Sunflower is an okay virtual novel about a news team, a (proverbial) black sheep, and some top-notch (lewd) artwork.
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
(FxF) Sexual content.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Game-play?
One or two hours.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
No, not necessary.
Foreword
Attention!
This article is pending review. It is either incomplete, out-of-date, or I feel the need to disclaim my shame for a something I’m not proud of.
Gameplay
. . . in a nutshell
I need to make some revisions.
out the shell. . .
This is a virtual novel without decision making, so all you will need to do is read text. If reading a short-story does not appeal to you, then this is one of the worst games you could have clicked-on.
– How to Play –
Left-click or hit the “enter” key to progress the story. Don’t hit the “esc” key unless you want to instantly close the application. Then again, an “abort-everything” button should be a staple for all lewd games. Save often, and watch those fingers!
Story
We first meet Alina, who retails a blissful time in her past as walks beside rows of sunflowers. As it turns out, she’s blissfully ignoring her role as a member of a news team. Ivana and Nadiya are at a loss without their traffic/weather reporter. But they continue to the broadcast (because they have to). There’s a girl named Lidiya, who’s a source of contention among the news crew. As a matter of fact, Ivana and Nadiya strongly dislike her. With a passion.
But Alina finds Lidiya very attractive, and she wants a piece of her. Problem being, Lidiya has done some serious wrong (which is later revealed) to Alina and her friends, but Alina is willing to forgive her. As Alina tries to seduce Lidiya, the story also follows a budding relationship between Ivana and Nadiya, whom bond over a a “magna” comic. It features a set of heroes, Yuri and Sub, whom also engage in a romantic subplot.
There’s a lot of romance in this story. Even the sunflowers can’t get away from the overflowing romance this title has to offer! You’ll. . . see what I mean if you read far enough.
Visuals
The user-interface is serviceable. It isn’t fancy, but it gets the job done. It resembles any old, generic virtual novels’ interface. I was hard-pressed to find an “options” pane, which you’d think should be readily accessable. You can save and load at any point, but you can only go forward in the story. If you miss some dialogue, well I hope you you’ve been saving.
The character portraits look like decent anime-girl portraits.They aren’t varied (beyond some basic changes of expression), so learn to like them. They appear to be the same portraits used in the Developers’ other titles, so I’m awarding lazy-points.
The full-art scenes are drawn by someone-else entirely, and are top-notch. If the rest of this title’s assets were drawn by the artist behind the “CGs”, then this virtual novel would have a very unique, high-budget style unknown to similar titles. It’s too bad that there wasn’t more full-art scenes, as I counted three. Only two were lewd, and only one contained sexual-content. I have a feeling that this artist was where the game’s budget went. There’s also no “gallery mode”, so you have to replay the game to re-see the artwork.
The Goods
Verdict
I’m actually on the fence about this game. I didn’t find the story to be terribly engaging, nor did I find the visuals to be anything but standard. The full-art scenes were amazing, but few and far between. As a story, this game is okay. As a lewd-title, this game fails.
So think of this game as a romantic tale between (several) lovers, with a little bit of lewdness sprinkled in. Grab it while it goes on sale, and enjoy a few hours of content.
