Sakura Spirit

Developer: Winged Cloud | Publisher: Sekai Project | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Indie Visual Novel | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

Things are going pretty well for Gushiken Takahir. He is on the cusp of realizing his dream to become a national athlete for Japan thanks to his Judo expertise and the only obstacle left for him is to compete in a very important championship. Although confident in his abilities, it will be the match of his life, so Gushiken decides that it wouldn’t hurt to check out an abandoned shrine where wishes or prayers are supposedly granted. Gushiken finds the shrine, but after fainting, wakes up in a different place.

Although Winged Cloud is not the first non-Japanese developer to create a visual novel, Winter Wolves have been doing it for years, it is still unusual due to how niche the genre is. At first glance it is also very easy to mistake this game for a Japanese release thanks to the polished visuals. There is more to a visual novel than just the visuals however and this is where Sakura Spirit trips up a bit.

The story is quite lighthearted and whimsical, so anyone expecting a serious tale will be disappointed. Shortly after coming to his senses Gushiken encounters a couple of fox girls in the middle of what appears to be a panty raid and this goofiness continues throughout the game. The lead character finds himself caught in the middle of a feud between some villagers and the fox girls, but despite the potential the story ends up a little too predictable and the lack of depth keeps it from being memorable.

Of course not every visual novel can or should have a story like Steins;Gate or Ever17, but usually the ones that are light on plot make up for it with plenty of hentai content and humor. Sakura Spirit pushes the boundaries of what is allowed on Steam with some very ecchi content, but refrains from outright nudity. The game is packed with fanservice as the hapless Gushiken is forever barging in on girls as they are changing or ending up in compromising situations due to the infatuation of the female characters. The game also features some slime girls in addition to the fox and human girls. Not only are all of them very well endowed and skimpily attired, but also shiny enough that they look as if they have been dunked in oil. For all the teasing and suggestive artwork nothing ever happens though, and the lead character doesn’t become romantically involved with any of the girls either.

I quite liked the detailed art style of the game, but the girls could definitely have benefited from a few more poses. The CGs are very nice, but during normal conversations the girls remain in the same rigid, static poses with only their facial expressions changing. This is even more jarring later in the game when one of the girls change her outfit, but still maintains the pose she had in the previous one, which featured her holding a katana. The backgrounds look nice, but I would have liked to see a couple more of them as the locations in the game are rather limited.

I quite liked the audio of this visual novel, but it could have benefited from some more sound effects to breathe more life into the story. The music and sound effects can be adjusted independently, but unfortunately the game doesn’t feature speech for any of the characters. Unlike some visual novels, there is no music player within the game (although there is a CG gallery) but the soundtrack is available separately in MP3 as well as FLAC format at a low price. Sakura Spirit has a polished interface and you can save your progress at any time. Advancing the story is as easy as left-clicking, pressing Enter or pressing the space bar. The text can also be set to advance automatically according to the speed that you have selected. If you do miss any text you can easily scroll back using the mouse wheel.

I would definitely classify Sakura Spirit as a kinetic novel, and a very short one at that, as it only features a single choice in the entire game. The decision you make also has a small impact on the story, which means the replay value isn’t exactly very high. When the game was initially released it featured some rough spots in regards to the writing, but a subsequent grammar patch rectified most of the issues. It doesn’t look like they caught everything though, as I still noticed one or two mistakes while playing.

It is a pity that more wasn’t done with the story as I quite liked the characters and setting. The game does hint at a sequel, so hopefully the developers can improve on what they already have with better writing and more animations. Sakura Spirit is far from the worst visual novel that I have ever seen, but the shallow writing makes it a bit hard to recommend unless you are a big fan of the genre.