Memento of Spring

This kinetic visual novel by Bright Onion Studios features a young teenage girl with a pair of cat ears, an unusual magical aptitude, large delusions of grandeur, a complete lack of manners with people around her and a sharp wit Juliane von Westerholz as the Calamity Princess. Being under the care of her guardian Amalie Pennywhistle who both live together in a seaside town within a medieval kingdom of Marsalis, Juliane has a daily routine of eating large amounts of food and sleeping long hours each time whenever not causing damage to neighbours' property while Amalie has to pay for both of their daily living expenses and apologize to neighbours on her behalf while reporting Juliane's progress to the Royal Lanviere Academy who have paid for both of their living expenses. One day, the Royal Lanviere Academy sent a young researcher Autumn to be Juliane's private tutor while a local thief Eleta Foxton happened to steal a mirror from a local merchant Constance and hide it inside Juliane's room. Later on, as Juliane was attempting to impress Autumn and Amalie with a magical feat, it caused Juliane and later Autumn to be brought to a modern unnamed Japanese town in Nara Prefecture where they are both received by the town's inhabitants Lily and Yukari who both work at a train station cafe Cafe Mocha Matcha Tea House, Kokone who works at the Mocha Matcha Music Store above the cafe, Hitomi who works at a small convenience store Green Garden and a young budding artist Tsukiko. While Juliane sees no problem imposing and freeloading on her new hosts and friends who have been kind and hospitable to Juliane and Autumn's arrival as tourists from a distant land, Autumn is worried about Juliane's unseemly conduct with her hosts in the new foreign land and is anxious to leave the place and bring Juliane home to Amalie's care. After spending over 6 hours to read through and listen to the accompanying background music in this visual novel, I decided to give the game a score of 8/10 based on the following factors: Plot and character backgrounds: The story and plot is written as a dramedy with fantasy and plenty of humour in the form of witty dialogue and parodies. The pacing of this visual novel is also appropriate with Juliane and Eleta causing the characters around them to display feelings of surprise, annoyance or hostility initially to eventual acceptance of their character and actions that often conflict with each different character. As a fantasy visual novel, featuring two different settings at different time periods make this visual novel interesting. Among the character backgrounds, it felt somewhat disappointing. Although Juliane is the featured main character in this visual novel, Juliane's cat ears were never explained throughout the story where she either wouldn't say or she pretended not to notice her ears resemble that of a cat. The supporting character Lily also seems one-dimensional where all she does is following Juliane around and working at the cafe under Yukari and little else to tell more about her character or background. Artwork: The artwork in the cover, character sprites, CGs and achievements are great by being colourful and attractive to grab the attention of the reader and to showcase on Steam profile. I hope to see this game qualify for Steam trading cards in future. Background music: The game has pleasant piano music and generally match the happy themes in this visual novel as a comedy with drama. My favourite BGM are Remember Yesterday with a Smile, Happiness is an Apple Strudel and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Overall, recommended when at discount or bundle offer for those who like a short to medium length(5-30 hours) kinetic visual novel featuring an all-female cast of characters, a dramedy with fantasy and two different settings and time periods, cute and colourful artwork, nice background music and easy achievements that are non-missable.

买这个游戏本来是想吐槽美术的。 商店截图Juliane像伊利亚，Yukari像桂雏菊。 打开游戏挂时间准备写评测吐槽的时候发现音乐还不错，索性点几下看看剧情的时候： -I'M HUNGRY.FEED ME！ -I CAN'T. -WHY? I'M HUNGRY.FEED ME! -I CAN'T .I HAVE NO MONEY！ 讲真，刚看几句话的时候还以为会是个比较黑暗的故事，Juliane可能要把Amalie给吃了。谁知道竟然如此的朴实无华。简直就是 完美的 真实的 自己的 写照！ 所以steam第100篇评测就这么水过去了。 想想这并不能怨我，本来第100篇准备留给troubleshooter的，谁知道bug一直没修好。

[i] Memento of Spring [/i] is a nice kinetic visual novel. It doesn't have anything exciting plot- or art-wise, at least for me, but in general it definitely was a nice read. Honestly, the beginning was a bit dragging. That MC was such a brat, really annoying. I'm not into mischievous kids at all. But truth be told each and every character in the story was slightly irritating. Frankly speaking I even thought about dropping the game. But my completionist nature wouldn't allow me to do it. And luckily my first impressions soon changed. The story became more and more gripping. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1734462357  The game features 164,000 words, estimated time of reading 15-30 hours. Though I don't know how it's possible to read that slowly. Steam states 26 hours for me but as usual it doesn't mean I was actually reading all the time the game was launched. So the data are excessively increased. Anyway it was long enough for the characters to show some significant development. Somewhere closer to the end of the story I began to feel my annoyance fade. As a whole, it's quite a nice visual novel with pretty enough art, especially backgrounds. Though I personally didn't like that art in the main menu. Oh, and I turned sound off almost immediately. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1752066726  What I greatly appreciated was a really nice, eloquent British (!) English, it was an enjoyable process of reading indeed. I mean here we are taught British English at school but in reality I come across US English more often and I can't help but notice all the differences. Recently I try to spell all those 'favorite' and other words according to the variant of English the majority of visual novels are written but it feels so nice once in a while to see English you had actually studied. That exquisite feeling of pleasure. It's even a bit hard to explain. When there're not many typos, sentences have some nice structure, interesting expressions. You read and enjoy how everything is smoothly, neatly written. My deepest respect to the writer. I don't want to admit it but I've written down so many new words, few visual novels give such a great opportunity to enlarge my vocabulary. For that I'm grateful! It was pleasant to read main characters bickering with each other. It was not too exciting but I had a smile practically all the time when I wasn't annoyed by that brat's antics. There're exceptionally female characters, which was not to my liking at all, but that's me. The game is suitable for all ages, no romance. It's a bit of a rare occurrence recently xD It doesn't cost much, so if you enjoy reading peaceful slice-of-life stories you may like it, otherwise I can totally understand why in some reviews the game was called boring. Honestly, I've been contemplating to recommend it or not but slowly it kinda grew on me. I like magic related themes, parallel worlds stories. Though despite reading about one of the most gifted sorceress I always felt that the story was lacking something. It also was a tad annoying as I couldn't lay my finger on what exactly is the reason of my unenthusiastic attitude. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1748604504  The ending definitely was sweet but sudden and a bit unexpected. After a very detailed previous parts the final one felt rushed. It left me longing for more. The story has so much more to give. All in all, it was a nice read. Oh, and one last thing: the game has achievements which work fine \o/ And cards are ready but as the developer said they still need steam approval. I'd really like this game to be popular enough to get cards. So, at least during sales, pretty please, consider trying this visual novel. [table] [tr] [th]Find more in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

In all my years of playing visual novels, both good and bad, i've never come across one that would fill me with as much pure concentrated boredom as this game did. The writing in this game is very awkward. All characters sound the same in their manners of speech, as well as more than half of the gameplay is due to the narrative going and talking about meaningless things. Characters talk in a way that sound less like the characters actually thought of that, and more just that the creator wanted to shoehorn in as much complicated english terms as possible for it to look smart. There's quite a lot of standing around talking about nothing important compared to the amount of rising action for the plot. Characters don't behave realistically at all, which I can overlook for the magical world portion of characters, but the IRL characters act bizarre as well. In the end there wasn't really anything interesting about this story, nor was there really much to get to enjoy out of the characters, since they all act rather one dimensional. There wasn't really much of anything to take away from this story. So in the end it was a story without really a goal in mind. As a VN I'd say it is definitely the "bog-standard" of mediocrity.

[i]NOTE: It is pretty important to keep in mind that this is a kinetic novel. There are NO choices to be made here, so if you expect some interactivity, you are in the wrong place.[/i] [b]Memento of Spring[/b] is a very charming game that, unfortunately, has some small issues. They are not too big to scare a potential player away, but seasoned fans of visual novels will notice them for sure. However, let me tell you a bit more about this visual novel and why I really like it so far despite the small complaints here and there, so that we could decide together whether it is worth reading or not. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1415780415 [h1]She had hair the colour of daisies. And a bottomless stomach…[/h1] Juliane is a sorceress of many talents and never-ending mischief. This girl is always ready for something tasty, preferably with sugar and cream. Unfortunately, her list of virtues does not include modesty and patience, so poor tutors have hard time even getting into her den (which is located, surprisingly, in the chapel). There is only one person that Juliane can tolerate – her guardian Amalie. Despite being a sensible person on the one side, Amalie actually has something in common with her merciless employer – for example, sleeping a lot during the day. It would be nice if she could share some of her good qualities with her little charge, but, as we already know, Juliane does not agree to follow anyone’s lead. Do you think it will bring her a happy ending? Nah, we all know that something will always go wrong at some point, right? One day Juliane finds a mysterious artifact. A good girl would just leave it be, but our sorceress, who actually reminds me of Lina Inverse sometimes, is not an easily scared damsel. She immediately tries to use her tricks on the artifact, which…takes her to an unknown place! Here Juliane should have finally got the idea that she was doing something wrong, but instead, she decides to find some new victims to bother. Will she succeed? Or maybe Amalie will come to her (or others) rescue out of nowhere? Will Juliane find some tasty cakes in the new realm? Read [b]Memento of Spring[/b] to find out! [h1]She was a girl whose optimism could sweep away the bad times like a flowing river…when her complaints did not give me a headache…[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1415791625 Let us start with [b]characters[/b]. First, to my won surprise I liked Juliane a lot. Yes, she lacks general logic or any kind of tolerance to education and people who are older than her (as a teacher, I do not approve such behavior, of course). Yes, she is a spoiled child with lots, lots of issues. But this girl is also like a small firefly that will turn into the bright sun one day. Her optimism is so endearing! To the extent that you and other characters in the game can forgive almost all her pranks and tricks. Almost…Well, but most of the time you will feel the urge to kick her. Just a little bit, of course. Once again, I got some strong Lina Inverse vibes while reading some of Juliane’s lines about food. Other characters are also very interesting, and it is a good thing that they are introduced in different parts of the game and not from the very beginning. This way you will not get overwhelmed by all these young ladies. Now, [b]the story and the writing[/b]. There are a lot of nice jokes here and there that make reading even more enjoyable. However, the game starts out really slowly. Over the first several hours you might get a bit bored because there will be a lot of descriptions of how bad Juliane is and how her guardian’s life is difficult because of it. Autumn will also be quite dry most of the time. Still, if you overcome the initial sluggishness of events, you will be introduced to far more interesting parts of the story that include Juliane’s life in the new world. It is like some good TV-series or films: they take some time to give you more information about the world and the characters and only then do they bring you to something breathtaking. Among the obvious pluses of this game is its [b]design[/b]. It is pretty simple, but also pleasing to the eye. I am not a big fan of the pink colour, as I have already mentioned in one of my other reviews, but this game reminds me of sakura blossoms. Maybe this cute little flower in the dialogue zone is the culprit here? [b]CGs[/b] are all very neat and well-drawn. There are not that many of them, but I am sure that each of them will lift your mood. [b]Characters’ sprites[/b] have several emotions that will change according to the situation; and each character is unique, so you will not get confused who is standing in front of you right now. There is one complaint, though: [b]most backgrounds[/b] are just - how to say it - meh. Not enough details and almost all objects are too basic. There was not even a single one that really caught my eye. [b]Music[/b] is very calming. I really love piano melodies, so each track just hit the right spot in my mind. All tracks complemented the story well, which means that they did not distract me from the text while creating the right mood. Still, I would add some mischief to some of them to better illustrate Juliane’s personality. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1416200487 [h1]The Princess of Calamity[/h1] The game is like spring itself – light and bright, easy to read and emotional, funny and sad at the same time. If you came her for something serious and dramatic, then this is not really the visual novel you were looking for. [b]Memento of Spring[/b] is a light story that deals with some important topics, but addresses them in a comedy way instead of philosophical one. You will meet a very charming little girl Juliane with complete lack of social manners or friendliness towards people around her. And you will still love her 9 times out of 10 simply because she is unique in her own way. The general design of the game is good and there was not anything that really made me disappointed or confused. So far, I have enjoyed the game a lot. And I do wonder how this wonderful story ends. I can easily recommend [b]Memento of Spring[/b] to all fans of visual novels who want to boost their mood! [h1][i][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/LucyCorner]You can find more reviews at my personal Curator Page. Please, give it a read ❤ [/url][/i][/h1]

[h1]Memento of Spring von Bright Onion Studios[/h1] Eine weitere Visual Novel die ich nicht als Spiel bezeichnen würde. Es gibt keinerlei Entscheidungen zu treffen, einfach nur klicken und die Story verfolgen. [b][i]Story[/i][/b] Diese dreht sich um die Magierin Juliane von Westerholz, die, egal wo sie sich befindet, nur für Probleme sorgt und auch die Prinzessin des Unglücks gennant wird. Dadurch lebt unsere Protagonistin nun in einer Kapelle zusammen mit iherer Wächterin in einer typischen Fantasywelt. Ihr Alltag besteht nur daraus, zu essen, zu schlafen und jedem auf die Nerven zu gehen, der ihr zu nahe kommt. Doch alles ändert sich, als eine neue Lehrerin von der Magierakademie eintrifft. Juliane will ihr beweisen, was für ein Genie sie ist und schafft es dabei sich zu teleportieren. Da unsere schöne Erde anscheinend einen Magneten für Dimensionsportale, mutierte Monster, Aliens, usw. hat, landet natürlich auch Juliane auf unserem Planeten. Um genau zu sein im modernen Japan. Die Geschichte ist teilweise sehr langatmig bzw. holt weiter aus, als unbedingt nötig. Dadurch geht leider Spannung verloren, da gut vorhersehbar ist, was als nächstes geschieht. Hier wurde in meinen Augen Qualität geopfert für mehr Quantität (mehr Wörter und damit mehr Lese/Spielzeit). Zum Glück gibt es eine Vielzahl an lustigen Gesprächen/Momenten. [b][i]Die Charaktere[/i][/b] Zu Beginn ist Juliane einfach nur ein eingebildetes, verzogenes Gör. Dies ändert sich ein wenig mit ihrer Ankunft in Japan. Über alle anderen Figuren erhält man auch so einiges an Informationen. Dadurch wirkt keine der Personen unwichtig. Allerdings empfand ich es recht schwer, zu einer der Personen irgendeine Beziehung aufzubauen, geschweige denn, mich mit ihnen zu identifizieren. Juliane fehlt in zu vielen Szenen und es wird auch nicht aus ihrer Perspektive erzählt, sodass es schwer ist sie überhaupt als Hauptcharakter wahrzunehmen. Die beiden Personen aus deren Sicht hingegen meistens erzählt wird (Amalie und Lily) treten zu selten in Aktion. Alle weiteren sind eindeutig Nebencharaktere. Hier fehlt eindeutige eine deutliche Hervorhebung des Hauptcharakters. [b][i]Grafik[/i][/b] Das Spiel präsentiert sich in einer hübschen Manga/Anime Optik. Auch wenn viele der Outfits recht schlicht sind, so sind doch alle Charaktere detailreich ausgearbeitet. Das gleiche gilt für die 15 Galleriebilder die in der VN auftauchen und die man sich aber auch noch mal gesondert in der Gallerie ansehen kann. Hintergründe gibt es zwar sehr viele, diese finde ich aber sehr einfach gehalten. [b][i]Sound[/i][/b] Zu hören bekommt man klassische Klaviermusik. Diese ist sehr ruhig und angenehm und findet sich auch noch einmal in einer extra Gallerie wieder. Die Musikstücke passen wunderbar zu dieser VN und sind wunderbar entspannend, teils auch etwas melancholisch. Die Musik erinnert mich stark an jene, die man in „One Thousand Lies“ zu hören bekommt. Die Charaktere sind dafür leider nicht vertont. [b][i]Fazit [/i][/b] Memento of Spring ist eine durchschnittliche VN mit Stärken und Schwächen, die viel Potential verschenkt. Wer VN´s mag kann hier ruhig zugreifen, ebenso Achivementjäger, denn die Erfolge gibt es alle automatisch beim durchlesen. Wer hingegen ein Spiel möchte, bei dem man auch etwas machen oder zumindest Entscheidungen treffen kann, sollte hiervon abstand halten. Wer es sich holen möchte kann es durchaus zum Originalpreis kaufen, die aktuellen 9€ sind für eine Lesezeit von 10-30 Stunden (je nach Lesegeschwindigkeit) vertretbar. Auf einen Sale zu warten ist aber, wie immer, eine gute Option, zumal man auch bessere VN´s für weniger Geld bekommen kann. PS: Memento of Spring ist zwar nur auf Englisch verfügbar, aber wer normales Schulenglisch beherrscht sollte keine Probleme haben. [quote]Wenn euch die Review gefallen/geholfen hat dann folgt doch unserem [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/8049466/] Reviewprogramm[/url] und wenn ihr mir etwas zu dieser Review mitteilen wollt dann schreibt gerne in die Kommentare. Das Spiel wurde der GGC für Reviewzwecke zur Verfügung gestellt.[/quote]

This, well this happens to be the second visual novel I've ever managed to play to completion. I read rather fast, so it took me a little over an hour to finish this, but now that it's over, I'm feeling something I haven't felt in a long time. The sort of emotion you feel after you've finished a great series, be it games, books, or movies, and you've just set down the book, or shut off the television. And that's when it hits you. It's over. You've finished. There's nothing left to do. You know the story, you know the characters, and unless you really feel like it, you're probably never going to play this again. I doubt many others will feel the same way, but I hope that at least a few people will read this and pick up this story. It's trully one of the best I have had the honor of witnessing recently. Bright Onion Studios? I've never hear of you before this, but thank you. Thank you for letting me partake in this beautiful story.

Персонажи интересные, но сама история обычная. Поскольку русификатора нет, то осилить такой объём текста очень непросто, текста очень много. Но выделить что-то запоминающееся в конце игры - трудно. Как будто прочитал какое-то произведение из школьной программы и ничего не отложилось в голове. Никакой морали нет, герои никак не меняются на протяжении всего сюжета. Есть интересный момент, когда героиня попадает в будущее, “вот сейчас начнётся что-то захватывающее!” - подумал я, но ошибался. Рисовка неплохая, но персонажам явно не хватает эмоций. Добавить к этому музыкальное сопровождение - три мелодии на всю игру, которые выключаешь после получаса игры, потому что иначе просто вытечет мозг. Отрицательный отзыв игра не заслужила, но и как-то похвалить не за что, кроме низкой цены и лёгких ачивок.

A very good Visual Novel game. I recomment it. good and long Story. some endings. nice scenes. good graphic. relaxing music. options menu is good some good changing. nice girls. beautiful cool clothes. price is in offer alright. all achievements work.

[b]OI, where’s my food! You’re 10 seconds late![/b] What else can a stubborn kid be but somehow be kicked out of the school’s boarding house but still be in the curriculum? In this world magic exists, those who possess it has to learn how to control it. They might not be as advanced as other worlds, but perhaps they just need one gifted individual to set them on the road. Here we have Juliane, the Princess of Calamity, as the natural prodigy in magic. However, she isn’t as agreeable as others might like, she is rather stubborn and is content with snoozing through most of the day and getting her meals. I guess you can say, those cat ears got to her more than replacing her normal ears. With Juliane bringing her school to kick her out, she is left with living in a chapel with her caretaker Amalie (who we get a perspective of). Though really, Amalie only needs to make sure Juliane gets food at the right time and make sure the locals don’t storm their way to throwing Juliane out of another place. The teachers she gets, however, are another story as Juliane constantly drives them to drinking and making up excuses to why they can’t teach her. She might be a prodigy, but she won’t agree with anything a teacher says. This doesn’t just take place at a chapel, but also a place where magic doesn’t exist that Juliane somehow got to. Good thing she’s finally out of her room but not as she has no idea where she is at. Here, as we don’t have Amalie, we get the counterpart Lily. A girl who recently got a job at a cafe, soon gets dumped to babysitting Juliane, and hijinks ensues. Sadly, I’ll have to stop there before I accidently go into spoiler territory. A lot of the events that happen somewhat before she gets to this new world and after will spoil the story. Every character you meet takes a major part in the story and chipping away at Juliane. No characters are introduced and dumped off, nor do you not know how each character’s personality was. With the story having a strong hold, how is the art and the music? I’m glad to say that both are good. The art is appealing to the eye and the bright colors certainly brings out that this is going to be really lighthearted in nature. The only thing that did look weird to me was having Juliane directly facing the screen as her face did look a but too long and awkward outside of CGs. To accompany the story and the art is really nice piano music. There are also some situations where the music directly links to the text which is nice to put in. If you like a certain track, the main menu contains a section with all of them listed for you to play outside of the story. I think there could have been more shuffling with the characters to not make some things forced. Amalie is believable as she is the only caretaker of Juliane so she does have a reason to being around her all the time. However, when the scenery changes and we get Lily, it is forced to try and have her be around Julian despite knowing she's supposed to be working. Having to bring up excuses for Lily to not be at her job where it might have worked if we got into Julian’s mind instead. It would have surely saved bringing up excuses and letting the players understand Juliane more after knowing what other people thought of her. There were also some areas that does seem like it may be dragging a little bit too much, with most of these areas more resulted in Juliane’s personality as she often does go in circles. The plus side though, by the end of Memento of Spring, there is no way you will not know Julian’s personality. Some of her backstory, including her ears (where did they come from??), are often left up in the air if it wasn’t already been told through Julian herself. As of now, the way chapters are shown to be completed and going onto the next looks like the game ended. With only the game’s title fading in and out and the achievement for finishing a chapter showing that there is more. It would be helpful to put in what chapter you’re going into in the game rather than outside of it. So if you end up only having 3 hours and disappointed the game ended way too early, keep playing! [h1]Verdict[/h1] Memento of Spring is a nice kinetic novel. If one of the selling points for you was the long length, this is not lying by a long shot. You can easily spend a couple days reading this with occasional breaks and make significant progress in either understanding characters more or getting further story-wise. Despite some aspects that could have been done better, I did enjoy the story and how lighthearted it is and is a pretty solid first entry Bright Onion put out. I certainly won’t be opposed to playing future kinetic or visual (if they ever decide to do player choices) novels from them. [code] Copy provided by developer through [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28714255-The-Witch%27s-Corner/]The Witch’s Corner curator page [/url][/code]