Sakura Agent Review

  I was debating for the longest time whether I was going to do this one but fuck it, I made it through and I am sure people are curious. I had heard about Honey Pop a while ago and one night I saw that it was in a Humble Bundle with several other games that all looked like dating sims.  I was curious to what the hype was about these games so I bought the bundle.  The first one I got through was Sakura Agent by Winged Cloud and I have a learned a lot.

The Game:

  This "game" isn't so much a dating sim than an interactive graphic novel.  I believe these have been termed visual novels.  In fact, there is hardly any interactive gameplay. There is a lot of reading.  Actually, that is all you are really doing, is reading while two animated girls sometimes change poses over a background image.  There are a few decisions you will make that really don't affect the overall outcome of the game but more effect a scene.

  The "game" does provide you the option to go back, view the history, skip scenes, and save or load the game as you please.  There is also a gallery for some of the more memorable scenes and that really is it besides some text and display options.

  You play as Akiro, an agent who fights off alien beings, accompanied by your super-powered sidekicks Masumi and Kamiko.  The alien beings, of course, being tentacle monsters who molest girls (I shit you not) and other various hobgoblins and demons.  There are some scenes that could be considered romance scenes but they are few and not the most exciting.  They are pretty random at times but this could be because in order to get these novels on Steam they have to be censored.

My Thoughts:

  This was kinda entertaining and I am stretching the definition of kinda here.  I am just stepping into this genre so I don't have too terribly much as far as experience goes.  It makes sense to get this in the bundle but the original price for this game is around $10 and that is insane to me.  This is a $2 game at best.

  There is hardly interaction and the only thing you get when the story gets more "intense" is a change of music and sometimes a different background.  No "creatures" are ever drawn or displayed and while the action sequences are described they are never really shown.  In fact, Masumi and Kamiko are the only two characters that are drawn beside (spoiler)

 a random two girls who you meet right before they have sex because a portal opens up and you stick your head in.

(/spoiler)  I understand that this could be because you are supposed to use your imagination but if you are paying for a graphic novel you kind of want graphics.  The art is well done so there is that positive.

  The story was, well it was a story.  This is definitely someone's fantasy put into a low budget game.  It doesn't try and do anything that is deeper than, look we are fighting aliens, and then I want to sleep with these girls.  There are no deeper questions to be asked or pondered.  The only time there is a preponderance of a possibility of the question of who the good guys are a sequence happens to explain who they are yet again leaving nothing to be questioned.

  I mean I get it but I don't get this one.  I could see where this genre has potential but this one did nothing to help me want to go play another.  I think I will try for the sake of trying (and the fact the bundle came with a lot) but the future does not look promising here. Maybe these are not for me or maybe this one is just lacking.  Final note, if you didn't guess this game has a mature theme.

TL;DR:

  Sakura Agent is an interactive graphic novel with a basic story and a mature theme.  The writing isn't great but I guess can keep some interest while the art style is pretty good.   It's not something I am going to openly recommend playing and even if you are looking for some titillation there has to be better out there.