Doukyuusei and the Nanpa experience

Note: Video on the bottom of the post

So I finished Doukyuusei a few days back and it was pretty fun. It’s not a genre you see all that often after the 90s. And that’s kind of a good thing in a way. It’s a fun experience but I’d probably dislike it and call it low effort if they spit one out each year. And it’s a weird genre to begin with because it’s like 90% the same of a dating sim, it’s basically that a nanpa is a dating sim but a dating sim isn’t always a nanpa type of thing. A dating sim generally has stats and items, but also each character has their own area or store and you can simply just grind it out. Sometimes you have to remember some facts about them, sometimes not but the general thing is they’re all singled out. Nanpas are more like webs where sometimes you have to finish or nearly finish one character to continue a different character, sometimes to even just start it. Other times knowing some of the characters will provide some context on a different event for a different character, which is kind of the same thing as the point before except it’s not a flag, it’s just a tip. Other times one character you’re doing progress with will fuck up the progress of a different character. And the part that most people will notice are just the flags, or the choices. Where messing up in the dating sim will generally just push you back some time, nanpas will basically just end that character’s interactions, it’s done and you failed.

These kind of games would generally take you a whole month if you’re playing in the old school way, meaning no guide. Or in this vn’s case, using the easy mode. And the thing is, doing a nanpa with a guide kind of cuts down the experience. It’s not the like the plotline is anything to write home about, it just doesn’t have time. The experience comes from just being lost and exploring the town, to guess on what time you should go to X place. And it’s great when you get it. Like when you go to the equipment room and it says there’s no one here now so now you just have to waste time going back there and see what happens and that’s part of Satomi’s route. Or when one of the characters runs away so you search the places that they could be and you find them in the movie theatre. And it’s not like I finished the whole thing without the guide, I just don’t have time. But try to at least do one run on classic mode, I think you’ll have the best experience that way. Like I still remember a lot from True Love because I spend over a month on it all those years ago. I also remember spending like 20 days trying to get the teacher’s route and always failing and end up finding characters I didn’t know even existed, lol. I got 8 out of 13, though you can only get the maximum of 10 per game. I did pretty well but the game does give you a pretty decent leeway in terms of time and money. There’s some with some really trolly choices or locations. Like one required you to go to the love hotel for no reason, though she was one of the ones with the largest flag list. Another one I completely missed because it’s not a location and you’re rarely over there. But you’d see it if you left school right at the cusp of the day. And some choices you’d probably not pick unless you’re thinking like a vn protag.

There’s also an overabundance of lines when you’re interacting with the environment. When I see someone put 10 hours on vndb, I doubt they’re doing this part, and it’s a shame because most of it is pretty comical and improves the quality of the vn. They even put a small route to get you to try interacting more.
The soundtrack fits the bill, every character has their own theme but since a good portion of it is you moving around, the town and school tracks are quite nice. It does have a few things taken out depending on the version of the original you’re talking about. Like it has a couple of hscenes removed but honestly this title wasn’t overtly about that and it has a heavy focus on the exploring and the hscenes are just rewards. Unlike Yuno where I found the original sprites to be hotter than the remake; The sprites overall are better in this remake for me. Outside of Hiromi and Ako.

Anything past here is probably be some level of spoilers. I’m giving the overall experience an 8 but a 5~6 if you’re talking about any individual plot. There’s a couple of decent ones but the overall segmented approach it needs to do is also its drawback. Otherwise the vn would be stupidly long.

Misa and Miho block each other, Ako and Mako block each other, and I think Natsuko and Kurumi block each other. Technically there’s a section where Mako also kind of blocks a different route but that’s dependent on some choices. I think you can do Ako first and then do Mako but I heard you still fail in the confession if you do that. You can also successfully confess to Ako with like 1/2 of the flags and it’ll somehow work so she might be the default for the people that couldn’t finish anything. That also happens with Misa but I heard that was a bug. I assumed Miho would be the default but that’s not the case, she’ll turn him down even with 90% of the flags.
Mai is the intended route, she’s kind of boring but her ending is pretty good. I think it’s a cultural thing but even 20 years back, I didn’t care about the refined characters. Chiharu and Yayoi’s plot are questionable. Honestly Yayoi is kind of poorly done and needed more scenes. Miho and Misa have huge gaps of nothing, especially Miho. Reiko only has like 3 scenes but you can go back to her house every day and the dialogue changes a bit and that was one of my favorite parts. Kaori also has a lot going on during and after her route is done. It felt like she had more attention than Mai. I’m not complaining, she was one of my favorites but it’s funny how Mai feels like sidelined due to her circumstances of always being busy. I think Misa was the overall favorite, mine was Satomi and Kaori, Mako being a close runner up. I liked Yoshiko’s design a lot but her route is kind of boring.

Here’s a couple of tier lists
The grades don’t really matter, I wouldn’t say anything in here would be an S or A for the most part, it’s just how to split them

During route

Natsuko and Kurumi are coupled, otherwise they’d be around Hiromi. Honestly if I knew them in reality, I’d tell them to fuck off. Kaori has a lot going on and it was never a dull moment. Pretty much the same thing with Satomi, I just like those types of characters. Misa was done well but Miho just disappears for like a whole week. Chiharu was short and the plot is pretty iffy but still enjoyable. Ako’s takes awhile to start going, Yayoi is barely there and Reiko really only has 2 or 3 scenes.

Scenes after their section ended

So this means their interactions after you hit the last flag and you can just spam sleep and you’d still be able to get their ending.
Kaori has so many damn scenes and she’s pretty cute in all of them. There’s a part in the ending that kind of fucks it up a little bit but overall it was a really fun time. On a logical level, I’d put Mako in the same as Natsuko and Satomi but I’d like hers more. Reiko has some extra dialogue every so often and I thought that was neat. Kurumi has quite a bit of extra scenes. Yayoi’s is kind of confusing why they’re there because they feel like scenes that should’ve been during her route. The rest just kind of disappear in varying degrees after their routes are done

Difficulty

I feel like Yayoi’s path is almost impossible without. Mai has a lot of flags but there’s a specific one in the last 3 days or so that you have to go to the love hotel. I just got it because I wanted to see if I could get some scenes from Yayoi or Kaori. It’s more based on knowing how you almost finished it and this location is mandatory. Yoshiki is kind of in the same bag, I couldn’t figure what to do so I got her in the 2nd run and the game told me to go to the construction site but they really meant the blockage near the school. And it’s something you’d probably not find unless you were doing the question houses at night or left school right when it closed. Natsuko and Kurumi are there just because I’m pretty sure you need to do most of both to finish one. Reiko is just there if you never do the observation choices, otherwise it’s pretty easy. The rest are overall easy, maybe Satomi should be higher due to the equipment room and Mako if you don’t think about what the game is trying to tell you. The rest are pretty easy, Chiharu does have a meal choice but I’m not sure if it counted since I loaded back. Ako should be dead last since you can get her ending even without capping her as long as Mako is also not capped.

Endings

Reiko’s ending has no business being that well done compared to most of the everything in the vn. At least Mai had you go through some hoops and it’s the main choice so it got the attention that it needed. Kaori has a fuckup where she has a fling in the middle, and it wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t have a lot of scenes after her route where she’s being pretty jealous. Yayoi’s is also pretty good and it’s mainly bogged down with her having much of anything during the route. The next 3 should be around where Kaori is, it just didn’t hit the same. The next 4 have pretty cute endings, the last 3 were kind of whatever and it’s something I’d expect from a nanpa. Honestly with how well they handled the couplings of the other two, Misa and Miho don’t really share scenes.

All Around

This is basically just an aggregation of the other lists and where I’d put them overall. Yayoi just has too much going against her and the other 3 are kind of annoying at times. Yoshiki is just slightly above Miho and Ako because I find her hot. Mako would be around Misa but I also found her hot. They both had pretty good endings too