A Winter's Tale

• Title - A Winter's Tale
  
• Author - Kenji Endou
  
• Style - Multi-path Visual Novel (interactive)
  
• Engine - ONScripter
  
• Price - Free
• Get - Web Download -
  http://altogether.insani.org/2005/resources/index/phase02-wintertale.html
  http://visualnews.net/doujin-downloads/#winter

A Winter's Tale. A childhood friendship blooms into romance in this leisurely paced visual novel about a boy and girl in the depths of winter.

Graphics - A mixed bag. The sprites are very nicely done. The clothing, expressions, and makeup change often and appropriately. The backgrounds, however, are varying. They are from the numerous free image collections available and range from nicely detailed illustrations to klutzy drawings to even photographs. Using stock backgrounds isn't uncommon but the mixed styles are irritating. 8/10

Music/SFX - The music is not outstanding but clean, varied, and appropriate to each scene and the piece as a whole. The ending theme is a fun vocal song that does not fit the piece in the slightest but was easily the best song in the game. The sound effects are the usual stock sounds and, as usual, are not adjusted for volume so they clash with the music a bit. 7/10

Story - Predictable to a fault and too long for such a piece. There is some drama but it is forced and has a predicable outcome. A Winter's Tale would be much more enjoyable if it had been condensed to only the main scenes. There is one choice but it only changes the ending conversation, not the result. 4.5/10

System/Extras - The system is a mixed bag. At first it appears to be a generic ONScripter release (bland menus) but the translators took some extra time to add in a footnote system for some of the Japanese terms and names used. The extras consist of a postscript which is mostly uninteresting. No cg mode (no CGs) and no music mode. 4/5

Score - 23.5/35 - 67% - mediocre

40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain

• Title - 40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain
  
• Author - ZigZag
• Style - Linear Visual Novel (non-interactive)
  
• Engine - ONScripter
  
• Price - Free
• Get - Web Download -
  http://dejavu.visualnews.net/projects-40days.html
  http://visualnews.net/doujin-downloads/#40days
  

"For 40 days and 40 nights, the rain will fall." A war has left the world in ruins, and in that world, the "tin plate" soldier meets the girl with sky-blue eyes.

Graphics - The graphics were handled a bit differently for this game compared to most. Full CGs of the setting were the main visuals for the story, very high in detail and colored well. These were all quite dark and serene, setting quite the mood for the story. When the characters were shown they stood out, each character drawing was full of detail, and though not overwhelming, and very beautiful. Traditional sprites were not used and the characters were never seen in setting, but rather, on a plain white, which was quite bland and didn't seem to serve the story very well visually. 9/10

Music/SFX - All of the music sounded like they were all played on the same instrument (likely piano), but every song was varying and never boring. The music was soft and calm, fitting well with the dark atmosphere of the story. The music played softly in the background and wasn't distracting. Sound effects were very generic, as if they were from a free website. They did not fit very well with the game at all, being quite disruptive at times. 8/10

Story - The story was original, well written and well translated. They story kept consistent, maintaining the perfect mood throughout the entire story, not being over or under dramatic. The plot was well thought out, everything flowed well, even the surprises fit in without seeming like they were thrown in at last minute. However, the story was too drawn out, it could have easily ended at several points in the story. 8/10

System/Extras - This release has all the features expected from an Nscripter game, generic save/load, log mode and hide text, but nothing new or different. Disappointingly, there were no extras to unlock. Art from the game can be seen at the creator's site here. 2/5

Score - 27/35 - 77% - Average

Blogginess- New Reviewer!

We have a new reviewer today! Jon Fawkes has offered/been forced to join the team here at Sleepless Nights. His first review has already been posted (A Midsummer's Resonance) so step up and tell him what you think. :D I've also posted a review of the game Planetarian today. As always the reviewer's name is listed at the bottom of the post.

7 days till Little Busters!