Sakura Sakura is getting a Kickstarter

[pual]

Are Sakura games worthwhile or trash with sane looking GUI? Is there any plot, and if not what is the selling point then?

[Zakamutt]

16 minutes ago, pual said:

Are Sakura games worthwhile or trash with sane looking GUI? Is there any plot, and if not what is the selling point then?

Sakura Sakura is not a "sakura game" as we usually call the Sakura series by Winged Cloud, it is an entirely unrelated VN originally produced by hiqosoft. No idea how good it is though.

As for the actual sakura games they are trash

[Dreamysyu]

2 hours ago, pual said:

Are Sakura games worthwhile or trash with sane looking GUI? Is there any plot, and if not what is the selling point then?

This post shows exactly why releasing in English a VN with "Sakura" in the title is a risky decision nowadays.

Wait, there are two Sakuras in the title...

[Ningen]

2 hours ago, pual said:

Are Sakura games worthwhile or trash with sane looking GUI? Is there any plot, and if not what is the selling point then?

You can't exactly give a general answer to that.

Some are good, some are bad.

For example I really enjoyed the Sakura Taisen series which has Mecha and RPG Elements
If you prefer games like Wanko to Lily, there's Sakura Musubi by Cuffs
if you like the arstyle in Subahibi you can try Sakura no Uta drawn by the same artists

It really depends on your preferences.

[littleshogun]

6 hours ago, pual said:

Are Sakura games worthwhile or trash with sane looking GUI? Is there any plot, and if not what is the selling point then?

Well, 'sakura' was definitely quite generic title for VNs lol. Not to mention that there's some of VNs with Sakura in the title - one of those title was Koi ga Saku ga Sakura Doki.

Anyway, if you mean 'sakura' is Sakura franchise from Winged Cloud, then yeah it's objectively quite bad just like Zakamutt said ie the writing was lacking compared to popular VNs. While for this VN (Sakura Sakura), I couldn't say much considering that I still didn't try this but looking from EGS of Sakura Sakura I would say that this VN did had some potential - the score was at 80 with more than 1,000 votes. I knew it didn't quite reliable, but at least it should be enough for consideration. In the end, it's not the word 'sakura' that made VNs worse but rather it's the VNs itself - although I won't deny that 'sakura' was became infamous though thanks to Winged Cloud 

Edited September 6, 2017 by littleshogun

[Freestyle80]

7 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

This post shows exactly why releasing in English a VN with "Sakura" in the title is a risky decision nowadays.

Wait, there are two Sakuras in the title...

but this game is older than those games, even the art should tell you its a different story

 

you are dumb if thats not enough 

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, Freestyle80 said:

but this game is older than those games, even the art should tell you its a different story

Of course. But only if you take your time to look at anything other than the title.

Edit. And, I guess, if you know anything about Sakura games by Winged Cloud other than that they are bad and include Sakura in their titles.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Dreamysyu

[Tamaki Sakura]

I think it might be wise to do a title change for the English release.

[Dreamysyu]

14 minutes ago, Tamaki Sakura said:

I think it might be wise to do a title change for the English release.

Honestly, I feel it would be an overkill. I mean, my original post was mostly intended as a joke, but if we want to seriously consider this topic, the main question is: Will the name change lead to increase in sales? Personally, I don't think the category of people who know about Sakura games, hate them for some reason, and also don't know them enough to recognize that this game has nothing to do with them is too big. At the same time, we also have Sakura crowd. Some of them are going to stumble upon this game just due to similarity in names. And, though the majority of them will definitely recognize that this VN has nothing to do with that series (at least, I hope so) some of them may be interested enough to buy it. Personally, I don't really know the general VN community that well, and I am not going to judge which process will be more prominent.

[Tamaki Sakura]

I've seen people say they won't buy it because Sakura games suck.

[littleshogun]

With 10 days left, it's still at 14,917 gathered which of course was quite slow. Hope that there would be last days burst just like usual Kickstarters beforehand, and if it's not happen just hope that the developer would find another way to distribute it just like ChuSingura (Of course I hope it would be successful).

Oh, I'm pretty late to share this but nevertheless I decided to share it here since it was in regard of Sakusakura here. Here's Oprainfall interview with Sol Press below, and enjoy.

INTERVIEW with Sol-Press Featuring Sakura Sakura

[Freestyle80]

they really need to advertise more somehow and they should've marketed for a few months before starting this kickstarter, this was way too sudden and u can see the results

 

I can only see this going as much as 17-19k, i'd be really surprised if it goes anywhere near the goal

 

well lets see what they do now 

[Nandemonai]

Yeah, they're 9K short, the final surge often is similar to the initial one (which was about 3-4K), and the last couple of days have not been kind to them.  They need to do something to revitalize this project, or it runs a pretty significant risk of failing.

[novurdim]

8 hours ago, Freestyle80 said:

they really need to advertise more somehow and they should've marketed for a few months before starting this kickstarter, this was way too sudden and u can see the results

Well, the thing is: they actually did. It had a pretty long prefundia and some sites advertised it but nowadays it's pretty hard to get more mainstream exposure even for the KS of the bigger publishers like Front Wing or Sekai. Just how many news websites reported on Subahibi? VN KS is not something new and unusual like before so even these companies have to rely on their loyal fanbase they had a chance to amass. Plus SS isn't even something literally anyone has ever been hyped for before. Probably the best thing Sol Press can do right now is releasing that promised demo and striking a deal with other publishers to get a shout out in the updates of the big and succesful Kickstarters.

Edited September 9, 2017 by novurdim

[Tamaki Sakura]

I think the main reason the kickstarter is failing is that Sol Press chose the wrong game. Sakura Sakura is an older title with zero buzz, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and no "big name" creators involved. A known entity MangaGamer can generate hype for an obscure title, but not a first-timer. The "Sakura" name doesn't help either, as it's become shorthand for a generic VN.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Tamaki Sakura

[Freestyle80]

8 hours ago, novurdim said:

Well, the thing is: they actually did. It had a pretty long prefundia and some sites advertised it but nowadays it's pretty hard to get more mainstream exposure even for the KS of the bigger publishers like Front Wing or Sekai. Just how many news websites reported on Subahibi? VN KS is not something new and unusual like before so even these companies have to rely on their loyal fanbase they had a chance to amass. Plus SS isn't even something literally anyone has ever been hyped for before. Probably the best thing Sol Press can do right now is releasing that promised demo and striking a deal with other publishers to get a shout out in the updates of the big and succesful Kickstarters.

well i mean like announce this company and project (potential projects too?) maybe a few months earlier? Maybe the company was already in business for a while but for us 'Sol Press' came into existence in like July and they announced a kickstarter just few weeks later, way too rushed imo

 

also the game probably has something to do with it, I never heard of this company or game before (granted I dont really delve into VNs as much) should've gone with something a little more well-known (Like maybe Hatsuyuki Sakura :P) But from what i read the team themselves are fans of this game or something which is why they went for it i guess? 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Freestyle80

[Tamaki Sakura]

3 hours ago, Freestyle80 said:

also the game probably has something to do with it, I never heard of this company or game before (granted I dont really delve into VNs as much) should've gone with something a little more well-known (Like maybe Hatsuyuki Sakura :P) But from what i read the team themselves are fans of this game or something which is why they went for it i guess? 

It wouldn't even have to be a super well-known title. Just something with visual appeal and more story than "school love-triangles." This or this would have been excellent choices.

[novurdim]

You guys are fun and everything but I really doubt they have enough money and connections for your blockbusters yet.

[Nandemonai]

Exactly.  Their budget is likely rather small, and they're likely limited in companies to license from.  That forces them to get creative.  They probably can't get famous or very highly-rated games; licensors aren't eager to give those to a first-time outfit.  (This is why Alicesoft made MangaGamer release Beat Blades Haruka first; MG was an unknown quantity.)  So they need a B-list title they can get with a lot less trouble, while avoiding the pitfall of picking a crappy game.

Given the limitations I imagine they're probably working under, they seem to have done as well as they could by picking Sakura Sakura.  It's old.  In its day, it was decently well-received in Japan - but not wildly successful.  It's neither notorious nor famous.  These things spell 'cheap and easy to license, but still of moderately high quality'.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Nandemonai
grammar issues

[littleshogun]

Late to write this here, but Sol Press did release the demo for Sakusakura here so enjoy.

As for my impression here, I would say that I tried to ignore the stiff translation there, so it's quite fine to me here but perhaps anyone else here would say otherwise. That aside, I'd found that there's one annoying problem from the demo in which it was that sometimes the spoken lines and written lines was mismatch. Granted it was only the demo and they release it hastily, but I afraid that if they keep make a mistake like that it could be decreased the enjoyment of playing Sakusakura. I just hope that Sol Press would willingly to fix that problem for the final release later.

PS - By the way, right now the KS was gathered 17,272 funds with 4 days left.

[Deniz]

I think they put a reasanable goal.It's a shame that it won't succeed if some rich guy doesn't put the rest of it.

[Xeviax]

58 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

Late to write this here, but Sol Press did release the demo for Sakusakura here so enjoy.

As for my impression here, I would say that I tried to ignore the stiff translation there, so it's quite fine to me here but perhaps anyone else here would say otherwise. That aside, I'd found that there's one annoying problem from the demo in which it was that sometimes the spoken lines and written lines was mismatch. Granted it was only the demo and they release it hastily, but I afraid that if they keep make a mistake like that it could be decreased the enjoyment of playing Sakusakura. I just hope that Sol Press would willingly to fix that problem for the final release later.

PS - By the way, right now the KS was gathered 17,272 funds with 4 days left.

We're working on a patch right now to fix the staggered voices problem & some other problems.

 

And as for the translation, even the team is looking back again and thinking it's stiff as well. They're going to be re-working it to make everything flow better and easier to follow.

[Kaito1]

This VN looks very interesting. I will add this to my VNs-to-play list. I really hope the campaign can reach its goal.

Edited September 14, 2017 by Kaito1

[Nandemonai]

Seems to be looking a lot more secure than it was a couple of days ago.  Looks like putting out that demo worked out well for them.  (But they probably shouldn't have even launched without it in the first place.)

[Freestyle80]

wow 46 hours to go and around 3k to go

 

they are going closer than i thought