Simple as Snow

Kinetic visual novels are more like books that read themselves and feature the occasional artwork, which sounds like a great deal if you are a casual gamer and you do not fancy complex gameplay mechanics anyway. Granted, the whole point of a video game is to let the players interact with the characters and the game world, but then again there’s nothing wrong with a simple story as well.

Simple as Snow is a kinetic visual novel in which you play the role of a woman by the name of Lysa, who must stop a sorceress from messing with a king and stealing his heart, literally. Unlike most visual novels, this one features a lot more text on the screen at the same time, which might prove to be a tad overwhelming for some. On the other hand, it’s great if you enjoy reading and you do not mind the lack of smooth artwork.

As mentioned before, the story revolves around magic and sorcery, although it’s not as exciting as it may sound. Hence, Lysa is trying to stop an evil woman from taking the heart of the king, which turns into quite a gory conflict. A few other characters make an appearance along the way, some of which play a major role in the story.

Every now and again you are allowed to make choices, although they do not actually affect the plot or the ending, they just let you see one bit of text before the other and provide you with deeper insight into the story. Hence, you can decide whether to speak to one character first or the other, but the order is not relevant in the grand scheme of things and it certainly doesn’t affect the plot.

The graphics are hand-drawn and quite nice, at least when it comes to the backgrounds. On the other hand, the pictures are always behind a thick wall of text, so it’s tough to really appreciate them. The music is decent as well, although nothing out of the ordinary in this regard either, since the melodies can get pretty repetitive after a while.

Simple as Snow is clearly not everyone’s cup of tea, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving it a go. Hence, if you enjoy fantasy stories and you do not mind reading an awful lot, this can keep you busy for an hour or so.