おいでませ、こくりさん – Welcome Kokuri-san –

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Welcome Kokuri-san is a Visual Novel released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. This game’s story is told from the perspective of a high school boy who decides to investigate his school’s rumored “Seven Wonders”, a series of paranormal phenomena urban legends. However, during his first night doing so, he is surprised when he actually succeeds at summoning a fox spirit named Kurune Kokuri, who appears as an attractive girl with fox ears and a tail. Taking an interest in the boy and the “Seen Wonders” investigation, Kokuri gets him to agree to entertain her by letting her join him on his investigations.

Welcome Kokuri-san uses hand-drawn images for the school backgrounds, with Kokuri herself depicted with largely static, detailed, anime-style artwork. This looks nice, but seems sorta’ simple and unimpressive, and it’s noticeable when other characters briefly enter the story and aren’t depicted in anything other than text. Oh, speaking of which, this game defaults to Japanese-language text, and when you start the game you’re prompted to download the English text if you want to play the game in English.

While the visuals are a mix of good and bad, it’s clear that the focus of the presentation here is on the sound, though not in the way you might think. The game’s music is decent enough for a whimsical anime-inspired tale, but it’s hardly noteworthy. Rather, this game is absolutely focused on showcasing Kurune Kokuri herself, who is voiced in the Japanese language by ASMR VTuber Kurune Kokuri. It’s unclear if this account was made to highlight the game’s character, or if the game’s character was directly based on this VTuber, but my guess is the latter, as the account dates back to 2020, well before the game’s release.

How can I put this… Kokuri’s voice is playful and highly seductive, something that carries through the language barrier. To be clear, this game has a “T” rating, and never ventures past simply being a bit suggestive at times, but the game has multiple scenes that are sensual and intimate without being explicitly sexual, and Kokuri’s voice plays a huge part in that. What’s more, the game emphasizes this further through its use of stereo sound (players are recommended to use headphones), with this being used to emphasize when Kokuri is supposed to be whispering close to your ear… though at times this goes a tad too far, and it just sounds like someone breathing too close to a microphone.

This aside, it’s really eye opening to see how a game that’s doesn’t go beyond being merely suggestive can still manage to be far more… er, enticing… than the overwhelming majority of “ecchi” games I’ve reviewed.

Kokuri’s voice isn’t the only sound element at play here, and this game does build on Kokuri’s history as an ASMR VTuber, with other noises. In one scene, you hear more than see or read Kokuri cleaning out the protagonists ears. I… guess that’s probably something that really does it for some people, though I think most will find scenes like this one to be pretty odd.

While I give credit to this game’s sound and voice acting, I have to criticize it in other areas. The game’s plot is clearly just an excuse to showcase the Kokuri character and the voice actress, and as a result none of the characters come across as genuine or in any way realistic. At times this can even get a bit creepy, such as when the protagonist starts talking about wanting to sniff Kokuri’s bed. Just… ew. The story as a whole doesn’t seem especially interesting either, and the localization is a bit spotty in places too.

Beyond this, the way text is displayed in the game has issues as well. There’s no attempt at proper word wrap here at all, and as you can see in the above image, words truncate at the end of one line to continue on the next fairly frequently in a way that’s distracting and makes things a bit more cumbersome to read. What’s more, the text itself is displayed in an odd manner that half-overlaps and looks strange, and sometimes even muddles the way letters look, with text bunching up and overlapping in a way where some letters cut off others. For example, words ending in “ly” (like “lonely” or “eagerly”) look like “iy” instead (making those words look like “loneiy” and “eageriy”.

Overall, despite its numerous flaws, I do still think that Welcome Kokuri-san succeeds at its primary goal, delivering an experience that highlights its VTuber star to deliver a suggestive and arousing experience focused primarily on sound. However, those hoping for a Visual Novel with an engaging story and characters will likely be disappointed. And those who don’t find appealing the idea of an attractive girl whispering in your ear will probably find nothing worthwhile here.

tl;dr – Welcome Kokuri-san is a Visual Novel about a high school boy who unexpectedly summons an attractive fox girl spirit, with the pair investigating other school urban legends together. This game is mainly a showpiece for VTuber Korune Kokuri, and the voice actress does an amazing job delivering an enticing and suggestive performance. However, the plot and characters leave a lot to be desired here, and those not enticed by the thought of a cute girl whispering into their ear likely won’t find anything of value here.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}