Yukie: A Japanese Winter Fairy Tale

Review

Far in the north is a little village that hasn’t experienced the four seasons for many years. This village has been cursed to an eternal winter by the beautiful demon, Yukie. A man with striking blue eyes is determined to avenge his father’s death, along with that of four of his ancestors. To do so, he’ll have to face and beat the demon Yukie. It’s the story of Yukiji.

Yukie: A Japanese Winter Fairy Tale is a visual novel where you experience the story through the eyes of Yukiji, the hero of the tale.

When you start a new game, you’ll be able to decide whether you want to hear the Japanese voice-over or just read the dialogue. As I am not from Japanese background, I chose to read the text. However, I must admit that having the voice in the background gives the game more authenticity. The game itself is presented in scenes, which take between five and twenty minutes to conclude. They can become longer if you keep dying in the battle scenes. As you progress through the sequences, your character will find the graves of his ancestors, which are identified by a Katana (sword).  Take this sword and you will to acquire additional attacks, as well as the ability to move faster, and a parry move.  You’ll also find out more about the story.

The gameplay is fairly simple; depending on the scene, the Hero will either move from left to right, or right to left. Every 10 to 20 seconds a text will appear briefly to continue the story. Some of the scenes will have battles against wolves, hawks, crows and other animals, as well as against additional characters featured in the tale. The battles are based on sounds; you’ll have to identify the sound that represents your enemy. The trick in the battle is to strike at the exact moment that you hear the specific sound. In the later battles, your opponents will fight back and the battle will be won according to how quickly you react against their strikes. To successfully parry an attack, you have to click the appropriate arrow on your keyboard at the precise moment that a small square appears to the right or left of the opponent.  Occasionally, Yukiji will receive additional health points after winning a battle.

The story is pretty good; I deliberately haven’t gone into it in detail because it’s far better for you to experience the story and its highlights yourself.  In any visual novel, you need to have a break from reading; in this case that break is provided by the battle scenes. It’s a nice idea that the reader has to react to the sounds and reflexes in order to parry attacks - it definitely make the game more enjoyable.

The artwork is pretty nice and the soundtrack is great. I think the mechanisms, especially the parries, could have been more accurate.