That's a very good point. It all builds up to the all-important 5th bonus round - but then that one is the easiest of all of then, not requiring any "skill" at all.
Not that I think "skill" effects the outcome of the other rounds either - I would guess that all the outcomes are pre-determined no matter how quick/slow accurate/useless you are at playing them.
It's a shame there are so few true skill games, apart from the 2 Rival and 3 Crypto ones: I'm sure they would be very popular with players even if the difference in RTP was only something like 98% for the most skillful players and 95% for the hopeless ones!
Anyway, back to Kyoko's: My third run through to the final showdown was very disappointing. Did hit some more nice 5oak wins in normal spins, but also experienced LONG dry spells of spins without even hitting any annoying bet x 0.2 wins
It also seemed to take something like 200 spins between the 4th and the 5th lot of scatters - I even had to dip into my rainy-day funds to reach it - and then it didn't pay well anyway.
I am now a couple of 100 bucks down on it
(Betting quite high: varying between $1.25 to $3.25/spin)
So I need to change my earlier evaluation: Medium variance - you could get a big win for 4 or 5 scatters, but otherwise it's likely to suck you dry.
Not so keen on it now. It IS similar to Ching-Ching, in that before you start playing it you need to make sure you have the bank-roll and the stomach to see it right through the to final stage. This is not a slot for just "popping onto for just a few spins..."
KK