A unique short story about love finally being acknowledged.
Some key points that this game offers:
- A book that comes to life.
- Beautifully designed landscapes and scenes, bright and vibrant in Color.
- Another fantastic short story filled with comedy, love and romance.
Gameplay & Controls:
The controls are pretty much the same for any visual novel, the left click mouse button gets used to move the story forward, with the right mouse button acting as the menu button, the mouse wheel can be clicked to hide the UI so that you can see the image without any text, perfect for screenshots.
If you don’t feel like clicking each scene you can enable auto progress then each scene moves onto the next until you click again. The text speed can be altered as well as the auto forwarding timer, this way you can customize the pace according to your style. The gameplay though is a story you sit back and experience as it unfolds in front of your eyes.
Graphics:
It’s just as beautiful as one could expect from games in this franchise. Each scene beautifully created to fit in perfectly with the story, every aspect is rich and vibrant in Color making for one beautiful piece of art to behold as the story unfolds before you.
On the settings side of things, we have the option to choose Window or Fullscreen mode.
Sounds:
The soundtrack really sets the tone for the game, it really enhances and improves it, albeit at some scenes the same tone can become repetitive and slightly annoying it feels like it’s on repeat. If the tune itself was a bit livelier it would have changed this statement.
Most of the scenes have their own background sounds that liven up the scene, such as the ocean where you can hear the waves as they move about, this little add on here really gives the scene a much better feel and vibe. On the settings side of things, we have full volume control, we can set the volume for Music, the sound and the Ambience, giving us full control of how the sound enhances our gameplay.
Replayability:
Sakura Beach does not really have any replay value. Sure, like the ones before, the game offers a few options you can make as you progress in the story, so you can replay the game to experience the different endings.
Sakura Beach has three different endings, all depending on your choices. That is about it for the game and its replay value, but experiencing the game again and ending it differently is what started replay value for most games so you have that to look forward to.
MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:
Spoilers Ahead:
Sakura Beach offers a unique story this time around: Seiji is a young man with a troubled past and dreams that reach space themselves, in his life are his two best childhood friends Momoko and Ayumi. Together they all go away for a holiday trip and yeah you guessed it, the beach is their destination, it is here that the story unfolds where they both try to determine his feelings for them since they both have been in love with him for years. That is all I can say, the rest you will have to experience for yourself.
The game lacks some choices this time round, personally I think they should have added a few more. The story itself is decent and worth the read and experience, there is plenty of comedy and humour in it. One girl being spontaneous and then the other being all strict and uptight… it makes for one fun experience as you see the one squirm because of what the other does or tries to do, all in all, a story worth exploring.
As I’ve done with previous titles labelled Nudity/ Sexual Content, Sakura Beach does not contain any actual nudity. There are scenes where the women are dressed in bikini’s and underwear, as well as some where the tops came undone but no actual nudity is visible, such as exposed breasts or nipples. There aren’t any sexual discussions either, innuendo’s here and there but never any actual discussions.
Additional Info:
Platforms: PC: Mac: Linux
Genre: Visual Novel: Anime: Sexual Content
Censor Rating: NSFW
Age Rating: 18
Developer: Winged Cloud
Publisher: Winged Cloud
Release Date: 14 August 2015
MGR Gaming Steam Curator:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32364038/
