I don't really recall how I stumbled upon A Year of Springs, but I'm glad I did. This is a cute little traditional style visual novel that offers a trio of interconnected slice-of-life style narratives which center around three tight-knit women living in Japan as they hang out and learn more about each other and themselves.

The stories stay mostly light in complexity and are complemented by an adorable art style that never got old for me. The translation and writing felt sharp and appropriately silly, but also has some downer moments for sure. I'd struggle to quite call this "cozy" as a result, but it certainly made me feel warm inside regardless.

There are times when I think the dialogue can lean a bit too hard into trying to educate, which can make it come off a bit stilted. But I had to remind myself that there are people out there that haven't had the exposure to the issues the game tackles that I have and games like this are important because there simply aren't enough like it that handle its topics with the same class.

I'll wrap up just by saying that this is a lovely experience on Steam Deck and also only took me a bit over 2 hours to play through. There are more endings than I got to, so you could easily squeeze closer to 3 out of it I think if you go after them all.