Tester's Corner: Koihime Ed. Vol 1

With Koihime Musou set to release just one week from now, it’s time for our Tester’s Corner again! Here’s the first one!

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Totally a GirlWhat I had expected from Koihime Musou was drawn mostly from the animation. However, what I experienced from the game was something much more. I had expected a shallow tale, a massive harem, and a nonsensical story that would to lead nowhere but sex.

Well, there was plenty of sex, but the story, and more importantly the characters, were found to be much more than I could have foreseen. The game is long. Very long. For spending around 3-4 hours a day on average testing, I ended up taking over two months to complete all the routes, heroines, and endings. Admittedly, testing and playing the game are two different things, but Koihime Musou is by no means short.

AWWWWWWWWWW~<3!There are three main heroines in Hongou Kazuto’s, the narrator, faction the Shu. Outside of this, there is the Go faction, the Gi faction, and the Enshou faction. At base there are 15 different choices for you to make, leading to time and development towards the massive cast of over 20 heroines.

In truth, Koihime is very linear, with minor branching only present in whom to spend your evenings with, and the only major branch being in the ending. Despite this, most of the heroines have numerous and lengthy scripts, delving into the characters of each faction, and what each person is like when the armor comes off, both literally and metaphorically.

Again, there is a lot of sex in Koihime. With a cast that large, it was inevitable. Oh yeah, and the CG is uncensored. If that’s what draws you to eroge, then more power to you, because there’ll be plenty of fuel for your flame.

The game itself has a very simplistic war simulator, designed to emphasize the scale of the battles depicted, and yet not to be overly complicated as to get in the way of the character development. If anything, the battle system to Koihime could be seen as a diversion between the outings with your generals. Still, the battle system had times where it was extremely annoying to me, and as a tester, I had desperately hoped for a god mode as to smite the opposing force.

The game had its fair share of errors, which I assume none of which will be present in the final product, such as crashes, font issues, and lovely script swaps.  Most notable in errors encountered was the rather annoying crash upon start-up, and the complete non usage of the installed fonts on subsequent playthroughs past a set point.

The translation, on the other hand, was a refreshing read from a grammatical stand point. Having testing DCIF, I noticed a marked improvement on the spelling and mechanics, which certainly made my job easier. The script itself, passed onto testers for usage in quality control, allowed me to see the amount of time spent in maintaining an accurate translation, observed by the multiple passes for translation and editing. Despite this, there were some funny occasions where the game would load up the wrong translation or script for a scene entirely.

From a testing standpoint, Koihime was a long and arduous task, with its sweet moments of story and character development, and its not so savory moments of sex marathons. All in all, Koihime Musou was a game I enjoyed testing, to which I intend to obtain a final copy of the game upon its release.

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27 Comments

  1. haha can’t wait to play. Rinrin o/

  2. This is going to feel like a long week, isn’t it?

  3. I like the ef wallpaper bruh.

  4. This week will never end ;-;

  5. I didn’t realize it was so close…my my.

  6. Want more and more. Is the dude with the pink pantsu winnable?

    Nah, just kidding.

  7. wow this release date snuck up on me, with my hype for AT3 set to hit next month this slipped my mind D: this is going to be a long long week…

  8. So. It’s posible to walk Bunshuu’s and Enshou’s routes in order to choise them at the end as my partner? Yehaa.^^ i wanted them and other girls more than most of the Kazuto’s party ^^ I want to play it NOW.

  9. Nintendo Maniac 64

    Is that WINE in the 2nd and 6th images?

  10. god this week is killing me >.<

  11. So,what’s about the voices??????

  12. http://mangagamer.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/koihime_beta_error1.png
    As I said before, this is a common problem with the engine to begin with. I guess NEXTON never bothered to take care of it because it existed in their older games as well.

  13. I’m just waiting for the ‘Shopping Cart’ option to activate. Would’ve pre-ordered long ago, if the option had been available.

  14. Man i Can´t wait till monday man this week is sooo dammm looonnng >,< Just to be sure will it realease gmt+1 or pst ?

  15. only 3 more days 🙂

  16. As a man who has played the koihime series, I can understand all of your anticipation. All I can say is I hope you all do enjoy when it gets released. It is a great series to get into. Quite satisfying… in more than one waywww.

    If the second game ever gets translated(Which I really hope it does as it’s my personal favorite in terms of story), you guys will enjoy it even more.

    Best of luck for you westerners, I hope that you fully do enjoy it.

  17. i wonder how many heroine endings its possible to get in one playthrough o.o

  18. 2 more days but still haven’t come out the introduction of Hongou Kazuto’s Shu faction? I wan Rinrin and Shuri!!

  19. Dammit…! Besides maybe ef, this is the game I’ve waited longest for in a good while!

    Why did I have to buy Higurashi Kai YESTERDAY!!! I forgot about Koihime X.X

    Oh well… I shouldn’t delay my purchase when voices and economic statements are on the line.

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