9.4 hours played
Written 4 years ago
[i]Flower in the Snow - Resurrection[/i] is an adventure, romance visual novel developed by Rainbow Flute Studio and NVLMaker and published by NVLMaker. You take on the role of Red, a bodyguard for hire, and he has been commissioned by Hannah, a servant of the Heinrich noble family, to accompany and protect her master, Lady Claudia Heinrich, as they travel to the north for vacation. What is unusual about this assignment, though, is that nobles usually travel south for the winter. However, Red accepts the assignment, as he wants to earn the money and save enough to build his own home and obtain a peaceful life. What secrets lie where Red and Lady Claudia are going? I'll end my story synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that.
As for the gameplay, this is a visual novel, so there are choices presented that determine one of two endings. Basically, [i]Flower in the Snow - Resurrection[/i] is divided into two parts. The first part is the common path, where choices are presented that lead either to Claudia's or Ling's (the maid at the post in the north where Claudia is heading) path. The second part is either Claudia's or Ling's path, which plays out like a kinetic novel. There are a good number of CGs as well as Chinese voice acting. Also, this visual novel can be played in either English or Chinese. (For purposes of this review, I'll be commenting on the English version.) In addition, there are Steam achievements although no Steam trading cards at the time of this review.
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. A bit of a heads up, but for those who regularly read my reviews, this one will be written slightly differently from here on out, as I'm hoping that the developers and/or publisher will take a look.
[b]Pros:[/b]
There are a lot of aspects that I adored about [i]Flower in the Snow - Resurrection[/i], but I'll start off with the story. I liked playing as Red, the bodyguard. As I got into the story, I learned about his past, which tugged at my heartstrings. He's a strong character despite the horrors of his past he endured. Also, I like the cast of characters, especially the two main romance interests - Claudia and Ling. They are very different, one being a noble and the other being a maid, but something ties them together, which inevitably results in conflict. Although the story is mostly narrated from Red's point of view, we do get snippits into Claudia's and Ling's pasts, especially once on their paths. The side characters are great as well, and they add to the story's dynamics. On the story itself, I really enjoyed experiencing it. It's mostly an adventure story filled with fights (there are minor scenes with blood, so be aware of that), but it also has romance, which I wasn't expecting. However, the romance feels natural and I'll say that it has been a while since a romance got my heart to flutter. XD
On the art, it is absolutely gorgeous. The sprites are well done, and the backgrounds are beautiful. Now, the story does take place in the snowy north, so we do get a lot of those scenes and it makes sense that they tend to be beautiful. Still, the art was wonderfully done, and the CGs are lovely to view.
Now, I'll comment on the voice acting and soundtrack. It isn't common to hear Chinese voice acting in visual novels although thankfully, more of them are showing up on Steam. I'm not familiar with Chinese myself, but I'll say that the voices were lovely to listen to and I really liked that the entire cast (except for Red) was voiced. There are even some nice sound effects like howling wolves. The soundtrack is beautiful to listen to. There are a variety of tracks, and each one captured the mood of the scene it's placed in. The tracks vary from a happy, everyday life to a tragic mood.
[b]Cons:[/b]
Ok, now I do have a couple of negatives that need to be pointed out (and I really hope that they get fixed in a future update).
First, I noticed a bug when the game transitioned to flashback scenes. Sometimes, the lines of the scene would run to the bottom of the screen to the point where I could only view the top half of the words. I had no choice but to use the backlog function in order to read what those words were. I don't know if this is a bug with the game engine, but this should be fixed.
The other negative I have to point out (and perhaps it's the editor in me) is the lack of editing for the English version. Now, I do appreciate that this visual novel was translated into English, and I really must praise how beautiful and captivating the story is. However, it was a struggle for me to read most of the sentences. There were run-on sentences, typos, etc. I even noticed that there might have been a couple of instances where the translation was questionable. Although I understood the basic gist of the story, it really needed a native English speaking editor for polish. If it had been edited, I would even consider this visual novel to be perfect in my eyes.
[b]Conclusion:[/b]
Overall, would I recommend [i]Flower in the Snow - Resurrection[/i]? Despite the issues that I described above, I would say yes. I truly enjoyed the story although the English version needs editing. It's a visual novel that I want more people to enjoy, but the struggle to read and understand it brings it down. I hope that the devs and/or publisher hire someone to edit the English script. Then it truly would be perfect, and for the asking price, it's a bargain. (I'll note that the Chinese version might be perfectly fine, but as I'm not knowledgeable in Chinese, I cannot comment on this point.)
