission Possible (But Difficult Task)

Sure enough, there's a fight in the cafeteria. Masato is fighting Kengo - they're both Riki's childhood friends.




Masato on the left, Kengo on the right. We have a bit of fighting, which is all the while commentated by a crowd of spectators.




Seems likely. Whatever his cut may read, it seems to get a bit dangerous, so Riki tries to find a way to stop them. He doesn't just cut in, that would be too easy, instead he goes to find Kyousuke, who as we heard earlier, has just returned.
Kyousuke acts as a big brother of sorts to the three of them and he is supposed to mediate the fight. After a bit of persuasion by Riki, Kyousuke steps in.






And so he comes up with a most elegant solution!





I love this guy already.

The onlookers start throwing all sorts of random stuff into the ring. Kengo gets hold of a toy gun, while Masato... uh...




Well this is gonna be fun. Battle Start!










...suddenly a loud yell interrupts the fight!



Rin says to "stop bullying the weakling"! Of course, Masato and Kengo both instantly assume she meant the other, until Rin clarifies her statement.



Rin demands to know where Masato got it from, and it turns out Kyousuke tossed it into the ring. How nice of him. She takes the cat away. Masato demands a new cat to fight with, but Kengo quickly loses interest.




Annnnnd...





Okay now those weapons just aren't fair. Rin has a three-section-staff and Masato is fighting with... a freaking eel pie.

The battle goes about as well for Masato as you'd expect.






Don't worry, he's not dead. Masato takes more abuse in this game than Homer does in the Simpsons.

Following the battle, Riki gets a bit nostalgic and tells about how he got to know his friends. Masato, Kengo, Kyousuke, Rin and himself, the five of them have been together for a long time.





(He thought Rin was a boy at the time)
A young Kyousuke took Riki by his hand and dragged him along. When Riki asked who they were, he replied that they called themselves...



What follows is a short story of how the five of them fought a beehive for no apparent reason whatsoever. On the verge of defeat, Masato covers his own body in honey and charges into the cloud of bees. Kyousuke vows not to forget Masato's sacrifice as he lights him on fire. Masato only barely survived.




If only...

May 14th

Music for this part: Waking Up In The Morning (wow I actually posted the wrong track)

The next day, all is forgotten and Kengo, Masato, Riki and Kyousuke meet up in the cafeteria.

Rin comes along, with the cat from yesterday sitting on her shoulder.



Kyousuke frequently picks up stray cats and gives them to Rin as a present. And so this cat, too, ends up in her hands.

Kyousuke asks if she found a name for the cat yet, which Rin denies. So...





Wonderful name choices, Kyousuke. Just wonderful.

Ah well, Rin likes the name Lennon and so that name sticks. And once more, Riki makes a wish.



The five of them walk back to school, and on the way they talk about Kyousuke's situation. He is a third-year, one year higher than the other four, and is already looking for a job. They reflect on the time they all spent together.









Realizing that Kyousuke has the same wish as him, Riki proposes that they "do something together, just like the old days." And so, Kyousuke comes up with an idea.



And as he picks up something from the ground, he announces...



Well, obviously, right? What else? Masato and Kengo react appropriately...


But it's too late. There's no escaping Kyousuke's grand plans (which he came up with on the spot).





*cue opening movie*:



I must say, I really like the opening of Little Busters! It gives off a nostalgic vibe and it's so upbeat and positive.

I do personally prefer the anime version of the song, however. I posted this in the "songs that always put you in a good mood" thread, too:



So that's it for the introduction. The Little Busters have been formed, we know half the main cast, and we're about 40 minutes into this game. Well we are still a bit too few people for a baseball team, but so far, things are looking pretty good.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we will delve further into this baseball team idea.



(any feedback on layout and design of the LP is welcome)

[Shauna]

Do you actually do anything in those battle sections? Or does it all play out automatically? x}

[Dat Matt]

Chapter 1, Part 1 - Best girl makes an appearance. Masato is resigned to comic relief. Good times.

[Shauna]

Are you implying that the best girl is anyone besides Yuiko Kurugaya? :3

[Karifean]

The best girl is obviously Saigusa Haruka.

Oh and no, you don't actually do anything during those battle scenes. But I'll get more into that in probably the next part.

Chapter 1, Part 2

After Kyousuke's announcement in the last part, we find ourselves in the classroom. Riki had just been sleeping, apparently.






Sounds like a pretty serious disorder. Kinda scary. Imagine falling asleep in the middle of crossing a road. Thankfully, Masato offers Riki to talk to him about what's bothering him.



So nice and considerate of him.

Looks like Rin left the classroom, but she's on class duty and the blackboard hasn't been erased. A fellow classmate asks Riki to look for her, which we do.

Music for this part: Ring Ring Ring! (Rin's Theme)




First choice in the game!

Might as well take this opportunity to talk about how I will handle choices in this Let's Play. For much of the common path, choices don't affect a lot, and with those that I feel have little bearing on the game as a whole, I will just go ahead and pick one. When we get to the character routes, and on some more meaningful choices in the common path, I will be asking you, the readers, to tell me what choice I should pick. Cool?

For this choice, I picked the top option. We get a tranquil scene of Rin playing with her cats.



I feel at peace.

After a while, Riki does call out to her (I think picking the bottom option just skips straight to this part) and tells her about her neglected duty. Rin doesn't really care, but Riki takes this opportunity to ask her about her social situation in class.



Again Rin doesn't really care, but it does leave Riki thinking about it; how she is so overly shy that she hardly socializes at all. He thinks about how to make her open up to other people more, as the Little Busters won't be together forever.






After classes are over, we head on over to Kyousuke for setting up baseball practice... although Riki and Masato are the only two actually motivated for it. Kengo is nowhere to be seen, but Masato manages to snatch Rin and drag her along, despite her lack of interest.

Music for this part: Boys Don't Cry (Kyousuke's Theme)



I love this picture of Kyousuke. It really does make him seem... divine.



So... divine...

...

Ah, he stands up, and comes over.




.....

Well that was disillusioning. Baseball really was just a spur-of-the-moment idea.

Riki and Masato remind him of his baseball club idea and the band idea is quickly abandoned. We go over to the clubroom. Wait, we have a clubroom?




That's one way to get a clubroom, just hijack the room of the actual baseball club. We decide the room needs some cleaning and get right down to it.

When we're done, turns out Rin made her escape and left us three to play by ourselves. Just great. But it seems Kyousuke has something in mind...







Great reaction shot. But we go along with it.




I think I know where this is going. Wait for it...



Uh huh, that sounds about right. Riki is loyal though, he doesn't run away like the other two. And so we spend the afternoon playing together...

The five meet up aain at dinnertime, where Kyousuke confronts the others about their lack of motivation.





I love the interactions between these guys.





Wait, he actually does have a reason? I didn't expect that.











Now that is some awesome logic right there. You feel like you're losing your individuality? BASEBALL!



Masato doesn't quite follow, but that's because there's nothing to follow. And yet, Kyousuke is dead serious.



How can you not love this guy?

But believe it or not, Kyousuke actually has a reason for choosing baseball specifically. About as amazing of a reason as you expect from him at this point.









Kengo will have none of that. He gets up and leaves. Maybe he's just fed up with Kyousuke's non-logic.





I feel for Masato. Being completely pulled into Kyousuke's pace must be tiring. And yet...



Yeah.

Real talk, being friends with Kyousuke must be so much fun. There would hardly be a boring minute in your life with this guy around. Someone who knows just how to inject fun into any mundane task. I could imagine that kind of high school life being pretty awesome.

Back in the dorms, Riki and Masato reflect on the situation a little. Before long, Kyousuke appears and lets himself in.

Music for this part: My Brave Smile


What follows is a rather amusing scene. Click here to show it.



























































After that little scene, Kyousuke brings up the subject of baseball again. And immediatly, he drops a bomb.



...yeah. Not about a month until the match like in the anime, here it's gonna be in just a week's time. Obviously Masato isn't gonna stand for that.





I'm sure he meant something by it. Like how important it is to get new members. Kengo in particular seems interested in how Kyousuke will find the remaining members.







Kengo saying they still need five members implies that he himself is not a part of the team. Someday he'll understand.

But Kyousuke is way ahead of Kengo - he's already devised a plan for Rin to go scout out new members! And he came quite prepared, actually.






Ah yes, the missions. There's no point to them, no rewards, no punishment for failure. Just a Mission Failed or Mission Complete at the end. It's just for fun, as many things in Little Busters! are.

Music for this part: http://youtu.be/NqwUuQboE88



She's getting way too into this.

For some reason the guys think it's a great idea if Rin didn't simply greet her potential recruits, but rather used some strange derivative of "Ohayou gozaimasu". You always have the option of letting her go ahead with the suggested greeting, or to stop her and move on to the next one.

Of course, if you let Rin go along with any one of the suggested greetings, it's shot down. You're supposed to keep saying no until Riki finally suggests just saying "Konban wa" (Good evening), but I went ahead and tried out all of them anyways.

So here's the different greetings Rin can use.






If you refuse to let her use any of them, she goes with Good evening. By the way, if you ever let her use one of these special greetings, she will actively refuse to use it on any subsequent playthroughs or if you just load a save from before. I found that out the hard way as I had to delete my savedata just to get these screenshots.

So Rin greets a random girl NORMALLY, and can actually initiate a conversation.





She's way too honest, though.



Can't say I'm surprised. So we try again, but our new recruitee seems a little less... sympathetic.




Oh god, I know who this is. It's... it's...!



Sasssassasasasami! And she wants to battle!



This isn't much of a fight, you're up against the weakest enemies in the game. And no, you still can't affect the outcome of the battle in any way besides reloading until you get what you want.



I won, but uh...



...yeah...



...no way am I gonna beat Sasami now. Didn't even get her down to half HP.



Don't ask me why the battle with Sasami has anything to do with the mission that was originally recruiting a new team member.

And so the night goes on...

That's it for Part 2. Next time, we will actually start playing baseball!

[Pumpkin]

I am happy Rin stood up for kitty. Kitty is my favorite character so far

[Karifean]

Just a quick note, right here you get a choice of whether or not you want the battle sequences to play.



Since this is the first run, I leave them on. I might turn them off for subsequent runs, at least for some. A nice little feature to help replays go faster.

Also, for those who haven't seen the anime, if you're interested what the characters sound like, here's a clip that has the voices of the five main characters.



It's the anime version of the "aphorisms homework" scene. Note that Riki is not voiced in the visual novel.

[Shauna]

Frickin' Sasami. What a bitch.

[Karifean]

Chapter 1, Part 3

May 15th

Just another day begins.



Everyone's here eating their breakfast. But before long, a dangerous enemy appears...



A FLY?! Quick, hide!



Oh thank god Kengo is here to protect us. Go get him!



Okay that's actually pretty impressive.



Uh oh, Masato's "can't lose to Kengo" spirit is building up. This is gonna be bad.



You don't punch a freaking louse. Because...



...ah. Too late.



You don't need me to tell you what happens next, right?



Obviously. But just then, Kyousuke intervenes.



As it turns out, we're the last ones in the cafeteria - and classes are due to start right about now. We rush back to the school building.



I'm sure he's about to come up with some really stupid plan.



Uh, what is he thinking of...



Wait, WHAT?



Yeah, that! What kind of idea is that? Throw them three stories upwards, there's no way...

Music for this part: Mission Possible



Oh dear god... okay this is just getting funny now.



I love the "Please" in the instructions. As if the game is asking you to please not let Rin fall.

The two gauges rapidly fill and empty at two different speeds. It's not really difficult to line them up so they're both in the upper halves, but you can easily mess up. Not that it affects anything past the next scene.



I managed to get a pretty good result... at least it would seem that way.





I can't stop laughing right now.



How the smurf did they do that.



Ah damn. I think she's gonna die. Sorry, Rin.



Eh, what? Did she land on the roof or what?



No freaking way. This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in this visual novel so far. And I love it.



Mission Complete! Because everything went according to plan!



Masato still gets a throughout beating, of course. But that's only natural.

I remember when I saw this scene in the anime for the first time. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Sure, let's throw Rin three floors up in the air! Why not?

Either way, classes start and we skip ahead to recess.





Uh oh, I've got a bad feeling about this.



It takes a bit of persuasion, but eventually Masato owns up.



...I don't think this idiom dictionary is usable anymore.






Oh hey, a new character! This is a girl called Saigusa-san.

Music for this part: Melancholy of a Noisy Girl (Haruka's Theme)



Saigusa Haruka - a top contender for my favorite heroine in this game. Mainly because her path is quite easily my favorite of the main character paths.



Uh, what did I just say? That she is my favorite heroine? Well therefore of course I don't want her to hate me, so I picked "Don't lend it out". It's for her own safety.






That's a nice way of putting it.



I like Haruka's smile.

Lunchtime. Our group of five is eating together, and Kyousuke already has plans for us.



This is so stupid.



Rin has the right idea.



Oh? Another new character already? After a bit of trouble finding her, Riki decides that she could only be on the rooftop.

Music for this part: Race



There's an open window and a screwdriver next to it. Kamikita seems a bit audacious.



I wouldn't be surprised to hear a stalker accusation. We did follow her up to a closed-off rooftop for no apparent reason.



Kamikita Komari. She's a little ditzy. She mistakes Riki for a guidance counselor and tries to talk her way out of being up here. Riki grabs her attention.



Now you're just screwing with me. Is Riki hiding behind a wall or why can't you just look at him?



Whatever you want to call it. She doesn't exactly seem like prime baseball team member material.



Case in point, she manages to get stuck underneath a water tank.



Oh Japan...



Oh Japan...



That might just be it! Genius, Riki!



Of course, you need to imagine all of Kamikita's lines being spoken in sort of a teary tone.





Music for this part: Magic Ensemble (Komari's Theme)

So now, let me formally introduce to you: Kamikita Komari. Not my favorite character, especially not my favorite introduction to a character, but she's alright. She is... a little ditzy sometimes, of course, and this scene does nothing to dispute that.



...yeah. I don't think I need to elaborate.



Everyone needs to have dreams, don't be so harsh, Riki.



Don't shatter her dreams, Riki. Ah well, enough talk about her panties.



You better come up with a good excuse.



Blame it on Kyousuke. And besides...



Yeah, sure, whatever.



She even goes so far as to say this is the one place where she can feel at ease. I guess that's fine. She even invites Riki to be her "conspirator" (as it is forbidden to be up here)



And she hands over her screwdriver to Riki. That's nice of her. Though knowing her, she probably doesn't even have a spare.



Oh that's right, we were supposed to be recruiting members, weren't we?



Everyone onboard, the train will leave in 2 minutes~



Ah damn. Now we can't deny it. I still blame Kyousuke, though. Thankfully Kamikita's not the type to hold it against you.



We have a little snack atop the roof.

After that, Riki heads back down.



She's still doing this.



If you pick "Let her be" you are locked out of Rin's route. Since I have the feeling a certain reader would have loud objections to that, I went with "Go look for her".

Music for this part: Ring Ring Ring!



Ah, this again. And once again we'll be watching for a while. Gives us another tranquil image of Rin playing with her cats.



It sure is relaxing to look at. This time, however, there's something that grabs Riki's attention.



Lol, whatever.



Well then, let's take a look.



Not a love letter, but mystifying nonetheless. Rin also has a second letter that apparently explains things a bit.



I'm surprised the first task wasn't "Transfer 10000 Yen into this bank account". Maybe they're actually serious. Where did they come from anyways?



Aha, so Lennon is the culprit! ...maybe not.



Riki? Two minutes ago we were running around the school building talking like train conductors for no reason at all. Your point doesn't hold up well.



Now Riki feels a bit control-freaky...



S-sure, that's all...



And she's okay with that? Whatever works for her, I guess...

So we head back to the clubroom and Kyousuke tells us his plans for the team.



This guy has been reading entirely too many mangas.



Music for this part: Day Game



Oh yes, the baseball practice. A very relaxing minigame. All you need to do is move in four directions and swing the bat to try and hit Rin's pitches.



...unfortunately Rin is a horrible pitcher.




Well, let's see if it was just a once-in-a-lifetime misthrow.



No there's no way to dodge or hit that ball. It will always hit you.

Well that was better, but still not quite good. Especially since she hit Riki.



Kyousuke's had enough of this.



Why, aren't you a nice brother ^^



He really does come up with the best ideas, doesn't he?



Ah, looks like Rin finally has the motivation she needed!



Nah, I don't think that'll be necessary. Because look, Rin's gonna pitch right towards me...



I don't know whether to be more shocked at the fact that she managed to accidently throw the ball over to Masato AGAIN, or that Masato actually hit it.



You totally brought this on yourself, Rin.



Still probably hurts to have that title.



So now, Batting Practice can finally begin.



If you don't feel like doing baseball practice during replays, you can conveniently turn them off. For Chapter 1 I'll leave it on, and I might turn it off after that. Even if I do turn it on, I won't be taking screenshots of it.



So let me give you a quick rundown of how it works. On the top right you have a radar showing yourself, Rin and Masato as yellow dots, Kyousuke as red dot, and all the cats as blue dots. Rin will pitch towards you (hopefully) and you just try to hit it. You can control where the ball will go to a degree, though it takes some practice before you can have it go where you want it to.

Generally, you want to hit the ball towards your teammates, particularly Kyousuke. If you do that, they will throw the ball right back to you and you can hit the incoming ball directly, building up a chain. Rin will deliberately dodge your balls, by the way, and Masato just bats it right back to you. Kyousuke will make an effort to get your balls and he's pretty good at it, so try to bat towards him as much as possible.

It's pretty difficult for me to play this and take screenshots at the same time, so unless you explicitly ask for it, I won't be taking many.

Here is an example of a combo:



But do you know what happens most of all.

You will hit those goddamn cats ALL THE DAMN TIME!



I swear you will hit them every few balls, it's inadvertible. I honestly am not trying to hit them, but they deliberately jump straight into your shots and get themselves knocked out.



It happens all the time. And Rin will always get mad at you for it. Nothing you can do about it but willingly get 20 strikes until practice ends. You can also end it manually if you want. I mostly just hope for the best that they don't get themselves hit.



As you can see, doing baseball practice increases your team members' stats. The more you hit the ball towards someone, the higher they power up. You still get stat ups even if you manually end the session just after it started, but not as much.

By the way, in case you noticed, Riki has a chibi model and a portrait in the baseball segments. Yes, he is also voiced there. One of the few times that is the case.

So did Rin's skills impress everyone?



I guess not.

Seems like Masato is a little dissatisfied with baseball.



Oh, this is gonna be amazing.



How does he come up with awesome ideas like that on the spot!?





Seriously. I want to buy this guy's brain.

Alright, the Battle Rankings. One of the greatest "pointless fun" parts of Little Busters. Sadly, the anime could only bring it in the one OVA episode, so much of this may be new to those who have only seen that.





Alright fair enough, so did Masato get a weapon that's any good?



But of course not.



Now that we've come to this point, I can finally post this:

Music for this part: Heroic Battle

Awesome battle theme!



Rin uses 12 cats so she gets 12 hits per turn. This battle is scripted though, of course.



Smooth move Masato. If only this was a battle you could win.



Well that was a quick match. Masato will have his revenge someday. Maybe.





Oh that is cold. She might still be mad about her own title.



Poor Masato. Gotta become the provisional ruler of the battle rankings!



I'll gladly keep these turned on, thank you very much.

So that's it for now. Next time we'll recruit a new member and get right into those Battle Rankings! Why else would we power up our team during baseball practice?


So now that we're getting further into the common path, I doubt more parts are going to be this long. I might have to abruptly end a part now and then if a critical choice comes up that I want the readers to vote on. Can't go by memory on that.

[Pumpkin]

Kitties getting hit with baseballs

[Dat Matt]

If you pick "Let her be" you are locked out of runs route. Since I have the feeling a certain reader would have loud objections to that, iI went with "Go look for her"

So you're saying there is a chance?

[Ultima Shadow]

Psh! Haruka is by far the best girl!

Though I do like Rin as well. "Cats are marching, nyan, nyan!" <3 And she has the best big brother ever.