Fruit of Grisaia: Amane's Path

Fruit of Grisaia: Amane's Path is not actually another Visual Novel, it is instead a continuation of a previous blog post where I spoke generally about the Visual Novel. This particular blog post will be about the path of Amane. 

Amane is a year older than the protagonist of Yuuji. She is a tall and bigger woman than the other girls which is one of the things they all remark. She's not really big as in fat or anything but her larger build and being tall makes her seem a bit more imposing than the other girls. That said, Amane is a good nature and homely girl that was born to a family of restaurant owners and chefs, because of this she has taken up to cooking like a natural. 

Amane is very outspoken and tends to flirt a great deal openly with Yuuji and this has gotten her a nickname from her friend and live in Makina as the 'slut' due to her straightforward sexual appeal and talk. However, as much as she talks about it she is actually a shy girl that when pushed can become very submissive to a stronger presence. 

In choosing Amane's path you begin working your way through a story that is centered on learning her past and finding out why she was brought to the school in the first place. You start this path of discovery after hearing a person call Amane the 'cockroach'. You eventually decide its time to ask her some questions and help her get over what it was that hurt her so much. 

When he confronts her about her past she begins at a time when she was still in middle school and was part of a girl's ball team that was heading back from a training camp. During this bus ride, something happened before she knew it her world was shattered along with those that were with her. The bus suddenly was flung the road and down the side of a mountain. When the dust settled 2 students had died in the initial crash, two others were seriously injured. As the students gained some sort of control they began to do what they could to get rescued.

The mountain was too high to climb with an outcropping that kept them from scaling it. Next to that was a jungle so dense the sun didn't even make it all the way through to the forest floor. They were trapped, 12 remaining girls, and 1 teacher. Soon the girls turned to the Captian of the team for what to do. With no signal on their phones and the road they were on not being traveled much, they began to work out staying there for a few days until help arrived.

Setting up a makeshift camp and rationing out supplies the girls spent their days gathering food, working on different projects to try and help get saved, and whatever else they could. During this time Aname had gotten paired with an unusual first year named Kasumi. Kasumi was a practical genius and knew a great deal about survival and many other things. She was the one that established a med tent and helped the two girls that were injured to try and get better.

The rations they had would last around 5 days. However soon things would go from bad to worse. As the days marched by the girls found themselves in a situation where soon their food was running out. And soon as that started, things went downhill. The days continued and soon the girls began to show signs of exhaustion, mental fatigue, mental stress, and malnutrition. This led to an instance where one of the girls who had managed to sneak a dog on the bus soon found her pet dead from lack of food. 

Between the rains that kept their tents wet, leeches that would appear after the rain, the unclean conditions the girls would get the occasional stomach issues as well that came along with it.

It was decided that the girls would eat the dog. This of course had a mental effect that cost one of the girls her life. The girl that had brought the dog was from a wealthy family that spent more time away on their job than with her, and she had taken animals in as her only companions. Seeing her beloved animal die than being a willing participant in the later eating of it was more than she could handle. Se would become another victim. 

Soon after that, another girl that had been bedridden since the accident due to breaking both her legs would be the next to go due to infection. Soon after her death, the second girl that was hurt during the accident would also fall to her wound. A gash to her stomach that got infected was what killed her.

Kasumi had been hinting as the days went by that something bad would happen if they hadn't been rescued soon. The connection between Amane and Kasumi allowed them to become the closes of friends and through the days together they had gotten closer. Kasumi talked about her family and how much she loved her little brother. Her brother named Yuuji. Kasumi also told Amane that if the time came she would make sure that Amane would be taken care of.

The night came suddenly. Kasumi woke Amane from a malnutrition induced sleep. And told her it was time to go, as they prepared to leave through the forest they came upon what it was that Kasumi had feared. A handful of students that remained had taken upon eating their dead friends. This sudden event scared Amane greatly but she was forced to run. Kasumi told her that they were no longer humans and instead referred to them as Ghouls. 

As they ran it became apparent that Amane was about to collapse. If she fell the "Ghouls" would catch her and kill her. So Kasumi made the sacrifice and gave her own life to protect Amane. Amane forced to traverse the jungle on her own finally made it back to civilization just as she was about to lose all hope.

Eventually, the crews were able to find the spot of the accident and there they found the camp and the bodies of the poor students and one teacher that didn't make it out alive. Amane was in the end the only survivor. This status would soon be turned against her as the press and people in her own school began to believe that the only reason why she had survived was that she was the one that killed the others or at least left them to die. Eventually, they would give her the nickname "Cockroach" based on the theory of what would happen when you put cockroaches into a container and leave them there for a while. Eventually, one will eat all the others and stand as the only one left.

Eventually, this led to her home and family business getting tagged and tarnished. The mental anguish of losing her friend and her teammates and seeing all the horrors that led to their deaths she came to believe that their souls would torment her because she was happy and alive while they died. Yuuji helps her return to the site of the accident and helps her push through in accepting things as they are. During their time there a few other things happen but I'll let you figure that part out.

The Visual Novel continues the story of Amane and Yuuji after they graduate from the school they get married and have a child or two of their own. Time flies by and soon they are grandparents and later Yuuji at an age around 50 or so dies from cancer. At the end of the Visual Novel, Amane passes away as well and is reunited with Yuuji as the picture shows possibly in heaven and they have been given the appearance of their High School days. 

Now I normally want a Visual Novel to produce some 'After Story' that kind of brings closure to the story and leaves some wiggle room for the imagination. However, I feel that Amane's round went beyond that and in a way, I wasn't quite happy with the end result. While I enjoyed Amane's path and 'Good Ending' I feel that how they did the after story was a bit constrained. Not to say I'm absolutely against it but it does seem like they were attempting to end it pretty quickly.

Amane's Good Ending Route wasn't a bad choice for the first route but she's not the one I would call best girl nor is she my favorite, actually best girl is one that I haven't yet played through and honestly...she is not the one that I would have figured would have been best girl.