The story revolves around you, naturally, as Shuji Yamagami, a socially awkward high school student. As with most Hentai games, Season of Sakura plays like an interactive story: you're given choices at the bottom of each screen. There are eight main female characters to pursue as your "first love", and if you do something right, you will get to see a brief adult scene in an ending with the girl of your reveries.

One of the game's highlights is the fact that the female characters are very well thought-out. Each girl has her own dreams, interests, and secrets. They are not licentious and stereotypical like in most other Hentai games, and each girl has her own way of rebuffing your approach if you are too rude. The game keeps track of your relationship with each girl, and determines near the end which one is most likely to respond favorably. The game has no scoring or progress system of any kind, so you must determine on your own how successful you have been. It is possible, for example, to end up with no girl beside you at all at the end, if you choose the wrong girl at the end. You may have hurt a girl's feelings without knowing it, and the only way you could tell is by observing her reaction to you in the following days. Or you may have ignored her too long for the girl to forgive you no matter how much you try to make up for it, and it is then up to you to realize your mistake, and start pursuing someone else (or restore a saved game).

These subtleties make Season of Sakura an excellent reflection of real life. The translation from Japanese to English by Jast USA is also one of the best I've seen, without significant grammatical errors at least. Overall, Season of Sakura is an excellent example of how good adult games can be – when sex is used as an integral part of the story, but not the goal or the be-all-and-end-all. Season of Sakura is mature, sensible, and offers a great story full of believable characters. Two thumbs up!