Here’s my personal proposal for the greatest route order for the best experience and enjoyment. My advice is not binding; you are free to play the game as you want, especially if you enjoy figuring out how to acquire different endings and experimenting with different options. However, for the finest experience, you should follow my route order recommendations to the letter.
Route Order
All credit goes to Big the Jonathan!
Foreword
Put simply for the best experience (In my humble opinion):
- Kotori
- Chihaya
- Shizuru
- Lucia
- Akane
Explanation and Other Options
For your very first playthrough, you can play however you’d like if that’s what you would like to do. You’ll most likely find just playing the common route.
However I heavily recommend going straight for Kotori’s route.
- Kotori route is a very good introduction to the novel and sets you up for the rest of the read. When you restart your playthrough after a common route, I believe some magic of immersion can be lost. I like to play this less as a game, but more of a story.
Chihaya 2nd because if you read other’s you’ll be spoiled on a few things.
- We’re trying to get the best experience of first time reading rewrite.
- It is a little longer read than Kotori’s Route.
Shizuru 3rd
- I think it works pretty well after Chihaya.
- She’s my favorite character from rewrite.
- It is the shortest read.
Lucia 4th
- She can be played anytime but its generally better for her to be played towards the end.
- If you like her a lot then you can switch route order with Shizuru, or maybe even Chihaya.
Akane gives a lot of final information and closes everything out for Moon Route.
- It is best if you play it last. Its also my favorite read out of all.
- What is Moon Route? You unlock it after you complete all 5 heroine’s story.
- It like a prologue for the epilogue, Terra Route.
This is the order i played in, and it’s solid. However, it’s also kind of sad to take away all of someone’s free choice with a prescribed route order. There’s something to be said about having your own unique experience. However, Rewrite definitely contains some routes that you don’t want to play either too late or too soon. Therefore the advice I would give someone is:
Kotori first
Chihaya before Shizuru
Lucia any time after Kotori, but not last. (though 3rd or 4th would be be ideal.)
With this order, the final route will be either Shizuru or Akane. Ending with Akane is the standard advice, however as time has gone on and I’ve let things sink in, I do think Shizuru is also a perfectly fine route to end on.