Snow (visual novel)

For the skiing video game, see Snow (upcoming video game).

Snow
250px Snow original visual novel cover featuring Ōka Wakō (left) and Sumino Yukizuki (right).
スノー (Sunō)
Genre	Drama, Romance
Game
Developer	Studio Mebius
Publisher	VisualArt's (Windows) NEC Interchannel (DC, PS2) NTT DoCoMo (FOMA) Prototype (PSP)
Genre	Eroge, Visual novel
Platform	Windows, DC, PS2, FOMA, PSP
Released
Light novel
Written by	Hangetsu Mitamura
Illustrated by	Asuka Pyon
Published by	Paradigm
Demographic	Male
Original run	June 25, 2003 – January 16, 2004
Volumes	5
Manga
Snow: Pure White
Written by	Studio Mebius
Illustrated by	Yuki Azuma
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Comptiq
Original run	September 2003 – December 2003
Volumes	1

Snow (スノー, Sunō) is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Studio Mebius for Windows PCs on January 31, 2003. It was later ported without the erotic content to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable consoles. The story of Snow revolves around the life of Kanata Izumo, who is revisiting a village to help his relative manage a hot spring hotel. The gameplay in Snow follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the female main characters by the player character.

The game was successful in both sales and popularity, it was ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan at the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Snow was voted as the twenty-sixth best bishōjo game by the readers of Dengeki G's Magazine in 2007. A manga titled Snow: Pure White based on the visual novel was serialized in Comptiq between the September and December 2003 issues. Five light novels and several comic anthologies were also released, as were audio dramas.

Gameplay

File:Snow Visual Novel Gameplay.jpg

Average dialogue and narrative in Snow depicting the main character Kanata talking to Sumino.

Snow is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Kanata Izumo. Much of its gameplay is spent reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents the story's narrative and dialogue. The text is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Kanata is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites.

There are four main plot lines in the original Windows release that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. Some decisions can lead the game to end prematurely and offer an alternative ending to the plot. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. In adult versions of the game, there are scenes depicting Kanata and a given heroine having sex.

Plot

Story

The story of Snow starts when Kanata Izumo, the main protagonist, revisits a small village called Ryūjinmura (龍神村, lit. "village of the dragon god"), to help manage a local hotel with hot springs—alongside his cousin Tsugumi. In the village, there is an old legend: In ancient times, Ryūjinmura was protected by the dragon goddess. However, one day the goddess fell in love with a human, which is strictly forbidden, and this incident caused the village to be always covered by snow after that. The game then tells the daily life of Kanata interacting with the village girls, and ultimately links the story to the legend. Snow follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.

Main characters

The player assumes the role of Kanata Izumo (出雲 彼方, Izumo Kanata, voiced by Soichiro Hoshi), who is visiting Ryūjinmura as a part-time worker of the local hotel owned by his cousin. During his stay, he meets his childhood friend Sumino Yukizuki (雪月 澄乃, Yukizuki Sumino, voiced by Ayako Kawasumi), a soothing and gentle girl whose father has died; she loves anman (a kind of mantou) and claims it as "source of life". Kanata also encounters a young energetic girl with a tomboy personality called Asahi Hiyorigawa (日和川 旭, Hiyorigawa Asashi, voiced by Yukari Tamura), suddenly appearing before Kanata and claiming that she will "repulse the evil" from him.

In the outskirts of the village, Kanata meets the mysterious Shigure Kitazato (北里 しぐれ, Kitazato Shigure, voiced by Haruna Ikezawa); Shigure has a shy personality and is extremely silent. The protagonist also finds a little girl called Ōka Wakō (若生 桜花, Wakō Ōka, voiced by Tomoko Kaneda) waiting around the jinja for her parents. She likes to play with her cat called Shamon (シャモン). The physician of Ryujinmura has a daughter called Meiko Tachibana (橘 芽依子, Tachibana Meiko, voiced by Naoko Watanabe), who is a close friend of Sumino. She likes to tease Kanata, and acts bizarrely in front of him. In Snow: Plus Edition, a new character referred to as Mysterious Girl (謎の少女, Nazo no Shōjo, voiced by Ryōko Ono) is introduced, bearing many secrets.

Development and release

After the completion of Zetsubō, Studio Mebius (a brand under VisualArt's) started production on Snow. The artists for the visual novel were Asuka Pyon—who also drew the character designs—and Kobuichi. The scenario was written by three members of staff: Mochizuki Jet, Klein, and Jinno Masaki. I've Sound, as well as T&N Music Factory, Famishin, and Fam contributed to the music composition. According to the liner notes on the original soundtrack of Snow, the producers acknowledged that the game's structure resembled Key's visual novels Kanon and Air. Yūichi Suzumoto, who is known for his work on Air, Clannad, and Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet, provided scenario assistance for Snow.

On January 31, 2003, Snow was released as both a CD-ROM and DVD-ROM compatible to the Windows 98/ME/2000/XP operating systems. An all-ages version for the Dreamcast was released by Interchannel on September 25, 2003. Later on February 26, 2004, Interchannel ported the game to the PlayStation 2 in both limited and regular editions; the PS2 port adds an additional scenario for Meiko Tachibana, who was a supporting character in prior releases of Snow. A full voice version was released for Windows on September 24, 2004. Then on September 29, 2006, Snow: Plus Edition was released for Windows, sporting added parts from the console versions and introducing a new heroine "all wrapped in mystery". Snow is playable on NTT DoCoMo's FOMA cell phones. A PlayStation Portable version of the game called Snow: Portable was released by Prototype on August 16, 2007. The standard edition for Windows was released on July 25, 2008, containing two fan discs, and the content from the portable edition of Snow. Finally, a downloadable version of the PSP edition was made available by Prototype on January 21, 2010.

Related media

Printed media

Five light novels written by Hangetsu Mitamura and published by Paradigm were released between June 2003 and January 2004. The cover art and internal illustrations were drawn by Asuka Pyon, the artist who drew the artwork in the visual novel. The first novel, titled Snow: Fleeting Snow (Snow ～儚雪～, Snow ~Hakanayuki~) was released on June 25, 2003, pertaining to Sumino's scenario. A second novel was released on July 25, 2003, titled Snow: Little Prayer (Snow ～小さき祈り～, Snow ~Chīsaki Inori~), which is based on Asahi's scenario. On September 20, 2003, a novel focusing on two sub-characters was released under the title Snow: Ancient Sunset (Snow ～古の夕焼け～, Snow ~Inishie no Yūyake~). Lastly, the final two novels were released on November 22, 2003, and January 16, 2004; the fourth novel focusing on Shigure was titled Snow: Thorn Memories (Snow ～記憶の棘～, Snow ~Kioku no Toge~), whilst the final and fifth novel focusing on Ōka was titled Snow: Sky Cradle (Snow ～空の揺りかご～, Snow ~Sora no Yurikago~).

A game-based manga adaptation titled Snow: Pure White, and illustrated by Yuki Azuma, was serialized between the September and December 2003 issues of Comptiq. The individual chapters were later compiled into a single bound volume published by Kadokawa Shoten under the Kadokawa Comics Ace imprint on December 19, 2003. Ohzora released a stand-alone comic anthology under the Twin Heart Comics imprint on March 22, 2003. A two-volume anthology series was released by Ichijinsha under the DNA Media Comics imprint between April 25 and June 25, 2003. The now-defunct publisher Raporto released a comic anthology spanning two volumes in 2003 between April 25 and May 24 under the Raporto Comics imprint. Enterbrain released a single anthology under the Maji-Cu Comics imprint on May 26, 2003. On July 25, 2003, a 192-page art book called Snow Art Works was released by Paradigm, containing information such as story and character explanations, and images from the visual novel.

No.	Title	Release date	ISBN
1	Snow: Anthology Game Comics (Snow―アンソロジーゲームコミックス, Snow – Ansorojī Gēmu Komikkusu)	March 22, 2003	ISBN 978-4776710158
1–2	Snow Comic Anthology (Snowコミックアンソロジー, Snow Komikku Ansorojī)	April 25, 2003 (vol. 1) June 25, 2003 (vol. 2)	ISBN 978-4758000987 (vol. 1) ISBN 978-4758001076 (vol. 2)
1–2	Snow Game Comic (Snowゲームコミック, Snow Gēmu Komikku)	April 25, 2003 (vol. 1) May 24, 2003 (vol. 2)	ISBN 978-4897994710 (vol. 1) ISBN 978-4897994734 (vol. 2)
1	Snow Anthology Comic (Snowアンソロジーコミック, Snow Ansorojī Komikku)	May 26, 2003	ISBN 978-4757714649
1	Snow: Fleeting Snow (Snow ～儚雪～, Snow ~Hakanayuki~)	June 25, 2003	ISBN 978-4894901803
2	Snow: Little Prayer (Snow ～小さき祈り～, Snow ~Chīsaki Inori~)	July 25, 2003	ISBN 978-4894901889
3	Snow: Ancient Sunset (Snow ～古の夕焼け～, Snow ~Inishie no Yūyake~)	September 20, 2003	ISBN 978-4894901964
4	Snow: Thorn Memories (Snow ～記憶の棘～, Snow ~Kioku no Toge~)	November 22, 2003	ISBN 978-4894907041
5	Snow: Sky Cradle (Snow ～空の揺りかご～, Snow ~Sora no Yurikago~)	January 16, 2004	ISBN 978-4894907126
1	Snow: Pure White	December 19, 2003	ISBN 978-4047135949

Music and audio CDs

The opening theme for Snow is "Snow" sung by Yumi Matsuzawa, who also provided vocals for the ending themes "Our Footprints" (ふたりの足跡, Futari no Ashiato) and "Beyond the Snow" (雪のかなた, Yuki no Kanata). The insert song "Sky Cradle" (空の揺りかご, Sora no Yurikago) is by Ayako Kawasumi; a single titled Snow Extra CD was released at Comiket 64 on August 15, 2003, containing "Sky Cradle". These tracks were included with other background music in the Snow Original Soundtrack released on April 25, 2003. Before the visual novel's release, Snow Image Album was released at Comiket 63 on December 28, 2002.

Three drama CDs based on Snow have been published, the first CD volume was released by Movic on August 22, 2003, focusing on Sumino Yukizuki. Movic released a second volume focusing on Asahi Hiyorigawa, on October 24, 2003. Lastly, the conclusive volume was released by Frontier Works on August 25, 2004, centering upon the legend of Ryūjinmura.

Reception

In a national sales ranking of bishōjo games conducted by PCNews, Snow DVD-ROM premiered at number one, whilst the CD-ROM release ranked at number three. During the beginning of February, Snow CD-ROM's ranking fell to number eight, whilst Snow DVD-ROM charted just above at number seven. Snow DVD-ROM charted again at number thirty one during mid-February, whilst the CD-ROM release had low enough sales to not chart. Finally, both the Snow CD-ROM and Snow DVD-ROM releases made their final charting appearances at number thirty three and forty six at the beginning of March, respectively.

Snow was the second most widely sold game of 2003 on Getchu.com, a major redistributor of visual novel and domestic anime products. According to sales information taken from the Japanese Amazon website, Snow sold 64,526 copies in 2003. In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Snow ranked No. 26 out of 249 titles, with 11 votes. Snow is featured in the Lycèe Trading Card Game; a set of playable Snow cards are included in the VisualArt's 1.1 booster pack.

External links

• Studio Mebius' official Snow website at the Wayback Machine (archived July 23, 2011) (Japanese)
• Interchannel's official Snow website for PS2 at the Wayback Machine (archived February 5, 2005) (Japanese)
• Prototype's official Snow: Portable website (Japanese)
• Snow at The Visual Novel Database