Senren * Banka is an interesting case in the visual novel space for how to do things well, yet also how to do things badly. The experience within is well worth the price of admission if you're looking for a good storyline in an interesting setting accented by a beautiful aesthetic, but you're going to be sorely disappointed if you come for the characters or the romance.

The common route of this piece is a full arc in its own right. It follows Arichi Masaomi as he assists the shrine maiden of Hoori, Tomotake Yoshino, and her ninja companion, Hitachi Mako, in solving the mystery of the curse casted upon Hoori and attempting to resolve it. It's a neat storyline that progresses at a good pace, then ends in a good spot before branching off into the various character routes. This part of the story is, for the most part, well done. The setting and the conflict fit together well and it's entirely believable that the solution that is used to resolve it isn't discovered before the time of the main story.

The strength of the story carries on through to the routes. Discounting the sub-routes of Roka and Koharu, the other four routes each carry a significant piece of the puzzle regarding how the curse came about and its full nature. I'm a big fan of this type of storytelling in Visual Novels since it grounds the entire story together to be a compelling whole rather than a jumbled set of individual arcs. My one complaint, which is generally a consistent one across this style, is that there is a near required order to the routes that will lessen the impact of the individual routes if you do not follow it. The generally accepted route order that I usually see is Yoshino -> Mako -> Murasame -> Lena, but I strongly believe that doing Murasame's route last is much better for the overall arc of the story, even if it doesn't have the best climax at the end. It's ultimately whichever you prefer for whichever route order you would enjoy more.

The art and music are definitely above average. The characters and set pieces are vibrant and do a great job of setting the right atmosphere for the entirety of the piece. Murasame in particular has a design that directly shows how much effort went into setting the right atmosphere for the story. The voice acting is consistently high quality as well, even among the side characters. Lena and Genjuurou are the two performances that I was particularly impressed by, since their characters felt like the most difficult to properly pull off for how well the performances were nailed. The music isn't top notch by any means, but it was clear that care went into the composition. These two together would comprise around a 7/10 in my eyes; definitely good enough to be worthy of praise, but not so good as to be memorable for months afterwards.

Finally, let's get to the worse parts of Senren * Banka.

While the setting and the story are quite good, the characters are the most glaring weak link. The main character is a jumbled mess, having a very lackluster backstory that doesn't match his personality or actions throughout the story. Each of the heroines have very generic personalities throughout the common route that range from minimal to decent characterization in their routes. Murasame's route features the most characterization of every route, while the other three primary heroines get essentially generic or minimal changes. The characters simply do not make the routes work the way you would hope in a romance story. As a plus, however, the side characters are quite well characterized, which is bizarre since it's rare for them to have a depth of personality when it doesn't feel like the primary characters do.

Speaking of romance, it's very lackluster. This is likely because the characters involved are so weak, but the romance in every single route (including the sub routes) are essentially retreads of the same thing. You're getting the same flowery generic romance story six different times with the differences coming down to the individual way the overall story affects that particular arc. It feels very forced and that they didn't even want to create a romance story in the first place, or that the developers fleshed out the overall storyline of this piece and just shoved romance in to appeal to the masses on release.

In conclusion, Senren * Banka joins the extensive list of Visual Novels that had a lot of potential out of the gate, but simply fall short in an important way. I don't regret buying and playing through this game, and its clear that there was a lot of effort put into it, but this is an experience of driving through a beautiful landscape on a terribly maintained road. Enjoy the aesthetic and the story, but keep in mind that there is a price to pay to experience it.

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I play Visual Novels for its characterization and storytelling potential. If you are interested in the medium for these reasons, visit my profile for more information. This includes more reviews and a link to my vndb profile, where I have ratings and TL;DRs of every Visual Novel I have played. Thank you.