A visual novel lives or dies by its cast, and Senren Banka's is one of the genre's finest: four main heroines with fully developed routes, two side heroines with stories of their own, and a supporting cast that makes the village feel real.
The shrine maiden of Hoori and the protagonist's arranged fiancée. Earnest and dutiful, she is often mistaken for standoffish, but underneath the formal manners hides a gentle, expressive girl with a surprisingly childish side. She carries the weight of the shrine's curse with a courage she never shows off — which makes it all the more rewarding when the protagonist finally gets her to relax.
Yoshino's childhood friend and her sworn protector, trained as a ninja from birth. She takes her duty seriously and everything else not seriously at all: playful, mischievous and always one step ahead of the joke. Her route is the most comedic of the four, but it also carries a quiet, tender thread about what it means to serve someone you love.
A five-hundred-year-old spirit who guarded the divine blade Murasamemaru until the protagonist broke it. To most people she is invisible; to him she is a bright, cheerful presence with a mature side that surfaces when the past comes calling. Her route digs deepest into the curse, the sacrifice and the girl she used to be.
A transfer student from abroad who comes to work at the protagonist's grandfather's inn. Lively, kind and blunt to the point of comedy, she bounces back from every failure with a grin. She is also one of the very few people who can see Murasame and Yoshino's telltale ears — which makes her the perfect witness to the village's secrets.
The protagonist's cousin, one year younger, who works at a sweets shop nearby. Kind and soft-spoken with almost everyone — except her own brother Rentarou, whom she bosses around with total confidence. Her gentle side route is a small, sweet story about family, sweets and growing up.
An older girl who was friends with the protagonist when they were children. She has since graduated, taken over her parents' sweets shop and likes to play the mature, worldly elder — though when it comes to romance, she is every bit as inexperienced as she pretends not to be. Their reunion is one of the warmest chapters in the game.
No village story works without the villagers. Masaomi Arichi, the protagonist, is a kendo-trained second-year student whose summer in Hoori derails into an engagement, a spirit companion and a curse — and he takes it all with a dry, likeable calm. His grandfather Genjuurou runs the inn with the same strictness he applies to everything else, while his cousin Rentarou provides the easygoing contrast. Yoshino's father Yasuharu, the shrine's head priest, is gentle to a fault and married into the Tomotake family himself, so he understands exactly what the protagonist is going through.
Together they make Hoori feel like a place you would actually want to visit — which is the whole trick of the game. You are not just reading about a village; by the end of the first route, you feel like you live there.
Four main heroine routes and two side heroine routes are available in Senren Banka. Each route has its own story arc, its own ending song and its own resolution to the mystery of the curse.