Kokorogawari Reviews

I love this.

Apparently the last route isn't coming...so i spent full price for this

I haven't really finished this game yet... but so far it's really good. The art style is absolutely beautiful and the storyline is amazing! Can't wait to complete it!

First of all, thank you so much for this game! It's cathartic in a way because I have almost the same way of thinking and acting as Matsubayashi... So I felt it was about me, more than in any other game before, and I think you poured all your heart into that game and I'm so happy you pushed through the difficulties of making it and published it! The artwork, the music... And especially the writing was astoundingly good, you had me tear up, squeal or laugh so easily... I had to stop several times because it had touched me so much... The game user interface is easy to use and I like the fact that you have implemented a "love stat" and it's a really good idea to not put it in a front page, so the people that don't want to use it won't be spoiled by mistake. Even if I find it out only during my second playthrough :P I bought the Best Value Pack directly after that and I'm happy to see that one of the dev is in France! I'm french so I'm happy to see that otome games are done in France too! I also really liked the little stories you wrote. I can't wait to see what you will do for Guillam's route and I do hope you will make more games after this one! I do advise to start by Koga's route before doing Takahara's... SPOILER : [spoiler]Because after playing Takahara's route and especially his bad end, I really felt like Koga was an as**ole... His persistence felt mostly endearing (even if he pissed me off sometimes) during his route - even his bad ending - but he felt like a creep - almost a yandere - in Takahara's route. It deterred what I felt for him in his route and I'm kind of afraid he will do the same in Guillam's route... I also didn't like the fact that Matsubayashi still had some feelings for Koga even during Takahara's route... Apparently, he is the most popular one but he's too pushy for my taste. Sorry... Also, I'm kind of disappointed that Asami's issue with her father is not addressed in Koga's route. I feel it's something important and she should tell him...[/spoiler]

the art is beautiful and the characters are well-written. it's probably not a bad game at all, but i have some complaints, the more minor one being that it felt a bit long-winded... i felt like some parts dragged out more than necessary and i skipped through a lot of scenes. the more severe complaint, and the one that really tipped the scales for me, is that the choices felt like they didn't matter at all while they were happening, but then the ending you get is determined by whether you made 100% 'correct' choices or not. the way choices are worded, most of the time i wasn't even picking the choice that suited me best, because the options you are presented with differ so much from the actions/words they result in. it's fine for dialogue to be a bit vague like that, but what actions you are choosing should be more clear, especially when even a few wrong choices in a sea of correct ones can result in a bad ending. (especially such a long ending, where the character makes choices without your input so if it's bad you feel like you're being punished for something you didn't do)

I'm hesitantly recommending this game, but I'll go more into detail below. It tells the story of college student Asami and the challenges she faces in life - from navigating her relationships with love interests and family, to dealing with her own emotionally distant personality (she's a total tsundere and I dig it). I have to say that the main reason I recommend this game (aside from the great music and beautiful art), is the writing, which in my opinion makes or breaks an otome like this. I thought the common route was intriguing, and I never got bored. The pacing worked well in my opinion, and I really liked how you can almost tell at certain scenes when a love interest begins seeing Asami in a different light or starts to have feelings for her. Also, I liked how they really dived into Asami's relationship with art and painting. It made the story feel well researched and more personal. Some otomes might just use it as a backstory like "MC is an art student" as a way to move the story along, but KKG really illustrates how Asami's relationship with art is a large part of who she is, especially as she uses it as an outlet to express emotions she has a hard time understanding herself. The love aspect was subtle and realistic. I thought Shinichi's route was fantastic. He's not usually the type I'd go for, but this game totally changed my mind. He was fucking adorable and his character was pretty fleshed out. I can't necessarily say the same about Yuuya, but that's more of a preference thing. Although I usually love his type in otome games, I ended up getting frustrated with his route by the end, feeling like certain angsty parts dragged on too long for the payout it had at the end. But like I said, some people might think differently and that's totally ok. No matter how I felt about Yuuya's route, I agree it was still well developed overall. The only issue with the story that really bothered me was one of the twists you find out in the common route. Yes it's shocking and has the potential to add tons of depth to Asami and her relationships, but after it's mentioned, I felt that it was barely touched on for awhile in both routes (and not really even dealt with in a specific route). I should mention I've only played the good ends up to this point, so if it is clarified more in the bad ends then ignore this section. But honestly for something as serious as that, there really should've been more written about how the protagonist overcomes it. While I get that it explains more about Asami's personality, I don't think it's a twist that should be used without more consideration for how it's handled in the story. In Shinichi's storyline especially, I felt like it ended with a dark cloud hovering over an otherwise awesome route. Now for more technical aspects, it's a pretty straightforward VN with occasional choices that raise your love interest's stats. I bought the game before the second patch, so I was one of those unfortunate souls who lost their save data. However the 'F.Skip' option allowed me to jump to the next choice, so I was able to return to my original place fast. I admire that the developers fixed the renpy traceback issue immediately, and I really don't have any current complaints about it. One more thing to add was that the auto text option remained a little slow for me, even at the fastest speed, so as a heads up clicking through the game is probably your best bet if you're a speed reader. Also about three or four of the bonus extra options weren't playable (Ending list, etc.). I thought maybe they would unlock once the whole game was completed, but after reading some other reviews that doesn't seem to be the case. I hope they do, because I'd love to see those sections. Finally, I've got to talk about Guillam. Out of all love interests, I somehow was most surprised by his personality in the common route, and I can't tell you how much I want to read his story. I really REALLY hope we can get his route as promised. If it's as good as it was set up to be in the first few chapters, then my 'hesitant' recommendation will become 'hell yeah buy this!' in an instant. TLDR; Pros: - Loved the MC, she was a realistic tsundere badass I hope to become someday - Great character development and story - Beautiful artwork (the MC laughing is adorable, I can see why all the guys want her) - Fitting OST with some stand-out tracks - Shinichi is bae Cons: - Price is WAY too much for currently two routes. Would even be steep with three. - Certain plot twists could have been concluded better - Cannot access most of the extra material - It felt like a tease to see Guillam (not really a universal con, but like I said I really want his route) Overall: 7/10 I have to say that altogether this game was good, and if you're an otome fan like me I have no doubt you'll enjoy many aspects of it. However I'd almost say that as the game is now, it's probably only worth the price if on sale in the near future. I can tell that the developers worked extremely hard on what they produced. I think Asami is a fabulous heroine for the genre, and the love interests aren't the average stereotypes. Some aspects of the game will feel incredibly relateable, it is slice of life done well. Honestly if the developers end up adding the last route and polishing the game, then there's no doubt in my mind that this could be one of the best english otome games I've played.