Yotsunoha

Gameplay in Yotsunoha requires relatively little player interaction as most of the duration of the game is spent on only reading the text that appear on the screen, representing the dialogue between the numerous characters in the game. Similar to role-playing video games, the player is allowed to navigate through the school in a top-down perspective, and is allowed to enter different areas such as classrooms.

At times, the player will come to a point, where he or she is given the chance to choose to navigate through the school with different female characters. During so, gameplay pauses until the player makes a choice. Depending on the choices the player makes, different events might occur as the player enter different areas, effectively progressing the plot in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience.

The main part of Yotsunoha's story takes place in an abandoned school named Mochizuki Academy (望月学園, Mochizuki Gakuen) and its surrounding area. The school is a four-story building, housing facilities such as classrooms, the art room, the home economics room, and the light music club's room. There is also a small field outside of the school building, housing the small garden where the characters buried their time capsule prior to their separation.

Childhood friendship plays an important role in the story. Throughout the story, characters are constantly reminded of their childhood memories by different locations in the school. This is further expressed by the characters' emotions before and after their separation, and the time capsule they have buried.

Yotsunoha is the second commercial project of the then dōjin soft developer Haikuo Soft, following their previous work on Sukumizu Police. Tatomu and Keikei, two writers who have previously worked on _Summer, planned the scenario used in Yotsunoha, while work on the computer graphics, in addition to character designs, were split between four members, Hīde, Xsara, Koshino and Akira Kasukabe. The music used in the game was composed solely by Ryō Kyōna.

Several improvements have been made to the PS2 version of the game. Gadget Soft hired Suno, a scenario planner to provide additional scenario after the adult content in the game is removed. Hal Film Maker, the studio that has previously adapted Yotsunoha into OVA, was also hired for the computer graphics used in the game.

Based on the sales on solely Getchu.com, Yotsunoha was placed at fourth place out of twenty when it was first released in January 2006, and while it did not make any further appearances on the monthly charts, it was placed at thirty-six out of fifty, out of all sales recorded during the first half of the year on the same website. According to a national ranking of bishōjo games based on sales in Japan, the limited edition of Yotsunoha was ranked eighth out of fifty when it was first listed. It was then dropped to the twenty-ninth in the next issue, making its final appearance on the chart.