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Hazakura Ways Review
The series has taught us all about the Japanese cherry blossom phenomena, and the lesser known term, ‘Hazakura’, refers to the summer period after the spring cherry blossom flowers drop, and green leaves are sprouting. Ironically, the cherry trees seem to be in full bloom in Hazakura Ways, and the visual presentation in general is not as harmonious and zen as you might expect from a game like this.
Sure, it gets the job done, but we know this developer can do better. Anyway, we recommend turning on the Mega Bet option in this game, as it gives you plenty of benefits while still allowing plenty of room for penny punters. The cherry flowers drop when the downward-expanding chosen symbol feature is triggered, and this ‘Book of’ inspired mechanic takes center stage in the bonus round. With 4,096 win ways, larger payouts up to 50,000x can be landed at all times, so this is well worth checking out for book slot fans.
Hazakura Ways Slot Features
You win by landing 3+ matching symbols in any position on adjacent reels from left to right, starting from reel 1. The premium symbols pay 3 to 50 x your stake for 6 of a kind wins, and the cherry flower Wild steps in for all pay symbols to help complete winning combinations.
You can choose to turn on the Mega Bet feature if you wish, and it costs you 50 % more per spin. The benefit is an increased bonus round chance, as well as more frequent Random Feature triggers. Also, it means that wilds will expand together with the chosen expanding symbol, but more about that below. The Mega Bet increases the RTP from 96.29 % to 96.37 %.
Sometimes the window up to the left will open and display a random pay symbol at the start of a base game spin. This symbol then becomes the special symbol for that ‘Random Feature’ spin, and all instances of it expand downwards to fill all positions below. The special expanding symbol pays ‘book of mechanic’ style, meaning they don’t need to land on adjacent reels.
The Bonus Round is triggered when you land 3, 4, 5 or 6 lantern scatters anywhere in view, and this awards 10, 15, 20 or 25 free spins, respectively. A pay symbol is chosen as the special expanding symbol up front, just like in regular ‘Book slots’, and it expands downwards and pays ‘scatter style’ just like in the Random Feature in the base game. You can retrigger the feature with extra spins by landing 3+ scatters.
If you run out of patience with the base game, and you live in an eligible jurisdiction, you can always go for the Bonus Buy feature. This is not available for UK players, of course, and it will set you back 80x your stake.
The 200 Spins Hazakura Ways Slot Experience
You get to see a minute or so of the base game, before we purchase the bonus round at 1:16 into the 3:21-minute highlights video. We got a low-paying symbol as the chosen expanding symbol, unfortunately, and you can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.
Review Summary
Visually, this is somewhat below par, and for a game filled with cherry blossoms and classic Japanese architecture, it ironically lacks the harmonic symmetry ‘feng shui’ of. The Mega Bet is pretty much a no-brainer in this release, as you can still go as low as 15p per spin. You not only get a lot more expanding symbol triggers in the base game, more frequent bonus rounds, but having also wilds expand can make a big difference at certain times.
You might not see the wilds all that often though, but overall the Mega Bet, which also slightly increases the RTP, is a good deal. The ‘Book of’ inspired expanding symbol mechanic is limited by chosen symbols landing on low rows, which is understandable when you factor in the damage 4,096 win ways could otherwise do. Still, the potential is always there to hit the massive and hard-capped 50,000x max win, making this an original and highly potent ‘Book of’ mechanic-ish installment.
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If you appreciate Hazakura Ways Slot you should also try:
Sakura Fortune 2 - scores a lot higher on the aesthetic scale than the game at hand, and this sequel plays out on 3-4-4-4-3 reels with 576 win ways. You can look forward to nudging stacked sakura wild respins, and the bonus round can start with up to 2 pre-locked sakura wilds. Lock 3 in place for a x3 multiplier boost, and win up to 22,482x your stake.
Bushido Ways xNudge - comes with a far more fierce samurai theme than the game at hand, and this release plays out on 5x4 reels with 1,024 ways to win. Sliced wilds on the 3 middle reels increase the number of ways up to 12,288, and the xNudge Geisha Wild can wreak havoc to the tune of 30,000x your stake during the 2 bonus rounds.
Ninja Fruits - is a lesser known, and somewhat undervalued ‘book of’ mechanic release that predates their infamous Book of Dead. The fruit slicing ninja theme is snappy and fun, and you even get a ninja star target practice bonus in addition to the 5,000x potential and standard ‘book of mechanic’ bonus round.
