A Year of Springs is bunch of visual novels in the soft story telling that I have come to know npckc for. It doesn't deal too much in drama, and lets it's cast be supportive and open with each other in a way that can sometimes feel unrealistic to my generation. That being said, I do feel these games have a place properly in the future as more people want to look into their own sexuality and find more positive works of discovering yourself.

The game also has a neat little unlock feature for leading into the next game, and a gallery mode to see all the cute pictures you acquire through out your playthroughs. As well, there is an epilogue that shows the cast of characters a little after everything is resolved, and while I hope we get more of them, it's nice to see them being sweet to each other one last time. If you're looking for a comfy game for your gays, this trilogy hits the spot.

finishing the epilogue and then thinking about one of the bad ends for the first game... anyway this is fantastic for what it is! it only took me two hours to get all the endings but i loved all the characters so much, i would play ten more of these games just exploring their lives. i've never really seen trans media that portrays the vague disconnect of being around friends who are cis girls... our experiences are so similar yet so different and that subtly sits in the back of your mind always. masterful!

this would probably function better as an educational tool than a standard game tbh, esp since it’s a visual novel that requires very little player input. the art is absolutely adorable and so are the characters themselves, but the writing is very heavy handed and thus predictable. i’m really happy to see the representation and a frank discussion on LGBT rights in japan, but if you’re a part of the community or are already educated on trans issues the plot might just be a bit too obvious to fully immerse yourself in. they’re just so dang cute and sweet though! would still recommend picking up for the charm

Incredibly cute and sweet, but also unimaginably tender and surprisingly profound. The lowkey drama found throughout A Year of Springs is something that’s not quite easy to see. Like, there are a lot of cozy games, games that in some ways have similar vibes to this one, but which couldn’t be more different in terms of the effect that cozyness has on the player. When I play something like Animal Crossing I don’t feel at all like when I played this. One feels like a neverending winter with unlimited hot chocolate while the other feels like holding hands with your favorite person on a rainy day, each doing different things but nevertheless feeling like that company is the better part of the experience. I don’t know.

I love how every chapter plays with the dialogue mechanics, from the multiple ways you can affect the story in the first one, in contrast to how the state of mind of the main character in the third one basically locks you from diverging from the one path, to the second one, which has one BIG choice masquerading as multiple little ones. But that works in service to the writing and the very human and serene way the relationships between these three women changes over the spring. I was left wanting more, but in a good way. Have you eve watch a movie and felt that you just wanted like a sitcom made out of it? Like, fine, the story is done, but you just couldn’t let the characters go? I wanna know not necessarily what happens next, but what these people do with their lives. I don’t care if it’s boring, I just wanna know. In a matter of an hour the developer made me care, made relate, made cry and made miss three people that don’t exist but I have met.

Genuinely one of the best games I’ve ever played.