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do. not. approve.
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gemmy 'sui
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Dust from the floor of xitter
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book of literal whos
â„–18060449[Quote]
Ciel True > Arcueid True > Arcueid Good > Akiha Neutral > Ciel Good > Akiha True > Hisui True > Hisui Good > Kohaku True
Arceuid’s route feels the most well thought out overall. It’s world-building with vampires that is the most engaging part of the visual novel, and Arceuid is one of the better heroines, and I really like the gypsy archetype for fictional characters. She is probably the character with the funniest dialogue (Ciel being a close second), and I think he makes more great waifu bait. Her route has the right amount of wholesome and edgy moments that really tingles my autistic mind and is the reason why I kept reading this visual novel after I did this as my first route. If I had did say Hisuis route first(I know you cannot do this as your first route), I would have quit after I finished that ending. My only issue is that its endings are a bit too simple and boring for my tastes, but they work well enough, and it would be wrong to say they are bad endings. It has no strong negatives, and I am glad it was my first route, even though I liked Ciel’s true route more.
^Ciel’s route feels like it is the most packed with content. This is overall a good thing, but it did make the beginning a little boring compared to Arceuid’s route. That being said, Ciel is by far the character with the most interesting story, and her personality is the one I found the most endearing out of all the heroines, so having more moments with her made her route feel pretty good to go through after the beginning. I was honestly surprised she was not a religious nut cliche. I thought she was going to be, her weak/non-existent faith in Christianity made her a more interesting and original character than she would have been if she were written to be more religious(because Japs tend not to write religious characters very well, so the writers are playing to their strengths with Ciel). The real highlight of this route is shifting the main antagonist from being Roa/SHIKI, who I do not really find that interesting, to Arcueid, who is one of the best characters in this visual novel. So you get lots of moments with the two best characters in this game, and the true ending is my favorite ending in Tsukihime(it was so good it gave me false expectations for how another route was going to play out). The major problem with this route is the good ending; it not only removes the drama and tension that comes with Shiki facing Arcueid, but it is also completely insulting to Ciel after everything she and Shiki went through just to put some gay harem fanservice in the story. I really did not like this ending, and if I were rating epilogues by themselves, it would be the second-worst one.
(((Akiha’s route was better than I expected it to be. Compared to Arcueid and Ciel, Akiha is not as interesting a character. I do not really care for the Tsundere archetype, nor do I think Akiha is a good example of that archetype. She is all around pretty basic and not very entertaining; this applies to how she is in every route except Kohaku’s. That being said, Ciel is in this route, and her role is really fantastic. I loved the duel between her and Shiki. I also thought some of the best dialogue, both Akiha and Ciel, came from their banter with each other; the two really play off each other well, and it is a shame this is the only route where they interact with one another. I also particularly like her neutral ending, as it shows the horror of not letting a family member die with grace after major brain damage. I think it reinforces an important value people should have when faced with a situation similar to Shiki’s: it is better to pull the plug and let your loved ones live as a soulless doll. Her true ending is meh.)))
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>>18060449Hisui’s route starts off really boring as Shiki is sick in bed for a great deal of the story’s duration. Not only that, but Hisui is by far the most boring character in the game, not just of the main heroines but even compared to any side character. I mean, I do not hate her character; there just is not that much to her. It is difficult to even discuss what she is like; she just exists. Thankfully, her own route has a very large focus on Kohaku, who is a much more interesting character, and the ending of this route(either version) is one of the best endings in Tsukihime. It does provide much more interesting information for the overall story than Akiha’s route, so I am conflicted with placing it so low, but it is overall the most boring route in the visual novel.Kohaku’s route is the biggest letdown of all of Tsukihime. While I still think Kohaku herself is less interesting than Ciel and Arcueid, she is definitely more interesting than Akiha and Hisui, and her role in the ending of Hisui’s route was the best part of that route. So I had high hopes of learning more about how this character thought and behaved. And it somewhat delivered on that, especially during the beginning, we got to see parts of Kohaku’s personality that were not explored well in other routes. The beginning is also much faster-paced than the beginning of the other Far Side routes, which I really appreciated, as those routes took too long to get interesting. Not only that, but I was waiting for a route where Akiha would become the main antagonist, as I thought that role would have suited her well, and this route delivered that wish. But what really ruins this route is the ending; it is one of the worst endings I have ever read in any visual novel. Everything magically resolves itself for no reason, and it even outright contradicts previously established themes and lore that other routes have built, with no explanation for why it wants to destroy its own world-building. This ending left an extremely sour taste for the route itself, and if I were not the kind of person who can just ignore routes I do not like for games/stories I generally like, it would sour Tsukihime as a whole for me. What is worse is that this is the last route of Tsukihime, so I am left to dwell on the worst ending after there is no more content to read. Geniunely, all that was needed to redeem this route is to have Shiki kill Akiha and explore his feelings over not being able to save Kohaku. If it did not try to force some faggot everybody wins ending, it would be one of the better routes in the game. This is how I feel about each heroine overall.
Ciel > Arcueid > Kohaku > Akiha > Hisui