Recent reviews by Burning Earth Chris

Let me first say that this was my first experience with a visual novel, let alone a kinetic one.

That said, Highway Blossoms has one of the strongest stories of visual media I have ever seen, read, or played -- and sets a high bar for other VN's that I may want to experience in the future.


As I mentioned before, Highway Blossoms is a kinetic visual novel -- you read it, watch it, and play it all at once; text in the foreground narrates the story and the characters while objects in the background move and fade away to the narrative and the dialogue. As I understand it, visual novels tell a story with little interaction from the player, and kinetic VN's have no or almost no player interaction at all; one could grab a cup of chocolate milk, sit back, and relax as the story unfolds in front of them, much like a movie.

I will readily confess that I watched an LP of this before buying it myself (primarily because of my unfamiliarity with the genre), and held off on purchasing until the remastered edition became public -- both out of support for the devs, and out of a desire to experience it the way it was meant to be. But I digress.


Visually, Highway Blossoms is gorgeously rendered. The art direction is that of anime/manga (and again, as I understand it, most VN's are at least reminiscent of that style). The characters, the locations, the text on screen -- it's all beautifully done. There are a couple of inconsistencies in the way the characters are drawn throughout the VN -- but this is attributed to there being a number of different artists who worked on it, and the characters are still easily recognizable throughout the VN regardless.


I'll break this into three sections: voice acting, soundscaping and music.

The voice acting was absent from the initial release of the game, but in the remastered version, all the characters are voiced -- and they are voiced quite well. There are a couple of lines I might have brushed up on, but overall, the cast brings life to the characters similarly to how I would have envisioned it from the original. I understand that a lot of VN's do not have voice casts, but Highway Blossoms definitely benefits from having one. The characters were made even more believable and I felt more immersed in the story with their presence.

Now, soundscaping: when I say this, I mean how the tiniest audio details can help the viewer share the world of the characters and get lost in it. There isn't really much soundscaping to be done since our characters are usually in the desert or inside the RV
for most of the novel, but I feel like some additional sounds could have been added into a few spots. For example: When the girls meet Mariah at Shiprock, I was expecting to hear the sound of an anger-induced crowd, and getting even more unruly after the Parks-and-Rec Guy gets hit with the beer can. On the other hand, towards the end, when the girls finally reach Coachella, I heard a bit more sound design there than
anywhere else in the novel (people clapping, Amber laughing at Marina, etc.) -- I feel like the devs hit the sound design there spot on, compared to the rest of the visual novel. In other words, it's pretty good as it is, but I feel like more could have been done with it.

Finally, the music. Highway Blossoms has a fantastic soundtrack; it's intimate, minimalist, and something you would definitely expect to hear when traveling in the American west. The music team did a fantastic job conveying themes of love, grief, happiness, and
adventure, and as a budding composer myself, I don't believe I would want the soundtrack any other way.


Easily the best aspect of this VN. There are many words I could use to describe the story of Highway Blossoms. Small, yet powerful. Witty, yet thought-provoking. Personal. Touching. Heart-wrenching. But overall, I think the best way to describe it is that it is a very "human" story.

From the beginning, we are painted a picture of the young girl named Amber, who recently lost her grandfather and inherited his RV. While on the road, she picks up another young girl, Marina, who is stranded out in the desert. Little do either one of them know how much their lives are about to change because of this one chance encounter; when Amber finds out the reason Marina is out in the desert by herself -- which, as it turns out, is because of a treasure hunt -- Amber decides to help Marina search for it, if only to quell her own personal demons. As the two venture out into the American West, visiting several national parks to search for the treasure, they find themselves growing closer to each other -- which, ironically, is fueled by how opposite they are. While Amber is more down to earth and realistic, Marina is more innocent and kindhearted -- and each finds that appealing about the other.

Other characters include the loud-mouthed yet somewhat lovable Mariah, the smooth talking and laid-back Joe, and the quiet little girl Tess. This trio of characters appears many times in Amber and Marina's journey, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. But all the characters of the story have one thing in common: not their desire to find the treasure, but that each of them have quirks that make them memorable and well-written; and as mentioned before, the voice cast does a superb job of bringing them to life a step further.

The story itself touches upon themes of loss, finding love, and family, and it explores each of these themes superbly; I will confess that there are some moments in the story that felt slow, but otherwise it is overall well-paced. It is written from Amber's point of view, and as the story progresses, you will feel everything she feels; there are moments where you will laugh, moments where you will cry, and moments that will make you feel bittersweet -- and even a few hours after you finish the journey, the story will still linger with you and leave you thinking. There are almost no points of unbelievability or moments where you would need to suspend your imagination within the story, and that's part of what makes it so immersive. I almost want to see a sequel with the continued adventures of the characters, but at the same time, if the devs chose to make one, I don't believe it would top the original. (Though of course, I would still read one.)

There are some, shall we say, "Not Safe For Work" scenes enabled by downloading the Mature patch from the main website; however, even these are tastefully done -- it doesn't feel like fan service, but a natural progression of the story at large.


If you've never read a visual novel in your life, pick this title up. If you have read visual novels before and are looking for something new, pick this title up. If you want a really good, powerful story that will stay with you for eons to come, pick this title up, because Highway Blossoms is a memorable, beautiful story in full bloom.

***EDIT: 8/24/2020

Looks like the devs are trying to restore the game and finish it. I wish them well and will change my review to a positive one should they succeed.

***ORIGINAL REVIEW***

Unfinished and abandoned by the developers. Do not purchase.

It's unfortunate because this game looked like it had potential.