Koroshiya to Strawberry has a bad reputation, I guess it’s widely known as kusoge; but I can’t resist good deals and I was curious to find out if it’s that terrible or not… so here we are!

Our heroine, Ichigo, is a poor girl who was trapped and tested upon in some awful laboratory, which caused her such a huge trauma, she can’t even speak anymore.

She ended up being saved by a mysterious guy and brought to Cafe Tsukikage inside a case, but she doesn’t even remember how she got there.

That cafè is run by ikemen, but beyond its appearence, it’s a dangerous place where people from the underworld come for their business; even the staff working there is made of killers, who accepted the job of protecting her.

The owner is Tsukimi, a sweet guy who is always very polite to Ichigo: he bought her fancy clothes, he always pays attention to her feelings and health, he acts like some kind of guardian or butler.

I went for his route first, it seemed the most natural choice somehow.

Their relationship was cute, Tsukimi even warned Ichigo that he was starting developing feelings for her; he was like: “this is your last chance to run away, before it’s too late” which made her panic! She’s very shy and unexperienced with romance.

This route didn’t give us an explanation of Ichigo’s past, the reason why she’s there and who dragged her to that laboratory; but Noin’s route is locked, so it’s obvious that the anwers lay there.

I went for Amon next.

I expected him to be flirty, but he was actually a sweet, cute friend most of the time; when he realized his feelings and confessed, I got second hand embarrassement watching him blush.

I could have enjoyed his route way more, if I didn’t spend most of it seeing him talk with Izuna about random stuff like food, at some point I felt like I was a subchara of a BL game.

Why is Izuna in almost every scene, in Amon’s route? it felt like some kind of common route.

Anyway, I really loved the ending and the final revelation.

Hasegawa made me curious, since he appears to be a serious, reserved bodyguard of a mafia leader; beyond his cold blue eyes, he actually reveals himself to be a gentleman who can cook and sew.

His route seemed simple plot-wise, until the final mission starts and that’s where he shows his true self; I wasn’t ecpecting this, it was an interesting plot twist.

Kurama was sadly the disappointment of the game for me.

He’s some kind of creepy doctor, who enjoys spending time alone creating a doll house and miniatures; he asks Ichigo permission to take tests on her, to find out if she has some special ability which caused her to be kidnapped and secluded in that laboratory.

While playing the good ending, I kept complaining that everything was too easily solved, this route did not explain more about the main plot as I expected to; but then, in the bad ending, a sub-character just casually dropped a bomb which explains a huge mystery of Ichigo’s past.

I was shocked such an important information was revealed so easily, come on, writers!!

I went for Izuna next: he feels like the main love interest of the game, since he’s the most present, no matter which route I played. Sadly, after talking to him endlessly about food and coffee since the start of the game, at this point these conversations became boring and I just wanted to complete this route fast to unlock Noin and understand the hidden truth about Ichigo’s past.

Izuna had cute scenes at some point, like teaching Ichigo how to play chess, but their relationship didn’t feel properly developed to me; which is sad, I like blond guys.

Anyway, back to the main route of the game, the locked one: Noin.

He looks young, but he’s really smart and everyone respects him; he mostly acts like a brat ore-sama, but somehow I wasn’t annoyed by his personality.

I was expecting huge revelations, but Ichigo’s past was explained poorly, the ending itself was cute but nothing special. I can’t say more to avoid spoilers, sorry.

So, is Koroshiya to Strawberry a kusoge?

Yes and no.

If you are expecting a deep plot, involving killers, blood and mystery, you’ll be disappointed for sure: Koroshiya to Strawberry feels mostly like a cafè themed game, since the only action scenes happen at the very end of each route, after endless talks about food and coffee.

If you don’t have high expectations, I can’t say this game was awful; it was ok, enjoyable most of the time, with cute scenes and even surprising revelations.

Same for the art: if you expect Kazuki Yone’s amazing style in every CG, this is not the game you should play; most of the backgrounds were empty, some Cgs are just useless, while others look good. Overall, this game is mediocre in every aspect.

There was a lot of potential, but it went wasted, what a pity!