Da Capo (visual novel)

Da Capo's gameplay requires little interaction from the player, as it is a classic visual novel: most of the duration of the game is spent simply reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either dialogue between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple locations to spend time at. The time between these points is variable and can occur anywhere from a minute to much longer. Gameplay pauses at these points and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction.

There are seven main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view all seven plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction. Throughout gameplay, the player enables the viewing of sex scenes depicting the protagonist, Jun'ichi, and one of the seven heroines having sex.

Da Capo centers around Jun'ichi Asakura, who lives with his adopted sister Nemu on Hatsune, a fictional crescent-shaped island where cherry blossoms bloom all year long, where they attend Kazami Academy (風見学園, Kazami Gakuen) high school. On this island, people have mysterious powers and attributes, sourced by the unwilting magical cherry tree. Jun'ichi can see other people's dreams. One of his friends, Kotori Shirakawa, is an idol at the school who can "read minds".

One day, to Jun'ichi's surprise, his cousin Sakura Yoshino comes back from America all of a sudden, who looks exactly the same girl that moved away six years ago, and has not aged one bit. She returned to remind Jun'ichi of their childhood promise.

Da Capo was Circus's sixth game, but was the fourth game developed by the development group Circus Northern who had also produced their second title Suika. The game's production was headed by Tororo, president of Circus, who also worked on the game's music, and was directed by Mikage and Hotaru Koizumi. The scenario in the game was divided between four people who worked on the different stories for the heroines. Mikage wrote Nemu's and Sakura's scenarios; Kure (short for Soratobuenban ni Kure ga Notta yo) wrote Kotori's and Yoriko's scenarios; Yoko Yoko wrote Moe's and Mako's scenarios; and Mari wrote Miharu's scenario.

Character design and art direction was divided between three people. Naru Nanao designed Nemu, Sakura, and Kotori; Igul designed Miharu, Moe, Mako, and others; and Kanon Ikutata designed the chibi characters, and others. The opening video was produced by Nitroplus.

According to a national ranking of how well bishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the original Da Capo release for Windows achieved its highest rank at number one in the ranking. In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles, Da Capo ranked sixth with 61 votes.

On reviewing the English version of the visual novel, Daniel Joseph of NookGaming described Da Capo as "average" after summing up the good and bad points. The music was noted as particularly strong, while the writing was mentioned as a weak point, citing issues such as the dialogue being "full of non-sequiturs and unnatural conversation".