After experiencing this game without purchasing it initially, I felt compelled to support the developers by buying their product.
The story itself wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was enjoyable and engaging in its own way.
I found the relationships in the game so happy and harmonious that it made me wish real-life relationships could be the same. It also inspired me to strive for my own happiness.
Overall, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game.

Keep in mind, if this type of cutesy VN interests you, than by all means buy and enjoy it. It appeals to the moege audience quite well. I’m just writing my opinion on it all.

Before I begin, I should preface by saying that this review only covers the common route and main heroine routes, excluding the ‘normal’ ending and each of the side routes. I may make adjustments to the review once I’ve 100� the game, but I feel that ultimately won’t be necessary; I will elaborate on this later.

Overall, Senren Banka was probably one of the most mediocre things I’ve read through, and eventually found myself flipping through the text at faster and faster speed because it simply couldn’t hold my interest from how repetitive it was. Senren Banka is about a group of heroines affected by the local curse to varying degrees, and the story resolves the conflict of the curse in different ways depending on which route you choose. Unfortunately, the plot of Yuzusoft VNs is never their (strong) point, so don’t expect anything crazy with this one, either. Piecing the main plot together through the different routes might be fun, but I picked the story-heavy route on my blind playthrough, so I’m probably not the best to give my opinion on it as a whole. That being said, if you plan to 100% the game, save Lena’s route for last, as otherwise you’ll get bored during the other routes afterward since you’ll already know everything the other routes allude to, plot-wise. If you only wish to play through one route – which I couldn’t even blame you for this VN, all the routes feel very much the same in flow – than just play Lena’s right off the bat.

Choosing a route is incredibly simple and straight-forward: for the main routes, you’ll basically never miss any of the route branches on accident. There are guides out there if you need one. So far, I have played Lena, Murasame, Mako, and Yoshino in that order, and perhaps it was just me getting bored, but I gleaned less and less enjoyment from each subsequent route. They’re very much written the same, and the pacing of said writing will constantly be giving you this whiplash effect. Sure, common routes are usually pretty slow and mild, given their propensity toward character development, but once you head down a route the writing really just goes full throttle and ruins the pacing. This isn’t mitigated by the fact that the characters themselves almost feel like different characters before and after their route is solidified – basically, as soon they confess, each of them turn into huge horndogs outta nowhere – including MC, who generally suffers from VN MC syndrome of being pretty bland but ‘thoughtful and kind’ (with THE GENERIC-ASS MC DESIGN). Unfortunately, this degradation of the story toward depravity seems to happen every single route, and things get very repetitive, very fast.

Side characters are pretty good and do what they need to do, and the heroines stay relevant (aka, present) in routes that are not their own, so that’s a big plus. Like many VNs, the main conflicts of each heroine when it’s not their route and swept under the rug and conveniently forgotten, or mentioned very briefly before being discarded without any development. I understand its not their time in the spotlight, but it’s always just irksome to see these huge plot points in one route suddenly not matter at all in the others. *cough* *cough* Murasame’s route *cough*

I covered it a bit already, but the overall tone of this VN is light-hearted and ‘cutesy’, and that’s probably what most readers are looking for anyway. While it does that well, if you’re looking for anything deeper you’re obviously in the wrong spot. When the plot does get serious to any degree, it feels pigeon-holed and usually isn’t allowed to go on for long – they simply must have immediate comic relief, and I’m generally not a fan of that. Many times I caught myself having to partially rewind and reread plot-relevant backlog, because I was half-reading some characters talking about sex or the MC and heroine being lovey-dovey for the 30th time that chapter. This abruptness between serious and light-hearted/horny moments was painfully common, hence the constant whiplash I mentioned earlier. Many scenes felt like a struggle to get through because they simply appeased the moege/eroge target audience and didn’t really contribute anything else, and overall it got super predictable and boring. Speaking of, I did not download the patch for H scenes, but I doubt I missed much.

The art is pretty good! The characters look solid and BGs are about what one could expect from a VN of this calibur. The transition effects between chapters were pleasant, and the chibi-style CGs were super cute. Some of the CGs where they were making out were a bit weird, and you can obviously tell they only edited the mouths to make them different.

The BGM and OST wasn’t bad, nothing to write home about but never got irritating after almost thirty hours. Here and there you might wish they recorded a few more tracks, but that’s its biggest offense. Overall sound design wasn’t bad, either – if you’re the type to enjoy all the sounds of them making out, you’ll have a hay day. The voice acting itself was pretty great, especially Lena’s; I would often cycle the backlog trying to get her line to pop up, it’s quite pleasing.

Senren Banka’s game design (i.e., interface) was detailed and had plenty of features I didn’t even know I wanted in a VN until I had them – the ‘panic’ button was appreciated, and being able to favorite certain voice lines was a nice little feature for some of the funnier moments. Being able to skip to the next scene/choice and visualize the branches was a pleasant touch and I do give props for that.

Overall, do I regret playing this VN? No. I’ll finish through the rest of the routes to 100% it, even though I know I’ll probably get bored or cringe many more times; I wouldn’t do that if I straight-up disliked a VN. It’s nothing I’ll personally be writing home or recommending to people, but I sense it’s simply because I’m not its target audience. If you *are* into moeges than this is probably worth picking up on a sale, just don’t expect anything stellar in terms of plot or route individuality.

Many years later as she faced the 'firing stick', Murasame was to remember that distant afternoon when her family took her to bid farewell. -Five Hundred Years of Solitude

I pity her solitude, so I chose her over Yoshino for the first route to clear. But nonetheless, she's cute as hell.

Saying something serious, the game's very smooth. It is very easy to get into and as easy to read through. There are good humours, there are story hooks and there are cute girls. Wow. The 'chibi' sprites are adorable, and the way the sprites change expression as the conversation goes is very natural. It's just super well-made with details that really spell out how much thoughts the devs had put into the game.

If you are new to visual novel, this is a must try. If you are familiar with VN but haven't played Seren Banka, then what are you waiting for. The only downside I can imagine people facing is that the game focuses a lot on traditional Japanese elements like Kimono and rural Japanese stuff, without too much exploration into the modern Japanese society or modern Japan in general(as far as I've went within the 11 hours).