White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow is a story of unfaithful love, the struggle to maintain a relationship, and the world of idols. Can Touya and Yuki’s love survive as she grows as an idol and singer? Or will temptations get the better of them?
Ordinary Boy and Extraordinary Girl
As White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow opens, you learn that Touya and Yuki have been in a relationship since high school. He considers Yuki to be the perfect girlfriend but is concerned that she likes him far more than he likes her. Beyond that, the only real problem is that she has no time for him. She debuted as an idol a year ago and barely sees him now. The life of a rising star is busy.
With Yuki out of sight most of the time and Touya spending plenty of time with his group of [mostly female] friends and some new women, there’s a very real danger that he may grow closer to someone other than Yuki. He certainly has plenty of chances as he spends time at college and working as an assistant director at the production company around idols and other staff.
Play with All The Heroines
After a short prologue, White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow works by letting the player choose locations on almost all days, which includes character events and conversation events to progress along that character’s ‘route’. The major story beats remain the same no matter what your choices are, but there are not many of them. How the system works is detailed in depth in our guide, but in terms of story, the takeaway is that there isn’t much in the way of an overarching story between characters and it’s possible to see events for multiple characters in one playthrough. As well as that, certain character events can require seeing events from other characters first.
I enjoyed the more customizable experience and the move away from a traditional dialogue choice-based system [though important choices do appear in events] but it did mean that a lot of the time spent felt like filler. Particularly conversation events.
Conversation events varied from insights into the characters’ lives and story-relevant tidbits to mundane conversations about the weather. One nice feature here was that sometimes stories are interconnected, such as Rina telling us that she enjoys hang-gliding, which we can then drop in a conversation with Mana if we’ve learned it. It was used well for foreshading on occasion too, with a hint for a reveal in one character’s story showing up on a conversation with another.
Character events were more consistently interesting. This is where the story for the character progresses and most of the relationships are built between the characters. You can find touching moments, times when they’re joking around, events where they’re at their most vulnerable, and even sexual events, though they’re not depicted in detail.
General Story Thoughts
While I’ll give my thoughts on each heroine, some things remained consistent throughout my playthrough of White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow. One of which is that I found the protagonist Touya rather unlikeable.
Considering that this is a visual novel with seven heroines, it’s not much of a spoiler to say that Touya isn’t the most faithful character in the world. This includes a lack of faithfulness to his convictions. He often reiterates his love for Yuki, while still getting very close to the other women in his life. It might be a lap pillow from one woman, or spending Christmas Eve with another, but he’s sometimes oblivious or just going ahead, while still talking about loving Yuki.
This leads to another thing that I found unusual. With some notable exceptions, there seemed to be a surprisingly minimal amount of guilt over these developing relationships or some guilt that only seemed to develop near the end. This includes from the heroines, many of whom are friends with both Yuki and Touya. In most cases, it doesn’t really feel like a guilty romance story like I Kissed My Girlfriend’s Little Sister. That said, in the cases where the theme did appear heavily, it was done well. Two routes were great for this.
Another aspect common to a lot of routes was endings without a solid resolution. While I’ll remain vague to avoid spoilers, I felt this was a weakness.
While it’s fairly normal for routes [even if not traditional routes, as seen here] to be of different quality or for some heroines to be more appealing, I did find they varied much more than normal in White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow. I’ll separate my thoughts on these by heroine.
Yuki
Yuki is the main heroine as your current girlfriend and the one who many of the major events revolve around. She’s a slightly introverted and sometimes awkward girl. Despite being an idol, she’s not too confident. She embodies the girl-next-door stereotype in many ways.
Much of her story revolves around trying to see each other while work gets in the way, encouragement to succeed, and some feelings of insecurity in the relationship. Perhaps because many of her important events appear in every route, it felt like there wasn’t much unique in her route or too much of interest. What little drama there was entered the route late and was quickly resolved too.
Rina
I wouldn’t say Rina is best girl [though she is up there!], but I felt like hers is the best route.
Rina is one of the top idols at the production company and the younger sister of the head of the company. She’s closer to the image of an idol, being talented, outgoing, and confident. That said, she has a rather turbulent relationship with her brother which leads to her punching you on the first meeting.
Her route is most interesting because it covers the drama not only caused by your growing relationship with her and her friendship/rivalry with Yuki, but also other plot-relevant issues going on in the background. It gives an insight as to what is really going on at the company. As well as that, she has a sympathetic storyline about missing out on being a normal girl.
Sayoko
Added in the remake of White Album, Sayoko is the third idol character and my favorite. She gives a very different perspective on working as an idol. While Yuki is a rising star and Rina is already a top idol, Sayoko is more valued for her looks than her singing ability. She struggles with feelings of inadequacy and compared to the others, she just isn’t as talented; it doesn’t just wave that away with a feel-good story of trying hard and succeeding.
Aside from an interesting storyline, her personality is a lot more fun than most of the others too. We see her teasing another character about a crush, pulling a trick on Touya, and more. She’s hostile initially but brings a lot of energy to her scenes.
You won’t see Sayoko on earlier playthroughs as she needs to be unlocked. Steps to do so are in our guide.
Yayoi
If there was a character whose ending I’d recommend skipping, it’d be Yayoi’s. She’s a very professional older woman who works as Yuki’s manager. She acts incredibly cold to Touya, but Yuki views her in a very positive, almost sisterly light.
Yayoi’s route is the most sexual, despite a lack of any actual adult content. The idea is that she wants to distance you from Yuki for her own reasons, and she’s willing to use her body to keep you company instead.
She’s often described in very clinical terms and near enough as a robot. Touya seems to dislike her, rarely shows any sort of desire for her, and is even left near tears after encounters. It never felt like there was any reason for Touya to go along with her wishes, not even enjoyment of the physical acts. If anything, those times have more of an eerie vibe, which is well supported by the CGs used and the music.
Misaki
A year older than you and most of your friends, Misaki is well-mannered and treats everyone kindly. She’s the type to go out of her way for other people, while not expecting others to do the same for her. One of the first things we learn is that our friend Akira has a quiet but obvious crush on her.
Misaki doesn’t stand out much as a character, but the time spent with her is always pleasant. Her route is one of the ones that actually pull off the guilt from betraying Yuki well though, which does fit her kind personality. It has more engaging drama and one of the better resolutions too.
Haruka
A childhood friend and somewhat of a tomboy with a sleepy voice, Haruka is somewhat of a space case. Yet even if she doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening sometimes, at others she’s oddly insightful picking up on things that most others don’t. We learn early on that she has trauma over her brother’s death, which made her give up her dreams and become listless.
While I did question some of the physical affection between Haruka and Touya that happened even early on, the close relationship between them and their playfulness was fun to experience. If we ignore Yuki’s existence, it did the growth of friends to lovers after breaking down the initial barrier between them well. I do feel it was let down a little by parts of her route though, particularly the ending.
Mana
Last but by no means least is Mana, whom we meet as a student who needs tutoring to get into college. We first meet her by chance and she seems like a kind young woman, but on our next meeting, she’s not happy to see you at all for certain reasons.
Mana is the stereotypical twintailed tsundere. She looks younger than she is and tends to kick you if you say the wrong thing, but does turn sweet later on. Underneath the violence, we can see hints of sadness, especially when parents or school are brought up.
She has a rather touching story. I felt the ending was somewhat bittersweet and they could’ve done more with a certain relationship she had, but despite that, it was one of the routes I enjoyed the most.
It’s Based on a Console Version…
Some may bemoan the lack of adult content in White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow considering the original had it. While I would’ve liked it included, I only feel like Yayoi’s and perhaps Rina’s route suffers from a lack of it and I can understand why it’d not be possible; it’d be a big ask to create it just for the PC port. In some cases, it still describes that the act is happening, and even gives a nude CG in Yuki’s case, albeit one that cuts off above the chest.
Instead, we get the remastered graphics and Sayoko, which I feel is more than a fair exchange.
Slow Systems and Weird Controls
White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow will likely take people upward of 30 hours to complete and more if aiming for 100% completion and not just all of the endings.
One major reason behind this is that it’s just slow. There is a lot of selecting locations involved in this game and each time it takes a couple of seconds to load. Even the ‘skip to next choice/scene’ functionality isn’t near instant like most visual novels, but can take upward of ten seconds if there’s a lot to skip.
Another odd little feature is the controls. ‘K’ is the default confirm key, while the standard ‘Enter’ is autoplay. Luckily these can be fully remapped, but it’s an oddity. Full controller support is included too, which is nice.
Plenty of Animation and Voice Talent
In terms of graphics, White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow is certainly pleasant to look at with some great artwork. It’s highly animated too, with sprites having breathing movement as they’re on screen and lip flaps that are synchronised to the dialogue. Sayoko has some fun expressions too. The occasional animated CG occurs as well, with one of Mana being my current top candidates for an animated desktop wallpaper.
The music fits well and is all high quality, which certainly makes sense for a visual novel set around the idol industry. Voicing was all done well too and it has some major talent onboard, including Hirano Aya [Yuki] and Mizuki Nana [Rina]. Including vocal songs of which there are several, they even have Suara involved, who you may recognize as a singer from the Utawarerumono visual novels.
Verdict
While I do feel that some routes were certainly weaker than others and it often missed out on important elements for a guilty romance story, I still enjoyed White Album: Memories Like Falling Snow. Its highs are high and its lows are low. I’d be more hesitant at a higher price, but it’s quite reasonable. As such, it squeaks through with a recommendation based on the better parts.
While localization of White Album 2 hasn’t been announced, between what I’ve heard of what it takes from the original White Album and its quality, having played this just makes me more excited about the chance that it may come next.
WHITE ALBUM: MEMORIES LIKE FALLING SNOW IS RECOMMENDED
Platforms: PC Walkthrough/Guide: Click Here
If you are looking for another visual novel, you may enjoy Otome Domain. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Many thanks go to Shiravune for a PC review code for this title.
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A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
Is White Album 2 worth playing?
White Album 2 is very smart and self aware. All of that is why the show just works for me. The characters are great and very realistic with all their sorts of tension that feels mature. White Album's scale is these three characters with some other side characters for flavor.
Is WHITE ALBUM visual novel good?
Recent Reviews: Very Positive [55] - 94% of the 55 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive. All Reviews: Very Positive [355] - 96% of the 355 user reviews for this game are positive.
Is White Album 2 a good adaptation?
The existing White Album 2 anime inevitably lacks the scope that made the original game a fan favorite. Yet I would argue that the anime staff made the right choice by focusing on the linear opening chapter. Its one-stop ride to teenage romantic tragedy is just the right size for a one-season television show.
Should I watch WHITE ALBUM 1 or 2?
WA1 and WA2 are separate stories, same universe. You don't need to watch WA1 to understand WA2. The WA2 anime covers one part of the VN, or the Introductory Chapter.