Some helpful Hatoful clarification notes

[xaq_the_aereon]

This is primarily for the benefit of everyone else in the Hatoful group who's watching kjorteo's playtroughs.



There's no time loop of any sort going on here; the basic premise of the BBL route is that Hiyoko had befriended and gotten to know pretty much everyone on the various Otome routes, without every really getting more involved with them than casual camaraderie.

That was one reason I was advocating not worrying about pushing for any particular route in the pre-BBL term, as it ultimately has no effect on the story whatsoever...made the sudden Game Over a bit of a pointlessly rude surprise.

But, in any case, we can basically look at the Otome routes as nothing more than potential timelines that would have happened...had the events of BBL never taken place. They all hold a bit of the truth, but the ultimate outcomes of each of them (Shuu killing Yuuya and Hiyoko, Lord Pudi rewriting reality, Nageki passing on to the afterlife, etc.) we can simply retcon.

Also, what you guys were suspecting about the Archives stuff is true: the "neurotransmitter" thing was indeed talking about Anghel, and that is, in fact, Nageki's journal.

If there's anything else you guys need cleared up, I'll try to answer it as best as I can without spoiling anything about what happens during the final 4 Classes.

Comments

[kjorteo]

Ahh. I sort of came under the idea a long time ago that something like a time loop might be happening, because the YT upload of the end credits theme has the description "This story is not an end yet. Because only you are in the infinity loop." At first, I assumed that was the title of the song, in that way that directly translated Japanese OST song titles never make any sense (especially since one of the LP forums I found when I was looking for screenshots of particular moments always called it that when linking to it in the "music for this scene is:" note.)

However, digging a little further, it appears that's a quote from some other visual novel or game or something, and the person who uploaded the Hatoful end credit theme was making a smart-aleck reference to it when he put that in the video description, and the people on that forum were just confused.

WELL, THEN.

Edit: I have just confirmed that, yes, if you romance Shuu in the first term, it does have the scene where you totally sell Yuuya out to his heavily implied death several months before the term ends, and yes, the BBL path does just proceed as normal with him inexplicably there again like nothing ever happened anyway.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

The way that all the dialogue at the start of BBL goes, it always appeared to me that the majority of that section of the game was effectively retconned; going by Ryouta's dialogue, it all seems to happen on the second day of school.

I may have to play through again to double-check that theory, though.

EDIT: Oop, nope, never mind.

2ND EDIT: Even more damning evidence here: if you follow Shuu's route and then try to invite Yuuya to the summer festival, there's no answer.


...Okay, this is decidedly weird. Maybe he just escaped and spent the next few months on the run before finally getting caught by Hawk Party agents or something?

[kjorteo]

Actually, Yuuya fails to answer his phone when invited to the summer festival in every single route except his. The somewhat disturbing implication was that he canonically dies every single time you aren't there and don't specifically rescue him. He does show up alive and well in Anghel's route and Sakuya's extended ending, but ... being an extended ending and Anghel's route, I'm not sure how much they count.

Oh, and now BBL, of course.

Also, even if he escaped and came back, that would be pretty gutsy of him to suddenly start working closely and collaborating with the doctor at every turn as soon as the dome goes up....

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I think it may be best to simply say that the implied fate of anybirdie beyond Hiyoko in the first term simply does not count and leave it at that.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

In fact, now that I think about it...pretty much everything between the first day (after all introductions have been made and whatnot) and the end of the first term could (and as far I care, should) have been skipped entirely, save maybe for just a few days interaction to get those bits of dialogue in.

[kjorteo]

You know, unlocking the BBL path is something you can only do by getting every birdie's ending.

If you are playing BBL, that automatically means that you have literally seen the first day introductions at least eight times* and know where every single one of them leads.


* Since I'm told that you only need one ending per bird; getting the normal and extended for the three that have them isn't required

[xaq.livejournal.com]

The player has, yes, but I meant from Hiyoko's perspective...at the very least, when things start off she doesn't know Sakuya and Nageki, so for her sake at least they were needed. If she'd never gotten to know Sakuya at all, I doubt he'd have felt any need to help Ryouta with the investigation.


Also, I only went through the intro scenes twice total mself: once on the Otome routes and once again on BBL. I made a save at the "which club do I want to join?" point specifically for the purpose of skipping all that crap. :b