Kakenuke Forward to Our Sparkling Youth

Editorial Worth it

Kakenuke Forward to Our Sparkling Youth is a multi-heroine visual novel that earns broadly positive word of mouth, though with an important caveat about pacing. The common route draws repeated complaints for being overlong and meandering, and several of the six character routes—particularly the senpai Nagiko's—are considered weaker filler. Where the game genuinely shines is in the writing of specific routes: Riri's romance is praised as the sweetest, Ritsu's (the non-blood-related little sister route) handles a bittersweet family farewell with surprising maturity, and Hibiki earns fans for her spirited energy—though one vocal reviewer finds her self-centred behaviour frustrating, so tastes will differ. The clear standout by near-unanimous agreement is Kikka's (Seito Kikka / Kikkō Kikka) hidden-heroine route, described by multiple players across several languages as emotionally devastating and far more dramatically substantial than the main routes, with story threads from the entire game converging in a satisfying payoff. The protagonist himself is flagged as becoming generic once individual routes begin, even though his common-route personality was interesting—a mild but consistent creative weakness. On the build side, the game is a complete release and runs without any reported technical issues. The single technical note that recurs is that adult-content players will need the patch, which is standard for this type of release. Community feedback is extensive and the scores are uniformly high, pointing to a game that rewards patient players willing to push through slower stretches to reach its best material.