WHITE ALBUM: Memories like Falling Snow

Cheating on your girlfriend, the videogame. Looking into this game, I was actually more interested in the more acclaimed White Album 2, but figured I’d give the first game a shot first since it was for sale on steam. Where White Album 2 is a 60+ hour epic centered around a tense love triangle drama, this game is a remake of a faaaaaaaar simpler, far more bare bones dating sim from the 90s. And that age can be felt everywhere in this remake’s bones, for better or worse. Often worse. The premise sees our main character, Touya start the story already in a relationship with his high school sweetheart, Yuki. Who herself is in the middle of an important turning point in her budding idol career. Their relationship is tested and strained as Yuki’s work constantly pulls her away, leaving Touya to wrestle with his insecurity, and his frustratingly questionable ability to not make things worse. The game itself is structured in daily conversations you can pick for Touya across the city map with the game’s characters across the winter months, interspersed with longer event story scenes that advance your chosen heroine’s plot beats. Which… on one hand, does help characterize each member of t…

Visual novels have come a long way. I really wanted to play TWA2, but since it’s not on Steam I played the first, knowing from reviews it was totally different and older in how it’s written and presented. I tried to hold on some interest in a few of the girls’ stories, but none were really that special. I disliked the main character/narrator. Just boring.

this vn single-handledly turned me into an EVIL, SELF-CENTERED AUTOMATED HUMAN BEING. ok, this one starts off all natural with the mc being some dude who (only god knows how he got her, but) has a gf who'd became a whole popstar.. or well idol- i don't know the difference. essentially, this game basically ENCOURAGES you to pick a different route aside from hers. no, like, they actually made the other options an much more interesting read than hers. i should specify, i'm speaking from a 3rd person POV; therefore, idgaf about their relationship, i'm evil. if it seems boring, i'm not reading it. this is a warning to non-evil individuals, don't read this if you aren't ready to make the heinous choice to go behind her back. if you're not just evil and you're a villain, there's a route just for you! you can go after your best friends love interest! what a game! fun for the whole family! getting into the core gameplay, this game is BORING until you get the route exclusive events. your first playthrough will be magical, like "ohmygod, they're blinking and moving for who knows why," but eventually you'll realize in your 2nd one that you're honestly just skipping to get the stuff you di…

if you're a big white album 2 or kiminozo fan i would say mana, rina and yayoi routes are worth reading. just skip sayoko straight up

Powder snow from the late twentieth century presses upon my chest, leaving me barely able to breathe. Unlike White Album 2, White Album envelops me in cold from beginning to end, in a tone that is both melancholic and disempowering. It is as if endless snow falls over these chapters, enough to leave anyone in the lonely solitude of Japan’s bubble economy era.

Choose your own adventure type novel, where you have almost too many choices to the point it's overwhelming. Combined with cute animations and honestly some of the best music I've heard from a game, there's a reason this game is considered a classic amongst the Visual Novel fandom.