Keeping things informal as well as infernal


Christmas, the most joyous of Holidays has finally arrived. For many of you, this means spending time with your family and loved ones, indulging yourself in good food and drinks, as well as playing loads of awesome video games. Meanwhile, I’m stuck here playing Winged Cloud’s latest visual novel adventure, Sakura Santa.

Winged Cloud doesn’t exactly have the cleanest of track records when it comes to releasing interesting stories in the visual novel format. Their series of Sakura games has always, almost unanimously, been praised for great, sexy artwork and a gratuitous amount of ecchi content in every new installment. The praise usually ended there once people saw that the stories told in those games had very little substance to them. What’s worse, for all that cockteasing present in the majority of Winged Cloud’s games, only two of them had any real sexual content. Does Sakura Santa follow the same trend or does it, at least, try to do anything differently this time around? Don those Santa hats and prepare yourself as we find out together in this special Christmas LewdReview.


The very first few minutes of Sakura Santa introduce us to our lead male character Koji, a young Japanese college student living by all by his lonesome self. Koji feels a tremendous amount of weltschmerz as it seems that he just might be spending his Christmas break alone and is depressed because of it. If you just so happen to forget that he’s alone this Holiday season, he’ll make sure to remind you at least four more times before his introduction is over. Better get used to Koji’s loneliness ASAP, as that and his apparent perverted mind are his only character defining traits throughout the rest of the story. To move the plot along Koji decides to go on a walk that will ultimately change his life forever when he encounters three special girls. Akina, a sassy fox spirit with a huge tail and rack to match, Itsumi, Koji’s childhood and middle school friend with whom he shares an unresolved romantic past and finally, Santa, a blonde girl dressed in a revealing Santa Claus costume and claiming to be the real Santa himself.

Since Koji meets Akina first on his lone trip around town and isn’t too surprised by the existence of spirits and the supernatural, it seems rather erratic how it boggles his mind when a different girl claims she is Santa and has magical powers. This is only one of the few inconsistencies I got to experience while playing Sakura Santa. I promise you that they don’t just involve the characters’ personalities, but also how the game’s story is structured itself. In other words, plot holes.

Koji’s self-preservation instinct


After all the character introductions are out of the way, the player gets to choose which of the girls he will get to spend time with before the arrival of Christmas. In Sakura Santa’s favor, I do have to say that the choice of three character routes, with the fourth one being a harem one, is very generous for a game with a total length of fewer than 4 hours. The abundance of choices doesn’t necessarily mean what’s in them is enjoyable or even interesting. Each route, besides a few scenes in the Akina and harem routes, handles the dialogue between the characters in a really hamfisted manner. Most of the exchanges and quips Koji has with the girls are mundane and feel soulless if they aren’t just there to introduce more fanservice. Don’t get me wrong, though; fnservice is all well and good as it can create some very comical, endearing character moments. That’s not even mentioning how it can get you all hot and bothered.  Sakura Santa, however, doesn’t marvel with its whimsicality or wit and thanks to that, all attempts at comedy it tries to make fall flat on its face.

I feel Winged Cloud is trying to make a broader statement here.


The failed attempts at humor are nothing compared to the forced drama introduced in each of the character routes. With very little build up to begin with, every crack dramatic moment gets resolved almost immediately, one of them even in the same scene. It’s immensely hard to feel any sense of tension and engagement with something so tacked on and flow ruining. It’s not all bad, though: In a few scenes featuring Akina and the majority of the events where the girls interact with one another, you can find some real special and even amusing moments. The girl’s quirky natures play off each other well in those scenes, and you can really feel there’s some chemistry there that is so lacking in almost every other part of the game. If Winged Cloud could just refine that kind of writing for their future games, they would be really onto something good here.

Previously in the review, I mentioned that the game has a few plot holes, but I didn’t explain how those come to be in the overarching story. Since the player doesn’t get locked into a particular route until almost the very end of the visual novel, it’s possible to freely hop between routes from the choice screens. Having played through the game following tens of different choice sequences, I noticed that in some of them, Koji references events that didn’t actually happen within a particular sequence of events. Unless Koji is jumping with his consciousness in time a la Steins;Gate, he shouldn’t have knowledge of events from other routes. Given how short Sakura Santa is, I find it surprising how MangaGamer or Winged Cloud didn’t catch such glaring mistakes.


The character artwork, by Winged Cloud’s artist Inma, is once again outstanding and the best part of Sakura Santa. The artist has done their absolute best when making all the girls look attractive. Supermodel curves that accentuate the girl’s huge busts, as well as soft-looking, shapely and round butts make the game characters ooze sex appeal from every pore. Similarly to Senran Kagura main character artist Yaegashi Nan, Inma has a real talent for making the girls look amazingly soft. You just want to get in there and squeeze and fondle all of their juicy and meaty bits without any regrets in the world. The only two criticisms I would have of the character art in Sakura Santa is that the girl’s breasts vary in size between the event CGs and their regular sprites during normal dialogue, and that the girls could use a few more emotive facial expressions when talking.

For a game set during Christmastime, Sakura Santa doesn’t have many tunes that go along with the festive spirit. A few jingles and jangles here and there would definitely make the game feel more in tune with Christmas. The soundtrack won’t turn any heads, but it also doesn’t grate on your ears so badly you would want to turn it off completely. There’s also no voice acting to speak off, even though its inclusion could potentially boost my and everyone else’s enjoyment of the title by quite a bit.


Sakura Santa is yet another Winged Cloud title that would rather cocktease you and give you blue balls the size of the entire Smurf village instead of showing you explicit pornography. The ever present and frequent panty shots, coupled with bare asses and breasts, can only do so much for you in the long run. Koji is referred to as a pervert on several occasions as the plot progresses, but considering both Akina and Itsumi hit on him using a multitude of suggestive ways, I’m more than willing to say both of them are huge hypocrites. I won’t reveal too much about the raunchy events that transpire in-game, so you either have to take my word for it or the play the game yourself. Personally, I suggest you do not opt for the latter choice.

All in all, Sakura Santa is not a title I would recommend to anyone looking for a good visual novel or even for a good lewd game. An often dull and lifeless story and undeveloped characters don’t make the case for this title, and neither does the constant and annoying cockteasing Winged Cloud endlessly regurgitates for its customers. Great art does not make a great visual novel. Until some visual novel developers refocus all their efforts on creating a great story instead of  the “outer packaging”, I will take my stocking and “jingle my bells” to something else.

Pros

  • Great character and background artwork
  • A good amount of routes for the game's length

Cons

  • The majority of the story is dull and lifeless
  • Characters with mostly flat and uninteresting personalities
  • The music does not sound festive enough for the theme of the game
  • Character sprites could use a few more facial expressions
  • Story
  • Writing
  • Sound
  • Art and Graphics
  • Replay Value

LewdFactor

Sakura Santa is full of perverse and borderline perverse situations you can find in any of the Winged Cloud games. Expect plenty of panty shots.

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