Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook

personally enjoyed the game, the mini farm aspect was nice however why the change in music? the original menu music was my favourite. if there was any way to get that song in specific alone that would be amazing.

I have conflicting feelings about this game.
On the one side, I totally read worse and there were cute moments in all of the routes. Graphics are cute, story is ok, most routes are cute (except Ryne - his was just meh) and it's really easy.
But I hated the MC in the beginning (which I guess was the point) - she was an entitled, selfish, lazy, irresponsible brat. Story had some really cringe moments - I kept thinking that I would probably enjoy this game a lot more if I was 12 or something. Achievements are bugged and won't unlock unless you jump through some hoops. And for such a short (4 hours to 100%) and simple game the price is ridiculous. I only decided to buy it when it was on like 75% sale.
So, maybe this game is good for some short brainless fun, but I cannot in good conscience recommend it.

This has been in my wishlist for at least 4 years and I was only able to purchase it now. I've always wanted to buy this game since I was a huge fan of its predecessor when I was younger, even though the farming system was quite bad. Imagine how happy I was when I finally saw a sequel that catered to female players.

I was finally able to purchase it today. I immediately downloaded it and played the game as soon as I was free, only to be greatly disappointed by the quality of the game.

Dear god is the female lead insufferable. She's rude. annoying, lazy and the works. She also acts like a hyperactive munchkin. I really tried to like it, nostalgia pushed me to do so. But the character just ruins the whole story. I'm usually easy to please, even easy games with bland stories entertain me. But this just reminds me of a fanfiction story written by a 14 year old who thinks being quirky is cute.

I'll be refunding the game after I write this review.

It's a fun and charming game. The only thing that really bothers me is that it's really hard to see the parasites on the growing flowers...

It's a stat raising game which is a hit or miss with people. It's really easy though so save scumming isn't required. The art is super cute and the music doesn't get annoying.

As for the MC, she is supposed to be a lazy jerk bc the story is about her growth as a person. She has matured by the end of the game.

What an awful character! The main character is a lazy, entitled jerk. I kind of wonder why someone would decide that this was the kind of character people would want to play. Anyway, after watching the main character be spoiled, irresponsible, and rude for a while, I decided that I just couldn't take it. My advice is to not waste your money. If you would like a somewhat lazy, disorganized MC who is pleasant to play, I recommend Hustle Cat.

I'd never played this sort of sim before, but I noticed this title on sale and thought I'd give it a try. The English is very good, even more poetic and philosophical at times than one would expect from normal conversations. I like the atmosphere and visuals - it's all very beautifully illustrated.

The character you play as has her own personality instead of just being a sort of blank slate you can act through like I was expecting - she has a happy disposition but finds work a bit exasperating and has difficulty applying herself. While her having a personality did give a certain added depth to the gameplay, I did find that when given a dialogue option that picking something I would've chosen as myself: would be something she'd flub terribly because she simply wouldn't go about it the way I would... which would mean I'd have to go back to the save I made just before to make her say the option she wouldn't totally ruin. It's not an issue unique to this particular game with dialogue choices though.

In many ways it's more like a story with interactive points than something with many dialogue options and opportunities for conversations you could play a real part in - which although was different from what I was expecting didn't make it necessarily bad. It was kind of a pleasant read, and although replaying certain things in the game could get a bit tedious, when you did get a different ending it felt very rewarding.

Overall I'm glad I got it and I had fun playing it. It's very slice of life with focus on the intellectual and emotional sensibilities, rather than anything sensual or indecent. Cute, really. I can't speak to whether others would like it for certain... but I did. All in all it's got a pretty saccharine quality to it, and I found all the characters likeable in their own way. I bought the prequel shortly after. :3

Tags: Adventure - VN - Visual Novel
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library

TLDR: This is a genderswap reskin of Summer in fairbook meant for an Otome audience. Same repetitive gameplay loop and mechanics. Somewhat less likeable protagonist.

The fact that all boys' stories are relatively interconnected and you need to interract with at least some of them to get the required stats for the one you are going for means that you will have seen all of their dialogues multiple times by the time you are through with all branches of the story. That is, unlike well-thought out otome, where you do not get to know other characters when you are going for one - or where their dialogue changes depending on which branch of the story you are on, here the entire dialogues remain the same save for the endings. This makes for a pretty boring experience, which is unfortunate, because this is a cute little game. I only recommend you get this if you find it at a great sales price, otherwise I do not see it as value for what you get. Once you have seen it once, it becomes not only repetitive, but it is also short (ignore my playtime, I idled a lot with this game).

Do yourself a favor and don't buy this game. It just sucks. It's way too short, the characters are not developed enough and the protagonist is insufferable. If you're interested in an otome by Winter Wolves, better buy Nicole or Roommates.

I found all the characters really boring, including the main character is extremely shallow and lazy, not someone I wish to play as the protagonist. She is also rude and very selfish. I don't understand why she is so strange looking compared to some of the other females in the game which are pretty and feminine. And also the males look like 12 year old boys, act also like little boys and not men and don't feel comfortable trying to romance any of them due to this really young look and personality. Felt like this game was made for little kids and not young adults, also the mini games didn't get you anywhere, money made didn't provide anything either to do so felt like I was grinding for nothing and couldn't really get anywhere in the game.

This visual novel is a sequel of sorts to Summer in Fairbrook. Like that game, you end up in Fairbrook to... learn responsibility. This time, though, you are pursuing the boys. Trent, Jacob, and Steve return from the previous game (which I guess assumes Steve didn't win any of the girl's hearts), and a new guy, Ryan shows up (more or less to be the voice of reason in the game). Some of the features of the prior game have also been streamlined.

There are nine endings. One for ending up alone, and two for each hero. A normal ending and a special ending. The only difference between the two is that one you have $400 in your wallet at the end of the game for the specials.

It is a nice game for those who like the type (Winter Wolves doesn't disappoint).

Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook has you spending more time planting flowers and planning your schedule than interacting with the other characters, which are all rather bland and shallow. If you want a farming game or a VN there are better options. If you want both at once...there are still better options.

Change or be unworthy of love.

Perhaps a bit harsh, but that appears to be the message of this game. You are Natalie, a lazy college student who gets a job in a flowershop because her parents want her to get a job somewhere.
You arive, meet the eccentric locals, including four potential love interests. Each has two stats he likes, you must work hard to level up those stats in order to unlock their romance ending.
Several of these guys will make a point of informing you (DURING your romance scene at the end) about how pleased they are you're nolonger some lazy spoilt brat, but a decent person they don't mind loving.
While Steve in the previous game did have a character arc of personal growth, none of his love interests were cruel enough to point out they wouldn't have looked twice at him without it.

Like Summer in Fairbrook, this is basically farmvill meets dating sim. You grow flowers, you sell flowers, you get to know and try to date guys.
It sadly renders 'Summer's ending moot, as when you meet Steve here he's single (so he evidently failed to romance anyone last time) but the advantage is you could date him now if you like.
The 'crisis' point midway through lacked much of the personal urgency of the one in the previous game, or perhaps that's becaues I'm not all that invested in Susanna's safety.


In summary, I did enjoy this game, but it is very flawed.

A nice, simple, funny and cute hearthwarming game, i definitely enjoy it. If we speaking about cons, than i can tell that gameplay can be a little repeative and characters more or less stereotypic sometimes, some routes are more complex and interesting than others (though i guess it depends from your point of view). But game also has cute scenes, especially final ones (snow fight and last romance scenes are wonderful, you should see it yourself), nice art, funny moments and light hearthwarming atmosphere, that reminds about school\college days. Don't expect someting serious - it's a nice and little naive teen romance that definitely has its own charm for those who love such things. Still cannot say that game worth full price, i bought it on sale and recommend it for sale price.

When I started this game, I thought it would be terrible. I was disappointed with another game of Winter Wolves, Nicole, and think it was on the same line, so I just opened to get my achievements. Then, for my surprise I got involved with the game.
It is not a deep game, but it's pretty cool to spend time. I found myself involved in the route of Ryan, and I was happy to see Natalie's maturity. At first I hated her, thinking she would be the same as Nicole, but she was growing up during the game, and I liked the result.
Another thing I think that was really cool: the protagonist of the previous game appear as a romance option (I had hated him the other game, but in this, his route was one of my favorites). The music is very soft and cool, the system of planting too, and in this game, different from the first, you really have a reason in order to plant and save money, if you do this you get a better ending.
Another really cool thing is the game of the graph. The characters are very well made and the backgrounds are nice.
It is an easy game, simple, small and cool. I have nothing to complain about it (Just the fact of being small and without much depth, but I still really enjoyed it, for me it was not something that affected much).

Much like Summer in Fairbrook, I bought this game on sale, and yet still find it difficult to recommend to anyone, other than those firmly commited to the genre.
And much like it's predecessor, Winter in Fairbrook leaves much to be desired.

To say the game is bad would be like saying a small piece of chocolate cake is bad (assuming that you enjoy chocolate cake). It's still cake, it's still good, but it is grossly unsatisfying.

The writing leaves much to be desired. Very much like Steve in the previous game, Natalie is a vapid, ignorant, immature, petulant, and lazy girl, who is instructed by her parents to find a job over the holidays, in the hopes of teaching her some discipline (They had already cancelled her cellphone due to bad grades, and are now threatening to take her new car away). Luckily, her room-mate just happens to be Clara from the previous game, and she sets Natalie up with Susana to work in the flower shop.
Natalie must leave first thing in the morning to arrive in Fairbrook to start work the next day, but instead of packing and sleeping, she spends all night playing online games. That is our first introduction to this character, and I must say, it did not leave me wanting to spend the entire winter break with her.

When she arrives in Fairbrook she thinks it's a small, dull town, and rightly so. She sleeps the day away, and then proceeds very rudely reject the dinner that was cooked for her (and continues to do so for a few weeks) and sleep in until 11 am the next day, even after being woken up by Susana at 8 am... after doing the only task asked of her, she then wanders off to check out the general store, thinking to herself that she "wasn't told [she] needed to come right back.... once again, I am left wondering why I should care about this spoiled wretch.

She improves as time goes on, of course, but I still never really cared for her at all. The choices that you get to make in the game are fairly limited. Just like it's predecessor, you start your day working in your garden. You then get to do one activity for the whole day, be it going to the store, the library, or just staying in.. there were around 5 options if I recall correctly. Every so often you would get a cut scene with one of the bachelors, and you would get to make a single choice in the entire discussion, and the rest of it was merely her awkward verbal diarrhea.

As for the bachelors... well.... what can I say...

Steve is still Steve, if you've played the previous game then you already know everything there is to know about him. He's slightly less lazy than before, but otherwise he's pretty much just a male version of Natalie (or she a female version of him).

Jacob is sweet, charming, helpful, and shy.. oh, and he's SEVENTEEN!!! Yes, you read that right.. one of this College girl's potential mates is still in Highschool...... yeah. Add to that the fact that she thinks he looks like a twelve year old, and you've got a real winner.

Trent is still trent. He's sweet, charming, attractive, and playful. Oh, and in love with someone else... just like, well, pretty much all the guys really.

And Ryan, well, there's nothing that I can say about him that wouldn't sound completely biased, but I'll try. To say he's adorkable would not be giving him enough credit, though he does resemble that at times. He's intellegent, well-spoken, hard-working, reliable, cultured, and a bit of a virtuoso.... I mean, is there anything he isn't? He's also the only guy who isn't already mostly spoken for, so that's another plus for him... the only problem is, in reality, there is no way he would go for someone like Natalie... and quite frankly, most of the time it seemed like he hated her, or at the very least found her highly irritating.

The good:
- Art work is relatively cute
- Writing is decent
- Gardening mini-game is amusing
- The bachelors are charming

The bad:
- The music is repetitive, and though not inharently bad, certainly grates on you after a time.
- The writing is lacking in quite a few places
- The gardening mini-game is much more out of place in this incarnation than in the previous title.

TL;DR
This game is not really worth your time or money, even on sale. It's decent, and if you really like the genre then I won't think any less of you for buying it.
Just keep in mind that even though it says I've got 12 hours played, about 80% of that was spent leaving the game open for Trading Cards. I think it took me roughly 2 hours to get 3 of the endings.

For a game rated PG, it's great.

The game is very quick and simple. All the characters are decent and if you know what you're doing, you can finish a character route within an hour or so. It's a good visual novel with lovely music and no noticable grammatical errors in the text.

My only complaint will be that the drama was kept tamed and that nothing really surprised me. So I would recommend this game to anyone whio is new to the otome general or anyone who wants a very casual otome game.

My feelings on this game are kind of mixed. I feel like it could have been so much better but I still love what it has.
I've played many visual novels and dating sims mainly otomes of varing qualities and backgrounds, and I always enjoyed them for something.

I'm gonna go right off in saying that the biggest isses with this game is it's length and difficulty.


It felt way too easy.

-The gardening simulation was okay but besides for getting the special endings it didn't give me any insentive to keep going once I got my goal. It's supposed to one of the big parts of the game but ends up being optional. I think this could easily be improved by adding more things to buy or atleast need money for, a higher goal for special ends and some sort of noticable punishment for not working.

-Getting the guys is another thing that felt too easy. Instead of getting hints or what not for the guys, you litterally get straight up told what stats you need to make them fall for you. It's not even sutble, they say exact stats names.
another thing is there really should have been atleast one more ending per guy, and by that I mean a bad ending, so their endings wouldn't be that easy to do, mainly the special ending, which is another big problem. the "best" ending really should be harder to get, and for some characters be better than the normal endings.


It needed more to it.

-For the guys, you either get to know them way faster than you should, or by the end you only seem to have gotten the very surface layer of them. It gives the impresstion that it was a bit rushed. Like characters who were well written out had to get their story squeezed in a much smaller amount of time, and others who weren't fully developed having to have their stories artifically stretched. While saying this I did enjoyed all the characters, but the attachment to them wasn't really there due to the rushed or shollow feeling.

-The story was good, the characters were wonderful but it was far too short. When I finished all the endings all I wanted to do was keep playing, I still do, I want there to be more for me to do. each guy took maybe an hour or two to finish completely, maybe 3 if it takes you a bit to figure out what to say. This is rather short for a game of this genre.

Now to improve these things the simple solution would be to extend the story. Add more weeks or instead of planing each week, you plan each day. or simplely adding more endings, like friendship endings for the girls and guys, bad endings. Things like this can really add an hour or so of gameplay.

- Now that we're past these issues, now to my more positive thoughts.

To start with the art is really top notch, would have been nice to have a few more CGs but moore wasn't nessasary.

The Interface is simple but it was more than enough for a dating sim.

The main character starts off not to likeable but by the end you'll deffiantly like her. She goes through a reasonable yet still drastic change, going from childish and bratty to more thoughtful of others and mature. The differant guys make these changes more sutdle or more drastic.

The other characters do go through some changes themselves that you help with, again not too great to be unrealistic but even something as simple as helping to see things a bit differantly. they do seem to evolve some in the course of the game.

The story is not really complex, you're a spoiled college girl going to a small town to work for winterbreak cause your parents are making you. It felt natural, and flowed well enough. again i wish it was longer, it would have really profited from even a slightly extended story.

Besides for technical issues, I must say that this is one of my favorite otomes, specially here on steam. If it wasn't for my dislike of playing male characters, I would most certainly try Spring in Fairbrook, aswell. If you're new to dating sims or your still not sure about this game, get it when it's on sale and give it a go.

As for the others who are still intrested, I can't really say if it's worth paying full price. If you like other Winter Wolves titles and/ or you'r fine with splurging a bit, then go for it.

I was able to play through the entire game in about an hour, the only choices are ones that lead to either an increase in a particular character's opinion of you or a decrease. There is only one event that happens in the whole game. You can spend your time working gardening, but there's no point, since there is literally nothing to buy except for more seeds. I bought it on sale, and I am still hugely dissapointed