Players have come to expect 5-6 love interests. That’s the default for dating sims and something that will persist well into the future. But how low can it go? Soul Touch had great success with three. I Can’t Beat the Pretty Girls featured excellent isolated stories with two. Can a good romance FMV be made with just one? A Love Letter in Snowfall cannot provide a definite answer, but it offers vital information about the unusual approach.
A Love Letter in Snowfall is set in Quzhou, China. You play as Xu Zilong and are helping to run a guesthouse in a remote village. A young actress, Jiang Xuening, walks through the door and requests a room. After getting settled, she asks you to film some boyfriend POV videos. You agree and thus begins a quaint, slow-burn romance. While the introduction is rushed, it does eventually find a relaxed pace more fitting of its lovely rustic setting.
Although both main characters have depth, there is not much story. The boyfriend POV clips are random vignettes. Some are essentially travel vlogs where Jiang Xuening enters a shop and interacts with the proprietors. She even makes local delicacies, like baked pancakes. These are adequate tourist clips—better than many in Enjoy Amoy & Sisters—but food is too often the focus and they rob players of those precious one-on-one scenes. What if, instead, she had to record audition clips and the player could select roles and participate?
Given that Jiang Xuening is nearly always on screen, the experience rests heavily on the actress’ shoulders. Fortunately Jiao Xuerui (焦雪睿) does an excellent job. She engages strongly with the camera, offering an appealing mix of confidence and reticence. Interactions with the locals are natural. Her micro-expressions are a standout, like when she scrunches her nose in a cave restaurant. And when she says, “I like you,” for the third time, in a fake boyfriend clip, it hits the mark.
Sadly, her performance is compromised by inconsistent audio. Half of her lines are ADR which means it cannot sustain that same tender authenticity present in Such a Guy.
It is also too linear. You pick dialog options, but they only change the immediate response. You also pick the order to visit shops for those travel vlogs, but since all can be visited, it makes no difference. The game takes just over 2 hours to finish and another half hour to see everything. Both endings are abrupt, and the best is nearly entirely featured in the trailer anyway.
So the biggest flaws in A Love Letter in Snowfall are unrelated to it offering just one love interest. In fact, that is its greatest strength. It just needed better voice audio, thicker story, and meaningful choices to really shine. Still, hopefully it encourages others to walk the path because it would be heartbreaking if there was just one.
Best Travel Vlog
Candy making
Funniest Moment
Find money please
Best Boyfriend POV
Confession practice
Rating: Adequate 
Length: 2.2 hrs
100%: 2.7 hrs
Positives +
- Actress
- Setting
- Slow-burn romance
- Theme music
- Focused interactions
Negatives –
- Linear
- Story
- Endings
- Initial pace
- ADR
Steam Store Link
Having only one love interest really heightens the emotional impact of this slow-burn romance. The female lead is a true standout in the FMV genre; she is lovely and fresh-faced, like the quintessential “school-day sweetheart”, and delivers a great performance with natural dialogue and expressive acting. I’ve watched a few other short films she’s starred in (after playing the game), and she’s excellent at playing villainous roles, too. I’m really looking forward to “Heartbeat Cafe”, though there’s been absolutely no news regarding its release date. I worry she might quickly rise to fame in the short film world (much like Fang Jin) and never return to FMV games.
That said, the game itself is a massive disappointment, especially considering its steep price tag; Mountains and Seas Studio certainly knows how to make fans wait for a sale. *Love Letter* feels more like a travel vlog – the kind where you feel your money is going toward a local tourism conservation fund. The runtime is far too short, the pacing feels rushed toward the end, and, as you mentioned, the ending is shockingly bad. I was stunned for a few moments when the credits rolled, but then I remembered which studio made it and realized I shouldn’t have had such high expectations.
If the game itself is a 2/5, I’d rate Jiao Xuerui a 6/5. I really hope to see her in other FMV games—ideally ones far away from this studio.
It will be interesting to see her in Heartbeat Cafe and compare, since that was filmed when she was a few years younger. If that game has a more competent structure then it will probably highlight her strengths even more. I haven’t seen any of her short films yet but it is always a pity when talented actresses find success in that space and leaves FMV games behind. That said I wish her success.