Ken Ga Kimi for V – Otome Game Review

I remember loving the PC version lots and decided to play the Vita version as well. Despite me disliking to re-read visual novels, I still had lots of fun with this Vita port, since the extra scenarios were really sweet and funny, and some of the Ken endings epilogues were so sad I became all teary and started annoying my hamsters by fluffing them the wrong way. (;’∀’)

There’s a new OP and ED themes for Ken/Kimi endings. Here’s the song Kogetsu for Ken ED, sung by yours truly! Ken Ga Kimi has one of my favourite song collections. As expected from Rejet!

This is definitely a game that all VN lovers should play at least once, since the story itself is so good, and the characters are all so intriguing that you won’t be able to pick a favourite. Of course, top-notch music and art, beautiful system screen, and very touch responsive. I’ll be writing a better review than the one I did for the PC one (lol).

If you have already played the PC original, you will know that there are four endings:

Fortune (Yellow) – Kimi Ending, where the man chooses the heroine over his life as a samurai. Good end.

Harmony (Red) – Kimi Ending, the guy chooses heroine over his sword, bad end.

Strange (Green) – Ken Ending, he chooses to be a samurai, good end.

Wild (Blue) – Ken Ending, his sword is the most important, bad end.

Fortune ending is the best ending for most of the characters, as things get resolved, everyone is happy and they get married, but the Strange & Wild endings are pretty good too, as samurai live for their sword and die by it, so I feel that for a game like this, the Ken endings are the most beautiful, regardless of how things turn out. The heroine occasionally does do the ‘I worry for you so throw away your Samurai dream’ but the reason why the characters are so intriguing is because each of them have a cause in being a samurai, and this strong will keeps the story going.

Behind the samurai stage is also the world of Tokoyo, (eternal night) where the spirit world clashes with ancient Japan still in Sakoku (utsushiyo-living world), and we get to see abit of how the characters come into contact with swords with the power to exorcise demons, and where their power comes from. Each character’s story intertwines very well with the others’, and there are some very moe-able characters in there, even the sub-characters such as Iemitsu and the Oni bandits as well.

What are the extras:

-One extra scene each character during the trip to Sunpu when they take turn guarding her room and Kayo is unable to sleep. They comfort her in different ways.

-When they received the money, rather than everyone going off at once, they all stay in the ryokan for another night and depart only next morning. This becomes a date for Kayo the heroine with the guy of her choice as she requests for him to be his bodyguard when she goes to buy souvenirs in town. There are CGs for this and it’s not too bad, and I especially enjoyed Suzukake and Kuroba’s.

-Omikuji (drawing fortune) everytime you start the game. Who cares. I skip it every time. (´･ω･)

-Epilogues for every ending for every character. I think these were done really well for after-stories, and the lengths are considerably good too. Extra CGs here too.

Tsuzumaru adult looks strange in this outfit for some reason. His Kimi epilogues were really funny since he was the main guy and everyone came to hang out.

-Reward voices whenever you clear an ending or epilogue. New characters added too.

Some bad porting problems:

-Ocassionally, the voices for the sub-characters (especially for Yagyu Jyubei) sound really really bad, like it wasn’t even recorded in a studio, with a lot of noise and echo. I mean what the heck happened?! This doesn’t happen to the main guys however, so rest assured.

-A patch was released for skip-reading, so be sure to patch the game or you will be skip reading like tap-playing.

-Occasionally, the music can be really loud even though it’s at level 1. I had to keep adjusting the volume of speaking up and down and it annoyed the hell out of me so I kept my Vita sound on max eventually and held it far away from me. I don’t bring my Vita out so I don’t use earphones, and I didn’t want to burst my eardrums with the blaring BGMs. This didn’t happen in the PC version. Rejet needs to work on their Vita software….

As for the storyline, I won’t be writing it out because there are too many spoilers and it’s great to read them yourself. Kayo can be annoying at times because she is from ancient Japan and too goody-two-shoes for me to like but in certain endings she is very strong. For those who didn’t play the PC version, I recommend you to play the Vita version instead because it’s so much more value for money. And I’m picky about things like the above mentioned but I got past it quickly. Sure you will too. You will have to rely alot on click-saves to get full points for each colour route, and getting full points unlocks the special voice in the extra so unless you don’t care for that, using a guide will save you lots of time.

It was really hard to pick a favourite, but Kei who was initially a real sexist piece of * had one of the best routes, and Sakyou too. I guess they’re my favourites this time round.

Yomi’s art, the prettiness! 

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Overall very very volumn-y, this game in PC version was long to begin with in 8 chapters for the common route and 6 for the inidividual routes, where Ken/Kimi part of the story is also different from chapter 4 of the individual routes.

6 characters with 4 endings each and special omake SS; add to that 24 after-stories I would say this is one of the most value-for-money Vita ports I’ll every play. If you’re a slow player you might take up to a month or two to finish the whole thing. But really. I’m done with rereading stuff because it tires me out.

I’ll give this a 4 star for the problems mentioned above, and even though I’m essentially re-reading the story, it was still extremely enjoyable. And what else? The extra special illustrations kept my eyes peeled.

Now, time to Stride with my Prince of Stride. Gold rating – I’m excited!