Chasing Tails ~A Promise in the Snow~ is the latest yuri visual novel release by developer Flat Chest Devs. We would like to thank Flat Chest Devs for providing a copy of their game for review.
Story
June has recently moved into a new neighborhood to start a fresh new normal life but started to notice strange things about this neighborhood and its inhabitants.
One day, June falls asleep on her sofa, only to wake up later on covered in a blanket with no clothes on. As she wakes she catches sight of a shadow-like figure running away causing her to assume that she now has a stalker.
Another strange event is when June’s new neighbor who is none other Rin, whose family is famous for their sawmill company that helps to support the entire town, tells her that she must leave her house immediately. Rin explains that June's house is cursed and that an evil spirit is growing more powerful by the day. She then goes on to explain that June is a descendent of the Yasunori Clan and was not on good terms with Rin’s descendants, the Fukuyama Clan.
Pros and Cons
Pros
-The comedic moments will make you smile
-The art style is very attractive and well done
Cons
-Characters are not memorable and lack development
-Certain plot points are not fully explained
-The slight bits of horror were not executed well
Characters
June fills the role of being the main character but is mostly a bland and uninteresting character with no standout or memorable personality traits.
Rin, whose family owns a local sawmill company decides to help June deal with the supernatural problems in her house. Rin is my favorite out of the three girls due to her fascination with the supernatural, but similar to June, has very little going for her that would make her interesting.
The final character is Kumi, who appears mostly near the end of the story. She doesn't seem to have a relevant purpose for the story, but oddly enough has her own route, and sits as my least favorite character of this visual novel.
What I Enjoyed
There are a few things that Flat Chest Devs did very well in Chasing Tails, both of which would be considered the saving features of the novel when contrasting to the shortcomings.
First, is the outstanding artwork. The art is very attractive with vivid colors that pull your eyes directly to the characters which look great even in darker environments. The background scenes use a mix of bright and dull colors that suit the mood and contrast with the character art nicely.
This is definitely the highlight of this visual novel.
The comedy is another element that I wasn't initially expecting, but was pleasantly surprised by the jokes and humor throughout the story which provided a positive vibe which I really appreciated.
What I Disliked
I ran into a few issues around character development, how memorable they were throughout the story, and also how certain plot points were ignored or never answered.
The biggest issue that I have with this visual novel is the plot holes throughout the story. As an example, it was never explained why Rin knew so much information about June. It was simply presented as a fact that June knew all about Rin and the reader is expected to simply acknowledge this and move on. Also, a few major events happen that are never fully explained or revisited to wrap up the story and make sense of everything. Due to this, the story came off as dull, slightly confusing, and overall very forgettable.
The horror was also something that I was disappointed about. The horror elements started off pretty interesting in the beginning, but never truly built up to a proper climax or an excitement level that the story gave plenty of potential for. I would have liked to see more horror elements in this story which could have helped make the story more memorable.
Performance
Chasing Tails runs great, nothing wrong with the performance sections of things. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, with 16 GB of RAM.
Final Verdict
Chasing Tails has some issues that hindered my overall enjoyment. While the art is above average and the inclusion of comedy is welcomed, the incomplete story littered with plot holes alongside bland characters prevents me from truly recommending this title as a must-buy. If the art alone is enough to grab your interest though, be sure to wait for a sale.
Lastly, I should mention that there is an optional 18+ patch. This is a free Steam DLC which I strongly suggest grabbing if you enjoy 18+ content. The art is absolutely the best part of this novel and the adult patch doesn't disappoint.