Koihime Enbu –don’t ever ask me to pronounce that– is a fighting game that just recently hit Steam. It’s a bright and colorful romp through a magical, alternate Japan that it dripping in anime sensibilities. Koihime Enbu was originally an arcade fighting game that has been ported to the PC, but it looks quite different from what you may expect. Yes, it’s and anime based world, but the character models themselves have this strange 3D style that comes off as sort of amateurish and not quite right. It’s not bad, but it lacks depth possibly due to the strange shading and not even the prerequisite gravity defying boobs can make up for it.
The game bills its visuals as “clean” and I can’t really say anything to dismiss that. It’s not that it’s ugly –it’s not HD if that’s what you’re thinking– but there is a distinct lack of details in the characters themselves. They are nice, but they feel more Deviant Art than professional work. It really comes down to the faces being off from the bodies and the very rubbery character animations. That being said Koihime Enbu features 13 playable characters, each with that unique anime styling.
This is an all female fighting game, but it doesn’t overdo the cheesecake factor. Sure, there are a number of hyper-sexualized ladies, but most are pretty modest for a Japanese fighting game. There is a story here, which is a throwaway in a fighting game, and while each girl gets one, the game breaks them up into three factions. This means that little things change between each fighter, but the core story only has three main paths. It’s not much, but it’s nice they added a scenario mode to this port to add some longevity. Odds are you’ll want to play each girl, not only to learn their fighting style, but to see what happens at the end. It’s not an award-winning story, but the idea of falling into a lesbian situation with the Queen was enough to make me take all the girls through their personal stories.
Koihime Enbu is based on a visual novel and is a very, and I mean VERY, loose re-imagining of the Romance of Three Kingdoms story. One of the ladies involved wears what seems to be combat boots and another cut of jean-shorts, so I’m guessing this isn’t all that historically accurate. That being said the game is a lot on fun to play. I love myself a good fighting game, but I don’t have the time to invest into learning each characters, memorizing moves, and learning the strengths and weaknesses of each. Koihime Enbu dispenses with most of that by offering a very simple control layout that keeps things very similar with each character. It’s not a deep system, and serious fighting game fans may scoff, but this means Koihime Enbu is extremely easy to pick up and play. It also means that if you want to jump into a new character you aren’t going to be at ground zero in terms of learning curve.
Along with the 13 different characters there are 7 special assist characters that you can choose from. It’s not a free, or random, like a Marvel vs Capcom 2, but these assist ladies do tie into your main character in some way and offer very different attacks. This opens up some strategy in terms on how you want to play as these assist character can quickly turn the tide of a fight. On top of that there is a “Fatal Counter” system that gives moves a number of different properties to make combos longer. It’s a cool idea, but one that I never really got a firm grasp on while playing. There are some basic combos in Koihime Enbu, but you won’t really be doing the massive combos most fighting game fans are used to, even with this fatal counter thing. It’s a more simple ground strike based game for whatever that is worth in the weird anime world it exists in.
There are specials and super moves, but odds are you are going to be wining matches with small jabs, picking players off with anti-air moves and proper spacing. It’s simple, but sort of refreshing in a world of wildly over-the-top combo heavy games. The majority of combos in Koihime Enbu probably won’t even for past 4 hits, and that’s okay by me. And when you do hit a major spccial it’s a rewarding experience as opposed to a common occurrence. You can’t really button mash and pull off massive moves instead you have to play smart and play a game of inches. Because of this tight nature to the gameplay there are many moves that can’t be canceled and don’t expect to be doing any air dashes and the like. Koihime Enbu keeps things on the ground and is better because of it.
Koihime Enbu is a lot of fun to play and aside from my issues with the character designs, the fact that it doesn’t load into fullscreen –what is it with ports launching in these small windows– and the audio levels that sometimes plague the cutscenes. But the fighting part of the game works quite well in terms of basic mechanics. Yes, the animations aren’t quite up to snuff, but while playing they look okay. There is an online mode available, but I never got to experience it as I could never find match, but the developers said they are working on tweaks to the matchmaking system. I’m probably not the best person to ask for in-depth details on a fighting game, but I know what I like, and Koihime Enbu fits that bill. If I had to compare it to another game I’d say that the it plays a lot like Samurai Showdown, only with a few combos thrown into the mix.
All that being said the game is currently $33.99 on sale from its normal $40 price tag. And no matter how fun the game may be, it certainly doesn’t have enough content or depth to warrant the current price it demands from gamers. If I’m going to spend that much on a fighting game there are a number of much better series that offer more content and working netcode. I’d say keep an eye on this one and see about picking it up when it drops down to around $20. It’s a real shame because I really want to recommend Koihime Enbu, but simply can’t at its current price point.
*A key was provided for this review*
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