Kenka Banchou Otome - Review

 喧嘩番長乙女

Game: [Kenka Bancho Otome] 

Genre: Otome Visual Novel. 

Developer/Publisher: Red entertainment and published by Spike Chunsoft.
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.kenkabancho-otome.com/
VNDB:  https://vndb.org/v17750
Release date: 2016-05-19

Oh an otome game version of the Kenka Bancho games, but why?
I had no intention of getting this but since I noticed alot of people seem to be pretty hype
 about this game I decided to get the digital version day 1 which came with a nice theme.

Since the story is done by Red Entertainment I had faith that it will be good(and it was).
Which is part of the reason I wanted to give it try.
Anyway I do think the premise is interesting but I am not a fan of school settings & crossdressing.
I like bad boys even tho I am not fond of the theme of this game, though it could be amusing.
Now I am having flashbacks of I DOLL U...  due to the whole replace your brother thing
but atleast the Kenka Bancho guys aren't that weird.
The production values seem to be pretty high, the heroine and the guys got different sprites too
this and that red entertainment handled the story helped me decide to give it a shot.

TL;DR:

Pro's
-Heroine is awesome.
- Characters are fun.
- Comedy, some scenes are just pure gold I'm not kidding.
- System is easy to handle.
- Art, looks kind of anime-ish but its not bad.
- Catchy music.
- Individual route is self-contained.

Con's
- Even though the plot is unique every route it follows a template that one is sure to notice.
^This can make things predictable as to when something good or bad is going to happen...
- Route is on the short side, 4/5 hours at most.
- On 2nd+ play why can't we skip fights during the common route? its annoying to sit through all that again.

The minigame isn't that annoying but it gets a bit to easy once you get the hang of it.
Apparently it doesn't matter what sentences you use during the staring phase
you can talk gibberish and at most the opponent will me like U Wot m8?
but as long as you beat him its fine whatever you choose don't worry if you wanna be funny be funny!
As that does not affect the endings in any way(truth be told I liked messing with those words).
If you use the right words you get an advantage but the minigame is fairly easy so it shouldn't matter.
Losing means game over but you can retry right away except in a certain fight in Kira route, anyway
like I said before the minigame is easy but does get a bit harder later on but not that hard.

No way to check affection but its easy to know which choices to pick, especially with q.save/load.
My advice? keep Cool/Maiden guages around neutral, make a save at the start of july so
you can adjust the guage to get the love/friend endings easily and so you have enough for the endings.
I didn't even need to use a guide for this game and I got a love end on my first play...
Yes that is how easy this otome game is.

Anyway despite me being meh about this otomege at first, this game is alot better than I expected!

My play order:
Konparu > Totomaru > Yuuta > Rintarou > Houou.
The routes itself are very self-contained, so the order shouldn't matter I recommend either
Totomaru or Konparu's route to be done first. The pacing is okay though after two routes
I could clearly see a template if sth good or bad is gonna happen but honestly I don't care.

I recommend starting with either Totomaru or Konparu on your first play, save
Rintarou and Houou's route for later anyway like I said it shouldn't matter that much
other than that it is important to do Houou last since his route reveals important plot details about the heroine.

More ramblings/spoilers after the jump.
 ----------------------------------------------------------
~Characters~

Nakayama Hinako
CV: N/A
The heroine, Hinako has to crossdress as her bro Hikaru and go to an all boys school
 since he's a wuss and hates fighting and violence in general.
She didn't even knew she had a twin brother and her actual parents at first...
I really like her she's can be really cool, but she's still a girl and the game shows that perfectly.

Onigashima Hikaru
CV: Yonaga Tsubasa.
The heroine's twin brother and a trap and what's worse he enjoys it.
To be honest he's terrible for making Hinako do things in his place, sure
Hinako can handle it but I think Hikaru needs to man up, anyway
he still supports Hinako whenever she needs it so I guess it isn't that bad.
He does not have a route and I am glad he doesn't.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Konparu Takayuki
CV: Aoi Shouta.

Konparu acts distant and doesn't wanna bother with alot of stuff, he has a cute little brother, he
also trains(like jogging, etc) alot the reason is explained in his route so I won't go into it.
He hates women cuz they be weak and he doesn't expect the heroine to be a girl ever.
Though for ''Hikaru'' he'd be willing to dress up as a girl, lmao.
He is a cutie-pie but also an idiot at the way he goes about things but he really loves his family
and he will do anything for them especially his little brother, overall his route was great it had
 many fun moments, plotwise its decent though at one point I thought everything was going well
but then things got worse, the pacing was ok and plot was written well, nothing to complain about.
His friend route was almost identical to the love route except that there was obviously no romance
and Hinako was a lot cooler than in the love route, the love route was sweet and I liked it a lot more.
In my opinion Konparu's route had one of the more serious stories that I didn't expect.
Konparu was also pretty moe... and Totomaru is such a bro in this route. T~T

 Romance ★★★★☆
Plot ★★★★☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★★
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minowa Totomaru
CV: KENN

 Toto's a real bro to Hinako once she kicks his ass, he always supports her and
 you really don't wanna be on his bad side and he's such a rebellious kid! :P
He's really likeable, honestly its hard to dislike him, Toto's friend route was hilarious, it was bro-ish.
To be honest I found that Toto's friend route was one of the better ones in the game, still
some parts of his friend route aren't that different from the love route Toto's dad was an ass.
For me the love route is more satisfying as a whole and the end of the love route
the story took a sad turn but the actual ending was really sweet and cute!
Also yay to not need to pretend to be a guy anymore but I guess some people hate this
since Hinako can handle herself but honestly she deserves a normal life.
In the end I think its funny how he's just a typical rebel to his family, lol.
Ah... I don't know what to say anymore other than that I am satisfied with how both ends turned out.

Romance ★★★☆☆
Plot ★★★☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mirako Yuuta.
CV: Kakihara Tetsuya.

 Yuuta is an aidoru(idol) so he has lots of fangirls by default and like Kira suspects the heroine.
He's also quite the playboy, at first he was quite annoying but I ended up liking him a bit more
but I saw little point to his route... it did feel a little out of place.
 During Yuuta's chapter in the common route he said: ''Hikaru strip right here and now to proof you're a man.'' 
Which made me wanna punch him, because he wouldn't accept that Hikaru(Hinako) is a guy.
I proceeded to give him a beatdown in the minigame afterwards cuz I had enough of his shit, lol.
Dunno about Yuuta, he seems nice but like I said he was annoying in the beginning, his
common route events were hard to understand, felt like he was trolling he even lied 
about his birthday as an excuse to get Hinako to go along with him, like wow how desperate is he?
Then when his actual route starts he drags Hinako into idol hell, lmao.
Good thing is that over the course of the route Yuuta managed to redeem himself and overall
his story was okay I guess, idols are suffering and I didn't have high expectations for his route.
For whatever its worth its decent, his love ending was sweet, I like him but my feelings in general are mixed.
His friend route was more of the same, some things are different but like Konparu's
friend route it had no romance and they're just really good friends.
IDK Yuuta's route felt out of place... like they had to shove in this idol yankee
and even the plot felt hella random, some of it was funny but yeah
it should be no secret that I can't stand him kicking his ass actually felt good.

Romance ★★★☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★☆☆☆
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kira Rintarou
CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa.

Pfffffth with a shirt like that someone is bound to suspect you Hinako.

Kira's cool, handsome, calm and collected and very perceptive of things 
he easily suspects the heroine, Kira also has a part time job at a cafe.
At first he acts a bit cold towards Hinako, like his daily events during the common route were
kind of boring(except his flag events) since he was so disinterested in talking about almost anything.
Kira finally opens up a bit after Hinako kicks his ass in the common route.
 Tbh I feel sorry for Kira because he was so close to the truth, but we can't
have Hinako admit that she is taking Hikaru's place so soon can we?
There's a bit of drama surrounding Rintarou, turns out he knew Hinako when she's little
and he has a crush on her all this time, sasuga we have a childhood friend afterall!
Hikaru(Hinako's brother) is also pretty feisty this route, lmao.
Rintarou works hard at his part-time job, at one point in his individual route he gets sick
so when he didn't came to school Hinako ends up visiting him, d'awww.
Then his brother Nozomi shows up, also is it bad that I was also interested him this route?
Rintarou is still interesting in his own way but then his brother Nozomi shows up
and I am all like you are a cutie-pie! why you no have a route? orz.
Anyway thats all I will say about the route itself, overall it was pretty good!
Also you actually have to lose to Rintarou to get on his love route, which afaik is also the only fight in the  game you can lose.
The love end was very satisfying, it ended on a good note though somethings are left open.
In the end Hinako can finally stop pretending to be her brother! She can be a normal girl
once again and Rintarou will protect Hinako no matter what happens in the future.
His friend end told us more about Nozomi why he's like that or why he does those things, etc.
It was nice to see more of Nozomi and Rintarou trying to get him back into school and
get him away from the yakuza and his terrible father who is beats him, sigh poor Nozomi
the friend ending was so good and if there was a FD a route with Nozomi could really work out.
I might have developed a slight bias for Kira Rintarou and his brother Nozomi
but its sad how I was more interested in Nozomi than Rintarou..

Romance ★★★☆☆

Plot ★★★★☆

 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Onigashima Houou CV: Maeno Tomoaki.

  Cool guy he's relative to Hinako and Hikaru, he gets off on being called nii-san, lol.
(He's a relative born from a different mother.)
In alot of routes he's always their to support Hinako/Hikaru, its best to do his route last.
Reasons why you have to do him last? because certain things about Hinako and Hikaru
get revealed during this route, it wouldn't be fun to know this right away would it?
 I also got all of the common route bad ends when going for Houou, honestly
its hard to fail the objectives I literally have to go out of my way to not meet them.
Also Houou doesn't have a friend end, only a love end and one bad end though
Houou's bad end could be seen as a friend end in a way.
As for his character in general, Houou's strange but likeable, he's pretty chill but like Totomaru
 you don't wanna get on his bad side and when he's serious he really is serious.
When Hinako got a fever one day when she was visiting Houou, she collapsed and he found out the
truth when he let her rest at his place, afterwards when Houou brought her back home
he got really angry at Hikaru for making Hinako go through all that and having her fight and stuff.
Houou is right though because it is stupid and selfish, He immediately forced Hikaru to get his shit together.
Well after all that he just couldn't leave Hinako alone and they still spend christmas together~~.
Remember that I said that Konparu had a serious route? well he has nothing on Houou route.
 I won't write more about the route but damn it got serious at one point.
Overall it was great, Hikaru was annoying at times but it was still bearable.
Certain stuff in the ending made me roll my eyes but I was like who cares?! they're happy.

Romance ★★★☆☆

Plot ★★★★☆

 Enjoyment overall ★★★☆☆

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Route ranking based on overall story:
Houou > Konparu / Rintarou > Totomaru > Yuuta.

Fav character:
Konparu > Nozomi > Totomaru > Rintarou > Houou > Yuuta.

Final Thoughts 

 I liked the overall plot in most route, I thought it was well written, I don't really have a favorite guy
since everyone was likeable in some way and I just can't choose one.
The common route and character route(even tho short) is pretty well balanced, the friend path follows
a slightly different plot from the love path but some times its more or less the same, Hinako is cooler, etc.
 All of the routes had a unique plot but like I said its pretty short like 4/5 hours at most.
A bad thing is Hinako is kind of like the average otome game heroine during some the love route
but to be honest, I don't care since Hinako's cool for kicking so much as and
she kicks a whole lot more ass than most otome game heroines. 

Its been a while since I played such a fun otome game, the comedy was great. I wish
more otome game were like that humor and fun character interaction is also important you know?
No complaints on the system, its easy to handle but the minigame does get a bit harder later on
 and I really shouldn't play it when I am tired since my reaction speed is half of what it should be.
 This game is alot better than I expected and I am glad that I gave it a chance
because it wasn't boring at all it was fun and I had a good time.
If Kenka Banchou Otome ever has a FD, I would like cute after stories!
Plus a route for Nozomi and maybe Haruo but for now I am content with this game.
Will probably get the Alice in wonderland themed drama cd... I don't buy drama cd's often though.
Only do if I really like a game a lot, I bought the drama cd's for Ken ga Kimi since I adore it so much.
Its nice when you enjoy a game so much you have little to complain about...
final thoughts with mixed feelings just end up longer than needed.

Characters ★★★★☆ (Likeable bunch.)
Art  ★★★★☆(Different but good.)
Scenario/plot. ★★★☆☆(OK but After two routes you will see a pattern.)
Music★★★★☆ (Great, fits the atmosphere...)
System  ★★★☆☆ (It's okay... )
Enjoyment overall ★★★★★

I really recommend this game and I hope it gets localized because its really good
go let Spike Chunsoft know on their FB/Twitter that you want this game.
The west deserves more quality otome games and not just average mobile games.