This is a spin-off of the Fault series, presented as an in-universe children's book, and it immediately runs into the obvious paradox: a children's story written for an adult audience is no longer a children's story. But by claiming to be one it can get away with having a simple plot and a familiar moral at the end.

I would like to see an actual children's story played straight in visual novel form, because I don't think that's ever been done, but it wouldn't be fair to judge this for what it's not. It's very good at what it does.

(And if we want to get all rigorously high fantasy about it we can say the cultural expectations for children's stories in Magic Land tolerate horror imagery more than the real world, there I explained it away so you don't have to.)

Reviewed on Jan 05, 2020


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