#hell he has my favorite line. i don't remember it exactly but it's in sakuya's route

[my-current-obsession]

Norn9 final thoughts

I figured before I dive into Winter’s Wish: Spirit of Edo, I should wrap up my thoughts and feelings about the characters/routes/plot of Norn9 as a whole. I tried to be somewhat brief, but know that I’ve devoted at least one long paragraph to each guy, and the ones that really hold my attention (for better or worse...) got a lot more. I’ll be going through in the order that I played.

Senri:  First off, I really love the contrast of how he’s meek and wants to be left alone... but can be absolutely SAVAGE. His verbal sparring game is unmatched. I enjoyed his romance with Koharu quite a lot. It was sweet and wholesome, and I did not expect but DID enjoy how brave he was about trying to pursue her. Although due to Koharu’s general naivety and lack of knowledge/experience, he thought she rejected him like three separate times.

Despite the miscommunications, I think he’s my favorite guy for Koharu. They’re well suited for each other and she brings him out of his shell in a way I can get behind (as opposed to what Kakeru is attempting). My biggest issue with this route was actually just me being frustrated about how Koharu was being manipulated by Shiro in the end. It makes sense to her character and the fact that she knew and trusted him already... but it was still very frustrating to see her be used and isolated from her friends like that.

Heishi: This route was SO GOOD. A lot of the romances, even the ones I kind of liked (for instance Senri) felt a bit rushed or otherwise had some major problems, but the pacing felt REALLY good here. I genuinely loved basically all the relationship-building scenes and could gush about any of them if given the opportunity. It’s also interesting that he basically got two exclusive music tracks that only played in his route (since they were connected to the flute), despite not being the “canon” choice for her.

I think it’s easy to look back in hindsight and say the conflict of the route isn’t great, considering what they were concerned about and what nearly kept them apart... was never an issue at all. But they didn’t know that and the emotions and concerns make perfect sense with what they DO know. I just hope the other espers track them down in the end and tell them the truth so they don’t have that issue weighing on them forever.

Itsuki: I’m torn about him. I think he’s one of my favorite CHARACTERS and he’s a wonderful friend for Heishi and Nanami, but boy does his route have some things that I take umbrage with. The biggest issue is that he CONSISTENTLY makes assumptions and does things “for” Mikoto that are just wrong and against what she herself wants. He spends nearly the first half of his route actually trying to force her towards Sakuya, and she calls him out on this MULTIPLE times.

And yet he NEVER learns. There’s definitely a theme/idea of dreams vs. reality in his route, and even though Mikoto establishes early on in the FIRST dream sequence that she prefers to face reality instead of embrace a false dream... Itsuki STILL tries to trap her in a dream for what he thinks is her benefit. And you find out in Sakuya’s route that his power stays in effect even if he DIES, so in the bad end she’s literally trapped FOREVER with no chance of waking up. Is effectively KILLING her better than letting her face the reality and move on?

You also find out near the end out the route that he’s apparently spent the entire route being threatened by Ron. It’s not clear how this started, but Itsuki spent weeks if not MONTHS under Ron’s thumb without trying to do anything about it, which infuriates me. Especially as, again in Sakuya’s route, we see he can use his powers as a safe place to gather trustworthy people and share information. He had ALL the opportunity to do something, and didn’t. I was a bit frustrated when Ron manipulated Nanami in Heishi’s route, but that was NOTHING compared to this, considering this spanned the WHOLE route as opposed to like 2 days - and Nanami actually WANTED to tell someone!

Even more damning is that Itsuki steals Mikoto’s powers though. Again, this is ostensibly for her benefit, but it sours what happens just beforehand. Mikoto coming to see him and them having sex SHOULD have been a sweet moment, but knowing that immediately after he takes her power, it comes across like he wanted her vulnerable so he could do that, which ruins the moment. It’s sex as a means to an end rather than for its own sake out of love.

And then Mikoto is HAPPY AND RELIEVED to have her power gone because it was a burden, so it’s totally fine that he did that without her knowledge or consent. They straight up leave the group to go live happily ever after, all while Ron and Natsuhiko are going to go after and KILL the others. What a great ending...

Kakeru: I think his route and romance are solid. The pacing and story is pretty good here, and I like the twist of him being brainwashed by Shiro. That said I just don’t like Kakeru himself much, and it’s mainly because I cannot accept how he treats basically anyone that isn’t Koharu, but especially Senri. Akito and Nanami’s fighting annoys him, so he HANDCUFFS THEM TOGETHER - with special cuffs that will ELECTROCUTE Akito? And he outright abuses Senri in an attempt to “help” him come outside and interact with people. He just goes way too far. I think he’s actually a good leader and great at charming/manipulating people into what he wants, but I can’t accept his treatment of people outside Koharu. Doesn’t matter how nice he is to HER if he’s awful to everyone else.

Akito: He starts out as the inverse of Kakeru where he’s VERY antagonistic towards Nanami (but for fairly understandable reasons once the backstory is revealed) but underneath the gruff exterior he’s actually very sweet and kind to everyone else. Based on appearance and personality alone, I liked him A LOT before I’d even begun his route, and I was excited to find out what the heck was going on between him and Nanami. I wasn’t disappointed.

I think if this is your FIRST route, his behavior might be upsetting or make you uncomfortable, but having seen him in several other routes by now I KNEW he was a good guy and thus could patiently wait to find out WHY he hated Nanami. And honestly the gradual change once he started getting to know her was GREAT. He didn’t WANT to know and like her, but when they were FORCED together he didn’t have a choice. I LOVE the scene where he basically BEGS her to leave him alone, because it’s clear the more he gets to know her the harder it is for him to hate her, but he WANTS to hate her.

And then the next choice you get with him, if you make the right choice and raise his affection, he looks pained/unhappy, because again, he likes her more now but HE DOESN’T WANT TO.

The way this route handled guilt and blame was just... so good, too. He starts out hating and blaming her for what happened back then, and as he gets to know her he sees how much she hates and blames HERSELF - which comes to a head in the dream sequence when he sees she would passively let him KILL her if he wanted. After that, there’s no way he can hate her, and he starts blaming himself both for what happened in the past (even though he was just a child and he was just trying to protect his brother) and for Nanami’s hangups.

His forgiveness and love saves Nanami from her self-hatred, and in turn her forgiveness and love saves him from his. It’s beautiful.

Finally, I appreciate that his good ending allows Senri to remember. Even if we don’t get to see the brothers actually talking it out, we can be content with the knowledge that it WILL happen and they’ll be happy together.

Sakuya: I think the conflict behind this route (and Sakuya and Mikoto’s relationship as a whole, which is present to an extent in all routes) is really  compelling. He’s “destined” to die for the one he loves, and while he’s okay with that, Mikoto is NOT. So she distances herself and tries so hard NOT to love him in hopes that it somehow saves him.

Honestly I think this route implies that deep down, Mikoto DOES already love Sakuya, and is just repressing and denying it as hard as possible, which frustratingly makes Itsuki right. But I don’t think that negatively impacts other routes - if anything it makes sense that she would be almost eager to fall in love with someone ELSE.

I appreciate that Sakuya as a character and his relationship with Mikoto is clearly contrasted to Itsuki. While Itsuki thinks Mikoto is weak and needs to be protected (even against her will), Sakuya trusts that she is strong, and in the end, his faith in her wins out as she overcomes the challenge and saves not just herself and him but EVERYONE with her power - and then she VOLUNTARILY gives it up since it’s no longer needed. A much more satisfying outcome than Itsuki’s, personally.

To be clear, Sakuya also does worry about her and thinks she’s taking on too much, and he certainly WANTS to protect her, even at the cost of his life... but unlike Itsuki he respects her wishes and lets her fight. And that trust and faith is rewarded in the end.

Ironically it is once again Itsuki that I have a major issue with in this route, since it’s revealed that AGAIN he was threatened by/working for Ron the entire route. In this case things work out well and no one (aside from Natsuhiko, I guess) is hurt by it. But just because everything turned out okay doesn’t mean I think Itsuki’s lack of action was anything other than stupid.

As for Sakuya, I quite like him. That said, I feel like there a sense of... entitlement, maybe, regarding Mikoto. Because he’s seen the future and knows he’s “destined” to die for the girl he loves, and he’s so sure of his own feelings, he KNOWS that Mikoto is just delaying the inevitable. He DOES NOT like other guys (particularly Itsuki, but also guys in general) getting close to Mikoto, because he’s convinced that eventually she WILL be with him. He gets VERY upset at the misunderstanding in the dream where he thinks Mikoto is confessing to Itsuki and practically forces himself on her, which was a big yikes from me.

Masamune: Most of his route was decent but I didn’t feel strongly about it. I think the “getting drunk off sweets” thing is frankly ridiculous and wish it wasn’t a fairly major part of his route. That said, any goodwill I had towards the route went out the window in the end when he enlisted Nanami and Itsuki to ERASE KOHARU’S MEMORY AND PUT HER IN A DREAM so he could take her away from the conflict.

I understand that Koharu would have been a bit reluctant to leave since she feels like she HAS to help, but knocking her out, making her forget everyone (except him of course) and KIDNAPPING HER was not the answer. This was a more extreme version of what Itsuki did in his route, and as much as I hated that, this was ten times worse. At least Mikoto was AWARE of what he did and could call him out on it. Koharu has no idea what’s been done to her and what she’s lost! She’s just obliviously happy with Masamune all while forgetting all the other friends she’s made. Literally HOW is this a happy ending?

Ron: I know he’s a controversial, love him or hate him kind of guy. I was surprisingly indifferent to him. I kind of like his lazy, chill personality, but I don’t think he’s well suited for Nanami. It probably doesn’t help that the romance just feels awkwardly forced and/or rushed, especially since Nanami’s other two love interests are the best in the game, personally. I have two issues with the route - first, I don’t like that he ends the route with his memory wiped. I understand that he CHOSE to have Nanami do that, which is leagues better than Masamune’s ending, but I guess I don’t get why he couldn’t CHOOSE to start over and do better. Was erasing his memory really necessary?

Second, I don’t like that in this route Nanami straight-up protects/covers for him. She learns he’s the traitor fairly early on and just... doesn’t do anything with that info. And unlike Heishi’s route, Ron isn’t threatening her to keep it quiet. She does it of her own volition, I guess just because she likes him. I can’t justify putting your romantic feelings towards one guy over the well-being of everyone else on board.

Overall Ron was better than I feared (I’d heard some Yang Piofiore comparisons so I was honestly expecting rape, but every time Ron had her in a situation like that he backed off or let her get away, thankfully) but didn’t do much for me anyway.

Natsuhiko: His route was fine but a little underwhelming, personally. He suffers from getting less time to build up a romance (as Mikoto doesn’t end up alone with him until 2-ish chapters into his route, and then spends another one thoroughly afraid of him, which isn’t exactly romantic), so it felt pretty rushed to me. Probably doesn’t help that on my first run of his route (which I played blindly, like all first runs of routes) I missed A LOT of affection and CGs for him.

I feel like a lot of the “right” answers for him are a violation of common sense. WHY would I be combative/testing towards a guy who kidnapped me and has already threatened my life? And why, once we’re actually very close, would I lie instead of honestly telling him what’s on my mind?

Even after a second run through, which certainly HELPED me understand and accept the romance, I still think it’s a bit rushed/forced. Again not helping is that on HIS end of things, the hiyoko he made (and is controlling himself?) does a lot of the heavy lifting regarding him getting to know and like her. She opens up to the hiyoko which is how HE comes to know and like her, but she still doesn’t know or like him. There’s just not enough build up to justify her falling for him, IMO.

I like Natsuhiko as a character but he has seriously skewed priorities. I personally cannot get behind him valuing knowledge over peace and the lives of everyone on Earth. The Reset may not always be necessary, but sometimes it might have been and humanity might have DIED OUT without it. All the knowledge in the world is useless if there’s no one left to use it.

He also kind of seems to change his mind about killing the espers JUST because he loves Mikoto. It’s not so much that he thinks they’re innocent humans and deserve to live, but rather he’s willing to take the risk of letting them live... because he knows Mikoto would hate him otherwise.

I do like his ending though. Him being forced to acknowledge that he was part of the problem and giving up on his weapons in a bid for peace was good!

Epilogue: I like Sorata a lot as a character. He’s very smart and sassy for a kid. That said, he feels unnecessary to the plot. His epilogue with Aion felt like the writers created a problem so he could be the solution to it. Aion itself needs to exist as the Reset is a huge part of the story, but the backstory and Sorata’s tenuous connection to it could ALL be cut and nothing would be lost, as Sorata barely exists in the routes outside of the beginning of Natsuhiko’s. Rather than Aion sticking around longer than expected (because she was hanging on specifically to see Sorata), she could have just been intended to last that long.

Other/Misc.: Overall I really enjoyed this game, although the non-romance aspects of the plot (and sometimes the romances too) could get pretty messy. I like all three heroines, though I do have issues with Koharu being so easily manipulated. I appreciate how sweet and caring she is though.

I think the biggest missed opportunity in the game is not having three distinct timelines with set pairings. Some of the routes SEEM to connect or coincide as the other girls are clearly hinting at or outright talking about things that happened in THOSE routes, but by the end things have clearly diverged in ways that the routes can’t coexist.

This certainly isn’t the case for all routes, but sometimes the “side” pairings with the other girls REALLY matter in a route. For instance Itsuki/Mikoto is a BIG part of Heishi’s route, and I really loved it. I was excited at the time to see “their” side of the story play out in Itsuki’s route... which obviously didn’t happen. Perhaps no one else feels this way, but I just think it would have been Neat to play three sides to an interconnected story rather than every route being separate but still occasionally nodding to other routes.