Hazakura Ways

Relax Gaming named Hazakura Ways after the Japanese term for the stage just after cherry blossoms have fallen, when fresh leaves start replacing the flowers on the tree, and that quiet, garden-like image runs through the game's framing, with the 6x4 grid boxed in by a border of scattered petals. The presentation leans calm rather than flashy, closer to a walk through a landscaped garden than anything loud, though the mechanics underneath are considerably more aggressive than the visuals suggest.

Wins form across all 4,096 ways, meaning matching symbols pay when they land on adjacent reels from left to right regardless of row position. The paytable's lower tier is made up of card-suit icons worth 1-2x the stake for a full line of six, while the premium end features a pair of swords, a dagger pendant, and two character portraits, paying between 3x and 50x for six matching symbols. A blossoming cherry-blossom wild substitutes for every regular symbol except the scatter.

The Random Feature can strike on any base-game spin: one paying symbol is singled out before the reels turn, and if it turns up as part of a win it expands downward to fill its column completely, paying from any position on the reel. Free Spins works on a similar principle. Landing anywhere from three to six lantern scatters triggers the round, worth between 10 and 25 spins depending on how many land, and before it begins one symbol is locked in for the entire round to act as the special expanding icon, with further scatters during the bonus adding extra spins on top.

Two betting options sit alongside the standard game. Mega Bet raises the stake by 50% in exchange for a better chance of triggering both the Random Feature and Free Spins, and wild symbols also expand to fill their whole reel whenever the chosen symbol does the same. Buy Bonus skips straight to Free Spins for 80x the stake, available with or without Mega Bet active, so players can choose between the cheaper natural route and the pricier guaranteed entry with expanding wilds included.

High volatility and a 50,000x maximum win put Hazakura Ways toward the sharper end of Relax Gaming's library, with RTP set at 96.37% as standard. Stakes run from 0.15 to 30 per spin. Between the Random Feature's base-game surprises and the compounding expansions in Free Spins, the swings can be wide even by the standards of the 4,096-ways format, with long dry spells offset by the chance of a wild multiplying value across several reels at once.