Import Games for Adults Halloween: Kansen 5 ~The Daybreak~

Kansen 5 ~The Daybreak~ Review

                Well, considering the overwhelming (and international) success of the critically acclaimed The Last of Us it seems this is the perfect time for me to review another Kansen game, especially as an opening to this Halloween month. While the fourth game wasn’t bad, you could tell the creators were trying to play it safe so as not to disappoint the fanbase in light of how good the third game was, and sadly that resulted in a game that was only above average. From what I’ve been able to gather, others who played it had similar thoughts on Kansen 4 so customer feedback probably had some influence on the design for its sequel as it’s obvious from the beginning that Kansen 5 is trying to be like its much more successful predecessor, Kansen 3. As for how well it does at that…I kind of wish I could trade this in for The Last of Us.

Pros: No timed choices, introduces some interesting concepts for the Kansen universe, characters are mostly likable, some character development is handled well, new view switching system is an interesting and good idea, artwork is good, voice acting is good.

Cons: The fake routes get too much focus, Akari is not well written as a character, unwinnable heroine, the glitches…oh God the glitches!

WTF?!: The older sister heroine and the Oneechanbara reference.

 

                Set at the same time as the third game, Kansen 5 follows Makoto Nakazawa, a boy who lost both his parents and memories during the first outbreak. While on a school trip to a nearby island, the second outbreak occurs.

                From the start you can see that Kansen 5 is definitely trying to provide an experience similar to the third game, but with improvements. You can probably guess from the way I ended the introduction how that turned out, but before we get to this game’s many faults let’s take a look at what it does right. First it does a good job establishing a bit more of the Kansen setting in the aftermath of the first outbreak, a good example being people suspected of being infected along with being quarantined also had a barcode tattooed to their arm so as to keep track of them. Unfortunately, this results in the survivors of the quarantine facing persecution by the rest of society who fear they might actually be infected. Also done mostly right are the characters as the main cast (click here for profiles) is interesting and likable, and the same can be said for a couple of the side characters. This is mainly due to the fact that the common route does a good job introducing all of them and the character interactions between them do feel genuine such as the MMO online friendship of Makoto, Soichi, Taya, and Sato. The game also does a good job in portraying the zombies as a threat once again, with the infected versions of some the heroines coming off as genuinely creepy, especially Akari.

                Concerning the routes…well, in the long run I’m going to have more complaints than praise, but I will give credit where credit is due. Before I begin though, I should explain how the routes are structured. There are the non-canon individual routes for each heroine which you’re required to play first and the then unlocked True Route which has an ending for each heroine. Out of all of them, I’d have to say the good ones are Satsuki’s non-canon route and Taya’s non-canon route. Satsuki’s route I consider the best first because not only do she and Makoto have good chemistry, but the story concerning her is really good. Her backstory is interesting as it not only ties really well with Makoto’s character at points in the story, but the mystery surrounding it and the secrets that are slowly revealed over time make for a good story to read. Taya’s route I enjoyed for a couple of reasons, first the interactions she and Makoto have are pretty well written and being a gamer myself I kind of have a soft spot for gamer friendship stories, and second, once the outbreak occurs the story of the two trying to make it out alive and the tragedy they encounter make for a good survival story with a bittersweet end reminiscent of Maya’s route from the second game. The only thing that makes Satsuki’s route win out is I think maybe there could have been a slightly better transition from the relationship Taya and Makoto have as friends to lovers as I think it happens a little quickly.

                Now we get to the not so good routes: Natsu’s and Akari’s. I’ll start with Natsu’s since of the two, hers is better by having a good start with a pretty natural progression of her and Makoto’s relationship, and a decent ending. My problem with it has to do with the story in between, which I found disappointing mainly because it essentially reduces Natsu to the role of damsel in distress, which just doesn’t fit her character all that well considering the other routes portray her as pretty badass (when she doesn’t get infected). As for Akari’s route, this is the one I really have a bone to pick with. I will say it has a couple interesting moments such as trying to portray Arai, one of the side characters, as being more than just a character that falls into “the bully” trope or its approach to Akari and Makoto’s relationship as a platonic one, but those parts aren’t given enough attention to make them truly effective story elements. One of my biggest problems with this route has to do with Akari herself; while not an unlikable character by any means she’s not a very well written character either. While there is potential for an interesting character there such as her family’s connection to the first outbreak (which is only given the minimal addressing in the entire story) or her martial arts skills with a naginata (which she barely uses even though a CG of her using it is one of the most prominent promotional CGs), what the writer chooses to focus on is Akari’s secret sex fetish over any other character traits that would have been interesting. For a cheap sex romp eroge that’s not a problem, but for a game in the Kansen series, an eroge series that (for the most part) balances its story and ero content  and offers at least decently written characters to follow, this comes off as incredibly weak writing especially considering that this is supposed to be our main heroine.

                Moving on to the True Route, I should start off by saying I don’t outright hate this route as it does have good moments. The buildup to it is nice as there are hints at better character development for a couple of the side characters, Makoto gets a chance to be awesome, the official start of the route has interesting story potential, the reveals about Makoto’s lost memories are told pretty well told (with one exception but we’ll get to that later), Akari actually has some decent character moments (not to mention she FINALLY uses that naginata of hers) and the end scenes with each heroine would make for a satisfying conclusion. The main problem is…the route is too short. All that buildup and an interesting start, but from there the route wraps up in about 30 minutes at most, and that’s just playing it the first time. Once you finish the route and load your save so as to see the other heroines’ endings through that route, there’s so little diversity you finish in 10-15 minutes (and most of that time is because of the route’s heroine’s ero scene). This really hurts the route because it not only cheapens the satisfaction of everyone surviving, but it also leaves you baffled as to why the True Route is so short while the fake routes are so long and in some ways have more emotionally satisfying conclusions. It also doesn’t help that the True Route flat out ignores or barely acknowledges important story elements from the fake routes that might have made it more interesting and even given each of the heroines’ endings in that route some plot diversity. Speaking of which the fact that the True Route is largely the same regardless of which heroine Makoto ends up with results in a bit of a feeling of contradiction in that the story for the route is obviously written with Akari in mind as the heroine. That also brings us to my one problem with the reveals concerning Makoto’s lost memory. While for the most part it makes for a good backstory, it seems as if the writer decided at the last minute to tie it in with Akari’s role as the main heroine by introducing a completely new character almost completely out of nowhere and having said character be an important part of Makoto’s forgotten memories. Aside from coming off as a weak addition to the plot, it also comes off as a copy of a major story element from Satsuki’s non-canon route and big surprise, it’s not as well executed.

                Having covered all that, I have one more story related complaint. After two games straight, Speed has once again given us an unwinnable heroine in Taya’s friend Sato Murasaki. She interacts with Makoto about as much as Taya in the common route, is a pretty humorous character, makes it out fine in the True Route, and the game hints at several points that she’s attracted to Makoto. In fact, the Infection route (which is basically a joke route) outright teases you with the possibility of a route. While I could accept time limits for the game’s development as why there isn’t a route for her, considering the True Route endings are 10-15 minutes long with only the heroine related scenes I’m pretty skeptical that they couldn’t have just squeezed an ending for her into the True Route itself that maybe could have been unlocked after getting Taya’s ending.

                Regarding the system aspect of the game, Kansen 5 does add a new way to switch character POVs. While the standard part where at certain points in the story the game pauses and you pick from multiple character POVs is still there, when it’s just one alternate view point an icon for the character shows up at the upper right of the game window. You can either select it to go to that viewpoint or ignore it and go on with your current scene and the icon eventually disappears. It’s an interesting new addition and a good way to keep the story flowing with little feeling of interruption. Of course, the biggest improvement that Kansen 5 brings to its system over its predecessors is this:  the removal of those accursed timed choices!! While I’m sure many a fan of this series would be celebrating  at that, I’m afraid that joy would be offset by the one area Kansen 5 surpassed 3…the glitches…

                To this day I don’t think I’ve ever played a glitchier eroge, let alone visual novel, than Kansen 5. The third game did have bugs but they were just three game crashing bugs and a game freezing bug, Kansen 5 has (ironically) five major glitches that I had to deal with.  The first and perhaps worst of them would be that the game can’t remember what text you’ve read, basically after clearing a route and starting a new one when you click the skip text option to skip past already read text the skip function will work for a few seconds and then stop and treat all the text from that stopping point as if you’ve never read it before. This means you have to rely on the “skip all text” function and hope you have a good enough eye to catch when a new scene is coming. Moving on to the next glitch, this also has to do with the game’s faulty memory in that some of the ero scenes don’t show up in the extra gallery after you’ve seen them.  The remaining three glitches are all text related. First off, to add insult to injury with the game’s bad memory with the text, if you use the skip function for a few minutes it will often times cause the game to crash.

Then when you get to the unread scenes, you’ll at times have to deal with odd spacing errors in the game’s text window…

…and completely blank text windows in between occupied ones.

                Now before anyone sends me any comments or messages about Speed releasing a patch to fix these glitches or how they didn’t encounter any of these glitches, let me explain. In regards to the latter, you probably got a later release, my copy was from the run first released. As for the patch, while I certainly have no complaints about that (I ended up using said patch after clearing a few of the non-canon routes) I can’t help but wonder why Speed would release a game with so many glitches considering the previous game had next to none.  Did their beta testers get sick during the testing period or something? Also, the patch doesn’t fix the text skip crash glitch.

                In the area of presentation Kansen 5 does well. The artwork is good (though I will admit Natsu looks better in her CG than her character portrait) as is the voice acting. The music is mostly the same as  in the prior games, though there are new tunes. They’re okay, but of the bunch the only one I found particularly memorable was “The last Good-Bye”.

                As for the ero scenes, they’re all good, be it the good end ero scenes or the ones of the darker variety.

In Conclusion:

                Kansen 5 is an overall decent entry into the series, but much like the second game it’s a game created with a lot of ambition so it could surpass its successful predecessor only be brought down by story flaws that really should have been looked over before being given a pass. To its credit it does have a good story supported by a likable cast of characters, but the bizarre choice to considerably shorten the true routes in favor of the non-canon routes really hurt the story’s effectiveness.  It’s certainly worth trying out if you’ve been playing this series from the start and shouldn’t come as a waste of your time or money, just keep the bar low when it comes to expectations.

Final Score: 6/10 Above Average

Author Recommendation:  Try it out. 

                As for the anime…I don’t really know what to say about it since after watching both episodes I’m not entirely sure what I watched. What it is seems more akin to a dime a dozen hentai doujinshi than an adaptation as the setup for the two episodes (I’m not even going to bother calling it a story) do not occur at all in the game. The villain of the OVA is really an overall minor character in the game and for some strange reason his appearance was so greatly changed I’m still not sure if I’m only guessing it’s him. He goes from looking like this…

…to this!

 

And for some reason the creators of this OVA gave him a nameless (and butt ugly) flunky (ignoring the fact that the guy was a flunky himself in the game) that wasn’t in the original game, even though he already had multiple nameless flunkies who didn’t even look anything like that.

Also the only main heroines this focuses on are Akari and Natsu (Hanazawa is a minor character in the game) with the rest of the cast mysteriously absent except for a couple seconds worth of a group shot in the second episode.

All this and yet the oddest thing to me is…I don’t hate this OVA. Don’t get me wrong I don’t particularly like it either, but I’m honestly just too astounded at just how hard it fails as an adaptation that I can’t hate it. It’s like asking someone to make a simple shape out clay like a ball and when you see that person somehow failing so spectacularly at doing that you’re too amazed at the how wrong that person got it to condemn his/her attempt.

               

Games for Adults:The Greatest Inventions of the Sexy Era!

The Greatest Inventions of the Sexy Era!

 

                Well, here I am reviewing another softhouse-seal game, a company I admit I’m a tad cautious about after the geyser of crap that was Super Secret Sexy Spy. Still, a lot of people who had played this game before it was localized seemed happy about its announcement and I had more assurances that this would be funny (though to be fair, I had no assurances with SSSS), so I preordered The Greatest Inventions of the Sexy Era! and come its release date of June 21, 2013 began to play it. Upon completion…maybe SSSS was a fluke after all…

Pros:  The comedic stuff is genuinely funny and mostly works, the main characters are good enough, the artwork is good, the music has a couple of nice tunes.

Cons:  The minor characters could have been handled better, harem ending is a let down, WHERE’S MY SAKURA ENDING DAMN IT!?!?

WTF?!: One of Kyousuke’s inventions is the Asura bun (extra points to those who get the original pun)…

Considering what it grants you to make you like Asura, does that mean in Asura’s Wrath…?

 

                In The Greatest Inventions of the Sexy Era! you play as Kyousuke Daiguuji, the gym teacher of Hanabatake Academy with a secret passion for inventing many a wacky contraption in the name of science (and who bears an uncanny resemblance to the title character of Toriko). When it comes time to reform the school’s science club, Kyousuke is mortified when the school’s science teacher is picked to be the head of the club instead of him (gee, I wonder why?), so he decides to form his own science club for the purpose of taking revenge on the school for this great offense with the aid of his trusty (but not too bright) new club recruit/minion, Fuuka.

                In the case of this game’s story, we see SHS essentially use a similar set up to Sexy Demon Transformation by taking a much used genre of countless dark eroge and/or hentai OVAs and manga. In this case, it’s the “evil rapist teacher” genre and while the writer does turn the trope of the main character of said genre on its head similar to SDT by having Kyousuke be a foolish but not really so bad guy, it’s both distinguished from that game and helped by how effectively wacky his portrayal as a mad scientist comes off. Almost all of the scenes where Kyousuke introduces and uses his inventions are hilarious, and many of the joke references and puns associated with the inventions are at least chuckle worthy.

                Our two main heroines, Fuuka and Matsuri also make for good parodies of tropes from that genre too. Fuuka is a play on the “accomplice” heroine of the genre, but that trope gets turned on its head by not only having Fuuka join Kyousuke over extreme gullibility, but also in the many leader-minion comedic scenes between her and Kyosuke in place of the generic master-sex slave interactions of the very genre it parodies.  Matsuri actually makes for the better of the two parodies as she’s a take on spending time the heroine that tries to go up against the rapist MC but always fails, and the trope is spoofed by making her a hot headed magical girl with a bit of an indifference to some of the finer points of heroism who frequently challenges Kyousuke and kind of wins at the end of each battle.

                Now while this game does as well with comedy as SDT, it doesn’t do as well when it comes to the handling of its minor characters. Part of the reason is because there isn’t much plot diversity compared to SDT (which isn’t  a problem by itself), and aside from Fuuka and Matsuri there really isn’t much of a sense of character exposition. Two of the sub heroines, Yuuki and Ururu are introduced and after their obligatory ero scene(s) that follow just completely disappear from the plot. You never see or hear about them again. This just comes off as weak writing even for a sex romp game and leaves you wondering what the point of the characters were aside from introducing some new inventions. Our remaining sub heroine Sakura fairs slightly better as she has a little more screen time which does help to make her character interesting and likable, enough that you wish she had her own ending. Alright, technically she does but all that happens in that ending is it hints about her possibly hooking up with Kyousuke, but we never see it.

                The final story related problem this game has is its weak harem ending. First off the name is pretty deceptive since the only heroines Kyousuke ends up with are Fuuka and Matsuri with the side heroines (of course) being nowhere to be seen. Still, that’s the least of this ending’s problems with its main one being its lack of substance compared to the other endings in the game. The harem ending is basically just a threesome ero scene and that’s it, and while the other endings also end on ero scenes at least those had enough writing around them to convey a better sense of closure.

                In the area of presentation this game does well with the character artwork being good and the design of some of the inventions are amusing. The voice acting is all around good with the voice actresses for Fuuka and Matsuri doing a good job at bringing the comical aspects of their characters to life. Also the music for the game has a couple of good tunes to it, particularly the menu theme with its upbeat sound to it and the music that plays when Kyousuke and Fuuka are meeting in the club room does a good job in conveying a feeling of the fun of light hearted mischief making. I’d say what the names of these two tunes were, but there’s nothing in the extras section that gathers or names the music.

                As for the ero scenes, they’re pretty good and most of them are pretty funny. I’ll even say they’re the funniest ero scenes I’ve seen from softhouse-seal so far.

 

In Conclusion:

                The Greatest Inventions of the Sexy Era is a good example of how softhouse-seal can release eroge that are short and cheap, but still enjoyable. While this is by no means a perfect game, it’s definitely a recommend for anyone who wants a decent sex romp type eroge that also has some good laughs to offer, at least enough to make up for the lackluster endings. I will say the jokes might be easier to get for those with some trope familiarity in regards to hentai, but that’s something you’ll have to see for yourself. Let’s hope this game does well enough that we get the sequel.

 

Final Score:  6/10 Above Average

Author Recommendation: For Fans Only!

Demo Impression: Eroge! ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~

Demo Impression: Eroge! ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~

                Earlier this week, Managagmer announced the release date of their first game from their new partner Clock Up!, “Eroge ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~”, which will be September 13, 2013. Along with the announcement came a demo for this game, which I’ve played…and boy do I have some things to say about this game.

Pros: The concept is interesting, Nene and Iori seem like they could worth reading more about, music is nice.

Cons: Kisara and Momoko.

WTF?!: You know if you had more likable heroines I’d have a more positive answer…

 

                In Eroge! you play as Tomoya Mochizuki, an avid eroge player who wants to enter the eroge industry. Unfortunately for Tomoya he has not been able to find any work with any of the companies as he doesn’t really have any game making skills. His chance seems to come when he’s able to land a job at an eroge company called Flower…until it’s revealed that said company is facing going out of business unless their next game sells well. Upon discovering the problem lies with how each of the girls in charge of making the games is talented in their field but not very good at applying it to making eroge, it’s up to Tomoya to use his vast knowledge of the genre to help ensure a good game is made.

                From what I’ve played of the demo, I have to say the story concept is interesting as it provides a look at how an average eroge company goes about making a game and I can’t help but notice similarities between that and how an indie developer works. Also having a light hearted take on it would help to give players a look while at the same time keeping them from feeling bored. Sadly, whatever enjoyment I could have had of the demo’s story was ruined by two characters that made this feel like more of a chore than cleaning a bathroom.

                Before I begin though I should point out that of the four heroines of this game the other two weren’t so bad. Nene for one came off as a pretty funny character and I am interested in seeing just how she got into the role of president of an eroge company, and Iori I could at least appreciate for making me interested in her (though part of that concerns I’ve heard…things about her route). The same cannot be said for Kisara and Momoko who I quickly despised soon after they were introduced and the demo does nothing but add to my dislike for them.

                My main reason for disliking these two characters is quite frankly there just isn’t anything to like about them. They both treat Tomoya like absolute crap, and with practically every other line they have to say being an insult it gets old and annoying really fast plus it ends up taking you out of the story. The fact that this seems to be their only character trait (aside from their role in making their companies game) really weakens whatever character they’re supposed to have because it makes them seem like they’re the same character, the only difference being that Momoko is the slightly nastier of the two. When you have heroines that are one note and annoying like that it really doesn’t give player good prospects about playing their routes. Now I’m sure some of you are probably thinking that “Maybe this is a phase that they’re going to develop out of”, but I should point out this demo does skip ahead after the first available character interaction and subsequent ero scene. From what I could see that may apply to Kisara, but in Momoko’s case the scene seems to take place further into her route…and not much has seemed to change about her character.

                In the area of presentation, this game does alright. The music is pretty good so far and the voice actors did a good job. The artwork I’m not sure about yet; it’s been okay to good for the most part but a couple of the character portraits look a bit off at times. I’ll have to play the actual game before I can give a solid opinion.

                As for the ero scenes (yes there are ero scenes in this demo), well Iori and Nene’s were decent. Unfortunately the first ero scene you get is one played for jokes which sadly aren't very funny. As for Kisara and Momoko's I'm afraid my dislike for the characters carried over to their ero scenes.

 

In Conclusion:

                Eroge! is a game I really want to like, not just because the concept of the game’s story was interesting but also because the company behind it, Clock Up, has several interesting looking games in its library and if this bombs we probably aren’t going to see them localized. Unfortunately the demo for this game isn’t doing much to impress me with two of the four winnable heroines being downright insufferable. My advice to anyone thinking of getting this game, at least play the demo before putting down forty dollars on this.

The demo can be downloaded here (and warning NSFW images):
http://www.mangagamer.com/detail.php?goods_type=1&product_code=4

Import Games for Adults: Kyonyuu Fantasy 2

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Games for Adults: Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru Review

                When you play a particular game genre for several years you end up getting so used to its tropes that you get this feeling of knowing what to expect whenever a new game of that genre comes out. However, there will inevitably come a game that will surprise you by doing something different from what you’d expect and in a good way. This particular surprise was Caramel Box’s Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, released by Mangagamer on November 23, 2012 under the title “Otoboku – Maidens Are Falling For Me!” (in case you’re curious Otoboku is the standard abbreviation for the game with the subtitle being the literal translation of the original title). I admit I probably shouldn’t have been surprised since after its original Japanese release of January 28, 2005 the game not only received multiple ports and an anime adaptation, but was also the second best-selling PC game in Japan at the time and would appear in the national top 50 sellers several times. Yet somehow it flew past my radar until now…but that aside, Otoboku has truly proven to be worthy of all that praise and I’ll explain why.

 

Pros: Likable and memorable cast of characters, overall story is well told, excellent artwork, good music, great voice acting.

Cons: Ichiko’s route is disappointingly weak, the later parts of Yukari’s route are pretty bland, would have been nice if Kimie had a route.

WTF?!: Do they actually make these kinds of chocolate? If so I really want some…

                In Otoboku, you play as Mizuho Kaburagi, an effeminate young man and heir to a prosperous corporation.  Upon his grandfather’s death he is informed that his grandfather’s last wish was for him to attend an all-girls school. With the help of his childhood friend Mariya, Mizuho is able to make for a very convincing girl, so convincing that a series of misunderstandings leads to his being elected as the school’s “Elder Sister”, the school’s idol. And this is only the start of the misadventures that await Mizuho… 

                When I first heard about this I was kind of expecting the story would be something similar to Edelweiss’ slice of life humor with a lot of jokes centered around narrow escapes by Mizuho of being found out, but to my surprise I was completely wrong. Otoboku surprised me many times with how well written its story turned out to be, often times doing things I wasn’t expecting and doing them well. The writers (for the most part) do a good job at integrating drama into a pretty light hearted story overall as the drama focused story elements are around for just the right length of time, not coming across as dragged out nor do they seem like a sudden sharp contrast to the light hearted slice of life prevalent in the story.

            Speaking of which, that brings us to another aspect of the story that managed to remain consistent throughout the entire game: the air of elegance of the setting. Basically the setting being a high class all girls’ school creates this as a precedent for the students in terms of mannerisms, school traditions and the like, but it integrates well with the light hearted-ness of the story that it feels natural and never really comes off as oppressive (unless you count one particular early story arc). Really this combination kind of comes off as relaxing (I’d dare say this may be one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever read, and that counts books), kind of giving a feeling of being at some high class establishment where all you feel like doing is drinking tea and taking in the atmosphere (which is really weird considering I’ve never been in that situation in real life). Of course, the game’s story takes full advantage of this setting, using it to create interesting story arcs, character interactions and moments. I’d have to say some of my favorites involve how naturally the “Elder Sister” position ends up fitting Mizuho, sometimes a little too well for our hero’s comfort…

            Of course a game with a good story should have good characters to drive it, and I can say that Otoboku has an amazing cast behind the wheel of it (click here for profiles). Every major and semi-major character is a joy to read about once the story kicks off from the mysterious Shion to the occult infatuated Kei to Takako’s character development. Each of these characters have their own unique personalities and quirks, and most of them have their own interesting little stories to read before any real route begins. This helps to establish a very believable circle of friends for Mizuho and also makes for the right setup for the romance to begin whenever the heroines’ routes start.

            Moving on to the heroines’ routes, let’s start with how I rank them:

1)      Takako

2)      Shion

3)      Kana

4)      Mariya

5)      Yukari

6)      Ichiko

            Beginning with Takako’s route, I have to say that not only is her route my favorite of the game, but if I were to make a top ten list of favorite routes I’ve read through in the visual novel genre then this one would definitely be in there. This route manages to do everything required to make a good route in a visual novel right, and with flying colors. To begin with, the chemistry between Mizuho and Takako is great to read from Takako’s confusion in regards to her feelings towards Mizuho before her route starts in not knowing he’s really a guy to how well the two interact with each other once they begin a relationship, which subsequently makes it very believable. The character development Takako goes through in her route is also well handled, matching well with how the pre-route story content sets things up for her to question and change her viewpoints on things such as rules and traditions. The changes she goes through feel natural and their being connected to her relationship with Mizuho actually help in establishing said relationship as one where they’re both equal partners. Finally, the story in the route is just plain enjoyable as it’s packed with so many interesting things that just make you want to read more of it. We get to see Mizuho be badass, some of the funniest scenes in the entire game are in this route, and the subplots involving the student council aren’t just interesting but also wrap up really well with the ending of the route to make it unique, satisfying and actually feel like the most natural conclusion.

            Shion’s route comes in at a very close second as her route’s story is extremely close to being just as good. It surprised me by doing several things I didn’t expect like approaching an story arc in a completely different way from the other routes without necessarily feeling like a cop out or how it seemed to be going in the direction of a very over used trope in this genre, but suddenly stopping short of it and going in a more interesting direction. The chemistry between Shion and Mizuho is also good and I liked how their interactions matched well with how they were both keeping secrets, which later end up tying together into a very satisfying plot resolution late in the route. For those reasons I can say the story and conclusion of the route are good and satisfying, but I have to say what keeps Shion’s route from tying with Takako’s is it slows down a little at the end. It’s understandable why considering the events late in the route do bear some character moments in its aftermath, and to the route’s credit it does well with that. The problem is I think it takes a little too long to move on from that and to the ending, whereas Takako’s route had its share of subplots but none of them felt too long. Still, I’d only consider this a minor flaw as I think the route was still an enjoyable read all the same.

            Kana’s route comes in at third place because it’s unlike the previous two it’s simply a good route. The relationship she has with Mizuho I think is very cute and one of the best parts of it story-wise I found was the unlikely friendship that forms between her and Takako. Its only flaw for me was that aside from those two things, the route’s story didn’t really do anything to wow or really grab my interest like the first two. Moving on, Mariya’s route I consider a decent as I did find her character alright, her relationship with Mizuho had interesting points, and her story of trying to find a lot in life to be satisfied with was a good one. The route’s main problem for me was that it didn’t really do much with the aforementioned plot elements aside from what was necessary, whereas at least in Kana’s route it had two plot elements to catch my interest.

            Now we come to the last two routes in the rankings: Yukari’s and Ichiko’s, and to put it frankly, these were the two most disappointing routes in the entire game (yes, even compared with the extra mini stories you unlock after completing the main story routes). I will say Yukari’s route has a good start as it does a good job building up the relationship she has with Mizuho and even has her involved in an early story arc in a way she wasn’t in the other routes that I really liked. What shoots this route down is the fact that out of all of the routes in the game this is the only one that overdoes it in the drama area of the story, electing to wallow in the melodrama brought on by Doug Walker’s second most hated cliché: the liar revealed. Pretty much every reason for why this cliché is groan worthy (detailed in this video (14:40 if you want to skip) can be seen in this route, and the fact that unlike movies this goes on longer than ten to fifteen minutes doesn’t make it any better. It’s also not helped by all the other routes where this could have come up simply skip over that cliché and move on with their stories.

            Finally, with Ichiko’s route what puts it at the bottom of the list is because it disappoints because it does nothing with its main heroine. Considering how significant a character Ichiko turns out to be later in the story for both Mizuho and most of the heroines, particularly in a scene in each route that I can only describe as heart wrenching even though you know what’s going to happen, you’d think the game’s writers would do something interesting or different with her in her route yet for some reason they don’t. They never really approach any opportunities for drama such as being a ghost and how that could affect her relationship with Mizuho, nor do they try for any moments of comedy such as having her interact with characters she doesn’t in the other routes of the game (I’m sure I’m not the only one who wanted to see her meet Takako after the latter’s reaction to the possibility of the existence of ghosts). All that happens in the route is we get some very short story scenes, a couple of ero scenes, and then it’s off to the end scene and credits.

            Thankfully, I can say that because those last two routes are minor ones they don’t really impact your enjoyment of the game that much and are only the real faults Otoboku has in the story department. If I was going to nitpick, I’d say the only other flaw for me would be that Kimie doesn’t have a route since the game does make it obvious she has a thing for Mizuho and Takako’s route shows she’s an interesting character too (and to anyone asking why I’m not complaining about Shiori, Kei, or Michiko not having a route the game’s story gives a good reason why). Maybe someday the folks at Caramel Box will give us a fandisk with a route for her, but I’m afraid that’s less likely than a Sacchin from Type Moon.

 

            In the area of presentation, Otoboku does well on all fronts. Not only is the artwork for the characters and event CG really good, but the game also uses its own uniquely drawn SD character art for comic effect very well in the comedic scenes (they even use CG with stick figures for that well too). The voice acting is superb, with the entire cast (including Mizuho) being voiced with each VA perfectly capturing and portraying the right emotions for their characters in each scene they feature in. The music is good as it sets the right atmosphere for each scene, unfortunately none of the tunes are good not enough to stand out on their own though.

            As for the ero scenes, they’re all really good in both the art and voice acting department and I can also say their well placed in the story. I do find it kind of odd that Kana of all the heroines has the most ero scenes (and the kinkier ones too).

In Conclusion:

            Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is probably one of the best acquisitions that Mangagamer has made in the past couple of years. Here we have a game with a largely excellent (and funny) story, a cast of memorable and likable characters, and great artwork and voice acting. I’ll admit the story isn’t perfect, but at least the two disappointing routes are short and easily overshadowed by all the other routes. It’s definitely worth a read and to be honest if you were going to start playing eroge, then this would make for a good starter game.

Final Score 8/10 Awesome

Author Recommendation: Buy it now.

Should point out that Mangagamer has a physical release out that you can buy here (warning page contains NSFW images).

As for the anime, it’s actually pretty good (follows Takako’s route in the end), though I do think it could have been longer. Will admit it is a bit weird hearing different VAs from the game play some of the characters, but you do get used to the changes quick enough. There’s even an extra omake episode that’s pretty funny.