さくらシュトラッセ

Sakura Strasse is ぱれっと’s latest offering, released this January 25th. It’s about Harumi Ayase and how his life turns around when a witch named Marie Rudel comes into the picture, as well as how he, his sister Yuka, and his osananajimi Satomura Karin try to bring back life into his family’s restaurant, Kamometei (かもめ亭), after his mother’s hospitalization.

The game starts with a scene where two jet fighters are pursuing an unidentified object, only for it to be revealed as a witch on a broom. It’s actually Marie, who has ran away from her village and has come to Japan after a falling out with her family. Initially, she tries to simply avoid their shots, but is later forced to retaliate, causing her to shoot down one of the planes. At the same time, Harumi Ayase is hurriedly on his way to the hospital where his mother was confined, until he gets caught up in the incident after the plane that Marie shot down crashes right where he is. In the midst of the flames, Harumi notes that he’s all bloody and can’t feel his right arm anymore. Before blacking out, he notices Marie’s figure standing amidst the wreckage, and she catches sight of him just as Harumi falls unconscious. He gets woken up by a police officer some minutes later, and the offier is wondering if Harumi fell asleep on his motorcycle. Harumi checks his body only to find no injuries on himself, and that he’s ended up some distance away from the crash site. He wonders if it’s just all a dream, then remembers the news about his mother and speeds off just as the officer tells him to be careful.

Harumi finds out that his family’s restaurant has been temporarily closed for now because of his mother’s confinement. After his father passed away, it was his mother and sister Yuka who took charge of Kamometei while Harumi was away trying to learn how to be as good a chef as his father. The shop was already doing poorly after his father’s death, though, and this recent incident forced Yuka to temporarily suspend the cafe’s operations as she would be unable to manage the store by herself. Harumi pleads with both Yuka and his mother to reopen the shop, telling them that he would manage it in his mother’s stead, and enlists his osananajimi Karin to help out. Although initially hesitant, Yuka agrees after testing Harumi’s skills as a chef, telling him that while his cooking is passable enough, he needs to improve if he wants to bring Kamometei back to its former glory.

After two days, Harumi starts feeling pain all over his body, and collapses as he starts coughing up blood. He wakes up later to find himself in the back alley of the store, with Marie and Lulli staring at him. After the two girls introduce themselves, Marie then tells Harumi the details of why she’s been stalking staying at the alley this long. When Marie found him at the crash site, Harumi was already near death at that time, so she used her magic to heal up his body. The effects were only temporary, and Marie camped out at the Kamometei knowing that eventually Harumi’s body would collapse once the magic wore off. As proof, Lulli shows Harumi his own right arm, and at the sight of this Harumi starts overreacting. Marie fixes him up in no time, after which she asks him if she could get a job in order to obtain money and lodging. This would also help Marie stay close enough to monitor Harum’s condition and use her magic on him in case he needs it. She asks him to keep her being a witch a secret from everyone, and Harumi agrees. Marie goes through the job interview with flying colors and even gets appointed by Yuka as the head chef because her food were much more delicious than Harumi’s and she took much less time to prepare. His dejected feelings with this turn of events soon turns to anger once he discovers that Marie was using magic to make her food incredibly delicious instead of cooking the food herself. Feeling cheated, Harumi demotes Marie to the position of chef’s assistant, resumes his position as chef, and starts treating Marie coldly.

The story involves Harumi’s interactions with the girls of Kamometei, along with how he struggles to become as good a chef as his father. There’s also the element of Marie using her magic to cure Harumi’s injuries from time to time, and it’s somewhat reminiscent of the relationship between Sumomo and Haru of Nanatsuiro Drops, in that magic is used as a means of curing a condition that the lead is afflicted with. In Haru’s case, it was his meigurumi curse, and in Harumi’s, it’s his injured body. As for the interactions, it’s determined by choosing which heroine you want Harumi to associate with for that phase of the day, with the phases being from breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once you’ve picked out a girl, you’re then treated to a scene that’s focused mostly on her and Harumi, as well as progressing the story and relationship between them. That’s also how the game determines which route you’re going to be going through.

I’ve only finished Marie’s route in Sakura Strasse so calling this a full review seems like a stretch, but her route is more than enough for me since I’m not really too interested with the other characters, save for Lulli. Marie’s route is mostly about her gradually learning how to cook and serve as a waitress as her job in Kamometei as well as acquaint herself with the outside world that’s much different than her small village. It’s also about how she and Harumi slowly fall in love with for each other and how they face the various obstacles in their relationship, eventually ending up getting married to each other after several series of unfortunate events. I used the word “face” and not “surmount”, because the latter implies that you actively face the problem head on and eventually work your way around it actively. Which is something that is completely lacking when it came to the course of actions that Harumi took in Marie’s route.

Allow me to clarify in greater detail, at the risk of spoilers. See, Marie is Chris’ fiancée, so technically she’s meant to marry him even if she were to fall in love with someone else. The reason for this arrangement is because Chris and Marie are talented magicians, and letting their blood mix would help “refine” their magical talents as well as their offspring’s. This was determined by Marie’s grandmother, who is also the chief of the village that both of them are from, and this was the reason why Marie left that same village - to try and escape that tradition which close-mindedly kept their whole village away from the outside world. As for Marie’s character, she’s the kind of girl who tries her best to please everyone, and does her utmost in order to fulfill everyone’s expectations, no matter how ridiculous they are. Not only is she self-sacrificing, she’s also very loyal and duty-bound. She’s also the kind of girl who wants to see and hear things for herself in order to make sure of things, because she’s always self-doubting and full of self-criticism. So when Harumi confessed to Marie about his feelings, Marie turned him down because of that obligation to Chris, who followed her to Japan along with his sister Claudia. At that point, Marie was quite unsure of herself and told Harumi that to try and test his resolution and see just how much his feelings are for her. So what does Harumi do in order to prove his love?

He mopes. He fucking mopes. Drag his feet around. Ignore Marie. Treat her like a stranger. Act like she’s not there. Avoid her whenever she gets the chance. See, I’m all for dramatic tension, because it always adds spice and flavor to any romance story. But this was just frustrating. I was looking forward to the kind of dramatic tension that results from a couple trying their best to make their relationship work out even though destiny or fate or whatever tries its best to keep them apart - not dramatic tension that results from a lead who’s too much of a pussy to even try and show his love interest that he absolutely cares about her. It’s like a one minute confession, then suddenly he’s running away with his tail between his legs. I don’t know if you could even call that dramatic tension - it felt like being cockslapped by a monkey wrench while having a really bad case of diarrhea.

What’s more frustrating is that this happens twice. Two times this thing happens, the first time after the kokuhaku scene, and the second time after Marie’s grandmother comes and takes Marie back to their village. You’d think that after the first incident, Harumi would learn something about being resolute and standing up to his feelings, but no, he does the exact same fucking thing he did in the first incident - mope around and treat Marie like trash whenever she comes close to him in an attempt to try and pull his head out of his ass clear things up with Harumi. It wasn’t even close to Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka’s type of dramatic tension that resulted in Yuuhi’s route, when Yuuhi was taken from Junichi. In that one, Junichi fought to the end to try and regain Yuuhi, and even in his moment of defeat it was revealed that it was all part of his plan to get her back. Junichi did everything he could to get her back and asked for help from his friends - that was surmounting an obstacle. In Sakura Strasse, all Harumi did was mope around, question his self-worth that came short of self-ridicule, and give Marie the cold shoulder. Sure he resolved the problem after his kokuhaku with Marie, but that was only after several characters kept telling to stop running away and to act like a man, with him doing so at the very last moment.

Marie’s route was okay, but the problem was mostly in Harumi’s character and how they tried to have him resolve the issues between him and Marie. Okay, I can’t type that out without grimacing because his bitching and whining for the most part was really, really unnecessary. Yes, Harumi eventually steps up to the plate and expresses his feelings for Marie the best way he knows how, through cooking - but this only comes after he indirectly insults her, makes her feel like trash and whatnot that I just had to wonder if that was really a development on his part, and if it was worth it. I can’t help but think that the writer came up with a really nice idea for setting up the romantic tension between Harumi and Marie, but the execution was downright…frustrating. It’s akin to emotional constipation, and the resolutions to such tensions was just as sudden and as urgent as a three-day laxative suddenly kicking in with no toilet paper in sight.

For the characters, I’ve already talked enough about Harumi and Marie so I’ll talk about the rest. Yuka is Harumi’s older sister, and she’s quite the authoritariantive figure. She manages the restaurant’s paperworks and whatnot while running it at the same time along with Harumi. She’s a very strong-willed woman who’s also sensitive to the plight of others, and is able to know when someone is hiding something from her. Her hobby is setting people straight, whether by force or otherwise. Usually by force. She also tends to drink quite a lot, which is a pretty bad thing to do when coupled with her tendencies for violence.

Satomura Karin is Harumi’s osananajimi, and she’s quite a lively one. She works as a waitress in Kamometei, that is until her studies begin anew. She tends to speak like a kid, which is because she thinks very much like a kid, and even acts like one. She also gets hungry way too often, and really likes to eat a lot as long as the food she’s eating is delicious. Karin is a pretty hilarious character, as evidenced by her character being used to set up most of the gags in the game.

Lulli is Marie’s tsukaima, or familiar. When not in her usual form, she assumes the appearance of a blond loli. She tends to sleep a lot, especially in the mornings, and she’s usually found talking to cats in the back alley of Kamometei. That is until she gets asked to help out with the store, and Lulli becomes a sort of waitress for certain occasions. She has a very cool and collected demeanor, and is rarely surprised or affected by anything. She loves eating cheese, just as much as an alcoholic loves trying to avoid any and all alcoholic drinks within a 5 mile radius. Lulli is also straightforward when it comes to certain things, lacking tact but is correct in what she says.

There ’s also the subcharacters to mention. Claudia Clement is Chris’ older sister who is tasked with the job of retrieving Marie, which is why she’s in Japan. Unfortunately, she’s a bit of a crazy nutcase, though not literally. She’s quite selfish and tends to hog the spotlight whenever she’s around by always creating a commotion, though she does have her soft side. Chris Clement is Marie’s fiancée, and Claudia’s younger brother, though Claudia regrets that Chris was born a man - she thinks that Chris is so pretty that he should have been a she instead, as evidenced by her tendencies of dressing him up in girl’s clothes. Then taking pictures of it. He’s pretty smart, treats people nicely, and he’s also more responsible than his sister, as he’s always the one paying for the “free meals” that Claudia always gets (with the amount being deducted from Marie’s salary). There’s also Harumi’s mom, and she’s pretty cute with the way she goes “ara ara”. She’s absolutely bored from her hospital confinement but can’t do a thing about it, so she always peels and cuts the apples given to her, ending up with too many for her to even eat.

It should go unsaid that I absolutely adore the game’s visuals, but since I’ve gone ahead and said it, go paradoxical logic. The CGs are all bright and full of colors that exude and fill up the scenes with a certain lifelike likeness to them. The character depictions are all accurate, able to give life to these character’s personalities and actions just by looking at them. The game’s use of SD CGs also adds to the game’s cuteness, as seriously, these CGs are just too damn cute!

I also liked the voice acting present in Sakura Strasse, which is what should be expected when you’ve got big name voice actresses present. Ishiki Hikaru as Claudia Clement was definitely a welcome performance, while Fuuri Samoto as Marie and Emiko Hagiwara as Lulli were just as equally fitting in their roles, along with Kazune as Yuka and Mio Ohkawa as Karin. Aoba Ringo as a boy was hilarious to listen to, but her performance was alright in the least - it was okay, but it wasn’t definitely outstanding or memorable. I’m sure that the makers also knew that the voice acting present was one of the game’s best features, which is why the characters even say lines of dialogue even when they’re not the one the text box is focusing on, adding quite a bit of humor and impact to whatever is going on during a particular scene. As for the music in this game, I liked it just as much as the voice acting. The music tracks fit in nicely with the scenes they’re played in, and the overall ambience that they bring out fit the atmosphere of the game. It’s a pretty nice fit, really.

The overall worth of this game is…I don’t know. It’s not that bad a title, but it’s also not that good - then again, I haven’t played through the game’s other available routes, so I’ll have to say that my judgment is lacking. If anything, Marie’s route wasn’t that bad, but I can honestly say that it definitely needed some improvement if they wanted me to sympathize with Harumi. That, and I definitely need to get my thoughts about this game rearranged, because it feels like I’ve been beaten over the head with a metal bat several times while debating with myself about what I think of Marie’s route.