It took a while but I finally managed to get into Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4. Enough to get a couple of endings, at any rate. There’s a function that allows you to skip around the chapters, and you can “multi-task” characters for the first 4 chapters, so that helps. I still have a mountain of complaints about the way this game is constructed, but despite that I still managed to complete four character routes plus the Chihiro-solo ending.
First the losers, the ones I couldn’t be bothered to get, in order of increasing desirability/decreasing undesirability.
Kazahaya – To quote a wrestling promo, “I don’t like him, I don’t trust him and I don’t believe him. He’s a phony little piece of ****.” Something about his heavily put-on “nice guy” shtick just rubs me the wrong way. Which is weird because normally I like nice guys, but I just can’t stand Kazahaya. There’s just something slimy about him, like a nasty little crawling worm.
You find out later on that “Kazahaya” isn’t even his real name and that the real Kazahaya died years ago, but that didn’t even faze me because I knew in my heart that he was a phony. It never even occurred to me to do his route. Somehow I kept getting his events, which seriously creeped me out, but later on I found out that you have to do everyone else’s route first to get him (pfft, hell no). Can’t believe anyone would want him that badly, but there are some weirdos out there.
Ashvin – Smug bastard. Smug, cocky, thinks he’s all that. I hate his type. I hate him. And I hate those unwinnable battles he’s so often part of. His are the worst kind, where you’re clearly kicking the enemy’s ass, but then the scene switches to a cutscene and you’re on the losing end. “Oh no, he’s too strong, we can’t possibly beat him!” WTH, he’s at 1HP, we are totally winning!! It happens not just once but at least 3 different times I can think of, and all three times I was winning! In fact, when he finally joins my party, he’s weaker than a baby’s fart.
Then there’s the little incident with the overpowered unicorn in chapter 1. I finally beat the bloody thing just a few minutes ago. Plus Chihiro might be willing to let it go, but I haven’t forgotten that he’s the enemy and was responsible for the death of so many rebels before coming to my side – smug, cocky, murderous and treacherous. No thank you!
Hiiragi – Another guy who’s just not my type. And another traitor, they’re just crawling out of the woodwork! I automatically get suspicious of guys who are too suave and too smooth-talking, but Hiiragi has served me faithfully since he joined my party. He’s probably saving the betrayal for his actual route, which I won’t be going on. While he’s almost as slimy as Kazahaya, an unlikely fact saves him from being ranked alongside Kaz: my sister looooves shady guys like Hiiragi. I don’t know why, she just does. The shadier, the better. So the fact that there’s a living, breathing human being out there who would go bonkers for him moves him up juuust a little bit in the desirability stakes.
Sazaki – No problems with his personality, and I have no issues with interspecies love… within reason, of course. Unlike certain others, he’s honest and straightforward. He doesn’t tease, belittle or ridicule Chihiro, he hasn’t gone all mopey on me (yet) and his looks are passable enough. There’s no real reason why I didn’t go for him, other than that I ran out of steam after clearing four routes. Plus when I considered their future prospects, it didn’t look like it’d work out. It would either end with a) Chihiro abandoning the throne to go treasure-hunting with him (noooo, I hate the outdoors!) b) the two going their separate ways, or c) Sazaki being reduced to the pitiful, constricted court life of a queen’s consort in the highly unlikely event that Queen Chihiro is allowed to marry a brigand. None of these scenarios seem very happy, so I left him alone.
I was going to follow up directly with the guys I did get, but I just keep writing and writing and the post keeps getting longer and longer, so I’ll split off here and continue with the other guys tomorrow.
[…] Following the previous post, it’s time to cover the guys I did get, also in order of increasing desirability. Major route spoilers ahead, stop now if you plan to play this game. […]