Title: アマカノ２＋
Developer: Azarashi Soft
Release Date: 28th April 2023
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 20+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
Thoughts
The Amakano series is one of my personal favourites due to the fluffy romance, lovable heroines and overall relaxing experience playing them. As much as I enjoy a good story to sink my teeth into, sometimes you want to turn your brain off and play something a little lighter. Azarashi Soft games scratch that itch for me so I was super excited for the Amakano 2 fandisc, especially given the fandiscs for the two previous games had been of extremely high quality. So did this manage to live up to my high expectations?
I should probably say that this game is meant to be enjoyed by players of the original game, if you liked that then the chances are that this fandisc will appeal to you.
When it comes to telling a “complete” love story – I genuinely don’t think any series does it better than Amakano and the fandiscs, while formulaic, do exactly what you want from them. I always feel satisfied and almost teary-eyed at the endings due to how adorable they are and this entry was no exception. It was nice that you didn’t need Append Patches for content either (like in second season +).
The unique aspect to this game was that it introduces a new character – Sara. She’s a distant family friend who has come to stay with the protagonist as she transferred to his school. I liked Sara as a character – she was bright, cheerful and cute – but it almost felt as though her inclusion was used as a way to force jealousy amongst the other heroines in their afterstories, which felt out of character for Chitose and Rei particularly. This would be my only real complaint about the game though.
Sara’s route in itself was honestly quite beautiful – it was a love letter from the developers to fans of the Amakano series and I lapped up every minute of it. The route itself was an amalgamation of a normal route + after story so she doesn’t really miss out compared to the other girls, which was appreciated.
One of the main draws to this series is the beautiful artwork provided by Piromizu. I’m honestly astonished by just how good his artwork has gotten over his tenure with Azarashi Soft and the artwork in Amakano 2+ was his best yet. Piromizu has quickly become one of my favourite artists and I’ll happily support any of his future projects!
More Amakano means more Duca songs which is always a good thing and the vocal tracks from this game did not disappoint. We got heroine covers of the insert songs from the original game, which were beautifully emotive and a wonderful opening song. Zero complaints.
Conclusion
My Score: 8/10
Azarashi Soft has once again delivered a great fandisc to the Amakano series, filled with lots of sweet and fluffy romance. I’m sure players who liked the base title would enjoy this as it really gives a satisfying conclusion to the heroine routes. The addition of Sara was also generally a positive one, and her route was very enjoyable.
The Amakano series in general would be one that I’d recommend to people who like moege/romance-focused games and want something a bit more laid back.
I’ll keep supporting Azarashi Soft on their future projects, while hoping that they choose to revisit this series sometime in the future.
Thanks for reading~
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