So while we all wait for the next episode of Little Busters, I spent some time reading Rewrite, which is Key's next game after Little Busters if you don't count Kud Wafter. I figured the only people who'd care are anyone who still cares about Little Busters. So!
Rewrite is a significant departure from Key's previous works for a few reasons. The main reason is that Chief Crymaker Maeda Jun stepped down as a scenarist, so he has nothing to do with any of the writing. In his place, Key managed to recruit Tanaka Romeo, who was responsible for several critically acclaimed VNs but you'll all know him best as the author of the light novels Humanity Has Declined, which got its anime last summer.
Tanaka Romeo's stuff is generally not as subtly depressing and amusing as Jintai is. In fact, his stuff sort of follows the same Key formula, where we start off with school life and branch off into deeper things. Except, where Key has generally went with supernatural and interpersonal relationship drama and sadness, Tanaka Romeo likes to play with more psychological ideas and sociological commentary.
To give an idea of what I'm talking about, here are the
two opening sequences to Rewrite:
Philosophyz and
RewriteOnly the character routes and the common route are translated, but already, I can tell you that each of the character routes in Rewrite are good. If you remember what I've said about character routes in past Key games, you'll know this is huge, because I've never liked them. The main difference is that there's a lot more at stake in each of the Rewrite character routes and that things of consequence actually happen. Each route is fairly substantial and as far as I can tell, it's not just fodder for the "real" story like Clannad's or Little Busters' were. It always seemed to me like Key treated their characters with kids' gloves until it was time for drama, but Tanaka Romeo has no problem absolutely wrecking things. It definitely makes things a lot more exciting.
Of course, this is all tentative since I can't play the final routes yet, but if they're anything like the character routes have been, I won't have any complaints.