Clannad follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, a high school delinquent who meets many people in his last year at school, including five girls, and helps resolve their individual problems.

The gameplay of Clannad follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character. The game was ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards.

Tomoya Okazaki is a third year high school student at Hikarizaka Private High School, leading a life full of resentment. His mother passed away in a car accident when he was young, leading his father, Naoyuki, to resort to alcohol and gambling to cope. This resulted in constant fights between the two until Naoyuki dislocated Tomoya’s shoulder. Unable to play on his basketball team, Tomoya began to distance himself from other people. Ever since he has had a distant relationship with his father, naturally becoming a delinquent over time.

While on a walk to school, Tomoya meets a strange girl named Nagisa Furukawa, questioning if she likes the school at all. He finds himself helping her, and as time goes by, Tomoya finds his life heading towards a new direction.