A Year Of Springs Review

Game: A Year Of Springs
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam and itch.io (Windows, Linux)) 
Developers | Publishers: npckc | Ratalaika Games
Age Rating: US Teen | EU 12+
Price: US $4.99 | UK £4.49 | EU € 4,99
Release Date: December 10th, 2021

Review code used, many thanks to Ratalaika Games. 

A Year Of Springs is an adventure visual novel compilation about three women who are dear friends. They go to great lengths to support and be there for another. Does this game live up to its wholesome premise? Let’s delve in and find out!

Blossoming Friendships

A Year Of Springs tells the tales of three women, Haru, a transgender woman trying to find her place in society; Erika, a former delinquent figuring out what she wants; and Manami, a sweet yet clueless college student who is long-term friends with both Haru and Erika. Each has her own game: one night, hot springs (Haru); last day of spring (Erika), and spring leaves no flowers (Manami). These stories centre on belonging, personal relationships, and love of different kinds. 

Each novel is rather short, able to be completed in around an hour or less if the player goes for all endings. In comparison to the original single releases on PC and mobile, this new trilogy has epilogues for each end that provide the reader with a little insight and context for the connection between these women. 

Gameplay

The controls for this game are pretty simple. Like most visual novels, the player spends their just clicking through the story and occasionally making a choice. What’s fun about this game is the trigger buttons allow for easy rewinding (L and ZL) and fast-forwarding (R and ZR). That makes it convenient to go back or speed through the story at the player’s own pace. This was helpful for me since I can sometimes struggle to process what I’m reading and miss a couple of lines. 

Controls 

The controls are intuitive and easy to pick up. ‘A’ advances the story and selects choices. ‘B’ is the back button, the shoulder buttons fast-forward and rewind as noted, and ‘+’ brings up the menu that the player navigates with the shoulder buttons and thumb sticks. 

Art and Music

A Year Of Springs is animated in a simple yet charming hand-drawn style. The characters and backgrounds are pleasant to look at and just precious. I took plenty of screenshots to look through at a later time. 

The music is simple and sweet, shifting as the scenes go by. While no one track stood out to me, I liked the direction amongst each game. It really breathed life into the stories. 

Pros and Cons

This collection certainly has great points. The connection between the characters is believable and gets one invested in what will happen next. The art and music are lovely and the controls are simple to pick up. The content with Haru and her identity as a trans woman was handled well as were the other LQBTQ+ elements of the games. It was a positive and interesting insight into the lives that trans people have to live on a regular basis. 

However, these games are on the shorter side. For example, my first playthrough of spring leaves no flowers took me a whopping 5 minutes. I reached the end and was a little caught off-guard by the end title screen. I do wish the games were a little longer and that hurt the story a little. That wasn’t helped by the fact that getting certain endings were rather specific and there was little direction on how to go about them. While that can be typical for some visual novels, it was a little frustrating here. I ended up having to look up a guide to get the epilogue, which was mainly worth it. 

Conclusion

I enjoyed A Year Of Springs! The stories were sweet and thoughtful. While I do wish they were longer, that speaks to how much I enjoyed my time with Haru, Erika, and Manami. If you’re looking for an LGBTQ+ friendly game collection or a sweet story or two, then I definitely recommend this!

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.