Koishiki Manual (恋式マニュアル) is a visual novel developed by GLace and released in 2014. The game itself is a chara-ge, which are visual novels where the story takes a backseat for the characters to shine, but it still has quite an interesting and original premise.

The story follows Aoyama Hiroki, a high school student studying at the prestigious Ichinose Academy, where everyone excels at pretty much everything. The Director, Ichinose, is worried though because most of the students there have no romantic appeal whatsoever, probably as a result of their high-level abilities.

In order to solve this, they create a test to determine the students' "Riajuu Level" (normie/social fulfillment level). Those that have a low level are forced to do remedial classes called "Love Manual", where they learn how to become masters at love thanks to the instructions of the teacher, Tennouzu Erena.

Of course, Hiroki failed the exam, and he ends up in the remedial class with five other girls who failed just like him. Together with them, he needs to find a way to escape the absurd lessons of the teacher and prove that they are now ready to go back to normal schooling.

This puts him in a setting that allows him to interact with the various girls,who are all quite... let's say unique, and eventually fall in love with one of them. As usual for these games, you will have a set of choices, and based on those, it will determine which route you enter. Nothing complicated though; just select the choice that points to the heroine you like.

The main heroines of this story are:

Ichinose Himeno

The daughter of the Director of the school. She is the most rebellious and doesn't accept her failing this class as she is otherwise near the top of the school rankings. She is the one who proposes that the protagonist fake being a lover to "graduate" early and go back to their lives. She is a huge fan of Japanese generals and her room is decorated with elements resembling that time period.

Hikage Honoka

A shy and reserved girl. She has extremely low self-esteem, which is mostly the cause of her failing the exam. She can't talk properly in front of other people and her attempts at laughing are... just look at the video attached. She is the personification of the typical trope: "the girl that removes her glasses becomes extremely beautiful."

Haneshiro Amane

She is always seen wearing headphones and being alone on the rooftop. She is the quiet and cool character of the story, you know, the type that even if you see them half-naked, they just brush it off without caring about it. She plays music with brass instruments.

Suzuka Aki

The energetic and cheerful girl of the Tennis Club. She is the source of much trouble for the protagonist with her crazy ideas that usually end up failing badly, largely due to her generally low level of intelligence. She fits the typical "energetic but stupid" trope.

Shinomiya Shinobu

Presented as the male friend of the protagonist at the beginning of the story. It is almost obvious from the very first moment you see her talking that she is actually a girl. She failed the test because she is popular indeed, but mostly with girls because of the way she acts.

My favorite character is definitely Himeno (which is surprising as she is the one with the "main heroine" appearance) because of her quirkiness and overall personality. She also becomes really sweet with the protagonist after passing the "tsun" phase at the beginning.

The game has a route for each of the main four heroines (you get there by always picking the choice that favors that heroine during the tests). However, there are also two routes in which the protagonist ends up with two girls at the same time, and even a final one (focused on Shinobu) where it ends up with a harem ending with all the girls together.

It is not an incredible visual novel series, but it definitely works great as a chara-ge and the premise is interesting enough to keep you busy for its 30-ish hours length.