Title: キサラギGOLD★STAR
Developer: Saga Planets
Release Date: 29th October 2010
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 20+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
In an average town in Japan there is a small, slightly run down but clearly well-loved row of apartments – known as “Cosmos Street”. Here lives a group of six childhood friends who have grown up together and now attend the same high school. Due to their individual aptitudes in art, sports or even music, all of them are special scholarship students at the renowned Kisaragi Academy.
Amongst them is our protagonist Nitta Futami. Whilst he is smart, he considers himself to be the most average of the friend group and sees himself more as a supporter. During the preperation for the school’s upcomming Autumn Festival he must help them achieve their hopes & dreams whilst also figuring out the mystery behind the moon-shaped wristband each member of the group wears.
Thoughts
Kisaragi Gold Star is the autumn installment of Saga Planet’s “Four Seasons” Series and is the final one of the four games that I played. Whilst there have been some bumps in the journey, my experience so far has been primarily positive so did this match the heights of previous entries?
I mean this game was always going to have a hard time comparing to Hatsuyuki Sakura and Natsuyume Nagisa so it shouldn’t really be surprising that it isn’t as good as those two. However, there were still some things that made Kisaragi Gold Star enjoyable.
As all of the heroines are childhood friends of the protagonist, clearly the game is for people who enjoy that trope. I did really like the interactions between the group though – especially their morning routine which was quite adorable.
The heroines themselves are all quirky and lovable in their own ways, with each of them being sufficiently distinct despite falling under the same main trope, which was impressive in itself. I’ve noticed that Saga Planets games have had some quirky heroines and I do like that about them as a brand.
The story, on the other hand, was sadly a bit of a mixed bag and I actually found myself preferring the heroine routes not as focused on the overall plotline (Mikoto & Tsubasa). I found the mystery interesting at first but I guess it was the excecution or resolution that felt a little silly?
Surprisingly the true route focuses less on a single heroine which was a bold choice but it definitely tied up some loose ends that I noticed prior. The fact you have to play through the entire thing 5 times to get a different ending CG/final line of dialogue is wild though.
Saya is probably the closest thing to a main heroine in the game’s eyes. She’s the cheerful moodmaker of the group. I actually like Saya as a heroine and some parts of her route were good (the confession scene was adorable) but the overall story wasn’t my favourite despite the protagonist being a bit of a badass towards the end lmao.
To call Ichika a tsundere is a bit of an understatement, haha. She’s extremely cold towards her brother and gets the two bicker quite a bit (which just makes her dere side cuter I guess?). I’m completely torn on Ichika’s route – I can’t decide if it’s completely ridiculous or a play on the typical imouto route in games.
Tsubasa (also nicknamed “You” in the game) is absolutely hilarious. She’s clearly got feelings for Futami but isn’t the best at expressing them and so goes into her “dark mode” when angry or upset at Futami being oblivious. Her route was pretty good (again another atmospheric confession scene).
Mikoto is the quiet artist of the group and was the heroine I was most surprised by. Her route ended up being the right amount of dramatic (although you could argue it was a bit cliche) and as a heroine she was super adorable.
Like some of the latter Saga Planets games, there’s mini routes (and H scenes) for many of the side characters. In this case, 4 – Nanako, Touri, Eiko & Keiko. While these were actually quite cute in some cases, it’s clear they’re for fanservice only as the routes are very short. I almost wish they’d only picked one girl and given her a longer sub-route (either Nanako or Touri imo).
Like most of the other games from this brand, there’s multiple artists which does mean a significant amount of inconsistency across the CGs. I do like Saga Planet’s style of artwork though and find it cute/moe so it wasn’t a huge deal.
The music in this game was good as expected – the BGM was fitting and of good quality and the vocal tracks were all excellent. Please save me from the earworm that is ぱぱらー it’s been weeks and I find myself humming it daily, haha. (ぱぱらー♪ ぱぱらー♪)
Conclusion
My Score: 7/10
Enjoyable setting and character interactions make Kisaragi Gold Star a pretty decent charage but the game feels like it lacks the grand story of the better entries in the four seasons series, which lets it down quite a bit. It’s a shame since there’s so few autumnal games that I was hoping this would be a great one.
As far as the four seasons go, my personal ranking of the games are as follows:
Natsuyume Nagisa > Hatsuyuki Sakura >> Kisaragi Gold Star >>>> Coming x Humming
I’d personally highly recommend the two 2 games and would probably ignore the other two. Kisaragi is okay but nothing you should go out of your way to play and CxH should be confined to history.
Overall, the series had more highs than lows but since the games aren’t related there is no real reason to play them all. It was a good introduction to Saga Planets for me though and I do plan to pick up some more of their titles if I have time.
Thanks for reading~
Zettai Renai! 