1 review liked by TheHannieCorner


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've 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 one of the best which is aptly called The House in Fata Morgana.

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. 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 interesting scenarios that would have happened if said choice was chosen.

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.