Before the Snow Melts

Adapted from a SpringThing26 Review

Played: 4/16/26
Playtime: 30min, 2 passes, mutual love, unspoken ending

Ok, I just need to start thinking of Ren’Py as a straight-up ‘visual novel’ engine, don’t I? It seems to have provisions for branching gameplay and dialogue trees (and I think I’ve seen pixel-hunt hooks before?), but I have encountered way more narratives than mechanics. Not a problem at all, just an observation.

BSM has some branching choices to make, scattered through its impending-life-change narrative. Ultimately, this does lead to alternate possible endings, but the central story is mostly static: you are spending your final week with a childhood friend (and sardonic third wheel) just as your feelings are becoming more adult.

Ren’Py as a platform centers its experience graphically, and BSM inadvertently tripped into a pet peeve of mine. Not pet peeve. Thorn in my paw? I don’t know, a creative choice that I probably read way too much into, but just can’t stop. Mismatched anime-character graphics against photographic or painted backgrounds have always suggested an artificiality to me. I understand the choice to some degree: humans famously embrace cartooning because iconic representations are easier to empathize with than uncanny valley ones. Thing is, Garfield outside his common-linework surroundings would be just horrific. Asymmetric art styles are visually jarring - characters feel removed from their surroundings. This can be used to effect. It is an economical way to convey alienation from one’s surroundings. Here, that does not seem to be the intended effect, and its dissonance is compounded for me by the nature of the narrative.

Melancholy is one of the most subtle narrative moods. It can be deeply affecting, but it is VERY nuanced. I found the narrative of BSM to be very well done: the protagonist’s emotional paralysis and looming decision point were deftly conveyed in the text and interactivity. This is no mean feat, and arguably the work’s strongest achievement! I found it undone a bit by limited character animations. I think there were 4-5 character emotion models? All textual content had to be reflected via those models, and they were cartoony shorthand that were NOT up to the subtlety of the narrative. The flatness of exaggerated ‘sad/neutral/shocked/pleased’ as an emotional palette was at odds with the far more subtle and affecting text. In some cases they seemed to be trying to indicate a narrative ‘path’ that did not map to text in a crisp way.

This central Melancholy (and the protagonist’s resolution of it) was the focus of the work, so anything that diminishes it is regrettable. But maybe it’s just me? Anime as an art form was embraced by the generation behind me - I’m certainly at a disadvantage parsing its visual dialects. I don’t THINK a Larson-esque character design would change my reservations, but maybe?

It is to the story’s credit that, three paragraphs later, dissonant art is not my overriding impression of the work. The story’s emotional content, most especially using its choice infrastructure to highlight the protagonist’s clay feet, are really well done. The language of the piece is natural and unadorned and carries the emotionality so much better for it. The scenario and characters are vivid, as are the choices to make (including ones not possible!). Even the multiple ending structure, presumably hinging on choices made throughout the game, allow the player to dial in a SPECIFIC melancholy in the protagonist, then honor the final choice against the carefully crafted backdrop. I did not exhaustively explore the space, but the two endings I achieved seemed completely justified and consistent with the choices I made throughout.

I also found the trio of main characters initially tropey, but blossoming over the narrative to fully realized characters in their own right, even the ones I was not driving directly! Overall, it was an accomplished work, conveying nuanced emotion. If I can (mostly) get past my artistic hangups, you probably can too.

Spaceship: Fhloston Paradise
Vibe: St. Elmo’s Fire
Polish: Smooth
Gimme the Wheel! : The easiest change I would make, were this my project, would be render the background setting images in the same style as the character models. A common visual scheme is the easiest way to NOT make the characters stick out. I think I would also create a LOT more character models to better mirror the emotional complexity of the work - some of the models maybe leaning into Mona Lisa-like ambiguity. I am trusting that, unlike myself, “Become a Competent Artist” is a pre-requisite task most Ren’Py authors have already accomplished.

Polish scale: Gleaming, Smooth, Textured, Rough, Distressed
Gimme the Wheel: What I would do next, if it were my project.