#yttd is cool though i like it a lot heart emoji

[datastate]

even though i wish it was possible to keep both sou and alice alive for more lore on the story, it does actually make sense why they’re restricted to their specific routes!

of course, for context, we need to acknowledge the significant choice just before the main game as well.

to keep reko alive, you follow your logic. you kill her doll because it is “just a doll.” you have to hope that the real reko hasn’t been harmed from this choice, or harmed before the final attraction began at all - because that was the last essence of her. and alice knows it, and runs toward his death because he’s so desperate to make sure his sister is alive - that sliver of hope... and maybe, he was able to see her one last time depending on your previous choices.

to keep alice alive, you’re following emotion in the last moments of the final attraction. reko - even with the ai - can cry and she’s begging for you to save her, she’s insisting she’s still human. and unfortunately, keeping her alive when she’s so desperate to live results in the human reko’s death because the floormasters state it plainly: we don’t need two reko yabusames. and alice lives on alone, with little reason to keep his information concealed now that the person he was trying to protect from the crossfire is gone.

reko & sou is the true logic route, by this.

reko’s arc, by all means, occurred before the death game. chapter two explores this in incredible depth and ties it directly to the game’s core question through the reko ai. there isn’t much else she can add now, so to keep her alive will balance the grim nature of the death game, but...within the story as it is now? she doesn’t know as much as alice would. her death would be the next necessary one to keep the story going without interfering with current plot lines. it’s unfortunate, but it makes more sense in this context than alice dying.

there’s also a nice contrast where you’re again proven through ranmaru, kurumada, and mai especially - dolls are practically perfect replications of their original base. you have never known the original version, so to you, these dolls are just as real as the real person. and you’re forced to confront that with the memory that you killed the doll reko.

then, alice & kanna is the true emotion route.

sara has had her hope restored thanks to sou’s final act, his offer of reconciliation, and because of this, she is able to keep her composure for the most part. ranmaru isn’t driven to kill the yabusame in his attempt to reassure her that she can live, and i’m sure even if nao had made her appearance (as is in the cut dialogue) to taunt sara, that she would be able to regain herself and move forward with [yabusame] support. maybe there’d be a talk here where instead of sara getting completely caught in her head [i don’t want to die], that she was able to regain herself and tell ranmaru firmly that she didn’t want to see that happen to anyone else, ever again.

*whereas for the logic route, she’s lost the connection she formed with the others through joe (that is why he was a detriment, bc of his social affinity, he formed the bridge and unintentionally ensured she’d be closer to the others throughout chapter 1. and especially when he offered support toward in his last moments...), and with keiji missing (who, despite jou’s initial suspicion, was someone who sara herself sought out to try to find the truth of. this was one of the few where she made the active choice to stay with him & he had offered support and empathy...the rest were generally ones who reached out to her first, if that makes sense. so this relationship still holds significance, but the other relationships after jou was forgotten ended up losing a lot of weight in her mind.)

ALTERNATIVELY! if nao shows up, it could be an emotion-route ONLY thing on hiyori’s part. he’s seeing that sara is regaining her strength, and tries to use this to knock her down again, to break her and force her back to that mindset. however, it still keeps ranmaru from taking any drastic action because he’s forced to see that [yabusame] is genuinely a source of support and can empathize with her over unfairly losing someone to the sacrifice card, again. there are a lot of ways this could be used! and i really wish it was kept - nao still deserved to hold her significance in the third chapter, and it shouldn’t be completely overshadowed with sou and kanna’s choice now that we’re no longer in the main game.

and then of course, as the pay-off, alice is able to stay alive and provide further information on the plot. even if there is less technological advantage, alice makes up for it through the advantage on hiyori himself as a floormaster and what will unsettle him more. it’s a more personal battle. it’s also possible that reko will have some information of her own to provide, although i’m sure alice’s would be more useful throughout chapter 3-2 depending on the prison he was in...? (the prison had the asunaro symbol iirc). he could help lead a route to escape, here. while reko herself could only really help through her brief interactions with hiyori before the game began.

i know this isn’t how it goes in-game, but i think it would’ve been interesting to have the emotion route be the one where you get under hiyori’s skin. for all he’s tried taunting you with (especially if nao’s corpse is an emotion-route only threat), you’re finally able to realize that his primary support is control. when he loses control of a situation, his grip begins to slip. it would proceed as it did in chapter 3-1b currently.

then, for logic route, it could be possible that there was another way that the system of the “banquet” roulette was overwritten with sou’s expertise now that he realized gin was in danger. even if he doesn’t care for the group as a whole, it would cement that he still has to contribute if he doesn’t want another child dead (and prove that he still hardly trusts sara and keiji after the events of last chapter, and with the [yabusame] death where ranmaru claims it was for sara. the distrust is embedded), and it would create a fun change that also serves to prove sou’s use here! because the reason you would keep him alive is for the logical reason - he has more skills than kanna did. and this could be a good place to showcase it and also give that sort of...revenge against hiyori? he’s got a more personal vendetta now that hiyori’s part in asunaro has been confirmed & hiyori made light of kanna’s death & after witnessing hiyori’s treatment of maple, especially with the lines littered throughout the chapter of his own manipulative relationship with sou (regardless of personal reasoning that hiyori sees it as, and the fact that tsukimi really did grow into the role hiyori set him up for to make him “stronger”)

hmmm i’ve gone on. but tl;dr i think it’d be interesting to have more significant differences between the route that is chosen! and even if these are the preferred choices for “true” logic/emotion routes, it’s nice that it isn’t something that has to be stuck to when you continue the plot. in this scenario, sou and kanna still remains as the big choice in how the plot would go (especially with sou’s use & the group’s dynamic), but it’s still possible to choose something for more specific information regarding the yabusames! they’re still an important choice and i only wish it was expanded on more, although i’m sure i’ll learn to be content with what is presented as it continues.