̶I̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶b̶e̶g̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶b̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶f̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶
Honestly, I don't get the hype.
The story on paper had some cool ideas and twists, but it is told in the most long-winded and slowest way possible. Even beyond the 20 hour long "prologue", the rest of it has atrocious pacing, every time the story gets going it has to reset and start a new vignette and delete any momentum that existed, I just could not stand that. The prose was supposed to be beautiful and evocative, but honestly it reads like an average novel, when it's not bogged down by repetitive and saccarine dialogues, at least. The translation's amazing tho. I couldn't connect to most of the characters personally, in the end it all turned out to be one giant trauma porn interconnected blob and that's just not my vibe.
The art and music slap so hard though, only part of the game I really enjoyed. I'm just kind of sad I can't connect positive memories with that beatiful soundtrack.
So yeah, get the writer an editor, shave off like 40% of this game's useless dialogues and maybe you get a decent story.
Honestly, I don't get the hype.
The story on paper had some cool ideas and twists, but it is told in the most long-winded and slowest way possible. Even beyond the 20 hour long "prologue", the rest of it has atrocious pacing, every time the story gets going it has to reset and start a new vignette and delete any momentum that existed, I just could not stand that. The prose was supposed to be beautiful and evocative, but honestly it reads like an average novel, when it's not bogged down by repetitive and saccarine dialogues, at least. The translation's amazing tho. I couldn't connect to most of the characters personally, in the end it all turned out to be one giant trauma porn interconnected blob and that's just not my vibe.
The art and music slap so hard though, only part of the game I really enjoyed. I'm just kind of sad I can't connect positive memories with that beatiful soundtrack.
So yeah, get the writer an editor, shave off like 40% of this game's useless dialogues and maybe you get a decent story.
House in Fata Morgana often appears on many best visual novel lists, praised for its narrative and writing
Being a fan of more adventure infused VN’s (Ace attorney & Danganronpa, etc) - The House in Fata Morgana is more truly a novel, with limited dialog options and interaction throughout its run time.
Narratively, house is data Morgana is truly twisted and affecting - despite running out a little bit of steam in its final act
Being a fan of more adventure infused VN’s (Ace attorney & Danganronpa, etc) - The House in Fata Morgana is more truly a novel, with limited dialog options and interaction throughout its run time.
Narratively, house is data Morgana is truly twisted and affecting - despite running out a little bit of steam in its final act
With a rating of 4.5, I expected something groundbreaking. What I got was an above-average story with below-average drawings. The ost was indeed amazing and perfectly set the mood for every new story. I personally would have preferred it to end after Door 4 maybe 5. The last 3 doors kind of dragged themself and I just wanted to be done with it, the first 3 doors were amazing on the other hand.
Overall it may be an amazing visual novel, I can't decide that since it's pretty much my first vn, but if you are looking for a good game because of the rating you are at the wrong address. You will be reading corny dialogues for at least 35 hours straight.
Overall it may be an amazing visual novel, I can't decide that since it's pretty much my first vn, but if you are looking for a good game because of the rating you are at the wrong address. You will be reading corny dialogues for at least 35 hours straight.
I knew little about this visual novel and I'm thankful I wasn't spoiled. The storytelling is absolutely done well. I only had an understanding this was a mature VN. There are warnings of triggering subjects when you load the game. It is necessary since there are many, many instances of depressing, awful events. The only slight negative following the story was watching the series of inhumane events happening to the characters. Thankfully, it does balance out with kind, sweet moments.
The music is beautiful and haunting. All of the characters are well rounded; the antagonists show moments of humanity. Not an easy task when you're creating people doing monstrous acts. I am most impressed how the writers handled trauma. Most media shows a character suffered for either plot device or to "make them stronger." This game had discussions of how the characters processed their trauma. It is a very important topic, especially considering the actions and events they went through. Not something you could merely brush off.
A Requiem for Innocence:
The prequel focused on one character you meet in the main game. It's entirely in their point of view. The majority of this DLC is nothing new. If you played The House in Fata Morgana, you know who this is and you know what's going to happen. Thus the downside of prequels, especially in this case. Sadly I was bored by the first half, I kept putting off reading this for weeks. It's the same story, only more detailed.
The later half is more interesting because it is new information. There are two new characters that add background for the main character here. But in the end, it's a prequel. You know the entire time what is going to happen. The saving grace is the quality of this VN. The illustrations, the storytelling, and extremely well written characters.
Reincarnation + Stories:
This was the DLC chapter I was craving for Fata Morgana. Instead of the previous prequel, it is a continuation of the story. I don't want to spoil anything; just know, it's so, so good. I cried twice. This game is going to stay with me for years. Hands down, the best VN I have ever experienced. It is very dark and depressing; however, the ending made it all worth it.
The first ten hours was Reincarnation. The other ten was reading the side stories. There are extra backstory scenes for different characters, including some minor. Most do not have new illustrations to go with the text. There were a couple chapters I have read that weren't on the main menu. I found them through chapter selection. Those were very worth reading! Fantastic game.
The music is beautiful and haunting. All of the characters are well rounded; the antagonists show moments of humanity. Not an easy task when you're creating people doing monstrous acts. I am most impressed how the writers handled trauma. Most media shows a character suffered for either plot device or to "make them stronger." This game had discussions of how the characters processed their trauma. It is a very important topic, especially considering the actions and events they went through. Not something you could merely brush off.
A Requiem for Innocence:
The prequel focused on one character you meet in the main game. It's entirely in their point of view. The majority of this DLC is nothing new. If you played The House in Fata Morgana, you know who this is and you know what's going to happen. Thus the downside of prequels, especially in this case. Sadly I was bored by the first half, I kept putting off reading this for weeks. It's the same story, only more detailed.
The later half is more interesting because it is new information. There are two new characters that add background for the main character here. But in the end, it's a prequel. You know the entire time what is going to happen. The saving grace is the quality of this VN. The illustrations, the storytelling, and extremely well written characters.
Reincarnation + Stories:
This was the DLC chapter I was craving for Fata Morgana. Instead of the previous prequel, it is a continuation of the story. I don't want to spoil anything; just know, it's so, so good. I cried twice. This game is going to stay with me for years. Hands down, the best VN I have ever experienced. It is very dark and depressing; however, the ending made it all worth it.
The first ten hours was Reincarnation. The other ten was reading the side stories. There are extra backstory scenes for different characters, including some minor. Most do not have new illustrations to go with the text. There were a couple chapters I have read that weren't on the main menu. I found them through chapter selection. Those were very worth reading! Fantastic game.
This is the greatest visual novel ever written. Yes, that includes Umineko. You are doing yourself a disservice by not playing Fata Morgana. Do it. Treat yourself.
This review contains spoilers
This review contains spoilers for the original Fata Morgana, as well as Requiem for Innocence.
TL;DR:
Base Fata — 5/10
Requiem — 7.5/10
——————————————————————————————————
The original Fata Morgana VN has a nice artstyle, presentation and soundtrack, but is shallow in terms of themes and characterisation, in my opinion. Not only are characters sometimes defined solely by one emotion in doors 1-3, which eventually get recontextualised (ex. Maria in door 3 or everyone in door 2, and I don't care about recontextualisation here, it doesn't improve the door's quality for me), but even in doors that recall the pasts of the first versions of Jacopo, Morgana and company, as well as Michel and Giselle, this is still the case. There's a lot of tragedy porn there that feels like an outside force trying to make every situation that was already bad as bad as possible. In the case of doors 1-3 this is literally the case due to reincarnation, but in the cases of doors 5-7, it sure isn't. The villagers living next to Michel's mansion host Giselle, but of course they also become cult-like and organise a witch hunt on her, framing her as a scapegoat, including a guy who was nice to her now being mad because she didn't marry him. Michel's brothers are the only people to keep defending Michel, but of course the elder brother emotionlessly kills Michel. Morgana's backstory is appropriately tragic for the most part, considering it's a witch that haunted a mansion for centuries out of vengeance, though. But overall, it's very distracting, and it feels like the VN is trying to overemphasise to the reader how tragic it is and that they should start being sad right about now. Eventually, the VN does try to talk about how there are various sides to human beings (mostly in regards to how Yukimasa, Jacopo and Mell saw the events that led to Morgana's suffering), but nothing of the sort is done for the aforementioned villagers or the genuinely psychopathic Aimee, besides a short mention of how Michel thought that people would miss her if something happened to her and how she has various sides to her like everyone, but the VN didn't make it very believable. In general, I don't really feel like there was much subtlety in regards to characters and themes until door 8.
Doors 1-3 are very mediocre, which also ties into a bit of a tangent. You often see people who really love Fata say that "it isn't like other VNs", but starting slow with mediocrity which later leads to something much better is a classic VN experience. Having a gothic artstyle, as well as a gothic/cinematic/"fancy" soundtrack, instead of a more obviously anime one doesn't make it less true. Hell, the door 8 ending is "the VN ending of all time" if I've ever seen one. And speaking of "fanciness", Fata definitely wants you to think that it's not like other VNs or is fancy, given how the reader is almost intended to be trained like Pavlov's dog with how Giselle or Move the Time play every time there is an intended emotional moment. Fata Morgana felt like it was telling me to "please care" very often. You can also see this with how it often doesn't even use the VN medium to its advantage, acting like a book, with relatively long and frequent sections that have a static background with no sprites and just NVL text. Additionally, the VN sometimes pats itself on the back for how terrible and unexpected things are, even though I found a lot of the "twists" to be extremely predictable and not very shocking.
I have great respect for tastefully depicting explicitly LGBT characters, though. It isn't the usual "ummmm we're both girls, why are we kissing!?" anime moment that you usually see.
——————————————————————————————————
A quick detour before the part I care the most about, but I also read the short stories that I believe were required to unlock the final RFI ending. One of them featured Imeon, and the other was the Michel/GIselle modern date after story.
Imeon is a cool character in theory, but the story bashes the reader over the head with what it's trying to say in its message, in such an unsubtle manner, that it was unenjoyable. It repeatedly might as well have said "hey, Imeon is a parallel to Michel. Do you see it? They're similar."
The date after-story was pointless. It was like something out of a generic fandisc. I think the main story ended well in door 8, and having a generic Michel/Giselle date was not a useful addition. Additionally, they gave Michel a genital organ so that he could have sex with Giselle in the modern times, which is terrible IMO because we had a nice non-sexual romance for once. What will the asexual, transgender and intersex readers think about this? I get that it's kind of a reward for the couple, but still, I wish they would've kept this as an example of a non-sexual romance that various people could look up to.
EDIT: Some of this opinion may be affected by a mistaken interpretation of mine of that after-story date between Michel and Giselle. I have yet to receive 100% confirmation on whether Michel is still intersex after the main story ends, so take this part with a grain of salt.
——————————————————————————————————
Requiem for Innocence was a major improvement for me, and is undoubtedly my favourite part of Fata. Jacopo being a pedophile is weird and disgusting to read (and the VN doesn't even address it tastefully enough??? Why are Maria and his other friends not calling him out more, and why is he "waiting until she turns 16"??? What was even the point of making Jacopo a pedo in the story that couldn't be done another way, anyways?), but everything else is much better for me. Most of my favourites in the soundtrack are from RFI, and Jacopo and Morgana in RFI are my favourite characters in the entire story.
They go into more depth with the multiple POVs thing between Morgana, Jacopo, Mell and Yukimasa, as well as Maria. Jacopo is a layered character, as he struggles with doing what he thinks will benefit the most people, but eventually falls into despicable behaviour due to not knowing another way and unfortunate circumstances, among other reasons. Seeing this part of the story more fleshed out was mostly a joy to read. The real highlight though was the finale, where you have Jacopo (who communicates with Morgana through dialogue choices! Fata's actually using the medium to its advantage now) and Morgana being in a field, ending with the quote:
"Rather than showing you the world,
one day—
someday—
I'd like to bring you somewhere
where your body and spirit can rest easy.
Not as atonement for my sins...
but because I want to see it too."
And that is amazing. Definitely one of the more impactful endings I've seen in a visual novel. I also like how it doesn't go the standard route of Morgana simply going "uh, I actually fully forgive you and love you too!" (and thank God for that not happening, that would be creepy), and instead goes with a complex resolution to the two characters' history.
Overall, if someone wasn't all that impressed with the original, I would highly recommend reading RFI, and if one is already a Fata fan, it is a must-read.
TL;DR:
Base Fata — 5/10
Requiem — 7.5/10
——————————————————————————————————
The original Fata Morgana VN has a nice artstyle, presentation and soundtrack, but is shallow in terms of themes and characterisation, in my opinion. Not only are characters sometimes defined solely by one emotion in doors 1-3, which eventually get recontextualised (ex. Maria in door 3 or everyone in door 2, and I don't care about recontextualisation here, it doesn't improve the door's quality for me), but even in doors that recall the pasts of the first versions of Jacopo, Morgana and company, as well as Michel and Giselle, this is still the case. There's a lot of tragedy porn there that feels like an outside force trying to make every situation that was already bad as bad as possible. In the case of doors 1-3 this is literally the case due to reincarnation, but in the cases of doors 5-7, it sure isn't. The villagers living next to Michel's mansion host Giselle, but of course they also become cult-like and organise a witch hunt on her, framing her as a scapegoat, including a guy who was nice to her now being mad because she didn't marry him. Michel's brothers are the only people to keep defending Michel, but of course the elder brother emotionlessly kills Michel. Morgana's backstory is appropriately tragic for the most part, considering it's a witch that haunted a mansion for centuries out of vengeance, though. But overall, it's very distracting, and it feels like the VN is trying to overemphasise to the reader how tragic it is and that they should start being sad right about now. Eventually, the VN does try to talk about how there are various sides to human beings (mostly in regards to how Yukimasa, Jacopo and Mell saw the events that led to Morgana's suffering), but nothing of the sort is done for the aforementioned villagers or the genuinely psychopathic Aimee, besides a short mention of how Michel thought that people would miss her if something happened to her and how she has various sides to her like everyone, but the VN didn't make it very believable. In general, I don't really feel like there was much subtlety in regards to characters and themes until door 8.
Doors 1-3 are very mediocre, which also ties into a bit of a tangent. You often see people who really love Fata say that "it isn't like other VNs", but starting slow with mediocrity which later leads to something much better is a classic VN experience. Having a gothic artstyle, as well as a gothic/cinematic/"fancy" soundtrack, instead of a more obviously anime one doesn't make it less true. Hell, the door 8 ending is "the VN ending of all time" if I've ever seen one. And speaking of "fanciness", Fata definitely wants you to think that it's not like other VNs or is fancy, given how the reader is almost intended to be trained like Pavlov's dog with how Giselle or Move the Time play every time there is an intended emotional moment. Fata Morgana felt like it was telling me to "please care" very often. You can also see this with how it often doesn't even use the VN medium to its advantage, acting like a book, with relatively long and frequent sections that have a static background with no sprites and just NVL text. Additionally, the VN sometimes pats itself on the back for how terrible and unexpected things are, even though I found a lot of the "twists" to be extremely predictable and not very shocking.
I have great respect for tastefully depicting explicitly LGBT characters, though. It isn't the usual "ummmm we're both girls, why are we kissing!?" anime moment that you usually see.
——————————————————————————————————
A quick detour before the part I care the most about, but I also read the short stories that I believe were required to unlock the final RFI ending. One of them featured Imeon, and the other was the Michel/GIselle modern date after story.
Imeon is a cool character in theory, but the story bashes the reader over the head with what it's trying to say in its message, in such an unsubtle manner, that it was unenjoyable. It repeatedly might as well have said "hey, Imeon is a parallel to Michel. Do you see it? They're similar."
The date after-story was pointless. It was like something out of a generic fandisc. I think the main story ended well in door 8, and having a generic Michel/Giselle date was not a useful addition. Additionally, they gave Michel a genital organ so that he could have sex with Giselle in the modern times, which is terrible IMO because we had a nice non-sexual romance for once. What will the asexual, transgender and intersex readers think about this? I get that it's kind of a reward for the couple, but still, I wish they would've kept this as an example of a non-sexual romance that various people could look up to.
EDIT: Some of this opinion may be affected by a mistaken interpretation of mine of that after-story date between Michel and Giselle. I have yet to receive 100% confirmation on whether Michel is still intersex after the main story ends, so take this part with a grain of salt.
——————————————————————————————————
Requiem for Innocence was a major improvement for me, and is undoubtedly my favourite part of Fata. Jacopo being a pedophile is weird and disgusting to read (and the VN doesn't even address it tastefully enough??? Why are Maria and his other friends not calling him out more, and why is he "waiting until she turns 16"??? What was even the point of making Jacopo a pedo in the story that couldn't be done another way, anyways?), but everything else is much better for me. Most of my favourites in the soundtrack are from RFI, and Jacopo and Morgana in RFI are my favourite characters in the entire story.
They go into more depth with the multiple POVs thing between Morgana, Jacopo, Mell and Yukimasa, as well as Maria. Jacopo is a layered character, as he struggles with doing what he thinks will benefit the most people, but eventually falls into despicable behaviour due to not knowing another way and unfortunate circumstances, among other reasons. Seeing this part of the story more fleshed out was mostly a joy to read. The real highlight though was the finale, where you have Jacopo (who communicates with Morgana through dialogue choices! Fata's actually using the medium to its advantage now) and Morgana being in a field, ending with the quote:
"Rather than showing you the world,
one day—
someday—
I'd like to bring you somewhere
where your body and spirit can rest easy.
Not as atonement for my sins...
but because I want to see it too."
And that is amazing. Definitely one of the more impactful endings I've seen in a visual novel. I also like how it doesn't go the standard route of Morgana simply going "uh, I actually fully forgive you and love you too!" (and thank God for that not happening, that would be creepy), and instead goes with a complex resolution to the two characters' history.
Overall, if someone wasn't all that impressed with the original, I would highly recommend reading RFI, and if one is already a Fata fan, it is a must-read.
I went into this game thinking I could crack a few jokes at the expense of friends who enjoy visual novels. I come out the other side having been fundamentally changed as a person and reflecting on my own life and the experiences that got me where I am today. When this game was sitting at a 100 on metacritic, it should've stayed there, it is really that good.
Nice atmosphere and soundtrack, but I couldn't get invested in the story whatsoever. Last chapter was cool.
Finally finished the main game, it's one of the best things i've ever experienced, and probably the best game out there/on par with. And that's without even going through reincarnation and requiem, both of which are supposed to be amazing.
The ranking as for now:
Door 7
Door 6 Door 5
Door 8
Door 1
Door 3
Door 4
Door 2
The ranking as for now:
Door 7
Door 6 Door 5
Door 8
Door 1
Door 3
Door 4
Door 2
so i think i got through the main story, but then it somehow kept going... and i didn't bother as i felt the story had concluded. there's too much text here anyway, they could've made this story with fewer words. no need to drag it out. amazing OST.
Top 5 visual novels.
Slow start, but develops into an amazing story.
God tier OST
Slow start, but develops into an amazing story.
God tier OST
This is so very in my ballpark, so much so that about halfway through, I stopped being unbearably annoyed by the speech patterns (do not tell me that "oh yeah totally" is a normal thing for someone in a medieval setting to say) and just sorta sank into the story. This is my first VN, so I guess that's sorta setting the bar here? I wouldn't put it on my top ten list but I did really like it.
"Me too... I'll cherish this moment for as long as I live...
And I think... I can even feel kind of grateful... that I was born again into this world..."
And I think... I can even feel kind of grateful... that I was born again into this world..."
when 5 stars isn't enough...
In a game filled with tragedies the biggest one is that despite being the best writing and story I’ve ever experienced in a game I can never recommend it to someone because I’ll have to say with a straight face that it doesn’t get good until fifteen hours in…