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Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate - 恋する乙女と守護の楯 The Code Name is Shield 9 [AXL]


kivandopulus

1622 views

Foreword: It seems to be one of most popular games of AXL with multiple console releases and even almost full translation, such game just can't be missed.

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Synopsis: 

Current Assignment:

To infiltrate the St. Theresia Gakuen for girls undercover under the guise of "Yamada Taeko" and protect Kasugazaki Yukino and Tsubakihara Ren against unknown attackers.

Allotted Equipment: Standard gear as well as a bulletproof crossdressing kit.

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeK6imLT4z0&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9VztLcaZ0eFX9gleag4CxR

Game type: Youth comedy

Character Design rating: 6/10

Protagonist rating: 6/10

Story rating: 4/10

Game quality: 7/10

Overall rating: 6/10

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And ... I'm denouncing this game as masterpiece and game of the month. It's the worst of first three AXL games so far.

My main concern is that I did not like common route at all. I tried to appreciate the humor here, but could not. The same cheap trap cliche elements are repeated over and over - girls try to see protagonist's pants/breast/nakedness with him being super-protective about it. 

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Heroines are too bland for me. Basically, all of them are ojou-sama attending Nadeshiko club at elite girls school. That alone makes them share half of traits. I'm not a fan of this archetype, the only ojou-sama I liked was Kashiwara Sarina from Kira☆Kira. But in previous two AXL games there were several cool side-characters who contributed greatly to game's humor so that girls could bear more serious approach. In Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate gay teacher and weird chief Kachou did not impress me at all.

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I even have concerns about system. Common route is super long, but is filled with filler scenes mostly. So when we replay the game and skip all scenes that game allows us to skip... there's very little left for individual heroine route. And I find those 50 choices to make during each route super irritating. Why is such torture implemented instead of normal funny route and individual route fork? It's just a huge time waste implemented just to look at individual girl events early on. Even Marina the spoiled cute child could not justify watching those small events let alone the others. As for heroines, Yuuri felt most human-like since she guessed protagonist's gender identity early on and thus was fun to watch at common events.

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I rarely care about heroines; they are usually just worthy additions to the story. But here there's zero story. Those couple action scenes don't bear much significance for the plot. And learning the culprit identity makes replaying just not worth it. It's not the  same AXL that I like, and it's not a work to represent the brand. I see Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate as the root of moege poison for the brand that spread to several future works in attempt to appeal the audience. Now I have a reason to skip some of AXL future works.

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2 Comments


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One thing one needs to keep in mind when playing Shugotate, especially if one has already played trap protagonist VNs before, is that it came out in the era before the tropes had solidified into what they are now.

Why is this significant?  Because it was one of the games that created those tropes, along with the first Otoboku.

In retrospect, this game's opening scenes at the school are some of the single most painful trap protagonist moments I've ever experienced.  A lot of it is that far too much emphasis is placed upon the protagonist thinking people will find out he is a guy just based on looking at him (or rather, the protagonist's worries over it).  This is more than a little irritating, and the whole freckles and overhanging hair wig thing just made it worse, lol.

Anyway, where this game always excelled was in its weirdly comical action and story scenes... at the time, I laughed my ass off at it, but it comes across as tame now, having come back after over a dozen such games.  I will say that Bara no Seibo, the sequel, goes a lot darker than this game, and there is none of that painful beginning part to bother the reader, showing both the degree to which the genre had matured and AXL's recognition of that fact.

That is probably why they went through the trouble to reboot the game recently... though they kept the painful first scenes (albeit with more CGs and detailed writing).  

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Liked a little more than you did, finding it good but not great. While the story is nothing to write home about, i thought the characters and their hijinks did enough to carry the VN. It's a shame that the common route was better than the individual routes though.

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