OddHaberdasher posted:

0 - Yuuri. I just don't feel a reason to care for her. She (supposedly?) died early enough that we don't get a sense for who she was, and who she is (in either Before or After) is a person who never explains anything and seems to be mysterious for the sake of being mysterious (especially in After, where she probably doesn't have the excuse of being the hallucination of a boy desperately deluding himself for years). Not to mention it is usually when she disappeared in After that everything went to hell. And something about her character rubs me the wrong way. Everyone has brief moments of Doing Something, where she remains the delicate wallflower, however justified that may be.

1 - Natsuhiko. Probably a bit unfair to him, but Watase made such an effective "what is that!? what's going on?!" character that going back to someone with little knowledge was frustrating (though his casual views on things like BC gave some new insight). He gets a lot of poo poo throughout the game, both for his beliefs and just for trying to help, but the end result is that you unfairly end up feeling frustrated at him. As far as his character goes, aside from his one mental issue he's pretty much the straight man to the others respective brands of silliness, which makes him feel a bit flat compared to the others. Also, he's probably behind half the things Watase deals with over After according to Currents synopsis, so gently caress him.

2 - Kazami. Very trustworthy, definitely not going to be the villain, but she seems rather flat. Someone needs to be the voice of reason, and some things just don't need to be talked about in After's state of emergency, especially with your amnesiac ex-boyfriend. But ultimately it leads to a character for whom, like others have stated, "Watase's ex" is the only descriptor of note.

3 - Mashiro. Pretty much anything I could say against her has already been said.

4 - Ukita. Is he suspicious as hell? Yes. Is he involved with the bombing in some fashion? Almost certainly yes. Is he attempting to cover his rear end, both for the bombing and other misdeeds? Almost definitely yes. Did he work with Q for ultimately moral reasons? I think he thinks he did at least. Did he expect to get a rabid dog like The Captain? Hell no. There's something to note how, when he is infected with rage and more likely to be forthcoming, his reason for killing Watase was due to disgust at The Captain's actions. The desperate rationalization of a man being driven to kill people? Maybe. But I want to believe the best of him.

5 - Ena. I just like her, with her desire to protect the children and the way she geeks out over BC. Some suspicious activity, but as the previous number one Ena basher, I have grown to like and trust her.

6 - Watase. Amnesia Watase is the perfect viewpoint for the player new to Root Double. 90% of the time, what he was thinking was what we were thinking, and while his route has only one true ending, it still felt as though we were impacting how things would end up, as opposed to Before where the setup bled away most of the tension. Others have spoken of Watase's positive qualities, such as his earnest desire to save everyone or his obvious Martial Arts training by the like of Leon "kick your face off" Kennedy.

7- Jun. The original Best Buddy, and only narrowly beaten out by Salyu. Her bubbly, energetic nature made a much needed change from the serious nature of the situation, yet she still has her own connection to the plot and her own scars to bear. Only turned on us due to Rage and a desire to enact bloody justice, and in both the actual endings we got (as opposed to 'game overs') she attempts to serve that upon who she believes is a more deserving target eventually. Hopefully she will reinstate Best Buddy status. EDIT: Admittedly, not the sort of person I'd be comfortable putting my life in the hands of in real life.

8 - Salyu. A taciturn girl with a too-similar name to Yuuri at first, with a penchant for axe murder, she has soared to the top of this list. Considring the circumstances, her loyalty is remarkable, and as her list of feats grew (culminating in taking a bullet while causing a distraction for Nat and others) so did my fondness for her. Her list of feats is a little too large, but sometimes sheer awesome stops objections in their tracks. You just gotta love someone who, finding their fallen comrades body in enemy territory, then embarks on a single handed guerilla campaign, destroying the enemies resources, introducing dissension in their ranks and, when they split up and start searching with, among othr things, a gun and an engine cutter, killing them all with a fire axe held in the hands of a twelve year old. In one version of events, anyways.