Aokana: A good example of splitting focus correctly

Note: Video at the bottom of the post

So I finished Aokana faster than I thought I would. Honestly it’s one of those that don’t really have an awful downtime so time passes by faster than you’d expect.
At first I wasn’t going to write about it, most people I talk to have played it and praised it so nothing is really going to be different. But I got other stuff I want to talk about and I can use Aokana.

So the first thing is that it was made by sprite, they also made Koichoco. And that one is kind of divisive but I really liked parts of it. I can actually shit on it for a bit and it’s moreso on the route more people liked.
They have different writers but I’ll be using both of these. So with what vndb has, Koichoco had two and a bunch of psp ones and I don’t understand why there’s that many. For some reason, Aokana doesn’t have a credit for Rika’s writer and that’s kind of funny since her route is the only one that ignores a fundamental rule to have a romantic scene. And I really meant ignore, because the rule is constantly being used outside of this scene. To the extent that I feel like it did the best job using the repelling rule throughout the routes outside of huge dick moves that’s in Asuka’s route. So it’s not like that one just didn’t read rules and decided to do their own thing, I guess they hoped no one would notice but it became kind of a meme in one of the discords I follow.

So there’s different ways on how to focus on the plot. Some are completely on the world/concept, some are on the main character and some focus solely on the girls. More often than not, it’s the third one. The second one also usually just shares the spotlight with the third. And generally the first is used as a tool to aid one of the other two but sometimes it really is about the world.
Aokana is split between them. You can make an argument that it means if it’s that split then it lacks focus. And sometimes that is true, but in this case, each focus gives a return to the main character, Masaya. It’s why the epilogue makes sense. I know they were going to make a sequel but they died because of this gacha game or something, but now they’re back. But honestly I’m fine with how it ended. MC is tied to FC, and through training the girls on FC, what conflicted gets resolved in their respective ways.

So the normal order is starting with Mashiro, then Rika, Misaki and ending with Asuka. But while I did like Rika’s route, I feel like her stuff could’ve been incorporated into the common plot or even combined with Mashiro’s route. Outside of the games, there’s not much that really returns to the main focus. Meaning there’s no emotional payback that’s unique from her route. It’s almost the bad ending in regards to the rest. But I might’ve just forgotten the part where he wants to come back to it, but considering I remember Mashiro’s section, I’d say that’s more of a problem on their end. Honestly, even a Madoka route would’ve handled it better if done right. But you can also just say if they tweaked Rika’s route, it would’ve done the job well. I’m mainly trying to say is if they removed the romance sections, mixed Rika’s plot into the main plot throughout all routes and put that time and money into a couple of matches that concentrated on the Shitou players, and possibly some matches that doesn’t include one of the main four, I’d appreciate it more.

Then there’s Misaki’s route which is more of the realistic route. Asuka’s route is the mega happy ending, but they were building that from the start so it doesn’t feel like a copout, just that it was too easy. But considering that both routes address that the main character and pretty much everybody in the FC world is making the concept too complicated. Misaki’s is more on that sometimes the best strategy is so simple that everybody didn’t even consider it, whilst Asuka’s is based on you don’t really need to have a reason to enjoy what you’re doing. I actually quite liked that the ending with no route isn’t anywhere near a bad ending and leaves the reader with hope that Masaya will get himself up eventually, you can even link it to the epilogue, it wouldn’t contradict it.

On the other hand, Koichoco has no focus on the concept, there barely is one. Because the focus is on the girls but mainly on Chisato. I thought they were going to do the same thing in Aokana but it was just a couple of lines here and there. Sure, eventually the routes end up being about their respective girl, but Chisato lashed out in all of them. And it’s pretty funny that Rika is again the only route that doesn’t handle it at all, or rather that Asuka doesn’t seem to have any issue with it.

So is Aokana any good? Yeah, I gave it a 9. I can see people giving it a lower score like a 7, but generally if you hated the FC, the rules or some of the characters, I’d imagine they’d normally just drop the vn all together unless they’re some weirdo like me who finishes almost everything for the hope of maybe this is one of the rare ones that somehow have a really interesting ending.
I’d give it an 8 if it didn’t have the split focus, it’s one of those things I really enjoy reading.
There’s a couple of famous ones that handle this better, like Symphonic Rain, Chrono Clock, Clannad, Cross Channel. There’s also Little Busters but while I really like Refrain, I didn’t feel like Rika changed that much for it to happen.
Then there’s others that have a split but it’s not about the emotional payback towards the main character, like Baldr Sky, Chaos;Child, G Senjou, Rewrite and Dark Alchemist. Where it’s more like the endings matter to you to bring out the right experience in.

My favorite characters were Shion, and then Aoi. In short, you may like this way more if you don’t put such an emphasis on the girls.

All in all, each route handles something better than the others.
Mashiro has understandably the worst FC related stuff of the bunch but handles the romance and Masaya well.
Rika has pretty good fundamental FC and by the books romance but anything about Masaya is mainly put to the side.
Misaki handles everything pretty well and somewhat more realistically but it goes back and forth from goofing off and FC.
Asuka herself and the romance sections are the weak parts of her route, but it’s the largest growth in FC and Masaya.