Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei - Son Go no Ketsumyaku - Can't really hate Miu.

Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Son Go no Ketsumyaku (真・恋姫†夢想-革命- 孫呉の血脈) is a visual novel developed by BaseSon and released in 2018. This is the second entry in a trilogy that remakes the popular Shin Koihime Musou franchise into a modern style with additional characters and content. We discussed the first entry, Souten no Haou, a few days ago, so you may want to check that post for basic information about the series and the franchise.

This time, Hongou Kazuto is captured by Sheren, the eldest daughter of the Go faction leader, before he can join the Gi faction like in the first game. The vision of the country within this faction is completely different from what we saw in the Gi faction led by the charismatic Karin.

In Gi, everyone must do their share and cooperate to build a better nation. Karin wants to lead everything, but she is pragmatic and views every citizen as a valuable resource to rely on to make the world a better place. On the other hand, in Go, the leader is a bloodthirsty warrior named Yenren, who follows a more conqueror-like approach to her ventures.

She values her family above all else and even treats education for the masses as something superfluous, believing it only risks endangering the supremacy of their rule by teaching people their own worth. This makes Son Go no Ketsumyaku the least relatable of the three visual novels in this remake.

Things tone down a bit when the leadership within the Go group changes, but themes of war and family remain central to the story, to the point that I felt like I was forcing myself to continue reading at times. The side stories offer the usual content, and there is no practical difference in tone compared to those in Souten no Haou, meaning there is plenty of comedy, cute scenes, and romance.

The rest of the visual novel systems are basically identical across the trilogy, as the engine used is the same. I almost always skipped the battle gameplay, so I cannot judge its depth, but the few times I tried it, it was a fun way to pass five minutes.

The post-game section continues the "fourth timeline," which is not related to any of the three factions, and provides closure for some of the sub-stories that were not covered in the main game. I suggest reading them as if they were part of the main story. The total length of this visual novel was 79 hours, which is similar to the first one. Together, they offer 164 total hours of content before even discussing the third game in the trilogy.

As in the previous review, instead of listing all the characters, I am going to focus on my top four favorites across different categories.

For the best-looking character, my choice is Renfa, the middle daughter of the Go family. This was an easy pick because the faction is filled with women with massive busts that, honestly, do not fit the characters well. This reduced the number of possible choices significantly based on my tastes. Renfa is a girl who was forced into a role she did not truly desire due to events in the story, but she tries hard to live up to the legacy of those who preceded her.

For the best voice, my pick is Pao. She is a confident strategist with an intense desire to advance her career, and she stops at nothing to find her moment to shine. There are many interesting scenes between her and the protagonist, and her voice is something that still resonates in my mind. She is voiced by Oohashi Ayuru, who also voiced Historia from Girls Bookmaker.

For the best heroine to pursue romantically, my choice is Ashe. She is another strategist, but unlike Pao, she is quiet, reserved, and has very low self-esteem. She wears glasses because of her poor eyesight and is easily flustered. Once she opens up, she becomes an extremely sweet girl to be around.

For the best mascot of the series, I am choosing Minmei. I considered Shaoren, the youngest of the Go family, for a moment, but the image of Minmei playing with cats was so adorable that it was hard to choose anything else. You can see it just below in this article.

An honorable mention goes to Miu and Nanano because of the chaos they caused in every scene they appeared in. They are antagonistic toward the Go faction for most of the run and never truly join them, but they are still considered heroines of this visual novel and have their own side stories. Miu is comedically selfish to the point that even the talented Nanano ends up accommodating her, causing every plan to fail.

If you played the first game in the series, this is a must-play to continue the franchise experience. If you have not, go play that one first and then come back here. I feel they should be experienced in the correct order, even if there are no island-strict plot dependencies.