YMMV / Samurai of Hyuga

• Base-Breaking Character: Jun/Junko is this in Book 4. Readers either appreciate the Character Development they go through and can sympathize with their Dark and Troubled Past, or believe that Jun/Junko has crossed the Moral Event Horizon too many times to be a forgivable character. Others find the relationship dynamic between Jun/Junko and the MC troubling - its The Masochism Tango at best and Romanticized Abuse at its worst.
• Broken Base: The second book caused this. Some dislike the amount of railroading it has, especially forcing the protagonist to go on a date with Momoko whether they want to or not, and the build-up towards a climax that ultimately goes nowhere; others find the railroading acceptable and necessary in a game like this and think the build-up will pay off next book.
  • The response to Book 4 has been polarizing to say the least. Positive reception has revolved around the increase in writing quality, the greater focus on the MC's emotional struggles, and Jun/Junko receiving some much needed Character Development. Many negative reviewers dislike that the plot and choices are very linear, miss the lovable group of companions that aren't present for most of the book, and find the romance option with Jun/Junko troubling.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The game is set in a fantasy, but still feudal, Japan, so it tends to align with cultural values that have since fallen out of practice. If the player is female, for example, she's noted to get some odd looks and slight misogyny for being an Action Girl, and Momoko's character arc is driven by the sexism and scorn she received for being an attractive woman trying to succeed in the male-dominated medical world.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Jun/Junko has their share of fans, some of whom whitewash the "crazy Yandere" thing.
• Evil Is Cool: Jun/Junko again. While they're completely insane, the fact they can take on a entire platoon of elite samurai alone and win is certainly impressive.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Out of all the protagonist's companions, it's Masashi/Masami that the fanbase is clamoring most for a Relationship Upgrade with. Some don't have a problem with their age, as it wasn't unusual for that time period for people to get married as young teenagers, while others want to wait for a Time Skip so they can actually grow up.
• Moe: Masashi/Masami, who's a innocent and optimistic Tsundere, at least as long as their Spoiled Brat tendencies don't grate on the reader too much.
• Nightmare Fuel: Although this trope doesn't come into play too often, the books do have their fair share of excessive gore and violence. Book 4 also reveals that the Ronin ate some of their friends alive when they were a small child.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The first three books maintain a pretty steady balance of darkness and levity, but books 4 and 5 begin to press the scale pretty hard towards darkness. Much of book 4 is spent following the Ronin being physically and mentally abused by their old fellow student Jun(ko), and beyond that they see and experience a lot of horrible things with very few moments of levity. Book 5 begins to lighten up on horrible events happening around the halfway point, but the Ronin's mental state remains in a very dark place for most of the remainder of the book. On top of that, by the end of book 5, nearly every single recurring named character is either dead or likely suffering/about to suffer a Fate Worse than Death offscreen aside from the Ronin, the kid, the ninja, Hatch, and the Kondo family. And all of those deaths occur within books 4 and 5, each generally serving as another blow to the Ronin's mental health. The end of book 5 seems to promise a relatively lighter direction, but it can be difficult to make it there.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Book 4 attempts to show Jun(ko) in a different light. It fleshes out a Freudian Excuse that Jun(ko) had been repeatedly raped by their father and their fanatical devotion to his Sensei was essentially to have a replacement father (which is admittingly genuinely appalling and sympathetic), and over the course of the book, the Ronin gets emotionally closer and more sympathetic to Jun(ko), even if they reject his/her love. Late in the book, when the Ronin returns to their dojo to take their own life (which gets interrupted), they finds a grove of apple trees that Jun(ko) had planted and silently apologizes for making Jun(ko) leave. Except for the fact that the Ronin did not do anything to make Jun(ko) leave, Jun(ko) chose to leave after finding a letter that would lead them to a third disciple their sensei had. On top of that, Jun(ko) forces the Ronin to come along with a magical spell binding the two of them together. On top of that, Jun(ko) is constantly abusive towards the Ronin both physically and mentally for most of the story. Not only that, but Jun(ko) is a serial killer who revels in the killing of others in combat. And while the Ronin's initial infatuation with Jun(ko) makes sense due to their relationship when they were at the dojo, it makes much less sense for the Ronin to care so much about Jun(ko)'s feelings if they come to the conclusion they were never really in love with Jun(ko) due to how toxic their situation was. The whole thing feels unnatural. And that's not even getting into the quandry of if you choose for the Ronin to truly love Jun(ko), and the toxicity there.