ohhhhh boy. i don't feel like i rly have a least fav or a top fav bc it's really hard to choose? i mean the iris/ota/mizuki routes are a lot more focused on one character and end abruptly + with Implications when you learn the truth of the body swapping thing (ota/mizuki) or are basically a dead end/bad ending (iris) and i guess aren't as Strong as resolution and annihilation but they're still very good imo. i'm gonna yap here abt my thoughts on each one in order that i completed. oops. also a constant for all of them i love the themes of just SLIGHT differences in approaching the somnium and what info is presented causes a ripple effect and a completely different turn of events
+ in regards to ota/mizuki's routes im not gonna talk much abt the implications of whos body is where or saito or whatever

staring with the iris route (purple one). generally it's alright. i Guess if i had to pick a least fav it'd be this one???? but thats not bc its bad or anything i just Like the other ones more. the general route until the split is Okay i forgot half of what happens bc its been a while and had to remind myself when i FINALLY unlocked resolution proper but it's good - and crazy ass realization when you think abt date making that call A MINUTE before "renju" called iris saved her life and got a better ending. and all bc of a misunderstanding. actually insane i love this game. i don't really have much else to say but the ending (after it DOES split off from psyncin in the main 1) made me emotional. it rly is a dead end to the entire investigation!!!!! what the hell!!!!!! made me sad. idk i dont have much else to say

i technically did Attempt resolution / annihilation before this but i'm going in the order i finished them so they dont count Yet. after iris's route i finished ota's. ota's a strange character because up to this point i Didnt really like him that much at all. but this route kind of recontextualizes. a lot of things. i've... never experienced dealing with a loved one having dementia (though i don't really wanna get into it but i currently... do know what it's like to have older family members get illnesses that well. severely affect them is what i'm gonna leave it at because i don't like thinking about it.) but Man the way it's depicted in this route was just like. do you WANT to tear my heart out spike chunsoft. ESPECIALLY WITH MAYUMI'S SOMNIUM LIKE OH LORDDD. ultimately one of this game's major themes that i picked up is love (especially familial) and this route does a good job of representing that. and i do like that ultimately ota kinda realizes that he's fucked up and is gonna make an effort to work hard to help his mom going forward. there's implications of something similar happening in resolution here too but idk man. this route made me Feel things. i also like date and aiba's whole thing in the somnium where theyre the importance of intuition or even bad memories being important. not as strong as the other things but it's little conversations like that that get me

after ota's i played mizuki's. already reeling from the emotional rollercoaster of the previous route and Then I Played This One. good LORDDD the expansion on mizuki and date's kind of adoptive father-child dynamic and everything is so so good. small detail but before mizuki psyncs with date i think i remember either boss or pewter saying something about their brainwaves being EXTREMELY compatible for psyncing like FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when you contrast that part against date psyncing with mizuki in the beginning its like. haughhh. they both care for eachother so so much but neither really say it until this point (the part where mizuki's talking to date while he's unconscious DO NOTTT MESS WITH ME RN. THIS ENTIRE ROUTE I SWEARRR)..... or how in date's somnium it's clear he thinks he's not really fit to be a parental figure but mizuki says "it has to be you, date!" I AM DEAD. THIS ENTIRE ROUTE. oh my lord. this route also made me cry

afterwards i played annihilation. which. is a Major contrast to the previous two in tone! a few times i've compared it in my head to the utdr genocide/snowgrave routes or whatever kinda . if it makes sense, but i feel like the sense of "You Fucked Up" is pretty strong here. it's definitely the darkest of the routes and is pretty heavy in tone pretty much all the way through. "iris" and ota's deaths are Really fucking brutal JESUS CHRIST?? I WAS. IN THE CAR WHEN I SAW THAT SCENE HAPPEN AND I JUST SAT THERE LIKE. WHAT THE FUCK. seeing it actually made me a bit nauseous like i did. Not expect the game to get that gory Whoops (that is until the routes where you Literally see "so" 's.. uh... remains. if you know what i mean. i had to like turn my camera away for like 90% of that scene) but if the intention was to shock and horrify the player it fucking worked. playing that first bit of annihilation THEN ota/mizuki's routes felt like a gut punch though because of some characters commenting on shit in the latter routes like "oh wow it's so good you're still alive" FUCK YOU WRITERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything goes DOWNHILL from there emotionally. like i said even little dialogues make me fucked up like how investigating the cold storage warehouse flavor text jokes are completely GONE, date can't ask kagami for anything except for how the investigation's going, and also in some of his mental lines investigating items its like. theres a few times where he's just like "iris and ota...." "this is where iris and ota were...." and it's like. fucking Christ and then YOU SEE THEIR PARENTS' + MIZUKI'S REACTION TO IT!!!! FUCK MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS JUST LIKE THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS EVEN. "boss" 's somnium, the interrogation with saito in boss's body explaining everthing and all that is literally Chilling. and the end is #MESSED #UP because imagine being date. stuck in the end in your DEAD FRIEND'S BODY, injured and without like a good portion of the people you care about because they've all been murdered. those that are left are surely distraught and #fuckedup. i mean at least they're alive but that many people had to die for this? absolutely soul crushing route good lord THE WIKI WAS NOT KIDDING WHEN THEY SAID THIS IS ARGUABLY THE WORST OF THE MAIN ENDINGS (not like badly written i mean like Bad scenario).

and finally of course i finished resolution. i don't have as much to say about this one but ohh man i loved hearing abt hitomi's background with manaka and renju in her somnium i mean gameplay wise that one made me [eye twitch.png] but story wise. Jesus... AND ALL THE STORY STUFF COMING TOGETHER WITH DATE'S BACKSTORY AND WHAT SAITO'S BEEN DOING AND ALL THAT OHH GOD. WOW. especially liked in this route when aiba, on her Last leg of life contacted some of the people date knows to help AND THEY KICKED SAITOS ASS i guess it's kinda cheesy but it made me smile knowing that. i dont have as much to sya ab this but also like. date going back to his old body but still wanting to go By kaname date.... because he's left his old life behind and wants to start anew with the bonds he's made and everything is just. hauhgh. thi sgame rly is about love in all forms isnt it. the epilogue like 3 months later made me super insane just talking to all the characters again... AND AIBA COMING BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND ALL OF THAT i dont know how to. word it. but i liked the ending. the fucking dance to invincible rainbow arrow was kind of incredibly funny but also was really sweet as a credits thing and i liked the extra verses some characters got. IDK MAN. THIS ROUTE MADE ME CRY TOO.

ANYWAYS SORRY FOR THE LONG ASS ANSWER THIS. is basically my thoughts on the Entire Game at that point LMFAO and it took me like almost 2 hours to type all that but yeah thanks for reading if you did