Christmas Tale - Visual Novel

[h1]Flawed, almost pointless visual novel.[/h1] In my quest to complete and review some holiday-themed games of mine this month, I stumbled upon [i]Christmas Tale[/i]. Visually, it's got some nice-looking backgrounds, and two manga-style characters at certain slots. Story has the main character contemplating the meaning of Christmas and deciding to help (or not) various people. Seems simple and nice enough? Unfortunately, the main character (who is never shown) is a hateful little prick with a depressing attitude about everything, even (or rather especially) when helping people. I disliked him at virtually every sequence. The translation seems off. It is English alright but it's often written in a peculiar way. There are sudden curse words in many places. [h1]Broken ending?[/h1] When I first started the game, it begins in the end right away (something I discovered after my first playthrough), displaying a score of some kind. Then, [i]after the playthrough[/i] the very last scene hangs and the game ceases progressing. Therefore, it was not possible for me to see the different ending scenes. Maybe this was because I somehow gained more than 10 points (which was claimed as the…

Ignoring all the grammar and saving issues, what I disliked the most wasn't that it feels incomplete, but rather that it's broken. Trying to get the usual or bad ending freezes the game, preventing me from fully finishing Christmas Tale. The only positive thing about this game I can give is that there's a skip button in the menu, unfortunately it can't be used to get passed the bugged area that is the frozen forest. Since it can't be fully completed due to being broken, I believe it's not worth any amount of money until the problem is fixed, however since the game's been out for over five years, that seems unlikely.

I changed this to a thumbs down after the bad ending drops a slur in the last line for no real reason. The story and writing are pretty funny to play through if you enjoy watching bad movies. Best played with a friend, I'm only giving this 4 stars instead of 5 because when I went for the good end to 100% the game I got 12/10 points in the forest scene and then it just hangs.

Christmas Tale - Visual Novel is a small-scale, choice-based adventure built around the atmosphere and emotions of the Christmas season. Developed and published by morojenoe's empire, the game deliberately keeps its ambitions modest, presenting an interactive story covering the two days leading up to Christmas. Rather than relying on puzzles, combat, exploration, or complicated mechanics, the experience revolves almost entirely around reading the narrative and deciding how the protagonist should respond at certain moments. It is therefore best approached as a brief interactive story rather than a conventional adventure game. The central idea is that seemingly ordinary choices might influence the protagonist's life. This gives the narrative a slightly introspective quality, with Christmas serving as more than simple background decoration. The holiday setting naturally supports themes of loneliness, companionship, hope, disappointment, and personal change. There is an appealing simplicity to following someone through an otherwise ordinary period while wondering whether a few decisions can push events in another direction. The premise is not especially elaborate, but it is appropriat…

6.5/10

Translation to english is soo bad, the story is boring and short, if it was free then maybe.