CLANNAD

Put 100 "strong-willed" people who "won't cry" against Clannad After Story and the ppl are getting 100-0'd. This is life changing. I doubted that when I read reviews when I first downloaded this from annoying videos on my feed (specifically the kyou ones) but holy I was so wrong This is one of the best stories i've ever finished. CLANNAD is a beautiful game all around and I think it doesn't get the love it deserves because it (from personal experience) is extremely hard to get into. Once it hooked me in I fell in love with the game because every route just an amazing bittersweet story that invokes deep emotions. Tomoya in himself is such a well written character because he's both a good person but also is flawed to the point where he is in a perfect middle ground for a MC. All the characters have intense and various examples of amazing personal development or deal with existing struggles such as the ones faced by the characters. Routes like Kotomi's involve both of those elements masterfully, dealing with intense tragedy and also personal development that are done amazingly. Personal Favorite Routes (Ranked) 1. Kotomi Ichinose 2. Nagisa Furukawa 3. Fujibayashi Sisters After Story: One of the only pieces of media i've cried to. This is something that probably changed how i view my own life. Each arc here is handled with even more mastery than is expressed in Clannad's Main Story. It changes how you view characters and it handles much more deep and difficult topics compared to the main story. (MAJOR SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT) The importance of the Illusionary World also was not one I expected but I certainly loved and the nature of it in the context of the standard After Story ending is depressing but it also goes full circle because of the previous context of for example Nagisa performing it in the play at the end of her route that would inevitably be a world created by Ushio that she summons Tomoya into. The true ending is also such a good use of supernatural elements because it's like if all of the happiness you created with other people came together to make sure Nagisa survived childbirth, leading Tomoya and Nagisa to raise Ushio together, which not only stops Tomoya's depressive spiral following her death and eventually stopping Ushio's death in the snow at the end of the standard ending. TLDR; It's good

So let me start this review off with saying that this might be the best piece of fiction i've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. this game is truly wholesome, and yes that might be a bit boring for some people with the fact that it's a slow burner but don't let that turn you off this absolute masterpiece. The score of this game is fantastic as it feels like every track fits the moment especially the track snowfield which is the most gut-wrenching track used on any media i've experienced. the side characters are also a great factor of this game, as i feel like most games tend to leave the side characters out of the main plot but this game lets you have a different story with each character's route. I would say that this is most definitely the most emotional i've ever gotten whilst experiencing a piece of media, most of which said tears came from after-story ( honourable mention to Kotomi's route too). I did consume Clannad first as a anime rather then the game and for 2 years now the anime was my favourite anime and i can honestly say the game is the best video game i've ever played as i'm a sucker for homely type of games that leave you empty after finishing it which was the case for my previous favourite game: Persona 4 Golden. This is 100% a must play of you like romance or visual novels or both though the game is very long and took me over a month to beat but idc about the length of a media as long as it's good. 10/10 no questions about it Nagisa and Tomoya>

I don't cry easily at media, but CLANNAD completely dismantled me. I never like to say that CLANNAD is a "crying game", it is so much more than that. As they say, "写作CL，读作人生", i.e. "Written as CL(annad), but read as life." One famous reviewer captured it beautifully: ”I laughed... I cried... I experienced something that changed my life... In a nutshell, Clannad ~After Story~ influenced the way I will live for the rest of my life." - LemonLyme Exhausting commitment yes, but a true masterpiece.