So, I've played Kamishiro Itsuki's Election by sunantenna and it is time for a review.
I will divide this review into 3 sections:
Story
Gameplay
Porn
Story
The story revolves around the MC Kamishiro, a decent looking girl who despite not even being out of college is running for the mayors office. The story is fairly straight forward - Kamishiro wants to be elected and she is up against a ruthless opponent who doesn't shy away from cruel methods.
I think the story hooks where the evil guy throws obstacles at Kamishiro is some of the more interesting parts - like running from a gang etc. I also liked the mission where Kamishiro stops the beating of a couple of students as you have control over how much clothing she takes off. These type of missions/quests adds agency and options for the player to use. It would've been great with more of those.
The story is not particularly advanced and it is also fairly predictable. That is usually not a good thing, but in this case it is. Many devs attempt to create deep story with several plot hooks and different characters. I often ends up as a disjointed mess with huge plot holes, an MC made stupid/naive. Often it also ends up in character breaks.
Not here, Kamishiro stays true to her character all the way through as a strong, cunning helpful person who has to compromise with some of her ethics to be elected. That is a fairly rare quality in these types of games.
Game play
In order to be elected she must help the citizens with various tasks. This includes tidying up a park, sorting a warehouse and finding a missing cat. At times, the activity require Kamishiro to expose herself - for instance when she wants to stop a bully in a neighborhood who in turn demands to see her breasts. Or when she distracts the Yakuuza so that two students can get away.
Any activity can only be done once with some puzzles having 3 different iterations of difficulty. This also means that you don't have to grind anything for too many times. I also liked that this game didn't go overboard with everything having to be lewd. Though, I think it would be cool with branching quest lines, where using lewd methods would've been a fun addition to the game.
The only real gripe I have with the gameplay is that it is a bit tedious to figure out where the content is - especially if it is indoors. Thus I spent bit too much time just trying to find the activities. As a heads-up there is a "soothsaying tent" where the amount of remaining content in any area is revealed. It would've been nice with clear pointers on where to find content.
The game do have choices in its own way. They're usually choices in the way that you can decide
not to do some of the quests. The game will also tell you if the quest is lewd in nature by the character having a heart over their head. You can complete the whole game without having to deal too much with the more dangerous, molesting types, if that is what you want.
Porn
The porn in this game is... well, it is there. I don't think it is particular spicy or interesting. The CG's looks a lot like one another, so there's that. The setting surrounding the CG's do make them a bit more enticing, but I mean, I wouldn't play this game solely for the porn content. Not even the bad endings are overly interesting in this regard.
Overall
The Good
- The story is decent and simple
- Some content is easy enough to spot
- The character remains true to her identity
The In-between
- It would've been nice with a quest marker outside the door if content was available inside
- Not all quests are lewd in nature, which is nice. However more lewd quests or ordinary quests that could branch into lewd quests would've been nice
The Bad
- The porn content is mediocre at best
- All other characters than the MC are just various shadows. This makes it hard to be attached to your possible enemies
In the end I decided to revise my rating to 5 stars. I was captivated by the story and found it interesting. That is quite rare for me in RPGM games.