5.2 hours played
Written 8 months ago
I'm a bit mixed about this one, but I decided on giving this one a recommend despite a gameplay gripe and a personal taste gripe that was clearly a decision made for story, but it just did not jive with me. Even if I have issues with BBQ's games, it also feels to me that they have a lot of passion for their projects.
I appreciate that this game has a bit of a genuine flare to it. I'm not someone familiar at all with Kabukichos outside of fictional works, but it does appear according to the allegations of other review(s) I've read. To take a personal experience as a developer and then do your best to give it a genuine experience in a game it a respectable thing to do.
BBQ really nails their character designs, Daiya is no exception. She has one of my favorite selections of costumes as well. Like every single one of them is just damn fine. At it's core this game is a corruption game, and overall the progression is quite good.
Now for my gripes with this game. First off gameplay is a cycle of make money, eat food for magic, achieve a mana number needed to beat up bad guys for money which will let you get more expensive food more easily than the jobs you'll do (although there is still good reason to do the jobs until their completion). You also need to explore the city for events to trigger to get intel to unlock more things to do in the city which is all RNG. Although you do get at least some useful intel by building relations with the roommates of the apartment you're living in. It gets dull real fast which is not something I can say about the other BBQ games I've played.
The other gripe I have has to do with personal preference, it's also a bit immersion breaking, and spoilery. [spoiler]Daiya's penetration CGs up to a point where I never got to because I just couldn't continue playing this game are all up her rear end. I can handle it a bit when it's limited, but I've never enjoyed anal in any pornographic medium. I unlocked all the CGs to see where the virginity loss happened, and it's part of a story event if you end up losing a specific battle. I can appreciate restraining penetration for story reasons, but in a game where you can get pretty deep into corruption before such an instance can happen it is super hard to believe that there isn't a single one of the guys that forced themselves on Daiya would only choose to take her virginity themselves.[/spoiler]
Ultimately, despite my own issues with the game, I gotta say it is worth the price it's at, and I didn't hate my time playing it even though I will never complete it.
