[PC] Nanatsuiro★Drops – Review

Title: ななついろ★ドロップス
Developer: Unison Shift: Blossom
Release Date: 21st April 2006
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~15 Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB

The protagonist of this game, Masaharu is an average, if a little introverted high school student. He has few friends but doesn’t really seem too bothered by this. One day, he’s encouraged to help out at the school’s gardening club and, following an accident involving a mysterious masked man, he ends up drinking a magical potion that turns him into a plushie sheep in the evenings.

Following a discussion with a teacher (Natsume) at school, it transpires that this potion came from another, more magical world and the only way to return Masaharu to his original form is to collect seven star drops (the essence of falling stars). Unfortunately, since he’s a tiny plushie sheep he can’t do this by himself so needs help from someone whom is able to wield a “ladle” – the tool used to collect star drops. This turns out to be his classmate Sumomo but, there is one important condition, Masaharu must not reveal to her his true identity. Thus begins a sweet, if a little magical, tale of first love.

Characters

Tsuwabuki Masaharu

Masaharu (aka Haru) a quiet, loner type who would much rather sit at his desk reading than interact with others. However, upon meeting Sumomo and Nadeshiko he does begin to open up a little more and becomes a member of the school’s gardening club. When he is in his plushie form, he is known as Yuki and is voiced by Agumi Oto.

Akihime Sumomo (CV Samoto Fuuri)

Sumomo is a shy and kind classmate of Haru, who wants to befriend him but doesn’t know how to approach him. She can often be found with her beloved childhood friend Nadeshiko (whom she calls Nako-chan). Sumomo is incredibly shy and easily embarassed, which leads to many awkward moments between her and Haru but she always tries her best! Sumomo is the girl chosen to help Yuki (Haru) to collect the stardrops and she endeavours to help Yuki after hearing his (fake) sob story. She finds being able to use this small amount of magic exciting and was unaware of stardrops before Yuki came to her.

Yaeno Nadeshiko (CV Munekawa Kyou)

Nadeshiko is Sumomo’s childhood friend and the pair are pretty much joined at the hip even now. Nadeshiko is extremely protective towards Sumomo and can tend to overreact if she thinks someone has upset her. Nadeshiko herself is typically a calm, elegant and mature girl whom is also a member of the school’s gardening club. She is from a wealthy, traditional family.

Yuuki Nona (CV Nagamori Sae)

Nona is a transfer student and is a quiet, elegant ojou-sama (complete with butler). Although, once you get to know her better she’s more of a haughty character. However, it quickly transpires that she is actually a resident from the magical world Figuare and was sent to compete with Sumomo in an annual stardrop-collecting competition under the alias of Prima Asparas. This is her first time outside of Figuare so she struggles a little with some of the cultural differences.

Artwork

The primary artist for this game was Itou Noizi, with support from Mikeou (primarily on the side characters). Both are well-seasoned in galge and it showed. SD artwork was handled by Pero as typical in Unisonshift Blossom titles.

Sound

Opening: Koisuru ★ Flow light – Akira
Sumomo Ending: Nijiiro no Lucia – Kiyo
Nadeshiko Ending: Ashita e… Anata e – Kiyo
Nona Ending: ★★★Daisuki★★★ – Kiyo

Nanatsuiro Drop’s BGM was composed by Miztstuki Ryou (aka Kiyo) as with Unisonshift Blossom’s other games.

System

Nanadrops has a pretty standard system with a very pink twist. There’s only three routes so not many choices & most of them are pretty straight-forward so a guide is probably not necessary.

I bought the memorial edition of the game, which worked fine on my windows 10 device & included a PDF version of “Itou Noizi’s Workshop 4” – a 50 page artbook featuring promotional illustrations for the game. This was a nice little bonus.

My Thoughts

After reading Flyable Heart, another Unisonshift:Blossom work, I knew that I had to try out some of their other titles. I really enjoy their signature mix of a cute romance with the beautiful visuals provided by Itou Noizi and was hoping that Nanatsuiro Drops would live up to the high expectations I had of the brand. Did it deliver the memorable first love story that was promised?

I think the biggest impression Nanadrops left on me is the fact that it was very cute overall. The heroines, story, artwork and romance were all pretty adorable and sweet, almost reminiscent of a shoujo manga. Considering pure love/vanilla magical girl stories in eroge are the more uncommon kind, I really enjoyed this kind of setting – it almost reminded me of the anime I grew up watching (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew, etc.).

As you may be able to tell from the cover/synopsis, Sumomo is the main heroine of this game and, as such, her route is the primary focus of the game. Is it befitting of this accolade? Yes, I would say so – Sumomo & Haru’s tale is that of a gentle, tentative first love with some bittersweet moments but a solid conclusion (with of course a hint of magic). Being a lover of fluffy stories, I enjoyed Sumomo’s route immensely and even teared up at parts. Adorable. As a heroine, Sumomo is pretty likable – she has a personality where you as the reader feel like you want to root for her success.

Unfortunately, the routes for the two other heroines aren’t quite up to the same standards as Sumomo’s & I am of the opinion that if this game would probably benefit from being a single-heroine title. However, it’s not as if the reader is forced to play through the extra routes so iwhen I started to look at them as a kind of bonus content I started enjoying them more.

Given how devoted a friend Nadeshiko is towards Sumomo, the fact she has a route just feels wrong. It is the shortest of the three and is, by far, the most awkward. It also probably didn’t help that Nadeshiko isn’t really my type of heroine either.

Nona, on the other hand, was definitely more appealing to me as the tsundere ojou-sama rival to Sumomo. This made her inclusion as a heroine somewhat more believable (although I did feel bad for abandoning my dear Sumomo). However, whilst much of Nona’s route was bemusing in its absurdidty, it felt almost too eroge-like to be in this game (which sounds dumb I know). Nona’s route seemed much more ecchi than the rest of the game, which I’m sure that many players enjoyed, but I was pretty neutral on (I’ve played Alice Parade, I know this company doesn’t specialise in H content). Nevertheless, Nona’s route was the more enjoyable of the two additional ones.

Considering there’s only three heroines, NanaDrops has a really large supporting cast – from classmates, Sumomo’s family, Nona’s butler & even Haru’s childhood friends (whom are cameo characters from an older Unisonshift game). The majority of them were pretty decent/memorable.

Like everything else in this game, the artwork itself is super cute. I’m a huge fan of Itou Noizi’s art style to begin with so I’ll admit my bias. What I was really impressed with was that there was a really high amount of CGs overall and they all looked nice.

I enjoy the relaxed, slightly magical & almost whimsical tone of the music in this game. Like the other Unisonshift games I’ve played, the BGM player in the extra menu features the composer’s commentary which was such a neat little touch – I really enjoyed reading their insights!

Look, this game is not one that you play for the H Scenes, there’s very few and they’re not particularly great. You know your game isn’t H heavy when a normal bath scene is counted as an ero scene in the replay menu, haha.

Final Thoughts

My Score: 8/10

What can I say? I’m a sucker for cute love stories and Nanatsuiro Drops most certainly delivers on that regard. Sumomo’s route was one of the most memorable ones I’ve read in a while and I felt incredibly satisfied after reading it. The other routes may not be quite as good but they’re also shorter and can be ignored if you wish.

Considering that this game regularly goes on sale for 500 yen (a complete steal imo), I would highly recommend this game to pure love fans and/or people who are newer to galge – this would definitely be a great starter title.

Thanks for reading!

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