Introduction
Sakura Santa is a lewd Visual Novel adventure developed by Winged Cloud. It was released to Steam in 2015, and then ported to Switch in 2021 by Gamuzumi.
*A code was provided by the developer for the purpose of this review. This doesn’t affect the review, as my thoughts are mine and mine alone. This review contains spoilers and inappropriate images. Viewers discretion is advised.
Review
It’s Christmas time and Koji is all alone in his apartment. His parents are on a vacation, because no one lives with them anymore. His brother is visiting his girlfriend’s family for the holidays. Koji has no one. So he decides to take a walk and finds himself at a shrine, where he decides to make a donation, and help the Priest who lives there. Little does he know that his donation and his generosity would set off quite the chain of events that would not leave him alone for the holidays.
The game is broken up into three routes, one for each girl you can romance. Akina, the fox spirit of the shrine. Itsumi, Koji’s childhood friend. Then last but not least, Santa! That’s right, Santa. But not the fat old man. No no, this is a slender, sexier Santa, who’s also female. Turns out there’s multiple Santa, as one handles each region in the world, because as the game asks, how could one person deliver presents to the entire world!?
The writing itself is genuinely pretty funny in the game. There were many times where I let out a chuckle, especially on Akinas’ route. Like in one scene where she has charms attached to specific parts of her body, and Koji is trying to get said charms, and it’s a silly little game! But at the same time, this route had a lot of the same cheeky one liner. That being “Cheeky Fox”, which after reading it for the 10th time, lost all of its silliness to me.
Then there’s Itsumi’s route, which honestly puts into perspective how wondrous childhood friends are. How some friendships can withstand the test of time, and when you reunite with an old friend, it’s like no time has passed and you can be perfectly normal together…if not a bit filthier with each other. Though I felt this route was a touch weird, considering there are many times it’s implied that Koji sees Itsumi naked, but she doesn’t care one bit. I don’t know a single adult who has that little amount of shame. But this route did truly make me miss some friends that I’ve lost connection with over the years…but it was truly the best route of the game.
Santa on the other hand, felt like it really delved into the feeling of the holidays, and self worth. I couldn’t help but to like Santa as a character, even if she is clumsy. But it’s not written to the point of cringe, but more of how you truly would act around someone you love. This all of course devolves when you get to the harem ending of course! This was a fun read but it also goes into some cringe dialogue, especially with the characters fighting over who Koji should pick as a wife. It was very interesting, but again, I couldn’t help but to laugh just a little bit. I will say that even though this is a VN, the choices are very obvious as to what ending you’ll get, so that makes it very easy to get all the routes. So sure there’s no chart, but there doesn’t need to be. The game also doesn’t overstay its welcome, as I read through each route in 30 to 45 minutes. So I never felt like it got dragged down at all.
Rating
Pros:
- Fun Dialogue
- Very Lewd Images
- Nice Festive Themes!
Cons:
- Dialogue Gets A Bit Cringe
Summary
Winged Cloud once again stays on top of the VN Lewd market. With the fun mix of lewd and funny dialogue, with a pretty silly story, this was a joy to read and it had me laughing quite a bit! There’s nothing ground-breaking, and eventually the dialogue gets a bit too much, but I highly recommend this. Especially because there’s not many Christmas themed games!
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Winged Cloud
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: Gamuzumi
Publisher Socials: Twitter
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