CLANNAD

HOT TAKE: This game sucks. I don't think I will get a refund at this point but I really don't understand why people praise this game. The main character is such a jerk to his best friend, the girls keep either hitting the main character or fawning over him for no reason, and he keeps skipping class and his dad does absolutely nothing to discipline him. I don't know if this is a cultural difference, but it feels like this was written by an elementary or high school student. The writing is not very good. I really tried to like this game. It has caused me to rethink all of my visual novel purchases. I definitely need something more adult.

I quit. CLANNAD, despite being lauded for lacking the usual weeb nonsense that plagues this medium, is full of the usual tropes: - Bad fanfiction MC who is an aloof delinquent and insults his schoolmates and grown adults, but never suffers any consequences - Comic relief best friend who the MC clearly doesn't respect, but continues to be his punishment golem anyway because its funny (it stops being funny by the tenth time they make this joke, then it becomes pathetic) - A harem of quirky high school girls who are cartoonishly shy/abrasive/weird/strong/etc who, despite the MC being an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who insists that no one should be seen with him, are inexplicably drawn to him anyway I gave up on this story being good when Sanae Furukawa, a grown woman who is happily married, agrees to be Sunohara's temporary girlfriend. This, of course, proceeds the MC telling her to ♥♥♥♥ off and making her cry. This is meant to be a grounded and sobering story, but it doesn't seem like the writer of this drivel even knows what normal social interactions look like. Maybe there's Japanese cultural context that I'm missing that the Dangopedia didn't fill me in on? Just because there isn't sex and panties in this story doesn't mean it's mature. Just because the story handles mature subject matter doesn't mean it's sad. VN fans consistently hail awful stories as the best the medium has to offer, and it makes me wonder if they live in clown world.

Big disappointment. I had bought it (on sale) based on the positive reviews. After playing it for an hour or so, I could not understand why it has so many positive reviews. I then started reading the negative reviews. Not only did they match my experience, but there seemed to be no porspect of things getting better. You play a VN for the story and characters, and both seem kind of horrible. Refunded.