Shogun-sama wa Otoshigoro Fandisc - Gosanke da yo! Zenin Shuugou (将軍様はお年頃 ふぁんでぃすく -御三家だヨ！ 全員集合) Review

Lately a lot of eroge makers give off the vibe that they’re about to go under… Alcot, for instance.

Aside from peddling expired pillows and illustrations on Twitter every day, you barely see them do anything. I remember last year they put out what they called a proper game, 将軍様はお年頃, and then basically nothing for almost a year. Just when we figured they were about to croak…

Alcot announced a new release!

And then I look closer and holy shit, the new release is a fandisc.

Honestly I’m so sick of fandiscs filling my screen I could puke, but it seems like a lot of studios can’t manage new titles anymore and just repackage old stuff to scrape by. Whatever. If Alcot’s done for, might as well see them off.

Alcot’s new release is called 将軍様はお年頃 ふぁんでぃすく -御三家だヨ！ 全員集合. Long as hell and contains zero information… the name itself looks cheap, like a little flyer ad.

Fine, fine. Don’t speak ill of the dying. Let’s just look at the game.

The game hits you with a massive “cheap” feeling right from the start. No OP, no prologue, just go in and pick a route. Besides after-stories for the original cast, this fandisc adds one new character: Tokugawa Mitsukuni.

If you know even a little history, you’ll immediately get that this is Tokugawa Mitsukuni (the “kuni” written with the alternate character), the Edo-period lord of Mito domain. So with the game’s existing historical figures Tokugawa Yoshimune and Tokugawa Munetaka, you’ve got Japan’s “Tokugawa Gosanke” assembled, which explains why the game’s called “Gosanke da yo! Zenin Shuugou.”

Actually I gotta rant here. Sure, the Gosanke are all present, but historically Tokugawa Mitsukuni was quite a bit older than the other two. By the time Tokugawa Yoshimune became shogun, Mitsukuni had already been dead for over a decade. So this story is kind of like those Chinese TV dramas about Prime Minister Liu Luoguo — people from different eras jammed together, just make up whatever bullshit and call it a day.

Of course, since they’re not from the same era, the game can’t really write anything meaningful. Historically, Tokugawa Mitsukuni is famous for two things: compiling the Dai Nihon Shi and his incognito travels as Mito Komon. Mitsukuni is so famous largely because he was close friends with the Chinese Ming-loyalist scholar Zhu Shunshui, so in China you can easily find tons of material about him — he’s a representative figure of Japanese Confucianism. So Mitsukuni’s image is mostly either “traveling incognito to inspect the people’s conditions” (pretending to be a fool while actually being a badass) or “compiling a chronological national history” (as if everyone wants to compile history). And Mitsukuni’s appearance is usually that of an old man, roughly like this:

But to make the bullshit flow better and give you horny bastards a reason to bang, Alcot reimagined Tokugawa Mitsukuni as a loli, like this:

Alright then. Everything can be a loli. Whatever makes you happy. Let’s talk about what this route’s story is.

The route starts with Mito lord Tokugawa Mitsukuni wandering around and coming to the protagonist’s place for ramen. She finds it super cool and mentions she’s compiling a “Dai Shinpon Shi,” so she knows a lot about ramen and even has friends who know about popular ingredients from “the mainland neighbor” across the sea…

The protagonist thinks she’s no ordinary person — she claims to “know a little” about everything — but also figures she’s just flexing and doesn’t say much.

But Mitsukuni seems to be looking for something, and it turns out she lost her “kago-in” (roughly like a Chinese official token, except its authority beats the imperial seal). Eventually another group of old men show up in town with a “kago-in,” impersonating Mitsukuni and claiming to be the Mito lord. Then the real Mito lord Mitsukuni appears to prove herself, reveals her identity, gets the “kago-in” back, and completes her debut.

Basically it’s just an introduction scene… just an unnecessarily convoluted one.

Then Mitsukuni tells the protagonist that her “kago-in” is also a “treasure”… Recently a huge evil aura has appeared near Edo Castle, seeking to steal the world’s “treasures.” Her “kago-in” is one of them, and she has a mission to fight these “evil auras.”

How does she fight? Mitsukuni pulls out the kago-in, shouts a slogan, and after a flash of light, she becomes this:

This whole “transform in secret and fight the city’s evil forces” setup feels familiar… oh, it’s a magical girl. Of course it is.

And that’s not even the wildest part. The wildest part is Mitsukuni says her ancestor Tokugawa Ieyasu married a woman who was actually a “person of the stars” — someone from the stars, and people from there have special powers, are immortal, and can pilot “star-borne treasures.” Mitsukuni, as a blood descendant of these “star people,” is naturally immortal too. Even though she looks like a loli, she’s actually an old man…

emmmm… I get it…

Of course, the kicker is that Tokugawa Yoshimune and Tokugawa Munetaka don’t have this bloodline. Cry more~

Mitsukuni also explains that many treasures are scattered throughout the world and need to be collected and properly safeguarded, or they’ll wreak havoc. Here it’s worth noting that the mirror the protagonist and co. used to travel through time is also one of the treasures… Seems like this “collect the treasures” job still isn’t done even in the 21st century.

All this rambling is just to introduce the final boss: Spider, a high-level mecha monster that hunts treasures. As for its origins, I fucking forgot, it’s all made up anyway. Under Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune’s command, Edo Castle prepares to fight this giant mecha monster “Spider,” and our Mitsukuni-chan naturally transforms to fight too~ She fires a love-powered shockwave, StarDust GrandCross, kills the giant monster mecha Spider, and peace returns to the world.

Later the protagonist says he’s going to leave the Edo period and return to the present through that demon-revealing mirror… oh wait, not that, the soul mirror. Mitsukuni is reluctant to see him go (because the plot had them banging several times, probably addicted by now). After the protagonist returns to the present… not only does he see Mitsukuni transformed as a magical girl fighting monsters on TV, he fucking runs into her on the street.

Because Mitsukuni is an immortal alien magical girl, she’s lived from the Edo period all the way to the present, continuing to be with the protagonist…

Congratulations, congratulations…

Fuck it, write whatever you want, I give up!

The main story is roughly that. Honestly, aside from some dialogue references, most of it has nothing to do with the historical Tokugawa Mitsukuni. It’s a pure magical girl story with an immortal female demon lord or whatever. Once you’re used to it, there’s nothing fresh. But Mitsukuni’s CV is pretty good — she’s the one who voiced the senpai in Marshmallow back then. Sweet voice, but no matter how I listen, one line keeps echoing in my head:

“This character was an old man historically~ This character was an old man historically~”

Whatever… you lose if you start nitpicking.

Aside from the new Mitsukuni route, the other characters’ routes are pretty average — pure after-story filler. Worth noting some routes aren’t even after-stories, like the one with the protagonist and his sister.

In the original, the protagonist swaps identities with a brother and sister from the Edo period through a treasure mirror, crossing over. So this after-story is actually from the perspective of the siblings who swapped with the protagonist…

The content is simple: the ancients come to the modern era, think it’s insanely cool, no landlord-slave oppression, plus freedom, democracy, harmony, prosperity, and dedication — absolutely awesome. The sister even suggests, “Hey, why don’t we just not go back?”

Reality slaps them in the face soon after. The Edo-period cursed sword Muramasa is also acting up in the modern era, and just like in the original protagonist’s route, it wants to kill the protagonist and the sword he carries. Eventually there’s a fight, good triumphs over evil, happy ending, and the siblings decide to return to their own era. That’s the story.

Simply put, Alcot’s fandisc looks a bit rough — many backgrounds are copied from LoveRec., there aren’t many new CGs beyond the porn, no new OP or ED, just old songs re-covered by a CV. But at least they wrote a main story, even if it has little to do with the historical figure…

And I gotta admire Alcot for daring to make an eroge out of Tokugawa Mitsukuni. I remember this character is almost like a righteous official in Japanese culture — the TV drama Mito Komon has aired over 1000 episodes, taking down countless villains, more than Conan. And you suddenly say this old man is a loli, bangable, and even alive in the present? Aren’t you worried about hurting the feelings of the TV drama’s viewers?

Also, if you want to play this game and don’t know much about Tokugawa Mitsukuni, you can just treat it as a normal magical girl work. Don’t go watch the TV drama, or you’ll end up like me — seeing this face:

and thinking of this face:

Truly, “The Shogun-sama is in his prime, the Mito Komon stays forever young.”

Finally, sharing a curious piece of writing:

http://www.jnocnews.jp/news/show.aspx?id=91604

As for whether Alcot will go under? I don’t think so, because I played Shirakoi Sakura * Gram, and I think Alcot is far from closing down.