Koiken Otome Discussion and Poll

[Eclipsed]

5 minutes ago, Tiagofvarela said:

If you arbritrarily focus on the route order more than is due and then decide to ignore the rest of my post then you're simply not deserving of a proper answer.

Oh, best girl order, makes sense.

[Mr Poltroon]

2 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Oh, best girl order, makes sense.

At least this time you're almost showing some semblance of reason, so I'll do you a favour and clarify.

Best Girl Order would in all likelihood be, from least favourite to most favourite: Yuzu, Akane, Yves, Touko.

This means my order is based on something else. A route I'm unsure about followed by a route I'm sure I'll like. Yves to Akane, and Yuzu to Touko. Furthermore, the one I'm most iffy about is Yuzu, so I don't want to start with that one.
Finally, I also want to finish with Touko, on the basis that I'm hoping her route is the only one where she shows some real emotions, as opposed to most of what we've been seeing thus far. This way, the mystery will be kept until the end.

 

EDIT: In completely irrelevant news to the subject at hand, I feel I should have been taking notes of all the typos so I could send them to the TL team. This is probably about the 15th I've found. After working on proofreading I've become rather accustomed to seeing them all over the place, or maybe it's only natural and it just does not affect everyone else as much as it affects me.

[MFrost]

3 hours ago, Dergonu said:

 

Try using chiitrans, VNR is pretty bad. Deep Blue made a guide on it a while back.

I like the options for screen capping (one button, available at any moment) and the way the subs are displayed with VNR though. and that it takes up virtually no space at all unlike ITH and Aggregator.
I'll try chiitrans though as I'm always interested in new things.

[Canicheslayer]

Finished Touko's route. The girl is really nice (a good specimen of the coodere tribe). However, after a very good common route, her route disappointed me (scenario, the rapid succession of H-scenes, her secret).

 

Edit : 

Spoiler

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/29/1469391451-unknown-2016-07-24-22-13-28-45.jpg

Mmm...Akane's route is promising (slightly NSFW)  

Edited July 24, 2016 by Canicheslayer

[DharmaFreedom]

 Just started reading Koiken. I thought the common route was promising. It felt like it would lead to something more. I liked the art, ui and the music was ok too. Also liked the characters [All the heroines and most of the sidecharas] . I think a lot of people would find Akane relatable with her insecurities and low self esteem due to social pressure and bullying. She felt real in that sense. Then i started reading Akane's route [My first route choice in the novel].

Spoiler

 I think i'm half way through it. It's not what i expected, its actually pretty dull. It doesn't seem like they're going to take the whole magic element further. I thought they'll give her more depth in her route but the depth they decided to give her is subservient sexual depth so far. I'm at the second h-scene now, maybe things will change and her real story starts now? Well I'll power through and hope it'll get better, there's still 3 routes left anyway. I just liked Akane's character and wanted more from her route. Its not like the story annoys me, it more like i'm surprised that they didn't run with the setup and sweet characters in a more elaborate way. Well i haven't gone 2 far in yet so it may change!. 

 

[Canicheslayer]

Just finished Akane's route. I think it's clearly better than Touko's (the sexual element is better managed and the chemistry between Akane and the protagonist is obvious). But still, it's not as good as the common route 

[jetpack003]

Up to Touko's route and haven't tried any others yet and all I can say is:

"That escalated quickly"

It makes me wonder if the character routes will be this short or am I underestimating it and her route will be longer?

[Mr Poltroon]

As everyone else is sharing their impressions as they go through, I shall do the same.

 

General Impressions:

The UI is incredibly slick. In fact, everything about the presentation is top notch. The options menu has everything I could want.

The Translation, however, is not quite everything, although close. I don't mind the translation choices and, considering this was a free translation by a team of people who dedicated hours of their time toward this project, I welcome them. They certainly spice up the typical tropes the VN would otherwise be littered with.
Furthermore, the translation itself is otherwise excellent. Everything that needs be conveyed is properly conveyed; everything makes sense as I read it, accuracy aside.
If I ignore the typos, of which I've spotted close to a couple dozen over the course of the Common Route (and at least two lines without full stops!), then it leaves nothing to be desired.

The choice system is interesting: There's typically three choices, and I can't always tell what they do. Coupled with the occasional binary (uh, fournary?) choice where we clearly select our heroine of choice's name, I wonder if the rest of the choices are merely there for flavour?

Character-wise, I've already elaborated on the main heroines.
Yuzu seems all around average, although I've come to notice she's awfully confident in her childhood friend status.
Touko is not the perfect Kuudere, but she was close for most of the common route, and her current personality seems decent too.
Akane seems samurai-like (mostly the way she sounds), which I enjoy, and when she's flustered she's also very cute, which I also highly value. Not a fan of what they were going for with mimicking animal ears with her uniform.
Finally, I've come to a conclusion on Yves' personality. Her common sense is detached from a normal person's, and, harsh as she sounds, she mostly scolds other people for their sake or to vent her anger or sadness or disappointment. Otherwise, we have the gap between her usual confident and stereotypical rich-girl persona and her embarrassed or worried self; which I really like as well.

People also mentioned the protagonist had no personality or that he served only to move the story along; clearly, I couldn't care less. The protagonist is entirely fine with me. Speaking of which, also very much a fan of the supporting cast -- especially Jin, the Teacher, Chiyoda and Oota.

I like how Jin is so excitable, but gets sick from everything. Anything from the common cold, to low blood pressure, to extreme headaches after exercising minimal effort goes. The idea is hilarious and the character itself gets to play the straight man oftentimes.
Chiyoda's laziness and minimal effort necessary policies, in addition to her "friendship" with Minato make her a wonderful character for me. Our views seems aligned.
Oota seems respectable, if prideful, through and through. From a character I expected the worst out of, it was nice to see him be reasonable most of the time.
As for the teacher, I wouldn't actually be interested in a route with her, though. To be frank, this teacher is more like an alternate reality version of Momoyo for me, where she grew up to be not quite as lecherous.

The impressions thus far may seem positive, but there's one major flaw I have with it. Further explanation below.

 

Common Route:

Spoiler

Plot-wise: mostly fine. I'm all for training, school high jinks, superpowers, research and whatnot.  I do have two issues, unfortunately:

-> Ooba's amplification power is inconsistent. The amount of power he gives a character varies depending on whether they're in battle or out of it; and even during a battle, sometimes a character becomes all-powerful, reaching SS, and sometimes they go from SC to SA. There are many factors I could attribute this to, like how fatigued they are, how much they're trying, how hurt they are, etc. etc. Unless I analyse case by case, I couldn't say with any accuracy. What I can say is what I felt whilst I read, and I felt it was inconsistent. Everybody feared Ooba linking up with one of the other two, yet the enemy could basically stand up to Ooba linking up to either of them by themselves. To me, that makes no sense. Especially given that we somehow win anyway!

That aside, the battles were simple enough that I could read them without feeling like skipping. The major problem I have with the game as a whole comes in here, regrettably:

-> The reason I prefer VN's over anime is that in a VN, I can safely focus on one girl. Anime, along with the uncertainty of future seasons and plot linearity, typically has little choice but to create a harem situation. A VN doesn't need to; they may, but they don't need to. In Koiken Otome, it's made clear that everyone and their grandmother is smitten for Ooba. I hate this, oh so very much. I'm fine with a bit of a crush -- that's practically a medium tradition -- but in Koiken Otome, any of the heroines would immediately accept were Oobe to profess his love and to promptly escort the heroine to his bedroom*. Their levels of jealousy and embarrassment are off the charts.
Perhaps I've grown spoiled as the Visual Novels I've been playing lately focus on the romance blossoming during the character route, very very mild jealousy aside.
Take Akane, for instance. The protagonist is hardly free to date whomever he wants, as dear little Akane is too jealous.
I don't mind harems, but the VN needs to have the guts to go through with it. If the protagonist wants to do the deed with seven different people, power to him! But this pseudo-harem situation where everyone loves him (I don't even care that their love is often unjustifiable) is ridiculous and only detracts from the experience for me.

 

*Although Chihara would be mostly persuaded by the bedroom part.

Yves' Route (Up till first H-Scene):

Spoiler

It's safe to say me and this route started off on the wrong foot. I'm fine with Ooba just accepting the situation he's in and trying to love Yves' back -- but when the phone-call went awry, I became terribly worried. It had seemed to me then that the drama for the route would stem from Ooba misunderstanding that Yves actually did love him but was too stubborn and embarrassed to admit it.
I was reluctant to continue the route for a while and came close to dropping it "temporarily" (read as: for years), but eventually I steeled myself and decided to give it a chance, relying on the skip button every time things got unpleasant. Fortunately, we reached the first H-Scene, and all my worries were dispelled, much like Ooba's.

It's not that the drama I described is inherently bad, but it's incredibly incompatible with me. Drama originated in misunderstandings just isn't my thing, and can be painful to me if it's particularly harsh, as Yves tends to be. I don't know what exact combination of factors made it so hard for me to continue the route, but for now, I'll remain content that I decided to read the rest. Here's hoping nothing more I dislike happens in the route.

 

Drama and other girls' jealousy aside, I rather enjoy the interactions with the servants of her household or Sada being anticlimactically shut down by Ooba acknowledging his own uselessness.

 

[Dergonu]

1 hour ago, Tiagofvarela said:

Snip

 

Common Route:

  Reveal hidden contents

Plot-wise: mostly fine. I'm all for training, school high jinks, superpowers, research and whatnot.  I do have two issues, unfortunately:

-> Ooba's amplification power is inconsistent. The amount of power he gives a character varies depending on whether they're in battle or out of it; and even during a battle, sometimes a character becomes all-powerful, reaching SS, and sometimes they go from SC to SA. There are many factors I could attribute this to, like how fatigued they are, how much they're trying, how hurt they are, etc. etc. Unless I analyse case by case, I couldn't say with any accuracy. What I can say is what I felt whilst I read, and I felt it was inconsistent. Everybody feared Ooba linking up with one of the other two, yet the enemy could basically stand up to Ooba linking up to either of them by themselves. To me, that makes no sense. Especially given that we somehow win anyway!

That aside, the battles were simple enough that I could read them without feeling like skipping. The major problem I have with the game as a whole comes in here, regrettably:

-> The reason I prefer VN's over anime is that in a VN, I can safely focus on one girl. Anime, along with the uncertainty of future seasons and plot linearity, typically has little choice but to create a harem situation. A VN doesn't need to; they may, but they don't need to. In Koiken Otome, it's made clear that everyone and their grandmother is smitten for Ooba. I hate this, oh so very much. I'm fine with a bit of a crush -- that's practically a medium tradition -- but in Koiken Otome, any of the heroines would immediately accept were Oobe to profess his love and to promptly escort the heroine to his bedroom*. Their levels of jealousy and embarrassment are off the charts.
Perhaps I've grown spoiled as the Visual Novels I've been playing lately focus on the romance blossoming during the character route, very very mild jealousy aside.
Take Akane, for instance. The protagonist is hardly free to date whomever he wants, as dear little Akane is too jealous.
I don't mind harems, but the VN needs to have the guts to go through with it. If the protagonist wants to do the deed with seven different people, power to him! But this pseudo-harem situation where everyone loves him (I don't even care that their love is often unjustifiable) is ridiculous and only detracts from the experience for me.

 

*Although Chihara would be mostly persuaded by the bedroom part.

Yves' Route (Up till first H-Scene):

  Reveal hidden contents

It's safe to say me and this route started off on the wrong foot. I'm fine with Ooba just accepting the situation he's in and trying to love Yves' back -- but when the phone-call went awry, I became terribly worried. It had seemed to me then that the drama for the route would stem from Ooba misunderstanding that Yves actually did love him but was too stubborn and embarrassed to admit it.
I was reluctant to continue the route for a while and came close to dropping it "temporarily" (read as: for years), but eventually I steeled myself and decided to give it a chance, relying on the skip button every time things got unpleasant. Fortunately, we reached the first H-Scene, and all my worries were dispelled, much like Ooba's.

It's not that the drama I described is inherently bad, but it's incredibly incompatible with me. Drama originated in misunderstandings just isn't my thing, and can be painful to me if it's particularly harsh, as Yves' tends to be. I don't know what exact combination of factors made it so heard for me to continue the route, but for now, I'll remain content that I decided to read the rest. Here's hoping nothing more I dislike happens in the route.

 

Drama and other girls' jealousy aside, I rather enjoy the interactions with the servants of her household or Sada being anticlimactically shut down by Ooba acknowledging his own uselessness.

 

A few of the things you point out as negative do repeat themselves in most of the routes, so it's something you'll have to manage if you are going to read the rest. 

Spoiler

Mainly the misunderstandings/ simple drama, jealousy and the feeling that everyone loves Ooba even though he is in a relationship. Well, everyone except Chiharu. She loves the girl he is dating instead. 

That being said, the drama tends to be solved quickly and the routes themselves all offer unique aspects, so it won't be the exact same situation over and over. 

Yves' route just gets better and better the further in you get in my opinion. About the amplification power that Ooba has, it is just like any other ability in the game, which means depending on his emotional state / stamina, the power will be weaker. It's something they cover in several of the routes; he simply won't be able to boost everyone the same amount because of the setting / how he is feeling in that situation. A simple distraction can weaken the boost, him being in pain can weaken it, or possibly boost it if he is in a real pinch. It's quite hard to control. 

 

[Canicheslayer]

Finished Yuzu's route. I have mixed feelings about this. The first part is...not very good (the character of yuzu - lovely in the common route - is almost ruined by an overdose of moe/kawai...and meh h-scenes). Nonetheless, the last part (after the h-scenes) is quite satisfactory.

Spoiler

thanks to Shijou's gang.

Edit : Today, I was on fire. Finished every route. My last was surprisingly the best : Yves. Best character (Touko is second, of course), best route.

Spoiler

I loved the story, the humour (Mad scientist Yuzu  ) and the Yves we met in the common route is the same here (so annoying, so haughty...but so cute and absolutely funny).

Globally, because of the Common route, Akane's or Yves', it's a fairly good VN. And all the cast is great (I dare to hope that the fandisc will be translated...I want to know more about Chiyoda and Chiharu ).

My rate : Probably around 7,25 or 7,5/10. 

Edited July 26, 2016 by Canicheslayer

[MFrost]

Yuzu's becoming a drag. She needs to stop undervaluing herself!! Where's the crazy scientist!?!?

[TexasDice]

I'd describe Koiken Otome as a worse Dracu-Riot.

Edited July 27, 2016 by TexasDice
because I did it anyway

[MFrost]

As someone who has never played Dracu-riot, I have absolutely no idea what you mean. Your example went over my head there.

[TexasDice]

2 hours ago, MFrost said:

never played Dracu-riot

Get out of this forum and never come back, thanks. 

- - - - - - - -

Both VNs are similar enough by the nature of setting to warrant a comparison; Which is a moege in an urban fantasy setting.

Dracu-Riot is what I consider an "almost god-tier" Visual Novel, because it manages to keep the tone it's aiming for throughout most of the reading time and pretty much achieves all the goals it is aiming for. Not everyone likes moege, but if you are in the target audience, you'll probably love Dracu Riot. 

Koiken Otome's tone gets very sloppy and hasty at times, the characters have less chemistry/depth (depth in a moege, I know, shocking) than the DR cast and doesn't mix the slice-of-life quite as well with the action fights as Dracu-Riot does. I also got tired of the flanderization a lot faster (worst offender; Suzu). 

On a factual scale, I can also judge the art for it's quality, because Koiken Otome has lots of sloppy outlines, visible even if you don't zoom in and has some more minor inconsistencies (like Suzu's clothes or H-GCs depicting things wrong or in the wrong order). Whether you like the art less or more, is a personal preference thing (because it's art), but judging a line with blurry edges from a perfectly straight one is a matter of quality. Koiken Otome has a great menu though and I have to adress that. Being able to see what route your save is on is pretty great. 

To make it short, both VNs are basically doing the same thing, but Dracu-Riot does it better (and longer too). Not saying that Koiken Otome wasn't fun for me, but that's how it is. 

[Freestyle80]

On 7/26/2016 at 5:52 PM, jetpack003 said:

Up to Touko's route and haven't tried any others yet and all I can say is:

"That escalated quickly"

It makes me wonder if the character routes will be this short or am I underestimating it and her route will be longer?

yeah more or less, i dont understand why they suddenly brought up 'lets date' i dont understand why the MC fell for her so fast

 

feels like cut content

[Dergonu]

1 hour ago, TexasDice said:

Koiken Otome's tone gets very sloppy and hasty at times, the characters have less chemistry/depth (depth in a moege, I know, shocking) than the DR cast and doesn't mix the slice-of-life quite as well with the action fights as Dracu-Riot does. I also got tired of the flanderization a lot faster (worst offender; Suzu). 

On a factual scale, I can also judge the art for it's quality, because Koiken Otome has lots of sloppy outlines, visible even if you don't zoom in and has some more minor inconsistencies (like Suzu's clothes or H-GCs depicting things wrong or in the wrong order). Whether you like the art less or more, is a personal preference thing (because it's art), but judging a line with blurry edges from a perfectly straight one is a matter of quality. Koiken Otome has a great menu though and I have to adress that. Being able to see what route your save is on is pretty great. 

[TexasDice]

I learned from Ren that researching the subject of the review before making the review isn't necessary. 

[DharmaFreedom]

  Well i just finished Akane's route and I got to say it managed to redeem itself and end sweetly enough, so adorable and sweet  . Initially all the H made it a chore to read [too much to quickly] , i was thinking to myself "is that it?". The arrangement of the route was kind of irregular for me. I thought it was an okay route by the end of it. I do really like Akane's character though, the 'normal' feeling of the route doesn't take anything away from that. 

I have a couple of questions, for those that have completed the common route and Akane's route.

Spoiler

 

1. So after the battle where Akane blows the arena up, they get taken away to a research facility. After the test were over and they get back to school. Akane and Ooba discuss how bothersome all the test were. Then Akane said, "Oh so they made you do the pose too?", Ooba says "What pose?" and Akane then asks him to not think about it and turns away blushing.

What pose is she talking about? Is it a reference to a joke or something? or translation error? 

2. Someone stalks Akane and Ooba while they're out on a date. The guy breathes heavily as he takes pictures of them kissing and holding hands. The whole time that was happening i was thinking it must be a pervert Akane fan or something. At the end I thought it must be the researcher stalking them and the yuzu group that was following them around on their date. 

So is the stalker referenced in the another route? , or is it indeed the researcher that was stalking them?

 

Will read Touko's next, hoping for a nice read! 

 

[Dergonu]

5 minutes ago, DharmaFreedom said:

  Well i just finished Akane's route and I got to say it managed to redeem itself and end sweetly enough, so adorable and sweet  . Initially all the H made it a chore to read [too much to quickly] , i was thinking to myself "is that it?". The arrangement of the route was kind of irregular for me. I thought it was an okay route by the end of it. I do really like Akane's character though, the 'normal' feeling of the route doesn't take anything away from that. 

I have a couple of questions, for those that have completed the common route and Akane's route.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

1. So after the battle where Akane blows the arena up, they get taken away to a research facility. After the test were over and they get back to school. Akane and Ooba discuss how bothersome all the test were. Then Akane said, "Oh so they made you do the pose too?", Ooba says "What pose?" and Akane then asks him to not think about it and turns away blushing.

What pose is she talking about? Is it a reference to a joke or something? or translation error? 

2. Someone stalks Akane and Ooba while they're out on a date. The guy breathes heavily as he takes pictures of them kissing and holding hands. The whole time that was happening i was thinking it must be a pervert Akane fan or something. At the end I thought it must be the researcher stalking them and the yuzu group that was following them around on their date. 

So is the stalker referenced in the another route? , or is it indeed the researcher that was stalking them?

 

Will read Touko's next, hoping for a nice read! 

 

Answers:

Spoiler

The part with the pose is either a researcher doing something very inappropriate, making her pose in a silly manner, or just some part of her tests that differed from Ooba's which she found embarrassing. Either way, it's not important.

 

The panting stalker is not refrenced at all through any other route, so yes, it was definitely the researcher.

(Or Chiharu on the hunt for beautiful girls!)

 

[Eclipsed]

On 7/27/2016 at 0:47 PM, Dergonu said:

Ngl, I just had a derp moment and was like, "Oh shit, her name's Suzu? Crap, I didn't even notic-"

Went and editted the name on the Koiky Walkthrough

Then remembered all the flak the TL got for overusing Yuzu even when she doesn't Yuzu herself and so I was like WAITTTT A MINUTE!!!1

[TexasDice]

All these asian broads and their weird and alike sounding names. Someone else gotta remember all of them. 

[Efnu]

I nearly dropped this one but I'm glad I kept with it, its getting better as it goes on but how long is the common route? I'm at the last day of practice for the special training camp.

Also, lol. Was this intentional?

 

[Eclipsed]

30 minutes ago, Efnu said:

I nearly dropped this one but I'm glad I kept with it, its getting better as it goes on but how long is the common route? I'm at the last day of practice for the special training camp.

Also, lol. Was this intentional?

  Reveal hidden contents

Ends after the tournament

RE: intentional- I guess?  

[corntastic]

2 hours ago, Efnu said:

I nearly dropped this one but I'm glad I kept with it, its getting better as it goes on but how long is the common route? I'm at the last day of practice for the special training camp.

Also, lol. Was this intentional?

  Reveal hidden contents

藤島,「では、次は安国の方だ。ケツの穴に力を込めて、導力を振り絞ってみせろ！」

[Dergonu]

4 minutes ago, corntastic said:

藤島,「では、次は安国の方だ。ケツの穴に力を込めて、導力を振り絞ってみせろ！」

Haha, brilliant.