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Review of Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate

SubjectKoi to Senkyo to Chocolate
Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate
ByHelpfulness: 6
Vote: 8
fenglengshun on 2021-05-18
ReviewI legitimately enjoyed all of the characters' routes. Also, I like that the childhood character losing her crush is treated seriously in each route - no magic handwave "yeah, she won, no hard feelings."

That said, it's hilarious but also engaging how much of the core storyline is essentially lampooning or based on real world political issues though, ranging from immigration, economic classes divide, welfare programs, practical indentured servitude, cronyism, market duopoly, civil companies/contracts, citizen spying, fiscal responsibility, monopoly of power by a few parties, and the nature of elections itself (popularity contests vs policy contests, bribes, and morally dubious election practices). I didn't expect them to be seriously discuss them, and not being too naive about it.

For the characters, my favorites goes from: Satsuki > Isara > Nozomi > Michiru > Chisato > Mifuyu. I like all of them, mind you, but Satsuki is objectively the best unless we count her sister, in which case, Hazuki-sensei is the best.

I like Satsuki for the way that she tries her best to stay true to her ideals, and the way she confidently pursues her love even as they are election rivals - as well as, later on, how she tried to reach out to her alienated alliesbecause she believes in how elections should be about policies and not popularity contest. Also, she's just really cute in her interaction with Pekojima-kun. Her H-scenes is my favorite and continues my belief in smart girls being the best for H-scenes.

Isara has the heaviest route, IMHO, because everyone would rather say "Fuck the poor indentured servants," than admit that maybe they were wrong and they could try to at least help. This lead to everyone at one point leaving the club which hurt so much I needed an entire day to march through her story. When Isara finally broke down with all the hardship she had to endure, it actually hurt me, and I was cheering the moment Yuuki found the way forward without compromising on anyone.

Nozomi don't have a route in the PC-version, but she got me committed to playing the PSP version in Japanese just because she's really fun in the PC version.

Michiru is honestly kind of ehh with how much she sticks to the silent girl archetype. I can't say I'm too fond of her in her route, because she just doesn't make a great conversation partner with her stunted social skills. That said, she's really cute, and despite not being fond of "external villain plot" stories, I do get into her route's story. Maybe because it's a fairly engaging cloak and dagger plot, which is a thing I'm into. Her H-scenes is also my favorites, after Satsuki's.

Chisato is... ehh. I quite liked her in her route, but placing it as a mandatory first route really hurt her likability because in every routes outside of Michiru's, she's a sore loser who always causes the worst problem at the worst time. Thankfully, my second route was Satsuki and last route was Michiru, so she gets a lot of sympathy for that first and last impression of her 'losing scenes'. That said, I find her dependency and abandonment issues trauma to be fairly well executed. Can't say I particularly liked the cronyism plot here that led to an action-y story down the line though - it's handled believably enough, but it's still an external story with little to do with the character's issues especially as I never get any sense of danger and tension despite the character's specific trauma. Doesn't help that they accomplish nothing by the end of the story, when there are real issues going on revealed in the other routes, yet this is treated as True route by the franchise as a whole.

Mifuyu is... complicated. I don't particularly like her for being so wishy-washy about her feeling, but at the same time, I absolutely enjoyed her route's story. It has the type of messy relationships that I do enjoy, even if it is sometimes hard to go through. It's a believable story of (essentially) having a relationship with the boy your best friend likes, behind her back. Things got heated, harsh words were exchanged, and even after settling it all, the wounds will still be there and things get awkward from time to time because the feelings are still there with no one can pretend otherwise. You know those "I don't want to change things and lose our relationship," thing? It's nice to see to actually see what it looks like for once instead just being an excuse for a relationship in a story to not move forward. Hilariously enough, despite getting disqualified from the election because he'd rather be with Mifuyu while she's in the ICU, he still managed to make more change to the way the school work and to Satsuki's manifesto than in Chisato's route despite that route being more 'canon'.

All in all, it's plenty enjoyable and engaging. It gets pretty heavy (though not dark or depressing) at some point, but enough for me to get really invested and engaged in seeing their relationships work out.
6 points
#1 by adamstan
2021-05-19 at 10:30
< report >I think I played in the similar order - I definitely ended with Michiru's route. And when treated that way it shows great Chisato's character development. Also, perhaps unusually, I didn't have any issues with Chisato's route forced as the first one. Overally I loved this VN.
#2 by fenglengshun
2021-05-21 at 09:51
< report >I don't have much issue with Chisato's route being forced as the first one, but IMHO it doesn't do much favor when we saw it's the least productive one and she causes a lot of troubles in the other routes - almost like they want me to hate her or something.