Review of [070126]+[081226]+[100723]Koihime Musou Series

Foreword: Alright! Finally finished with the entire series! Wow. I loved every bit of this story, and as my first game from Baseson, the Koihime series have left a stunning impression on me. If anyone knows the full story of the Three Kingdoms of China, this game is an absolute MUST. Even if you don’t know the entire story, this story will surely leave you laughing and falling in love with these characters.

There are three separate games in total. “Koihime Musou”, which is translated into English, is the first release. The second game, “Shin Koihime Musou” introduces new characters that do not appear in the first game. Finally, “Shin Koihime Musou Moeshouden” is the last game that acts as a fandisc. Of course, this review will go through the information for all of it.

The point of Koihime Musou is that all the characters from the actual “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is genderbent into a bishoujo. While such plotline may bore some of the folks out there, it seems that BaseSon knows what they’re doing! Some of the character traits actually match up with the actual characters in the original story as well! Lastly, I give my infinite compliments to the company, considering the storyline is ACCURATE for the Shin Koihime Musou game.

Quote from my blog in Blogspot:

Wow! An old game huh? Koihime brought a lot of attention during its time because of its unique scenario. While I’m not too fond of the English Translation, the Korean translation was done very well. Either case, the game was a good one, and it’s certainly worth writing a review for. The Koihime Musou series, in my opinion, are prime examples of games where the reader feels affection for the characters.

Title: 恋姫†無双 (Koihime Musou) [Lit. Trans, Unrivaled Love Princess]
Producers: BaseSon
Release Date: January 26, 2007 / December 26, 2008 / July 23, 2010
VNDB Link: http://vndb.org/v369 / http://vndb.org/v1967 / http://vndb.org/v3987
Game Type: “Rock-Paper-Scissors” style Strategy Game Novel

Summary (Main Game): Kazuto was looking around a museum with this friend for an assignment, and grows suspicious of a male student who was eyeing a certain mirror very closely. His suspicions are right as he spies the same student stealing the mirror from the museum! Trying to resist the thief, the mirror breaks, and Kazuto is sent into the past to the time of the Three Kingdoms. There, he meets Kanu and Chouhi, who are on a quest to create a peaceful nation.

Summary (Shin. Note: “Shin” means “Real”): The story of Shin Koihime Musou starts out similarly, with Kazuto suddenly being sent back in time. However, in this story, not only are there new characters, but you are forced to choose one of the three nations to ally with. What could happen if you choose one country over another…? Touka, Karin, and Sherin all wait for you!

Summary (Moeshouden. Translates into “After Battle of Moe”): Under Kazuto, the three Kingdoms have been unified. This fandisc that concludes the series is filled with 141 short stories (1/3 of them containing H-scenes, though), that cover the after stories for most of the characters (Readers may notice a couple of characters will disappear). The game, however, is focused more on the added characters in “Shin Koihime Musou”, and completely excludes Aisha from H-scenes.

A really cool wallpaper. Placed here for no reason!

Story Length (Combining all three Games): Very Long (~100 hours)
Complete Story Clearing Difficulty: Easy
Comments: The first game is probably more confusing for players (obviously if they don’t know how to play it), but the second game requires more strategic thinking. The third game has no choices to be made.

The full “Shoku” Team. Includes the main protagonists as well as characters that join them from the outside.

Character Design Rating: 9/10
Story Rating: 9/10
Game Quality: High
Overall Rating: 9/10
Rating Comments: A very high rating game, this probably stems from my personal bias that I enjoy the “Three Kingdoms” story, but I still like to make the argument that I don’t exaggerate rankings despite my bias. Despite having over 20 characters, the producers did a fine job of character placement, which includes their role in places outside their routes. This unique character interaction within each story gave each story a fresh feel.

I personally believe that it is because of the above reason that many of the “cliche” plotline within this game was forgivable; despite being a “harem” story, the mere way that the characters fight or talk with each other made it seem as if I was reading the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” all over again (which is not really a bad thing). The ratings displayed above is the combined score of all three games, but the second game, “Shin Koihime Musou” was arguably the best game.

Another element that I enjoyed was the fact that in the end of the second game, the three “nations” combine their power for some reason.

Sexual Content: Slightly high.

Comments: BaseSon, well played…

I say the above, because the fact how I talk about “this game is accurate!” and “the characters are unique!” are contradictory statements of each other. If this game was indeed “accurate”, I shouldn’t be yelling out “these characters are unique!”, since I would’ve already seen them before. I admit that I am quite unable to express myself, however, because the game is just THAT good, to the point readers will not realize that they’re only being exposed to the “plus sides” of each element.

On another note, the anime is also worth watching. Despite not having Kazuto in the story, it is possible to see each character interacting in their own ways, without the presence of a “Ryuubi”. (Obviously, Touka appears in the succeeding seasons, but there’s also a fake Ryuubi that appears before that). The anime is rated 18+ for occasional nudity, but is still worth a good bit of laughter if you’re in for it.

Be careful not to cry for Karin’s story on Shin Koihime Musou, because I did ㅠㅠ;

Karin is probably my favorite character, followed closely by Hinari. Don’t be surprised if you develop a “favorite character” while playing this game :)

Affection for the Characters: High

CG Quality: Moderately High
Music Quality: Very High. I’m going to stick a couple of songs that simply captured me below. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did :P.

真紅の呂旗:

Howling Soul:

The “Hawawa” tactician!

Addictiveness: Very High. Believe it or not, the structure of these games are a compilation of “short stories”, which is essentially the full story of “the Three Kingdoms”. As stated in the foreword, I sincerely appreciate how the “Shin Koihime Musou” is frighteningly accurate to the actual story, which makes that game far more superior  and worth playing multiple times.

Conclusion: A highly recommended game from BaseSon, evenmoreso if you have knowledge of the actual story. Great music with fun gameplay makes this game one of the top rated games I’ve ever played. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will go rave with the music videos I’ve posted and continuing my 2nd playthrough of “Shin Koihime Musou”.