Before buying, read this... (TL;DR Included)

[Kats]

...I'm making this post for people who don't know anything about this series, so that instead of buying, getting disappointed and leaving bad reviews for the (far) below reasons, they just skip this game.
Or if you might enjoy it but you need that extra push to decide if you want to buy it or not then this post is also for you, as I'll go through a bit what the series is like, about the characters among other things.
For further questions, just leave a message and I'll answer. :>

Bold stuff pretty much means important so do read those hohoho.


General info about words used in this post

Two things, I will refer to this game as sonohana, it's faster to write, and for people wondering, it's the abbreviation for the Japanese title, 'Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o'.
And also, I will use some Japanese words, so google them if you don't know what they mean, I just don't know what these words would be in English, without writing a full sentence for each one.

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(A maybe not so) TL;DR

If you want fleshed out story with great side characters and tons of erotic content, look elsewhere, tl;dr reasons being, this is the 4th game with this couple and it serves as a prequel to Michael no Otome-tachi, to understand everything talked and touched upon in this game, you will need to read their other games.
"Shirayuki no Kishi" is the one game you don't have to read if you just want MiyaxRisa's story, (though great game if it ever gets localized,) as they only have a short side story in it. List of all the games that features Risa and Miya is further down under General Info.


This game also does not have any erotic content, at all, however, the other games in this series do.
So if you buy this game, and enjoy it, wait for other games to be released (on mangagamers website) then you will get some great yuri action going, as there's only two other games with no erotic content.


One more thing, this is a Kinetic Novel, meaning a Visual Novel without choices.
So if you want choices, this isn't for you.

TL;DR End
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Probably the most important deciding factor about if you'll like the game or not
When it comes to these games, you have to like the girls to like the game.
I will tell you about these two girls quickly.
If you want info about any of the other girls either google, vndb or asking me, be it leaving a comment on my profile or posting here.

Spoiler tags because some people might want to experience the characters and decide for themselves what type of characters they are.
I'm not spoiling anything story wise though as everything is shown pretty much straight away.
I left out small things about the characters that have a bit to do with the story, or rather, it being part of the fun, getting to know the characters more and more as you play.

Risa (Red hair) first; She's an extremely innocent, kind of "tsundere" type character, without going into detail, she gets "mad" fairly often.
Miya (Black hair) next; She's more of the quiet type, she doesn't show much emotion, she's pretty much the definition of a pretty arrogant and rich "cool beauty" type character.


General Info

Guess I'll just say quickly that, I'm a huge fan of this series, I've followed it for years upon years, and I'm very excited to see it getting official translations at last, I'm hoping we get all games localized but only time will tell.
Even just this couples games (and Hanahira because adorable af) would make me a very happy guy.
Because this is truly a great series if you enjoy these types of VN's.

I like to refer these games as somewhat like a Slice of Life anime, not much happens, it's just (for most games) two cute girls doing cute things with a bit of drama and a lot of Yuri elements added to it.
For most games in the series this includes sex and tons of kisses and hugs, there's only two exceptions, this one and Hanahira.
And I know, as a Slice of Life anime fan, that there's a lot of people who just hate the genre, because nothing seemingly happens for ages.
So my advice to you is to ask yourself, do you enjoy very cute, fluff and slow paced Visual Novels?

This is the 4th out of 5 games that features this couple, here is a list of all the games they are featured in:
Michael no Otome-tachi - First game they are featured in, they are the main couple, side stories with all older couples are available.
Atelier no Koibito-tachi - Their second game, serves as a sequel to their story, no other couple featured.
Shirayuki no Kishi - MiyaxRisa are featured in this game but isn't the main couple, they only have a side story and isn't necessary to read, could call it a sequel to Michael no Otome-tachi as a whole for reasons I'm not going to spoil.
Remembering How We Met - This one and it serves as a prequel to MiyaxRisa's story from Michael no Otome-tachi.
Yuririn - A sidestory about Risa going on a cycling diet.

Thanks to Craig for reminding me about Shirayuki no Kishi. :P

The Reviews

First and most common thing I see in the bad reviews is:
Expectations to get a deep story explaining everything that's mentioned in this one game.
What the people I'm talking about need to understand is that this is one game in a series of 19 games, and four (including this one) of those games are about this couple along with one game where they are just featured as a side couple.
You're not going to get every bit of story in just this one game, you will need to play at least Michael no Otome-tachi and Atelier no Koibito-tachi to get the whole thing, "Shirayuki no Kishi" isn't needed for their story, as they just have a short sidestory in it.
Even then there's small things here and there that would have you play ALL games except one (Hanahira, being a spinoff) simply because of old characters showing up, though it's just small things being said so it doesn't really matter.
And these games does a great job at introducing old characters to people new to the series.

If everything was explained in this one game, why would we need sequels? (Prequel in this case)

Second thing is, side characters:
Their voice actors aren't up to par with the main characters voice actors simply because they are side characters, they aren't all that important, they explain a few things here and there to help the story along and that's it.
They could remove these voice actors all together, wouldn't matter much. (And a few of these voices I absolutely hate lol, playing every sonohana game and you get tired of them...)
Same with their sprites, they don't exist because you don't need to pay any attention to the side characters apart from the story bits they provide sometimes.
Also, don't get confused by them, if one girl uses the same voice as some other girl in a different scene, then that's because it is the same girl, this happens fairly often.

That I just wanted said, but is completely understandable that this is in bad reviews, hell, whenever I will write my review, I will complain about them, because they ARE obnoxious sometimes.

Third of all, and this has been said time and time again...:
This is not an eroge/nukige, the rest of the series except one game (Hanahira again) are what people familiar with visual novels would call a "nukige" meaning the game focuses more on the erotic content than story and characters (though many, including myself will say we love these games because of the cute story and characters, read about Hanahira below to understand this.)
This one is not one of them, do not expect even a little bit of nudity, at all.

Last thing, that I just wanted to add since I've mentioned Hanahira a lot throughout this post, sonohana games without sexual content, like this one aswell as Hanahira came to be because a lot of people (mainly girls), including me, play these games for the cute and fluff story, and we're all hoping for more all-ages sonohana titles to get on Steam, Hanahira first though<3
Can read more about Hanahira if you just google search, if you want to that is.

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Last words!

And I'm done, wrote a lot more than I planned to but whatever.
This thread is not to throw dirt at people writing bad reviews, but please, do keep in mind this is one game out of 19, and one game of five with this couple, it's obvious you're not gonna get the full story right away.

Finally, thanks to mangagamer and to everyone who worked on this wonderful game, and worked so very hard to finally get this game (and hopefully series) localized, I'm very excited to see what comes next now that we finally have an official English release of this game.
And I don't think I'm alone when I say, lets hope for a lot more sonohana releases.
Feel free to tell me if you want something edited in the thread, or just lock the thread if you want to, I pretty much just wanted to get this off my chest.

And also, saying it again but if anyone has questions before buying then feel free to ask.

[Kai]

We love seeing such happy, devoted fans of the series, and we appreciate you putting this post together, Kats! :)

[Kats]

Originally posted by le_kaitsu:

We love seeing such happy, devoted fans of the series, and we appreciate you putting this post together, Kats! :)

Hoho, just doing what I felt like doing.

[Tousansons]

I have read after buying, am I wrong?

More seriously, Is the TL;DR actually longer than your main text? Or is the first part some kind of introduction? (In this case, your introduction is longer than your main text) In my opinion you should put the TL;DR at the beginning, people who just want some quick tips before buying won't scroll all the way to the middle of your text.

It's always nice to see someone taking some time to share his love for something. I discovered the VN genre with this one and I am now pretty curious to see the other games of this series if they are released .

[Kats]

Originally posted by Tousansons:

I have read after buying, am I wrong?

More seriously, Is the TL;DR actually longer than your main text? Or is the first part some kind of introduction? (In this case, your introduction is longer than your main text) In my opinion you should put the TL;DR at the beginning, people who just want some quick tips before buying won't scroll all the way to the middle of your text.

It's always nice to see someone taking some time to share his love for something. I discovered the VN genre with this one and I am now pretty curious to see the other games of this series if they are released :happymiya:.

No TL;DR For This Post

Anyway... :P

You're certainly not wrong, as long as this amazing series seems like something people enjoy then buy, buy, buy. :P
This post is more for people having doubts wether they should buy or not.
Though there's some general info about the series so people who buy the game might like to read it aswell, like yourself. :>
At this point I could pretty much change the title to something like "General Info About The SonoHana Series" or something lol.

Anyway, yeah, I just placed the tl;dr section in a bad spot, thanks for pointing that out, will move the TL;DR up a bit and make it more obvious where the TL;DR starts and ends.
I simply ended up writing more and more, editing the post, adding more paragraphs until it became what you see now hohoho.

The very first part is me talking about why I wrote this post
The second part is general information about the game, like stuff about the characters, and about the erotic content not being in this one but in others, stuff like that
Third part is me talking about bad reviews, I mean, as in people who voted for the game being bad, not that the reviews are bad.



Now it's so long that it's hard even for me to figure out the best layout for the post.
Will just keep on reading it through and change things as I figure them out.
Or if people like yourself point stuff out<3

Edited the post now.

[Tousansons]

You're welcome <3

Nice edit !

[CPU IrisHeart]

Very interesting. I will probably buy Okujo no Yurirei-san and anything related to the sono hanabira series.

[Kats]

Originally posted by DarkRockShooter:

Very interesting. I will probably buy Okujo no Yurirei-san and anything related to the sono hanabira series.

Good to hear. :P
*Psst* Buy on MangaGamer to get the MG Points (Each MG Point is worth $0.01, might not seem like much, but it adds up.)

[randatt]

This post was useful even for me who knew about the series, I didn't know there were 19 games (thats quite a lot!). I played like 7 or 8 games that were fan translated, I knew there were more games, but didn't think there were that much. Anyway, I'm ready to make justice for my profile name with every SonoHana game getting officially released either on Steam or MG.

I'm particularly excited for Eris X Shizuku titles, that couple was simply amazing, art, voice acting, personalities. Not that I dislike Miya/Risa, but Eris/Shizuku would've been a FAR better game for introducing the series to newcomers.

[Kats]

Originally posted by Shut Up and Take My Money!:

This post was useful even for me who knew about the series, I didn't know there were 19 games (thats quite a lot!). I played like 7 or 8 games that were fan translated, I knew there were more games, but didn't think there were that much. Anyway, I'm ready to make justice for my profile name with every SonoHana game getting officially released either on Steam or MG.

I'm particularly excited for Eris X Shizuku titles, that couple was simply amazing, art, voice acting, personalities. Not that I dislike Miya/Risa, but Eris/Shizuku would've been a FAR better game for introducing the series to newcomers.

Glad to hear you found it useful. :>
Well, to be fair, when I said 19 games I did count the spin-off Hanahira aswell.
And then there's the nurse college girl games that not many know of, and they don't feel like sonohana games to me, though they are.

I like Eris x Shizuku but personally, Mai x Reo, rest of Miya x Risa and Hanahira games are the ones I'm eagerly waiting for hohoho.

[randatt]

Originally posted by Kats:

Glad to hear you found it useful. :>
Well, to be fair, when I said 19 games I did count the spin-off Hanahira aswell.
And then there's the nurse college girl games that not many know of, and they don't feel like sonohana games to me, though they are.

I like Eris x Shizuku but personally, Mai x Reo, rest of Miya x Risa and Hanahira games are the ones I'm eagerly waiting for hohoho.

The only thing that bugs me is Steam censorship. As you said before, being an all ages title was an exception, most of the games in the series does feature a lot of erotic content. Releasing any of the older titles in Steam means removing a lot of the games original content (I'd say 20% at least). Since Mangagamer is only translating them, I don't know how viable it is for MG or the developer to release a censored version of the older titles. Really, ♥♥♥♥ Steam censorship policy.

[Kats]

Originally posted by Shut Up and Take My Money!:

Originally posted by Kats:

Glad to hear you found it useful. :>
Well, to be fair, when I said 19 games I did count the spin-off Hanahira aswell.
And then there's the nurse college girl games that not many know of, and they don't feel like sonohana games to me, though they are.

I like Eris x Shizuku but personally, Mai x Reo, rest of Miya x Risa and Hanahira games are the ones I'm eagerly waiting for hohoho.

The only thing that bugs me is Steam censorship. As you said before, being an all ages title was an exception, most of the games in the series does feature a lot of erotic content. Releasing any of the older titles in Steam means removing a lot of the games original content (I'd say 20% at least). Since Mangagamer is only translating them, I don't know how viable it is for MG or the developer to release a censored version of the older titles. Really, ♥♥♥♥ Steam censorship policy.

I'll just buy it on MG's website, if there's censored versions on Steam then alright.
So to me, it doesn't matter if there's a Steam version or not, as long as I get them hohoho.

[CPU IrisHeart]

Originally posted by Kats:

Originally posted by DarkRockShooter:

Very interesting. I will probably buy Okujo no Yurirei-san and anything related to the sono hanabira series.

Good to hear. :P
*Psst* Buy on MangaGamer to get the MG Points (Each MG Point is worth $0.01, might not seem like much, but it adds up.)
You get a Steam key as long as there's "SteamKey" in the genre list. :gokigen:

Ah. I gotta say. I'm also playing the first sono hanabira game. . The yuri scenes <3
I'm not sure if I will surive up to 9. Seen the glorious OVA as well.

[Kats]

Originally posted by DarkRockShooter:

Originally posted by Kats:

Good to hear. :P
*Psst* Buy on MangaGamer to get the MG Points (Each MG Point is worth $0.01, might not seem like much, but it adds up.)
You get a Steam key as long as there's "SteamKey" in the genre list.

Ah. I gotta say. I'm also playing the first sono hanabira game. :happymiya: . The yuri scenes <3
I'm not sure if I will surive up to 9. Seen the glorious OVA as well.

Hoho, SonoHana 3 and 5 the best, just you wait. :P
It's the couple featured in the OVA. ;>

[CPU IrisHeart]

Hoho, SonoHana 3 and 5 the best, just you wait. :P
It's the couple featured in the OVA. ;> [/quote]
I know. Hohoho
Well I tried the second game, but I really do not like Kaede. She pisses me off and I didn't enjoy reading. I couldn't finish it. Now it is time for the third game.

[Mayjaplaya]

Originally posted by DarkRockShooter:

Hoho, SonoHana 3 and 5 the best, just you wait. :P
It's the couple featured in the OVA. ;>

I know. Hohoho
Well I tried the second game, but I really do not like Kaede. She pisses me off and I didn't enjoy reading. I couldn't finish it. Now it is time for the third game. [/quote]
So SonoHana emoticons for Steam have arrived
What a time to be alive