this vn ABSOLUTELY killed me. I've only completed leo's and tj's route and i honestly wished i listened to the content warning ngl, still loved it tho. i came here to ask if jenna's, carl's, or flynn's route are any less traumatic, because brian had me fucked up throughout the majority of Leo's route, Tj's route (while amazing) had me crying every ten seconds. After completing both of those routes, I wanted to take a step back from this vn, BUT...if any of the remaining routes wont crush me internally and make me cry for six hours straight, i wanna try it. mainly because i want to see chase have a genuine happy ending, but i also need a happy ending from this vn for myself as well lmao. Overall i thought everything about this visual novel was amazing, but i do need to know if any of the other routes won't be the literal end of me. (and i don't mean to scare anyone off with this, i'm really dramatic, and i have a huge soft spot for stuff like this, give it a shot if this is something that interests you, you'll definitely handle it better than me lol.)
carl's is brian-free, jenna's has some scenes but def not as bad as other routes, and i forget about flynn but im pretty sure his is fucked-up in a different (and mostly brian-free, if i remember correctly) way. it took me at least three whole-ass years between my last full reading of 'echo' and my first time finishing 'arches' due to all the shit that brian does in this vn, so sometimes it be that way. jenna's may be the only one i can definitely say has an optimistic ending, since i just finished it again earlier tonight, and perhaps carl's does too—so maybe save them for last if you want to end your experience of the storyline on a high-note.
remember: go slow, take breaks, and turn it off if it's ever too much!