First a standard disclaimer: I've played through Clannad once. I'm assuming there are multiple endings: A "true" ending, as well as a bevy of other bad to decently good endings. I'm assuming the ending I reached is NOT the true ending, but rather a so-so ending.
Clannad places us in the shoes of a high school deadbeat--a senior who doesn't pay attention in class, who is always late (if he even bothers to show up), and doesn't have any friends (except a kindred spirit who skips class even more regularly). The VN calls him a "delinquent" (although given his lack of real lawbreaking, he doesn't meet my criteria for the term)--a reputation that has him feared by other students and under suspicion by teachers. But one morning on his way to school he meets a girl--someone else running late, someone else who doesn't seem to have friends--and they start to form a connection.
The VN is leisurely paced. There's a lot of general shooting-the-shit, so to speak. Some tangible goals rear their head, but mostly this seems to be about building relationships. The choices that pepper throughout Clannad's story seem to share that focus: Guiding our protagonist through reacting to people and situations, rather than intentionally steering the plot towards discernable goals. I imagine these choices DO end up moving the plot in significant ways (which is to say, I don't think it's a linear story, regardless of choice, with the choices simply building up what ending you get), but that the rail switch is happening in the background of these choices. I'm willing to be wrong about all of that, but there's a feeling to games where the choices don't matter--and this doesn't have that feel. Which is to say, I would expect on a replay that various characters would increase or decrease in importance based on different choices I would make, revealing other storyline paths or for my chosen path to reveal in a different way. (Another bit of evidence in favor of that assumption is my "dangopedia"--the in-game dictionary of Japanese culture and terms--isn't even 1/10th filled, so it seems there's a lot I haven't seen yet.)
For a game more about relationship building than trying to logically bring about a plot outcome, the relationships need to feel good. On that front Clannad mostly succeeds. I was emotionally invested in these characters. I appreciated the refuge they found in each other. There were times where the "shooting the shit" seemed to cycle around a bit too much, becoming repetitive, creating a sense of stagnation with the characters, but I wonder how much of that was my "don't rock the boat" approach to making choices.
The girl that our protagonist befriends is cut out of the typical moe mold. Meek, demure, doesn't want to take up space--physically or in the mind of other people. Her growth is endearing (and necessary) as she gains confidence through having a friend. I am tired of the "meek girl needs a boy to find meaning in life" storylines, but while it's a bit disappointing here, it's also not surprising and basically comes with the territory with this kind of thing. Less forgivable is some of the manipulative mind games that the protagonist imposes on her. Stuff like guilt tripping to make her chose between helping someone out or hanging out with him, or outright lying to his class-skipping friend to keep him from meeting her. At best, it's selfish behavior. At worst, it's abusive and dehumanizing. On the one hand, I hope (and assume) that some of my choices led to that dynamic, so other lines may not have those elements. On the other hand, I don't ever remembering making choices like, "Let's do something very asshole here!" to feed that personality type--it may just be the way the character is. Or at least that's the way the character is at random points in the story. I'm mostly willing to overlook it because this is fiction, but in real life occasional "mind game manipulation shit" is a huge fucking red flag, and if a someone does that to you it's time to get out of the relationship (romantic OR plutonic).
Despite some of the negatives, my overall experience playing through Clannad was positive. And the construction of the VN is top-notch. While my VN preferences lean towards a hybrid (ala 999 or Danganronpa) where there is more tangible interaction with puzzles and whatnot, for a pure VN experience, this provides what I would consider to be the "right" amount of choices, and those choices appear to mean something. I'm not someone that wants to grind a VN to find all the endings/paths--or even the "true" ending--so it's important that even an alternative ending works--and the one I found works. A non-true ending that works is important because it makes a replay to find the true ending much more appealing. And the chances are good that I will revisit this sometime down the road.
