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Sakura, Moyu. -As the Night's, Reincarnation-


Clephas

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Sakura, Moyu is the latest game by Favorite, the producers of Hoshimemo and the Irotoridori series.  For those who aren't yet familiar with Favorite, I should tell you that there are three things this company is known for.  For one, they produce first-class 'nakige' in a unique style full of pastel colors and manipulation of visual and narrative perspectives.  Second, they are known for their excellent stories and characters, regardless of which writer they have on the job.  Last of all, they are known for being lolicons (lol).  No, I'm not kidding.  The fact that every one of their true heroines at least looks like a loli at first glance says everything, hahahaha.

Sakura, Moyu was written by Urushibara Yukito, the same writer as the Irotoridori games.  As such, it should surprise no one that the setting is layered and complex and the story not at all what it seems on the surface.  It should also surprise no one that there is a lot of emotionality in this game... but I don't think anyone was expecting just how emotional this game is.  To be blunt, I spent roughly 80% of this game either on the verge of or in tears.  Considering that the game is one of the longest games I've ever played (at least partially so because I so thoroughly relished Urushibara's writing style), that's a lot of tears... and a lot of tissues *glances at the overfull wastebasket next to his pc and the empty tissue boxes lying around it*. 

However, there are some issues with this game that need to be mentioned to get them out of the way.  Few games are perfect, and this one is no exception.  To be specific, Urushibara has always been mediocre at the romantic elements of his games.  Unless the romance exists at the end of a path full of suffering and despair or occurs in an incredibly stressful situation, he can't seem to write it very well (in other words, he is good at dramatic love but only a bit less than average at everyday love).  As a result, the romance in the first two paths (Chiwa's and Hiyori's) feels abrupt and forced... not to mention the fact that the beginning of Chiwa's path is so at odds at first with the game's atmosphere that I had to put the game down for two days to get past the emotional disconnect it created.  Hiyori's path is somewhat less problematic but still feels forced and abrupt, so I'm basically saying that readers who have high hopes for romance in these two paths will probably be disappointed, at least to an extent. 

One other issue that always nags at you as you play the numerous paths is the treatment of Kuro, the game's true heroine... to be blunt, like all of the Favorite true heroines, the story is set up so that if you aren't on her path, she gets screwed over to one extent or another.  Now, if you don't instantly fall in love with Kuro during the opening scenes, like I did, this might not be a problem for you, but one reason I spent the end of every path in tears and couldn't empathize with the characters' happiness was precisely because of this.

This game is very much a story of self-sacrifice... to the extent that it feels like every time you turn around, someone is sacrificing something for the sake of someone else.  The creatures of the Night (the underworld-like dream realm the characters fought in ten years before the story's beginning) are, as is openly stated, driven to feel unconditional love for humans, and as such, their excessively kind hearts spend much of this game suffering as a result of human actions and the tendency of humans to disregard their own happiness at the oddest of times.  

This is also a game full of loneliness... to a degree that 'loneliness' or 'lonely' (さみしさ and さみしい) are the two most common words in the game by an exponential level.  All of the main characters in this game suffer from loneliness to one degree or another at some point.  Some take it on of their own will, others have it inflicted upon them, and yet others endure it because it is their fate.  As such, there are very few points outside of the relatively few standard SOL scenes (compared to the game's over length) where the game isn't somber in atmosphere.

This game is also unbelievably layered and complex... so much so that it reminds me of games like Harumade Kururu and Ever17 in retrospect.  It has been a long time since a writer managed to keep me so thoroughly in the dark about so much of the game's general story for so long (the last time was Bradyon Veda), and, in that sense, I'm grateful for this game's existence.

I do, in fact, like how it all (the main story) ends, and I even liked how each of the individual paths ended, taken by themselves (If i ignore how Kuro gets screwed over).  I also found myself to be completely satisfied once I finished the game... to the extent that I don't think I'll ever be able to replay this game.  This game was very high stress in the sense that I was constantly being bombarded with the characters' emotions, and as such, it isn't a game that would be easy to come back to any time soon.  The sheer length of the game also adds to this. 

In conclusion, this is a game that is worthy of the legacy of Favorite as a company, worthy of being the first mainline project since the release of AstralAir in 2014.  It has problems and the game is probably one that is emotionally stressful.  However, for catharsis addicts, it is a worthy addition to their collection of nakige and utsuge, lol.

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(...) the game is one of the longest games I've ever played (...)

Well that's not very encouraging. I started reading this as well, but my Japanese is rather bad and reading speed in very low. It's also rather difficult with a lot of monologues and descriptions (it would be much easier and faster with more dialogues...). At first I thought it will take me a month to finish, but there is no way...

Still, even with my slow reading it is very nice. It 'feels' a lot like Irotoridori no Sekai (and its' sequel) but with more drama (sadness?) and less slice of life. And music is just amazing :] I don't really know why this game release was delayed two times but definitely it was worth waiting.

Edited by Zantax
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3 hours ago, Zantax said:

Well that's not very encouraging. I started reading this as well, but my Japanese is rather bad and reading speed in very low. It's also rather difficult with a lot of monologues and descriptions (it would be much easier and faster with more dialogues...). At first I thought it will take me a month to finish, but there is no way...

Still, even with my slow reading it is very nice. It 'feels' a lot like Irotoridori no Sekai (and its' sequel) but with more drama (sadness?) and less slice of life. And music is just amazing :] I don't really know why this game release was delayed two times but definitely it was worth waiting.

While the current vndb says that it is a 30-50 hour game, I'm pretty sure that for most people over here it is going to fall into the 70-100 range.  Considering that the common route took me seven hours, each of the non-true heroine paths another seven, and the true route nine... and I've yet to meet anyone who reads as fast as I do in this community.

Of course, part of that is I took the time to thoroughly relish the writing, so I probably could have cut six or seven hours off that time by reading in my usual fashion.  However, the fact remains that this game is big...

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My god the first 10 minutes with Kuro..... How on earth do they do it. I've played VNs where I interact with the heroines for many hours and Kuro just needs 10 minutes of the opening. Also 
Another masterpiece by favorite. Yet to even finish the common route it but I have a large bias to settings like this where the surface is so normal but the more you read the more layered the world becomes.

Also what are your thoughts on the music? I feel that gets overlooked often.
Seems to be pretty good but I do have Kuro's theme on repeat...... send help

 

Edited by iamnoob
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10 hours ago, iamnoob said:

My god the first 10 minutes with Kuro..... How on earth do they do it. I've played VNs where I interact with the heroines for many hours and Kuro just needs 10 minutes of the opening. Also 
Another masterpiece by favorite. Yet to even finish the common route it but I have a large bias to settings like this where the surface is so normal but the more you read the more layered the world becomes.

Also what are your thoughts on the music? I feel that gets overlooked often.
Seems to be ok but I do have Kuro's theme on repeat...... send help

 

Yeah.  Of the games that came out in the last two years, Sakura, Moyu probably has the best soundtrack.

Indeed, I fell in love with Kuro during the first scene... and I think that was the point.  The way the first scene is handled is specifically designed to bait us into loving her.

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1 hour ago, Clephas said:

Indeed, I fell in love with Kuro during the first scene...

For me it was Kuro' visit during second night of common route :P But I like all characters so I'm not in a hurry to get into her route.

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They were not kidding when they say this is their biggest game yet... and it shows, despite having the least amount of routes compared to their past games.

No doubt, the story definitely surpassed Iroseka (the first game at least - where its basically one single route that makes it stand out), though you raise some good points about Urushibara, sometimes I really hoped he would improve his writing on SOL and icharabu to achieve a good balance, instead of trying to camouflage his weakness at that department with overwhelmingly long (and in some cases, intentionally pro-longed and unnecessary) drama. In fact, the lack of character interactions where they aren't suffering / struggling against something serious is my only complaint about this game. Nevertheless, I would have loved to see an FD someday (which with Favorite's track record is very likely), hopefully to resolve the remaining plot threads and not screwing Kuro all over again for the sake of additional drama.

 

 

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I have a problem can anyone help me. When I open the game and play for a bit I get an error that says in japanese a file related to Kuro is missing or something. I can't figure out what to do. And yes I pirated it and I know it's bad but I have no other way for now. When I get to japan I will buy an actual copy. Has anyone else encountered with this problem?

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On 11/13/2021 at 5:44 AM, Kuro910 said:

I have a problem can anyone help me. When I open the game and play for a bit I get an error that says in japanese a file related to Kuro is missing or something. I can't figure out what to do. And yes I pirated it and I know it's bad but I have no other way for now. When I get to japan I will buy an actual copy. Has anyone else encountered with this problem?

Change your region locale to japanese

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On 2/9/2019 at 10:35 PM, Clephas said:

Indeed, I fell in love with Kuro during the first scene... and I think that was the point.  The way the first scene is handled is specifically designed to bait us into loving her.

But what do you mean with "baiting us"? Do you mean it with the same sense as

Spoiler

"deceiving us"? Like if she is secretly evil or something like that?

I hope that i haven't just read a big spoiler since i am still playing the common route...

Edited by Alvi
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