Title: 同級生2 リメイク
Developer: FG Remake
Release Date: 28th June 2024
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 15+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
Thoughts
As mentioned in my last post, the remake of the first Doukyuusei game was nothing if not an enjoyable experience. This made the remake of the sequel an easy pre-order for me earlier this year. Did it manage to live up to the standards set by its predecessor?
There are definitely some areas where Doukyuusei 2 improves – primarily in having an actual prologue to set up the game & its characters. It gives some context before you’re let loose on the town and does a good job of introducing the player to the game.
Another area of improvement is the heroine routes – they do feel more like actual routes in this game and have more character development for the heroines. The real standout is Sakurako who’s route utilizes the game system rather well and is surprising in a good way. Youko also deserves mention, especially for her ending which absolutely caught me off guard. Sadly the route epilogues are a step down from the original imo and instead of short scenes you get to read unvoiced text in front of scrapbook style images. It fitted the theme of “Looking back on your youth” but felt a little underwhelming.
Sadly this is pretty much where the improvements stop. In my opinion Doukyuusei 2 suffers from two (fairly obnoxious) problems that almost ruin my enjoyment of it.
The first of which is that the protagonist Ryuunosuke is a poor man’s version of Takurou from the original. He retains all of the perversion but little of the charm or charisma. There’s parts of the game where he crosses a line with his behaviour and that makes it hard to enjoy this game quite as much.
The other main problem is that this game introduces darker sexual content in a game that does not need it. Again sexual violence was present in the first game ( in two routes) but it played a more minor role compared to this game. There’s attempted rape (as if that scene in the first game wasn’t enough), dubious consent, sexual assault, drink spiking & blackmail. Like I know elf are known for darker games but I assumed the Doukyuusei titles were generally “Pure Love”, at least in the heroine routes given that I’d only heard of Kakyuusei2 being controversial. I don’t even hate darker ero content but at least make it make sense in the context of the story.
Unlike the remake of the first game, Doukyuusei 2 Remake adds in an omake H scene for each heroine. These scenes are a bit longer and more in line with modern H scenes. I appreciate the effort. The game also includes the “Sotsugyousei” scenario from the fandisc which is worth a play.
The updated artwork, OST & voice acting continue to be great, I had no complaints here.
I don’t know if this was just a problem because I played the game on its release weekend but it was kind of buggy, particularly around the hot springs event. The flag to trigger the event only seemed to work sometimes & I managed to softlock myself at the inn when I went without a heroine accompanying Ryuunosuke on my first playthrough. Hopefully this has been patched out by now.
Final Thoughts
My Score: 6/10
While the heroines were more interesting characters and there were some actually great routes (I honestly loved Sakurako’s route), this game sadly doesn’t quite have the same magic that the original had. This is down to a mixture of a frustrating protagonist and unsavoury content for me personally but I’m sure some people would find this appealing.
Given that the bonus content of this game includes concept artwork for Kakyuusei I wonder if that means it will be up for a remake next? I’d probably play it to be fair.
Thanks for reading~
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