- European fantasy
- plot driven
- 5 routes
- short common route
- 25h length
Setting
Fuyuzono is set in a fantasy European country cursed by the snow god and thus covered in eternal snow.
As times get harder and the kingdom is upon collapse, the goddess of spring reveals that in order to calm the wrath of the winder god, the heroine has to be sacrificed as his bride. She gets granted one month to prepare to become a worthy bride and enjoy her last days on earth. Will the other characters stand by and watch?
Characters
Recommended route order
- Dylan
- Elias
- Oscar
- Regis
- Hiver
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Oscar
CV: Terashima Junta 寺島 惇太
- childhood friend
- niisan
Oscar was appointed as Laetitia’s guardian ever since she came to the temple 10 years ago, and he quickly became a big brother to her. He enjoys nothing more than baking her sweets and seeing her smile.
But he is burdened by a tragic past that makes the thought of losing yet another person dear to him unbearable.
My favourite character and favourite route. Oscar is caring, and yet has a flirty and teasing side to him, and as his feelings grow stronger, he would sacrifice anything for his love – and so he does.
His route was filled with interesting revelations and plot twists that were only slightly diminished by giving away his POV too early. But overall his route had the most decent and action-packed plot and Oscar could really prove his love for Leatitia.
Elias
CV: Liura りうら
- holy child
- lonely
Elias is also known as a child blessed by god. He appears very soft and gentle, admiring Leatitia from afar. As a disciple himself, he takes his chance to teach Leatitia about the god to prepare her for her sacrifice.
The soft kind of LIs are not my type, so I had difficulty enjoying his route. He is too timid and needed to much help from others to finally stand up for Laetitia.
Dylan
CV: Suzuki Ryouta 鈴木崚汰 (Yona in Tengoku Struggle, Kouyou in 9RIP)
- stoic
- sudden dere
Dylan is a minister and close friend to the king. He is cold and never shows emotion or interest in anything but work. But as he gets to know our heroine, he slowly shows his other side.
This stern kuudere was too stern for me, and his character development into a lovey-dovey husbando was too sudden and almost out of character.
Regis
CV: Umehara Yuuichirou 梅原 裕一郎 (Paschalia in Radiant Tale, Alfred in Mistonia)
- kind king
- adorable laugh
Regis is the kind king of the country, who was the only one standing up for Laetita as the goddess demanded her sacrifice and the reason why she was granted to live another month and not immediately sacrificed. He is strong-willed but also always in a good mood, chuckling his way through these dire times, caring for the ones in need and doing everything he can to stop this eternal winter.
He is a perfect match for the MC, as both care deeply for others more than they care for themselves and need to protect each other. To me, he also counts as the true route due to the background story, and if it wasn’t for the plot holes, it would be an amazing plot as well. But hearing him laugh made me forget about the rushed plot, anyway.
Hiver
CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke 立花 慎之介 (Seiya in 9RIP, Henri in Piofiore)
- wanne be true route
- winter god
Hiver is locked until you’ve played all the other four routes. He is the winter god and will spill out the truth for you if you seriously didn’t catch it already, anyway.
For me, his route suffered typical true route syndrome, with too little romance and too much plot that does not move their relationship forward. He seems like a nice guy, but I honestly can’t tell, because of all the plot.
Laetitia
- good girl
- …is someone in there?
Laetita is our heroine, blessed by the goddess of spring. As she got her powers when she was 5 years old, she accidentally hurt her parents and thus was taken in by the temple – almost like a hostage. She only writes letters to her parents, is not to leave the temple and has no friends besides her guard Oscar.
And I also wouldn’t want to be her friend. Because she has no character and almost no thoughts of her own. Though the story is supposedly written from her perspective, I didn’t get to identify with her, as we rarely read her feelings or inner monologue, and her descriptions of the happenings are rather neutral, not like someone who is emotionally involved in the story.
Art
While the promotional CGs look beautiful, many later ingame CGs look evidently rushed, and more like sketches than actual CGs.
But at least the voice cast is stunning! My favourite in this game was actually Oscar’s voice actor Terashima Junta I haden’t heard before. Regis’ Umehara Yuuichiro also made hearing the king’s laughter bless my ears. I was very excited for Dylan’s Suzuki Ryouta but fear the role didn’t give him a chance to show his whole range of potential as he mostly spoke in a cold, monotonous voice. Fans of Tachibana Shunnousuke might be disappointed by how short his route is.
Tone
The setting is European fantasy in a snow country. And despite the cuse and the rather dire situation, the vibe of the game is more cozy fireplace than hell of a snowstorm. The music, the snowflakes, and the royal setting made me feel very relaxed and immersed.
Romance
This game is plot over romance.
After a very short common route of less than two hours, each character gets roughly 4-5 hours of character route. The first two chapters TRY to focus on the love development – but they actually don’t. The characters might have a tea party or read some books together and then after 1 or 2 weeks of in-game time, they decide to be madly in love together, ready to defy a god or the whole world, to prepare for the plot that is happening in the next two of the overall four chapters. But in none of the routes could I truly understand why the characters fell in love. There was no memorable romantic moment for me, no scene which explained what character traits of the other character they particularly liked, to physical tension or even hands touching while reaching for the same book to read.
In the two chapters, as in 2 hours, 2 in-game weeks, the game doesn’t manage to tell a relatable love story. Events happen one after another, but no feelings are conveyed. No scenes were created where the characters can get to know each other better, where they can have a talk about their feelings and fears, their hobbies, no scenes that create romantic tension, where they get physically closer, feel the others breath, hand and their own heartbeat. It’s quickly brushed over every event and moved on to the next in the search of the plot.
Plot
In each route, the LI looks for an alternative solution for Leatitia’s sacrifice. In most of the routes, this solution is found by reading books and finding a secret book in the secret library. While the set-up is interesting and I enjoy fantasy plots, the solutions were too easy, too convenient, found in a book and tad,a that worked out well! – the End. The plot is only about finding that other method to calm the winter god. But apart from that, nothing happens – no side stories, no side characters, no character development.
The ideas are great but executed poorly because this game seems rushed.
Not only are there rushed CGs, there are also bugs like flickering text, suddenly disappearing faces from the character sprites and other assets that don’t work properly. And if that doesn’t even work, the rest of the game, the story is also not polished enough.
There would be more time and polished writing needed to flesh out the characters, or rather give them distinct character to begin with, flesh out the love development and above all, close the plot holes, pick up all the lost plot threads and write a real epic fantasy love stories with the epic ideas of this game.
Verdict
Sadly, despite the great set-up and interesting idea, Fuyuzono Sacrifice lacks everything a good otome game needs: relatable characters and tender love development (romantic scenes with tension pls ( •̯́ ^ •̯̀) ) and a plot that doesn’t have me go “well, that went awfully well, didn’t it?” “I have no idea what and why that happened, but guess that worked, huh?”.
| Pros | Cons |
| Royal snowy setting | Plot with holes and contradictions |
| In its core an interesting fantasy world | Convenient poorly explained plot solutions |
| CGs (to some extent) | Lack of emotional writing |
| Voice acting (seriously they carried the game) | Lack of romantic scenes and slow relatable love development |
