Love, Elections, and Chocolate

I was really looking forward to reading this because of how much I enjoyed Aokana, but now I see sprite may have gotten lucky by accident there. This is one of the worst "serious" VNs I've ever read. In fact, instead of a positive experience, I feel like I need to check in for some serious therapy sessions. This VN is a trashy romcom with all sorts of story inconsistencies, toxic characters, and a waste of space MC. Here is a long list of complaints that I have against (as spoiler free as I can possibly keep it). A) The main heroine of this VN is [spoiler]one of the most selfish, psychotic characters[/spoiler] I've ever had to experience. She literally gave me a nightmare one day while I was reading it. Nobody wants to have that kind of experience. B) Aside from the psychotic main heroine, you also have a toxic, psychotic club advisor and a club full of students who are [spoiler]selfish and on some kinds of drugs[/spoiler]. Their behavior is so illogical and toxic at times that I have a hard time understanding why the writers felt this would be entertaining to read about. Well, maybe they wanted to serve up a nice dose of poison. If so, they succeeded! Here's an example …

[b]VERDICT : Koichoco is still a [i]gem[/i] despite its 16-year-old age. It truly is.[/b] Let me starts with [ the DRAG ] : Let’s say [i]over-possessive female character[/i] and [i]super dense male character[/i] and some jokes have lost their charm in this day and age. This matter really impacted my experience to some extent. But well in spite of what I say, I am fully aware that I read Koichoco in the year 2026 while the game has been created since 2010 so we should be fair when judging the script written in another era. If this matter annoys you, then it does. Suck it or you wouldn’t have a chance to experience the wonderful side of the game. Now [ the WONDERFUL ] : + First thing first, the artwork! [i]The stunningly gorgeous artwork[/i] from Sprite always hit me in awe, just like AOKANA. + The game starts off with a vibe of rom-com story then switches to full drama when reaching each of the character routes. Koichoco’s story and drama are very solid, and it might be heavier than what you expected. The [i]politics[/i] part feels so real for me especially if I see it not as a school politics but a miniature of national politics. + The way ALL of the main heroines (the over-posse…

overall feels paint by numbers, rather dated (as in EXTREME SOL), doesnt hold up, there are far better candidates for your time with this sort of genre. the story is horribly paced, especially early where there are infodumps left and right to force shallow worldbuilding and introductions for like 15 characters. too much packed in without anywhere to breathe = everything becomes simple archetypes, and every scene is just *something happens* --> every single character chimes in with one line, one after another. this sort of thing isn't necessarily a problem if its fun, but none of the characters are particularly interesting, and nothing particularly interesting happens. the character volume sliders dont work. i want to mute the gay ♥♥♥♥♥♥ oboro but its bugged so i cant and im forced to listen to his gay ♥♥♥♥♥♥ voice. the financial aid student stuff is presented as crazy classism but in reality isara isnt poor, she is working class. it is bizarre watching everyone hold their tongues around her when she is basically normal, it all feels forced, and the plot points built from it are also retarded --> "hmm.. what policy could we enact to stop people from calling the financial aid stude…

You should definitely get the patch from the internet, otherwise you will only be able to play the common route and never have access to the routes of specific girls.

Personally, I love the way they write the characters, and each character actually makes me interested in reading their route. However, I dont really like how the main theme of the story was developed. I understand that the game's focus is about an election, but the daily activities and interactions between the characters are not really interesting. Also, about the main conflict of the game, I think the issue revolving around corruption and the "80 percent law" is rather weak and quite illogical, as it's quite strange that most students kinda accept that without questions (while obligated to follow), given its clear absurdity, but this might be just me. Also, I will overlook how they make the student council of high school kids seemingly too powerful because many fictions do that too. I love the artwork and the music of this game a lot, especially when they insert songs in some emotional scenes.

I'm always compelled to write an extensive review, especially when a game somehow manages to exceed any and all expectations I had prior to beginning my first playthrough. Every single heroine and route was an amazing experience, and there was so much hidden depth to their stories that caught me pleasantly off guard. Somehow, Koichoco even managed to completely change my perspective of Chisato from the 1st playthrough from immense dislike to actually loving her personality before I even started her route on my 4th playthrough. Once again, I could easily ramble about my love for this game, but I couldn't stress enough that everyone should give this romance visual novel a chance. If you love romance and having meaningful choices in narrative, or even just enjoy anime, manga or visual novels...then this is a great game to try. I also suggest giving Chisato and Isara in particular a chance, since I know those two heroines aren't popular based on many reviews and reddit posts I've seen regarding their experiences with this game. Explore all of the heroine routes before giving a final review, or you'll be missing out imo. Before I finish this review, I must express my love not only f…