Saku Saku: Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms

Saku Saku: Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms has quite the pedigree. Palette the team behind the game is one of the very best when it comes to the visual novel genre. This game is actually their 14th and it is one that really did grab me and make me pay attention, mainly because of the interesting characters that it offered.

The Ladies Man They All Want

The over-arching story of Saku Saku: Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms I will admit is not all that appealing The main character that we play as is called, Asaba Yuma and he is a high-school student that all of the ladies love.

People come to him with their problems and as a result, he has gotten a bit sick of love. Things take a turn when a “love bounty” is put on his head for any girl that can get him to fall in love with her.

The story is about Yuma coming into contact with five different girls. There are five routes in the game, one for each girl and it is a story that is more about characters and their relationships than one big story. I liked this approach and found pretty much all of the characters to be very well written.

Look A Little Closer

If you ask me one of the reasons why Palette are so successful in the world of visual novels is not just because of their storytelling, but because of the way that their games look. Saku Saku: Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms is no different and it features some of the most amazing art you will see in an adult visual novel game. Each of the ladies has her own style and I loved how detailed the backgrounds were too. There is even a little bit of animation where they will blink or change positions which also helps add to the immersion of the game.

The soundtrack is not the best. I would not say that it is distracting or anything like that. It is just kind of there and that is a bit of a shame as these visuals deserved a more fitting soundtrack in my opinion. All of the characters (except Yuma) are fully voice acted and the game features some amazing performances, even if it is all in Japanese.

Finding The One

Anyone who has played a visual novel game before knows what the deal is here as far as the gameplay goes. Saku Saku: Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms offers you four routes, with a fifth one once you beat the others. Each of the girls, Ann, Konami, Mio, Tina, and Yuri has their own story and relationship with Yuma. You get a few choices to make and this is what is going to dictate the ending you will receive.

While I felt like the choices you made in the game mattered. You do not get to make as many as you would think. To be honest, this is a personal preference, but I do much prefer visual novels that offer fewer choices, but they seem like they matter Rather than a whole bunch that feels like they have no meaning to the story.

Pros:

• The game is very character-driven in its storytelling
• Each of the girls has her own thing that makes her interesting
• It has some of the best art you will see in a visual novel
• The Japanese voice acting is very high-quality
• It offers you a ton of content to play through

Cons:

• The music is not all that memorable
• Some might like how few choices are in the game