Koikatsu Sunshine (コイカツ! サンシャイン) was released on 27th of August, just a few days ago. Japan is now enjoying a sequel to the popular erotic anime dating-sim series, with the west still holding its breath if we ever get to see an English localized version.
To learn more about Koikatsu Sunshine’s possible English localization, check the description of the Koikatsu Sunshine Trailer.
TediOtoko ( テディ男 ) is one of the first ones on YouTube having brought first-hand gameplay footage of Koikatsu Sunshine for those interested to see how the game performs and what it has to offer. Since the game is in Japanese, I have taken the liberty to use TediOtoko’s video to highlight some key points of the game and bring them to you in English. By doing so, you know what to expect of Sunshine once and if it gets localized just like the previous one did (Koikatsu Party).
Keep in mind, since we are tackling a YouTube video, there will not be any NSFW content included at this time, unfortunately. I am still hoping to grab my own copy of Koikatsu Sunshine at a later date once Illusion opens up the game on other sites to purchase that support western payment methods, as Illusion online shop is exclusive to people living in Japan, requiring a real Japanese postal address and bank account.
Table of content:
Island escort
Hikari is the charming part-time tourist escort on the island, showing the ropes of what the place has to offer for the player. Think of her as a tutorial NPC. She can be spotted standing around the harbor and other areas of the island like the guest house. When approached to have a conversation, she will give you tips about the island that not only open up new activities to do with other girls but also can be used as conversation pieces.
Just like the rest of the girls on the island, Hikari is also a dateable option with whom you can build a relationship beyond a simple acquaintance.
Main character
When first stepping on the vacation island, you are greeted by Hikari, the cheerful tourist escort who will introduce herself to which right after you will be introducing yourself to her, thus opening the opportunity to select your male character from the list of default and custom characters.
Koikatsu Sunshine provides the same old three default male characters from the previous game with no addition of new ones. Since players can create their own characters, there really is no need for Illusion to provide more default characters even though such a gesture would be very much appreciated.
Note that if you happen to have played Koikatsu before, your old character data is transferable to Koikatsu Sunshine. This includes both the male and female characters. However, as of right now, this only applies to the Japanese version of the game, but will most likely follow the example in Koikatsu Party once and if Sunshine gets localized.
Accommodations
As a tropical tourist destination, the visitors of the island naturally need a place to stay for the duration of their vacation. To accommodate tourists there are three options to choose from; Boarding house, hotel, and guest house. You will get to choose in which of the three locations each girl will stay, including yourself.
The boarding house provides training facilities for different purposes, such as a tennis course, and classrooms to study the island’s culture. The hotel offers a luxurious feel where you will find a restaurant and an outdoor pool. Lastly, the guest house is remodeled from a local private house in which you can treat yourself to barbeque and get a first-hand experience of trying Sanshin three-stringed banjo-like musical instrument, and more.
Where you choose to stay is not final as you are free to change your accommodation via an in-game shop for a price. The accommodation acts as a base of operation menu screen similar to the previous title in which you can invite girls to go out on a date, change which girls populate the island at a given time, and things of this nature.
What is different about the accommodation locations is that unlike in the first game, these are places that can actually be visited and walked around in – an extension of the island, in other words.
Populating the island
Koikatsu Sunshine will let you populate the world with up to 40 girls, either default or custom-made or a mix of both. When entering the world, you can find the girls walking around, holding up conversations with each other, interacting with objects, and generally just enjoying their vacation.
Like mentioned before, you will be in charge of choosing in which accommodation locations each girl will stay. This will not affect whether you will see them around the island or not but rather where the girls will return to at the end of the day.
Each accommodation location has a set amount of girls it can occupy:
- Hotel: 20 girls
- Guest house: 5 girls
- Boarding house: 15 girls
In total, you are able to register 40 girls to the island. If you cannot bother to create custom characters and would like to enjoy what is already there, Koikatsu Sunshine has 40 default characters to populate the island from the get-go, all of which are familiar from the previous title and its DLCs, including several completely new ones as well.
Girls can also be registered to different accommodations by random, meaning the computer will decide what girls it will select from your entire collection of default and custom girls. This will make the registering process a quick one if all you wish is to get to play as quickly as possible, or if you like to surprise yourself with what characters you will be meeting on the Island.
Talking to girls
Koikatsu Sunshine lets you start up a conversation with the girls by choosing between four categories: Small talk, love-related, dirty-talk, and island-related topics. Within these four choices, you will find different types of topics to discuss, some of which will be unlocked along the way as you discover more conversation topics when interacting with different elements on the island.
Island-related topics are something new to Koikatsu which can be discovered and spent on girls like consumable items. These conversation pieces hold ranks from common to rare ones and will boost a girl’s relationship status accordingly when used.
While in the conversation screen with a girl, similar to the previous title, you are able to admire the girls with your eyes and even touch them from different parts of their body, to which they will react differently depending on your relationship status and their personality.
You can request a girl to follow you around or go do specific things together like sightseeing, eating a meal, playing, and so on. Aside from the “Follow” feature, these activities are executed via a visual novel cutscene in which you do not really get to see the characters do the activity but rather talk about having done it that in return will increase your relationship status.
There are four states of relationship that you must conquer for each girl to get closer to them: Acquaintance -> Friends -> In-relationship -> Lovers. Each state opens up new possibilities for both conversation and intimacy.
When talking to a girl, there is a set amount of time a conversation can be held which after the girl will become tired and move on until the next day. How much you will be able to raise the girls’ interest in you depends on how well you manage to hold up the conversation by answering correctly each question presented to you. The correct answers to the same questions change depending on the girl’s personality.
Koikatsu Sunshine uses two gauges: Relationship gauge and H-gauge. One is to work towards the next relationship status, the other indicates how aroused the girl is which in return implies how easy it will be to invite the girl to have sex, even if not in a relationship yet.
In-game shop
There is a new feature introduced known as “Koikatsu Points” that are used as currency to purchase items from a local shop on the island. These points can be acquired through interacting with the girls in various ways like having conversations and doing things together.
What you can buy from the shop are not only lewd items used in the H-scenes but also new locations and more conversation pieces that can open up special events. From the shop, the player is also able to change their accommodation spot for a change of scenery.
Conversation topics can be traded and upgraded to more rare ones by sacrificing three topics to have one random higher rank topic in return. Losing conversation pieces is not the end of the world as they can be rediscovered in the world in many ways.
These are but few elements of the game brought in more detail than what I have already provided in the Koikatsu Sunshine trailer description. More content and information about the game will become available once I get my hands on the game any day now. I am aiming to bring you an extensive look at the game, showing the character creator, the world and all its available areas, not to forget the adult content and all the new sex poses it has to offer.
In celebration of Koikatsu Sunshine having been released, I am also looking to get back to Koikatsu Party and bring you a comprehensive sex demonstration video going over all of the game’s sex poses utilizing a handful of default and custom characters; straight and Lesbian. In addition to this, I will finally cover the Koikatsu After Party DLC that got localized earlier this year back in May. Stay tuned for all this and more Koikatsu related content!
If you are new to Koikatsu, get familiar with the first game by watching my Koikatsu Party Review. For more erotic dating simulators, take a look at AI Shoujo and HuniePop 2: Double Date.
