Stars and Snowdrops Reviews

It's a sweet little title! If you're looking for a long time, this isn't it, but as a cute treat on a Sunday afternoon this does the job beautifully.

While the voice acting was really good and the plot had potential, a dark skinned overweight princess couldn't win me over. Being overweight, having a dark skin and being non-binary doesn't describe you as a person. I wanted to see their real character traits, I wanted to see where the story takes me, I wanted to see some character development. It ended before it even began.

I have the highest respect for Ithaqua Labs. Their voice actors are phenomenal, art style is gorgeous, and inclusivity abounds in ways I have never seen in other games. Stars and Snowdrops is no exception. It has features for the hard of hearing, plenty of save slots, loveable cute characters, an asexual ending, and body and skin type diversity for the player to easily project while still having choices that are varied but in character - it is incredible. A short, sweet, and cute story that brilliantly showcases what you can expect from Ithaqua Labs. Bravo, I'll be waiting for more!

Very short. It was cute and fun for what it was. Beautiful art. Worth 3 bucks. I noticed a little lag on my mid ranged gaming pc, a bit odd for a game like this.

Very short and sweet, with lovely backgrounds and fully voice acted. The plot is pretty straightforward and not particularly deep, but it's nice for a brief interlude.

The art is AMAZING. The voice acting is solid and and the quality of the writing (the script) is A+. Everything is so polished... That said this is so sort that I'm not sure you can actually call it a game. It feels more like the winning product of a gamejam or a piece for a student portfolio. There are 4 possible endings. There is no bad ending. It took no more than 15 or 20 mins to play through once reading everything and then speed though it another 3 times to unlock the other ending achievements. But for whatever reason completing 100% will not mark this in you Perfect Games. I guess even Steam thinks it's too short to be a game. But the quality you get for $2 made up for how short (I'm really trying to make it clear how SHORT of an experience this is). I'd love to see the team put out a longer game with the same quality of art and VO.

In Stars and Snowdrops you play as Her Very Spoiled Highness, or Princess Kovi. You are dropped off at Snowdrop Keep for a “vacation.” After being duly informed by The Advisor Frel that that is anything but, you must find a suitor, or a decent advisor, to go back home. While Stars and snowdrops has its negatives, I’m very impressed with its soft music tracks, artwork, and in particular, its voice acting. Even in more expensive VN’s that’s not typically an option I get to experience, and it was very well done. The sprites are animated, there is a small amount of character customization, and while the story was interesting, Kovi was a bit of a brat and I’m a bit baffled how quickly she and her love interest fall in, well, love, if given the option. The story is about 20-30 min long and if you have any interest at all in playing the game, for $1.99 I say go for it.

It's super short and super cute. The (few) choices don't really matter and barely differ, but the art is pretty and the voice acting is outstanding. It reads more as a short story that wants to be told with minimal gameplay invovlvement, so I treated it as a charming little bedtime story. Skipping already seen dialogue, it took me 40 min to get all achievements. I didn't get any crashes, but I also played it on the steam deck. Controller controls were a bit iffy. I couldn't get to everything in the menu with the joystick, and it was annoying having to up up up down down down between the skip button and the choice selection. On my desktop PC (linux), I couldn't get it to fullscreen on the screen I needed.

While this short story takes place in the same world and is loosely connected to Embers of Magic, Brilliant Shadows, and Pale Spectrum, it isn't necessary to have played those to understand this. However, I think people would probably [i]enjoy[/i] it more after having read the main two VNs, because all the world building is done in the other stories. Regardless, this story is short but cute. It refers to the royal family, a princess -- likely an ancestor of Prude's (a main character from Brilliant Shadows and Pale Spectrum) -- who has come to a remote location to hide from the commoners' rebellion. Thanks to the current King -- the princess's mother (yes, her [i]mother[/i], because in this world the ruler is always a King) -- the common people are suffering from severe poverty and often taking abuse from nobles. The one helping the princess is a dragon who can take human form and they can cutely come to like each other depending on the player's choices. [u]Praises[/u] [list][*] Player can choose a thicc protagonist. [*] Player can choose a dark-skinned protagonist. [*] The dragon is nonbinary; uses they/them pronouns. [*] One of the achievements is called "Ace Antics" for when the player chooses not to kiss the dragon or hold their hand. (Although, there are plenty of asexual people who like to kiss and hold hands.) [*] Lovely artwork as always from this dev -- Ithaqua Labs. It always has a unique style and often pretty. [/list] [u]Minor Issues[/u] [list][*] A few typos. [*] Too short, of course. [/list] I recommend it to those who've read the main two VNs and if you don't mind short stories.

Cute short (romance) fantasy VN. Pros: Cute princess with customizable appearance and personality, cute steward/adviser, cute (optional) romance. YMMV: The game is very short (~30 mins w/o procrastination and AFK-ing to 100%). However, it's also cheap. Cons: The game is also very laggy. 100% CPU utilization. Even Steam froze.