No, I don't know why the title and menu are turned clockwise.
A hentai-game that's surprisingly vanilla in every aspect.
Obligatory flashback of childhood friend whose face you've conveniently forgotten over the years.
Your parents have left you all alone on short notice, leaving you to live with a relative. Suddenly, your dull mundane life becomes colorful again when you meet a gaggle of girls who want to jump your cock. Sounds like every other typical hentai game setup? Well that's what Snow Sakura is. Although Snow Sakura is fairly romantic, it is an average, run-of-the-mill visual novel that doesn't veer away from safe territory, presenting familiar character archetypes and scenarios seen in other visual novels.
For the most part, it plays its cards straight. Snow Sakura's main failing is that the girls scenarios are mediocre. There aren't any major interpersonal problems, nor are they very complex. Complications arise after you've confessed to the girl of your choice, and they are generally easily resolved at the end of the game. Snow Sakura is a very light-hearted renai visual novel, and the problems that each girl faces are fairly typical problems that you've probably already seen in other visual novels. Teacher-student relationship frowned upon by society? Check. Best friends fighting over the same guy? Check. Misunderstanding caused by an accidental kiss? Yeap, it's there too. I can't believe the story was done by a so-called veteran scriptwriter. For sure? I've seen more interesting Harry Potter lemon fics written by hormone-charged 12-year olds.
Despite the lacklustre story, I still couldn't help but play through all of the girls' scenarios to the end. There's a strong sense of friendship between the characters and they are quite likable. Well, except for your best male friend Sumiyoshi, who's basically an unfunny pervert. The girls' personalities are pretty standard too: the shy, bumbling girl Misaki; the spunky cousin Saki (whose character design reminds me of Elis from Canvas2); and the reserved, serious shrine maiden Rei. Misato sensei stands out for her clumsy, child-like personality while Kozue's idolization of her childhood friend Misaki is eerily similar to Tomoyo of Card Captor Sakura - she openly and secretly videotapes her friend's cutest moments. Oh, she's super rich too and smart too, like Tomoyo. Yuuji, the person that you play as, is your typical blank slate protagonist seen in most hentai games - unmemorable and uninteresting.
Yes, this is as painful as it looks and sounds
When the standalone general scenes play out, most of them are rather boring. The visual novel's attempts at humor feel forced at times and are not funny. The few exceptions are when the characters playback Yuuji's dad occasional video message on TV as his video letters steal the show. And then there's Kataoka sensei's broken Engrish scenes, which are extremely excruciating to watch. His conversational style is a mix of Japanese and English with an exaggerated accent, which can be very, very painful to listen and read. This game nearly made me break out in tears not because of the girls' scenarios but because of Kataoka's butchering of the English language.
This will not end well
Another major problem with Snow Sakura is that there are too few character specific scenes leading up to your character's confession scene, which makes it hard to feel any emotional connection for the main protagonist with any of the girls; there doesn't seem to be any real buildup. For example for Misato sensei's scenario, there are only 3 character specific scenes for her, before she readily accepts Yuuji's confession. I literally face-palmed myself when it happened because for the most part, their relationship was quite platonic. The same goes for the other characters, where their 3-4 respective character-specific scenes are bookended by general scenes that doesn't seem to indicate that the girl is slowly developing feelings for the protagonist.
A few H-scenes stand out as being particularly sexy.
Even though the stories aren't that all interesting or dramatic, there are a few standout romantic or H-scenes. Saki's spreading melted chocolate on her chest on Valentine's Day was incredibly sexy. As were a couple H-scenes at the Snow Sakura tree. There's even an H-scene where a tampon is shown! (nothing messy though, don't worry) Unfortunately, such scenes are far and few in-between. It's a pity they are bookended by a lot of mediocre stuff.
C'mon girls, attack its weak point for massive damage!
And then there's its inconsistent presentation values. For the most part, the story unfolds through Yuuji's perspective. But at times, the game's narrative voice changes to that of 3rd person. In some cases, it adopts the perspective of one of the girls in the game in their respective routes. When this happens, it takes you out of the story, preventing you from becoming engrossed in it (though the scenarios aren't that interesting in the first place). All of the backgrounds are devoid of any other humans, which makes the whole game feel very lonely and empty. Even your classroom and hallways always appear empty, making the school and town feel as though it's only populated by less than 10 people. The production values for the H-scenes and key moments are good, but there were times when I could tell that the game producers were trying to cut corners. The game music's Muzak-like quality also didn't help.
The nicest way to describe Snow Sakura is that it's like comfort food: it's a simple visual novel with familiar character archetypes and settings that won't rock your world or move you to tears when playing, but it's reasonably enjoyable if you don't have high expectations of it. But for more discerning players who want a visual novels with characters and scenarios with more depth, Snow Sakura isn't it.
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6/10
Plot: 5/10
Overall Rating: 6/10
Gallery: http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ow_sakura/
