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Review of Sakura, Moyu. -as the Night's, Reincarnation-

SubjectSakura, Moyu. -as the Night's, Reincarnation-
Sakura, Moyu. -As the Night's, Reincarnation- Download Edition
ByHelpfulness: 7
Vote: 8
mdzz on 2020-09-08
Review[This review may contain some mild conceptual/structural spoilers to the work. Any express spoilers are marked.]

Sakuramoyu presents an intricate, grand story told frequently through verbose, repetitive prose. The result is something awe-inspiring, but the experience may not be the most enjoyable. At its core, Sakuramoyu is a nakige which moonlights as a complex, mechanics-driven work (comparable to Island, where its world is as mysterious as it is deep). Character routes (all with maybe the exception of one) have a compelling dramatic, satisfying resolution and develop the work’s core philosophies. Sakuramoyu is not without its flaws, as it suffers from atrocious pacing and repetitive writing; it could have been categorically better if it were edited more. While Sakuramoyu is admirable as it is, it had the components of a masterpiece – lacking only in execution.

At its core, Sakuramoyu is a lachrymose work. Prior to reading it, I had read secondhand that the emotional climaxes of each route was comparable in intensity to the climaxes of various other kamige (arguable veracity). For the reader to truly feel sadness, I think that the reader has to be immersed – accepting the tale and studiously awaiting each development. Repetitive writing — or writing that essentially conveys the same information multiple times within a short period adversely affect how invested the reader can be in the work. There were moments in Sakuramoyu when I wanted to feel alongside the protagonist, but I couldn’t – not because the content of the writing was bad, but because I was too irritated or zoned out by that point. Indeed, at one point, I felt as if I had learned absolutely nothing new during the 2-3 hours of the reading session – as if I was lost in a fever dream. This point is exacerbated by Urushibara’s penchant to ignore common directing convention – not stopping the scene when the ‘natural’ stop spot was, making some scenes feel needlessly long (although I’ve read from others that they really liked this aspect of the work).

While I was unable to get as emotionally-invested as I wanted to in the work, I still admire it for its depth – of its world, but also, of the themes that it seeks to develop and convey. On one hand, the events within Sakuramoyu occur within an ever-so complicated universe – delineating the nature of this world is crucial to understanding its plot. Urushibara develops this world meticulously, as if he had set out with the goal of writing a grand mystery work. He does this as other authors do, through a multi-route mystery structure, where the reader gradually learns more about the world until the final revelations in the true route. But, Urushibara skirts convention by actually making the secondary routes good in themselves – complete on their own. The true route is in effect, the culmination of all that is good about the work; its revelations improve on each route, as opposed to rendering them meaningless. The world which Urushibara seeks to develop is so vivid and complex, that there are entire articles devoted to piecing together the plot – to make sense of it.

Simultaneously, Urushibara imbues his characters’ actions with meaning. The central theme in Sakuramoyu is sacrifice, with a lesser theme concerning the idea of heroism. Each route is thematically meaningful in some shape or form, providing the reader with a clean, straightforward picture of Urushibara’s intended worldview by the end of the work. The characters themselves are likable, with ample time devoted to fleshing them out (for better or worse, the work goes into painstaking detail about the connectedness of the characters). Because of this, whenever something bad happens to the characters, the reader really feels the impact – similarly, when characters have their happy ending, the reader is all the more joyous.

At the end of the day, I didn’t like Sakuramoyu as a nakige – indeed, I don’t know how much I personally felt when I read it (… aside from frustration). Nonetheless, I admire the work because of its depth and its artistic license – there’s something profound about an author, in this case Urushibara, establishing a vision of a work and materializing that – in spite of whatever flaws critics might find. At the end of the day, Sakuramoyu feels like a passion project – and that I think, is special (especially with the state of the current industry).

Originally published on 9/8/20 on mdzabstractions.
7 points
#1 by Mutsuki
2020-09-08 at 18:33
< report >No truer words have been spoken about this game than that second paragraph imo

The constant reiteration of things explained only recently really started pulling down the game for me by the end. That and how the last few hours were pretty much plot twist upon plot twist, leading me to just not care about what was going on because it was going to be retconned out of existence in a few lines, leading to a really unsatisying ending. I'd have loved to give it as high a score as you did (possibly even higher because the game really was kamige territory for me at parts) but when there are points that I'm very much not having fun when playing a game and it's not because the game is actively trying to evoke those kind of emotions in me, I can't give it good marks. If the writer had just cut down the repetition (i.e. cut out maybe what feels like 30% of the game) then I'd easily give it a 8.5-9/10.

also legend has it that the following kanji 悲, 哀, 寂, 痛, 苦 all appear more often in this work than は, が and を.Last modified on 2020-09-08 at 18:43
#2 by mdzz
2020-09-08 at 19:36
< report >I don't doubt your last sentence...

I ultimately gave the work a 'higher' score because I think that the work has so much complexity + depth - that on those merits alone, it warrants a look at; I think the score reflects that.

Ultimately, I have an issue with its execution. It's like a block of marble - it could've been the statue of David, but we ultimately ended up with the statue of Tavid. Not as good, but still above & beyond the bulk of the newer works (and I think its ambition is something that ought to be praised in the current age; Urushibara's heart & vision were in the right place).

Do you know what sounds like a true nightmare though? A fan disc for this work...
#3 by Mutsuki
2020-09-08 at 20:36
< report >#2, please no i have a rule that i have to play all direct sequels to games i've played don't jinx it

Jokes aside, I think that a fan disc is almost inevitable, as was the case with all the other Favourite games. I might be happy to give the writer another chance a year or two down the line because I can see he's got the skills to make a good plot, and so I hope just he needed to work the kinks in the writing style out with this.

Agreed on the "still above & beyond the bulk of the newer works" though; I'm only flaming it in comparison with the other "long plot-centric games" I've played. I can tell it's objectively very good but I'm just too impatient to enjoy it ahaha.
#4 by niyari
2020-11-08 at 00:47
< report >Hah didn't know there were reviews on this website now. Pretty cool. But yea, if the writing wasn't so droll and repetitive in so many areas of the story, it would've been one of my few 9's.

I remember being stuck in one area (Tooya's side story) for almost a week because I could only read about 15 mins without having my mind numbed. It was honestly insane how many lines were repeated over and over and over. Like... why? I can only assume he or the staff didn't have enough time to trim the script to their liking. Irotoridori was no where near as bad as this so we know it's not his usual style.
#5 by diabloryuzaki
2020-11-08 at 02:14
< report >#4
but actually do repetitive in this case is good decision because the setting is very deep and sometime make you forget what happen in the previous scene
#6 by Mutsuki
2020-11-08 at 03:17
< report >#5, it's not as welcome when they're repeating something they said 5 minutes ago. It really gets awful at times. If it was reminding me of something that happened hours ago then I can understand but repeating something minutes ago (and on top of that multiple times) just gets annoying. There may have been useful repetitions, but by and large I remember this game mostly just banging on and on about the same thing ad nauseam (much like I do when complaining about this game lmao)
#7 by diabloryuzaki
2020-11-08 at 04:23
< report >#6
well, this vn itself is the worst if it come for the amount of repeater. sometime i even forget did this vn get bugged and realize it work normal didn't make me feel better