Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki read:

All that's left are the side stories.  I finished Akari's route and with it the story as a whole.  It turns out Akari's true name is Tsukisomi-no-Himemiko, so I changed her name to that in my Wonderful Characters Hall of Fame.  Akari's route does a good job of tying up all loose ends, but it literally relies upon a deus ex machina to do so.  This isn't as ridiculous as it sounds, since Oomikami has been granting miracles from the beginning of the story, so it stands to reason that eventually all problems are solved by Oomikami's miracles and the solution all along was to offer more sincere and fervent prayers.

It just isn't satisfying, as someone who lives on Earth, where the solution is never prayer, and people are expected to solve their own problems.  That's why I prefer Kotone's ending more -- which is ironic because she's the Exalt-Priestess who prays the most and delivers the most miracles in the story.  I guess I simply like Kotone more.  But who wouldn't be beguiled by a twintailed short girl with big breasts and amazingly ornate robes?  On top of that, someone full of humility, selflessness, dutiful, kind, and forgiving.  The only times she shows a stubborn streak are when she knows she's in the right -- like when she's possessive towards her boyfriend Soujin, or when she's demanding the right to do her job.  She's embarrassed by 'adult' matters but that doesn't stop her from aggressively diving into them when she knows what she wants.  Maybe it's her ability to be soft and yielding when it doesn't matter and strong and unyielding when it does that denotes her wisdom.

In any case, I'm fully satisfied with the visual novel as is.  The side stories will also be fun, but the story has already proven itself worthy of my hall of fame.  I'm not supposed to rank a visual novel until I've read it, but now I can say I've read it and yes, it deserves to be ranked.  I only jumped the gun because it was so obvious I didn't need to hesitate.  The art style to this game is magnificent.  The amount of detail that went into their raiments and the scenery is amazing, and there's way more animation than one would expect from a visual novel.  Clearly August was trying their best to outdo everything that had come before.

This doesn't dig me out of the ever-widening hole of stuff I need to do.  There are still side stories.  There's still Happiness 2.  And there's still a dozen video games sitting and waiting for me to start playing them already.  But at least I finished doing the thing most important to me right now.