Review of Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! S
| Subject | Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! S Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! S |
| By | Helpfulness: 0 Vote: 7killah-kheem on 2023-05-31 |
| Review | While Majikoi S is a really fun time, and adds plenty of really entertaining characters to this world that I really enjoy, I don't think I can say it's as good as its prequel, simply because it's way too uneven and inconsistent in terms of quality. I personally think Majikoi is at its best when it's doing a big silly action plot, and I'm not necessarily as interested in the romance/dating sim (or H scene) elements. And when this game is doing an action plot, it's great, but the problem, I feel, is that some of the routes are completely devoid of plot and just a string of brief slice of life scenes interspersed with not-so-brief H scenes that don't really lead anywhere, and at times that got pretty dull. All of the Afters for the original game's heroines suffer from this (not that the Afters from the first game were any better in that regard), they just suffer from the fact that these characters have nothing to do, because their stories are complete. Still, that's not such a big issue, because all of those heroines did have their own routes in the first game that were substantial. However, the problem is that, in this game, even some of the new main routes have the exact same issue, which I find less forgivable. So I guess I'll go through all of the routes in the order of least favorite to favorite: 1. Margit and Tatsuko Routes I'm lumping these two together because they were pretty much equally insubstantial. They basically had no plot, they were just, as I said, a string of small SOL scenes, which were nice, but not really building to anything, and then, after a point, they just devolved into H scene after H scene, and they just went on for so long, and I really didn't care about them. I don't come to Majikoi for the porn, so these were just a drag to sit through. I often found myself just rapidly clicking through them to get to the next non-porn scene. And to give you an example of just how lacking in any kind of build-up these routes were, both during the Margit route and the Tatsuko route, I took some extended breaks from playing the game, and when I returned to continue it, I found out that I was like, 20 minutes away from finishing the routes. I had no idea, because they simply had no plot, no climax, they just were kind of there and then were over. And it's especially disappointing in the case of Margit simply because I think she's a really cool character and it's a shame to see her underutilized like this. 2. Kokoro Route I place this route pretty low because it also doesn't have much of a plot, and it's mostly chill SOL, but I think it's a little bit better than the previous two simply because it actually gave Kokoro somewhat of a character arc of her trying to improve. It's by no means anything impressive, but it at least made me like her more than I did just from the OG game (where I found her pretty annoying), so that's something. (The fact that she's played by Michiru voice actress Kaori Mizuhashi also really helps, because I could picture Michiru every time she spoke and that made me happier). 3. Tsubame Route The Tsubame route is the first one of these I would consider to be actually good. We had a solid silly action plot, in this case, a tournament arc, and it was fun seeing all of the character team-ups (my favorite being Capt and Ootomo. Those two are really fun together, I hope the fandics give them at least a little bit more interactions). And it also focused decently on Tsubame's character (which is not something that I can say about one of the upcoming routes). However, I place it lower on the list because, instead of capping off the story with the fun action plot, the route kind of dedicates the first half of it to that, and then the second half is just romance scenes with Tsubame, and I'm not really a fan of that. And we resolved the issue of Tsubame's emotional affection a little too easily for my taste. Also, just a personal preference, but I simply don't love Tsubame that much. She's alright, I don't dislike her, but I wouldn't put her above Margit or Tatsuko, for example, even though their routes were way worse. 4. Monshiro Route This is, IMO, the best as far as character routes go. We have a decent storyline that has a good payoff and actually ends climatically, and a nice relationship between Yamato and Monshiro (let's just take the game at its word and assume she is 18, she doesn't act particularly childishly anyway). And we get more into the Kukis, which is fun. Hideo is up there as one of my favorite characters, so even getting a little focus on him was nice, and Monshiro is pretty great herself, as well as all the servants. Good route all around. 5. Koyuki Route This one is just missed potential all around. For one, it's kind of a cop-out to make her route just take place in an alternate reality where Yamato didn't fuck her over, so that we don't need to have any kind of arc where Koyuki learns to forgive him or whatever, and instead we just go to a world where they are already close. But even if we agree with that scenario, the portrayal itself also feels like a total cop-out. Instead of Koyuki and her relationships being dramatically different, like you'd think she'd be, she's basically the exact same, even being equally close to Jun and Touma, and we don't even see any kind of dynamics with the other Kazama Family members aside from Yamato and very slightly Miyako, which for a game that is as character driven as this, is pretty bad. But worse yet, throw all of that away because none of it matters because Koyuki is barely in this fucking route. She does the least out of any character! I was at least expecting a little something in the Future with Koyuki segment, but no, even that is only like, 20 minutes of barely anything. wtf? why did they do this? So then, how is this my favorite route? Well, ignoring all the stuff about Koyuki, this is peak silly action plot, and I enjoyed it very much. So despite the metric tons of missed potential in regards to Koyuki, it was still the best story in the game, for someone like me who doesn't really care about romance and is just here for crazy shenanigans. Other Observations In regards to the production, this game is pretty good, even better than the original. The fight scenes are quite dynamic, there's a ton of good character sprites, and we even have animated cutscenes! The animation isn't anything crazy, but just the fact that it exists at all is super cool. Also, as always with Majikoi, I have to praise the voice acting. Everyone brings life to their roles, and there isn't a single dud. Some particularly outstanding roles among the newcomers are Kuroda Takaya as Hume Hellsing, a voice actor who basically only ever does one voice, and it's one of the greatest voices ever (daddy Kiryu), as well as Oomori Haruka/Takamori Natsumi as Ootomo, whose energy I really enjoyed. Also, shoutouts to the OGs too, the late and great Fujiwara Keiji as Shakadou was always great to hear, even considering his small role in the game, as well as the legend Sugita Tomokazu as Jun. All in all, Majikoi S was a pretty enjoyable experience, if not as consistently good as its predecessor. I'm definitely going to check out the fandiscs at some point, but while this wasn't the case after the first game, I'm definitely pretty burned out on Majikoi after this one, so it might be a while till then. |
| 0 points |