/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Finally done with Kakyuusei. I can see what they were trying to do with expanding the scenario from a vacation to a whole school year, and it is a sound idea in theory, but it just was not executed satisfactorily. The manual arranging of dates is a good addition, and when you first are at the point where you strategically plan your dates with as many girls as possible on the next day, the game is at its best. But because it cannot have the detail of the previous games with its increased scope, the in-game progress of time is and feels glanced over, the individual heroine arcs are formulaic and genericised instead of "handcrafted" like in the Doukyuusei games, you simply feel detached from the game and not really immersed at all in a classroom atmosphere. There sure are a lot of CGs (especially compared to the pathetic output of Rance 10 in that regard earlier this year, for example), but all unique events are short and the even shorter unvoiced dialogues are nearly all following an obvious pattern based on the hidden "affection points".

The characters are not bad, but nobody feels properly developed, and you never get a character arc that is completely out there, like with the kouhai in Doukyuusei 2. The protagonist, rival, and best friend have been basically recycled, as well as many major heroine traits. Feels like there were running out of steam with these standard dating sims (what with them going so far as to include a very silly alien girl/childhood promise[sub]plot), and I am not surprised that Hiruta was sick of renaige after this point.

(1/2)