Sometimes a separate true route is necessary in order to tie up story details that did not get a satisfactory ending in the traditional romance routes. Maybe some characters had pieces of the overall story, but no one person knew everything. Maybe the romance derailed the political or action-oriented parts of the plot. But the thing is, I didn't feel like there were any lingering, unanswered questions in Variable Barricade. We know what prompted the suitors being thrown at Hibari at such a young age (Kazuya's marriage proposal, and Takamune's limited ability to block it due to extended family problems), and Hibari eventually falls in love with one of the men her grandfather has chosen. What else is there?
Well, that's obviously spoilers so follow along after the break!
It turns out the true route is all about the butler. And in that way, it actually does answer a couple questions I had but didn't think important enough to call out in my individual route posts, and that is why Kasuga helps or hinders the different suitors, and why he was able to become Hibari's butler when he was just a child himself.
Throughout the bulk of the game, Kasuga is an impeccable butler. He provides an ear when Hibari needs to talk, he reins her in when she's about to go overboard, and he pushes her to do her best. They've been largely inseparable since she was nine and she's arguably closer to him than anyone. Hibari came to live in her grandfather's household when she was five, but found it a lonely place, causing her to withdraw, and it was only with Kasuga's arrival and steadfast support that she came out of her shell.
So it comes as a shock when Hibari learns that Kasuga is actually her older brother. She has no memory of life before coming to her grandfather's place when she was five and thought her parents were killed in an accident. And not only does she learn about her older brother, but it turns out her parents are alive too!
We know from the common route that Hibari's father eloped and ran off to marry the woman he loved rather than enter an arranged marriage (a fact that bothers Hibari since she does not want to shame her family the same way). But suddenly learning that her parents have been living in England, doing their own thing without her for the past twelve years, is weird. Takamune makes it clear that it was not his idea to tell Hibari that her parents are dead, but her father's, and describes her parents as eccentric. Kasuga tells her that their parents probably haven't missed them, but I suspect they aren't as uncaring as he says they are.
We know that her father kept in contact with his mother, Takamune's wife, and that they separated Hibari and Kasuga when she was five because Kasuga was quite frankly unhealthy in his protectiveness of his younger sister. His zeal and assurance that only he knew what was best for her was what got Hibari injured and caused the separation in the first place. If her parents truly did not care they would have let Kasuga do whatever he wanted.
Regardless, it feels very awkward to discover and then never meet these parents. We at least know Kasuga as a character before the reveal as her brother, but her parents remain faceless entities we just hear about. Given that, they may as well be dead as she was originally told.
Knowing that Kasuga is actually Hibari's brother explains why he will express his distaste towards certain suitors even though they've been vetted by Takamune and he ought to be neutral as a butler. A suitor like Shion, who encourages Hibari to relax and do nothing, is an anathema to Kasuga, who sees Shion as undoing his life's work to make Hibari the person she is today. It's no surprise that Kasuga discourages the headstrong suitors like Shion and a lesser degree Taiga, because they would get in his way.
On the other hand, Ichiya and Nayuta have no interest in changing Hibari. With a nudge from Kasuga, Ichiya puts his very life on the line to prove his love for her. Kasuga has no fear from a man so clearly dependent on his sister. And as for Nayuta, Kasuga himself describes Nayuta as "One that does neither harm nor good, one that is content being decorative… Mr. Yagami would, under no circumstances, interfere with your work as the head of the Tojo family." Though he acknowledges that Nayuta is certainly not perfect, this comes with acknowledgement that Nayuta can be trained, and Kasuga arguably helps out Nayuta more than any other suitor.
It's a pretty great scene with Hibari telling off her grandfather and walking away with the implication that the rich suitor proposing a marriage alliance between their families might actually be a bluff. Of course we know it's not, because we've met Kazuya on Ichiya's route, but her takedown of her grandfather is an amazing show of spine.
The rest of what amounts to being Kasuga's route is more uneven. After the fact he's her brother comes out, Kasuga runs away and later tries to kidnap Hibari. He's set up an escape route, a place for her to go to school in England, and it's all pretty nuts. But what doesn't quite make sense is why he needs to do all this. Though he might be unhappy about Takamune spilling the beans to Hibari and Taiga (and through Taiga, all the other suitors), there is no indication that they will be separated because of it. And as far as his identity being revealed, there's really no putting that cat back in the bag.
Kasuga later admits that he has no interest in becoming the Tojo heir himself, because he wants Hibari to have that role. He wants her to have all the good things in life and run the family as its head. That's fine, but it doesn't mesh with running away to England with her, because then she'll lose all those things. He does spin up a cover story about her transferring abroad, but he must know that it would be difficult if not impossible for her to remain the Tojo heir if she's not in contact with her family.
But, thanks to the suitors, this all blows up in his face, and Hibari returns home without issue.
Hibari surprisingly does not care whether or not she retains the position, but as mentioned, Kasuga does not want it. He has an incredible sister complex (and goes off on an embarrassing rant about how his sister is the best now that he's free to do so), so he won't settle for anything less than Hibari taking the lead. So she reluctantly accepts him as "Kasuga" again and he goes back to being her butler, to the implied horror of their grandfather who was hoping to get Tsubame back from underneath all that buttling.
The siblings later arrange it so that Kasuga sheds his butler persona and becomes Tsubame once a month for Hibari to spend time with him, but he's pretty obstinate about wanting to be Kasuga most of the time. He has his own After Story like the love interests, which is basically Hibari trying to spend catch-up family time with him. The After Story plays her a little excessively for my tastes, making her borderline brother complex (possibly to make up for the fact there's no romance here), but it's nice to see Tsubame as Tsubame since he behaves noticeably differently when being himself.
One last thing. The timeline in the true route is much the same as the others, in that it wraps up at Christmas time, which means that even though Hibari initially blew off the temporary fiancé thing, Kazuya still exists and has his plan to get engaged to Hibari in time to make a Christmas announcement.
Kazuya is surprisingly agreeable, though he does put conditions on his cooperation, not being one to give up entirely. But still, agreeable, as long as he gets to join in on the suitor fun, making him suitor number five again as in Ichiya's route. Then this part of the story gets shelved until the Christmas party at the end.
At first I didn't understand this, but once they finally got to the party I could see why they needed this out of the way, so time passes and we don't have the negotiation and the party back to back with the Kasuga plotline already resolved. The pacing would have been strange.
Hibari ends this route with no fiancé, but the social implication to investors and hangers on is that she is probably engaged to one of the Shinzaki twins. Ichiya has become one of her grandfather's secretaries, further cementing the ties between their families, and she is visibly close to both brothers. But no official engagement. This is all to buy time until she figures out who she wants most, and now she truly does have time.
Variable Barricade does choose to end on a silly note. The cast has a house party at the end with Hibari thanking everyone for bringing her this far, only for her friends to bother her about who she likes, and for her suitors to start doing their courtship again (Ichiya jumping right in with the wedding chapel suggestion was pretty good). They butt in, one after another, even Kazuya, and shortly thereafter Taiga and Naytua jump in even though they hadn't considered themselves suitors previously, building up to Kasuga declaring (now that his identity as her brother is known) that they will have to carry her over his dead body.
And that was actually a fun way to end the game. Variable Barricade has had a flair for the dramatic at times, but was always its best as a comedy.
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