[PS Vita] Koroshiya to Strawberry – Review

Title: 殺し屋とストロベリー
Developer:  Broccoli
Release Date: 23rd August 2018
Length: ~16 Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB

On a normal day in an average city a duralumin case is delivered to Cafe Tsukikage. Inside is the heroine Ichigo who lost her voice due to past trauma and has little recollection of how she ended up in the case. It turns out that the staff at the cafe are actually contract killers but have taken on a case that involves protecting Ichigo for the time being. The cafe itself is a place where various characters from the underworld come to gather information and undertake new work. In order to keep a better eye on her, the guys decide that it would be safest for Ichigo to work in the cafe alongside them…

Characters

Ichigo

Ichigo was captured and tested upon in a place she refers to as “the facility” some time ago and lost the ability to speak due to trauma sustained there. She is a very polite girl and takes her job in the cafe seriously but has a tendency to overthink things. She has little interest in doing much and spends most of her free time spacing out. She communicates using a smartphone to type messages.

Tsukimi (CV Tamaru Atsushi)

Tsukimi is the owner of Cafe Tsukikage and is also a hitman. He makes all of the sweets and deserts at the cafe but isn’t allowed to make any savory dishes due to them all tasting horrendous. He comes across as a very kind person and takes an immediate interest in Ichigo, trying to make her new lifestyle as pleasant as possible.

Izuna (CV Ishikawa Kaito)

Izuna is the barista and chef at Cafe Tsukikage but his true profession is as a hitman. He comes across as quite an angry person and can be very sharp with his words, however, he’s actually pretty sweet once you get past his cool exterior. He’s very passionate about coffee and cooking and often reads books about the two to improve his abilities.

Kurama (CV Nojima Kenji)

Kurama is an underworld physician that works out of a space behind Cafe Tsukikage. He is very stoic and doesn’t work well with others so everyone tends to just leave him alone unless it’s to bring him the snacks he orders from the cafe. His hobby is making miniature models. While initially uninterested in Ichigo, he becomes focused on trying to help her get her voice back.

Hasegawa (CV Maeno Tomoaki)

Hasegawa is the bodyguard of the president of the “River Org” corporation (an existence similar to the mafia) and is a regular customer of the cafe. He used to be a soldier in the army but left after a certain string of incidents and became a mercenary instead. He takes his job seriously so doesn’t speak much or ever order anything at the cafe. However, in contrast with his serious persona, Hasegawa can be very kind and is talented at sewing and cooking.

Amon (CV Yashiro Taku)

Amon is a freelance hitman that frequents Cafe Tsukikage. In contrast to many of the other patrons, Amon is very friendly and chatty. He immediately takes an interest in Ichigo and flirts with her often. He takes his job seriously and is a talented hitman but always ends up spending his money of buying new guns so is normally in debt to Noin so is always looking for more job offers.

Noin (CV Hanae Natsuki)

Noin is a (self-proclaimed) 16-year old merchant that sets up shop in the corner of Cafe Tsukikage. He normally deals in weapons and information but can procure almost anything for the right price. Due to his presence being one of the main reasons patrons come to their cafe, the staff at Tsukikage treat him with the highest respect. Noin isn’t afraid to say what he thinks and can’t be bothered with people who wast his time.

Artwork

The character designs for this game were handled by Kazuki Yone, whom is well-known for her work on Hakuoki, Hiiro no Kakera and Kamigami no Asobi. The actual in-game artwork is just credited to Broccoli.

Sound

Opening Song: Surveillance – Lasah
Ending Song: Fragalia – Lasah

This game contains 19 BGM tracks.

System

This game has a very straightforward system and at the end of a short prologue, you are brought to a route selection screen.

You can’t tell from my image (since I took it after I’d finished the game) but Noin’s route is actually locked until you finish the other 5 characters’ routes but the game lets you know when it’s been unlocked anyways:

One interesting thing this game does have is cast free talks, which are available to listen to once you’ve finished all of the character endings.

My Thoughts

Oh dear, do you guys ever have a game that you simple just don’t want to review? Well, for me, Koroshiya to Strawberry is one of those – I have such conflicted feelings on this that it’s hard for me to know where to start this review but I suppose I’ll start with the good stuff…

The characters, on the whole, are very cute and the majority of the routes seem to have a fair amount of sweet and fluffy scenes without actually having a lot of romance (which doesn’t even really make sense but okay?).

I actually really liked Izuna even though he totally isn’t my usual “type” but thought that his route, while generic, was decent. Kurama is another character that I normally wouldn’t go for but his route had some really cute scenes. I feel as though I was 100% biased during this route though as Nojima Kenji was using a similar tone of voice that he uses with Natsume from Enstars so that immediately made me happy, haha.

Amon is a comedic kind of flirt so that was okay with me, his route ended too quickly though. I wasn’t sure what to make of Hasegawa but thought that his route totally “chickened out” of being decent. Tsukimi was also an okay character but I was disappointed that his route didn’t really reveal much (not like there was much to actually “reveal” in the first place).

Once you slog through those five routes you get to the adorable Noin. It does make sense that his route is locked and his route is the only one to go into the “truth” behind Ichigo’s situation, although it’s not great. Noin as a character was cute enough though & I like that he got two good endings, as opposed to the others who get one good and one bad.

Honestly, the sound department was hands-down the best part of this game. They managed to assemble such a good cast for this game that it kinda makes me salty since Tamaru Atsushi in particular deserves to work on some good games for once! I also really liked the BGM and theme songs, to the extent that I was tempted to buy the OST but decided to wait since I’m not sure that this series deserves any more of my money.

Okay, the thing that *really* gets my goat about this game is the fact that it just feels like I was completely miss-sold. For one thing, it sells itself on being about hitmen/assassins/contract killers but in fact it’s mostly just a fairly pedestrian cafe game? I have no qualms with cafe settings (they can be pretty fun) but I was expecting something with a LOT more action as opposed to one little mission at the end of the game. The game generally lacks the sense of fear and urgency that one would hope to see in a game with characters being members of the shady underworld.

I was also highly disappointed because they introduced the interesting concept of the heroine being captured and tortured by this mysterious facility but the “truth” behind this is literally revealed in a short info-dump near the end of Noin’s route (it literally feels like a small footnote). I mean the truth is really “out there” and honestly brings in an unnecessary sci-fi element to the game that really feels out of place. And if they’re not going to bother expanding on this plot point then why wouldn’t they make it something simpler?!?!?!?!???? It made the end of the game feel very unresolved.

In regards to the above point, I was also disappointed with the lack of development of Ichigo as a character. I feel as though her troubles and traumas are pretty much ignored in most of the routes, with exception of Kurama and Noin. This doesn’t really make much sense and I just feel really bad for her that she comes across as a dull and boring heroine as opposed to a really strong character whom had survived such intense hardships.

Another thing that particularly annoyed me was the pacing and use of prologue at the start. I feel as though I complain about “route selection screens” a lot but I have no problems when the way the routes are laid out justify this (e.g. Dialovers, Cendrillon Palika, etc…) but in this case it honestly felt like you had to read the same couple of first chapters 6 times but since there are *tiny* differences you can’t skip. This, combined with quite a few common/similar events in each route make the whole thing feel very formulaic which was annoying. At least you knew you were getting to the end of each route when they started planning their one mission, haha.

Okay, is it time to broach the subject of the game’s artwork? It is my #1 pet peeve of otome games when companies use the name of a popular artist to promote the games and then don’t actually use that artist’s artwork in the game itself. Broccoli are certainly not the first company to do this but I feel as though they were particularly aggressive with promoting the game as a collaboration with Kazuki Yone when it was first announced. I will also say that perhaps I was naive by not carefully checking the product page (which lists her as “character designer” only) but I’m just so tired of companies doing this – please just pay the artists properly! I’d honestly be happier with fewer CGs if they were of high-quality. For example, please compare the promo image with one of the event CGs:

I mean, the CGs aren’t horrendous (despite some awkward posing) but they’re just nowhere near the level of the gorgeous promos actually illustrated by Yone. Quality aside, there were also problems with the placement of CGs, particularly in Amon’s route as there are like no CGs near the start of his route and then they all appear in the latter half which was weird.

Final Thoughts

My Score: 5/10

Despite thinking that this game was okay when I initially finished it, upon further reflection, Koroshiya to Strawberry really isn’t up to scratch. It falls short in most areas, including: story, lack of romance, artwork and heroine development so unfortunately some cute heroes and great soundtrack just aren’t enough to save it.

If you still want to play this game then I don’t really have a recommended route order but reading through Amon first might be for the best?

Phew, I’m glad to finally get this review out (albeit later than I was hoping)! I’m planning to release two reviews per week throughout December to try and get my review backlog reduced since it’s getting out of control. My next review will be Piofiore no Banshou which should be out at the weekend.

In other news, I’m still playing Dialovers Lunatic Parade – it’s not long but I didn’t have time to play it while I was working so I still have Shu and Azusa’s routes left to read (clearly leaving the best until last 😛 ). After this, I should probably more onto the roroalice fandisc, maybe…

Thanks for reading!