luego de haber pospuesto por varios años Kinkoi, al fin lo he terminado y solo puedo decir que... es una de las VNs más sobrevaloradas de este nicho...

desde que se anunció en occidente y en los años siguientes era muy frecuente leer en foros ya sean post o comentarios de personas alabando y diciendo que era la mejor VN que habían leído, la hypeaban tanto y hablaban de un "giro de guion" que cambiaba toda la obra, pero al final solo resulto ser un moege que si bien trataba de ofrecer algo más profundo e incluso suele soltar críticas hacia este género queriendo hacer ver que Kinkoi es diferente y no cae en esos clichés, pero... no, aunque si bien trata de "sorprender", al final simplemente se queda en algo pretencioso ya que termina cometiendo los mismos u otros fallos que de los que tanto la obra hace crítica, sin ir lejos, la propia trama la cual es de que un chico de clase media entra a una escuela para estudiantes ricos, wow, que novedad... lo peor es que este gimmic solo tiene importancia las 3 primeras horas, realmente el que se desarrolle en una escuela normal o en una para ricos no influye en casi nada y eso lo sabe la obra puesto que al poco tiempo le deja de dar importancia a ese aspecto y ya ni se menciona o hacen chistes forzados de como los ricos son comparados a los pobres.

no me pareció mala VN, al menos logro que no lo dropeara y estoy seguro que tanto alguien que no suele tocar VNs como el usuario promedio que si lee VNs es probable que lo disfrute, pero es que realmente no revoluciona el género y ni siquiera lo pondría al nivel de algunas VNs de Yususoft que son (para mí) los que hacen los moeges más sobresalientes y de hecho se nota que Yuzusoft fue uno de sus modelos a seguir puesto que aparecen en los créditos como agradecimiento. al menos le reconozco que el trasfondo en algunas historias era interesante, pero el problema es que la propia obra te va hypeando y preparando para una revelación pero al final la revelación no es nada del otro mundo y termina sintiéndose decepcionante (como el pasado de Ouro) y al final termina siendo algo desaprovechado y desarollado de manera pobre. sobre el "plot twist" bueno... realmente esto lo consideran como un plot twist? es algo que si tienes un mínimo de 2 neuronas sabrás de que se trata y ese "final" es algo que aunque trata de que parezca una sorpresa, al final es obvio como terminará.

te dire algo, no es la primera vez que leo Kinkoi, hace 1 año empecé a leer Kinkoi y complete varias rutas, pero luego de haberle dedicado más de 12 hora me di cuenta que estaba leyendo el fandisc y no la obra principal y sí, leí la ruta de Ria en ese momento (aunque llegue solo hasta el 80% de ella) y bueno, no entraré en spoilers pero viendo el final que hay aquí, como chuchas se justifica la ruta de Ria ahí? en fin, a pesar de que Kinkoi no me pareció nada del otro mundo y me parece una obra sobrevalorada, aun así el próximo mes retomaré en donde dejé el año pasado el fandisc, aunque créeme que no cambiará mi manera de ver a Kinkoi. al menos ya me quité de encima una de esas VNs "importantes" que tenía en mi backlog.

pero hey, al menos Kinkoi incluye escenas +18 de trios y anal, cosa que siempre se agradece (?

Many people hype up Kinkoi as one of, if not the best moege. Personally, I definitely disagree. Many are quick to point out that the true route is the main thing that sticks out and while I think it's good (not great) can one route that's locked really carry a whole visual novel? I think Kinkoi is the perfect example of a visual novel that's good but inconsistent.

Let's start with the things I consider good:

It has a solid likable cast of characters. The main character Ouro is certainly at least above average for a moege protagonist who at his best has some pretty chad-like movements. Even characters that start off kind of bitchy like Ria and Mina end up not being too bad by the end.

The common route was pretty decent/ good. It did take a while to ramp up considering it had a similar premise to Princess Evangile, where the main guy is looked down upon for being a commoner in a rich school. But had some great moments towards the end.

A few of the heroine routes are decent/ good. Elle's route had a fun personal journey, Akane is a nice case of short but sweet and wholesome, and the true route goes without saying. I don't think the true route is as great as people say, but mostly because I've read and watched so many stories like this that I predicted so many parts outside maybe a few slight narrative twists towards the end but that's it. If you are newer to the type of story or eat stuff like it up, you'll probably think it’s great.

There are some surprisingly really wholesome character interactions. Usually they are directed by characters like Akane and Sylvie, the two most consistently wholesome characters, but Ria at her best can be pretty great at this too. The main 3 childhood friend interactions in particular were quite notable.

Sadly, now we have to get into the flaws which will highlight my inconsistent point I keep bringing up:

The first big flaw I want to bring up is plot convenient amnesia. To me amnesia has to be done well or have a really good reason for it to exist in a story and when it's just to specifically make the writer be able to just put in “plot twists” whenever he feels like something that pisses me off. Like I get it, I don't expect the main character to remember everything, but when he just happens to remember almost nothing about one specific event which SHOULD be very memorable, I find it very hard to believe that level of amnesia. What doesn't help is that when Ouro admits he doesn't remember things, instead of the characters just telling him they just treat them like he’s stupid and then just wait till the plot conveniently reveals the twist. The problem I have is a lot of these twists shouldn't really have to be twists to be honest. There's a few in the true route I kind of forgive but most of them just actively piss me off.

Kind of a minor point. I get these are stupid high school teenagers and blah blah blah. But there's some “plot twists” that are done just because of lack of communication. Like just saying what Chieka is to Ouro is treated as a built up plot twist for no reason besides like a few jokes. A few routes treat it like it's trying to build up to something but ends up not. So just ends up once again getting me angry.

You may have noticed in the positive section that I said only a few routes are good or decent. One route that was particularly disappointing to me was Sylvie's. Sylvie herself isn't a bad character. In fact she's pretty good. The problem is felt like half the route was just a bunch of boring rich people events, especially when Mina was involved. The other half was clearly just buildup to the true route. Which doesn't help that Sylvie has an alternate ending once you beat the true route. Also, this route just made me realize that dating a rich princess would suck because of how much you have to deal with a lot of rich people bull crap. That just doesn't sound like fun at all. Basically the only reason I consider this route tolerable is because Sylvie herself is still a fun unique take on deredere character mostly.

Speaking of the true route, a minor issue I have with this game is the locked route structure. In my opinion in only to get the true route, you should only have to read Sylvie route to understand everything for the true route. I never got the whole thing of unlocking side routes until you beat one main route (aka Akane). Due to the current locked route structure, they have to repeat developments and twists at inconsistent levels of execution. (Especially Ouro + baseball). In my opinion they should have either just make Sylvie's route unlock the true route and have everything else open. OR have completely forced route order (Reina > Elle > Sylvie) with developments/twists properly paced, then make Akane completely open since she shouldn't have to be locked or unlock anything since her route is by far the most standalone.

The final flaw I have might be a hot take but I have a lot to say about Reina and her route. First of all her route straight up sucks. Kinkoi has this kind of annoying thing where they have plot optional degeneracy but at least those are skippable so I can ignore those. However, Reina's route is in the top 5 worst plot twists I've seen in a visual novel. They could have had a perfectly fine Fureraba style friends to lovers relationship but instead they resolve it in the stupidest way possible that wasn't rape. The fact that it used this and then expected me to take the rest of the route seriously just pissed me off so much. Suffice to say this route was easily the lowest part of the whole Kinkoi saga.

Finally, apparently I'm in the minority but I did not like Reina that much as a character. She does have some cool friend and motherly-like moments, but the main takeaway I got from her is dealing with really annoying random ‘coy’ lewd jokes and teasing. I thought these got too repetitive since they weren't that funny and they're the perfect example of "If this was a guy saying this stuff constantly he’d be treated as a devil by the characters" but since she's a hot gyaru, at best, people will just mildly scold her. I'd much rather have Ria or even Mina's blunt personalities over these annoying coy tease obnoxious jokes.

Despite what I've complained about, I do overall consider Kinkoi good, just barely a 7 out of 10. The positives mostly outweigh the negatives, but some of the negatives just pissed me off too much for me to consider any higher.

Full video review: https://youtu.be/a5uSbx0fCy4

I am not going to make the case that this visual novel does anything really “new”. You literally play as a dude that finds himself at an academy for nobles and, of course, as the sole male resident in an all-female dorm. That said, sometimes a VN doesn’t really need to do anything new.

Setting:
A random sequence of events has our protagonist dropped into the mightiest of schools – one full of all the rich kids and one that the protagonist definitely does not fit into. It doesn’t take long for the discrimination to set it, with students purposely avoiding the protagonist and him generally being treated like some lesser being at the new dorm – granted, he is the only male to reside there.

However, just as quickly, he finds himself a small web of friends – those able to look beyond his commoner background and those that have such backgrounds themselves. Most of the common route is dedicated to getting all of these characters introduced, spending time jumping to and from each of them so that you don’t get bored by being with just one, but also dedicating enough time to each that there’s a good base to go off of for the character routes.

Characters:
Usually, with such visual novels, you get a couple good ones and then a bunch of mediocre ones – with boring routes to match. Kinkoi, on the other hand, has almost none of that. As in, the characters here are almost all top-tier – with really good routes to match. There’s the princess – who is so outgoing and cheerful that it almost hurts. Her personal guard – one so loyal that she often overlooks her own strengths. There’s a fellow commoner turned fashion-designer – who has no qualms about hanging out with the protagonist from early on and is just living her life to the fullest. There’s the athletic one – who practically radiates energy and is constantly inviting the protagonist to join in with the others. And then there’s perhaps the most unique of the bunch – a straight-up delinquent who skips class, smokes cigarettes on top of the school, and is also seen as an outcast by the others.

I didn’t get the sense that any of these were written in solely to fill their specific archetype and, although I liked some more than others, there was no outright boring or badly-written character. If anything, my least favorite was probably the athletic one, but even she had some worthwhile scenes.

Routes/Writing:
Something I really liked about the character routes here were that they didn’t “abandon” the other characters. The routes felt like a more natural buildup, still including the rest of the cast and giving them some development, but slowly shifting to highlight the chosen character. For example, Reina’s route may be about her – but the protagonist also sees significant development regarding his past and even Ayaka – a completely separate side character with no route of her own – sees some development there too.

It’s nice to see a VN have character routes like this, it gives more of an incentive to play them all and learn all you can about these different characters. Granted, in this game’s case it is practically a given because there exists a true route – a route only unlocked AFTER completing every other route. Talking about that route would be spoiler territory, but I will say – do not be surprised when it goes in a bit of a different direction from the rest of the routes – maintaining the good writing, but doing so with a more serious tone.

Production Values:
This is not some indie VN with limited animation and simple character designs – this is a full-fledged production with plenty of movement, top-quality voice acting, detailed character designs, and some solid CGs and background work. Even the music, which still maintains that distinct “VN romcom” sound to it, has some bops to it. And to top it all off, the team over at NekoNyan has delivered all of this to us in glorious 1440p. This really brings out the character designs, the backgrounds, and really just everything about the art. It’s colorful, sharp, and is one of the better looking I’ve played in the genre.

Biggest Complaint:
My biggest complaint with the game would be with its overuse of immature humor. Yeah, I know it practically comes with genre, but it is a bit grating to see the same old VN tropes over and over – like the “protagonist hiding his porn mags” or the classic “accidental pervert” trope. There was also this one small subplot where a group of dudes in the main character’s class have an overly long discussion of lolis and bathhouses that was WAY more questionable than it needed to be.

18+ Content:
You’ll just need to apply a free patch for the Steam version. It doesn’t go overboard with such content, but I’d be lying if I said it really added much. If anything, the first one I encountered (in Reina’s route) had the characters acting completely, well, out of character – so you’re good to go if you want to skip that stuff entirely.

Overall:
I would recommend Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche. The setting may not be anything special, but the characters and writing more than make up for it. It is an incredibly polished take on that classic foundation (with actual production values) and even has a true route that elevates above the rest. I advise not looking too much into it if you are interested, but fans of high school romcoms with a bit of drama should definitely give this one a look. It might even be a solid pick for newcomers – even if the writing might be a bit tropey at times.