Seventh Lair is a weird one, and honestly I'm still kinda conflicted about a lot of it, but overall I think it does more that I like compared to some of the questionable stuff. This was released as an "April Fools game" so I don't really think it's worth getting too up in arms about it, but I don't think this being a spin-off of The house in Fata Morgana is really doing it any favors. For a bit I was kinda worried it would try to tie itself into the Fata Morgana in some canonical way, but thankfully it's made clear by the end that this is just an AU, so I'm cool with some of the cast being out of character, considering they're just depictions of the original cast.

The writing has some low points, particularly I don't care much for all the Isekai stuff, the music in those sections kinda such, and most of the jokes are pretty generic, and also MAN did they do the Yukimasa proxy here dirty, it's honestly really dirty just how watered down his character has become, so yeah that part didn't really do it for me, and it's a shame how much time it takes up though.

With all of that said though, I weirdly ended up kinda loving this? While not touching upon them much, I adore how this game tackles struggles many people struggle with in the internet age, from loneliness, to hiding behind a mask, to gender dysphoria, it's really cool getting to see that kinda thing in a visual novel like this, and I particularly really resonated with the struggles of the main character struggling to find a planform and desperately wanting people to actually invest themselves in his art, he knows that in the vast reaches of the internet it's pretty much impossible, but also that some people HAVE succeeded, and that jealousy really hit dangerously close to home for me. It all comes to ahead with the final twist and the sequence thereafter, which was heartbreaking as hell. Keika Hanada ones again proves themselves to be the undisputed king of tragedies, and the one here is unironically almost up to par with some of Fata Morgana's best, which for an "April Fool's game" is insane. I do kinda wish they would've made a specific song kinda bad on purpose, that would've hit REALLY hard I feel, but still I get the vision, and it end up great in my opinion.

So yeah this is still kind of a really weird one, but I enjoyed enough of what it did to think it was worth my time, and I can't wait to see what Novectacle has in store for us in the future!