Sakura Nova Review

Platform: Steam
Players: 1

"Sakura Nova" is the latest visual novel from developer Winged Cloud and publisher Sekai Project, who have brought us many other games in the "Sakura" series starting way back with "Sakura Spirit" and the recent "Sakura Space". Sakura Nova follows Mikage Shinzaki as he enters an academy aimed at training the future knights of the kingdom. To this end he must learn to work as a team with his new partners: the hyper, straight-forward Arisa and the calm, reserved Kaguya. Battles and romance ensue in due course and we see our trio encounter several trials and tribulations along the way.

Note: The game, and by extension this review, contains adult scenes and might be more than a little NSFW. You have been warned.

This is literally how we're introduced to our main cast.

I must first mention that when I first heard the title "Sakura Nova" I assumed that it was going to be a game that took place in space like the recent “Sakura Space” released shortly before Nova. I was surprised to start it up and see that it actually took place in a fantasy setting, albeit a somewhat futuristic one sort of like the Phantasy Star games. I was also surprised by this game's obvious focus on romance and sexual encounters compared to some of the other entries in the series. I'm not spoiling anything here by the way as these happen quite often and start very early on. Let's back up though and take a closer look at the game itself.
 
Like other Winged Cloud titles, the art here is perfect. It's colorful and some of the designs are fairly unique, especially those of the villains and the outfits of the main characters. Character designs seemed a little too reminiscent of previous Sakura games, but that might just be me. They aren’t bad by any means though, just had me wondering if I had seen some of these characters before elsewhere. Backgrounds are also nicely done and while these can sometimes be extremely generic in games of this style, I thought they were well-done here and never had the feeling of being overly repetitive. Some of the uncensored sex scenes though had some odd art choices that really took me out of the game a couple of times. Well... those scenes took me out of the game in general as I was not initially expecting them at all really. More on that later.

Very subtle game...

This is only explained in her ending path.

Music and sound are incredible here. I actually thought the music was perfect in this game and was surprised it wasn't typical visual novel fare which usually is more filler than anything. The battle theme is a particularly good standout track and the other themes served to properly accompany whatever scenes they was set against. Voice acting was something that I was actually not expecting in this game, though it is one of the game’s main selling points. A fact I wasn’t aware of until after my initial playthough. I actually have never played another Winged Cloud game that had voice acting so this was a pleasant surprise. There are other Winged Cloud games that have had voice acting added to them after release such as "Sakura Fantasy Chapter 1" and "Sakura Angels", but the voice acting wasn't available at launch and were added after I had already finished them. Also worth noting that the recent "Sakura Space" does not feature any voice acting, at least at the time of this writing. Anyway, that aside, the voice acting here is top notch, another plus as it really added a depth to this game that I felt helped pull it above the others in the series.

Oh yeah. The trio move in together.

This actually leads to a deep conversation. SERIOUSLY.

I mention the others in the series in order to point out that Winged Cloud has been pushing out these visual novels at a breakneck pace. It seems that every other month sees another Sakura release and there are times when I feel that this affects the quality of the releases. In the case of Sakura Nova I think the story took the biggest hit. In a visual novel you expect the story to be the biggest draw and the true testament to how good the game is. Sakura Nova falters a little here and gives you a story that feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. I understand that the romantic relationships between the main characters is the main focus, but some of the plot elements seem wasted such as the increased monster attacks and the characters' relationships with their respective families. We are also cast into this world and never given any true backstory to it. Who is this “king” mentioned repeatedly? Where is this kingdom that it needs a constant barrier and standing army to defend it? Also, just what is this kingdom even CALLED? So many unanswered questions plague this game and I was left wondering why they bothered with this setting if they weren’t going to explore it much. Also, for being the games focus, the romantic branches seem just as stilted. Arisa throws herself at you so randomly I couldn't buy that her and the Mikage were falling in love for her ending route. Kaguya's motives are equally badly explained in the main game and we don't learn anything significant about her unless you play through her ending route. That's another thing I should mention, the ending routes. While I applaud the game for giving us different endings and paths, I thought that some of the character specific scenes should have been intertwined within the main plot a bit more since the main story lacked strong character development. Also, some of the elements of all of them could have been properly blended together since some story elements that were important for closure on various plot points were only contained in some of the endings and not others. Elsewhere, we have the mix of unique and standard scenes of this genre, though there were some that I felt existed only to satisfy the fact that they're all but expect, like the "beach" scene.

At least he questions it.

Let's talk about the characters a bit. Mikage's character is your typical faceless protagonist you get in games like this, but his character arc is a bit more developed than you usually see. His father is the great knight Zero and he spends much of the time being a jerk to him. They mention that Zero is rarely home, but we aren't given a lot of reason as to why Mikage is a complete ass to Zero and I thought that this ruined some of his likability especially when you learn more about their actual relationship. Arisa is the cute, bubbly stereotype and I would probably have liked her character the most if it wasn't for one thing: sex. Namely in how she initiates it. I could show you screenshot after screenshot of her literally saying "Let's have sex" completely out of nowhere, but I'll spare you that. This isn’t character development, this isn't writing, it's just lazy. Kaguya on the other hand is more dark and mysterious. Her arc is far more developed and I thought she had the best, fully fleshed characterization out of all the main characters. My one gripe with her is that a lot of this development only happens on her ending path and it should probably have been spread into the main story a bit more. The other characters aren’t worth mentioning too much, but I will point out that it bothered me that Zero wasn’t voiced.

Thought I was exaggerating?

Kaguya is more subtle though...

Gameplay is what is to be expected from a visual novel, in that it pretty much only consists of reading and making the occasional choice. This game does have various choices that do affect how the game ends though so it's worth mentioning that there is some variety here as well as replay value. With that said I must point out that I beat this game 100% in under two and a half hours. I even accidentally did the same path twice. I should mention that I am a somewhat fast reader and read way faster than the voice acting much of the time, so this might not be the best representation of how long this game might take the average player to finish. I mention my time mainly because one of this game's selling points is that it's one of the biggest games that Winged Cloud has released. I assume this refers to the different character paths and voice acting which serve to add more play time, though I still managed to breeze through it and others might as well. That said, my previously mentioned story gripes aside, it was an enjoyable experience that I think is definitely worth the price of entry and I never really felt that I was wasting my time with the game. I should also take this time to mention that there is an uncensored 18+ patch for this game and it can be found HERE. I initially wasn't aware of this patch and played my first playthrough without it. I later included it as I feel that the uncensored version can be often viewed as the "true" version. It was also one of the game's selling points in some posts so it was definitely worth covering and mentioning. I actually found it less stilted with the 18+ patch as this game is definitely more skewed in that direction anyway. I found the native Steam version to falter at these points 18+ segments as they happen so frequently.

Maid Arisa. Do I have to tell you what happens next?

Kaguya's formal attire.

So there you have it. Sakura Nova is an excellent entry into the series boasting amazing art, music, and style. It falters in the story area and while I praise some of the new gameplay additions seen in this game, I felt that they weren't executed as well as they could have been. With this said, I highly recommend this game to fans of the series and genre, but newcomers might find it better to start their exposure to visual novels elsewhere. It is well worth its price on Steam and we at A-To-J look forward to covering upcoming Winged Cloud games in the future!

You can check out Sakura Nova now on Steam at the link below!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/539670/

-Manuel (alavic_222)

---

Graphics: AMAZING
Sound: AMAZING
Gameplay: GOOD
Value: GREAT
 
OVERALL: GREAT+

---

FULL DISCLOSURE: This game was provided to A-To-J Connections free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of review.

Sakura Nova Trailer