Written by Otaku Apologist
Sakura Nova, a hentai visual novel developed by Winged Cloud. Released November 5, 2016. Available for download on Nutaku for $15.00. For Windows PC and Linux. Full Japanese voice acting. Uncensored genitals.
This game is one of the older entries into the popular Sakura game franchise. It’s standard fare for hentai gamers, with no innovative features risking a predictable masturbatory experience. It’s an erotic escapist fantasy full of cute girls without standards sharing their pussy with the male protagonist at the drop of a hat. Sakura Nova’s big breasted girl knights provide a two hours of eroticism for your genitals to enjoy.
We’ve reviewed the following other titles from this developer, not a complete list, since the dev pumps these out like a bitch and I can’t be arsed to edit: Sakura Space, Sakura Santa, Sakura Halloween, Sakura Dungeon, Sakura Gamer.
Since the year 2014, Winged Cloud has released over 20 games, most of them featuring girls of the same body types and faces. And what makes this game different from its previous, numerous installments? This time around, there’s Japanese female voice acting.
Two busty knights are working to graduate knight school. The sex scenes start early, and are sprinkled in ample doses throughout the story. This is a visual novel intended to induce sexual arousal. The moans and orgasm-slurred monologues of the girls are a huge part of it. But, this is Winged Cloud’s first time having their characters voiced, and it helps paint more of a picture in your mind than their previous titles. So, get your surround sound supporting headphones and get ready for incredible ear sex. You have three routes to choose from.
This review will focus mostly on the sex scenes, because beyond a plot point, where Mikage’s father is injured on the battlefield, the characters mostly just go out for training exercises and dates.
STORY
In Sakura Nova, you play as Mikage Shinzaki, a young strapping lad with a functional penis. You are the son of Zero, the strongest knight in the kingdom. No, you don’t get to see any father-son incest action in this title – pity. Mikage is teamed up with Kaguya Setsuna and Arisa Moegihara.
Kaguya is a red-haired girl from a rich family. She is borderline autistic in her inability to express emotions like a normal person. Arisa, unlike Kaguya, acts normally but is way too open about her sexual feelings for someone trying to care for her siblings and her sickly mother. The trio are put together by their teacher, Reika, in order for them to learn the importance of teamwork. And of course, this is a bad idea, because almost immediately they start to fuck. They definitely learn how to work like an extremely tight-knit team, strengthening their bonds through rigorous training sessions, exchange of bodily fluids, and the motivational speeches from Mikage.
There are plenty of fights against monsters, but you don’t exactly experience them in any visually dynamic way. You click through the still image slides and read the descriptions. You click, click, click, while enjoying the music tracks, and the girls speaking softly into your ear. The trio take on a water serpent spirit, a demon, a dragon. They even fight a tentacle beast, and engage in mild bondage sex.
Shortly after the first fight scenes and story sequences, the girls move in with you. Penis meets pussy, it’s love at first sight. There are three routes in this novel, one for both girls and the obligatory harem ending. I chose Kagura’s route first because the innocent ones are the most fun to corrupt. Also, who doesn’t like long purple hair on a developed young woman? Blonde is too norm for my tastes. I won’t give away any spoilers for the game, I’ll just post my favorite line from her route.
GAMEPLAY
Sakura Nova is a visual novel. You advance the story by clicking the screen. You are presented with several choices during play that take the story into different directions. There are multiple endings. You can save your progress into several save slots.
GRAPHICS
The artwork is the standard you expect from Winged Cloud’s regular artists. The girls have the same damn face with just the hair color making them distinct from one another. Their lingerie and armor designs gracing their luscious feminine bodies are exquisite. Staring at those gigantic anime tits wrapped in thin layers of fabric is enough to squeeze that last drop of semen out of your balls. Their saucer-shaped anime eyes are almost as large as their tits. Their eyes will be watching you, pleading for mercy on the brink of ecstasy while you jack off to their bodies getting ravaged by monster rape.
The backgrounds are somewhat basic. This supposedly original fantasy world doesn’t have the most unique personality. The coloring is still up to par, and nothing sticks out awkwardly out of place.
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
The full professional Japanese voice acting deserves repeated mentions, because it was a very nice touch in this game. It really added into the sex scenes with the actresses’ moans and shrieks practically stabbing your dick through your ears. And they really sold the final orgasm scream each time.
MUSIC
The soundtrack really hits the mark in the scenes. Calm tones play during slow dialog scene with the girls, tense music in the dungeon, battle music during a fight, and bass-heavy sultry music when Mikage is pumping his seed into some wombs. Only issue I found with the music, was that the tracks don’t loop properly; they complete their run for sure, but then stop abruptly, and rewind to the beginning like there was no pause.
HENTAI
It is actually curious that Winged cloud got away with adding a tentacle scene into their game. After all, tentacle porn is considered bestiality, and is outlawed on many of the more conservative states of the United States. As of time of writing, Nutaku remains cucked by the United States banking service and penal code. How a tentacle scene slipped by the moral censors, is a curious question. As is the rule in hentai game journalism, whenever in doubt, just shrug and say “supply and demand”.
Battle with the tentacle beast was actually one of the longest in the game, because it tied in with a sex scene. Since this game comprises of only pictures with text, it’s not as glamorous on screen as it sounds when described. Mikage basically just watches his damsels in distress as their clothes get torn and their bodies groped, oh, and their holes get sloppily plugged up. And only after the creature makes the girls orgasm, does he make his move, of course. After he finishes off the monster, the trio heads back home, the girls naked. They have a minor celebration.
The lusty scenes of Sakura Nova are, as you can expect from a visual novel, unanimated pictures that you gawk at and jerk to. However, the voice acting is where they get you with all the HYYAAAN’s and AAAAGGNN~’s. The voices are done so well, it left a good impression on me. Makes me feel hopeful for the quality of the sequels. There isn’t any real variation or sex position changes during sex scenes. You get a normal, and a cumshot version of the slides.
The length of the sex scenes is just right – not too long to get boring, but long enough to get the job done. From the interface, you can toggle on auto-play, making the story move forward without further input, which allows you to free both of your hands. There’s one scene that I didn’t think the game would actually do, but it did. You know, the whole “I accidentally fell and stripped you, oh no, what ever shall happen now” – scenario. I came to that one.
CONCLUDING WORDS
Sakura Nova is a fine fapping experience for fans of the franchise. I don’t recommend it to people who don’t enjoy the visual novel medium with its many limitations. The Japanese voice acting adds an extra level to the eroticism that’s been missing in other entries to this series. The art is gorgeous, the girls are cute, the soundtrack fine.
I recommend this game to gender-confused hentai gamers with low standards. Download Sakura Nova.
Overall
- Graphics
- Gameplay
- Story
- Music
- SFX
- Hentai
