Geisha Story Slot Review

Regardless of your take on geishas – some people feel extremely strongly about appropriation of Japanese culture – there’s no disputing that Geisha Story is a fine looking slot. Pink and purple cherry blossoms festoon this traditional adventure set in the ancient Orient.

Charming and whimsical, Geisha Story is a hard slot to hate. It’s too pretty for that and it’s also too lucrative. This is a progressive slot after all, whose Dollar Bill Progressive Jackpot has the potential to enrich you beyond your wildest dreams – provided you’re the sort who’s prone to dreaming conservatively that is.

Geisha Story is a fairly old slot from Playtech, and they’ve since released a number of slots that up the ante in terms of graphics, gameplay and animations. Geisha Story is no slouch however and can still comfortably hold its own against most comers, despite only having 15 paylines. The playing symbols are a particular highlight, including beautifully rendered fans, koi carp, bonsai trees and paper fans.

Highs and Lows

Playtech are fond of allowing players to control both the stake per spin and the number of active paylines. While most players will elect to have all of Geisha Story’s 15 lines active at all times, it’s nice to have the option to go lower if desired. The stake per line can be set between 0.01 and 10, resulting in a maximum stake of 150.00 per spin. A Bet Max button is provided for convenience.

Playtech have elected not to include playing card symbols, instead allowing the game’s themed symbols to flourish. In addition to pagodas, parasols and other Asian symbols, there are three protagonists who’ll appear on the reels: a wizened old man, a geisha girl and a black-haired men, all rendered in an anime style.

Wild Samurai

The black-haired man – possibly a young samurai – serves as the slot’s wild symbol, substituting for everything except for the bonus and scatter symbols. 5 wilds are worth a cool 10,000. The bonus symbol appears as the geisha girl, who will trigger free spins when she lands on reels 1 and 5. Activate the bonus feature and you’ll enter an ornamental garden where you’ll be presented with 6 fans.

Pick one to find out how many free spins you’ve been awarded. A second set of fans will allow you to determine the value of the multiplier that will greet any subsequent wins accrued during free spins. The game’s scatter symbols are played by the old man – possibly an old samurai – and will apply a multiplier of between 5x and 50x.

Jackpot

If you’re interested in scooping the progressive jackpot – and why wouldn’t you? – there’s one small task you’ll need to attend to first. Before you spin the reels, click on the tab in the top right of the screen to enable the Dollar Ball Progressive Jackpot. It’ll cost you an an additional 1 credit per spin, but that’s the price you pay for chasing glory.

The next step is to choose 5 numbers between 1 and 49. Every time you roll the reels, a lottery-style draw will be conducted. Suffice to say all 5 of your numbers will need to come in if you’re to scoop the big one, but 4 numbers will be enough to grant you 1% of the jackpot and 3 lottery numbers will be enough to win 25 coins as a consolation prize.

What’s Similar?

Eager to play a similar slot to Geisha Story? Not surprisingly, Playtech are the developer whose slots bear the closest resemblance to this progressive game. Football Rules and What’s Cooking are both pretty close to Geisha Story in terms of features. Geisha Story is a medium volatility slot with an RTP of 95.48%.

Still Exciting

The theme that’s explored in Geisha Story isn’t anything new, but then what is? Everything’s been done before, and in fairness to game developers, devising entirely original concepts ain’t easy. Judged on its own merits – just as any game should be – Geisha Story is an endearing and hugely enjoyable slot.

It doesn’t break the mould, but the lottery-style prize draw to win the progressive jackpot is a nice touch, and one that imbues every spin of the reels with added excitement.