Is Season of the Sakura really that poorly-regarded? It's hardly a great visual novel, but it's pretty good for an eroge of its era — many others of which were little more than wall-to-wall sex romps with some plot strung between. I'd say Three Sisters' Story is a better title from that generation, though.
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Same with Norturnal Illusion, the contributor seem to consider anyVisualNovel with option in romance part as dating sim.
Personally I find Season of the Sakura to be one of my favorite visual novels. And it's probably the oldest v.novel I still keep on my hd. The number of meaningless choices is mindblowing but it was probably thought to make people actually read the content instead of just skipping the game to it's sex scenes (which are all end game scenes except for one). However it also increases the difficulty for some of the girls (Evangelion expies have hidden scenes which are required to win them) - a thing many v.novels both old and new lack (am I the only one getting tired of "pick a gir -> sex -> sex -> choice -> ending determined by last choice" gameplay?). And all the expies... I found them rather to be a bonus than a "poor disguise".
Also - complaining that modern games would give more story instead of choices... Each choice gives you a description, a dialogue or MC's thoughts, often playing "event" scene if only you care to actually read it.
Plus - dialogues still make me laugh.
I wonder whether I am the only one who has noticed a pattern among the romanceable characters. Like: There is always one who has been pining for the MC all along (Lawrence in Always Remember Me, Liam in Ristorante Amore, Kidou in School Festival, Seth in Summer found me); the character the MC is initially pining for (Aaron in Always Remember Me, Alden in Summer found me); the jerk to defrost (Ethan in Ristorante Amore, Kidou again, and Devlin in Summer found me, Nakula in Nacira); and maybe some innocent, sensitive Nice Guy (Eddy in Always Remember Me, Naoki in School Festival, Sadewa in Nacira)