Sakura Nova from Gamuzumi and Winged Cloud is a Rated M for Mature visual novel with a fantasy theme. Learn more in our Sakura Nova review!

 

Sakura Nova from Gamuzumi and Winged Cloud is a Rated M for Mature visual novel with a fantasy theme. You play as Mikage, who is training to become an elite warrior. You’ll meet Kaguya and Arisa early in the game when you’re trying to find the changing room where you can get your suit on to start your training. As soon as this first scene plays out, you’ll see why the game is Rated M for Mature on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 since this is a visual novel that dabs into fan service territory.

If you go online and search for some images for the game after playing it on PlayStation 4, you might notice that some of the CG images you saw during your time with Sakura Nova are a bit different on Sony’s console compared to what you find. This is because when making the jump from Steam to Sony’s console, there had to be some changes made to some scenes in order to be able to hit the M for Mature rating to release on PlayStation 4.

 

During your time with Sakura Nova, you’ll get to go on some adventures with Kaguya and Arisa as you follow the orders of Commander Reika while training under powerful warrior Zero. The game has voice acting, but unless you know Japanese, you’re going to spend a lot of your time reading all of the dialogue between the characters you’ll meet. As is usually the case for visual novel protagonists, Mikage won’t have a voice to make it easier for players to insert themselves in this adventure.

The controls are simple and to the point since you’ll be pressing the X button a lot to move from dialogue to dialogue. If you go into the configuration menu, you can make some changes as to what type of text you can skip with the R1 button, which will make said text move at a very fast pace. Every now and then, you’ll get to make a choice during specific story segments, which will affect which of the three different endings you end up getting.

 

As has been the case for other releases from Gamuzumi, this one has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you. On top of this, it’s a cross-buy release, which means your purchase will get you the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 version for the game, and each one has a separate trophy list. It’s a short list with nothing but Gold trophies. The first one will pop as you start your time with Sakura Nova, with the rest popping at specific story segments, as well as when you get each of the endings.

If you’re a fan of the other visual novels that Gamuzumi and Winged Cloud have brought to PlayStation, then you’re going to enjoy Sakura Nova since you know what you’re getting yourself into. The fan service, while still very much present during the CG images, has been dialed back a bit compared to the Steam version of the game, but it’s still something that is not going to be for everyone. Sakura Nova is out on PlayStation 4 with a $14.99 price, and you will get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game with a single purchase.

Disclaimer
This Sakura Nova review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Gamuzumi.