A Winter’s Daydream Review – Family Feud

The definition (or at least my definition) of a great visual novel is a compelling story that successfully compensates for its lack of conventional gameplay with a narrative that is crammed with so much attention-grabbing drama that it still manages to keep the player on the edge of their seat. This is easier said than done when you’re trying to flesh out your contained universe with information and details to make your concept all the more immersive. Finding that balance can be tricky.

Introduction

Following the earlier PS4 and Vita releases of A Winter’s Daydream on 8th October, 2019, the game was re-released for PS5 on 24th June, 2022, developed and published by Sometimes You. It follows a linear Visual Novel story written by ebi-hime, author of Sweetest Monster, Blackberry Honey, and The Way We All Go, with around 50,000 words of text for approximately 3-4 hours of reading.

Story

19-year-old Yuu can’t stand his younger sister, Otoko, and the feeling is mutual. It’s been almost a year since Yuu last saw her, having escaped his dysfunctional home to study in the busy city, but with the upcoming New Year’s celebrations, he finds himself obliged to return to his family home to spend the holiday with them. Unfortunately, Yuu’s absence has not softened his younger sister, and Otoko is just as sullen and argumentative as before.

Finding the atmosphere at home unbearable, Yuu decides to escape once again, not back to his student lodgings in the city, but to his grandmother’s snowy, secluded village outside of town. The reunion between grandson and grandmother starts normally at first, until one moonlit night, when the pair witness a rare shooting star in the night sky.

The following morning, Yuu enters his grandmother’s kitchen, only to discover that his dear old grandmother has some magical talent and can temporarily de-age herself back to being a pretty teenager. When in this form, she is able to help Yuu and Otoko see each other in a different light, maybe even to the point that the pair discover some common ground.

Progression

The game utilises a single-button interface to move the text forward. Tapping the ‘X’ button or touchpad will move the text on to the next line or paragraph. Text display speed can be adjusted from the main menu and can even be set to auto-play, however doing so is rather cruelly considered lazy of the player and will disable trophies. I did double-check this for the trophy hunting community.

A Winter’s Daydream is one of those notoriously easy-to-platinum games which you can do by simply tapping ‘X’ repeatedly in this linear visual novel to get all your trophies in as little as 30 minutes if you don’t care about the story. No additional tasks are required, and so finishing a single playthrough is all you need for the platinum trophy. Expect a legitimate playthrough to last around 4 hours.

Graphics/Sound

Character models are respectably detailed 2D anime sprites usually associated with the genre. They are rather static throughout and won’t bother attempting any sort of lip-syncing with lines of speech among the text boxes, only alternating when there’s a significant change of emotion or scene. Interspersed throughout the story are pretty still images which highlight key scenes, however there are only around nine of these featured in the entire game.

There is no voice acting at all, and so you can expect to be reading a lot of additional exposition to highlight moods, reactions, and internal monologues. A selection of gentle synth tracks play in the background which work well enough with the slow-burn of the story, though each is rather simple in design, reminiscent of ’90s adventure games.

Conclusion

A Winter’s Daydream is a linear or ‘kinetic’ story with no choices or branches to change your outcome which will annoy fans of ‘choose your own adventure’-type games, however this also establishes one solid canon which is delivered with the aid of detailed background images and decent character art.

Is it at least a good visual novel though? Well, not really, as the plot feels overstretched, without any real pay-off at the end and with characters that, whilst relatable, aren’t particularly likable. It’s a story that would be better suited for a different form of media, and considering the highlighted characters in this petty, hormonally-charged family feud, it doesn’t take a genius to work out which.

If the story sounds like the plot of a hardcore, incestuous, hentai video then I’m in complete agreement with you. I almost wish it was as we’d certainly get more bang for our buck, and hopefully a more eventful ending. As it stands, it’s just a boring tale of sibling squabbling, with a largely needless magical twist, and a disappointingly uneventful ending which feels like more trouble than it’s worth.