Title: アスカさんはなびかない
Developer: Azarashi Soft
Release Date: 23rd December 2022
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 5+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
The protagonist of this title, Asuma, is your regular high school student. One day he is heading home when a teacher calls out to him, however, a girl answers mistakenly. She is the student council president Shishidou Asuka – with perfect grades, beautiful appearance and cool demeanour she has the nickname of the “Ice Princess”. The teacher corrects Asuka on the misunderstanding and Asuma sees a different side to her – a more flustered side. As she rushes away embarassed, she drops a notebook which Asuma picks up and intends to return to her. An unusual love story between a girl who can’t be swayed and a boy who wishes to see her true feelings now begins.
Thoughts
Being the newest title from my beloved Azarashi Soft, it should be no surprise that Asuka-san wa Nabikanai (or Asunabi for short) was definitely on my wishlist. I ended up pre-ordering this and playing it shortly after release (bless download editions). Considering this was my third lower-price single heroine title in a short time period, how did this compare to the others?
Given that Azarashi Soft are known for their romance-focused games, it should come as no surprise that Asunabi follows this formula. What I was surprised about though was the buildup before the romantic relationship was decently long and actually enjoyable to read. There’s lot of fluffy scenes and the pacing of the romance was pretty good also.
Out of the three “low price” titles I played recently, this was the longest one and I definitely thought the amount of content was satisfactory for the price. The actual story was a good romance title so no real complaints there the character interactions were generally pretty enjoyable.
With only one heroine, it means Asuka needs to make an impression and luckily she does. Built upon the trope of the “perfect, yet cold student council predisent”, the game slowly reveals more of her personality – both positive and negative. This just ends up making her a more endearing character to the reader and I felt like she had a solid amount of development & personality so highly enjoyed my time spent with her.
Whilst the protagonist Asuma is okay, the side characters are rather forgettable. This feeling is enhanced by a lack of sprites for them.
The main artist for this game is Sena Chifuyu* – a newcomer to Azarashi Soft – but I think they did a really nice job. There’s a good amount of CGs in the game (23) and they are usually very nice. The SD artwork by Marotaro was disgustingly cute as always.
There was a decent amount of BGM considering the length of this game and I really enjoyed the tracks themselves – nothing truly outstanding but very relaxing. There is one theme song used as both op & ed which I’m always a little sad about but it was a nice song by Duca so that lessened the disappointment.
Conclusion
My Score: 7/10
Sorry for the short review but there really isn’t much to say about Asunabi – it’s a solid low-price romance title and a good read. If you like Azarashi Soft’s other games then you will probably like this too as they’re a company I have found always produces games of at least good quality. The romantic buildup of this game was a little unusual and was perhaps the most interesting thing aside from the fluff so that may make it worth it too?
Asunabi hasn’t changed my opinion on Azarashi Soft and I am happy I pre-ordered it. I plan to get through some more Amakano games before the spring hopefully since Amakano 2+ is coming out then.
Thanks for reading!
Zettai Renai! 