A Winter’s Daydream Review (English Original Visual Novel)

The New Year is just a few days away, so why not take a look today at another appropriately-themed VN? Ebi-hime is probably best known for both yuri romances and horror VNs, but in reality created a huge variety of slice-of-life and mystery titles, both borrowing from different formulas and simultaneously breaking their rules, ultimately escaping any kind of easy classification. Games like Empty Horizons or Asphyxia are clearly identified with common labels such as “otome” or “yuri”, but they pretty much never cater to the reader’s expectations taken from reading other visual novels within those genres.

            There are also certain elements extremely common for ebi’s work, regardless of topics or conventions she’s trying to tackle. Deeply flawed, painfully realistic characters, extensive internal monologues of the protagonists and a nostalgic aura are almost constant elements of her writing, making most of her stories fairly easily recognizable and differentiating them from the typical Western-produced VNs. Ebi’s latest release, A Winter’s Daydream, while at first glance might look like a silly comedy, can be accurately described in only one way. It’s an ebi-hime VN through and through: slow-paced, introspective and handling serious, existential topics despite any humorous elements and the wacky premise. And, as you can easily expect from this particular author, it does all those things in a thoroughly satisfying way. 

The protagonist’s interactions with his bratty sister are a bit off-putting initially, but they are the source of actual stakes within the story

 

A Winter’s Daydream doesn’t try to hide its main gimmick in any way, being advertised explicitly as a game where protagonist’s grandmother turns into a young girl. However, the supernatural elements and the comedy related to them are far from being its main point. It focuses on the story of Yuu, a university freshman studying in Tokyo, coming back to his remote hometown in Hokkaido for New Year’s break. There, he has to confront with the awful relationship he has with his younger sister and his regrets about spending little time with his recently-diseased grandfather. In part to escape from further confrontations with his sibling, and also to make up for his previous negligence in building a relationship with his grandparents, he decides to visit his grandmother, living lonely in an even more remote village. There, while spending an evening together, they spot a falling star and the wishes they make sets them on a joint “adventure”, but with different stakes for each of them – for Yuu repairing his strained family relations, and for his grandmother making peace with losing her most beloved person and the old age that burdens her more and more with every passing month.

            As you can easily deduce, there’s actually not that much space for comedy in this core premise – while the interactions between Yuu and his grandmother after her transformation include some humour, most of the time the VN consist of fairly sober slice-of-life moments, serious discussions about existential topics and nostalgic talk of the past. Protagonist’s interactions with his sister can even get seriously unpleasant – at first, the intense drama feels arguably out-of-place, but it is this conflict and Yuu’s ambition of overcoming it that makes the whole intrigue truly meaningful. Also, even the characters themselves anticipate the supernatural phenomena they encounter to last for a very limited amount of time, and treat them as an impulse to find some closure and comfort (ex. grandmother having the opportunity to visit the shrine she wouldn’t be able to reach in her aged form and say her final goodbye to her husband), rather than life-changing events of any sort. Even at its most “irrational”, A Winter’s Daydream is quite a realistic and serious game with an actual message, and one that never forgets that it strives to communicate something meaningful.

The main “twist” of the story might feel strangely underplayed, but the supernatural elements are not the goal here, but simply the means of discussing some universal topics

 

The game does not have a striking artstyle like some of the other VNs by ebi, but is still very pretty and consistent in quality. Considering the minimalistic nature of the story, it didn’t need too many assets in the first place, but those present are all simply nice to look at (even though occasionally the CGs feel slightly flat and low on detail, at least when compared with the quality of the spritework). The visual details important for the story, like the family resemblance between the main characters or the similarities between the old and young version of the protagonist's grandmother are also done well enough to give the story a genuine feeling. The music consists of standard VN ambient tracks, but is also pleasant enough to properly complement the writing and art, both in the more lighthearted and serious moments.

            In the end, A Winter’s Daydream is a very solid VN that, thanks to its universal subject matter, should be satisfying to anyone interested in this kind of tame, slice-of-life stories. It offers just the right amounts of humour, drama and fluff, all presented with the impressive quality characteristic of ebi-hime’s games. And if you’re looking for this kind of relaxed, casual experience, there are really few better ones you can get for the humble price of $6 – I recommend giving it a chance wholeheartedly.

Final Score: 3,5/5

Pros:
+ Pleasant visuals
+ Well-written characters
+ Meaningful despite the silly premise
 
Cons:
- Short
- Ultimately predictable plot

VNBP Page
Buy A Winter's Daydream on Steam or Itch.io

Sepia Tears Review (free visual novel)

 
This review was originally posted on Fuwanovel Forums on January 26th 2018.

 

Mystery/romance might not be a rare formula for VNs in general but seems especially popular among Western developers – this probably shouldn't be surprising, as it's very compatible with shorter, linear stories that indie devs usually aim for. Just like One Thousand Lies, which I've reviewed last month, Sepia Tears is a free visual novel available on Steam and mobile devices, which offers a fairly deep, complicated intrigue, relying on its mystery elements to keep the player emotionally and intellectually involved. It's also one of the better known free VNs produced in the West, at least partially thanks to its release date – in early 2013, when it first came out, quality visual novels made outside of Japan were still few and far between, while the official market for localized JP titles was pretty much only starting to develop. The game found its way to a content-starved Western VN community and was pretty highly appreciated. Does it stand the test of time though?

 

The heroine, Myra and all the mysteries surrounding her are where the game truly shines – even her dialogue feels better-written than in the other subplots

 

While from the first moments Sepia Tears emanates a kind of "amateurish" vibe through its simplistic UI and visuals, it's not really a bad impression. From the technical point of view, it's completely functional and while its graphics might seem very simple, they have a consistent style to them and aren't completely unappealing. It also immediately catches your attention with a cryptic dream sequence, introducing the main heroine, Myra and signalizing the mystery that will be at the centre of the whole plot – protagonist's repressed memories of the girl and the meaning behind her sudden reappearance. The interactions between her and the MC, the unexplained, seemingly supernatural events connected to their meetings and the clues we get at various points of the plot are definitely the most enjoyable parts of the experience. They keep you interested and eager to learn more, while also giving you enough info to let you solve some parts of the intrigue on your own. The heroine herself is also one of the best-done elements of the game – while it's clear she's purposefully misleading the protagonist and keeping important information from him, there's little doubt she cares about him and struggles with her own demons, which compel her to create the confusing facade we observe for most of the story.

 

The supporting cast isn't unlikeable or uninteresting, but suffers from some confusing and unnatural dialogue

 

While all this might sound interesting and fun-to-read, you should better hope that the mystery elements of the game get you hooked on, as sadly, other parts of it don't always offer the same quality. Subplots involving protagonist's little sister and, especially, his high school friends, suffer from problems typical for the mystery formula and even beyond that, they're sometimes written in a bizarre, confusing style. While cryptic, strange dialogues with Myra are a crucial part of her characterizations and well-explained in final parts of the story, some overly vague, awkward conversations with people in MCs daily life have no logical justification, other than being a vehicle for keeping the player in the dark about certain parts of the intrigue. 

            What's worse, the "mysteries" not connected to main romance don't really add much to the story, just like some of the more casual slice-of-life moments, many of which are borderline dull and only distract you from the most interesting parts of the game. As the story is fully linear – the are some choices present, but for the most part, they only change minor pieces of dialogue – many of those more relaxed moments simply feel like filler content, with both limited appeal on their own and little significance in the larger picture. Thankfully, often they can be amusing (including some really fun VN and anime references) and they're never long enough to really kill the pacing of the whole VN. And if you do survive until the end of the story, it rewards you with a very powerful, emotional ending and an epilogue explaining some of the strange events from the perspective of Myra and giving you a clear overview of her motivations and way of thinking.

The game’s visuals are very simple, but fairly consistent in style and their limitations never get in the way of enjoying the story

 

In the end, for me, Sepia Tears was a very satisfying experience, just because of how I enjoyed the mystery and romance components of it. With all its limitations and flaws, it was able to deliver a pretty unconventional and impactful love story which stuck with me for a long time. Even some of the CGs and intermission screens I've found in the game were surprisingly appealing, making it at least stand out with its style, even if it couldn't match the quality of more professional projects of this kind. With all the criticism I gave it, I still can't help but wholeheartedly recommend SP to any romance VN fan out there – while it could've been even better with some tweaks to the writing, as a short, free game it's still very much worth your time and attention.

Final score: 3,5/5

Pros:
+ Interesting, well-crafted mystery elements
+ Intriguing heroine
+ Satisfying, romantic conclusion

Cons:
- At times overly cryptic dialogue
- Slow pacing, with some unnecessary filler scenes
- Very simple visual assets


VNDB page
Play Sepia Tears for free on Steam and Google Play

2018 Curator Connect Wrap-Up, Part 1 (Silenced: The House; The Necklace of Blood; Jake's Love Story; Welcome to... Chichester)

Since I’ve established my Steam Curator profile last winter I’ve been sent a number of games, some of which received full reviews on the site (ex. Sable’s Grimoire or Crystalline), while others, for various reasons, did not get covered at all. In most cases, the games I didn’t write posts about were small or low-budget titles, hardly giving enough material for an in-depth review – still, as I don’t like the idea of ignoring people that were generous enough to offer me their work for free, I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s post, and the one two weeks from now, to giving a short overview of titles that were given to me through Curator Connect in 2018, but didn’t get to appear on the blog. Just as in the mini-reviews series, every entry will receive a short summary, concluded with a simple rating on a scale from “Highly Recommended” to “Not Recommended”. So, let’s get this party started!

Silenced: The House

If someone asked me to define “wasted potential”, showing them this game would be an easy way to thoroughly explore the concept. Silenced starts with a slightly edgy, but appealing and unusual concept. You play as a villain (although to a large extent manipulated into hurting others, rather than plain evil) – a girl adept in the occult, who lures a group of some particularly obnoxious teenager to a secluded mansion, as a sacrifice to a malevolent spirit. There, things quickly go out of control, and our protagonist has to struggle both to satisfy the demon she’s forced to serve and keep herself alive, while fighting off against vengeful ghosts that come after her “companions” and uncover the sins from their pasts.

            The general set up and the simplistic, but well-stylized art are fairly promising, but that impression quickly falls apart as you experience the game’s clunky and often cringe-worthy writing style – to some extent a victim of the less-than-perfect translation from Russian, but having problems that go far beyond anything that the poor localization could explain. The unnatural English, overly-contrived metaphors and edgy internal monologues of the protagonist quickly make the whole thing unpleasant to read and while the storyline has its moments (the backstories and hidden motivations of the characters are kind of fun to explore, especially after the intrigue picks up), it’s just ultimately not enjoyable to go through. The game is also technically clunky, adding to the cheap feel of the whole experience – even the large number of CGs and effective use of gore can’t save it from being a poor VN.

            Unless you’re able to read the original, Russian version, this one is simply not worth buying – but I also hope that the devs behind it will try creating something similar in the future and improve on the formula, because as disappointing as this game was, it was also not very far from becoming something genuinely interesting. Time will tell.

 
Final rating: Not Recommended
 

The Necklace of Blood

Quite many EVN projects bite more they can chew, having to either scale down their ambitions during the development process or simply failing to rise up to their goals. Necklace of Blood is definitely in the second category, attempting to adapt a possibly interesting novel by a Spanish-language writer German Ramos Briñez, but doing it with presentation and English script so bad, that it’s nearly impossible to experience the story properly. MS Paint-grade illustrations, unedited photographic backgrounds, awkward wording, an abundance of grammatical and orthographic mistakes – it was all enough to make this the second VN I’ve actually dropped (the other being the machine-translated Tricolour Lovestory), giving up after the second act (of 11 in total).

            The plot of the game feels slightly kitsch, with a lengthy sequence of a satanic ritual as the opening, later leading to a stand-off between secret organizations working for or against the Devil. It’s a supernatural horror more than anything else, but especially in this aspect, the disastrous production values destroy much of the suspense and the impact that the more gruesome moments could've otherwise had – its over-the-top gore and religious symbolism would always be cheesy, but could’ve been so in a fun way. How the things are now, however, there’s no entertainment and no satisfaction to be found in Necklace of Blood – and while I imagine the Spanish version might read significantly better than the clunky English translation, I'm not convinced it would be really worth your time even if you can read it that way.

 
Final rating: Not Recommended
 

Jake’s Love Story

This tiny romance/comedy VN by the Polish developer Mikołaj Spychał could be described primarily by one word – basic. The visuals are very simple, with decent-looking backgrounds and very minimalistic sprites, with a rather insufficient number of expressions (especially the protagonist seems to have the same, dead-looking face no matter what). The storyline is as standard as possible, with a high-school romance involving a small group of friends and spanning across three years – obviously, with a game that takes less than two hours to complete, we only see a few tiny bits from that period, with giant time-skips showing up on a regular basis. Close to the conclusion of the plot, you can invite one of the two heroines to the prom and depending on your previous choices, she will accept or decline, leading you to appropriate endings.

            There’s definitely very little that can surprise you here – the plot is utterly predictable, with only a few somewhat amusing, brief branches and the main entertainment factor coming from the possibility to be a complete asshole. That last aspect of the game even includes the opportunity to set up your best friend with both heroines for the prom and then silently observe the fallout – a great option for those that simply want to see the (fictional) world burn. There’s also, admittedly, nothing really offensive in the script (apart maybe from some poor fourth-wall-breaking jokes) and there’s even some attention to detail involved, with dialogues frequently referencing your previous choices and heroine’s attitudes reflecting your path. All this sums up to a game that isn’t particularly bad, but still generic and forgettable – maybe just worth the $3 asking price, but also one you can easily skip without any regret.

 
Final rating: (Cautiously) Recommended

Welcome to... Chichester! 1 & 2

So, what can you create with Degica's Visual Novel Maker, a bunch of royalty-free assets and a few hours of free time? If I have to be honest, most likely something better than Welcome to... Chichester. Still, the first game, a 10-minute-long collection of somewhat random jokes about the "best spy in the world" going for vacation and immediately meeting his archnemesis on the plane, could be partially forgiven – it's a free title, more or less an experiment with the software and while I might find putting something like that on Steam highly questionable, it at least doesn't ask you for money and could be treated as a harmless joke. While it contains some things that are first-rate, personal triggers of mine, such as unedited, photographic backgrounds and some really bad attempts at humour, others might be less sensitive to such stuff and even enjoy this absurd little story to some extent.

            The second part, however, does not warrant similar leniency, even if the price tag on it is as low as $1. It continues with the exact same formula, with often ill-fitting, photographic backgrounds, stock sprites, myriad of falsely-attributed dialogue lines and other mistakes, random gibberish instead of a story... It has one (questionably) redeeming quality though – the author seems to be seriously into the town of Chichester and one portion of the game includes legitimate photos and information about it. I didn't expect to expand my geographical knowledge while approaching this "series", but at least it inspired a short Wikipedia search and some reading about a fairly interesting 12th-century cathedral... You can get that without touching these games though and I highly recommend choosing that route – there's really no reason to touch this developer's titles at this point in time. Avoid at all cost.

Final rating: Not Recommended

Curator Connect is one of the tools that make the Curator system meaningful – an easy way for devs and publishers to reach out to reviewers and media outlets with games those people might never spot on the chronically-overcrowded Steam storefront. I’m always extremely thankful towards the devs that decide to offer their work to me, but my first responsibility is to be honest in my assessments and give useful recommendations to my readers – and with low-budget projects like these, they’ll often be less than complimentary. Still, I hope their authors can take something positive from this criticism and improve – creating a better EVN market, with more fun for the players and more satisfaction for the devs is the main reason for this blog’s existence.

            Two weeks from now we’ll continue with the 2018 wrap-up, going through another four titles that were sent to me for review – including some slightly more compelling and high-budget ones. For now, I hope you’ve enjoyed this one – and, until the next Friday!

Sweet Volley High Review – What Went Wrong?

 

This review was originally published on Fuwanovel Forums on April 27th 2018.

Outside of new releases, I usually try to avoid reviewing bad OELVNs in-detail, unless they’re especially interesting or notable despite their failures – after all, in any semi-amateur game development scene, the poorly-made, misguided or horribly iterative titles will be far more numerous than those actually worthy of your attention. Writing that much about the former, especially when my goal is to promote OELVNs as a niche worth exploring, is arguably a waste of time and possibly even counter-productive. However, just like Carpe Diem: Reboot, today’s game is a great opportunity to look at some problems and tropes very characteristic of the Western VN scene, in a game that actually had the production values and traces of genuine effort that should at least make it an average, reasonably enjoyable product. And the sin that made it ultimately fail was not silly writing that plagued Carpe Diem, but something arguably even worse – boredom.

            Sweet Volley High, developed by New West Games and released on Steam in October 2016, was marketed as a “yuri/otome Visual Novel”, featuring a female protagonist and both female and male romance options. While some might already feel unease about such use of the terms "yuri" and "otome", both of which usually denotes a bit more than just romantic configurations available, it hints at a much deeper problems – game’s utter lack of personality and very poor use of the themes it tries to tackle. While trying to appeal to a broad audience, in reality, it wasn’t able to replicate the appeal of neither yuri nor otome games, just as it didn’t manage to create a satisfying alternative to those formulas. But, why exactly is that the case?

The game’s art is inconsistent, but is far from being Sweet Volley High's worst element – occasionally the CGs can be quite pleasing to the eye

 

The game’s biggest problem is most likely the protagonist, Aya. This time, however, it’s not about her negative, annoying or unrealistic traits and more about lack of any interesting characteristics whatsoever. An apparently average, even boring lead is not a rare occurrence in the world of VNs. There is one catch there though – normally, there’s either some kind of secret that changes our perception of the MC drastically or something happens that forces them to rise above mediocrity and become a compelling character. Here our lead is simply dull, even in her better moments and also has a quality that for me personally was off-putting – she utterly lacks any charm or femininity that makes yuri VNs different from most of what's available on the market and interesting to read. Her dialogue and thoughts would for the most part fit any faceless, male eroge MC, killing the last possible piece of appeal she could’ve had.

            This problem is deepened by the atrocious pacing of the pretty long common route, during which Aya discovers her passion for volleyball and, for the first time in her life, starts to work towards a goal. The romance options are mostly connected to her high school’s volleyball team (apart from the male route, which features an aspiring soccer player), but it’s hard to emphasize how obvious and uninspired all the plot-points and character introductions feel at this part of the game – surviving the 3-4 hours of reading, until the first choices appear and the romance arcs start to develop, can be a real challenge. There’s a thin line between casual, slow-paced storytelling and showing things that are absolutely mundane and inconsequential and from the first, long episode of Aya looking out of the window during class and explaining how average and bored she is, Sweet Volley High is definitely on that second end of the spectrum.

Maybe nothing drags Sweet Volleyball High down more than the fact how bland and uninteresting the protagonist is – a sad exception among Western yuri VNs

 

There’s one interesting surprise waiting for those more patient readers though, and that’s the structure of the romance routes. Firstly, in moments when you would expect some of the romance arcs to reach a conclusion and give you a happy ending, the game introduces plot twists and additional layers of drama, that expand the story significantly and give it additional depth. This works especially well in the Nanami 's route, which also feels like the most developed and interesting part of the game. However, the really unusual elements show up in two smaller character routes, both of which only have a bad ending – one leading to your love interest cheating on you, the second one ending with a rejection. While this undeniably enraged many readers, it’s possibly the biggest positive I can find about this game – these “dead end” routes represent a form of realism and respect for the characters that are rarely seen in romance VNs. The failures of the relationships in them do not "come out of nowhere", but are strongly connected to the established traits and life situations of those involved – they're both possible to predict and in a way quite refreshing (even if the actual execution, especially with Eri’s mini-arc, leaves a lot to be desired).

            When it goes to art, the game is fairly inconsistent – there are some very pretty CGs and the sprites don’t look that bad, but they seriously lack variety and some assets are fairly laughable – including some of the hentai illustrations, which are supposed to be one of the game’s selling points. From my perspective, though, maybe the worst of it all is the user interface – it might seem petty to focus on something this “minor”, but in a title where you spend most of your time reading, an aesthetic UI is very important. How it looks in Sweet Volley High, apart from a pretty nasty colour pallet, simply screams generic and uninspired, showing clearly the low attention to detail on the part of the devs.

The one compelling romance arc is definitely worth mentioning, but it can’t nullify the absolute chore of reading through the common route

 

There’s also one thing that could be counted among the game’s redeeming qualities, but which really even worsened it for me personally – partial voice acting. While I’m already not a fan of that technique (really, either voice your game fully or let my imagination do its job, rather than randomly switch between silent and voiced moments), the way it was done here is even more distracting that it had to be – apart from fully voiced lines, there are voice cues that appear repeatedly in otherwise silent parts of the dialogue – after a few times of hearing “Aya!” at the beginning of an unvoiced sentence I was just tempted to mute voice acting altogether. The only reason I didn’t do it is that whenever full VA is present, it’s actually very decent, definitely above an average quality level for OELVNs.

            In the end, though, the relatively positive elements simply couldn’t change the ultimate problems of the game – its poor pacing, uninteresting lead and utterly unappealing common route, that makes it impossible to really get immersed or care about the characters. What also might be worth mentioning, the game takes place in Japan, but there’s not a single plot element that would really benefit from that fact – it's like if Sweet Volley High actively tried to be the most generic “weeb” title out there, missing out on the opportunity to offer something at least slightly original. Because of all that, it proved to be a thoroughly unsatisfying title and I recommend avoiding it, even if you're a yuri fan.  

 
Final score: 2/5
 
Pros:
+ Good voice acting
+ Bold storytelling choices – not every romance will have a happy ending
 
Cons:
- Boring common route
- Uninteresting protagonist
- Annoying voice cues
- Mostly poor visual design


VNDB page
Buy Sweet Volley High on Steam

Highway Blossoms: Remastered Review (Yuri Visual Novel)

Since being published by Alienworks in mid-2016, Highway Blossoms earned its place as one of the highest-rated yuri VNs on VNDB and could easily be considered as one of the most successful Western visual novels to date. The game from the very beginning stood out through its unusual setting, plot structure and high production qualities, seemingly appealing even to the more demanding or JP-focused yuri fans. It wasn’t a great surprise then that Highway Blossoms’ authors, despite their second title, The Human Reignition Project, being stuck in a development hell, decided to further capitalize on their previous success and create an updated version of HB, with features such as partially reworked art and full voice acting (the initial release had none). The Remastered edition was released on May 18th 2018, two years after the game’s premiere, with quite a lot of fanfare and became available as a free update for both existing and potential owners of the game. So, how that does the enhanced version of everyone’s favourite yuri EVN presents itself, and does it live up top the hype? Spoiler: it does. Kind of...

The climate of American deserts and road tale story formula immediately set Highway Blossoms apart from most EVNs, even with its somewhat generic artstyle

 

Highway Blossoms is a kinetic novel, following the story of Amber, a 19-years old, tomboyish girl travelling alone in an old RV through Southern-US highways. While on her way to a music festival, she accidentally stumbles upon Marina – a cute, naive girl whose car has broken down in the middle of a desert. First just expecting to help the stranded woman to get her car running again, through a bizarre chain of events Amber winds up travelling together with her and even joining her on a treasure hunt for a long-lost stash of gold. During this adventure, she forms a bond with Marina, that will ultimately help her deal with the grief and loneliness connected to the passing on her grandfather, the closest person for most of her life and the only family she ever had.

            The setting is something that immediately differentiates Highway Blossoms from the typical “Weeb” games and is much more than an interesting coat of paint. The characters (both the main couple and the relatively small, but memorable supporting cast), details of their backstories, the locales of American deserts and folkish soundtrack all contribute to building a very unique climate. This is further supported by the structure of the story, with the couple constantly travelling between both famous landmarks and various obscure locations characteristic of the areas to which their quest for gold brings them. If you’re looking for a well-researched, believable detox from the Japanese high-school setting and all the tropes connected to it, Highway Blossoms might be one of your best bets.

While it’s the treasure hunt that brings the main couple together, the true focus of the story is definitely the girls themselves and their growing relationship

 

All these things said, there’s also a way in which this game is nothing but standard. While the treasure hunt and the scenery of American highways are a breath of fresh air, the core content of Highway Blossoms is still a romance story – one that is excellently paced and satisfying thanks to its characters, but ultimately quite predictable and cliched. The feelings between the girls bloom rather slowly and take into account the uncertainty of their positions. Even after the treasure hunt is over, they are little more than strangers to each other, Amber still dealing with her fresh grief and doubts about Marina's sexual orientation, while Marina herself, despite their straightforwardness, is also struggling with what for her is a completely new and unexpected situation. It’s all, once more, quite down-to-Earth and believable – even if some of the plot conveniences are sometimes a bit too good to be true, the story in general much less contrived or detached from reality than your average JP yurige. However, the final bit of drama, sparked by the already-described situation, is something I’ve seen at least a hundred times before. While I like how it was resolved, it’s just good to remember when approaching this game that it doesn’t offer any real spins to the core structure of VN love drama – it’s just a particularly well-executed one.

            Speaking about well-executed, the Remastered versions’ primary selling point, voice acting, really is something worth praising, especially in the context of an EVN project. The voice acting for both Amber and (especially) Marina is for the most part excellent, with only a few of the more dramatic moments disappointing, at least partially because of the voice editing (I know those few screams were meant to make an impact, but they shouldn’t threaten to blow off my headphones – that’s simply not how you do this stuff). The supporting cast is at least just as solid, which is always something I appreciate a lot, as it’s an aspect some developers neglect in order to save resources, often ruining the immersion and climate of the whole story. A minor gripe of mine of that the script was apparently not thoroughly screened before including the additional voiced lines, often explaining things that are clearly for everyone to hear, like emotions in the VAs voices.

While being an adult game, Highway Blossoms is practically devoid of anime-style, forced fanservice and used its erotic segments to enhance the story

 

Another thing that needs a bit of elaboration is Highway Blossom’s status as an 18+ title – while I’m usually not huge on adult content in VNs, especially in yuri, this game, in my opinion, approaches it just right. Its one erotic scene, while still relatively explicit, is not overly porny and have actual plot relevance, leading to the final conflict the girls have to work their way through before earning a happy ending. It’s definitely a core part of the romance, rather than a piece of fanservice and suggest playing the game in its uncensored version whenever possible (the 18+ DLC is now available on Steam, for free). It’s also worth noting that other than this one scene, the game does not force any ecchi-style fanservice into the experience, making it a really good choice for those fed up with the more trashy yuri tropes.

            Of course, the lack of creepy panty shots does not mean the game offers nothing to look at – its artstyle is quite gorgeous and the quality of both sprites and CGs rather excellent. It’s not extremely-heavy on CGs, but all those that are present are really nice to look at and memorable. It also includes some rather unique visual setups, like the repeated sequences of the main couple interacting on the front seats of the RV during their travels, which have their own set of poses and expressions.

            So, what are my final impressions of Highway Blossoms? It definitely is an excellent game with a unique feel to it, but also a game catering to a very specific group – fans of yuri romance. In reality, it does very little that could interest people that don’t like the genre and even disappointed me a little with how little it innovated when it goes to core story structure. In the end, though, it’s unfair to judge it on anything more than what it tried to achieve and in that respect, it really is among the best in its own category. If it’s compelling GxG romance that you’re looking for, you definitely won’t be disappointed.

Final Score: 4/5

Pros:
+ Unique setting
+ Well-paced and compelling story
+ Pleasant visuals
+ Solid voice-acting
+ Tasteful approach to romance and erotic content
 
Cons:
- At its core, it’s still a very standard love story

VNDB Page
Buy Highway Blossoms: Remastered on Steam or Itch.io

Sounds of Her Love Review (free visual novel)

This review was originally published on Fuwanovel Forums on May 4th 2018. Be sure to also check out my interview with SoHL developer, ds-sans.

Is there any merit to creating a tame, single-heroine romance VN in a market that seems to be flooded with cute love stories, often in much more "advanced" form? Do a romance VN need to invent something fresh and original to be successful? Is it even possible to be innovative much in the world of cute romance tales, with the kind of saturation the genre offers? Sounds of Her Love, a small freeware title published over a year ago by DEVGRU-P and created by ds-sans, an indie developer then pretty much unknown to the VN community, made me think about all these issues in a fairly substantial manner. And the answer it suggested to me, both due to my personal enjoyment and the warm reception it received from other readers, was: when making a romance story in the visual novel format, you don't have to create anything particularly new, as long as you do the basics really, really well.

          The game's story is as standard as it goes – our (nameable) protagonist starts attending an international school in Japan and on his first day he witnesses a girl dropping her library card. This event swiftly introduces him to the sole heroine of our story, and its only voiced character – Ceridwen (Ceri for short), a shy and asocial Welsh girl, whose slightly dramatic backstory and developing relationship with the MC will be the main focus of SoHL's 3-hour long plot. Both Ceri's visual design and the voice acting on her dialogue are definitely the highlights of the game. It's clear that much, or maybe even majority of its tiny budget was devoted to making her an appealing romance interest and the effect is indeed pretty lovely, while also not completely one-dimensional – she is a troubled girl, that definitely has a dominating sweet side, but can act irrationally and even hostile due to her insecurities. The rather transparent protagonist (although he's not completely bland and engages in some amusing interactions with his family) also works well in this case – he's simply an avatar of the player, while the focus of the story clearly falls on the heroine.

The heroine’s genuine cuteness, enhanced by good VA work, is the game’s biggest asset – and for the most part, it’s used really well

 

The minimalism of the story also translate to the choices it offers to the player – most of them are very logical and offers predictable consequences. The game rewards being proactive, but tactful in a very common-sense fashion, leading you to three possible endings, including the "canon", romantic one – and I have to say, I'm more of a fan of this approach then cryptic, overly convoluted decisions typical for so many VNs. As you might notice many people pointing out, the short "bad" route, to which you are locked into if you make some really awful choices at the beginning of the story, is a bit of a disheartening mess, but it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game that much – the heartwarming, romantic fantasy of the main path is definitely where SoHL's value is at, and it was simply good enough to make the whole experience compelling.

          Also, a minor warning: even if you reach the good conclusion by not being a complete idiot, the romance is in the MoeNovel's If My Heart Had Wings levels of "clean". One thing that could be said in defence of this approach is that it fits Ceri's character – with how timid and insecure she is throughout the story, we can believe that even a kiss after protagonist's confession was out of the question. The romantic ending also got expanded on in the form of a small epilogue game ~We'll always be together~, released by ds-sans on the anniversary of SoHS's premiere. It contains 30 more minutes of cute interactions between the main couple, in the very same aesthetic as those from the main game – a pure piece of "fanservice", but a reasonably enjoyable one.

Some CGs are slightly below what the game makes you expect, but the general quality of art assets compensate reasonably for their limited number and variety

 

When it goes to production values, Ceri is not the only character with a voice, but also the only one with a sprite – like I've mentioned before, the fact that most of the effort on the part of the developer was focused on this one character is absolutely obvious. However, it hard to say it was a bad choice, considering the obviously limited resources ds-sans' disposal – the variety of expressions on her is quite good and while CGs and other assets are not always on par with the said sprite, their quality is consistent enough to be satisfying. The stock background music might be nothing to write home about, but as in many no-budget indie projects, works pretty well in filling the acoustic void in moments when there's no VA present.

          In the end though, who is Sounds of Her Love targeted towards and is it worth your time? This, I think, very much depends on your taste on what you're looking for at that particular moment. It is the most basic love story, that can bore to death those tired of romance clichés, or not fond of the formula in the first place. On the other hand, it's incredibly cute, nicely written and makes for a good, relaxing read that really can make you feel all warm and fuzzy for one or two evenings. I've personally had a greatly enjoyable time with it – if I was to rate it solely on the fun I've had, the final score would be even higher. It's also a completely free product and checking it out will not cost you anything. Just be sure you're not expecting any twists or surprises when approaching it – there really are none.

 
Final score: 2,5/5
 
Pros:
+ Lovely main heroine with good voice acting
+ Solid writing
+ Decent art
 
Cons:
- Short
- Clichéd as hell
- Predictable plot
- Extremely tame romance


VNDB page
Play Sounds of Her Love for free on Steam or Itch.io

Yuri Game Jam 2018 Visual Novels, Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my Yuri Game Jam 2018 summary! Just like the last week's article (if you haven't read part 1, check it out now!), this post will offer you a short overview of visual novels that entered the event this year, this time with the focus being solely on fully-released titles. While in the previous post there were very few surprises (with mostly the two titles I actually expected to deliver, Starship XO and Valentine Disaster, standing out from the crowd), this time there were a few unexpected latecomers to the event and games that genuinely surpassed my expectations – Scrambled: Syd City being probably the most notable one, and quite possibly the best VN in YGJ this year. It will also make a small trip outside of the VN sphere, but what that is exactly about, you'll see at the end of the article... Enjoy!

A Game About Ants

This story about two colonies of humanized ants, and two simple workers that brought those together despite the distrust and differences between them, is one of the most charming and compelling stories in this year’s YGJ. Thanks to its relatively longer script (it takes around 2 hours to fully read through), A Game About Ants managed to not only convey an amusing “love beyond prejudice” main plot, but also set it in a pretty elaborate "political" context of a clash between the aforementioned nests (heavily inspired by actual species of ants, with their specific appearances, habits and social hierarchies). The end result is a really intriguing and visually pleasant experience, also featuring probably the most sensual scene of antennae “kiss” you’ll ever see in a visual novel... And, quite likely, anywhere else. Do you really want to miss out on that?

 
Final Rating: Highly Recommended
 

One’s Lonesome, Two’s Company

Team ANPIM, veterans of YGJ, managed to deliver one of the more traditional love stories in this year’s event – a kinetic novel about a high school girl who finds herself in borderline life-threatening trouble and is saved by an unassuming kouhai from her school, only to fall in love with her despite their different backgrounds and personalities. It’s a simple, slightly cheesy piece of yuri romance (around 2 hours long, with only a handful of CGs and photographic backgrounds), but drawn and written well enough to give all the cute and fuzzy feelings you’d hope to get from this kind of game. The lead couple is simply adorable and the conclusion was good enough to nearly get a few tears out of me, and while I’m a sucker for this kind of fluff, I believe it’s as good of a recommendation as I could ever offer – give it a try!

 
Final Rating: Highly Recommended
 

Magic Mirror Hall

Magic Mirror Hall is another tiny, but beautifully stylized and interesting VN, telling the story of Alex, a (non-binary) magic shop owner who ends up at the center of their dear friend’s relationship problem – one that manifests itself through supernatural events (or two be specific, dangerous and uncontrollable outbursts of wild magic), but is rooted in the lack of communication and understanding between the girls. Depending on the protagonist’s choices and advice they give, they might help resolve the issue, or risk it turning into a genuine tragedy – and for Alex personally, who's struggling to keep their business afloat and find meaning in the job they inherited from their grandmother, there might something more at stake than someone else's happiness.

 
Final Rating: Highly Recommended
 

Like Sisters

Another Yuri Game Jam VN that feels much more like a teaser or an exercise in using game creation software than a standalone title of any sort, Like Sisters provides an interesting setup (a young writer coming to the US to visit an old friend of hers after hearing that she struggles with depression) and a promising pair of lead characters, and… Does literally nothing with them. While this could have been a start of a fun story and the writing is arguably quite decent, the 15-minute experience is just as empty as its CG gallery – but I’d definitely not mind seeing a “proper” release from this author in the future. 

 
Final Rating: Not recommended
 

Scrambled: Syd City

Team Rumblebee, responsible for stylistically-unique and enjoyable YGJ VN Loan Wolf, this time decided to give its own spin to the theme of superheroes. Just like their first game, it features a struggling protagonist (C-List superhero with invisibility powers, who chose an unfortunate nickname “Scrambled”) and two romanceable heroines (an ex-hero turned small-time villain, and a veteran hero on a path of revenge against the former). Unusual character designs, solid writing and high attention to detail (with fun gimmicks heavily-stylized nametags for all the “super” personas), all make for a very satisfying experience. Also having probably most content from all this year’s entries (2-3 hours of reading), Scrambled could be easily justified as a commercial product, and as a free game, it's pretty much a must-read for anyone who enjoys yuri and EVNs with actual personality, that don’t just stop at blindly replicating Japanese aesthetic and storytelling tropes.

 
Final Rating: Highly Recommended

Honourable Mentions

While VNs were the main focus of my coverage, it wouldn’t feel right to ignore a few of the titles in a different category, similarly focused on telling interesting stories and created by experienced authors, who should be familiar to many EVN fans out there. Because of this, I've decided to give the spotlight to a pair of RPG Maker games that weren't tagged as visual novels, but should still be interesting to anyone interested in yuri VNs, or quality GxG content in general.

 

Dreaming Treat

Dreaming Treat by NomnomNami is the fifth in her series of RPG-maker games about a lonely wolf, trying to find a place for herself in a world that holds little more than contempt for her kind. It once more does a very good job of combining the themes of discrimination and love beyond prejudice with Nami’s lovely artstyle and writing, making for a satisfying experience (and evolving into what is probably the only truly heart-warming polyamorous story I’ve seen to date). Also, don’t get fooled by the JRPG formula – this game is focused purely on storytelling, with map movement and interactions serving no other purpose than presenting the plot and immersing you in its world. And the kind of story it offers is something most VN fans should find enjoyable.

 
Final Rating: Highly Recommended
 

lilac & her light

Npckc is an author known for creating small, rather cute games in VN and RPG-maker formats, that tackle minority issues in relatable, subtle ways. Lilac, while very similar to those earlier project, might actually be the weakest of them all, simply missing on opportunities to tell a slightly deeper story – the premise, with a girl that literally lost her colour and is turning everything she touches grey is excellent and her first confrontation with a witch, who makes a surprise visit to her house and ends her isolation is very promising. After this, however, not very much happens and while the resolution is not completely unsatisfying, it never tells us anything about the source of the protagonist’s depression or the future that might await her. While I always liked the minimalistic style of npckc’s stories, here there’s simply too little of everything and while the experience of playing lilac & her light is still a relatively positive one, it’s nowhere near as memorable as some of this author's earlier work. For the more dedicated YGJ fans.

 
Final Rating: Recommended

And this concludes my YGJ coverage for this year! To be honest, at the beginning this edition of the Jam looked pretty bleak when it goes to VNs – most of the really interesting entries arrived late, often literally making major updates or delivering the full version of the game past deadline. The end effect, however, was a highly amusing set of free games, including some really memorable titles, that didn't stand out negatively when compared to previous iterations of the Jam. While it might be a while before we see again something as brilliant as The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns or Once on a Windswept Night taking part in the event, some of the games on this list came pretty close – and from my perspective, that's already pretty damn awesome.