Hundred Line Spoilers!!!!! Few nights ago I was in a discussion about this question from this Hundred Line qna
We theorized how the Kick and Dodge the attacker option could be changed to where it makes it more clear you are going to the silly funny route. We came up with this.
Takumi has a choice to kick the attacker (Which leads to Slasher Route) or stand still (Leads to Comedy Route). a player seeing the choice to "stand still" will confused or surprise the player becuase it seems like a terrible idea, so they will pick the kick option.
But if a player is curious enough to want to see what happens when they pick stand still, the result will surprise them. Takumi will stand still, questioning why he is not moving cause he's scared and cornered. The attack tries to run at him but at the last moment, Takumi sticks his foot out, trips the attacker and they comically fall into the undying flames.
Here's a dramatic recreation:
The player seeing this happen will have a react to it in different ways, and this determines if they continue with the choice of going down the Comedy Route. They will either see this moment as really funny or a bit of an anti climax and pick the other option.
We're now sitting 118.5 hours (though admittedly, a chunk of that was from Mystery, which had a storylock and thus I had to abandon it for the time being) and have completed 2/21 routes, 22/100 endings. And while I knew going in to try to keep my expectations low, that all the routes will have different strengths and weaknesses, this route was... disappointing for me. Let's talk about the Comedy Route.
Note that I'm writing this immediately after completing the route myself, and everything herein is based on my own read of the game.
#1- The Evaphant in the Room
Throughout the entire route, from the beginning onward, I was never able to fully enjoy any of the 'comedy' in this route. There's a very glaring choice made as one of the first major events to occur in the route, one that completely put me off and was never properly addressed. Eva, the paragon of nature, was captured as she'd been in the previous routes. But this was the first time Sirei was present for it, and what he did sickens me.
After several days of "treatment", Eva comes out of the infirmary completely brainwashed into believing she's a weapon meant for the Special Defense Unit to use on the invaders. All of her memories of her own identity and history, her family, her beliefs- they're all completely removed. And it's vile.
This kind of choice could make for a very interesting story of the defense unit coming to terms with Eva's humanity when she still has feelings and reactions as a member of the team, or discovering the methods Sirei used on her and raising questions about how much he is and is not sharing, how he was comfortable doing this because he doesn't see her as human despite clearly being such. The problem here is that they chose to do this in a COMEDY route- the funny silly one with gags and quips meant to pad space for the big triple digit ending number. So naturally, it goes completely unaddressed. There are occasional attempts to make a bit out of her lack of social skills due to acting so robotic, but they only serve to remind the player what's been done to her, and there's nothing about it that says comedy.
The dehumanization and disregard for Eva as a character is frankly appalling. They could've just had her escape or have her switch sides in the war for a cartoonishly innocuous reason. Playing the route makes it abundantly clear that basic logic and consistent worldbuilding aren't really a priority for the joke route, so it's not like it even would've been hard to come up with a bullshit reason for her to be freed or join. I don't know. This rubbed me the wrong way, and was a horrendous opener for what's supposed to be the joke route.
It's also worth noting that the only two characters to show ANY care for Eva as a living thing at all in this route are Shouma and Moko. Most of the group treats her like a ticking time bomb until they get accustomed to her, and Gaku and Darumi in particular have some not-so-considerate thoughts on how to treat her. It just feels more malicious than any of them were before this from what I'd seen of them. I didn't like it.
#2- Free Time
This route had so much free time. So. So much free time. Enough for me to max bond with 4 characters, max level 4 characters, get the remaining 11 characters (excluding Eito) to 14/18, max out the majority of my traps and enchantments, and get my report card to all 5s when it'd started at 4-2-2-2-2. And then some. There were a lot of explorations for material stacking involved, and of course trial and error with the gifts. But yeah, lots of time on Takky's hands.
This is a necessary bastion for the people who thrive on making number go up on RPGs, I think. I'm not necessarily that person, but I am a completionist and I'd like to get all the Steam achievements, so here we are! Good thing I maxed out the desperation potion. Easy BP comes from making your favs drink the kys potion and then following through, if ever you were wondering. This is probably thematic to the game's slowly building anti-war message.
Comedy Route is a thinly veiled grinding route with joke plots sprinkled around to keep the player somewhat engaged with the characters. I honestly think I would've rather they go all in on a training route, but shit, maybe they did. I wouldn't know :p
#3- Theory Corner
This line made me squint. It's almost immediately followed by OPE GOT YOU TO LAUGH WOMP WOMP but like. For just a moment. A split second. There was a gravity to the conversation. This felt... ominous. So now I have a theory.
Nozomi did regain the memory of Takumi as Takky, and had Karua's scar. So to some capacity, Nozomi and Karua are the same person, meaning Karua is or was real. But if we take Sirei at face value- if we believe he would share a deep secret if it meant furthering his goal- and Sirei believes Karua wasn't real, then maybe Kodaka hasn't let his V3 dreams go. Maybe Takumi, and the other members of the Special Defense Unit, are constructed humans.
My thinking is that, rather than it being a case of 'implanted characters' like V3 was, it's instead a case of virtual reality- they're lab-grown, and the TRC they know was a simulation to mold them. There was another mention in this route of Sirei mentioning they'd intentionally done "varied personalities", so maybe the simulation was intentionally giving them stories that would motivate them in unique ways and give them unique strengths and weaknesses to make their Special Abilities. Some were paired, like Ima and Kako, while most were on their own. There may have been more than them originally as well, lab-grown soldiers that failed, hence why a third of the team is sent to the decoy location and there are still empty rooms at the main campus. This would mean the reasoning for the strange teleportation in the prologue after saving Karua was because that was part of some sort of 'training', and the reason Sirei calls out our first defense as our first real battle is because it is, and the fight in the TRC was just the final test before we were transported from Kamukura Hospital.
This is mostly speculative, but considering Nozomi's issues with rejection symptoms, she was most likely one of these failed attempts, and that when she rejected the hemoanima, she ended up being removed and raised by her mother, one of the scientists on the project. So "Karua" not being real would be because the version of Karua that Takumi is familiar with was Nozomi's avatar in the virtual reality he was grown and trained in- either as a recreation of Nozomi or as some sort of other split. If they're really gonna go with the main guy-main girl romance in whatever the true route is, it'll probably be something like "she was in LOVE with him and kept re-entering the simulation for him 🥺 isn't it so sad and then she forgot because the plot demanded it. Now let's have the battlefield red with her blood again"
If Karua isn't real, but Nozomi is, and Nozomi is Karua, and we've confirmed this with her scar and dying memory of Karua's nickname for Takumi, and they all have a weird connection with Kamukura Hospital, a medical facility involved in human experiments that's named after the DR character who was artificially made via surgery to create a tool of hope for humanity. Then um. This is my best guess.
Or maybe I'm just looking wayyyyyyy too far into a fakeout line from the silly funny joke route where being sassy gets you exploded and people grow fish heads if they don't send enough chainmail to Gaku. Lol. Lmao.
(By the way, please don't tell me if I'm wrong or right or close or far or what-have-you! I'd like to find out authentically as I make my way through the game plz and thank)
#4- Sirei
I have to give my shoutouts and also congratulations to one Eito Aotsuki route 0. He had one thing right- this vinegar-soaked-egg looking motherfucker made of war propaganda and bad ideas deserved death, and the quicker the better with this one. This waste of Tsubasa's talents make the Monokubs look like little delights.
I didn't like Sirei in this route. His charm is nonexistent, his gags never landed, he stripped Eva of her humanity for convenience, and he's just unnecessary, to the point where when he's depressed about feeling unnecessary, the game directly proves him right and he just fades into the background. He's the commanding officer and is responsible for communications with the Artificial Satellite, should be training and motivating us, but all he does is pass busy work off to Takumi and piss me off.
He also brainwashed Eva and turned her into a weapon. Did I mention that part? Because I hated that part. I hated it so much.
#5- Route Branches
Comedy Route had 4 branches with 2 endings each- Smartass Syndrome, Mackerel Headitis, the 2400 hr No Laughing Challenge, and the 4th one. They vary in quality.
Smartass Syndrome is what happens when Gaku receives 27 threats from Satan via chainmail- 5 of which come from Takumi and at least one of which is from Kurara, but that's not important- and Takumi develops a condition called Smartass Syndrome, in which all the people around him slowly turn into total clowns and he gets progressively sassier. Every quip he says or even thinks leaves him with a 3% chance of exploding. So, naturally, he explodes every time he quips once he learns of the condition from Yugamu. My favorite part about this was when Yugamu had lines.
Mackerel Headitis is THE grinding branch, as it's the only one Takumi doesn't skip days on end via sleeping or Gaku. One by one, everybody's heads turn into mackerel, including the fireboy, except for Kurara, who becomes canned tomato with mackerel. Very distinct. Very lore-important, I'm sure. My favorite part of this route was that it ended.
The 2400 hr No Laughing Challenge is Sirei fucking with everyone for fun, remembering he's a character in a game, completely breaking my immersion because this fictional character hates me personally I think, and setting off explosions in place of an ending because Kodaka & co got especially lazy with this one. I'm glad one of the endings was just us throwing Sirei at his own explosives and watching him die. That was nice :)
The last one is the one where Gaku teaches an ungrateful Takumi about the magic of yuri for 10 days straight in his depression hovel, and Tsubasa invents a bunch of wellness items that mess with Takumi's head on accident. This is the best one of the four, and has the best ending of the route.
Look at him. So heartbroken he's comping Makoto Naegi's style. Rest in pieces, but you aren't him. You will never be him.
I liked the branching style; it made for a lot of opportunities to do new things that fit into the overarching theme of the route. It just so happened that the overarching theme of the route is 'do it for the content'.
#6- Fuck Gaku Maruko in Particular I Guess?
Okay, this has been brewing from as early as him dying day 4 on the kg/mystery routes, but is Gaku the group punching bag? Because there are soooo many instances of Gaku specifically getting totally fucked over by Takumi, the plot, the rest of the cast. Most of them are not his fault- Takumi assuming Gaku's asking for spare change when he's asking what the plan is with the original note, 27 copies of chainmail being sent to him by us and Kurara and at least 4 others, his laughing challenge punishment being GETTING BOILED ALIVE when Tsubasa's and Kyoshika's are mild nuisances, etc. There seems to be a specific desire to make Gaku suffer, and only Gaku.
And look, I know him getting BOILED ALIVE is after Sirei was reprimanding him for his perv prank gone wrong and he snorts. But have we forgotten that Moko, Nozomi, Hiruko, and Kyoshika (and Yugamu on request) have all already fileted him for it? Even planned to use the Revive-o-Matic "as many times as it takes"? Are we forgetting that Gaku didn't know the no laughing challenge was happening to begin with?
In route 0, Gaku didn't come across as this sort of pervert who deserves constant punishment, not in the slightest. The only hints to it were that he was an anxious teenage boy written by Kodaka and thus evoked Souda similarity by proxy. In route 0, Gaku came across as a sardonic, defensive teenager that works his ass off for every scrap and morsel he has and cares fiercely about the people he considers family to his own detriment. Gaku was a guy that cared about people even when he didn't want to, had a love of music, bonded with the rest of the Special Defense Unit. He had a collection of children he wasn't even related to but that depended on him wholly waiting for him that he desperately tried to convince himself not to care about, and failed consistently because he's got too big of a heart. This side of Gaku is still here, even if not really touched on.
In the comedy route, Gaku's a filthy little sewer rat that wants nothing more than to jack off to the girls around him and not get caught, and gets dunked on repeatedly. And don't get me wrong; you can be a stubborn-but-caring person with loved ones and also be a pervert. But to an extent, it feels like it got grafted onto him to make him "funny" and to make a punching bag character, even though the game already has perverts of all shapes and sizes. I simultaneously feel really bad for him and am annoyed. I don't know how to feel.
Gaku is, I think, the shining example of my biggest problem with this route- so much of the 'comedy' in comedy route requires you to be laughing at the characters instead of with them. Takumi gets his own share of the torture nexus, but since he's the POV guy, there's a little more you can get away with. With Gaku? This feels like flanderization from a skippable line that I missed. Like I can believe that this was present, but jesus, did he kill your dog Kodaka?
But hey, despite it all. We got #himedanshirep let's fucking go yuri historian Gaku Maruko let's go let's gooooo
#7- Takumi Sumino
Takumi felt a lot more in-line with his characterization in route 0. He's very uninvolved with the group until he's dragged in, despite being both Team Leader and a time traveler, and has a lot more random callousness with the people who are supposed to be his friends.
I didn't like Takumi in route 0. So this really isn't helping his case. Even when he's having his moments of pure determination and drive, it often falls short to him being restricted to straight-manning the wacky antics and shenanigans. He just feels very done with the whole thing.
What did keep me entertained, though, was Jay Rincon's performance in this route, because holy shit was rent overdue for this man. The line delivery on this route was so exasperated and over-the-top at all times, and it was the strongest part of the entire route for me. Takumi's final quip in ending 81 was so raw and pissed off, I felt it in my very soul. The voice acting for the localization is generally pretty well-done imo, but Takumi took on a whole other level in this route, and that, I absolutely loved.
#8- Overall Thoughts
I think all of the branches had highlight funny moments and I got a fair amount of good CGs out of them. But more than anything else, I think I'm just not going to enjoy a route like this no matter what, because I've grown to care about these characters enough for all these gags and sillies to feel sort of cheap? I guess? Like they're all still in the Serious Situation and fighting commanders and invaders, the war is still going on, but we're also mackerel heads because they wanted to 3d render a mackerel on top of Takumi's head while he ran around the map. I feel like a silly-billy route like this would just feel a lot less forced if the war ended early in some cartoon logic and THEN we get to enjoy over-the-top comedy or something like that.
I really wish I had more positive things to say, but if I'm being completely honest, most of my enjoyment during this came from the bonding events, which aren't actually from the route itself, so I'm not allowed to talk about those!
Comedy route would have been peak if there was a branch where Takumi gets thrown tomatoes everytime he does anything even mildly sucky. Also Kurara gets genuine development in this route, at first she hates this, she hates this so much and she advocates against this, she's Takumi's only ally but through exposure she starts to get desensitized, she starts liking tomatoes, she starts to kinda like to spend time with Takumi and he reminds her of red tomatoes.
After spending whatever big chunk of days surrounded by tomatoes she decides to unmask, she has learned to be more true to herself thanks to tomatoes (somehow) and she wants to act on it, she wants to be better. She slowly learns to find the balance between being more open with her feelings and remaining the assertive person she shows herself as with the mask. She apologizes to Kyoshika for her constant mocking, she gives Gaku the filthy rich equivalent of 20 dollars and that makes him pass out, she develops a genuine friendship with Takumi (maybe even romance?).
And then it circles back to an obsession with tomatoes: she puts her mask back on, she makes a tomato centric version of her curry, she says tomatoes jokes every 2 sentences, she constantly throws tomatoes at everyone and she fawns over any similitude anyone has with tomatoes.
The SDU gets fed up with this fast, apologizes to Takumi for their previous behaviour and ask him to help them knock some sense into Kurara. You're then given the choice on whether to join Kurara or the SDU's side.
Idk anymore man, this was gonna be a crack confession I'd send anonymously but then Kurara entered the equation and now here I am ranting about tomato route or something, this post has made irreparable damage to the autocorrect of my phone.
in the line of darumi sending spam posts in comedy i think ima would scam people online. like he makes phone calls claiming he's from people's banks and shit. every link he shares has a virus attached. he has a shirt that says "i ❤️ scamming old people." he has successfully gotten takemaru's credit card information 3 separate times
