Welcome to Sakura

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Introducing Sakura

Sakura is a new launcher app for playing classic NScripter and ONScripter visual novel games natively on your iPhone and iPad — including UTF-8 fan translations, and, thanks to ONScripter-RU, GPU-era titles like Umineko no Naku Koro ni.

Here’s what’s in this first release.

Import Your Games, However They’re Packaged

Sakura’s import flow auto-detects your game’s root folder from a wide range of archive formats — zip, 7z, rar, tar/gz/bz2, and even Windows installer .exe files (NSIS and Inno Setup installers, plus common self-extracting archives). Drop in an archive, and Sakura figures out the rest: the engine it needs, its icon, and where to put it in your library.

Web Transfer

Getting games onto your device shouldn’t require a cable. Sakura’s Web Transfer opens a lightweight web server on your device, protected by a PIN, so you can drag and drop files straight from your computer’s browser — over your local Wi-Fi, nothing more. Move games and saves both ways — and download your backups for safekeeping — including large archives extracted on the computer side so your device never has to hold more than the final result.

Saves, Backed Up and Synced

Every game gets its own save folder, with support for both local and iCloud-backed storage. Automatic and manual backups keep your progress safe, and a global Save Manager lets you browse, back up, and reorganize saves across your whole library from one place.

Auto-Translate, Fully On-Device

Playing a Japanese-only game? Sakura can translate it live using Apple’s on-device Translation framework — no game text ever leaves your device. Turn on Comparison Mode to see the original line alongside its translation, or let Pre-Scan translate the whole script in the background so dialogue is ready before you get to it.

Sharper Visuals

Classic ONScripter games can be upscaled with your choice of filter — Smooth, xBRZ (great for pixel art), or Sharp — plus live contrast-adaptive sharpening (CAS) you can dial in without leaving the game.

ONScripter-RU Support

Sakura embeds ONScripter-RU alongside the classic engine, so GPU-accelerated titles like Umineko run natively. Sakura detects which engine a game needs automatically, and clearly flags the handful of settings — display filters, rollback, translation — that don’t apply to RU games.

Speak Your Language

The Sakura interface itself is localized into 12 languages, so the app around your games feels native no matter where you’re playing from.

What’s Next

This is just the start. Follow along here for release notes, new features, and deeper dives into how Sakura works under the hood. If you run into anything, or just want to chat, join us on Discord.

Sakura | Blog