This is part of the visual novel book club. Check out the club’s home thread if you need an explanation of visual novels themselves.
BU$TAFELLOWS is a otome visual novel. Otome = female protagonist dating men. VNDB on BU$TAFELLOWS.
Description
From VNDB:
Arrive in New Sieg, a beautiful fictional town. Step into the shoes of a strong, smart and gifted journalist in this romantic adventure. You play the part of a young woman with the ability to leap in the past for a very short period in the bodies of others, which you use for data collection and helping people. After witnessing the murder of a crooked lawyer – she goes back in time in an attempt to save him. Thus, the journey begins as our protagonist goes back in time in the body of another person and tries to warn Limbo. It’s up to you to figure out how to save him!
Android* (this one isn’t region locked) iOS* (while it says English for language in the Swedish app store, I saw only Japanese inside, but I didn’t try buying it, but likely the Japanese version) Switch JP (The ones in EU and US eshop is English only), physical also exists
*Chapter 1 of the VN is free to try.
OBS! There is a PC version via Steam, but it is English text only. It does have Japanese audio. So if you want to only practice listening and still read with us, for sure join!
There is a link to both two Japanese guide and an English guide; all of them are spoiler free (see the additional info for the English one). There is some possibility of the true route to the good ending being different between them (and other Japanese guides). Meaning that one will have to be picked as the true route and one as the additional (or more).
How those will be picked, will be decided by vote (for those who don’t care about spoilers) or by MissDagger if no one votes.
Japanese guide #1 Japanese guide #2 English guide - this is a review (that links to all the guides), so don’t read past the walkthrough links unless you are okay with spoilers. It does note when minor spoilers start and then major spoilers. Reader beware!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) need to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as such.
Membership
Will you be reading with us?
Yes
Yes, but I might start late
Maybe
No
0voters
Which version will you be reading?
Android
iOS
Switch
English PC/Steam version (only audio is Japanese, listening practice!)
0voters
If you participate, don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to be notified when weekly threads get posted!
So we have a few different things to vote on. Currently, voting on schedule would be hard since I know nothing about how the VN works (we can only hope it has some kind of dividers beyond routes…). So I guess that will come.
But lets start with this:
Are you buying a physical copy from Japan?
Yes
No (I have it/buying digital)
0voters
If anyone is, we’ll have to wait at least 2 weeks before we start. Depending on where they buy it from and such.
So this first start date vote is preliminary (if we pick starting soon). I’m putting in several different options, pick 1-2 you prefer.
When do we start reading? (can pick two)
November 25th (a week from now)
December 2nd (two weeks from now)
December 16th (a month from now)
December 30th (after the holidays (mostly))
Later, tell in a comment
0voters
These polls will be open for about a week, or less if voting seems to dry up.
To expand on my “maybe” vote – I’m going to read at least the free-on-Android chapter one, and then decide whether I’m enjoying it enough to buy the full game and continue.
Cool thanks I’m waiting a bit before buying it, I saw in the other thread that there should be a Steam sale around Nov 22nd, so waiting to see if there will be a discount on Bustafellows!
I saw the free demo, easy to buy on Android, and I just have to try; and the opening looks interesting. I saw the price also, converted to my local currency.
I can’t do both this and 9-nine-, especially since this would be too lookup heavy for me without hooks, but I’m definitely down to follow along in English. Totally leaving the voting to serious people…
For anyone else nabbing the Steam version it looks like they put it on sale for ~$32 last year during the Autumn Sale. So it’ll probably go on sale at the end of next week if you’re looking to save a few bucks.
It’s divided into chapters which makes it easy to split it up. The good thing about Bustafellows is that it doesn’t have a route lock so you can play through anyone. That being said, you would have to use a guide or you would end up with a bad ending…or the game can end during the prologue.
Oh and there is a common route. The choices you make in the common route decide which romance route you play. Limbo is supposed to be the poster boy but IMO he has the least interesting story.
@Yoshimaster55 Thank you for the info! Are the chapters similar in length, did you notice? Also do you know how many chapters there are? Maybe that depends on route.
I guess I have to go looking for a spoiler free guide.
Each route has four chapters which includes the common route. I can’t recall if they are all the same length but I would imagine they would all be similar. I don’t recall any being exceptionally long. Also, the four chapters are side A which is kind of the story. After that, there is a side B which is like a small chapter that focuses on the romance.
The first chapter is the same with everyone except you make different choices so there can be some slight variation in character response. After that, the story is entirely differen. There isn’t any overlap between routes.
I haven’t played the game (that’s what I’m here for P:) but I did some investigating and found this about the structure of the game and recommended route order:
Summary
Regarding the structure, BUSTAFELLOWS ’ story is split into the common route (prologue and four chapters), romance route (sides A and B for each of the five love interests), and finale (two chapters). Which love interest one gets is determined as early as in chapter two of the common route, but players are only shown more concrete hints in the subsequent chapters with three short scenes that will change according to the romance route obtained. All romance routes are immediately available right from the first playthrough and their storylines are self-contained with no overlaps. Therefore, they can be played in any order safely. Still, considering the topics and information presented in each route, I would recommend a play order of Limbo, Scarecrow, Helvetica, Mozu, and finally Shu.
From: BUSTAFELLOWS - Review | A Gripping Roller Coaster Ride - NookGaming
I have also found a slightly different route order recommended: Limbo ► Shu ► Helvetica ► Mozu ►Scarecrow, but I have no idea which is better… I mean they’re both probably fine.
It could be nice if we could do one chapter per week so 5 for the common route (prologue + 4 chapters) and 2 more per route (sides A and B), plus 2 more for the finale (whatever that means) for a total of 17. Then again 17 weeks is exactly what Loopers lasted and this game is supposed to be almost 6 times as long so… we are in trouble
I’d say we’d have to at least double those times (and that’s a reaally long time for a club but it’s still a higher pace than we’ve done before, I’m scared), but I also don’t know if the lengths of the different chapters are similar at all… VN clubs are hard
I guess another option is to start with the common route, do one character route and depending on how long we take and how the group is feeling we can continue or sink into despair.
Do I understand you right to say that the common route is different between the different routes too? Because according to the info @Sylph found the common route is four chapters long. Or are you calling the common route’s four chapter as one chapter?
I’m just checking so I understand things correctly. If the different choices in the common route actually adds a lot of new content, then that would explain some of the length.
Word.
I definitely think picking one route (and we’ll vote on which one) to start will be the path. Then as we finish it, or get close to finishing it, we can start to figure out what to do about more routes, and such things.
There is also like bad endings. Which is, of course, something people can do on their own time, or if that should be part of the club. (Also like, how to know when an option leads to a quick bad end or onto another route… -.-’ ) But as I understand they unlock CGs.
I have found two different fairly spoiler free guides in English (I haven’t looked for them in Japanese yet, I wanted something I could skim quickly), one with seemingly the most critical decisions plus some guidelines on picking, the other one giving all the choices (but without context, literally just listing them).
I’ll have to look for one in Japanese though, to get the actual correct Japanese answers.
!
