I've owned a bunch o Sakura games for a while now, and since Spirit was the first one they've made, I decided it would be my first dive into the franchise. It might've been a bad choice because it was a disappointment and now I'm not really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Obviously it's a Visual Novel, and yes the Visual part of it is indeed very pleasing to the eye.I've owned a bunch o Sakura games for a while now, and since Spirit was the first one they've made, I decided it would be my first dive into the franchise. It might've been a bad choice because it was a disappointment and now I'm not really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Obviously it's a Visual Novel, and yes the Visual part of it is indeed very pleasing to the eye. While the design choices of side characters might be subjectively poor (the main cast is fine,) the quality of the pictures won't disappoint a typical anime fan.
The Novel part is the problem here. First of all, this is not a kinetic novel but it might as well be one.
There is only a single choice during the entire playthrough. It's near the end so one would think that it's a choice that decides how the story would end, or something akin to that, but no, there is only one ending; the choice itself couldn't be more inconsequential even if it tried; the scenes that are separated by that choice are completely trivial and don't amount to anything in the plot, serving only as a short breather before the plot actually starts.
There's absolutely no reason for that choice to exist, other than to make it seem more like a "game" I guess...
Second, and much more important than that, is the plot itself which is sub-par at the very best, and rather than tell an actual story, it lists off ecchi/harem anime tropes as if the entire script was just one big checklist.
All girls falling for the Mary Sue Protagonist pretty much immediately after meeting him? Check.
Hot springs scene? Check.
Fanservice scenes like girls getting covered in slime or getting their clothes wet? Check.
Walking in on someone changing clothes? Check, check.
Protagonist tripping over nothing and falling on barely dressed girls? Check, check, check.
Oh, and yes, this is an Isekai story, because of course it is.
Finally, one more point, which actually became a dealbreaker for me. This Visual Novel is very short, clocking in under 2 hours. Of course, I don't mind short stories and that in itself wouldn't be a problem, but the reason behind it is.
This novel is so short because as it turns out, it's only a prologue. Chapter One for a story that 6 years later still doesn't have a sequel, and it's pretty much certain at this point that it never will.… Expand
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