Title: それは舞い散る桜のように-Re:BIRTH-
Developer: Navel
Release Date: 29th September 2023
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 20+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
Sakura Maito is a bit of a loner and since moving back to his hometown a year ago has made few connections. However, with the start of spring brings with it new meetings and bittersweet reunions, and Maito becomes aware of the girls around him – his popular classmate, a childhod friend chasing after him, his kind neighbour, the tomboy who sits next to him at school, and a childish senpai.
As Maito gets closer to the girls, he begins to have strange dreams of a cherry blossom tree and some unique characters around it. Just what does the future hold in store for Maito?
Thoughts
The eroge industry seems to be imitating what more Western developers are up to recently – remasters/remakes. Can we blame Hollywood for starting this trend? Sorechiru was originally released back in 2002 under the Basil brand, and was “remade” last year by Navel (although it was pretty much the same staff). Given that the game was penned by beloved author Ou Jackson I have had it on my radar for a while, so I figured that the remake was as good a time as any to finally play this title. Was it even worth the effort of remaking or should this game have been left in the past?
Unsurprisingly for a game written by Ou Jackson, whom is known for his character writing, the prose in Sorechiru has a distinct, vivid style to it. This extends to the character interactions, creating a genuinely fun and refreshing spin on the tried and true school setting. No where does Jackson’s witt shine better than in the game’s protagonist Maito – a truly eccentric young man who likes to think of himself as some sort of hard-boiled badass but is a socially inept dumbass, which just makes him the more weirdly endearing.
Sadly, Maito’s delusions of grandure seem to have spilled into the plot of the game and after an exceptionally strong common route, Sorechiru crumbles in the heroine routes. The game is weirdly similar to Tactics/Nexton’s title “One.” in that the heroine routes have the same bad plot device and it’s never fully explained, leaving me wanting more. And honeslty just wishing that the game just skipped trying to have a “deep” plot because the character writing was so damn good. But don’t worry instead of a satisfying conclusion once you finish all of the routes, you instead get a “preview” hinting at the planned sequel (which Navel of course opened crowdfunding for again shortly after this title released). Feel scammed yet?
Moving onto the heroines and all are at the least decent. My favourite would easily have to be Yukimura Komachi, the childhood friend who follows Maito when he moves. She’s equally as weird as Maito but the two have really great chemistry! She might be a little bit
There’s a wide range of side characters, ranging from the classic dumb male best friend, to the characters who will be the protagonist + heroines in the sequel. My main take-away here though is that this remake does not include the two additional routes from the game’s “complete edition” (Kagura & Hikari). I guess because the “complete” version was considered to be trash in the first place and had none of the same staff as the original or remake? It really sucks though because Kagura in particular feels pretty similar to characters like Mashifoni’s Sana or Asukimi’s Nanami in that she needs, no DESERVES a route. There’s one scene in particular that was pretty heart-wrenching with her and I’m so peeved that we’re getting lazy 1-to-1 remakes instead of the most superior version of a game if companies are going to bother to remake old games in the first place. Like just release an upscaled remaster that works on modern OS at that point.
The artwork from Nishimata Aoi is perfectly fine and passable, her style is pretty recognisable and has been for some years, so if you like it, you like it. There’s also a lot of CGs, although not many variations per individual CG (different expressions, etc.). I can’t exactly say most of the new CGs are strict upgrades, since the originals have a lot of charm in their own right, as well as the fact that they’re pretty much straight up zoomed in re-draws. More like a side-grade I guess? I really wish the remake had changed some of the angles or zoomed out of some images to make better use of the fact the game was now in widescreen but alas. See below for examples:
The one area where a significant amount of effort was put into this remake was in the sound replacement, with newly recorded vocal tracks and character voices. As I haven’t played the original I cannot comment on the seiyuu changes for some heroines, but I thought Kanako nailed it (as always) as Kodama, and Kujou Shino reprising her role as Komachi was also an absolute standout.
The BGM tracks were overall good, although for some reason I couldn’t find a BGM player in the game’s omake section? Maybe I’m dumb or something but it seems like a weird omission. The vocal songs on the whole are really great though. I still slightly prefer the 2002 versions of the OP & Insert songs but the new versions are still good. The new ending song definitely feels more “modern” somehow but fitted in nicely, plus a new song from Ceui will never go amiss.
Conclusion
My Score: 6.5/10
With an undoubtable strong start, Sorechiru sadly replicates the sakura flowers the game is named after and withers away fairly quickly, leaving you with fleeting memories of what could’ve been.
Unfortunately the heroine routes in this one really bring this game down a lot and the fact that there’s no satisfying conclusion makes this a really hard game to enjoy or recommend. It’s also pretty hard to recommend the remake specifically because it doesn’t really add too much (one bonus short story per heroine, that are like 5-10 mins each) and simply adds a coat of shiny polish to a game that really needs some actual fundamental fixing.
That being said, Ou Jackson clearly has skills in writing characters but reading this just made me want to play Oretsuba to appreciate his work in a better setting.
Overall, Sorechiru isn’t really worth a read in its current state despite some memorable moment. I would personally recommend waiting until we find out if the promised sequel is actually going to give the series some sore of conclusion first. Did I back the crowdfunder? Hell no. But I’ll probably buy the game when it releases.
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