hakuno/ai sakura is literally some of the most intense classic yuri ive ever seen and it's not even close.
the yearning... the gentle warmth... the tragedy... the delicacy... the bittersweetness heartbreak... feelings so powerful they can crush reality and change the future, self-sacrifice and kindness beyond reason. Caring for someone with your whole heart, even when your memories of them were taken away...
I can't believe they're hiding this in the second playthrough route of this game that never got re-released. CCC has some sins, but ohhhh my god it delivers where it counts.
I'm gonna go eat all the drywall in my house now. I can't fucking wait to see the conclusion of their story next week. I am aware of at least a few more bullets in the chamber coming up and I know there's gonna be even more I can't wait to receive them with my skull
Well, the journey has finally come to an end. After 5 months working my way through CCC every Saturday, we finally finished our bonus episode with Tamamo’s Servant ending.
This has been such a special and emotional experience, and I’m glad I got to experience it with friends. Since 2019 I’ve been fascinated by this game that spoke to me so deeply in its aesthetics and themes that I’ve been obsessed with it, scouring the internet for content, for answers, for insight, knowing I might never get the chance to play it, dreaming anyway of being able to play it myself.
How precious an opportunity it’s been, then, to receive this wonderful English patch, and to work my way through the Extraverse games this year, falling even more in love with them and the world and characters they depict. And to have lovely friends that would tune in every week to watch and experience it with me—I really couldn’t ask for more.
So much work from so many people went into setting me on my path and allowing me to fulfill this dream. I would like to thank the EN FGO translation team, for working so hard to get FGO translated and ensuring that I could experience the SERAPH event and take an interest in its source material; tsukinoura, for providing our first English glimpse into the game, and ZVN for painstakingly editing it into footage from the game, so it could be enjoyed in its context; to the many smaller translator who worked on little sections of the game like Raizu Stash, who provided translations for chunks of the True Ending that I couldn’t find anywhere else; and my dear friend who goes by Mytherrus, for lending his efforts into translating a few important segments that I couldn’t find in English anywhere on the net. So many people have worked so hard to provide little glimpses into this game over the years, and contributed to my love and fascination.
While my own efforts to scrabble together an understanding of Kiara from incomplete pieces of canon and outsider knowledge of religious practices pale in comparison to the efforts of all these people, they have given me a deep appreciation for that part of human nature that decides, “fuck it. I’ll do it myself.” and a sense of kinship with everyone who has ended up putting in hours and hours of work so they could create something they wanted to see.
And this applies to no one so much as the CCC English Translation team. Thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for the years of work you’ve put into making this gargantuan story and all its routes available, in full, in English. You’ve done something truly beautiful.
I guess that’s it. It’s been a really wonderful time. For all its flaws and missed opportunities, CCC is a wonderful game that will always, always be special to me. It has motivated me and directed parts of my path through life for so long, and I have met some lovely people because of it.
This is by no means the end of my love affair with the Extraverse. I have so much I want to do, so much I want to write, now that I have the full picture.
But it is the end of this part of it. The part where CCC was a distant, captivating mystery, something ethereal, lying just beyond the horizon: a puzzle of material to investigate and process and piece together. The part where I experienced it for the first time with good friends. And it was so much fun.
I don't think I've ever ugly-cried through the credits of a game in a non-sorrowful way before. just, so much emotion. I'm not spoiling anything. Anyway I love Saber so so so much.
CCC true route playthrough is almost done... I should be finished in about 3 weeks.
It feels kinda surreal. I've been playing so much extraverse for the past 4 or 5 months. Between running through Extra with Saber and Tamamo, and then my weeks and weeks of CCCaturday... there's just under a month left and then I'll be done? Like there's just no more?
It feels wrong. Part of me feels like there should be a third game. But there just isn't.
Obviously I could come back to do a Gilgamesh playthrough sometime in the future, but like...
I'll have seen everything there is to see, content-wise.
And it also means no more new Kiara content for the forseeable future too, barring the continued release of the SERAPH manga.
I've really gotten back into the Fate universe throughout this whole process in a big way, and I think I've really seen that like, yeah FGO is for shit, but this series is definitely still where my heart is. There's a lot more for me there.
The Extraverse has come to mean so much to me. I'll continue to hold it dear, and definitely write some fic. But it's the ever-present bittersweet fate of fans to run out of the official material, isn't it?
CCC progress report: I'm pleased to announce Elizabeth's segment is a spectacular return to form. The way it balances humor, cuteness, and levity with seriousness, some extremely heavy topics and some genuinely terrifying moments is really great. It mixes things up in a way that's really satisfying, and it's well-paced despite juggling multiple subplots at once.
Saber's rivalry with Elizabeth is at times funny or endearing, and at times deeply serious, as she has a profound understanding of the core of Elizabeth's issues.
Melt would steal the show with her appearances, which cut the levity of Eli's first two floors with genuine terror and an undeniable sensuality, but the entire back half is some of the best, most consistent material of CCC so far.
Kiara and Hans's moment is both sobering and complex, and I have a lot to say about the reveals it makes on Kiara's character and the way that would affect her impact to a fresh player. The way it tears down your image of her evokes a lot of complex feelings, and it makes me even more excited for the True Route, if that's even possible.
The section for rescuing AI Sakura was done with pathos and flair, and the use of music in particular is amazing. Playing Alter Ego/M during Sakura's desperate hour brought out a whole new side of that song--reflection, long-suffering, a thin ray of hope, an uncertain journey. Not knowing if she could be rescued, and still going forward anyway.
Similarly, Organism Harmonics making its debut inside Sakura's mind was fantastic--though I think it would've benefited from continuing into battles. It made me think of how far we've come, and how even in these desperate situations, we've seen and experienced some really beautiful things.
It was a really good time. I really like this game after all.
Just finished the True Route. I ugly cried like twice at the sad moments, which is how I know it's good. Kiara's final showing was incredible, and there's so much info and differences between translations I have to pick through.
Saber ending hit me harder though. Kinda hard to match up to your first playthrough, I guess. I don't think any game has ever made me cry tears of joy before so that was really special.
[SPOILERS]
I think Sakura is an excellent heroine but they really needed to give her more time. Structurally, True End route follows well off a normal playthrough, and the way it takes time at the very end to totally change your perspective of the stuff you've already played is great.
However, I don't think there was enough content added or changed to make it not feel like kind of a slog. In particular, the relationship with AI Sakura misses a lot without the time taken to develop it, and IMO the ending didn't lean into Hakuno and Sakura's chemistry as well as their scenes in the latter half of the game, which burned with passion. Lacking the instant flame of chemistry, they really could use more scenes together to make it feel like a full route, not just a secret ending. BB is magnificent though. maybe a lil in love with her lmao. She had unbelievable chemistry with Hakuno, when she's being more honest and Sakura-y. The secret punishment scene for her was excellent aftercare for my poor heart, and it's so tragic they never get to be together canonically, because they would love each other so so so well. My hearttttt.
Some of the blocking details vis a vis the past never resolved to me, so I wasn't able to lock in on some key moments. Just before the climax, Sakura referenced a moment when she had disappeared, and I didn't get it at all: it was kind of impossible for me to put together Kiara's master plan in full detail, too, which is a big L, and took away some of the impact.
Overall, I think CCC is somewhere between a flawed masterpiece and a cult hit. I really really love this game. Now that I'm done with it, and it's a "game I've played" instead of "a fantastical experience I might have in the future" I have to go mourn that perspective a little, I think. But I'm glad I played it.
