Note: I have only completed Yuri, Mio and Konami's routes prior to this review. I intend to finish the other two soon, and will update this review accordingly.

Palette, the development team behind Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms, are one of the most experienced Visual Novel developers out there, boasting thirteen Visual Novel releases before this one. As you would expect from a developer like this, the game is solid.

It's a typical Visual Novel through and through. Slice of life, where choices only matter to determine which girl you end up romancing. It does feature some changes to the usual way these visual novels normally work (namely no "lonely" route), but stylistically, it's predictable. Not that it's a bad thing though. Other visual novels have the same approach and succeed (If My Heart Had Wings, Princess Evangile and Dal Segno to name a few). There are five routes, four of which are available at the start of the game (and a fifth for completing Ann's route).

This game is much better with the h-patch installed. Whilst not an official released patch, it's next to perfect. It can be downloaded from here.[vndb.org]

Because it's a slice of life, the characters are normally the ones to carry the game experience. Saku Saku is no different. Not once throughout the game did I think the characters the game took the time to expand upon was weak. In fact, quite the opposite. I believe the five heroines (Ann, Konami, Mio, Tina, Yuri) are one of the most interesting options available in a visual novel. But outside of these five, the characters begin to weaken. A few characters are defined by a single trait, some are wildly inconsistent, others just plain don't need to exist. For the most part, these characters don't harm the arcs as much as they could, but they still don't help the experience like they could have.

One character stands above the rest though. Yuma, our protagonist. I don't know how, but the writers somehow made a character that should be unlikeable, likeable. On paper, he's a generic and clueless guy, who somehow has a whole load of women thrown at him. But he's got a charm to him, backed by a solid backstory, beliefs, morals and reasoning for him being as loved as he is. He isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but the fact a character like the MC is able to excel when by every means he shouldn't, is a testament to the writing quality of the team. In my opinion, he is arguably up there with Katawa Shoujo (an obvious inspiration. They even have a character who suffered burns called Hanako) as one of the best protagonists for this style of visual novel.

As I said earlier, the story is secondary to the characters in this kind of VN. And that stands true: the story is an obvious weak point. Whilst decently paced, it didn't really go anywhere and I'm left wondering what the story even was. The antagonist(s) play very little role in the game. They introduce them early on, and proceed to do nothing with them for 7 hours of gameplay (at least in Yuri's route. Very little involvement in Konami's route). The story doesn't really have an effect on the gameplay experience, and it leads me to believe that a goal would have seriously benefitted this aspect. Most other novels are able to have a loose goal which the characters work towards, but here there just isn't one. Most of the points I've given here are because of story writing aspects (pacing, use of motives and planning), which are all excellently done. But everything else about the story is weak.

The art is... an odd topic. I love the art style (though I'm a bit split on the over the top emotions), and especially the combination of chibi art with the regular CG's. But I'd say half the CG's for the game were allocated for the common route (first 6 hours or so), and then they decided to split the remaining 50% of the CG's over five routes, and a much longer length. CG's honestly felt rare between the 12-18 hours. the collection of sprites were a little empty at times, and having more variation certainly would have helped. Though the collection they do have is great nonetheless (second VN I've played to have the back of a character as a sprite, which is fantastic to see). Animation is used well at times, but then forgotten about at other points in the playthrough. I did enjoy the visual aspect of this VN though, but with such a promising start to the VN's art, it was a bit of a let down to see it drop off as I got closer to the end.

The soundtrack was, like most other slice of life VN's, bland. It felt empty, even at pivotal scenes. It exists, and it wasn't terrible, but the game didn't benefit from it either. This can be easily remedied with your own music, however.

Now for spoiler territory. I want to talk about a few of the problems I had with the routes. First up is Yuri's route (as I did this one first). My biggest problem with this route was that it primarily focused on Hanako, not Yuri. Yuri barely even had a character arc, and instead it was focused entirely on her sister. I liked Hanako's character, but the decision to neglect Yuri for half the route felt... odd to say the least. If Hanako was a romance option you could take on that route, then I can see why they would have taken this approach. But for now, it stands as a "could have been better" route. Konami's I actually really enjoyed, right up until about the last hour. It fell apart the moment Tina/Kotarou/Hyberion all met to discuss Yuma's father's soul. I had no problem with this scene in particular, but more how Konami/Yuma went on to just blatantly disregard everything they've worked for up to that point, and reveal their relationship. I know it had to happen eventually, but it was stupid and a rash move by them.

Overall, Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms is a nice addition to the VN community. It's an enjoyable experience, with some great aspects to the game. But it's far from perfect.

My breakdown:

PROS:
+ Characters. One of the great parts of this VN. MC in particular is excellent.
+ Art. Great use of mixing styles, sprites and variation.
+ Voice Acting. Every voice actor is really good, and does a great job of portraying their characters.
+ Engaging. It's incredibly well written, and held my attention much more than similar visual novels.
+ Length. 19 hours for Common Route + Yuri Route, well worth the price tag.

CONS:
- Soundtrack. Bland and empty.
- Story. Weak, almost non-existant. Has very little direction throughout the game.
- UI. The backlog in particular is bad. Text took some getting used to.
- Choices. Suffers from "If My Heart Had Wings" syndrome. 5 choices, over 20 hours of gameplay.
- Translation. A little iffy at times, particularly with the use of honourifics from the MC's perspective. For some reason everyone else is fine, but MC's not.

-Scores-
Story: 6
Characters: 8
Art: 8
Music: 5
Enjoyment: 8

Overall: 7/10

tl;dr, a traditional, but solid romancing visual novel.

_____
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Note: I have only completed Yuri, Mio and Konami's routes prior to this review. I intend to finish the other two soon, and will update this review accordingly. Palette, the development team behind Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms, are one of the most experienced Visual Novel developers out there, boasting thirteen Visual Novel releases before this one. As you would expect from a developer like this, the game is solid. It's a typical Visual Novel through and through. Slice of life, where choices only matter to determine which girl you end up romancing. It does feature some changes to the usual way these visual novels normally work (namely no "lonely" route), but stylistically, it's predictable. Not that it's a bad thing though. Other visual novels have the same approach and succeed (If My Heart Had Wings, Princess Evangile and Dal Segno to name a few). There are five routes, four of which are available at the start of the game (and a fifth for completing Ann's route). This game is much better with the h-patch installed. Whilst not an official released patch, it's next to perfect. It can be downloaded from [url=https://vndb.org/r56898]here.[/url] Because it's a slice of life, the characters are normally the ones to carry the game experience. Saku Saku is no different. Not once throughout the game did I think the characters the game took the time to expand upon was weak. In fact, quite the opposite. I believe the five heroines (Ann, Konami, Mio, Tina, Yuri) are one of the most interesting options available in a visual novel. But outside of these five, the characters begin to weaken. A few characters are defined by a single trait, some are wildly inconsistent, others just plain don't need to exist. For the most part, these characters don't harm the arcs as much as they could, but they still don't help the experience like they could have. One character stands above the rest though. Yuma, our protagonist. I don't know how, but the writers somehow made a character that should be unlikeable, likeable. On paper, he's a generic and clueless guy, who somehow has a whole load of women thrown at him. But he's got a charm to him, backed by a solid backstory, beliefs, morals and reasoning for him being as loved as he is. He isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but the fact a character like the MC is able to excel when by every means he shouldn't, is a testament to the writing quality of the team. In my opinion, he is arguably up there with Katawa Shoujo (an obvious inspiration. [spoiler]They even have a character who suffered burns called Hanako[/spoiler]) as one of the best protagonists for this style of visual novel. As I said earlier, the story is secondary to the characters in this kind of VN. And that stands true: the story is an obvious weak point. Whilst decently paced, it didn't really go anywhere and I'm left wondering what the story even was. The antagonist(s) play very little role in the game. They introduce them early on, and proceed to do nothing with them for 7 hours of gameplay (at least in Yuri's route. Very little involvement in Konami's route). The story doesn't really have an effect on the gameplay experience, and it leads me to believe that a goal would have seriously benefitted this aspect. Most other novels are able to have a loose goal which the characters work towards, but here there just isn't one. Most of the points I've given here are because of story writing aspects (pacing, use of motives and planning), which are all excellently done. But everything else about the story is weak. The art is... an odd topic. I love the art style (though I'm a bit split on the over the top emotions), and especially the combination of chibi art with the regular CG's. But I'd say half the CG's for the game were allocated for the common route (first 6 hours or so), and then they decided to split the remaining 50% of the CG's over five routes, and a much longer length. CG's honestly felt rare between the 12-18 hours. the collection of sprites were a little empty at times, and having more variation certainly would have helped. Though the collection they do have is great nonetheless (second VN I've played to have the back of a character as a sprite, which is fantastic to see). Animation is used well at times, but then forgotten about at other points in the playthrough. I did enjoy the visual aspect of this VN though, but with such a promising start to the VN's art, it was a bit of a let down to see it drop off as I got closer to the end. The soundtrack was, like most other slice of life VN's, bland. It felt empty, even at pivotal scenes. It exists, and it wasn't terrible, but the game didn't benefit from it either. This can be easily remedied with your own music, however. Now for spoiler territory. I want to talk about a few of the problems I had with the routes. [spoiler]First up is Yuri's route (as I did this one first). My biggest problem with this route was that it primarily focused on Hanako, not Yuri. Yuri barely even had a character arc, and instead it was focused entirely on her sister. I liked Hanako's character, but the decision to neglect Yuri for half the route felt... odd to say the least. If Hanako was a romance option you could take on that route, then I can see why they would have taken this approach. But for now, it stands as a "could have been better" route. Konami's I actually really enjoyed, right up until about the last hour. It fell apart the moment Tina/Kotarou/Hyberion all met to discuss Yuma's father's soul. I had no problem with this scene in particular, but more how Konami/Yuma went on to just blatantly disregard everything they've worked for up to that point, and reveal their relationship. I know it had to happen eventually, but it was stupid and a rash move by them.[/spoiler] Overall, Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms is a nice addition to the VN community. It's an enjoyable experience, with some great aspects to the game. But it's far from perfect. My breakdown: PROS: + Characters. One of the great parts of this VN. MC in particular is excellent. + Art. Great use of mixing styles, sprites and variation. + Voice Acting. Every voice actor is really good, and does a great job of portraying their characters. + Engaging. It's incredibly well written, and held my attention much more than similar visual novels. + Length. 19 hours for Common Route + Yuri Route, well worth the price tag. CONS: - Soundtrack. Bland and empty. - Story. Weak, almost non-existant. Has very little direction throughout the game. - UI. The backlog in particular is bad. Text took some getting used to. - Choices. Suffers from "If My Heart Had Wings" syndrome. 5 choices, over 20 hours of gameplay. - Translation. A little iffy at times, particularly with the use of honourifics from the MC's perspective. For some reason everyone else is fine, but MC's not. -Scores- Story: 6 Characters: 8 Art: 8 Music: 5 Enjoyment: 8 Overall: 7/10 tl;dr, a traditional, but solid romancing visual novel. _____ Frost | [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/frostbladestorm] Steam Profile[/url] Follow our [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SSSMVNG] Curator Page[/url] Join our [url=https://discord.gg/HJyjxnk]Curator Discord[/url]