Well, I finished Bustafellows!
And while I can’t go into too many details, because these two endings are nothing but character revelations and important plot info dumps, I do want the closure of writing down my general thoughts.
I’ll first talk about the Full Circle and the Auld Lang Syne Endings separately and then sum everything up in my “Final Thoughts” section.
This article will be short and sweet!
Character and plot analysis and light spoilers after the cut! Per the game developer’s request, I will keep this article focused on my thoughts of these endings.
The production value of the game and my love of Teuta and all the main characters totally holds over into these two endings! Please read the first half of Shu’s article if you are interested in my thoughts about these elements of the game!
Full Circle Ending
I honestly liked this ending.
Full Circle is meant to follow directly after the end of the common route. It is an alternate ending to the five-character routes. And when viewed from that perspective, I totally got the feeling of an American crime show. Full Circle was fast paced and stuffed with action. I never felt bored and the ending didn’t overstay its welcome, which I appreciated!
The character revelations made enough sense and, to me, it felt like puzzle pieces coming together to finish one of the overarching plotlines of the story.
I mean, Full Circle could have been fleshed out more, but I think it did what it was written to do. It felt like a good “cap” to one of the main storylines and it felt like how an ending should feel.
I really have no complaints!
* * * * * *
Auld Lang Syne Ending
On the other hand, this ending was…a choice.
And I don’t mean that in a good way.
The events of Full Circle chronologically precede the events of Auld Lang Syne. And I think, it’s such a shame the writers chose to tack this “ending” to the end of the Full Circle ending!
Auld Lang Syne could have totally been another route!
But as written, Auld Lang Syne feels rushed and incomplete.
SOOOOO many character revelations that make you see beloved characters in a different light, without much explanation. Also, a lot went down in our characters’ pasts and we, the reader, don’t get much information about any of it. We only get enough information meant to shock us. Any follow-up isn’t included.
And I, for one, have questions!
Another problem with Auld Lang Syne, tacked on as an “ending”, is that it feels completely detached from the rest of the game. Teuta is not the point-of-view character for this ending. We spend all of Auld Lang Syne in the perspective of a side character. This is the only time this happens in the entire game! And three of the main Love Interests (who we spent most of the game with) barely make an appearance. The ending focuses on side characters, not the main characters we spent the better part of the common route and the 5-character routes getting to know!
There is little to no continuity between this ending and the rest of the game.
Honestly, Auld Lang Syne didn’t feel like an ending. It felt like an extremely rushed route with no satisfying, conclusive resolution.
Which means, it failed at the one job it had…to complete the story.
And, for me, what is frustrating is that I found this trainwreck compelling enough that I wish it was a fleshed-out route! There was just so much thought-provoking content that could have been explored!
But. It wasn’t.
You’ll just find me mulling over what could have been, while I suffer from my first case of “Side Character Syndrome.”
My poor baby. Maybe someday he will find happiness.
-Final Thoughts-
This was like A Tale of Two Endings.
Full Circle felt like all the existing puzzle pieces coming together to make sense. Auld Lang Syne felt like the pieces were blown-up and the reader was forced to start building the puzzle anew with brand new pieces.
And I just find it surprising that this is the dynamic the writers wanted to leave the readers with.
I mean, I guess in Auld Lang Syne there was closure to one of the overarching storylines from the game.
But at what cost?
For me, personally, I would have rather preferred not to have closure to this storyline if that meant Auld Lang Syne did not exist as an ending.
It’s just not worth it.
Too many unanswered questions and character revelations were created in order to solve the mystery of one, albeit very important, question. Narratively, this just doesn’t make sense.
Ultimately, for me, this was a disappointing way to end Bustafellows.
Now, I would definitely say it was well-worth the $10 dollars I spent on the Nintendo eshop sale. But I do think the main flaw of this game is inconsistent writing. Limbo’s route in particular was pretty bad in terms of character consistency, plot sequencing, and conflict tension. On the other hand, both Shu and Mozu’s routes were very well paced and consistent in terms of characters.
Overall, I enjoyed this game and I know I will revisit Shu and Mozu’s routes in the future!
Otomes as Novels 