They will never understand what its like to be a true social reject, a creep, a weirdo.they will never understand what its like to be Italian. Nobody understands me because i call movies "films". I am literally the joker, nobody understands me -Jacopo Bearzatti
It's been a year since i finished The House in Fata Morgana and still to this day i regarded it as one of the greatest story ever written. From story development and unique characters and settings that are set in 3 time periods, with interconnected characters and stories to using modern Japanese with a little 'flavor' of language from ancient times, which makes The House in Fata Morgana adapted to the current era. All of that provides a tense, sad atmosphere and at the same time a bit of comedy. However, the story in Fata Morgana is available in 7 Bad Endings and 1 True Ending, where the true ending of this visual novel gave me a cool breeze for my heart which has been holding back emotions since the story began.
The House in Fata Morgana has 8 different stories to tell throughout the entire story or what they call them "door". The story is set in one main setting, an old mansion which has a dark history starting from the persecution of a girl known as a 'witch' to the story of the protagonist 'you' and the maid welcomes you, sees your condition, and offers to give you a tour, which she hopes will help you jog your memory. Each room leads to you viewing various memories of past events that have taken place there. These memories are quite memorable, and set the stage for future revelations, even if it’s quite subtle in how it does it.
The first story tells the story of a brother and sister who live peacefully and freely with their family, until a mysterious white-haired and red-eyed girl comes to become a servant for the family.
The second story is probably the darkest part in this story for me, it tells of a 'monster' known as a sadistic murderer who lives in the big old house and a girl who is the same as the first story but in a different form enters the mysterious house. This story is extremely gruesome and graphic. Is it not for the faint of heart and I felt a little sick reading it at times.
The third story tells a wealthy businessman and his estranged relationship with his wife and the story behind that estranged relationship. It’s an incredibly moving story that shows how even the very best and self-sacrificing people have limits, and everyone will eventually break.
And from the fourth door to the last door or the eighth door becomes the main story which will discuss the past of the 'witch' who haunt the mansion, the servant girl, and the main character 'you', as well as their relationship with the three stories in the initial opening.
All of these stories have incredibly tragic ends, that could have been avoided with some other decision be it better communication, honesty, or repentance. But they serve to introduce characters that have a long-lasting effect on the overarching narrative, as well as establish the relevance of the mansion and its curse. Describing even a word past chapter three or door three leads too far down spoiler territory to say any more so i won't go deep into that.
There is quite a bit of foreshadowing as you expect from mystery genre like other titles, in even the simplest of events, and the story takes the time it needs to expound on each character, story, and theme. And that what makes The House in Fata Morgana's storytelling excellent.
Then you add another fantastic element on top of the writing which is the music because holy macaroonis they ain't lying when they said you have to experience it with headphone in the loading screen. Each character, scene, and mood is properly represented with a theme, that is sometimes really eerie with noises and sound effects, other times a moody piano, and often with simply incredible female vocals like the soundtracks 'Giselle' and 'Cicio'. The words are all in an ancient dialect of Portuguese, and sound very Latin and mysterious. Some of the songs will make your hair stand up, while others sound nearly reverent.
What i learn from The House in Fata Morgana is that wherever and whenever a person are there are people who will love and care for them until they wait for us to return and be by their side, revenge is not a good thing but you have to let go of it and move forward in a better direction. Life is a difficult thing where sometimes we encounter bad things and even tragedy, but behind it all there is a beautiful story.
All in all, The House in Fata Morgana is one of those tales that is incredibly well written, mature, dark, and bloody that explore the deepest, darkest depths of depravity in the human soul. Even though at first I was not used to the realist images of this visual novel, in the end I realized that the realist images and the choice not to use voice actors for each character were so that players could enjoy the story, and for me personally this visual novel has parts that can answer questions in life. An unrushed story with the characters each having their own reasons and backstories that portrayed what is sacrificial love looks like.
The House in Fata Morgana has 8 different stories to tell throughout the entire story or what they call them "door". The story is set in one main setting, an old mansion which has a dark history starting from the persecution of a girl known as a 'witch' to the story of the protagonist 'you' and the maid welcomes you, sees your condition, and offers to give you a tour, which she hopes will help you jog your memory. Each room leads to you viewing various memories of past events that have taken place there. These memories are quite memorable, and set the stage for future revelations, even if it’s quite subtle in how it does it.
The first story tells the story of a brother and sister who live peacefully and freely with their family, until a mysterious white-haired and red-eyed girl comes to become a servant for the family.
The second story is probably the darkest part in this story for me, it tells of a 'monster' known as a sadistic murderer who lives in the big old house and a girl who is the same as the first story but in a different form enters the mysterious house. This story is extremely gruesome and graphic. Is it not for the faint of heart and I felt a little sick reading it at times.
The third story tells a wealthy businessman and his estranged relationship with his wife and the story behind that estranged relationship. It’s an incredibly moving story that shows how even the very best and self-sacrificing people have limits, and everyone will eventually break.
And from the fourth door to the last door or the eighth door becomes the main story which will discuss the past of the 'witch' who haunt the mansion, the servant girl, and the main character 'you', as well as their relationship with the three stories in the initial opening.
All of these stories have incredibly tragic ends, that could have been avoided with some other decision be it better communication, honesty, or repentance. But they serve to introduce characters that have a long-lasting effect on the overarching narrative, as well as establish the relevance of the mansion and its curse. Describing even a word past chapter three or door three leads too far down spoiler territory to say any more so i won't go deep into that.
There is quite a bit of foreshadowing as you expect from mystery genre like other titles, in even the simplest of events, and the story takes the time it needs to expound on each character, story, and theme. And that what makes The House in Fata Morgana's storytelling excellent.
Then you add another fantastic element on top of the writing which is the music because holy macaroonis they ain't lying when they said you have to experience it with headphone in the loading screen. Each character, scene, and mood is properly represented with a theme, that is sometimes really eerie with noises and sound effects, other times a moody piano, and often with simply incredible female vocals like the soundtracks 'Giselle' and 'Cicio'. The words are all in an ancient dialect of Portuguese, and sound very Latin and mysterious. Some of the songs will make your hair stand up, while others sound nearly reverent.
What i learn from The House in Fata Morgana is that wherever and whenever a person are there are people who will love and care for them until they wait for us to return and be by their side, revenge is not a good thing but you have to let go of it and move forward in a better direction. Life is a difficult thing where sometimes we encounter bad things and even tragedy, but behind it all there is a beautiful story.
All in all, The House in Fata Morgana is one of those tales that is incredibly well written, mature, dark, and bloody that explore the deepest, darkest depths of depravity in the human soul. Even though at first I was not used to the realist images of this visual novel, in the end I realized that the realist images and the choice not to use voice actors for each character were so that players could enjoy the story, and for me personally this visual novel has parts that can answer questions in life. An unrushed story with the characters each having their own reasons and backstories that portrayed what is sacrificial love looks like.
EN: The House in Fata Morgana was my introduction to the medium of visual novels and I immediately feel like I've already read the best of the genre without experiencing the rest.
"No one knows who first said
...that the mansion was cursed."
It is a Visual Novel in which there is a mansion which is cursed, in which a servant girl guides you so that you, the master, can remember who you are, she presents you with stories of former members of the mansion in the form of memories and each one presents different themes, between tragedy, human nature and madness. These give way to a great mystery and the search for the answer to the curse that affects the mansion.
A masterpiece that highlights in every section the talent behind the game, showing an incredibly well written story, with the presence of extremely human characters, with a soundtrack that subtly tells its own story, as a set of things that create the atmosphere of the cursed mansion, it is a terribly depressing work, so much so that it tears the soul but at the same time through all the tragedy continues to light a hopeful fire and that immerses you in this love story.
It seeks to explore in depth the search for identity, the importance of communication and mutual understanding, how our surroundings shape us and build our being and how even small moments of human connection and warmth create a lasting effect on the people around us. it teaches us to accept reality and facing it can be as painful as reality itself. no matter how dark it gets, there is always some light at the end of the tunnel.
There are no words that can describe everything I felt through the characters, they are so human you can feel their own pain. everything maintains a level of believable realism that of what makes the narrative so heartbreaking. everything you are presented with has a purpose, putting the big puzzle together, seeing how it all came together as I went along was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever experienced in a game.
It's not a perfect VN by any means, it's pretty unevenly paced, but I forged a greater emotional connection to this story than almost any other I've ever experienced in my life.
It is beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreakingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the best love stories ever told. It will take you on a journey of strong emotions in every way. Nothing so much passion and heart was put into could leave anyone without having gained something valuable from reading it. I am so glad I read it, because it is an experience I will never forget and it will stay in my heart.
ES: The House in Fata Morgana fue mi introducción al medio de las novelas visuales e inmediatamente siento que ya he leído lo mejor del género sin experimentar el resto.
"Nadie sabe quién dijo por primera vez
...que la mansión estaba maldita".
Es una Visual Novel en la que existe una mansión la cual está maldita, en la que una sirvienta te guía para tú, el amo, puedas recordar quien eres, te presenta historias de antiguos miembros de la mansión en forma de recuerdos y cada una presenta distintos temas, entre la tragedia, naturaleza humana y la locura. Que dan paso a un gran misterio y a la búsqueda de la respuesta a la maldición que afecta a la mansión.
Una obra maestra que destaca en todo apartado el talento detrás del juego, mostrando una historia increíblemente bien escrita, con presencia de personajes sumamente humanos, con una banda sonora que cuenta sutilmente su propia historia, en conjunto de cosas que crean la atmósfera de la mansión maldita, es una obra terriblemente deprimente, tanto que desgarra el alma, pero al mismo tiempo a través de toda la tragedia sigue encendiendo un fuego esperanzador y que te sumerge en esta historia de amor.
Busca explorar en profundidad la búsqueda de identidad, la importancia de la comunicación y del entendimiento mutuo, como el alrededor nos da forma y construye nuestro ser y cómo incluso los pequeños momentos de conexión y calidez humana crean un efecto duradero en las personas que nos rodean. Nos enseña aceptar la realidad y enfrentarse a ella puede ser tan doloroso como la propia realidad. No importa lo oscura que se ponga, siempre hay algo de luz al final del túnel.
No hay palabras que puedan describir todo lo sentí a través de los personajes, son tan humanos que puedes sentir su propio dolor. Todo mantiene un nivel de realismo creíble que de lo que hace que la narración sea tan desgarradora. Todo lo que te presentan tiene un propósito, armar el gran rompecabezas, ver cómo todo iba encajando a medida que avanzaba fue una experiencia de las experiencias más gratificantes que he experimentado en un juego.
No es una VN perfecta ni mucho menos, tiene un ritmo bastante irregular, pero he forjado una mayor conexión emocional con esta historia que con casi cualquier otra que haya experimentado en mi vida.
Es hermosa, sobrecogedora, desgarradoramente trágica, inquebrantable y brutal, y una de las mejores historias de amor contadas. Te llevará a un viaje de fuertes emociones en todos sentidos. Nada en lo que se haya puesto tanta pasión y corazón podría dejar a alguien sin haber ganado algo valioso al leerlo. Me alegro mucho de haberlo leído, porque es una experiencia que nunca olvidaré y se quedará en mi corazón.
"No one knows who first said
...that the mansion was cursed."
It is a Visual Novel in which there is a mansion which is cursed, in which a servant girl guides you so that you, the master, can remember who you are, she presents you with stories of former members of the mansion in the form of memories and each one presents different themes, between tragedy, human nature and madness. These give way to a great mystery and the search for the answer to the curse that affects the mansion.
A masterpiece that highlights in every section the talent behind the game, showing an incredibly well written story, with the presence of extremely human characters, with a soundtrack that subtly tells its own story, as a set of things that create the atmosphere of the cursed mansion, it is a terribly depressing work, so much so that it tears the soul but at the same time through all the tragedy continues to light a hopeful fire and that immerses you in this love story.
It seeks to explore in depth the search for identity, the importance of communication and mutual understanding, how our surroundings shape us and build our being and how even small moments of human connection and warmth create a lasting effect on the people around us. it teaches us to accept reality and facing it can be as painful as reality itself. no matter how dark it gets, there is always some light at the end of the tunnel.
There are no words that can describe everything I felt through the characters, they are so human you can feel their own pain. everything maintains a level of believable realism that of what makes the narrative so heartbreaking. everything you are presented with has a purpose, putting the big puzzle together, seeing how it all came together as I went along was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever experienced in a game.
It's not a perfect VN by any means, it's pretty unevenly paced, but I forged a greater emotional connection to this story than almost any other I've ever experienced in my life.
It is beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreakingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the best love stories ever told. It will take you on a journey of strong emotions in every way. Nothing so much passion and heart was put into could leave anyone without having gained something valuable from reading it. I am so glad I read it, because it is an experience I will never forget and it will stay in my heart.
ES: The House in Fata Morgana fue mi introducción al medio de las novelas visuales e inmediatamente siento que ya he leído lo mejor del género sin experimentar el resto.
"Nadie sabe quién dijo por primera vez
...que la mansión estaba maldita".
Es una Visual Novel en la que existe una mansión la cual está maldita, en la que una sirvienta te guía para tú, el amo, puedas recordar quien eres, te presenta historias de antiguos miembros de la mansión en forma de recuerdos y cada una presenta distintos temas, entre la tragedia, naturaleza humana y la locura. Que dan paso a un gran misterio y a la búsqueda de la respuesta a la maldición que afecta a la mansión.
Una obra maestra que destaca en todo apartado el talento detrás del juego, mostrando una historia increíblemente bien escrita, con presencia de personajes sumamente humanos, con una banda sonora que cuenta sutilmente su propia historia, en conjunto de cosas que crean la atmósfera de la mansión maldita, es una obra terriblemente deprimente, tanto que desgarra el alma, pero al mismo tiempo a través de toda la tragedia sigue encendiendo un fuego esperanzador y que te sumerge en esta historia de amor.
Busca explorar en profundidad la búsqueda de identidad, la importancia de la comunicación y del entendimiento mutuo, como el alrededor nos da forma y construye nuestro ser y cómo incluso los pequeños momentos de conexión y calidez humana crean un efecto duradero en las personas que nos rodean. Nos enseña aceptar la realidad y enfrentarse a ella puede ser tan doloroso como la propia realidad. No importa lo oscura que se ponga, siempre hay algo de luz al final del túnel.
No hay palabras que puedan describir todo lo sentí a través de los personajes, son tan humanos que puedes sentir su propio dolor. Todo mantiene un nivel de realismo creíble que de lo que hace que la narración sea tan desgarradora. Todo lo que te presentan tiene un propósito, armar el gran rompecabezas, ver cómo todo iba encajando a medida que avanzaba fue una experiencia de las experiencias más gratificantes que he experimentado en un juego.
No es una VN perfecta ni mucho menos, tiene un ritmo bastante irregular, pero he forjado una mayor conexión emocional con esta historia que con casi cualquier otra que haya experimentado en mi vida.
Es hermosa, sobrecogedora, desgarradoramente trágica, inquebrantable y brutal, y una de las mejores historias de amor contadas. Te llevará a un viaje de fuertes emociones en todos sentidos. Nada en lo que se haya puesto tanta pasión y corazón podría dejar a alguien sin haber ganado algo valioso al leerlo. Me alegro mucho de haberlo leído, porque es una experiencia que nunca olvidaré y se quedará en mi corazón.
Spoiler warning for events and plot points in The House in Fata Morgana that are best left for you to discover in your own playthrough first, as my comments here may undermine the experience for your own. You have been warned.
"𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥
...𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥."
Indisputably one of the strongest pieces of the visual novel medium, the haunting yet human narratives of Fata Morgana establish it as one of gothic fiction’s triumphs. There’s a decisive first impression during the course of FM’s “Act 1” that represents it’s tone and theme, and what the player is going to experience throughout. In it, we are presented with the revelation that during the mid-end of one of the Maid’s tales that a painting laid hanging in the adolescent Nellie Rhodes’ bedroom, depicting what used to be the two siblings side by side of each other, to be a prophecy, depicting the future in which Mell and the White Haired Girl are more related than we think. Following further events this reveal is somewhat insignificant and one of the title’s less shocking twists than to what the story later goes on to portray. Nonetheless this is the first example in which we see one of Fata Morgana’s key devices; the ambiguity and non-linear storytelling.
The game revels in its building of tension and mystery throughout its chapters. Things often need second glances and you’re often encouraged to witness events and characters and view them more as double entendres. You’re often flung twists and reveals, but to credit the writing none of them feel poor taste, and fortunately in the wider picture they fit in well. The ambiguity of the writing itself is also a double entendre of the character of Michel. The third person perspective of Doors 1-4 at first dictate how you believe the rest of the game is going to be, and unbeknownst to you perspective switches between “You” and the Maid in order to intentionally throw you off. We entrust conventional visual novel’s unspoken rules and conventions, only to our astonishment that our perception was false. Door 2 is purposefully skewed towards The Maid’s recount of the story (notice when she isn’t there during Pauline’s sequences) and the chronology of accounts is swapped and mismatched to accommodate reveals. However the perspective swapping also provides insights into characters and the overall synopsis that you wouldn’t see if the story was linearly one identity. Door 5 is the largest and grandest example most likely, as by benefitting from two perspectives we are able to understand Michel and Giselle’s blossoming relationship. Fata Morgana sometimes does the reverse, and provides only a singular perspective. Door 7 leads us only through Michel’s eyes so we can grasp only his emotions and intentions.
There’s undeniable immense credit that has to be given to the game’s atmosphere and tone. JoshTheFourth describes it as “neoclassical darkwave”, and even the comment was jokey in a sense, (if not, then I’m deeply sorry) there’s an ironic sense that the blend of newer and older genres only fit into a game about different point in a millennium. The game advises that you immerse yourself in its sound, only to provide often grimy, eerie and distilling moods upon the player. Most doors have different sounds and ways of expressing themselves to the reader - but all without a sense of.. Uncomfortableness. There’s also the blend of the newer and older art of Fata Morgana - backgrounds are often minimalistic and don’t insight much, but darkening colours and palette swaps to more sinister shades during pivotal moments create a deeper and foreboding tension. Character portraits seem almost too detailed in comparison - beautiful and frailish, lighter tones juxtaposed to the background. Some characters do not even have portraits - referred to only in the text screen below. A lot of what Fata Morgana does well is that, like most visual novels; actions and objects are mostly left to your imagination. This is why moments feel more anxious than they should, and more satisfying if you take more time to invest and put yourself into the game.
There were minor mentions and nods to themes earlier in this text, and I would like to apologise if my haphazard and sometimes lazy forms of writing don’t give the quite mature themes this game envisions the evaluation it deserves. In spite of that I would like to say the game handles these messages extremely effectively. There’s the overall arching theme of morality and humanity during the whole 30ish hours, but towards the end of the game we are shown this in a new light. Morgana’s core sentiment is that the three men are all morally black - unworthy of forgiveness and in that belief she casts them to eternal suffering. Michel argues there is no such thing, good people aren’t good, they do bad things. However he always puts Morgana, generally speaking the victim in this situation, first above all else. Fata Morgana asks that you don’t necessarily need to seek forgiveness in others, but content in yourself. Morgana in the end, has to accept the men and the others around her - and herself - as human, and Michel puts faith in others that although they are indeed flawed; they possess the abilities in themselves to take accountability for their bad characteristics. Unfortunately not everyone in the world is likeable (Michel describes himself as “grey” sometimes - and despite the red herring of the White Haired Girl of being morally… white, she is the subconscious of Morgana’s ideals of human), but by coming into terms and accepting people for who they are we are more likely to make peace with the inhumanly parts of ourselves we reject. There is indeed the rejection of your belonging in this world and striving towards the human in which you want to be. The three men’s plan was never to always to do wrong (their constant belief was that they were in the right) but by accepting these truths they transform into more humane characteristics of their previous selves. We see these in the stories too - Mell wanted to stay loved, the Swordsman truly wished for inner peace, Jacopo wished to be with the girl he cared for deeply. But these actions were inherently selfish, and had to be changed.
I struggle to comment on themes of gender identity, for I am not intersex myself and do not have the internal understanding that intersex people may have themselves to the story, but I would like to briefly comment on the game’s sensitive and supporting handling of such topics. But it is the unfortunate disparity that people recognise that Fata Morgana is often an exception when it comes to the views of gender and queer aspects in visual novel media. Though it may not be my place to comment, I hope intersex and people who may also identify themselves as transgender resonate with the nonconformity and exploration of gender that Fata Morgana empathetically provides.
A final theme that I would like to present here; love is a vital theme that exists through nearly all of Fata Morgana’s lapping plots and intricate storylines, and is somewhat hard to ignore its general significance. The multitudes of love present throughout also have different extents. Nellie’s love is more harmful than positive affection, to the point of seeping through and damaging the lives of those around her. Nell leans too much onto the love, despite him knowing that it’s unhealthy in their circumstance. Pauline’s love is almost blindsided - she’s unable to see the inhumane parts of the Swordsman within him, and vice versa where the Swordsman is using love selfishly to keep those parts hidden. Jacopo never acts in time and when he does, not truly what he wants to do, meaning he loses the White Haired Girl/Morgana. Although it is until the eight chapter when things are presumably resolved between the three, the Fifth Door allows all the events of time to flow into one. It is a breakaway of a gothic tradition. Despite losing each other for hundreds of years, Giselle and Michel will always love each other, and their love is enough for the lives around them to flourish and expand exponentially.
I would like to close this text by directly speaking to whoever is reading this to take a more rigorous look at Fata Morgana than I have here - there are many rich themes that are present as well that I haven’t described here without these paragraphs feeling bloated and without effort put in. If you’ve read up to here and have not played for yourself at least once, I strongly suggest that you still pick up and explore the mansion for yourself. A lot of what is written here is not effective if you haven’t experienced the emotions and mysteries of what lies in it, and despite some colossal spoilers for events some especially impressive moments have been left out. The House in Fata Morgana is simply ground-breaking; an interlinking of rich themes, atmospheric tones and narratives and subversions that create something that can only be made once in a generation.
… I don’t have a sufficient enough or impactful sentence to end things here, so I’d make the final statement that Michel and Giselle are quite adorable.
“𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥…
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘴
𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘺
𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥.”
"𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥
...𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥."
Indisputably one of the strongest pieces of the visual novel medium, the haunting yet human narratives of Fata Morgana establish it as one of gothic fiction’s triumphs. There’s a decisive first impression during the course of FM’s “Act 1” that represents it’s tone and theme, and what the player is going to experience throughout. In it, we are presented with the revelation that during the mid-end of one of the Maid’s tales that a painting laid hanging in the adolescent Nellie Rhodes’ bedroom, depicting what used to be the two siblings side by side of each other, to be a prophecy, depicting the future in which Mell and the White Haired Girl are more related than we think. Following further events this reveal is somewhat insignificant and one of the title’s less shocking twists than to what the story later goes on to portray. Nonetheless this is the first example in which we see one of Fata Morgana’s key devices; the ambiguity and non-linear storytelling.
The game revels in its building of tension and mystery throughout its chapters. Things often need second glances and you’re often encouraged to witness events and characters and view them more as double entendres. You’re often flung twists and reveals, but to credit the writing none of them feel poor taste, and fortunately in the wider picture they fit in well. The ambiguity of the writing itself is also a double entendre of the character of Michel. The third person perspective of Doors 1-4 at first dictate how you believe the rest of the game is going to be, and unbeknownst to you perspective switches between “You” and the Maid in order to intentionally throw you off. We entrust conventional visual novel’s unspoken rules and conventions, only to our astonishment that our perception was false. Door 2 is purposefully skewed towards The Maid’s recount of the story (notice when she isn’t there during Pauline’s sequences) and the chronology of accounts is swapped and mismatched to accommodate reveals. However the perspective swapping also provides insights into characters and the overall synopsis that you wouldn’t see if the story was linearly one identity. Door 5 is the largest and grandest example most likely, as by benefitting from two perspectives we are able to understand Michel and Giselle’s blossoming relationship. Fata Morgana sometimes does the reverse, and provides only a singular perspective. Door 7 leads us only through Michel’s eyes so we can grasp only his emotions and intentions.
There’s undeniable immense credit that has to be given to the game’s atmosphere and tone. JoshTheFourth describes it as “neoclassical darkwave”, and even the comment was jokey in a sense, (if not, then I’m deeply sorry) there’s an ironic sense that the blend of newer and older genres only fit into a game about different point in a millennium. The game advises that you immerse yourself in its sound, only to provide often grimy, eerie and distilling moods upon the player. Most doors have different sounds and ways of expressing themselves to the reader - but all without a sense of.. Uncomfortableness. There’s also the blend of the newer and older art of Fata Morgana - backgrounds are often minimalistic and don’t insight much, but darkening colours and palette swaps to more sinister shades during pivotal moments create a deeper and foreboding tension. Character portraits seem almost too detailed in comparison - beautiful and frailish, lighter tones juxtaposed to the background. Some characters do not even have portraits - referred to only in the text screen below. A lot of what Fata Morgana does well is that, like most visual novels; actions and objects are mostly left to your imagination. This is why moments feel more anxious than they should, and more satisfying if you take more time to invest and put yourself into the game.
There were minor mentions and nods to themes earlier in this text, and I would like to apologise if my haphazard and sometimes lazy forms of writing don’t give the quite mature themes this game envisions the evaluation it deserves. In spite of that I would like to say the game handles these messages extremely effectively. There’s the overall arching theme of morality and humanity during the whole 30ish hours, but towards the end of the game we are shown this in a new light. Morgana’s core sentiment is that the three men are all morally black - unworthy of forgiveness and in that belief she casts them to eternal suffering. Michel argues there is no such thing, good people aren’t good, they do bad things. However he always puts Morgana, generally speaking the victim in this situation, first above all else. Fata Morgana asks that you don’t necessarily need to seek forgiveness in others, but content in yourself. Morgana in the end, has to accept the men and the others around her - and herself - as human, and Michel puts faith in others that although they are indeed flawed; they possess the abilities in themselves to take accountability for their bad characteristics. Unfortunately not everyone in the world is likeable (Michel describes himself as “grey” sometimes - and despite the red herring of the White Haired Girl of being morally… white, she is the subconscious of Morgana’s ideals of human), but by coming into terms and accepting people for who they are we are more likely to make peace with the inhumanly parts of ourselves we reject. There is indeed the rejection of your belonging in this world and striving towards the human in which you want to be. The three men’s plan was never to always to do wrong (their constant belief was that they were in the right) but by accepting these truths they transform into more humane characteristics of their previous selves. We see these in the stories too - Mell wanted to stay loved, the Swordsman truly wished for inner peace, Jacopo wished to be with the girl he cared for deeply. But these actions were inherently selfish, and had to be changed.
I struggle to comment on themes of gender identity, for I am not intersex myself and do not have the internal understanding that intersex people may have themselves to the story, but I would like to briefly comment on the game’s sensitive and supporting handling of such topics. But it is the unfortunate disparity that people recognise that Fata Morgana is often an exception when it comes to the views of gender and queer aspects in visual novel media. Though it may not be my place to comment, I hope intersex and people who may also identify themselves as transgender resonate with the nonconformity and exploration of gender that Fata Morgana empathetically provides.
A final theme that I would like to present here; love is a vital theme that exists through nearly all of Fata Morgana’s lapping plots and intricate storylines, and is somewhat hard to ignore its general significance. The multitudes of love present throughout also have different extents. Nellie’s love is more harmful than positive affection, to the point of seeping through and damaging the lives of those around her. Nell leans too much onto the love, despite him knowing that it’s unhealthy in their circumstance. Pauline’s love is almost blindsided - she’s unable to see the inhumane parts of the Swordsman within him, and vice versa where the Swordsman is using love selfishly to keep those parts hidden. Jacopo never acts in time and when he does, not truly what he wants to do, meaning he loses the White Haired Girl/Morgana. Although it is until the eight chapter when things are presumably resolved between the three, the Fifth Door allows all the events of time to flow into one. It is a breakaway of a gothic tradition. Despite losing each other for hundreds of years, Giselle and Michel will always love each other, and their love is enough for the lives around them to flourish and expand exponentially.
I would like to close this text by directly speaking to whoever is reading this to take a more rigorous look at Fata Morgana than I have here - there are many rich themes that are present as well that I haven’t described here without these paragraphs feeling bloated and without effort put in. If you’ve read up to here and have not played for yourself at least once, I strongly suggest that you still pick up and explore the mansion for yourself. A lot of what is written here is not effective if you haven’t experienced the emotions and mysteries of what lies in it, and despite some colossal spoilers for events some especially impressive moments have been left out. The House in Fata Morgana is simply ground-breaking; an interlinking of rich themes, atmospheric tones and narratives and subversions that create something that can only be made once in a generation.
… I don’t have a sufficient enough or impactful sentence to end things here, so I’d make the final statement that Michel and Giselle are quite adorable.
“𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥…
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘴
𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘺
𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥.”
fantastic stories, beautiful music, just quite long for a visual novel and yeah it's nearly more a book than a video game. Stil I absolutely recommend it, as the nights I spend with these stories were very memorable
heartwrenchingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the greatest love stories ever told. incredibly solid soundtrack, to boot.
fatamoru has one of THE most rewarding true endings ive ever experienced in a game period. watching everything fall into place the further in i got was an experience like not a whole lot else ive read. its really something special, and a game i hold close to my heart for giving me a big push and a lot of courage almost 4 years ago when i sorely needed it.
fatamoru has one of THE most rewarding true endings ive ever experienced in a game period. watching everything fall into place the further in i got was an experience like not a whole lot else ive read. its really something special, and a game i hold close to my heart for giving me a big push and a lot of courage almost 4 years ago when i sorely needed it.
This review contains spoilers
i unfortunately lack the motivation to write a coherently structured review of this one given the amount of Thoughts i have, so instead im going to present this as a series of notes:
- the quickest summary of my fata thoughts is that i really don't like the first 3 doors and like all of the doors after, but the lows of doors 4-8 are REALLY rough. i like the core of fata morgana a lot and at its best it rly does nail the intensely romantic and sublime affect it's going for. i don't love all of the banter between michel and giselle but their romance overall is pretty moving, and the VN is rly great at turning it into spectacle while maintaining its emotional meaning. it's easy to see why it's emotionally resonated with so many. but unfortunately when it comes to the specifics i find fata fumbles on so many things. it frustrated me more than nearly any piece of fiction in a while, but i'll admit it also kept my interest because of that. it stayed on my mind as i was reading and i rly liked discussing it with ppl (both fans and haters). everyone knows what's great about this VN - the romance, the music, the emotional ambition, etc. and because of that it's a bit easier to complain than to sing the same praises that everyone else has. so while the tone of the review overall is negative i do wanna stress i liked a lot of fata and def don't regret reading it. whether i'd recommend it is another matter. if you're invested in VNs and have a lot of free time as i do then i think it's worthwhile, but if you don't have either of these things i don't know if it's worth the time investment.
- i think an issue throughout all of fata is that it feels far too emotionally externalised. fata is 100% a melodrama and on one hand emotional externalisation is what melodrama's all about - it's about letting go of realistic presentation and human behaviour to bring as much emotion out as possible. i love a lot of melodramatic works but in fata i think this externalisation becomes an issue because it makes everything so clear cut to the point that the emotions can feel simplistic and overly laid out. a lot of melodrama also externalises through form and the best examples of this can get away with emotionally simplistic writing. on this level fata is kind of a mixed bag - the soundtrack is obviously the highlight and carries a lot of sequences to be far more emotionally meaningful than they'd be on the page. fata's strongest sequence ("reclaim yourself") also uses formal elements specific to visual novels for excellent dramatic effect. but the prose itself doesn't feel like anything more than a middling imitation of the gothic novels it's clearly inspired by. the translation also has the awkward mix of period-accurate terms and modern colloquial speech. i dont mind the latter at all in period fiction but it feels so awkwardly employed here.
- in particular i think the portrayal of suffering and tragedy in the VN often places too much emphasis on what is happening rather than the characters' response to it. tragedy as a literary genre is a rly tricky line to ride because it builds a kind of entertainment out of suffering - not necessarily entertainment in the sense of being fun, but in the sense of an intense emotional engagement that leads to a cathartic release. i love tragic fiction but it's not hard to argue that the genre is inherently distasteful for these reasons. i think this is why the tragedies that interest me most are ones which are more invested in the circumstances that create suffering + how the characters react to their/other people's suffering than the actual event of suffering. i think when you take these into account you're closer to being able to examine suffering as an actual human experience and not an awful thing in the abstract. which isnt to say that direct depictions of suffering can't be shown at all, but that i rarely see that much value in depiction alone. i want the sense that the author isn't just using suffering for shock value and that they have a sincere investment in that human experience. there are times where i feel fata rly does want to give justice to its subjects and others where it feels half-hearted. so much of the story is just kinda there to set things in place, and when tragedy is brought into that uninterested setup the results rly fall apart. this is most evident in the sequence with the villagers in door 5. i just cant rly see this sequence as anything more than a way to get giselle and michel to reunite. it speeds through giselle's relationship between the villagers and their relationship with her but indulges in her torture, with little point other than "wow people sure are cruel!" and yet once giselle and michel reunite the resulting scene is a rly strong one that sensitively portrays giselle's experience as a SA victim. in that scene there's a sense of true emotional investment on the author's part and an astute idea of what shouldn't be shown. these elements just arent there in the previous torture scene. these contrasts are what make fata such a frustrating work for me, and i wish it could have reached its highs without twisting itself in contrivances and indulgent suffering to get there.
-while im still on the topic of door 5 - one of the strongest chapters in the game and prob the most crucial one since the rest is extremely dependent on you believing that the michel and giselle romance is deeply powerful. their initial dynamic is pretty standard but effectively endearing, and once it gets into the territory of a bond from shared trauma it becomes pretty powerful. i'm not made of stone! but there's one scene which annoys me so much because it's actually written excellently, but the choice of CG kind of ruins the whole thing. this is a scene late into the door where giselle shows her scars to michel, wanting both to display what michel's father did to her, but also to see if michel can still desire her. one of the door's most interesting threads is how giselle still maintains erotic desires while knowing that she still hasn't recovered enough to be able to consummate them - this tension also existing within michel. the scene shows that giselle still hasn't resolved this tension, but she can reject the idea of her body as undesireable and trust michel enough to let herself be desired again. the scene as it's written works because the eroticism is not for the reader - it's explicitly between the characters. however, the CG's depiction of giselle's body prominently displays her breasts, and shows nothing of her scars. by including a CG at all the body is being displayed to the third party of the reader, which already diminishes the power of the scene. but its framing makes it even worse by explicitly objectifying giselle and making it appear that the depiction of her body is for an imagined reader to gaze at.
- another part of fata which im conflicted on is door 7. on one hand i commend the developers for writing a story about a transmasc/intersex character in 2012 with sincere investment in depicting the experience of dysphoria, writing him as a morally complex character and leaving absolutely no doubt that he should be seen as a man. i'm not qualified to say how accurately it portrays both of those experiences, and i'd be happy to read any critique of the portrayal from transmasc and intersex individuals. but i feel at the very least that novectacle cared about the portrayal. that being said there's one sequence in this chapter which gets far too indulgent in the suffering, even for fata's standards. obviously it's acceptable for a trans story to get depressing - the portrayals of outing and rejection from family/love interests are pretty rough but reasonable to show especially for the time period. but i don't think there's really any justification for the extended sequence of aimee physically, psychologically and sexually torturing michel while he's kept imprisoned. in this case it's less that it's careless as a result of the story needing to rush itself, and more that you could just remove it from the story without making a difference. michel's trauma with aimee is already perfectly justified by her forced outing and cruel rejection of him. i don't find it believable that she basically becomes john jigsaw. the sequence would be more justified if michel's sexual abuse was referred to back in door 5 - given that door's portrayal of a bond emerging out of shared trauma, you would think michel being sexually abused would have had some impact on that chapter. but i think even if it were more prominent to the overall story, there isn't any need to depict it in such strong detail. higurashi didn't have any sequences explicitly showing satoko's abuse in detail because it wouldn't actually add anything that we don't already understand through the depiction of the after-effects. fata really could have used a similar sense of restraint if this element was going to be included at all.
- another issue fata has is its obsession with reveals/twists to the point that it unnecessarily withholds information or kinda cheats the reader in its presentation. michel being trans is something that i dont think rly needed to be a twist, and door 5 would have honestly been even stronger if we were able to engage in his perspective more. i think the reveal is relatively tasteful because it's explicitly from his perspective, and the horror of the reveal is in the horror of being outed rather than the horror of his body (as most trans reveals tend to be played, unfortunately). a case that i find more frustrating is in door 3, which i think would have been much more engaging if it were told from maria's perspective rather than revealing her as a villain halfway through and then keeping her motivations vague until the end. idk if it'd fix that door's main problem which is that the level of cruelty she inflicts upon the white haired girl just doesnt rly align with the rest of her motivations, but it'd make the chapter much less frustrating than having a reveal which is obvious yet poorly justified in the text itself.
- jacopo is just a disastrously written character. the attempts to make him sympathetic are so misguided. i love when characters who are awful people are humanised, but i think to humanise someone doesn't necessarily mean that it should justify their actions. in both door 3 and door 8 fata doesn't quite absolve jacopo's actions but it gets very flimsy in trying to justify them. with door 3 he basically does a 180 as soon as the reveal with maria happens. the problem is that he starts off as a fucking cartoon villain and there just isnt any development to him gaining any kind of conscience. door 8 is even worse in that his actions are so monstrous that the game rly has to go hard in figuring out any kind of sympathetic motivation and the one that it comes up with is "okay so what if he was a pedophile". and even if we just ignore that it's still like bro locked up a girl in a tower and had the blood drained from her to be sold to a whole town as a fake miracle cure and it was all because he was just too anxious to communicate properly. i just find it frustrating how the story treats his and mell's actions as equivalent when mell was literally threatened with death if he didnt partake in the whole thing. it wouldn't be as big of a problem if the level of his actions was scaled down before his sympathetic turn.
- the way the first three doors are tied into the story as a whole feels kinda disappointing, both on the basic narrative level and the metafictional level. part of my dislike for the first three doors is the sense that they're just setup and there isn't rly that much investment in these characters beyond their ability to suffer. in the metafictional context you could justify this by saying that there's an intentional contrast between giselle telling the stories and michel experiencing them with a detached spectatorship, and that part of the point is that we can more easily detach from suffering that isn't our own. fata implies this direction but doesnt rly commit to it, and its metafictional position in the end becomes very different. in door 8 michel is able to understand everybody because of his spectatorship, to the point that he understands them better than the characters themselves do. it doesn't rly have much of a sense that some things can only be understood through experience, rather than simply witnessing. ryukishi07's works have similarly empathetic conclusions, but i find his portrayal of empathy more interesting because it acknowledges that empathy's fundamental limitations. there's a sense that we can't have a complete access or understanding - empathy brings us closer to it, but to empathise takes work and a recognition that you can still completely misunderstand the other. fata's portrayal of empathy feels a lot simpler because it feels the need to explain everything and not leave enough about the characters inaccessible to michel and the reader.
potentially more notes to come later, though im fairly satisfied with what i've written for now!
- the quickest summary of my fata thoughts is that i really don't like the first 3 doors and like all of the doors after, but the lows of doors 4-8 are REALLY rough. i like the core of fata morgana a lot and at its best it rly does nail the intensely romantic and sublime affect it's going for. i don't love all of the banter between michel and giselle but their romance overall is pretty moving, and the VN is rly great at turning it into spectacle while maintaining its emotional meaning. it's easy to see why it's emotionally resonated with so many. but unfortunately when it comes to the specifics i find fata fumbles on so many things. it frustrated me more than nearly any piece of fiction in a while, but i'll admit it also kept my interest because of that. it stayed on my mind as i was reading and i rly liked discussing it with ppl (both fans and haters). everyone knows what's great about this VN - the romance, the music, the emotional ambition, etc. and because of that it's a bit easier to complain than to sing the same praises that everyone else has. so while the tone of the review overall is negative i do wanna stress i liked a lot of fata and def don't regret reading it. whether i'd recommend it is another matter. if you're invested in VNs and have a lot of free time as i do then i think it's worthwhile, but if you don't have either of these things i don't know if it's worth the time investment.
- i think an issue throughout all of fata is that it feels far too emotionally externalised. fata is 100% a melodrama and on one hand emotional externalisation is what melodrama's all about - it's about letting go of realistic presentation and human behaviour to bring as much emotion out as possible. i love a lot of melodramatic works but in fata i think this externalisation becomes an issue because it makes everything so clear cut to the point that the emotions can feel simplistic and overly laid out. a lot of melodrama also externalises through form and the best examples of this can get away with emotionally simplistic writing. on this level fata is kind of a mixed bag - the soundtrack is obviously the highlight and carries a lot of sequences to be far more emotionally meaningful than they'd be on the page. fata's strongest sequence ("reclaim yourself") also uses formal elements specific to visual novels for excellent dramatic effect. but the prose itself doesn't feel like anything more than a middling imitation of the gothic novels it's clearly inspired by. the translation also has the awkward mix of period-accurate terms and modern colloquial speech. i dont mind the latter at all in period fiction but it feels so awkwardly employed here.
- in particular i think the portrayal of suffering and tragedy in the VN often places too much emphasis on what is happening rather than the characters' response to it. tragedy as a literary genre is a rly tricky line to ride because it builds a kind of entertainment out of suffering - not necessarily entertainment in the sense of being fun, but in the sense of an intense emotional engagement that leads to a cathartic release. i love tragic fiction but it's not hard to argue that the genre is inherently distasteful for these reasons. i think this is why the tragedies that interest me most are ones which are more invested in the circumstances that create suffering + how the characters react to their/other people's suffering than the actual event of suffering. i think when you take these into account you're closer to being able to examine suffering as an actual human experience and not an awful thing in the abstract. which isnt to say that direct depictions of suffering can't be shown at all, but that i rarely see that much value in depiction alone. i want the sense that the author isn't just using suffering for shock value and that they have a sincere investment in that human experience. there are times where i feel fata rly does want to give justice to its subjects and others where it feels half-hearted. so much of the story is just kinda there to set things in place, and when tragedy is brought into that uninterested setup the results rly fall apart. this is most evident in the sequence with the villagers in door 5. i just cant rly see this sequence as anything more than a way to get giselle and michel to reunite. it speeds through giselle's relationship between the villagers and their relationship with her but indulges in her torture, with little point other than "wow people sure are cruel!" and yet once giselle and michel reunite the resulting scene is a rly strong one that sensitively portrays giselle's experience as a SA victim. in that scene there's a sense of true emotional investment on the author's part and an astute idea of what shouldn't be shown. these elements just arent there in the previous torture scene. these contrasts are what make fata such a frustrating work for me, and i wish it could have reached its highs without twisting itself in contrivances and indulgent suffering to get there.
-while im still on the topic of door 5 - one of the strongest chapters in the game and prob the most crucial one since the rest is extremely dependent on you believing that the michel and giselle romance is deeply powerful. their initial dynamic is pretty standard but effectively endearing, and once it gets into the territory of a bond from shared trauma it becomes pretty powerful. i'm not made of stone! but there's one scene which annoys me so much because it's actually written excellently, but the choice of CG kind of ruins the whole thing. this is a scene late into the door where giselle shows her scars to michel, wanting both to display what michel's father did to her, but also to see if michel can still desire her. one of the door's most interesting threads is how giselle still maintains erotic desires while knowing that she still hasn't recovered enough to be able to consummate them - this tension also existing within michel. the scene shows that giselle still hasn't resolved this tension, but she can reject the idea of her body as undesireable and trust michel enough to let herself be desired again. the scene as it's written works because the eroticism is not for the reader - it's explicitly between the characters. however, the CG's depiction of giselle's body prominently displays her breasts, and shows nothing of her scars. by including a CG at all the body is being displayed to the third party of the reader, which already diminishes the power of the scene. but its framing makes it even worse by explicitly objectifying giselle and making it appear that the depiction of her body is for an imagined reader to gaze at.
- another part of fata which im conflicted on is door 7. on one hand i commend the developers for writing a story about a transmasc/intersex character in 2012 with sincere investment in depicting the experience of dysphoria, writing him as a morally complex character and leaving absolutely no doubt that he should be seen as a man. i'm not qualified to say how accurately it portrays both of those experiences, and i'd be happy to read any critique of the portrayal from transmasc and intersex individuals. but i feel at the very least that novectacle cared about the portrayal. that being said there's one sequence in this chapter which gets far too indulgent in the suffering, even for fata's standards. obviously it's acceptable for a trans story to get depressing - the portrayals of outing and rejection from family/love interests are pretty rough but reasonable to show especially for the time period. but i don't think there's really any justification for the extended sequence of aimee physically, psychologically and sexually torturing michel while he's kept imprisoned. in this case it's less that it's careless as a result of the story needing to rush itself, and more that you could just remove it from the story without making a difference. michel's trauma with aimee is already perfectly justified by her forced outing and cruel rejection of him. i don't find it believable that she basically becomes john jigsaw. the sequence would be more justified if michel's sexual abuse was referred to back in door 5 - given that door's portrayal of a bond emerging out of shared trauma, you would think michel being sexually abused would have had some impact on that chapter. but i think even if it were more prominent to the overall story, there isn't any need to depict it in such strong detail. higurashi didn't have any sequences explicitly showing satoko's abuse in detail because it wouldn't actually add anything that we don't already understand through the depiction of the after-effects. fata really could have used a similar sense of restraint if this element was going to be included at all.
- another issue fata has is its obsession with reveals/twists to the point that it unnecessarily withholds information or kinda cheats the reader in its presentation. michel being trans is something that i dont think rly needed to be a twist, and door 5 would have honestly been even stronger if we were able to engage in his perspective more. i think the reveal is relatively tasteful because it's explicitly from his perspective, and the horror of the reveal is in the horror of being outed rather than the horror of his body (as most trans reveals tend to be played, unfortunately). a case that i find more frustrating is in door 3, which i think would have been much more engaging if it were told from maria's perspective rather than revealing her as a villain halfway through and then keeping her motivations vague until the end. idk if it'd fix that door's main problem which is that the level of cruelty she inflicts upon the white haired girl just doesnt rly align with the rest of her motivations, but it'd make the chapter much less frustrating than having a reveal which is obvious yet poorly justified in the text itself.
- jacopo is just a disastrously written character. the attempts to make him sympathetic are so misguided. i love when characters who are awful people are humanised, but i think to humanise someone doesn't necessarily mean that it should justify their actions. in both door 3 and door 8 fata doesn't quite absolve jacopo's actions but it gets very flimsy in trying to justify them. with door 3 he basically does a 180 as soon as the reveal with maria happens. the problem is that he starts off as a fucking cartoon villain and there just isnt any development to him gaining any kind of conscience. door 8 is even worse in that his actions are so monstrous that the game rly has to go hard in figuring out any kind of sympathetic motivation and the one that it comes up with is "okay so what if he was a pedophile". and even if we just ignore that it's still like bro locked up a girl in a tower and had the blood drained from her to be sold to a whole town as a fake miracle cure and it was all because he was just too anxious to communicate properly. i just find it frustrating how the story treats his and mell's actions as equivalent when mell was literally threatened with death if he didnt partake in the whole thing. it wouldn't be as big of a problem if the level of his actions was scaled down before his sympathetic turn.
- the way the first three doors are tied into the story as a whole feels kinda disappointing, both on the basic narrative level and the metafictional level. part of my dislike for the first three doors is the sense that they're just setup and there isn't rly that much investment in these characters beyond their ability to suffer. in the metafictional context you could justify this by saying that there's an intentional contrast between giselle telling the stories and michel experiencing them with a detached spectatorship, and that part of the point is that we can more easily detach from suffering that isn't our own. fata implies this direction but doesnt rly commit to it, and its metafictional position in the end becomes very different. in door 8 michel is able to understand everybody because of his spectatorship, to the point that he understands them better than the characters themselves do. it doesn't rly have much of a sense that some things can only be understood through experience, rather than simply witnessing. ryukishi07's works have similarly empathetic conclusions, but i find his portrayal of empathy more interesting because it acknowledges that empathy's fundamental limitations. there's a sense that we can't have a complete access or understanding - empathy brings us closer to it, but to empathise takes work and a recognition that you can still completely misunderstand the other. fata's portrayal of empathy feels a lot simpler because it feels the need to explain everything and not leave enough about the characters inaccessible to michel and the reader.
potentially more notes to come later, though im fairly satisfied with what i've written for now!
This review contains spoilers
I'll spoiler tag this review just because the story is so full of plot twists that shake up your fundamental understanding of every aspect of itself that it's impossible to talk about basically any specifics without spoilers.
The House in Fata Morgana is an exceedingly earnest story about the power of love and forgiveness. A very emotionally loud drama where our two protagonists have to struggle as paragons of virtue against an incredibly cruel world. And an unabashedly sincere romance about two outcasted and traumatized people completing themselves through each other, in a love that transcends life and time.
It tonally embodies its themes of human connection and redemption through embarrassing, revealing sincerity. It's got a lot of interesting larger themes given how religious zealots within the story are largely violent bigots, while the story itself is full of miracles and comes from a deeply Christian worldview. It gives the impression of, "god is real and good, but the world is full of people who misinterpret his word." And most importantly for my experience, the leads are just fantastic characters who you love and cry for and hope on the edge of your seat that they'll prevail. And this is more of my personal taste, but I adored the labyrinthine haunted mansion aesthetics, and the subject matter of people struggling to hold onto their sanity when cursed to live for huge stretches of time.
This is most of what I loved about Fata Morgana, but any recommendation of it has to be tempered by the fact that it's full of problems, in it's structure, in it's basic writing, and in several of its individual arcs. Those protagonists who I was so attached to by the end, who I think completely carry the story? They are essentially absent from it for the first 40% of the story. It starts with a series of only loosely connected vignettes, and to be blunt, half of them are downright terrible. After chapter 3 I was close to dropping the game. These are partly justified by it later becoming clear why they were important and included in the story at all, but that doesn't excuse how bad they actually are, in terms of bad characters, pacing, and frustratingly trite tragic plots.
The biggest obstacle to enjoying Fata Morgana is the first half, but many of these writing flaws continue throughout the whole thing. Much of the dialogue feels stiff and unrealistic. There's a very inconsistent application of time period dialect that becomes confusing and takes you out of the experience.
And one of my biggest issues was how full it is of long sequences of characters suffering, I think to varying degrees of success in communicating it emotionally. At times it did work quite well, and I felt sick with the horror of what was happening. But from it's ubiquity and failures in many individual scenes to be compelling, I usually felt emotionally dulled by the endless torment, until I couldn't take it as seriously as I was meant to.
I'm still not sure how I feel about Fata Morgana. When I listen to some of the stellar tracks from the ost and think of its best moments, I feel in love with it. But then I think of the dismal lows in its early chapters and the constant small frustrations with its clumsy writing pulling me out of the experience. Do I recommend it? That depends on how put off you are by the flaws I listed, but if you do give it a shot, I recommend powering through at least through chapter 5, even if it seems downright bad at first. Because despite all my issues, by the time it got going, I was moved by its story, and I'll remember Michel and Giselle as compelling and admirable characters for a long time.
The House in Fata Morgana is an exceedingly earnest story about the power of love and forgiveness. A very emotionally loud drama where our two protagonists have to struggle as paragons of virtue against an incredibly cruel world. And an unabashedly sincere romance about two outcasted and traumatized people completing themselves through each other, in a love that transcends life and time.
It tonally embodies its themes of human connection and redemption through embarrassing, revealing sincerity. It's got a lot of interesting larger themes given how religious zealots within the story are largely violent bigots, while the story itself is full of miracles and comes from a deeply Christian worldview. It gives the impression of, "god is real and good, but the world is full of people who misinterpret his word." And most importantly for my experience, the leads are just fantastic characters who you love and cry for and hope on the edge of your seat that they'll prevail. And this is more of my personal taste, but I adored the labyrinthine haunted mansion aesthetics, and the subject matter of people struggling to hold onto their sanity when cursed to live for huge stretches of time.
This is most of what I loved about Fata Morgana, but any recommendation of it has to be tempered by the fact that it's full of problems, in it's structure, in it's basic writing, and in several of its individual arcs. Those protagonists who I was so attached to by the end, who I think completely carry the story? They are essentially absent from it for the first 40% of the story. It starts with a series of only loosely connected vignettes, and to be blunt, half of them are downright terrible. After chapter 3 I was close to dropping the game. These are partly justified by it later becoming clear why they were important and included in the story at all, but that doesn't excuse how bad they actually are, in terms of bad characters, pacing, and frustratingly trite tragic plots.
The biggest obstacle to enjoying Fata Morgana is the first half, but many of these writing flaws continue throughout the whole thing. Much of the dialogue feels stiff and unrealistic. There's a very inconsistent application of time period dialect that becomes confusing and takes you out of the experience.
And one of my biggest issues was how full it is of long sequences of characters suffering, I think to varying degrees of success in communicating it emotionally. At times it did work quite well, and I felt sick with the horror of what was happening. But from it's ubiquity and failures in many individual scenes to be compelling, I usually felt emotionally dulled by the endless torment, until I couldn't take it as seriously as I was meant to.
I'm still not sure how I feel about Fata Morgana. When I listen to some of the stellar tracks from the ost and think of its best moments, I feel in love with it. But then I think of the dismal lows in its early chapters and the constant small frustrations with its clumsy writing pulling me out of the experience. Do I recommend it? That depends on how put off you are by the flaws I listed, but if you do give it a shot, I recommend powering through at least through chapter 5, even if it seems downright bad at first. Because despite all my issues, by the time it got going, I was moved by its story, and I'll remember Michel and Giselle as compelling and admirable characters for a long time.
This is going to be a complete review, door by door, don't expect something extensive, or an analysis, simply how this has impacted me and my opinion about it, basically a review.
(1.) First door:
The Door is an incredible intro, a pretty underrated intro for what it is. Let's start with the introduction of the work, a servant who leads us through doors, some small stories.
This first story is short, with a perfect rhythm and a way of telling the story in a brilliant and exciting way. Something that seems corny but tragedy and corruption are present. Good characters and, It's not boring and it's dynamic. And the ending with a wonderful plot twist, once you see this first door, you definitely want to continue reading this.
(2.) Second door:
A second door that is totally different from the first, A protagonist something that is quite confusing. The girl with white hair again, we still don't understand anything about her and why she is so good, as does the maid and the mystery of her. This door is the worst without a doubt, sometimes it gets boring and the rhythm is very heavy and uninteresting, the only thing to praise about this Door is its dehumanization and predictable plot twist.
(3.) Third door:
The third door is the best of the previous two. A slower and longer door than the previous two. But with a better executed and much more precise story, with more complex and tough themes. With a much harder plot, delving into human emotions and politics, an indecisive and cruel love.
(4.) Fourth door:
Another door better than the previous ones. We finally get to see our protagonist, a wonderful introduction by Michel, through a somewhat invented story with fictional touches in a story that is not so fictional. It is a totally perfect story, where we are introduced to our protagonist and deuteragonist perfectly, and we see how their relationship grows little by little, even with the supernatural sphere in the middle, in Michel, something bittersweet with a wonderful ending.
(5.) Fifth door:
And here we go, the best door of the 5 by far. A door that has impacted me quite a bit, in a real way. A story without patches, a real story without supernatural imaginations, a story of accepting your being and remembering yourself. A story that seems to be the same as the fourth door, but totally different, but much more charming. Michel and Giselle's dynamic in this door is wonderful. Something totally comfortable. Amid tragedies and fears, both bring their tragedies together and love encompasses both. Something that has impacted me a lot, especially the love that Michel has and his ideology.
(6.) Sixth door:
I don't remember this door much, it's a little worse than the fifth, but a good Door, where you delve into Giselle and her story inside the mansion, whose mansion I waited 700 years to see Michel again. We can see how Giselle makes a hunch and dehumanizes herself for her own good to wait for Michel, we also see Morgana and how she tries to manipulate, but she is also her only companion. A good door, quite short, very good explanations of everything, incredible execution, and amazing symbolism.
(7.) Seventh door:
And well, here we come where everything breaks and becomes even more of a masterpiece. We delve deeper into Michell's deep backstory. But I don't want to explain anything, I simply want to say that this door is incredible, the conflicts are wonderful and Michell's backstory is totally confusing and destructive, a majestic plot with a wonderful ending and well, I'm going to talk now about the eighth door
(8.) Eighth door:
Eighth door and I will also talk in general about the work. definitely the best door by far, a fairly long door, but incredibly good, the best thing about it is that since it is long, it is not bad, it does not have any plot holes and the consistency is perfect, it is not boring and it is dynamic, its The execution is wonderful, each character is incredible and we gradually delve deeper into all the characters, their conflicts and why their souls have done what they have done. I loved Michel at this door, here we are shown the real Michel, Michel a totally humble, human, altruistic and self-sacrificing protagonist. A perfect human with eternal love, a human who prefers the happiness of others to his own, a human who despite the adversities, conflicts and corruption around him, does not become corrupted, does not become evil, a hero , a human and totally pure hero, always optimistic above all, a born savior, with parallels with Jesus like Morgana, it must be said that this work has many religious, biblical and philosophical things. A masterpiece. Morgana is a wonderful antagonist, who does not allow herself to be convinced very easily, the hatred she has makes us all convince that this is not going to disappear and she has many reasons, and yet, Michel, is perfect, and solves everything to that even Morgana can free the souls of those she has condemned. And well, Michel, I think he has given me many life lessons, and very profound ones that have had a great impact on me. The ending of the game, I was almost crying for 20 minutes while everything progressed, something totally destructive and I am not a big fan of happy endings, but Fata Morgana makes this happy ending totally perfect, a beauty of art, a perfect visual novel and one of my favorite games so far.
A work that has captured my feelings, such as happiness, anguish, fear and sadness. A story that has exceeded my expectations. A story that everyone should experience.
And Giselle is an amazing and charming character, imagine having a girlfriend like Giselle, who is able to wait hundreds of years without thinking about other people for you
<3
Top 10 characters:
1. Michel Bollinger (top 5-6 characters in video games)
2. Giselle
3. Morgana
4. Jacopo Bearzatti
5. The White-Haired Girl
6. Yukimasa Aida
7. Mel Rhodes
8. Didier Bollinger
9. Maria Campanella
10. Nellie Rhodes
Door Ranking:
1. Door 8
2. Door 7
3.Door 5
4.Door 6
5. Door 4
6. Door 3
7.Door 1
8. Door 2
Top #7-6 videogame oat
(1.) First door:
The Door is an incredible intro, a pretty underrated intro for what it is. Let's start with the introduction of the work, a servant who leads us through doors, some small stories.
This first story is short, with a perfect rhythm and a way of telling the story in a brilliant and exciting way. Something that seems corny but tragedy and corruption are present. Good characters and, It's not boring and it's dynamic. And the ending with a wonderful plot twist, once you see this first door, you definitely want to continue reading this.
(2.) Second door:
A second door that is totally different from the first, A protagonist something that is quite confusing. The girl with white hair again, we still don't understand anything about her and why she is so good, as does the maid and the mystery of her. This door is the worst without a doubt, sometimes it gets boring and the rhythm is very heavy and uninteresting, the only thing to praise about this Door is its dehumanization and predictable plot twist.
(3.) Third door:
The third door is the best of the previous two. A slower and longer door than the previous two. But with a better executed and much more precise story, with more complex and tough themes. With a much harder plot, delving into human emotions and politics, an indecisive and cruel love.
(4.) Fourth door:
Another door better than the previous ones. We finally get to see our protagonist, a wonderful introduction by Michel, through a somewhat invented story with fictional touches in a story that is not so fictional. It is a totally perfect story, where we are introduced to our protagonist and deuteragonist perfectly, and we see how their relationship grows little by little, even with the supernatural sphere in the middle, in Michel, something bittersweet with a wonderful ending.
(5.) Fifth door:
And here we go, the best door of the 5 by far. A door that has impacted me quite a bit, in a real way. A story without patches, a real story without supernatural imaginations, a story of accepting your being and remembering yourself. A story that seems to be the same as the fourth door, but totally different, but much more charming. Michel and Giselle's dynamic in this door is wonderful. Something totally comfortable. Amid tragedies and fears, both bring their tragedies together and love encompasses both. Something that has impacted me a lot, especially the love that Michel has and his ideology.
(6.) Sixth door:
I don't remember this door much, it's a little worse than the fifth, but a good Door, where you delve into Giselle and her story inside the mansion, whose mansion I waited 700 years to see Michel again. We can see how Giselle makes a hunch and dehumanizes herself for her own good to wait for Michel, we also see Morgana and how she tries to manipulate, but she is also her only companion. A good door, quite short, very good explanations of everything, incredible execution, and amazing symbolism.
(7.) Seventh door:
And well, here we come where everything breaks and becomes even more of a masterpiece. We delve deeper into Michell's deep backstory. But I don't want to explain anything, I simply want to say that this door is incredible, the conflicts are wonderful and Michell's backstory is totally confusing and destructive, a majestic plot with a wonderful ending and well, I'm going to talk now about the eighth door
(8.) Eighth door:
Eighth door and I will also talk in general about the work. definitely the best door by far, a fairly long door, but incredibly good, the best thing about it is that since it is long, it is not bad, it does not have any plot holes and the consistency is perfect, it is not boring and it is dynamic, its The execution is wonderful, each character is incredible and we gradually delve deeper into all the characters, their conflicts and why their souls have done what they have done. I loved Michel at this door, here we are shown the real Michel, Michel a totally humble, human, altruistic and self-sacrificing protagonist. A perfect human with eternal love, a human who prefers the happiness of others to his own, a human who despite the adversities, conflicts and corruption around him, does not become corrupted, does not become evil, a hero , a human and totally pure hero, always optimistic above all, a born savior, with parallels with Jesus like Morgana, it must be said that this work has many religious, biblical and philosophical things. A masterpiece. Morgana is a wonderful antagonist, who does not allow herself to be convinced very easily, the hatred she has makes us all convince that this is not going to disappear and she has many reasons, and yet, Michel, is perfect, and solves everything to that even Morgana can free the souls of those she has condemned. And well, Michel, I think he has given me many life lessons, and very profound ones that have had a great impact on me. The ending of the game, I was almost crying for 20 minutes while everything progressed, something totally destructive and I am not a big fan of happy endings, but Fata Morgana makes this happy ending totally perfect, a beauty of art, a perfect visual novel and one of my favorite games so far.
A work that has captured my feelings, such as happiness, anguish, fear and sadness. A story that has exceeded my expectations. A story that everyone should experience.
And Giselle is an amazing and charming character, imagine having a girlfriend like Giselle, who is able to wait hundreds of years without thinking about other people for you
<3
Top 10 characters:
1. Michel Bollinger (top 5-6 characters in video games)
2. Giselle
3. Morgana
4. Jacopo Bearzatti
5. The White-Haired Girl
6. Yukimasa Aida
7. Mel Rhodes
8. Didier Bollinger
9. Maria Campanella
10. Nellie Rhodes
Door Ranking:
1. Door 8
2. Door 7
3.Door 5
4.Door 6
5. Door 4
6. Door 3
7.Door 1
8. Door 2
Top #7-6 videogame oat
The House in Bad Pacing
Still good tho. Giselle the goat
Still good tho. Giselle the goat
You are the master of this mansion, but you have no memories of it before waking up. The maid takes you on a tour and tells you the twisted history of your home. Starting in 1603 with a young pair of siblings playing in the garden. Then a few years pass, and their lives are never the same again. From there, you visit three other times in the mansion's history to witness the misfortune that fell on its inhabitants. Are you in any of these tales?
My one issue with this visual novel is how modern the language is. No matter if they're in the present day or in 1099, the dialogue is the same. I didn't except the whole game to be in ye olden times dialect, but I could have done without some the lines, such as a character jokingly calling their lover "babe." I know there were other terms of endearment that could have been used.
This story is dark and twisted, touches in the meaning of truth and humanity. There is incest, gruesome murders, torture, rape, and basically everything bad thing that can happen to someone.
Visuals
If you're use to the crisp, sterile backgrounds of most visual novels, be aware that this is not that. The House in Fata Morgana is incredibly stylized. The backgrounds appear hand painted and are at times a bit abstract. Objects blur into the background, things aren't always clear. Sometimes it's dark and dreary. Other times it's bright and dreamy.
The character sprites are similarly interesting. They have an old fashioned look to them, which works given the setting and tone. There was something unsettling about all of them though.
Do be aware of flashing screens. And blood.
Sound Effects + Music
I've never played a visual novel whose background music had vocals before. Honestly, I found it pretty distracting. I don't like music while I'm reading, or really at all, so your mileage may vary. The music is nice though; I just would have preferred all instrumentals so I could stay focused on the narrative. It doesn't match the time period at all though, and sometimes feels at odds with the mood of the scene.
There area other sound effects such as footsteps, thunder, and blood splatters. Lots of blood splatters.
Gameplay + Controls
The House in Fata Morgana is a visual novel, so you'll simply be pressing Enter to progress the text, and then selecting the occasional choice. Despite there being eight total endings, there are only a handful of choices to be made through the entire 30 hour narrative. Just be sure to save before making them so you can get the full experience if you want it.
Replayability
Given the length and heaviness of this story, I'm not sure who would want to go through it again. It's easy enough to experience all eight endings as long as you remembered to make saves before each of the choices.
Overall
I can't really say I enjoyed The House in Fata Morgana, because this story is bleak. Once you think the worst has passed, it just goes further into the dark depths. Definitely recommend though.
My one issue with this visual novel is how modern the language is. No matter if they're in the present day or in 1099, the dialogue is the same. I didn't except the whole game to be in ye olden times dialect, but I could have done without some the lines, such as a character jokingly calling their lover "babe." I know there were other terms of endearment that could have been used.
This story is dark and twisted, touches in the meaning of truth and humanity. There is incest, gruesome murders, torture, rape, and basically everything bad thing that can happen to someone.
Visuals
If you're use to the crisp, sterile backgrounds of most visual novels, be aware that this is not that. The House in Fata Morgana is incredibly stylized. The backgrounds appear hand painted and are at times a bit abstract. Objects blur into the background, things aren't always clear. Sometimes it's dark and dreary. Other times it's bright and dreamy.
The character sprites are similarly interesting. They have an old fashioned look to them, which works given the setting and tone. There was something unsettling about all of them though.
Do be aware of flashing screens. And blood.
Sound Effects + Music
I've never played a visual novel whose background music had vocals before. Honestly, I found it pretty distracting. I don't like music while I'm reading, or really at all, so your mileage may vary. The music is nice though; I just would have preferred all instrumentals so I could stay focused on the narrative. It doesn't match the time period at all though, and sometimes feels at odds with the mood of the scene.
There area other sound effects such as footsteps, thunder, and blood splatters. Lots of blood splatters.
Gameplay + Controls
The House in Fata Morgana is a visual novel, so you'll simply be pressing Enter to progress the text, and then selecting the occasional choice. Despite there being eight total endings, there are only a handful of choices to be made through the entire 30 hour narrative. Just be sure to save before making them so you can get the full experience if you want it.
Replayability
Given the length and heaviness of this story, I'm not sure who would want to go through it again. It's easy enough to experience all eight endings as long as you remembered to make saves before each of the choices.
Overall
I can't really say I enjoyed The House in Fata Morgana, because this story is bleak. Once you think the worst has passed, it just goes further into the dark depths. Definitely recommend though.
I don't know how to describe this game, for the story, i could say the characters are very expressive it really surprised me, maybe i even envied some of them a bit for how expressive they were with one another, there's a sole objective you are given in the first minute in the story, reaching it isn't close to the end but merely the beginning of the game actually, the twists in the plot are constant and mostly hard to predict, each time u feel closer to finishing the story, it proceeds to answering another question and then another then another till there're vaguely any left, u won't be bored though.
The music, oh my god, the music
the game hits with some awesome awe-strucking brain-melting hot-throbbing cheek-clenching music that will leave u listening for a while in a 5-minutes part not wanting to skip to next line, in some parts the music feels divine!
like some notes were composed by the hand of Orpheus just spilt from between his fingers to fall in all the right places then reaching your ear, other parts it just feels really good.
I don't need to talk about the art style much, i'll try keep it short this time unlike the last 2 paragraphs
the art just excels in showing all the details it needs, it can depict someone very normal looking demonic and dangerous with clarity, show an eventful act in 1 drawing even, thats how expressive it was sometimes.
it's quite simply the best story i have ever read or played in my life so far.
this is my first time playing a visual novel though, and i just finished it minutes ago, so i hope i don't seem like exaggerating for i am still emotionally impacted, maybe i became very expressive as well after playing this game? we'll never know....
The music, oh my god, the music
the game hits with some awesome awe-strucking brain-melting hot-throbbing cheek-clenching music that will leave u listening for a while in a 5-minutes part not wanting to skip to next line, in some parts the music feels divine!
like some notes were composed by the hand of Orpheus just spilt from between his fingers to fall in all the right places then reaching your ear, other parts it just feels really good.
I don't need to talk about the art style much, i'll try keep it short this time unlike the last 2 paragraphs
the art just excels in showing all the details it needs, it can depict someone very normal looking demonic and dangerous with clarity, show an eventful act in 1 drawing even, thats how expressive it was sometimes.
it's quite simply the best story i have ever read or played in my life so far.
this is my first time playing a visual novel though, and i just finished it minutes ago, so i hope i don't seem like exaggerating for i am still emotionally impacted, maybe i became very expressive as well after playing this game? we'll never know....
the goat
i want to have sex with the maid
Beautiful
door 1: 7/10
door 2: 4/10
door 3: 8.1/10
door 4: 7.5/10
door 5: 8.5/10
door 6: 9/10
door 7: 10/10
door 8: 11/10
door 1: 7/10
door 2: 4/10
door 3: 8.1/10
door 4: 7.5/10
door 5: 8.5/10
door 6: 9/10
door 7: 10/10
door 8: 11/10
i’ve kind of lost the motivation to write anything long-form (or really any length) on this site but i do want to reflect on this one a little bit, and i hope you’ll excuse me if i sound like i’m superficially regurgitating what others have already shared.
anyway fatamoru is undeniably human at the end of the day; about how people aren’t born their current selves (whether they be “good” or “bad” in the eyes of some) and that there are always underlying circumstances that turned them into who they are today. the truth is a “weapon” — but not weapon-ized against others as it can so conspicuously be within popular works in this genre — no, the truth is not just something for an opposing force to use against those who experienced it, rather more deeply as an empathetic connection between people that is only a weapon if those who experienced it find resolve in burying it apprehensively. accepting reality and facing it head-on can be just as painful as the reality itself. no matter how dark it gets… there is always some light at the end of the tunnel. fatamoru is shockingly depressing and at times just absolutely fucking soul-crushing. at the same time, through all of the tragedy that it establishes, it still ignites some hopeful inspiration. everything does maintain a believable — and oftentimes relatable — level of realism as well that is probably the core of what makes the narrative hurt as much as it does. everything also has purpose: plenty of red herrings or details that spring up in the first half seem impossibly linked to the story but become completely logical and crucial inclusions by the end. i’m at a loss of what else i could mention so i guess i can briefly praise the characters. i don’t think there was a single one i didn’t find some form of relatability in or flat out didn’t like. they’re all distinctly special in their own ways. each with personal strategies to try and stay grounded among a world so cruel in their eyes. the value of perspective is a central theme throughout. this story fucked me up in more ways than one and i don’t think this will be an experience i’ll easily forget. i do still want to think about it more. this came to me at the right time in my life similarly to something like twewy when i played that a few years ago. shoutouts to the soundtrack for introducing me to “neoclassical darkwave.”
anyway fatamoru is undeniably human at the end of the day; about how people aren’t born their current selves (whether they be “good” or “bad” in the eyes of some) and that there are always underlying circumstances that turned them into who they are today. the truth is a “weapon” — but not weapon-ized against others as it can so conspicuously be within popular works in this genre — no, the truth is not just something for an opposing force to use against those who experienced it, rather more deeply as an empathetic connection between people that is only a weapon if those who experienced it find resolve in burying it apprehensively. accepting reality and facing it head-on can be just as painful as the reality itself. no matter how dark it gets… there is always some light at the end of the tunnel. fatamoru is shockingly depressing and at times just absolutely fucking soul-crushing. at the same time, through all of the tragedy that it establishes, it still ignites some hopeful inspiration. everything does maintain a believable — and oftentimes relatable — level of realism as well that is probably the core of what makes the narrative hurt as much as it does. everything also has purpose: plenty of red herrings or details that spring up in the first half seem impossibly linked to the story but become completely logical and crucial inclusions by the end. i’m at a loss of what else i could mention so i guess i can briefly praise the characters. i don’t think there was a single one i didn’t find some form of relatability in or flat out didn’t like. they’re all distinctly special in their own ways. each with personal strategies to try and stay grounded among a world so cruel in their eyes. the value of perspective is a central theme throughout. this story fucked me up in more ways than one and i don’t think this will be an experience i’ll easily forget. i do still want to think about it more. this came to me at the right time in my life similarly to something like twewy when i played that a few years ago. shoutouts to the soundtrack for introducing me to “neoclassical darkwave.”
CW: Incest, assault, sexual violence
Spoilers for Chapter One.
Completed the first “door” and decided I wouldn’t finish the game; everything I say in this review is limited to that opening vignette. What’s set up here is certainly well-intentioned: three central characters, each on the verge of adulthood and trapped by the rigidly defined gender roles and class structures of their 1600s environment and bearing the weight of several conflicting needs. However, in the two hours I spent with Fata Morgana, the game world’s overarching patriarchal capitalist system isn’t seriously interrogated or explored. There are a number of supporting adult characters subtly maintaining the oppressive framework: the priest insisting Mell marry within his class, Nellie’s chosen fiancée Arthur, solely interested in keeping up appearances, Nellie and Mell’s parents, the owners of the house exerting their influence from afar; a larger societal order and hierarchy are clearly hinted at, offering a possible canvas for the game to seize upon the concrete mechanics undergirding this type of systematic oppression, perhaps even explore potential solutions. This isn’t something Fata Morgana seems to be interested in, however: the characters perpetuating the system either have no lines at all (the mother and father) or only speak from off-screen! We only receive surface-level insight into this world’s politics and social dynamics, which is enough to rationalize the chain of events presented in the plot, but bereft of any deeper knowledge or meaning for the reader to extract.
We’re therefore presented with a relatively narrow character drama. This isn’t a flaw with the story necessarily — whatever you end up focusing on, it just needs to be compelling somehow. Unfortunately, what we do get is incredibly banal squabbles and eyeroll-inducing escalations that feel designed for shock value rather than to provide deeper insight. “Why won’t you spend more time with me dearest brother, you’re the only one for me,” “Okay number one that’s weird (you’re my sister,) number two I just fell in love with this white-haired chick at first sight,” “Didn’t you tell me you haven’t even met her yet? 🤨” “Uhm uhm.” In a word, the level of emotional strife and disagreeing motivations here comes across as juvenile; you might say this is because these characters are literally kids and that that’s kind of the point, but that’s not actually what I mean. It feels quaint to be reading this unremarkable back-and-forth dialogue about who spends too much time with whom, who has feelings for whom and who is instantly bewitched by whose beauty in a game about conventionally attractive people regularly described as such; specifically when you have books and films like A Girl on the Shore or How to Have Sex that navigate what I find to be much more challenging and actually-applicable-to-real-life topics like the intersection of romance, the craving for bodily intimacy and self-worth in subtle, artful and original ways. I’m throwing around a lot of adjectives here so I hope you’ll just see where I’m coming from and not ask for more specific scene-analyses LOL but I suppose this point in particular I’d be curious to hear more thoughts on.
To get at least a little more specific, Nellie’s character is a painful example of the jealous-friendzoned-girl doing a textbook version of the “I’m gonna pull some strings to make my object of desire think he has no chance with the bitch I’m competing with” trope. The misunderstandings pile up in the exact way you’d expect, until Nellie, devastated by the arranged marriage looming over her head and Mell’s apathy toward the situation, suffers a psychotic episode in which she physically assaults the white-haired girl and makes an explicitly sexual, non-consensual advance toward her brother. Since I’m critiquing the effectiveness and value of this type of writing, I feel the need to point out that any given player’s reaction to this arc will be incredibly subjective. If Metacritic and backloggd are any indication, you’ll likely have left off with a much different impression than I did, and it may be hard to see where I’m coming from (maybe you can tell that this is very different from my usual mechanics-focused analyses and that I have to reason from a mostly emotional angle LOL.) The argument I will make is that Nellie is an undeniable victim of an oppressive system, and yet she’s the only character in this self-contained story to carry out serious physical violence against another victim; and to me this does not function as effective critique of the system! (Quick aside, I had a very similar issue with Last Night in Soho’s final third and that shit seems way less bad in comparison now LOL) Instead, it comes across as unsympathetic and callous. Nellie is not just trapped by the patriarchy, but her incestual feelings toward Mell, and rather than seriously explore the internal whirlwind and self-analysis you’d expect to be part of that experience in any kind of depth, it genuinely feels more-so used as a way to gross out the player and lean into incredibly distasteful “freaky” Yandere iconography.
I can lay out all the plot beats and see the themes that are being touched on and understand the rationalizations being presented, but it doesn’t change the fact that presentation is narrative just as much as that Wikipedia summary. And in presentation, moment-to-moment, what I played of Fata Morgana rarely reaches past shallow, puerile and cowardly. I say “rarely” because as eyeroll-worthy as the aforementioned love-at-first-sight dynamic between Mell and the white-haired girl is, once they did confess their feelings to each other I couldn’t help but be surprisingly endeared by the hopelessly romantic prose and sensitive staging employed by the scene. The strength, or lack thereof, of the white-haired girl’s grip over Mell’s neck is something visual novels are uniquely poised to convey, in this case by suddenly flipping between slight alterations in otherwise static illustrations and buoy them with careful descriptions of subtle movements and bodily expressions.
But I also said the game was cowardly, because I can’t help but question its worldview when it chooses to have the white-haired girl “disfigured” by Nellie and then completely refuses to show her on-screen again from that point forward. I already noted earlier that Fata Morgana places repeated emphasis on conventional beauty, and flirting with this topic so much while blatantly skirting around any kind of alternative portrayal seems damning in my eyes. Mell’s assurances that he’ll love her regardless of her appearance can only read as hollow when the game doesn’t even seem to love its own characters enough to give them that kind of respect.
Fata Morgana consisting of, to my knowledge, at least a few largely self-contained stories has me relatively confident in the validity of this review; the main game does not revisit this particular scenario past what I played from what I understand. You might still think that this is shaky ground for me to stand on, but the entire point I hope I made here is that as a storyteller, you’re communicating things to your audience from minute one. If this opening isn’t an accurate representation of the game as a whole, then what was the point of it? If I’m to expect crucial subversions deeper into the story, how am I supposed to believe that they are any more tasteful or substantive than the dramatic turns utilized here? If the game spends two hours on this completely unoriginal love triangle, how will it tackle more difficult subjects? I’ve experienced complete, rich stories in that time-span, stories that consider their themes just as much as their form. I can certainly have Fata Morgana’s themes explained to me by its fans and acknowledge the sincerity ultimately laying beneath, but what I really needed in those two hours is for Novectacle to convince me they’re equipped to tell this kind of story; and I can’t say that I am.
Spoilers for Chapter One.
Completed the first “door” and decided I wouldn’t finish the game; everything I say in this review is limited to that opening vignette. What’s set up here is certainly well-intentioned: three central characters, each on the verge of adulthood and trapped by the rigidly defined gender roles and class structures of their 1600s environment and bearing the weight of several conflicting needs. However, in the two hours I spent with Fata Morgana, the game world’s overarching patriarchal capitalist system isn’t seriously interrogated or explored. There are a number of supporting adult characters subtly maintaining the oppressive framework: the priest insisting Mell marry within his class, Nellie’s chosen fiancée Arthur, solely interested in keeping up appearances, Nellie and Mell’s parents, the owners of the house exerting their influence from afar; a larger societal order and hierarchy are clearly hinted at, offering a possible canvas for the game to seize upon the concrete mechanics undergirding this type of systematic oppression, perhaps even explore potential solutions. This isn’t something Fata Morgana seems to be interested in, however: the characters perpetuating the system either have no lines at all (the mother and father) or only speak from off-screen! We only receive surface-level insight into this world’s politics and social dynamics, which is enough to rationalize the chain of events presented in the plot, but bereft of any deeper knowledge or meaning for the reader to extract.
We’re therefore presented with a relatively narrow character drama. This isn’t a flaw with the story necessarily — whatever you end up focusing on, it just needs to be compelling somehow. Unfortunately, what we do get is incredibly banal squabbles and eyeroll-inducing escalations that feel designed for shock value rather than to provide deeper insight. “Why won’t you spend more time with me dearest brother, you’re the only one for me,” “Okay number one that’s weird (you’re my sister,) number two I just fell in love with this white-haired chick at first sight,” “Didn’t you tell me you haven’t even met her yet? 🤨” “Uhm uhm.” In a word, the level of emotional strife and disagreeing motivations here comes across as juvenile; you might say this is because these characters are literally kids and that that’s kind of the point, but that’s not actually what I mean. It feels quaint to be reading this unremarkable back-and-forth dialogue about who spends too much time with whom, who has feelings for whom and who is instantly bewitched by whose beauty in a game about conventionally attractive people regularly described as such; specifically when you have books and films like A Girl on the Shore or How to Have Sex that navigate what I find to be much more challenging and actually-applicable-to-real-life topics like the intersection of romance, the craving for bodily intimacy and self-worth in subtle, artful and original ways. I’m throwing around a lot of adjectives here so I hope you’ll just see where I’m coming from and not ask for more specific scene-analyses LOL but I suppose this point in particular I’d be curious to hear more thoughts on.
To get at least a little more specific, Nellie’s character is a painful example of the jealous-friendzoned-girl doing a textbook version of the “I’m gonna pull some strings to make my object of desire think he has no chance with the bitch I’m competing with” trope. The misunderstandings pile up in the exact way you’d expect, until Nellie, devastated by the arranged marriage looming over her head and Mell’s apathy toward the situation, suffers a psychotic episode in which she physically assaults the white-haired girl and makes an explicitly sexual, non-consensual advance toward her brother. Since I’m critiquing the effectiveness and value of this type of writing, I feel the need to point out that any given player’s reaction to this arc will be incredibly subjective. If Metacritic and backloggd are any indication, you’ll likely have left off with a much different impression than I did, and it may be hard to see where I’m coming from (maybe you can tell that this is very different from my usual mechanics-focused analyses and that I have to reason from a mostly emotional angle LOL.) The argument I will make is that Nellie is an undeniable victim of an oppressive system, and yet she’s the only character in this self-contained story to carry out serious physical violence against another victim; and to me this does not function as effective critique of the system! (Quick aside, I had a very similar issue with Last Night in Soho’s final third and that shit seems way less bad in comparison now LOL) Instead, it comes across as unsympathetic and callous. Nellie is not just trapped by the patriarchy, but her incestual feelings toward Mell, and rather than seriously explore the internal whirlwind and self-analysis you’d expect to be part of that experience in any kind of depth, it genuinely feels more-so used as a way to gross out the player and lean into incredibly distasteful “freaky” Yandere iconography.
I can lay out all the plot beats and see the themes that are being touched on and understand the rationalizations being presented, but it doesn’t change the fact that presentation is narrative just as much as that Wikipedia summary. And in presentation, moment-to-moment, what I played of Fata Morgana rarely reaches past shallow, puerile and cowardly. I say “rarely” because as eyeroll-worthy as the aforementioned love-at-first-sight dynamic between Mell and the white-haired girl is, once they did confess their feelings to each other I couldn’t help but be surprisingly endeared by the hopelessly romantic prose and sensitive staging employed by the scene. The strength, or lack thereof, of the white-haired girl’s grip over Mell’s neck is something visual novels are uniquely poised to convey, in this case by suddenly flipping between slight alterations in otherwise static illustrations and buoy them with careful descriptions of subtle movements and bodily expressions.
But I also said the game was cowardly, because I can’t help but question its worldview when it chooses to have the white-haired girl “disfigured” by Nellie and then completely refuses to show her on-screen again from that point forward. I already noted earlier that Fata Morgana places repeated emphasis on conventional beauty, and flirting with this topic so much while blatantly skirting around any kind of alternative portrayal seems damning in my eyes. Mell’s assurances that he’ll love her regardless of her appearance can only read as hollow when the game doesn’t even seem to love its own characters enough to give them that kind of respect.
Fata Morgana consisting of, to my knowledge, at least a few largely self-contained stories has me relatively confident in the validity of this review; the main game does not revisit this particular scenario past what I played from what I understand. You might still think that this is shaky ground for me to stand on, but the entire point I hope I made here is that as a storyteller, you’re communicating things to your audience from minute one. If this opening isn’t an accurate representation of the game as a whole, then what was the point of it? If I’m to expect crucial subversions deeper into the story, how am I supposed to believe that they are any more tasteful or substantive than the dramatic turns utilized here? If the game spends two hours on this completely unoriginal love triangle, how will it tackle more difficult subjects? I’ve experienced complete, rich stories in that time-span, stories that consider their themes just as much as their form. I can certainly have Fata Morgana’s themes explained to me by its fans and acknowledge the sincerity ultimately laying beneath, but what I really needed in those two hours is for Novectacle to convince me they’re equipped to tell this kind of story; and I can’t say that I am.
You don't owe forgiveness to the people who wronged you in your life, but you still are able to move forward and start anew. The cycle of hatred and tragedy will ultimately benefit no one the further and further it goes on. It's not easy to do all of this alone however, especially if you were mistreated by many people in your life. One day though you will find someone who will sympathize and give you the empathy you've needed for years. They can help and reach out their hand to pull you out of the darkness you've been swallowed up by. The people who did do you wrong and their actions can never be excused and it's understandable if they aren't, but knowing the whole truth and the different perspectives can put everything together. The point is to release, not to destroy anymore.
In my opinion, The House in Fata Morgana is one of the most earnest, sincere and respectful works of fiction I have played. It will make you feel all sorts of emotions through its intense and cathartic tragedies, hopeful and optimistic belief in its characters and to top it all off one of the most beautiful romances I have ever seen. The House in Fata Morgana is a story that takes place across almost 1000 years and delves into all matter of subjects such as discrimination, human nature, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and truth but none is focused on more than perspective as the game pulls back the curtain on all of its cast, thoroughly inspecting them, as it encourages and discusses the importance of coming to understand the circumstances that leads people to the decisions they make - no matter how much they may regret them.
Getting the obvious out of the way, the games presentation is out of this world. The setting is constantly shifting door to door as within each one comes a new era. Whether its 1603, a period of great improvement to the arts, 1707 in which sea trade, travel and discovery thrived or 1869 with great advancements in technology - the game manages to consistently adjust its presentation to fit the time and characters within it, perfectly encapsulating the atmosphere of the mansion in and outside the doors. The sprites are incredibly expressive, the backgrounds are quite distorted and muddy which serves to bring more focus to the characters on screen but also lean into the games gothic and horror elements and the music consists of 68 incredibly high-quality songs that don't shy away from occasionally using vocals - largely spoken in Portuguese. Everything visually and audio-wise just comes together so well it's hard not to get taken in by it all especially when one of the first songs that plays is apart of the best, which is aptly called The House in Fata Morgana.
"Events by themselves do not tell the whole story. Only when you take into account their circumstances, what they thought and felt, their perspectives—only then can you say you've reached the truth"
It wouldn't be a fitting review without discussing Fata Morganas biggest strength, which is its cast. As mentioned earlier, the game lays bare all of its characters thoughts, feelings and emotions for us to see, and it's through this deep exploration of the cast that produces fascinating fleshed out characters coupled with very human interactions, and with this showcase of its characters presents and pasts, the game is able to touch upon an array of themes and subjects that I can only say were handled incredibly well, and treated with the utmost respect. Love is a core part of Fata Morgana and is a major theme consistently shown through the cast, and while the game does show off its beauty it also shows off negative aspects of it, such as the hypocrisy that can be born from love, how love can blind you to another persons faults, or the effects of not talking out issues. Another theme is victimhood, and how the game makes it known that recovery can be a long process, with forgiveness being something that shouldn't be expected but can happen so long as that person makes the choice - they are not obligated to forgive those who have wronged them so deeply, but moving on is very important.
This character-driven plot of The House in Fata Morgana ultimately allows it to unravel its core theme of perspective. How often do we immediately lash out or think negatively of those who have wronged us, seeing them as just the person in front of us, rather than looking at them through the lens of what circumstances might have led them to do what they did? What is the foundation of their actions? Beneath every character in Fata Morgana exists ghosts from the past that haunt their future, phantoms that take the form of previous harmful words and actions, ones they may regret, ones they may not, and yet the game understands that rather than simply categorising these actions into terms such as "good" or "evil" , and that such black and white judgement doesn't exist, it's more important to recognise the basis of them - it could be down to coercion and blackmail, misplaced emotion or the long-term effects of institutions. It may seem like a simple message but it's an important one nonetheless to come to an understanding with those around you, allowing yourself to see a person from a different perspective might entirely change yours. It is truly remarkable how many different subjects the game explores that is due to its fantastic characters, and furthermore how tactfully each subject is approached.
The House in Fata Morgana's narrative is made up of 1 major route, and while the story does take a long while to show its true colours, that shouldn't discourage you from playing through it as the story is incredibly well-rounded with every section of the game being recontextualized overtime. So much carries meaning throughout, with multiple moments of foreshadowing being present in the earlier parts of the game. It may appear melancholy often, but The House in Fata Morgana is truly a hopeful tale that never gives up, its human to a fault and you will be hard pressed to not find some relation to any of the characters. Mechanically the game has some great features, the choices are interesting (namely the usage of timed choices) and the backlog in certain moments is used to enhance the games mystery which is nice. It also consists of numerous bad and dead endings which may occur due to the wrong choice, they're actually pretty good and provide some very haunting but interesting what-if scenarios.
Outside some minor issues with areas of the game that drag for too long, dialogue where the characters don't speak like they would in their respective time periods and some characters needing a bit more time to their backstories, none of these issues are enough to truly take anything away from the extremely gratifying experience that is The House in Fata Morgana. Don't let the games slow start scare you, this game is truly one of a kind that everyone should pick up. It made me euphoric, it made me distraught - and it also made me cry multiple times, something I respect any game for doing.
Getting the obvious out of the way, the games presentation is out of this world. The setting is constantly shifting door to door as within each one comes a new era. Whether its 1603, a period of great improvement to the arts, 1707 in which sea trade, travel and discovery thrived or 1869 with great advancements in technology - the game manages to consistently adjust its presentation to fit the time and characters within it, perfectly encapsulating the atmosphere of the mansion in and outside the doors. The sprites are incredibly expressive, the backgrounds are quite distorted and muddy which serves to bring more focus to the characters on screen but also lean into the games gothic and horror elements and the music consists of 68 incredibly high-quality songs that don't shy away from occasionally using vocals - largely spoken in Portuguese. Everything visually and audio-wise just comes together so well it's hard not to get taken in by it all especially when one of the first songs that plays is apart of the best, which is aptly called The House in Fata Morgana.
"Events by themselves do not tell the whole story. Only when you take into account their circumstances, what they thought and felt, their perspectives—only then can you say you've reached the truth"
It wouldn't be a fitting review without discussing Fata Morganas biggest strength, which is its cast. As mentioned earlier, the game lays bare all of its characters thoughts, feelings and emotions for us to see, and it's through this deep exploration of the cast that produces fascinating fleshed out characters coupled with very human interactions, and with this showcase of its characters presents and pasts, the game is able to touch upon an array of themes and subjects that I can only say were handled incredibly well, and treated with the utmost respect. Love is a core part of Fata Morgana and is a major theme consistently shown through the cast, and while the game does show off its beauty it also shows off negative aspects of it, such as the hypocrisy that can be born from love, how love can blind you to another persons faults, or the effects of not talking out issues. Another theme is victimhood, and how the game makes it known that recovery can be a long process, with forgiveness being something that shouldn't be expected but can happen so long as that person makes the choice - they are not obligated to forgive those who have wronged them so deeply, but moving on is very important.
This character-driven plot of The House in Fata Morgana ultimately allows it to unravel its core theme of perspective. How often do we immediately lash out or think negatively of those who have wronged us, seeing them as just the person in front of us, rather than looking at them through the lens of what circumstances might have led them to do what they did? What is the foundation of their actions? Beneath every character in Fata Morgana exists ghosts from the past that haunt their future, phantoms that take the form of previous harmful words and actions, ones they may regret, ones they may not, and yet the game understands that rather than simply categorising these actions into terms such as "good" or "evil" , and that such black and white judgement doesn't exist, it's more important to recognise the basis of them - it could be down to coercion and blackmail, misplaced emotion or the long-term effects of institutions. It may seem like a simple message but it's an important one nonetheless to come to an understanding with those around you, allowing yourself to see a person from a different perspective might entirely change yours. It is truly remarkable how many different subjects the game explores that is due to its fantastic characters, and furthermore how tactfully each subject is approached.
The House in Fata Morgana's narrative is made up of 1 major route, and while the story does take a long while to show its true colours, that shouldn't discourage you from playing through it as the story is incredibly well-rounded with every section of the game being recontextualized overtime. So much carries meaning throughout, with multiple moments of foreshadowing being present in the earlier parts of the game. It may appear melancholy often, but The House in Fata Morgana is truly a hopeful tale that never gives up, its human to a fault and you will be hard pressed to not find some relation to any of the characters. Mechanically the game has some great features, the choices are interesting (namely the usage of timed choices) and the backlog in certain moments is used to enhance the games mystery which is nice. It also consists of numerous bad and dead endings which may occur due to the wrong choice, they're actually pretty good and provide some very haunting but interesting what-if scenarios.
Outside some minor issues with areas of the game that drag for too long, dialogue where the characters don't speak like they would in their respective time periods and some characters needing a bit more time to their backstories, none of these issues are enough to truly take anything away from the extremely gratifying experience that is The House in Fata Morgana. Don't let the games slow start scare you, this game is truly one of a kind that everyone should pick up. It made me euphoric, it made me distraught - and it also made me cry multiple times, something I respect any game for doing.
went into this because i have a thing for maids and came out ready to shill this door to door to everyone i know like a mormon missionary
UEE 😭🥺💧 Eu 💧💧 E E 😭😭 E EUE 🥺🥺😭 UUUUE 😭🥺💧🥺😭 ue 💧 ee 😭🥺 ue 🥺 e e e 😭. e 💧🥺😭 Uueuuue. 💧💧 ue 😭🥺 ee e 🥺🥺😭 eUEE 💧🥺💧 EEE 💧💧😭 U E 🥺😭 EE H 💧🥺😭 E EUU 💧🥺😭 UUEHH 🥺💧😭 EUEH 🥺😭💧💧 ue e 😭😭 eeeeee 💧💧💧 uu 🥺😭 hh 😭🥺 uUEEE 🥺😭💧 uuuue. 💧😭🥺😭 ueeeeee 💧🥺😭💧
Finally finished this one. I'm not really sure how to put what I want to say into words. The game is good. But it definitely has some flaws which surprises me because the game is SO highly rated.
First of all the soundtrack is amazing so many bangers, even if they can get repetitive over time. And I really like the artstyle of the game, with all the watercolour backgrounds and NON-ANIME looking characters.
Not to shit on anime too hard, but I think one of the major reasons this visual novel is extremely highly praised is because it's one of the only VNs that is not weird anime gooner slop. There are no H-Scenes. It has amazing well-depicted and well-developed female and queer characters. It doesn't rely on creepy perverted jokes at the expense of women that supposedly just "come with the territory" of anime/VN games. And it's written really well! All of these things should kind of just really be the bare minimum, but I think the bar is on the floor for the standard of visual novel games and that makes Fata Morgana stand out above the rest.
The characters are very good and especially in the final chapter where you get to know everyone deeper than before, they are really well-written. I also loved the post-game backstage content where everybody breaks the fourth wall and shoots the shit. That was an amazing addition to the game.
On to the flaws :(
The biggest issue was the pacing. I feel the game was way too long and spent too much time in places it didn't need to. I have to keep this spoiler-free but basically, the first four chapters are just prologue.
The first three are all self-contained stories told to build up the world of the mansion. They can drag on and overall it felt like they didn't matter too much after they were done. The fourth chapter is kinda just like nothingness.
After chapter 4, the real game begins. And that's when it gets really interesting and you can start connecting to the protagonists more. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are good (especially 7), but then chapter 8 is amazing. It's super long but it also feels like the point where the game truly begins. The first 7 chapters were all setting up for the 8th.
At certain points, the story can feel like a trauma competition. I know the story is a tragedy but damn, it felt like the creators wanted to just make everybody have the most excruciating backstory where nothing goes right at all. And I think it caused some of these moments to lose their gravitas.
Overall, Fata Morgana tells a great story with amazing style and presentation. It's not your average run-of-the-mill anime visual novel, and that's why it's beloved by so many - it stands out. But it's held back by some weird pacing that can cause moments to feel unimportant, uninteresting and inconsequential.
Looking forward to playing the DLC!
First of all the soundtrack is amazing so many bangers, even if they can get repetitive over time. And I really like the artstyle of the game, with all the watercolour backgrounds and NON-ANIME looking characters.
Not to shit on anime too hard, but I think one of the major reasons this visual novel is extremely highly praised is because it's one of the only VNs that is not weird anime gooner slop. There are no H-Scenes. It has amazing well-depicted and well-developed female and queer characters. It doesn't rely on creepy perverted jokes at the expense of women that supposedly just "come with the territory" of anime/VN games. And it's written really well! All of these things should kind of just really be the bare minimum, but I think the bar is on the floor for the standard of visual novel games and that makes Fata Morgana stand out above the rest.
The characters are very good and especially in the final chapter where you get to know everyone deeper than before, they are really well-written. I also loved the post-game backstage content where everybody breaks the fourth wall and shoots the shit. That was an amazing addition to the game.
On to the flaws :(
The biggest issue was the pacing. I feel the game was way too long and spent too much time in places it didn't need to. I have to keep this spoiler-free but basically, the first four chapters are just prologue.
The first three are all self-contained stories told to build up the world of the mansion. They can drag on and overall it felt like they didn't matter too much after they were done. The fourth chapter is kinda just like nothingness.
After chapter 4, the real game begins. And that's when it gets really interesting and you can start connecting to the protagonists more. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are good (especially 7), but then chapter 8 is amazing. It's super long but it also feels like the point where the game truly begins. The first 7 chapters were all setting up for the 8th.
At certain points, the story can feel like a trauma competition. I know the story is a tragedy but damn, it felt like the creators wanted to just make everybody have the most excruciating backstory where nothing goes right at all. And I think it caused some of these moments to lose their gravitas.
Overall, Fata Morgana tells a great story with amazing style and presentation. It's not your average run-of-the-mill anime visual novel, and that's why it's beloved by so many - it stands out. But it's held back by some weird pacing that can cause moments to feel unimportant, uninteresting and inconsequential.
Looking forward to playing the DLC!
Did not finish it yet but man that's more than enough to give it a 5/5.
Just finished door 7, I don't cry from TV/games, but this killed the shit out of me. It really makes you feel Michel, to the point everything he feels you feel and it truly hurts, but then the climax is just so powerful and made me feel healed in a way? I don't how it manages to be this good and I don't think anything has ever impacted me on such a personal level. Door 7 was really something i've never thought I will experience with media
Just finished door 7, I don't cry from TV/games, but this killed the shit out of me. It really makes you feel Michel, to the point everything he feels you feel and it truly hurts, but then the climax is just so powerful and made me feel healed in a way? I don't how it manages to be this good and I don't think anything has ever impacted me on such a personal level. Door 7 was really something i've never thought I will experience with media
it's peak
Jacopo and Mell are just literally me. (Help me please).
This review contains spoilers
Eu queria muito não mandar spoiler do jogo, mas o que quero falar é tão intrinsicamente ligado com o que acontece que acho que é difícil evitar.
Eu adoraria falar que The House in Fata Morgana é sobre tragédias, sobre a fraqueza do espirito humano e sobre como o mal vem até pra aqueles que não merecem. Mas isso seria uma mentira. Alias é a maior mentira que o jogo te conta por 20h de jogo e as próximas 20h são você descobrindo a força infinita e poderosa do espirito humano.
É, talvez, um dos jogos mais apaixonados, românticos e esperançosos que já joguei. Nunca vi uma obra acreditar tanto na redenção do ser humano, até daqueles que não tem e não merecem. Afirmar com certeza que nós devemos ser quem nós somos, para logo em seguida perguntar "ok mas será que isso é sempre verdade?".
Surpreendentemente é uma obras bem LGBTQ e toca em assuntos que a maioria dos jogos sequer tem coragem de falar e conseguiu ressoar comigo de uma forma impressionante. Eu me senti vista e compreendida e foi difícil não chorar nesses momentos. Eu não sei pelo que autor passou ou se ele conversou com pessoas trans como consultoria, mas o nível de compreensão além do obvio que ele demonstra vindo do protagonista me faz acreditar que ele não escreveu "apenas como ele acha que é". E, apesar de um aspecto especifico da história de Michel não ressoar tanto comigo e até parecer uma escapulida um pouco covarde ou normativa do autor, eu entendo que existem pessoas assim e a história delas é igualmente valida.
Alias quanto a Michel e todos os outros personagens, não há um que não seja excelente, incluindo os podres e péssimos. E apesar de ser um jogo bem sério, as pontadas de humor são tão perfeitas que eu dava risadas altas. É clichê, mas é um jogo que tem de tudo e se reinventa completamente a cada capitulo novo.
Sendo uma das visual novel japonesas que mais fizeram sucesso nos últimos tempos, consigo entender muito bem porque e recomendaria todo mundo a jogar, por mais que 40h de visual novel pareçam desgastantes.
Eu adoraria falar que The House in Fata Morgana é sobre tragédias, sobre a fraqueza do espirito humano e sobre como o mal vem até pra aqueles que não merecem. Mas isso seria uma mentira. Alias é a maior mentira que o jogo te conta por 20h de jogo e as próximas 20h são você descobrindo a força infinita e poderosa do espirito humano.
É, talvez, um dos jogos mais apaixonados, românticos e esperançosos que já joguei. Nunca vi uma obra acreditar tanto na redenção do ser humano, até daqueles que não tem e não merecem. Afirmar com certeza que nós devemos ser quem nós somos, para logo em seguida perguntar "ok mas será que isso é sempre verdade?".
Surpreendentemente é uma obras bem LGBTQ e toca em assuntos que a maioria dos jogos sequer tem coragem de falar e conseguiu ressoar comigo de uma forma impressionante. Eu me senti vista e compreendida e foi difícil não chorar nesses momentos. Eu não sei pelo que autor passou ou se ele conversou com pessoas trans como consultoria, mas o nível de compreensão além do obvio que ele demonstra vindo do protagonista me faz acreditar que ele não escreveu "apenas como ele acha que é". E, apesar de um aspecto especifico da história de Michel não ressoar tanto comigo e até parecer uma escapulida um pouco covarde ou normativa do autor, eu entendo que existem pessoas assim e a história delas é igualmente valida.
Alias quanto a Michel e todos os outros personagens, não há um que não seja excelente, incluindo os podres e péssimos. E apesar de ser um jogo bem sério, as pontadas de humor são tão perfeitas que eu dava risadas altas. É clichê, mas é um jogo que tem de tudo e se reinventa completamente a cada capitulo novo.
Sendo uma das visual novel japonesas que mais fizeram sucesso nos últimos tempos, consigo entender muito bem porque e recomendaria todo mundo a jogar, por mais que 40h de visual novel pareçam desgastantes.
If you’ve talked to me about this game before, you already know how much I’ve loved the experience. The House in Fata Morgana is incredible. It being my first real introduction into visual novels, I can safely say that this is what got me into the genre in the first place, and what showed me how incredibly poignant and beautiful titles within this space can be.
I wasn’t really a fan of the visual novel genre before playing this title. I had played through 999 with a group of friends beforehand, but apart from that I had no experience with the genre whatsoever. The House in Fata Morgana changed that. Within the span of a year, I went from knowing little about visual novels to the medium becoming one of my favorite video game genres, and that’s all thanks to my time with The House in Fata Morgana. I think it’s safe to say that if you’re at all curious about visual novels, The House in Fata Morgana is the best starting point you could possibly ask for.
I can’t stress enough just how The House in Fata Morgana resonated with me. This title excels with its queer representation, in a way that feels authentic and genuine. Out of every video game I’ve played so far, nothing has ever made me feel as seen and represented as this game does.
I won’t say too much regarding the narrative of The House in Fata Morgana. I think it’s best to go into this game as blindly as possible, but I do hope what I’ve said thus far has at least convinced you to give this game a fair chance. There is one thing that I will say, however.
Recently, with a group of friends, I reread The House in Fata Morgana for the second time. And after having read through other visual novels such as Higurashi and Umineko, I’m a little less enamored with this title than I was the first time I had read it through. That’s not to say that I think this game is now bad having read other visual novels, just that it isn’t as far up in my top 10 games as it once was. With that said however, The House in Fata Morgana is still easily one of my favorite games of all time, and easily a must play.
This game is practically a religious experience. I implore you, even if you aren’t currently a massive fan of the visual novel genre, to check this title out. The House in Fata Morgana is not something you’ll want to skip.
I wasn’t really a fan of the visual novel genre before playing this title. I had played through 999 with a group of friends beforehand, but apart from that I had no experience with the genre whatsoever. The House in Fata Morgana changed that. Within the span of a year, I went from knowing little about visual novels to the medium becoming one of my favorite video game genres, and that’s all thanks to my time with The House in Fata Morgana. I think it’s safe to say that if you’re at all curious about visual novels, The House in Fata Morgana is the best starting point you could possibly ask for.
I can’t stress enough just how The House in Fata Morgana resonated with me. This title excels with its queer representation, in a way that feels authentic and genuine. Out of every video game I’ve played so far, nothing has ever made me feel as seen and represented as this game does.
I won’t say too much regarding the narrative of The House in Fata Morgana. I think it’s best to go into this game as blindly as possible, but I do hope what I’ve said thus far has at least convinced you to give this game a fair chance. There is one thing that I will say, however.
Recently, with a group of friends, I reread The House in Fata Morgana for the second time. And after having read through other visual novels such as Higurashi and Umineko, I’m a little less enamored with this title than I was the first time I had read it through. That’s not to say that I think this game is now bad having read other visual novels, just that it isn’t as far up in my top 10 games as it once was. With that said however, The House in Fata Morgana is still easily one of my favorite games of all time, and easily a must play.
This game is practically a religious experience. I implore you, even if you aren’t currently a massive fan of the visual novel genre, to check this title out. The House in Fata Morgana is not something you’ll want to skip.
Multiple people I know call this the best visual novel ever written. While I expected hyperbole like that to lead to some backlash, I still trusted their tastes enough to give it a try. And boy am I glad I did. It starts off as a relative slowburn, but those sections are still well-constructed, and the structure of the plot both demands and justifies it. And then every time you think you don't really see what the big deal is, something hits. "Oh, so that's why people love this game... Ehh, but still..." and then something else hits. And then something else. It just keeps building up, going further and further, captivating me more and more, tackling subjects I never would have expected.
On top of the incredibly heartfelt story, the game also has striking visuals and an enchantingly distinctive soundtrack.
On top of the incredibly heartfelt story, the game also has striking visuals and an enchantingly distinctive soundtrack.
Fata stans when Door 3 ost 💃💃💃
- The best story I have ever played through
- The best soundtrack I've heard in a game (NieR Automata has higher peaks, but Fata Morgana has more songs in general and they're equally as fantastic)
- The art that looks the most beautiful to me.
- The best romance, in fact the TWO best romances
- Some of the most charismatic characters
This visual novel is a flawless 100/100, and I will never forget about it.
- The best soundtrack I've heard in a game (NieR Automata has higher peaks, but Fata Morgana has more songs in general and they're equally as fantastic)
- The art that looks the most beautiful to me.
- The best romance, in fact the TWO best romances
- Some of the most charismatic characters
This visual novel is a flawless 100/100, and I will never forget about it.