Winter VN poll

[BunnyAdvocate]

We're going to be running a poll on http://fuwanovel.se/  next week on the best VNs to read on a cold winter day, much like the one we did on Halloween VNs. Anything with a cold setting and a heartwarming storyline. If you have any VN suggestions to add to the list please let me know! Not every VN will make it onto the poll, but we'll also have a curated list of community suggestions listed with the poll results.

[Plk_Lesiak]

A Winter's Daydream

Wolf Tails

Spoiler

And I was half-tempted to say Sakura Santa... It's actually not that horrible.

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[BunnyAdvocate]

@Plk_Lesiak Oh I'd been thinking of A Winter's Datdream too. I hadn't heard of Wolf Tails before, that looks like it might be "warming" something other than the heart, but I'll add it to the list so it should find a spot either on the poll or part of the other suggestions posted alongside the poll results.  Sakura Santa might actually be worth adding. I've not read the Sakura VNs, but they seem to sell well so presumably they have a fair size fanbase, so it might be worth an inclusion on the poll?

[Plk_Lesiak]

7 minutes ago, BunnyAdvocate said:

that looks like it might be "warming" something other than the heart

Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

7 minutes ago, BunnyAdvocate said:

I've not read the Sakura VNs, but they seem to sell well so presumably they have a fair size fanbase, so it might be worth an inclusion on the poll?

Well, Santa is among the better ones in the series and very heavy on the Christmas themes. It's also pure fanservice (no hentai), so it's relatively safe to recommend. It's still a 5-6/10 kind of VN though...

[BunnyAdvocate]

2 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Well, Santa is among the better ones in the series and very heavy on the Christmas themes. It's also pure fanservice (no hentai), so it's relatively safe to recommend. It's still a 5-6/10 kind of VN though...

I suppose the poll doesn't necessarily need to all be great VNs, we'll need something to end up at the bottom of the poll result. But yeah it'll be better if we have more higher rated contenders to choose between.

[Alcorin]

Six Days of Snow maybe? ^^ Dunno it's all that heartwarming, tho...

Edited November 27, 2018 by Alcorin

[Plk_Lesiak]

7 minutes ago, Alcorin said:

Six Days of Snow maybe? ^^ Dunno it's all that heartwarming, tho...

It's very much not.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[onorub]

The "heartwarming storyline" requirement makes it quite hard. I'd love to just drop Swan Song in there if i could.

Edited November 27, 2018 by onorub

[LemiusK]

4 minutes ago, onorub said:

The "hearwarming storyline" requirement makes it quite hard. I'd love to just drop Swan Song in there if i could.

Seconding this. The bitter nature of Swan Song seems fitting for such a cold and harsh season like Winter. Experience the cruelty of reality that's Swan Song as you watch the snow falls on your precious yard, forcing you to shovel snow again and again, all in a futile effort. 

Edited November 27, 2018 by LemiusK

[YomiPlays]

Mmm, Amakano, Kanon, Gin'iro Haruka, Hatsuyuki haruka. (Something like that?)

[Plk_Lesiak]

Oh, I completely forgot that Sepia Tears is also very much a winter-themed VN. Also free and heartwarming.

[Ranzo]

I mean yeah I would say Kanon for sure

 

Also Galaxy Angel because it takes place in space and who knows, it could very well be winter on some planet somewhere.

[ciel_yuri]

Remember 11? Turn your heater off and play by candlelight for best immersion.

Edit: Actually don't play that. It's kinda despair inducing.

Edited November 28, 2018 by ciel_yuri
not heartwarming

[Canicheslayer]

To stay on a sad note, I propose Steins;Gate 0 (a good part of the game seems to be in December) OR (to return to something more joyful) maybe...Snow Sakura. 

[ciel_yuri]

1 minute ago, Canicheslayer said:

To stay on a sad note, I propose Steins;Gate 0 (a good part of the game seems to be in December) OR (to return to something more joyful) maybe...Snow Sakura. 

Now every time I see something with Sakura in it I think it's one of those stupid Winged Cloud ones.

How is Yukizakura though? You enjoyed it?

[Canicheslayer]

Just now, ciel_yuri said:

How is Yukizakura though? You enjoyed it?

Saki's route was cool  For the rest of the VN, it was not bad or uninteresting...but it was not great either (apart from saki, the heroines were not very endearing or memorable).

Edit : I forgot this, this and that.

[ciel_yuri]

This is gonna be awesome. I love Christmas. I should probably start Yukizakura or Toradora in the next day or so, so I can go through as many as possible before Christmas.

[BunnyAdvocate]

16 hours ago, onorub said:

The "heartwarming storyline" requirement makes it quite hard. I'd love to just drop Swan Song in there if i could.

Haha yeah, Swan Song was the first I thought of with the winter theme. Just thinking about that VN makes me cold. We thought it'd be more interesting to narrow down the category a little bit for the poll though.

17 hours ago, Alcorin said:

Six Days of Snow maybe? ^^ Dunno it's all that heartwarming, tho...

Six Days of Snow is a little borderline on the heartwarming element yeah, but there is a strong theme of understanding others so it definitely seems like a contender.

15 hours ago, YomiPlays said:

Mmm, Amakano, Kanon, Gin'iro Haruka, Hatsuyuki haruka. (Something like that?)

Oh I should have specified that we're mostly after translated VNs, as the site is primarily for recommending VNs to English speakers, but Kanon is a good pick and I'll keep the others noted down for if we include an untranslated section in the curated list with the results.  

14 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Oh, I completely forgot that Sepia Tears is also very much a winter-themed VN. Also free and heartwarming.

Thanks! Added to the list~

10 hours ago, ciel_yuri said:

Remember 11? Turn your heater off and play by candlelight for best immersion.

Edit: Actually don't play that. It's kinda despair inducing.

1

Yeah the only heartwarming element is the rage over wanting to smack Yuni to get him to tell us what he knows!

9 hours ago, Canicheslayer said:

To stay on a sad note, I propose Steins;Gate 0 (a good part of the game seems to be in December) OR (to return to something more joyful) maybe...Snow Sakura. 

Ah thanks for the suggestions. Snow Sakura should definitely make it, but S;G 0 might be a bit of a maybe depending upon what else is on our list. I'll also add the other 3 suggestions you added later.

Edited November 28, 2018 by BunnyAdvocate

[adamstan]

I second Kanon and Yukizakura.

Miagete also has winter episode.

Edited November 28, 2018 by adamstan

[ciel_yuri]

Oh yeah, there's that Code Realize fandisc called Wintertide Miracles that probably fits the bill. It's not coming out in English until next year, but for anyone who knows Japanese or stumbles upon this list next year it may be of interest.

[BunnyAdvocate]

14 hours ago, adamstan said:

Miagete also has winter episode.

1

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.

10 hours ago, ciel_yuri said:

Oh yeah, there's that Code Realize fandisc called Wintertide Miracles that probably fits the bill. It's not coming out in English until next year, but for anyone who knows Japanese or stumbles upon this list next year it may be of interest.

Oh it'd be great to have a few otomes on the list too. I'm not sure if we have any yet. Although I'm not sure yet if we want to cover fan discs as we were hoping the results would serve as a list of recommendations for those who hadn't read a lot. But I'll note it down to check out thanks!

[littleshogun]

As for the recommendations, looks like True Remembrance would be a good candidate. Other than True Remembrance, there's Da Capo 2 in which most of the time setting was around Christmas (Actually Dal Segno here could be said at around same time, but since the setting is at the island with eternal summer it didn't count here). Other than that, I think that's all for translated winter VN with heartwarming story that I can think of, and no I can't exactly recommended WA2 here because the ending is quit depressing even though the settng is very fitting. I hope that those to recommendations here will be helpful.

Edited December 5, 2018 by littleshogun

[BunnyAdvocate]

 

@littleshogun Ah True Remembrance is perfect, a cute little heartwarming story set during winter~ I've not read DC2 but I'll check it out for the list thanks!

[Silvz]

just a little off topic, what is the difference between this site and fuwanovel.net (besides the latter not being active)? I do recall seeing this website before, so is it official?

I agree with Kanon, and, although it is not a christmas/snowing-themed VN, I think Symphonic Rain would be a good option.

And should the list have exclusively romance/drama games? Because, maybe, Swan Song could be added to it since it does have snow...

[BunnyAdvocate]

16 hours ago, Silvz said:

just a little off topic, what is the difference between this site and fuwanovel.net (besides the latter not being active)? I do recall seeing this website before, so is it official?

I agree with Kanon, and, although it is not a christmas/snowing-themed VN, I think Symphonic Rain would be a good option.

And should the list have exclusively romance/drama games? Because, maybe, Swan Song could be added to it since it does have snow...

The connection between the sites is a little complicated, they aren't officially linked yet. fuwanovel.se was initially organised by @Palas along with a few other regulars here on the fuwa forums (me, @MaggieROBOT, @lunaterra, @Emi, and a few others - sorry for not mentioning everyone). Emi is currently paying for the hosting and is in the process of taking ownership of the old fuwanovel.net site so they can revive it, at which point the sites will probably be merged, but it's taking a while to get final approval. 

We'll keep Symphonic Rain in mind thanks, although I think with all the rainy weather in it I might associate more with early spring. But I'll mention it to the others. Generally we were looking for "cosy" VNs so that tended to mostly just leave us with romance/drama oriented stories, but we opened up the list a little bit to just good VNs to read during winter, so yeah Swan Song would be great.

The poll is now live here.