It shows that somehow Yuzusoft is quite slacking overtime. Their older titles are much more coherent than the newer ones. Sanoba Witch is quite a refreshed take on general moege (cute, fluffy romance VN) where some aspects of drama were thrown into the mix. An overall very enjoyable read despite lacking overall dramatic impact that the story "tried" to become. Imagine a very cute young child trying to convey a very touching and dramatic story, but their cuteness turned it into a fluffy, giggly tale instead. Do note that this is not to say that the story is not good.

Writing: 7.0

Sanoba Witch follows the same structure of common route following by character routes after a decisive event in the story. The common route is quite a slow-paced, but enjoyable stroll which ease us into laws and terms of "magic" that governs the story. Exploring each characters' trope, a bit of backstory, and some opening and closure to minor characters, before spreading into each main stories and like how many standard VNs operates. Unlike newer title like Senren*Banka, Sanoba Witch spread the intensity of story well between common and character route. You have a feeling that the story is still on-going with its slight drama and issues that remained unsolved, but those dramatic scenes were easier to read through compared to nakige as they are toned down into a much more heart-warming and optimistic - the very strength of moege VN genre.

That strength is also perhaps its greatest downside. True to moege's nature, it does not take the story or drama element too seriously, which in turn produces lots and lots of lost opportunities to make the story as a whole much more impactful despite the premise. Issue of magic and compensation can be further cranked-up, or other concept of repercussion and add many more of drama elements to make it much more memorable. In the end, there is only one route where the game decided to dip deeper into the drama pool with strong emotional thug and thus, make it far outstanding compared to other....

Route Preference

Nene >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tsumugi > Meguru >> Wakana >>>> Touko
- Nene is the only route that reaches into the abyss and pull some of the tearjerking emotion to mix with its story. It took a well-known gimmick of presenting a cliffhanging, unsatisfied ending and then introducing reader to a chance to fix that through "Restart" button to redo Nene's timeline (life).
- The writing is well-paced and well-developed, albeit a bit slow and slightly annoying at the period before dating. The events after dating though, was quite a roller-coaster of emotions. The ending to the first part left me slightly surprised by the abrupt cut and closure to "former timeline", then the narrative in "new timeline" really hard-thug my emotion as it laid bare the suffering of Nene until the cutpoint. Much more than the MC, Nene's route focused much more on the growth and development of Nene with MC supports after he realised his feeling. This can be considered as minus point for the route in a way, but still by far, the best route in pure writing aspect.

Character: 7.5

This title uses standard 4 heroines structure consisted of 1) Main poster girl (with "first girl" trope) 2) An "older sister" trope 3) An "energetic, bratty" trope and 4) A "shy but kind" trope.

It would say it is quite a decent group of characters. Each of them have pretty solid interaction which each other that makes the story stays true to its heart-warming nature. Although there is no distinctive character as everyone falls right into their archetype, but they are well fitted into their role and do not create much of discrepency.

However, with the amount of resources put into a specific character's route, it is quite obvious that some of other heroines do not recieve the same care and development. Some of them have their issues finished before even dating the MC, while some have theirs remained unsolved or disregarded right until the very very end. This unfortunately make everything stop short from becoming a really great read.

Another kinda letdown aspect is the MC. Given that the story built him as antisocial, snarky, but sometimes kind and caring, I really wish they could iron-out his traits stronger. There is a chance for him to become a cool, snarky boy that kept his vibe dealing with classmates, club mates, and selected heroine in a much more interesting way, but we end up getting a typical dense, jumpy, and bland personality just like many other ordinary moege MCs. This is the biggest lost opportunity of this title.

Character Preference

Nene >>>>>>>> Wakana > Meguru = Tsumugi >>> > Touko
- No contest. I could feel how much the writer want us to symphatize and care for Nene, and not in a too forceful way. True, I did feel quite emotional and empathetic with her as the story suggested that she suffers the most among the heroines, but by playing her archetype right as a klutz, cute fluff but strong-willed character, the result is very charming. It is quite hard not to at least wish and cheer for her to be happy from her hard work somehow.

Character Design: 7.5

Overall, the artstyle of this game is pretty decent. Proportion remains the most problematic things to be nitpicked, especially how Touko was designed. However, the rest of the design flaws can be overlooked and enjoyed to most eyes. Character were designed cute, bubbly, and bright suiting for moege genre.

Personally, Meguru and Nene are probably the best of the bunch.

Music: 6.0

The weakest aspect. Aside of some of the fitting (albeit generic) BGM in some of the scenes, the significant tracks (OP,ED,Character specific) are kind of forgettable. Yuzusoft is no Nitroplus nor Innocent Grey, but I feel that there could have been more effort poured into music in this game.

Voice: 6.5

Decent and up to standard, albeit nothing extraordinary. Again, I am somehow not a fan of Touko's voicework, but some other character like Tsumugi also sounds a bit unnatural and inconsistent, especially during serious and 'extra' scenes. Still, it does not make the quality as a whole bad per se, as around 75% of voices overall were quite enjoyable.

Extra scenes: 8.5

Boy, there are A LOT of these 'extra' scenes, especially for one specific character. I swear they could have rework this game into kinetic novel without other heroines and fill us with extra scenes of this character just fine.

Nevertheless, they are well-crafted as per Yuzusoft's standard.

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Reviewed on 11/5/2020
HeliumHe