Sakura Fortune Review

Quickspin is one of the biggest names in the iGaming industry. They used to be renowned for their low variance slots, many of which, it’s fair to say, didn’t offer much in the way of win potential.

Quickspin worked hard to reinvent itself in the past few years. Sakura Fortune was one of their first games to feature a much more volatile math model than their earlier games like Gold Lab and Dragon’s Shrine.

Sakura Fortune is built around a 5-reel, 4-row format, and there are 40 fixed paylines in play. There’s a total of three bonuses to look out for whilst playing the slot. In this Sakura Fortune slot review, we’re going to be looking at what the game has to offer — and what you can expect when trying it out for yourself.

A Fantastic Oriental Theme

Visually, Sakura Fortune is fantastic, and it does a great job of showcasing just what Swedish developer Quickspin is capable of building.

From the moment you first load up the Sakura Fortune slot, you’ll be transported into a world full of enchanted blossom trees, mythical dragons and Sakura herself. When it comes to the slot’s creatives, we don’t really think Quickspin could have done a better job.

There’s also a really well-made and smooth audio soundtrack that accompanies each and every spin. It’s not overdone, which we really like. It plays in the backdrop, almost like a soothing, soft melody that fully immerses you into the slot and allows you to relax while playing.

Look at the backdrop of the game (behind the reels), and you’ll see several cherry trees in full bloom, furthering the visual appeal of the game and, once again, showing why the Sakura Fortune game is so popular among players.

Betting and Gameplay Options

Like all Quickspin slots, Sakura Fortune offers players a wide variety of betting options, and you’ll find yourself able to wager as little as $0.20 per spin.

The max bet is also really decent, allowing high-rollers to stake up to $80. This diverse array of betting opportunities ensures you can play Sakura Fortune at a stake with which you’re comfortable.

When it comes to the game options of Sakura Fortune, you’ll find all the usual array of features, the first being autoplay mode. This allows you to set up to 500 spins to play out automatically without manually pressing the spin button between spins.

What’s more, you can also set various parameters with the autoplay function. For example, you can have it cancel out when the free spins feature lands and even when the Sakura Fortune respin feature is activated.

There’s also a quickspin (or fast play) mode available (although this isn’t offered in all countries), which decreases the time it takes to complete each spin. We’d say that, on average, enabling this mode allows you to complete double the amount of spins every hour. So, it’s useful for those looking for slightly quicker entry into the main free spins round.

Another thing we want to point out is that Sakura Fortune has a cool feature that allows you to view the results (history) of the previous spin. This is cool, as it means that if you miss something, you can simply click a button and see what happened!

Sakura Fortune is a high variance slot, although it would probably be considered a medium variance slot by today’s standards.

Hits during the base game are quite frequent, and it’s not uncommon to hit base game wins in the region of 10-15X your stake.

These wins really help to keep your balance up, and if you’re lucky, you can hit big wins in the base game, too, by lining up enough of the premium symbols anywhere in view.

In terms of RTP, Quickspin has done a good job with their Sakura Fortune slot, and the return to player percentage is fixed in place at 96.61%.

The “fixed” part of this phrase means the RTP doesn’t change, regardless of which casino you play at. That’s something we’re always happy to see as we notice more online Sakura Fortune casinos choosing to offer lower RTP versions of their slots.

Sakura Fortune uses a variety of symbols, all of which are designed around the gorgeous Oriental theme found throughout the slot. Instead of generic playing card values, the low-value symbols are represented by ancient coins instead. They’re not worth a huge amount of money but land enough, and they can produce some decent-sized wins.

The game’s premium symbols include a Statue, a Dragon, a Ninja, and then you’ve got Sakura herself and a Warrior.

It’s the Warrior you’ll want to look out for, as he’s the highest-value symbol, awarding a payout worth 10X your stake. That may not sound like much, but all symbols are stacked on all reels, meaning you can, potentially, land a full screen of him. If you do so, the payout would be worth 400X your stake!

There’s also a wild symbol known as the Princess wild. She’s highly important, playing a role in both the game’s bonuses — more on that in just a moment.

he slot Sakura Fortune comes with a number of bonus features. There’s also a really cool achievement engine, all of which we’ll look at below.

Nudging Wilds

The first bonus feature to talk about is the nudging wilds feature — also known as the mystery nudge bonus. The Princess Wild symbol lands on reels 2, 3 and 4 only, and when two or more of her land partially in view, there’s a chance the wild symbol(s) can nudge up.

If they do so, you’ll be awarded 2 or 3 respins. (If a Princess Wild symbol lands fully in view, you’re automatically awarded the respins.)

Now, when the Princess Wild symbol lands on the reels, it’s important to note that she also substitutes for the game’s scatter symbol.

Suppose you manage to trigger the Sakura Fortune re-spin feature with wilds on the 2nd and 3rd reel. You would just need to land one bonus scatter symbol on the first entire reel in order to trigger the feature.

The Sakura Fortune respin feature can, in itself, award some really decent wins. It’s possible to get the three middle reels fully wild during the Sakura Fortune respin bonus, so it’s not bad at all!

Free Spins

Landing three, four or five of the scatter symbols (or the wild symbols) on consecutive reels from left to right will trigger the game’s main free spins bonus.

The free spins bonus round is where much of the win potential lies, as Princess Wilds become sticky; they are guaranteed to nudge up if they land in view. The Princess Wilds will then lock in place, remaining there for the remainder of the feature.

You’ll also be awarded one extra free spin each time you land one of the wilds (and there’s no mystery nudge here, they’re guaranteed to nudge up).

The free spins feature can be pretty tough to trigger. Still, that’s only normal, given that the free spins round can pay really well — certainly compared to many Quickspin games. We like that you don’t need to worry about the Mystery Nudge feature, as the wilds are guaranteed to nudge up.

If you can land the wilds early on in the free spins feature, you can have the middle three reels fully wild. This is where the game’s real win potential comes out, with up to 400X your stake available to be won per spin!

Achievements

If you play Sakura Fortune slot online at an eligible casino (not all sites have this bonus enabled), you may see — in the top left-hand corner of the screen — that there’s a small coin symbol. This is where you’ll be able to access your “in-game progress.”

Basically, the more you play Sakura Fortune, the more coins you collect, and you can then trade these coins for instant entry to the free spins feature. For example, one of the ways you can earn these coins is by landing scatter symbols in view. You can then purchase low-cost-free spins or save your coins up until you can afford to buy a higher stake-free spins bonus.

It’s a really cool concept, although, as mentioned, it’s not available at all online casinos.

Quickspin’s Sakura Fortune slot is one of their best creations to date, in our opinion.

We love the fact that the Sakura Fortune slot offers multiple bonus features — including one that triggers quite frequently within the base game. While the free spins feature can be pretty hard to trigger at times, that’s only natural for a slot that’s capable of paying up to 400X your stake on a single spin!

While playing Sakura Fortune slot, we found that the free spins tend to trigger every 200 spins on average. Of course, it’s possible you may end up triggering the free spins much more frequently than this — but, from our testing, this is what we found.

We like the fact that you can get up to three stacked, sticky wilds during the free spins bonus, and we also like that each stacked wild awards one extra free spin.

When two or more of the Princess Wilds land on the reels, we like the anticipation of whether or not they’ll nudge up into view. However, we would like to see them nudging up a bit more when they land on the reels.

On the whole, an excellent free spins bonus, beautiful graphics — encompassing Cherry Blossom Trees and other Oriental imagery — and great overall bonus features make Quickspin’s Sakura Fortune slot very playable. We’re not surprised that it’s one of the developer’s most successful video slot releases to date.