Snow sakura, some musing

[papillon]

Haven’t reached any endings yet, this is just general impressions of the first playthrough.

On the face of it, I should be enjoying this game. The art is cute enough, the dialogue often makes me laugh, and the game is reminiscent of Season of the Sakura and Heart de Roommate, both games I enjoyed.

So… why am I slightly bored?

I think I’ve been spoiled by PLOT (rather than story) heavy games. There’s no real plot here, it’s just meandering along going through life in Hokkaido and new school and friends and stuff. Slice of life. My character doesn’t seem to have any particular goals, at least not ones I can affect, except maybe ‘get a girl’ and even then there’s not that much I can do about it. Most of the decisions I can make don’t seem important or appear to make much difference (although that’s very hard to tell on a first playthrough). Mostly, I feel like an observer, not a participant.

The other thing that slightly puts me off about this game is the lack of CGs (again, at least on my first playthrough and the choices I’ve made). Very often, quite interesting/amusing/even sexy! events are being described in the game text… but onscreen I see nothing but the same background and same standing sprites (or maybe no sign of them at all). Obviously, I understand budget limitations and I don’t expect EVERYTHING cool to get a CG, but considering the number of times that I’ve thought ‘I really wish I could see what’s happening’, I feel like the game is an Enormous Tease.

More CGs would probably negate my first complaint since I wouldn’t mind being an observer if I got to see more, it would bring on more of the Watching An Anime feeling

Anyway, I don’t hate it or anything, I’m just so far lacking in enthusiasm.

[le_nuage]

You will probably change your mind once you “get a girl”.

There is a first “general plot” with just some slice of life and after the new year party, you will go to one of the girl’s path (if you did the correct choices).
That’s where the the real plot start (one per girl).

At first, me too I was wondering when this game would go to the point. And I changed my mind when I finaly accessed Misaki’s path (yeah because the “no girl” ending sucks lol).

[Peri]

I have to emphatically agree with le nuage, the first 3rd of the game (leading up to new years) is basically filler and establishing how everyone relates to one another and behaves… it’s after new years that you start getting plot driven stories dependent on your previous choices.

[Lancer-X]

(Sorry if any of this is incorrect- it’s been a few years for me)

Yukizakura is not a very plot-heavy game. The cousin and teacher routes were my favourite, purely because stuff actually happened in them. The other routes also had drama, after a fashion, but it felt awfully contrived.

While I did play the thing entirely, I didn’t give it much thought, since it wasn’t a particularly stand-out title to me at the time.

D.O. is a varied studio, so I did make an effort to play a number of their titles back in the day. This wasn’t one of their better ones.

[Machdude]

Well the bishoujo game has not been particularly famous for the humor. it mostly focuses on the moments really. Really you can’t blame them. This isn’t a vary plot heavy game and it is mellowed out for a slower approach as opposed to games like Do you like Horny bunnies where you can zip by like a drive by shootout.

[papillon]

Have made it past New Years now, but would prefer interacting with the chosen girl more and not being interrupted by How I Get Woken Up EVERY DAY! What I eat for breakfast EVERY DAY! So, eh. I’m probably going to move onto another game after I finally reach the end of this path. I bought several at once, after all.

There’s nothing WRONG with it exactly, it’s just tiring in large quantities. It can sit around on my hard drive to be visited occasionally like an old friend.

[Kimuzukashii_MEIJI]

@papillon

Have made it past New Years now, but would prefer interacting with the chosen girl more and not being interrupted by How I Get Woken Up EVERY DAY! What I eat for breakfast EVERY DAY! So, eh. I’m probably going to move onto another game after I finally reach the end of this path. I bought several at once, after all.

There’s nothing WRONG with it exactly, it’s just tiring in large quantities. It can sit around on my hard drive to be visited occasionally like an old friend.

The being woken up every day thing was part of how I knew the verb for “to wake” well before the rest of my class, especially the ?-form of the verb. :lol:

[Billybob]

Yes, this game is good in short doses, and if hurried then skipping already read text works as well. I think for my last 3 playthroughs I skipped almost everything before the new years party. I like to get down to the meat and potatoes of the game!

[B173_M3]

I was wondering, do the in-game decisions have any bearing on the overall ending or plot? I mean, the only decision point that seemed to decide my fate was when Sumiyoshi asked what girl I wanted. What about the rest of the decisions you make?

[Lancer-X]

The other decisions do matter, I remember that much. It’s difficult to tell how much they matter, but it’s not really important because it’s usually pretty obvious which choices are good for which girls. I think there’s mahjongg questions (I had to cheat for those) for miko smoker girl route and Japanese history questions for teacher route, which may require a little trial and error, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

[Kimuzukashii_MEIJI]

@Lancer-X

The other decisions do matter, I remember that much. It’s difficult to tell how much they matter, but it’s not really important because it’s usually pretty obvious which choices are good for which girls. I think there’s mahjongg questions (I had to cheat for those) for miko smoker girl route and Japanese history questions for teacher route, which may require a little trial and error, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

I was actually lucky enough to guess what the answers were for the mahjongg questions. Another side effect this game has had on me (besides the one I mentioned above) is that I’m now curious to learn how to play mahjongg using the Japanese rules. Of course I need to learn the base rules first…

[Ichigo69]

@papillon

Have made it past New Years now, but would prefer interacting with the chosen girl more and not being interrupted by How I Get Woken Up EVERY DAY!

Heh, to me those were some of the funniest parts of the game Of course, you get them again and again each new route you take, but that’s what the “skip already read text” is for…

Sure it’s not a real involved game like Kazoku Keikaku or Yume Miru Kusuri, but it is cute and fun. I think I liked Misaki’s arc the best. Also, it’s prolly the true end since

Eroge rule #21: True ends usually involve either death, or birth. applies, plus

all the stuff about his past and the Yuki Zakura tree coincides with her arc.

Papillon prolly had it right with

@papillon

There’s nothing WRONG with it exactly, it’s just tiring in large quantities. It can sit around on my hard drive to be visited occasionally like an old friend.

[B173_M3]

@Lancer-X

The other decisions do matter, I remember that much. It’s difficult to tell how much they matter, but it’s not really important because it’s usually pretty obvious which choices are good for which girls. I think there’s mahjongg questions (I had to cheat for those) for miko smoker girl route and Japanese history questions for teacher route, which may require a little trial and error, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

Does this mean that each girl has multiple endings? Or does it mean that some sex scenes can be missed?

[Lancer-X]

@B173 M3

@Lancer-X

The other decisions do matter, I remember that much. It’s difficult to tell how much they matter, but it’s not really important because it’s usually pretty obvious which choices are good for which girls. I think there’s mahjongg questions (I had to cheat for those) for miko smoker girl route and Japanese history questions for teacher route, which may require a little trial and error, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

Does this mean that each girl has multiple endings? Or does it mean that some sex scenes can be missed?

No, only one ending per girl, plus one clear ‘you lose’ ending if you don’t get on any of the routes, as I recall.

[Ichigo69]

@Lancer-X

@B173 M3

@Lancer-X

The other decisions do matter, I remember that much. It’s difficult to tell how much they matter, but it’s not really important because it’s usually pretty obvious which choices are good for which girls. I think there’s mahjongg questions (I had to cheat for those) for miko smoker girl route and Japanese history questions for teacher route, which may require a little trial and error, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.

Does this mean that each girl has multiple endings? Or does it mean that some sex scenes can be missed?

No, only one ending per girl, plus one clear ‘you lose’ ending if you don’t get on any of the routes, as I recall.

Yeah, and once you get to the particular route where the H-scenes are, you get all the H-scenes for that particular girl…

[DetectiveConan]

maybe i’m just oldschool, but i found this game to be great. although the CG art was horribly lacking and bizzare. other than that i found it pretty fun.

[vick1000]

@papillon

Have made it past New Years now, but would prefer interacting with the chosen girl more and not being interrupted by How I Get Woken Up EVERY DAY! What I eat for breakfast EVERY DAY! So, eh. I’m probably going to move onto another game after I finally reach the end of this path. I bought several at once, after all.

There’s nothing WRONG with it exactly, it’s just tiring in large quantities. It can sit around on my hard drive to be visited occasionally like an old friend.

You must be on the Misaki path then, that’s the one I remeber I asked myself…“Are these two actually dating or is it over with?”. The Saki and Misato paths are much more fufilling, especially content wise.

[papillon]

I’m the yuri fangirl, I took Kozue first in the hopes of at least getting her and Misaki cuddling or something.

… that and I like the way she says Tachibana-kun, it’s cute.

[Kimuzukashii_MEIJI]

@papillon

I’m the yuri fangirl, I took Kozue first in the hopes of at least getting her and Misaki cuddling or something.

… that and I like the way she says Tachibana-kun, it’s cute.

I went for Kozue first as well, though not out of a hope for yuri. More out of the character description and how she looks. Intelligent? Check. Great looking? Check. An heiress (though I didn’t know until mid-game)? Check. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, the only thing even remotely like a yuri scene was when everybody gets drunk except the protaganist (until the very end when you pass out).

[Ichigo69]

@Kimuzukashii MEIJI

@papillon

I’m the yuri fangirl, I took Kozue first in the hopes of at least getting her and Misaki cuddling or something.

… that and I like the way she says Tachibana-kun, it’s cute.

I went for Kozue first as well, though not out of a hope for yuri. More out of the character description and how she looks. Intelligent? Check. Great looking? Check. An heiress (though I didn’t know until mid-game)? Check. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, the only thing even remotely like a yuri scene was when everybody gets drunk except the protaganist (until the very end when you pass out).

Signed. This had Sakura and Tomoyo written all over it and I was hoping for at least some CCS Doujin style yuri… Unfortunately, this was like the actual show in that [spoiler=…]Kozue /really is/ just “good friends” w/ Misaki-chan. Sigh. Why couldn’t we have had at LEAST a Mai/Sayuri (from Kanon) type route?

Also, why couldn’t they have told us what happened when everybody got plastered? I was quite put off with that whole thing… Also, why couldn’t we have had a REAL strip mahjong game? It seemed like they only delivered /after/ you picked your girl and chose the correct path…[/spoiler] Oh well, for the most part it was a fun, light-hearted, enjoyable game. And the wake up scenes really were funny.