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Review of Shin Koihime † Eiyuutan 4 ~Otome Enran ☆ Sangokushi Engi [Go]~

SubjectShin Koihime † Eiyuutan 4 ~Otome Enran ☆ Sangokushi Engi [Go]~
Shin Koihime † Eiyuutan 4 ~Otome Enran ☆ Sangokushi Engi [Go]~ Package Regular Edition
ByHelpfulness: 2
Vote: 8.5
casualreader on 2022-07-26 last updated on 2022-08-05
ReviewEDIT: This review was originally for the trial and has been rewritten as a full review of the complete game.

The Koihime series continue to impress and innovate where there's seemingly nothing new that could be done to it. Honestly, I would be satisfied if they took the safe route and chose only to continue creating wholesome content, but it goes beyond it.
Before going into a review of each episode, I'll start with a few important topics.

What games do I have to play before this?
You need to play at least Son Go no Ketsumyaku. The original Shin Koihime is not enough, as Kakumei's story is quite different.
I'd also recommend that you play Ryuuki no Taimou and Eiyuutan 3. Both contain scenes that would help understanding the events up to this point (you do need to piece them together in your head, however).
See the spoilers below for more details (spoilers of Kakumei SonGo, Ryuuki, as well as Eiyuutan 3).
The story follows the events of Sheren's "if" story, with a twist, which you can find out on Episode 1.
It's recommended to play Ryuuki no Taimou too, as you can use its ending to fill in the gaps on the backstory for this entry.
All Eiyuutan 3 events are also assumed to have happened, such as Shishun and Renfa's children.


What is the setting?
First things first: THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO EIYUUTAN 3. By now, you should know that Koihime change its settings often and it's not different this time: the setting is based on Son Go no Ketsumyaku's "if" route, with another "if" twist, explained in flashbacks on episode 1. It assumes the events of Eiyuutan 3 and seems to borrow a bit of Shoku's route conclusion.
It's also the first Koihime to clarify the timeline of events in years:
- The story takes place around 5 years since Kazuto "crashed" in the story.
- Sekiheki's (Red Cliff) battle took place around 2 years from the present of the story (so we can assume Kakumei Go's events happen in the span of 3 years).
- (spoilers from episode 1) The battle with Gokou took place two years ago until the year before present.

Impressions of each episode
Episode 1 (9/10)
This is the main episode of the game and you should play this one before the second episode. You don't really need to replay any of the older games as they give brief descriptions and summaries throughout the episode. The main story is about Sheren, Meirin, Rian and Kazuto going on a trip throughout the continent, following Sheren's retirement.

If you played Eiyuutan, you come into this with certain expectations. Episode 1 betrays them, but in a good way. It manages to create a new story as good as what you'd find in Kakumei, with hilarious moments, involving characters from all kingdoms and having Kazuto make full use of his best trait from his Kakumei Go's self. I don't think I've ever seen Kazuto have the spotlight for so long as much as in this game.
While the main twist itself isn't that surprising, the journey is very satisfying and it finally brings closure to something that happens in Kakumei. It's also interesting how the characters famliies, something that's often overlooked or ignored in stories, are explored here.

Episode 2 (9/10)
This episode occurs in the same timeline to Episode 1, but it's recommended for it to be played afterwards, as it also contain the epilogue for Episode 1. The story is about Renfa discovering the achievements of the then young Yenren.

If Episode 1 betrays the expectation of the previous Eiyuutans, this one doesn't, with the familiar atmosphere of the previous titles. Simply put, Yenren is an amazing character, and everything she does brought a smile to my face. I'd often laugh along with the characters as they are telling the old stories and interjecting on it. Seeing the connection between the older generals with Yenren, as well as their young appearances, is not only fresh, but also helps to understand the emotions of the characters during the events of Son Go no Ketsumyaku and makes for a very nice, emotional plot moment later on. It manages to conclude on a high note and follows up on Episode 1's ending. If the game ended here, it would have been perfect.

Episode 3 (6/10)
Except it didn't. Episode 3 can be played at any point and takes place about 1 year before Episode 1/2. It's about a business trip to the southern islands that Sheren, Shao, Kazuto, Ashe, Minmei, Pao and Raika go to, where they eventually bump into Nanano and Miu.

I have two big issues with this episode. My first and main one is with Nanano and Miu: by deciding to "restart" the setting, this also means resetting the relationship with Kazuto and, virtually, that means going back to zero (Kakumei reminder/spoiler:Nanano and Miu never meet Kazuto in their character arcs of the main games, so they have basically no relationship). It would be impossible to reach the same level of closeness and character development in a single (smaller) Episode, and the result is only about 5-10 minutes of these scenes with Nanano/Miu present (despite Shao, Nanano and Miu being, in theory, the main characters of this Episode).
My second is about how random and irrelevant the entire story is. Even on seemingly "irrelevant" stories from previous games, like much of Moeshouden, they would still contribute to character development. However, with Nanano and Miu likely never showing up again in this setting, was there any meaning to this story? I like Nanano's character and the events of Moeshouden, so I was hoping she and Miu would get some proper development, but this episodes starts as a random event and ends just as abruptly.

Episode playing order
You can start with Episode 3 (and be disappointed early with the game, at the risk of dropping it, while knowing it can only get better) or finish with it (and be disappointed that such a great game concluded this way). Or, you can also ignore it completely I guess, just know that there are some extra h-scenes (that would be situated during the episodes) that are unlocked only after you finish all three Episodes (not that they are very relevant either way, just fanservice).
In any case, be sure to play Episode 1 first before going for Episode 2.

Other comments
- One thing Koihime did well was h-scenes. They were almost always great at setting the mood and developing the characters in it. On this one (and also SenKoi EX1), they are generic as it gets and honestly, skippable (with the exception of maybe one or two). At least they are significantly shorter than the previous games. (a few examples/spoilers from Eiyuutan 1 so you understand what I mean: Sui's romantic encounter with Kazuto at night, Aisha's changing the way she calls Kazuto from Goshujin-sama to Kazuto, Sei's grieving the “loss” of her baby)
- Great opening theme, but I wonder if they'll reuse it for 5 and Gaiden. I hope not, as GO-ON seems hard to apply to the main characters of 5. EX2's opening, for instance, wasn't as good as EX1's.
- A few interesting things in the BGM game files. One is that GO-ON full version is there (although it's not available in game), as well as other vocal songs that weren't used (Heating Soul and Hekikuu no Strasse). The other is the presence of unused BGMs that were previously only seen in either Moeshouden or the original Koihime Musou (such as Azure Skies -ryo.s World-, For Eternity -ryo.s World- and Lü Fengxian The Flying General).
- As always, the ending theme song is Shizai Senri (this time, Renfa/Kazane's version). While I don't think any of the three character versions (Touka, Karin, Renfa) are better than the original, this is the best out of the three character ones and it does give a nice, personal touch to the ending. I guess we can expect Eiyuutan 5 to be Karin's version and Gaiden, Touka's.
- I have to take a moment to appreciate the VA cast. Not only it's a great one, that's 15 years of most of the cast doing the same voices. FIFTEEN. And most managed to stay consistent throughout the years or perform even better.
- Nene's VA changed again for this game. While in Shin/Moeshouden/Eiyuutan to Kakumei, there wasn't a noticeable difference, this time it's quite evident. It's not so bad on this one as Nene only has a few lines, but I wonder how it will be in Gaiden, where she'll likely have more screentime due to Ren.

Ending remarks
What can I say? Can you ever find a series that's as complete as Koihime? One that has plot, discuss several different themes and is as wholesome as this? In most games, you'd get a short scene or another of the MC and heroine with a child after a time skip, yet Koihime goes all the way without being boring.

After SenKoi EX1, I was afraid they would also mess up Eiyuutan. In a way, they did: restarting the setting and discarding the "easy way" of simply cashing in on the wholesomeness Eiyuutan 1+2+3 built was a bold move, yet one that worked. Eiyuutan 4 is daring, chooses to mix it up on the events of Son Go no Ketsumyaku and manages to create two excellent episodes that build up on Yenren's character.
(I still don't understand why call this Eiyutan "4" though, even though it's not a sequel, but oh well)

Now, I have high expectations for Eiyuutan 5. Will they reset the setting again, and choose to continue on the ending of Souten no Haou? The ending of Souten would make things very interesting, but the characters in Gi are a lot more low profile than Yenren. Episode 3 also has main characters who will have had no development at all in Souten, so it makes me wonder if the same approach is even possible.
2 points
#1 by congftu
2022-07-31 at 12:44
< report >Thank you for the review.
Glad too see there are still some fans of Koihime series, man I love this series I purchased the game and collectible stuffs but sadly I can't play em cause can't read japanese T_T

So yeah really look forward to the full review
#2 by casualreader
2022-08-03 at 07:55
< report >That's a shame, as the only translated one (original Koihime Musou) wasn't the best, and I'm actually surprised it gathered fans. I myself started and dropped it many years ago, and until Kakumei, had this preconception that it was a just a bad harem series. Did you play Shin Koihime or just the original one?

I actually considered translating Eiyuutan 1 as it deserves more attention since Shin Koihime/Moeshouden already kind of have a translation. The process is pretty simple with the right tools. The only issue was the text box size, which limited the number of characters.
I didn't see the point in continuing until at least Shin Koihime translation was officially released though.

Unfortunately haven't had the time to play it yet, but hopefully by the weekend and then I'll be sure to update this.
#3 by congftu
2022-08-03 at 14:27
< report >I did play Koihime and Shin Koihime but I played the Chinese Patch

Cause I have a mtl tool which convert Chinese text to my language ( Vietnamese ), and the converted text made me enjoy the series more. Due to my language borrow lots of chinese kanji it made me felt like reading chinese ancient novel :D

Well overall I'm just a fan of harem genre, and the more heroines the better lol
#4 by casualreader
2022-08-05 at 17:51
< report >Well, you are better off than a lot of others who only have access to the original Koihime then. Moeshouden has a partial english translation on Youtube, so there's an option.

I'm always a bit reluctant on harem games because I think it's hard to strike the right balance on the relationships so it's convincing enough. After all, what are the chances of someone maintaining a peaceful relationship with a lot of characters? Shin Koihime manages that and much more, which is why I like it (Sengoku Koihime not so much, imo).

Anyway, I update the review, hope it's helpful.