Winter's Empty Mask - Visual novel Reviews

It is a well written Story about a boy who recently moved back to his old hometown. There he meets two girls, Reika - an old friend and Yuki - an assassin. During the story you can decide which path you take ( which girl you wanna get close too) . There are a total of 8 endings - 4 for each path with 1 good ending each. It took me around 14h to complete the story with all endings. I would definetly recommend this novel. It is worth the time and money. I also recommend reading "Haruka Winter Dreams" before reading this story for additional Information about some characters. If you enjoyed this story I recommend reading the other stories from Eternal Night Studios too.

So far I am really enjoying the Visual Novel. If anyone wants to see gameplay or just wants to watch a walkthrough check out my channel on youtube. To the developers, hope we can help each other grow. I also will be streaming the game live so feel free to check it out. :) Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dawnzn Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_X13AVXrt8OFQCbd7065tA

not bad for RPG gameplay + visual novel route, also i like this visual novel because the story is my type D:

Enjoyable visual novel. Altough story is not breathtaking, it's certainly interesting and its characters are consistent. Taking into account that it is independent production, it looks quite nice - espcially CGs. Music is climatic, over a dozen hours of gameplay, 8 endings. All in all, it was a good read. Worth a shot. Btw. On the beginning you may think that fights are simplisctic and unnecessery, but give it a try, they're quite demanding and surprisingly enjoyable. Besides you have demo to try it out, if you are not sure.

The writing starts out as overly edgy and chuunibyou-esque, but eventually becomes readable if you can make it past the first hour or so. Similarly, the combat appears to be overly simple at first, (leading me to almost abandon the game) but becomes fairly engaging and nuanced later on. The romances are adorable, and the endings are pretty memorable. Music does a good job of setting the mood in most cases, especially during battle. The CGs are great, but some of the art is lacking to the point where it hurts the experience. This is especially true during the game's first battle, which includes a sprite that is downright embarrassing in my opinion. The world-building, themes, dialogue, and plot progression are unremarkable in every way, but serve as an adequate vehicle for moving the romances, character arcs, and battles along, all of which made this game fun for me in the end. If I can nitpick for a bit, there are a lot of very simple flaws that hurt the game's credibility. The resolution on the title screen CG is completely messed up, and what otherwise would be a very nice opening menu is a pixelated mess. Another example: during combat, characters' health bars go into the negatives after they are killed. Finally, mediocre prose aside, there are a decent amount of noticeable grammar mistakes. There is no excuse for releasing a finished product with sub-par grammar. If you can't find an editor, feel free to contact me directly. Despite all these flaws, I had fun. Overall, definitely wouldn't recommend this as someone's first VN, but veterans of the medium who can empathize with the blemishes that come with indie titles will probably enjoy it. I have my eye on Eternal Night Studios, and I hope that they continue to improve as time goes on.

I'm writing this review while stuck at the final boss, which is probably not a good idea. There is no happiness, only rage. I admire what they're trying to do with the combat system, but...just no. Shoddy writing, amateurish sprite art, and a battle system which is honestly an abomination. I have been screwed over by the RNG so many times today, all I feel is hate. If this game didn't have achievements, I would have uninstalled it hours ago and never looked back. Turns are timed, why? It's not as if there's much to think about, you can only use one or two skills before you have to pray to the RNG gods to let your attacks land enough times (best case scenario, it takes 5 turns) so that you can replenish mp. Some enemies have ten times the health you have and are able to kill you in two or three lucky hits, while you have to chip away at their health in 150hp chunks (assuming you get to hit them at all - I have missed 5 hits in a row before now, which is basically a death sentence). Just a few tweaks would make the whole system bearable to deal with - for example halving the heal skill cost, or having a passive regen on ki. Maybe have parry hits contribute to the super gauge? So much could have been done to avoid the steaming heap of shit the combat is. CG art is decent, the music is okay, but the writing reads like a half-arsed translation (maybe it is, I don't know). Really not worth full-price.