Ceri here!
Before the start of the Winter VN Jam 2020, I decided to browse the hashtag for the jam and I found your team's project The idea of a Disney-like otome intrigued me so I went to the recruitment Lemmasoft Forums post to learn more about the story. As the weeks went on, I started checking every single Twitter post made for Eternal Winter I fell in love with the character designs, backgrounds, just about everything the game had to offer. Also saw a CG preview for the Leonis route and it was absolutely gorgeous! So when it came time for Eternal Winter to arrive on itch.io, I jumped aboard and started reading!
First Impresssions
- The story from reading the summary, feels like a fusion between The Snow Queen and Cinderella Phenomenon. It's interesting and the pieces of world building that the player gets from Lumine's interactions with each of her potential love interests paints an intriguing system of how much the current ruling family has begun to slowly sever friendly relationships with neighboring lands.. The hint of Goddess lore seems very interesting.. I want to hear more of this world's resident deity.
- The UI is absolutely stunning. Props to MadScientist for it! I love the spinning snowflakes next to the dialog box and behind the logo along with the moving borders for confirmation options and when an option is moused over in the main menu. The icons and pages for the credits page are plenty pretty.
- Character designs are gorgeous. Leonis and Aster's is my favorite. In terms of personalities, going with the messy hair for Aster works with his teasing nature towards Lumine. Lumine reminds me of a more mellow Miyoko from Dark Nights. yet not afraid to lampshade on certain situations when she wants to It's an interesting twist to have Leo as a former orphan from the same orphanage as our heroine and be acquainted with her. Yoru is pretty much a workaholic but wants to do his best to keep his family business afloat despite restrictions.
Suggestion
- Would you consider adding the 'Story rich' tag to the drop down 'More information' menu? Considering the amount of world building and lore from various side characters on each route, I think that Eternal Winter could qualify as belonging in that tag.
All in all, a very solid demo. Can't wait to see how Lumine's story unfolds in the full version.