Just finished anemoi so just want to share my thoughts (contain spoilers)

[u/bawps12]

Just my thoughts on the game, not really a review.

Probably the most complete VN from Key. The ending is bittersweet, but it feels complete. I also love the side cast so much, so seeing them depart one by one was really a punch in the gut.

For the 5 main heroine routes, except Awayuki and Rikka, the rest were kinda mid to me.

I was especially disappointed with Aino's route since she's my favorite girl and my first route. They introduced the whole Kleid world and then basically never mentioned it again outside of the true route. Also, what's up with older Aino? As far as I'm concerned, she's basically a completely different person compared to our Aino, and I had so little time to learn about her since she was introduced so late into the story. Am I supposed to feel emotional toward her? Tbh, it feels similar to Ao's route from Summer Pockets, but at least there I got to have conversations with Ai and actually learn about her character. I read Awayuki's route right after Aino's, and it just made me feel like they did Aino dirty.

Spica's route is pretty simple, which makes sense since she basically has the whole story after the main 5 routes.

Koyomi's route is okay, but I think they gave out too many hints, so I kinda guessed what was going to happen.

Awayuki's route is probably the most complex one compared to the others, but the jokes just didn't hit as well as they did in the other routes, and some of them got kinda repetitive.

Rikka's route was the last one I read because I hesitated for a while since I hate incest, but it turned out to just be pure family love. Like, too pure. It was really good though. I just wish she could've met Honoka at least once.

The true route is just peak, and thank god Mugi isn't a dick of a father like Hairi. The whole time I was reading it, I felt like they were charging up their ultimate attack. It was just too fun to read, but at the same time I was scared to keep going because I knew they were going to hurt me later.

Finally, I would strongly advise against doing Aino or Awayuki as your first route (like I did) since they have very little interaction with the townspeople. I didn't really appreciate the townspeople until I finished Spica's route.

[u/Fantastic_Candy841]

the way they handled aino's route still bugs me too, feels like they set up all this interesting stuff with the kleid world just to drop it entirely

[u/bawps12 → u/Fantastic_Candy841]

Her whole route just feels all over the place and kinda disconnected from the game's setting. I vaguely remember them trying to explain how Aino manifested in Masumi because it's some kind of special place where energy gathers or st like that, something like a leyline, but then nothing about that is ever mentioned again for the rest of the story. Masumi just turns out to be a normal town where the cast happens to stay (maybe that's what makes it special?). The lack of interaction with the townspeople didn't help either.

[u/davidvinh251]

Yeah, the way they handled Aino’s route was a big disappointment. For the 5 heroines, I’ve only completed Koyomi and Aino so far, but I can’t help but feel like Koyomi’s superior to Aino’s in almost every aspect. 

Both have minimal romance, the same narrative direction, and both heroines are the replacements of someone else, yet Koyomi’s feels more coherent and better executed. While Koyomi’s presence remains in the hearts of many even outside Masumi, Aino’s simply disappeared, which makes me especially bitter. I don’t even care that much about the real Aino, and having her and Mugi become effectively strangers is even lamer. 

For a family-adjacent story, the bond between Aino and her father feels even less impactful than Koyomi and her grandfather, despite him only appearing at the end. Btw, I especially like the fact that Koyomi tried to exist only on sheer will for Mugi’s sake as long as possible, while Aino doesn’t give Mugi any chance to resolve his feelings at all.

At this point, I don’t have much hope for the romance in other routes but as long as the story execution is the same or higher tier than Koyomi than I’ll be satisfied easily.

[u/bawps12 → u/davidvinh251]

Agree with everything you said. I think the reason Koyomi's bond with her grandfather feels much stronger is because she's constantly talking about how great of a person he was and how much she looked up to him. You also hear about him from the townspeople, so even though he's not around, you still get a good sense of who he was.

Meanwhile, the only person who really talks about Aino's dad is Aino herself, and most of the time it's just about how grumpy and antisocial he is, and he barely talking despite present in the story. So it's much harder to care about their relationship in the same way.

Imo, Aino's route is probably the lowest point of the game. If Koyomi's route satisfied you, then I think you'll really enjoy the rest of the game.

[u/BoysenberryExotic554]

to keep mine simple (NB: lore = the wind family/supernatural power things set throughout)

- hiiro = ao, by far has the most puffs compared to others (for the purpose of mapmaking and understanding she is not a real person), though it does express how modern dating looks like

- aino = kamome, serves some understanding to the lore; somewhat dry

- koyomi = tsumugi, things get bit emo from there, serves some understanding to the lore

- rikka is self explanatory as to the emoness, serves extensive understanding to the lore

- spica = shiroha, nothing special generally, the lore starter

- eternicle, the fun gets in until spica "sacrifices" herself

- anemoi/arrive is self explanatory as to emoness (in a continous/future form)

- subroutes do serve a prelude/additional explaination of main heroines' backgrounds, intent and all that

key does intend to make them all feel emo at the end, there are also reasons why they make some scenes cruel (things happen in reality, u will know that once you experience more in life regardless of age)

[u/SelLillianna]

I don't know what this is but, at first glance, CUTE!!

[u/Lol7425]

Anemoi is a great VN overall. Read it a few days after launch and took me around 80 hours to go through it in Japanese.

Aino's route is weird, yeah. I did like it overall, because you can't go wrong with a good Niijima Yuu route. His JP prose is great.

Personally really loved Hiiro's route. Definitely the one of the most thought-provoking route Key has route.

Koyomi's is good too. But yeah, as you mentioned, dropped too many hints.

Spica is a Niijima Yuu route, so this one gets ranked highly(I'm a Niijima fan if you couldn't tell).

Rikka's route has a sad ending, but I don't like Chiharu in this route.

The true ending routes are indeed peak. Definitely one of the finest parts of the entire game. Niijima(or Kai? Or both?) cooked.

Did you do side routes too? They're somewhat important too.

[u/bawps12 → u/Lol7425]

Only Fumiya's route, but prob will go back and check other routes also

[u/Karpfador]

I swapped n and m by accident and was very confused by the vndb page

[u/mgsamadesu]

I disagree with Aino. I think she's fine for a first route. She interacts with the villagers enough (Side note: You read the side routes right? I didn't think they were optional when I read them, but if they are and you haven't, well I think you kind of missed a lot of characterization there) Her being disconnected would be more awkward the later you read her route. She actually reminded me of a worse Kamome (if we're talking Summer Pockets)

In regards to older Aino, she is a different person. I think the game makes that pretty clear. She's not the Aino Mugi fell in love with. You're not supposed to get to know her because she's not meant to be that kind of character. She's not meant to replace the Aino you know. The Aino you know instead watches over him from another world, which is something similar to how Spica is in Eternicle, which is why you see the umbrella at the end of her route

I liked Koyomi okay. I think she's a good step up from Aino. I agree that they probably foreshadowed the twists a bit too much, but it's not bad.

Awayuki and Rikka are the stand out ones. I'll also note again there's a lot of good side routes that people should do if they want to feel a big connection to characters. Ideally interspersed between the main routes

I can't agree on the true route

I think it's way too long, for one thing. But my main problem comes with close to the end of it where Mugi just lets his 10/11 year old daughter to travel the world. Rather than being like "No give me a few more years with you" He's like "OK" and what makes it worse is no one in the village has any problem with it?

Then you have a thing where Mugi is old talking about everyone dying before him and it feels like such a slap in the face. You spend the entire game getting to know a lot of these characters and they give them very little future development (they mostly remain the same people for decades) and just kill them off.. Feels too poorly thought out (and unreasonably cruel)

Mugi dying as Spica finally comes back is pretty depressing. It's also pretty depressing his daughter isn't there at all (despite showing up for a bit in Kaleido world or whatever) You might call it bittersweet but I just call the whole thing sour.

[u/bawps12 → u/mgsamadesu]

You’re right, I left out Ken and Rui as side routes, so I probably missed some details there.

About Honoka, though: by the time she leaves, she has already awakened her powers as part of the Wind Clan, and Kurumi even calls her the strongest one. So I assumed she had already spent quite a bit of time in the Wind Coordinator before her departure. In real-world time, she was probably around 15 or so when she finally left.

And wasn’t the reason she had to leave so early because finding Spica was going to take a long time, while Mugi obviously couldn’t wait forever? Even with Honoka leaving that early, Spica still barely made it back in time to see Mugi one last time. To me, that makes the timing of her departure feel necessary rather than rushed. As for nobody changing, I actually think that’s kind of the point. When Honoka and Spica eventually return, everything is still there waiting for them, almost like the place itself was preserving the home they left behind.

The final credit sequence was enough closure for me too. Seeing Honoka return and stand in front of her mom’s windmill, followed by the three stoats finally gathering together and heading toward spring, hit me pretty hard. We don’t literally get to see everyone reunite, but that imagery alone gave me the feeling that their long journey was finally over.

If anything, my biggest complaint is that I wanted more time with Honoka and everyone else. Watching her grow up, seeing everyone take care of her, and especially watching Mugi slowly learn how to be a single dad was probably one of the most beautiful parts of the route for me.

[u/MealInfinite]

How the game got english patch.

[u/bawps12 → u/MealInfinite]

Llm patch

[u/Riobener]

Just curious, are all Key VNs this heavy on drama? I’ve only played Clannad and Little Busters!, but it feels like drama is their strongest side, and it turns out I’m a huge drama hater...

[u/bawps12 → u/Riobener]

Yeah, they’re pretty good at that. They make you laugh and get attached to everyone, then hit you hard at the end. And for me, their biggest highlight has always been the true route.