StarTRain

A victim of being a visual novel

VNDB

I’ve never felt so conflicted after finishing a visual novel and I think it’s precisely because StarTRain conforms to visual novel structure. While I think visual novels have higher immersive potential than novels or movies, their conventional route structure has a tendency to hurt what would otherwise be great stories. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an example more clear than with StarTRain.

StarTRain begins with an exceptionally strong common route. I believe this common route is nearly perfect. From the get go you’re placed right in the middle of a dysfunctional relationship between our protagonist, Tsukasa, and his girlfriend, Nami. It’s not dysfunctional for any real dramatic reason, and on the surface level they’re perfectly okay. But you can just tell from the way they interact with one another that this will never last. Tsukasa is this hyper self conscious boy who can’t help but overthink everything and constantly needs to be reassured by Nami that she really does like him and their relationship is okay. Nami clearly cares for Tsukasa but she never achieves true intimacy with him. There’s this unsettling feeling that palpitates throughout your entire body sending danger signs with every line they deliver to each other. You know it’s not going to work out, it can’t work out, and you’re forced to watch it fizzle out.

The author, Nanaumi Sou, nails to a T the kind of absolute depression that resides within Tsukasa. It almost hurts to read because he’s just trapped in his own head and it really impacts all of his interactions with those who care about him. Nami can only really do so much for him but he’s insistent on sabotaging what they have. Be it through attempting to force intimate situations with her, which are seriously painful as she clearly isn’t enjoying herself very much, or through his incessant insecurity. The entire common route is him gradually eroding the foundation of this relationship despite ultimately doing his best, he just can’t get out of his own head.

I only really have one complaint with regards to the common route, and that’s how the breakup actually happens. Essentially Tsukasa sees a picture of Nami and her senpai, Mori, from before he graduated and starts getting jealous. In this picture he sees a Nami that’s enjoying herself, and while they never dated it doesn’t matter to him. He thinks up all these scenarios about the two of them and it accelerates the already decaying relationship. The issue is that Mori actually starts showing up in the story, frequently. I would be willing to excuse it if it happened once. The first interaction between the two of them clearly feeds into his insecurities even more, she introduces Tsukasa as a kouhai not her boyfriend, she gets along with him more naturally than with Tsukasa etc. It pretty much confirms all of Tsukasa’s delusions instantly and I can see how this would quickly spiral out of control. Unfortunately, Mori just keeps showing up and eventually Tsukasa is essentially forced to end things.

This misstep is the first of many. While I appreciated Tsukasa being the one to end things I don’t think incorporating Mori this aggressively was the correct move. The direction of the common route was highly focused on the gradual psychological erosion of the relationship between Tsukasa and Nami and I would’ve preferred it if it stayed that way. The problem with forcing Mori into the story this aggressively is that it actively confirms Tsukasa’s mentality. He already believes that Nami and Mori are the better couple. He thinks that Mori will eventually steal his girl and he essentially just gives him the green light. For all intents and purposes, the way that the common route ends actually makes the reader think that Tsukasa might be right. Nami ends up running off to Mori’s concert and for all we know they end up together. This kind of validation is dangerous because it allows the reader to distribute a large portion of the blame onto Nami. Had Mori only been limited to a single appearance and remained an element entirely within Tsukasa’s mind the relationship still would’ve broken apart but it would’ve strengthened just how unwell Tsukasa ultimately is, which is the main focus of the entire story.

Or I should say it’s supposed to be the main focus of the story, because the middle section between the common route and the true route seems to have been forgotten. The meat of StarTRain is where I think the problem of conventional visual novel structure really starts to show. You see, while I think the common route does a fantastic job at introducing the dramatic foundation for the remainder of the story it does not do a good job at leading into routes. Because the common route focuses so much on Tsukasa and Nami’s relationship, it does not allow much room for the other girls to sell themselves. They very much operate on a hierarchy. You have people like Maiko and Hiroki who are extremely fun and tie in well throughout the entire story. Kanade is allowed a moderate amount of screen time and has a significant moment which leads into the middle section. But the other two, Yomogi and Asuka, barely make a mark in the story.

The introduction to the routes makes me think that this really was supposed to be a kinetic novel rather than having a branching plot. It’s very much focused on Kanade, Hiroki, and Maiko interacting with Tsukasa and basically acting as his pillar in his post breakup life. I think this element was done quite well and is imperative to the true route. The problem is that despite Kanade being put front and center as the next main girl (she’s even on the cover), they still have to include routes for the other girls. This is made even worse by the fact that the common route ends with Kanade confessing her feelings for Tsukasa as soon as he breaks up with Nami. While I don’t expect him to go out with her in that moment I just can’t imagine why this ends up being essentially sidelined unless you enter her route. It creates this drastic imbalance of perceived importance even before you actually decide which order you want to tackle their stories.

The lack of screen time allocated to Yomogi and Asuka is only made more apparent when you consider there’s a one year time skip between the first and second sections of the story. I’m not opposed to introducing a time skip of some degree but I think this length is far too long. Even disregarding how it makes me less sympathetic to how hung up he is about his relationship with Nami, which he ended by the way, it also ends up dragging down his interactions with those characters. He barely interacted with them so whenever he has to in this next section it’ll cut back to the singular time that they had a conversation face to face, which he apparently remembers in extensive detail. This might come across as a nit pick, and frankly it is, but it’s something which actually hindered my experience quite a bit. As the reader you probably didn’t care all that much about these characters because they’ve barely had any time to define themselves. More time should’ve been spent towards making them stand on their own rather than have to be artificially supported by the whims of the story.

These whims also end up sacrificing the tonality built up in the common route. Because they have to focus on leading into these new characters they have no choice but to emotionally reset even after that emotional bombshell has been set off. Tsukasa was a complete and utter mess in the common route but in this transition period he became extremely unremarkable. He’s definitely as passive as ever but his overwhelming internal monologue is practically cut off as these new characters have to make themselves known. The time skip is a complete reset of emotional investment and pacing of the story. If you think about how the common route ended this section simply shouldn’t exist. Kanade just confessed her feelings and Tsukasa just ended his relationship, this kind of emotional rug pull did a lot of damage with regards to my investment in the story as a whole.

I don’t think it was worth it either. Two of the three routes end up not paying off compared to the exceptionally well done common route. In all of them Tsukasa takes on a fairly passive role as the girl works through their issues. Yomogi is the one which worked as it practically mirrored his relationship with Nami. Yomogi is a similarly broken person to Tsukasa and now he’s put in the position of caretaker. It ends up confirming a lot of what you may intuit about Nami’s point of view and much of the dialogues given by Yomogi about her reason for living hit quite hard.

Asuka’s route on the other hand is the least significant to the overall story. I assumed that Asuka’s route would be a mirror for Tsukasa’s relationship with his own parents, who he is on the record for saying he doesn’t care about, but it ultimately didn’t reach much of a conclusion on that front. In my opinion I don’t think her route contributed much to any of the overarching themes and given her weak foundation as a character it could be easily discarded.

Kanade occupies a bit of a weird position. While it serves as a fairly good continuation of where they left off at the end of the common route it doesn’t really know what it wants to do other than putting them in a relationship. While she reflects Tsukasa’s jealousy a little bit, given that she was in love with him while he was in a relationship, her hands are tied because of her role in the true route. Because of this her route ends up feeling a little stunted because of how significant she is to the actual story.

So the price they had to pay to conform to this structure is one pretty good route and two which feel generally pointless. The greater cost is that it completely halts Tsukasa’s development. In none of these routes, even Kanade’s, does he really take center stage. That amazing characterization he was given at the start is just completely thrown out the window for half of the runtime of the story and it just feels like such a waste. It might make you care a little bit more about the overall cast but they all could’ve been easily utilized in a linear fashion without reliance on routes. Yomogi already occupies a lot of screen time on her as you choose which route you want, Kanade is a significant character which did not deserve to be sidelined, and Asuka… well she doesn’t really do much outside of her route. The point is that I felt they did not properly make use of this amount of time and so much of it causes everything to stay on hold.

And then you start the true route, and suddenly it feels like you’re reading the actual story again. All at once you’re taken back to that tight, evocative writing which seeps into your soul. Every interaction that Tsukasa has with Nanami feels like this act of desperation. He’s grasping at what he no longer has, basking in the sea of escapism, unwilling and unable to move on. This route feels like a proper continuation of the common route, both in terms of writing quality and structure. Tsukasa willingly regresses into a state which he is unable to handle properly. Having to come to terms with the fact that the girl he loved is no longer with him, because of his own actions, is heart wrenching. Seeing Nanami gently guide him towards the truth, that she really does love him but the relationship that they had can no longer exist in this world is seriously difficult to swallow.

Tsukasa’s response to Nanami’s death is the natural continuation of his internal dialogue in the common route. This is where StarTRain reaches its peak, one which could’ve been so much higher. Time and time again his friends, Maiko, Hiroki, and Kanade especially, do their best to console him but it’s no use. He rejects all of their held against his best wishes, seeing him apologize them to in his mind every time he lashes out is truly hard to watch. This is where I realized just how much I appreciate Maiko and Hiroki, they’ve been a constant source of comedy and happiness in the story and seeing them become utterly devastated as Tsukasa simply won’t let them in to help hits harder than anything else in the story. He’s eroding everything, his relationship with Nami, himself, and now his friends, and this self destructive behavior manages to resonate deeply. As irrational as his behavior is, it’s not something you or I have not experienced at some point in time. Seeing his gradual decline builds a strong empathetic link between the reader and him, far more than if this had been the result of any singular dramatic event. It’s all of his own creation.

My favorite moment in the entire story was an unexpected one. It comes near the very end, Tsukasa had just been to the doctor and essentially designated as clinically depressed. He’s walking home aimlessly and ends up bumping into his teacher. This teacher, who by all means has been nothing but comedic relief, takes a look at Tsukasa and invites him to go get some ramen. What follows is one of the most sincere heart to hearts I’ve read in a visual novel. He opens up about his own failed relationships, his own mentality, he doesn’t overstep his bounds, all he wants to say is that if Tsukasa ever needs anything he can come to him anytime.

It’s impossible to solve problems you make for yourself by yourself. The solution is hidden to your perspective. And maybe it’s impossible for others to solve it too, but they can certainly lighten the load. Your problems are never truly your own so long as you have people that care about you. It’s only if you choose to shut them away that your situation truly becomes impossible.

StarTRain is a story about the problems we make for ourselves. It’s also a story that makes a lot of problems for itself. If you took just the common and true route and stitched them together you’d have 80% of something truly great. It is insistent on shooting itself in the foot just for the sake of sticking to convention. Had they scrapped the route idea they could’ve very easily incorporated a lot of the same ideas in a chronological structure and arrived at a far stronger conclusion. Yomogi making advances on Tsukasa could allow him to put himself in Nami’s shoes, he could naturally figure out Asuka’s living situation and realize that everyone suffers in their own ways, Kanade’s route can be incorporated into the true ending easily. All of the pieces are there but they’ve been scattered around all over the place and the reader is forced to do a scavenger hunt to find them all. The solution was hidden from the perspective of its medium.