Fighting games are a niche genre. Aside from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat , Tekken and Smash Bros. most games don’t reach the general public’s knowledge. Even within the Fighting Game Community itself, most people tend to stick to the few games they like, know and love. This gives a lot of games a hard time to be noticed. Eventually, the community saw the rise of sub-groups who played “anime” or “poverty” fighters. Both of these titles refer to fighters with a very anime aesthetic and game style or games that are made on a low budget. Koihime Enbu is a game that could be described as belonging to those two categories. It’s a genuinely good and interesting game that could pretty much go unnoticed if it wasn’t for these groups. Koihime Enbu can only hope to draw in an audience with its neat mechanics to see even the slightest bit of relevance. But what is it that Enbu supposedly does to draw in a crowd. What makes it a good game?
Gotta do…. Something?
Koihime Enbu is a spin-off of the light novel franchise titled Koihime Musou. Players who haven’t heard or know anything about the source material will still have no problem understanding what’s going on in this game. There is an Arcade Mode and a Scenario Mode. Both seem to be the exact same thing so why they are a different option is unclear. In the Scenario mode players choose a character and go through a story mode which consists of just a character portrait with Japanese voice-acting and text. It’s nothing out of the ordinary and all stories don’t really do much to explain why who is fighting who. The characters just kind of come across one another on a quest or during a tournament and fight each other. There are one or two moments where the story takes time, to potentially expand on its character but it never does. Endings also seem to mostly involve one of the characters trying to have sex with the rest of the cast. Koihime Enbu’s story doesn’t explain its world and characters. The only people who might know the whos, whats and even whys are the people with knowledge of the source material.
There is no point or clarity as to what the story is about.
Basic with a hint of hyper fighting.
Koihime Enbu plays pretty differently from other anime fighters. It doesn’t really rely on flashy moves and long Marvel-esque combos. Instead, the game plays more like Street Fighter with a weird blend of hyper fighters. Most combos don’t go over the eight-hit mark and while air-juggles are a thing there aren’t any air-combos. Players can do a three-hit combo on the ground, launch an opponent and get another three or four hits after that. It does feel like a blend of Marvel’s crazy combo launcher, air-combo game but with Street Fighter’s pacing. It makes for a rather unique game. Three buttons are used as a heavy, medium and light attack plus a dedicated grab button and that’s it. The game doesn’t go too deep in mechanics. There are moves called Hougeki moves which put your opponent in a stunned kind of state which allows you to continue combos or do special super moves that can only be done in that state. While it doesn’t have that many mechanics and is fairly easy in its execution it’s a fun and engaging game. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any problems. The game’s biggest flaw is that all characters seem to blend in together a lot. Not only from a design standpoints do they look a lot alike but all characters are motion characters which make them all feel less unique. Nonetheless, the game feels really good to play but be sure to bring friends to play the game because the online was already dead on arrival.
The game is a nice mix of old classic fighters and hyper anime fighters.
Like Xrd, except not as pretty.
Instead of using sprites like most anime fighters, Enbu decides to go the Guilty Gear Xrd route. All characters are 3D models with the backgrounds being drawn portraits. But since this is a rather small team with a lower budget don’t expect the game to look as good as Xrd. The models stand out a bit with the backgrounds but nothing too bothersome. The models are animated much in the same style as Xrd in that for certain things like idle-poses there are fewer frames to make the models come over as lower animated sprites. That aspect looks good but, Xrd uses more techniques to make its game look as nice as it is and the team behind Koihime Enbu might not have the knowledge or skill to do these kinds of things. The 2D artwork only translates well into 3D from certain angles. When an awkward position or angle is used the model should be switched to a different one to make the character still look good. This is not the case here. Sometimes a model looks off because it shows them from an angle the 2D artist did not have to keep account of. These are small and nitpicky complaints and don’t in any way make the game look bad. Effects and hit sparks look great and make the game’s colors pop. The game’s biggest flaw on an aesthetic level is that characters tend to blend in with each other. There are a handful of characters that use a spear-like weapon and the fact that the cast is all-female with the women’s designs not really being varied makes them indistinguishable sometimes. The menus and UI have that distinct Chinese pattern and combined with the color pattern looks nice. Likewise, the stages all have a good Chinese design. The music is a weird mix of musically fitting Chinese inspired music and tonal shift of techno music. Koihime Enbu makes itself stand out of the crowd by using 3D models similar how Xrd does it. And while off-course not as good still manages to look really nice.
Its style is rough but manages to still look nice for the most part.
Closing note:
Koihime Enbu is a great little fighting game. It’s low on mechanics but has some cool stuff going on. It plays much slower than other hyper anime fighter and is way closer to games like Street Fighter 2. It’s pretty unclear what’s going on story-wise other than the main cast is fighting each other and wants to have casual sex with some of them. Thematically it’s based on the romance of the three kingdoms and it reflects that pretty well in its visual presentation and music other than some tracks for some reason being techno-themed. The game uses 3D models but these are treated like sprites much like how Guilty Gear Xrd does it. Overall, it looks nice but without the experience of a team such as the guys who worked on Xrd it has a few problems. Koihime Enbu sadly is a good game that will probably be ignored by many because of its style or lack of exposure but those who will find their way to this game will find an enjoyable experience.
8/10
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