Knonyuu Fantasy 2if is a remake of the original Kyonyuu Fantasy 2, with an apparently expanded narrative.  Having played the Digitalized Novel version of the original Kyonyuu Fantasy, which I loved, I found Kyonyuu Fantasy 2if to be very… familiar.

To be blunt, everything in this VN is exactly like the first few chapters of that estimable game, with the easygoing, unambitious protagonist gaining political power and rising to the top over the course of the game… while having sex constantly with a rather large cast of heroines with massive breasts.

Now, at first glance, this series seems to be a bunch of nukige… and that impression isn’t entirely wrong.  There is a lot of sex in all the VNs in this series.  However, the writing, storytelling, and world-building in these games really is impressive… so impressive that I have been reduced to exasperation each time I played one of these games.

How could I not be exasperated?  Most of the time, a writer of this level of quality would be working on major-name low-ero VNs, not something that verges on being a complete nukige.  Yes, there are exceptions, such as the writer of Erect… but they are just that… exceptions. 

Kyonyuu Fantasy 2if is based a century and a half before the original game, in Hillsland (the country visited as part of one of the Gaidens), where the king is dying of a curse and is looking to choose his successor from amongst the skilled youth of his kingdom.  Predictably for a protagonist of the Kyonyuu Fantasy series, he doesn’t start as one of those candidates… rather, he gets sent away to serve as a captain of the guard of a small castle on the edges of the kingdom. 

Generally speaking, this follows an eerily identical path to Lute’s rise to power in the original, probably because that particular plot was so well-loved by the fans of the original.  That said, the protagonist is an administrator rather than a knight, and that shows in the true path, where he climbs the ranks (after his unusual start) of the bureaucratic hierarchy rather quickly.  This VN is slightly longer than the whole Digitalized Novel version of the original and its gaiden stories, and it also has numerous endings besides the true one.

Overall, this VN will be instantly loved by anyone who loved Kyonyuu Fantasy.  If there is a disadvantage to this VN, it is that it doesn’t have as much of an extended story as the original ended up with.