The Last Winter Knight

Gorgeous hand-crafted artworks and haunting melodies wrapped around a beautifully executed story of love, loss and regrets. [h3][u]Gameplay & Settings[/u][/h3] I have made no secret of loving everything I’ve ever read by [i]ENDYSIS[/i]. I have been waiting patiently for this novel's full release to drop. The artwork is hand-crafted and the music performed by the developer themselves (with additional cello performances by ArcanaXIX). [i]A complete labor or love spanning three years in the making.[/i] [u]Gameplay Tips[/u] 🔹The game has interactive elements you can click on with your mouse or by hitting enter. When you have explored all the interactable items in a room the frost around the screen will disappear. 🔹During the story you will play as more than one character and traverse the story through both the present and the past. Additional details about characters and the world will be kept in your Codex. Any inventory items you pick up will be used without having to go into your inventory to select them. 🔹There is no gallery but you can take your own favorite moments by hiding the hud (hit H) Settings & extras include; display options, skip text options, skip options, and audio controls. Extras include endings and credits. There are also lots of save slots. [h3][u]The Visuals & Audio[/u][/h3] The artwork is hand-crafted with subtle animations in each scene like falling snow, or the flicker of a lighted candle. The music is a piano score composed and played by the developer themselves with some ambient sounds added such as the wind howling or iron creaking. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3734791253 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3734791156 [h3][u]Overall Experience[/u][/h3] The story told is haunting, tragic and beautiful. The meshing of interactive elements within the story keeps it fresh (also if you read the write ups for each element more than once it will give you additional text). I am highly looking forward to [i]ENDYSIS[/i] two future projects (one coming up soon called Unquiet Grey). If you love well written and illustrated gothic tales I highly recommend this one.🖤 [hr][/hr] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote] [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

Finished in about three sittings over 4.5 hours. This game is both a visual novel and closed-box mystery about ghosts, knights, abandoned castles, tragic families, yearnings, secrets, lies, misdirection, and so much more. Your character's amnesia is played with and turned on its head; every time you recover memories, read old diaries, or examine objects, you learn things about your character that recontexualize who you are. Keep an eye on your "Lore" and "Codex" tabs as you discover plot twists, the writing might surprise you. The ending was bittersweet and had me thinking about it hours after the fact. Could things have ended differently? Was this path the only way out -- for the protagonist and for their loved ones? One thing's for sure: replaying the story after getting the true ending is *immensely* rewarding, as you can now understand all the forshadowing and misdirection the game puts in front of you in the starting hours. Highly recommend if you like bittersweet endings, messy romances, and broken characters getting a second chance at fixing their mistakes in their afterlives.

Hauntingly beautiful in the best way. Calling it a labor of love is very accurate. The care and attention to even the smallest details comes across in every illustration, every tender note playing in the background, and in every written word; even in something as simple as the codex. Most of the mystery seems quite predictable at first—which is not a bad thing at all, quite the opposite actually, since it is executed beautifully. Still, there were some bits later on that caught me by surprise after all. In hindsight most of the clues to get to those revelations myself would have even been hidden in plain sight. Which was interesting to think back on, just for another realization of how well the entire story and cast of characters have been carefully planned out and brought to life. I've got a handful of endings left to look for, and some achievements left to collect. No complaints there; I'm looking forward to return to this story after letting it settle for a bit. The only thing I was missing by the end, though, was a gallery. I'd love to go back and revisit some of the lovely art eventually, if at all possible. I played through the entirety on Steam Deck and it worked without any issues, even with it not being fully verified for it. Although, in my experience, for controls it is best played using the touchpad as a mouse. It felt like the buttons didn't work quite right. Personally that wasn't a bother for me; I like playing my VNs like that on the Deck, but ymmv. It took me around ~7 or so hours to reach the true ending (SD messed up the playtime), and that was with me messing around with a lot of the dialogue choices (and occasionally idling for a little bit). It doesn't overstay its welcome, but doesn't cut itself short, either. A fitting length that's easy to get through in one or two cozy sessions. Overall, The Last Winter Knight is an easy recommendation, and I'm looking forward to any future releases by ENDYSIS!

I absolutely love this game, its art style and memorable soundtrack are amazing but what truly stood out to me is the story. The story in this game is what I can only describe as beautiful and will stick with you long after the game ends.

Wow. Just Wow. I have played myriad of visual novels and interactive fictions on steam with several accounts, on itch.io, on other sites. Well I can't say I have read all of them or claim that since I have never been very interested on the Japanese side which makes a good chunk of the products. Many vn/if hooked me with their story, made me feel emotions. But one of them was always special to me. In my head ranking there was a tier only for that. --Finding Paradise--. Now I am glad to say it does finally have a friend at the top of that list. I won't say anything about the game, I won't try to convince you by saying how good is the story or the art. I just want you to trust me on this. Go blind and live this experience. You won't regret a second you pass in this story.

Absolutely enthralling story and gorgeous artwork! Every character feels human and imperfect in the best possible way. Some sequences in the endgame are quite text heavy, but honestly I didn't mind as the writing is really good The game is going to stay with me for a while and I will be forcing all my gothic loving friends to play it!!

Devastatingly beautiful, in every sense of the phrase. It blew all my expectations out of the water. Endysis is one of my favorite devs in the scene right now.

I play and enjoy a wide variety of games. However, it is rare for a visual novel to truly get its hooks into me. This one managed to do just that - and in a way that hurts. My first playthrough took me just under six hours; it should be noted, however, that I am a fast reader. The Last Winter Knight tells a story about family, conflict, regret, and guilt. It is accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack and wonderful artwork. The writing is bittersweet, and the primary characters are portrayed with great depth and nuance. They are human, imperfect as such, and it is precisely this imperfection that causes pain to both themselves and their loved ones. I cannot say much more without venturing into spoiler territory, but I played The Last Winter Knight with a painful knot in my stomach and, at times, with tears in my eyes.

I really enjoyed the story, it's storytelling and atmosphere were extremely engaging.

This is the much more profound story behind "Trail of Stars". The misery and deliverance of a trio of knights, their families and enemies. A new pearl in the visual novel genre. A worthy read.