I am not alone in this empty blood ocean

Horror has been a beloved genre for millions of people for a century now and that can also be said with video games. A great horror game will make you think about it for a couple hours after you finish it, it will send you into a depressing vegetative state and i can't think of anything that has done something like that in recent time other than Iron Lung. You see, for years i have played so many horror games from many different titles and what i can learn from those experiences is that horror can really expose the fear that every person have. Fear of dark, fear of enclosed space, fear of deep sea, fear of loud noises, fear of blood, these are just an example that horror genre used often for so long. But there is one fear that i think most people couldn't stand or dealt with and that is the fear of the unknown.

Short but powerful, that is a sentence that i can describe Iron Lung. It set in an ocean of blood on an alien moon in the wake of the “Quiet Rapture," which is one of the scariest description for an apocalypse i've ever seen, an event which saw the disappearance of every lifeform in the universe with the exception of people living on autonomous space stations. After every known star and planet in the universe disappears, the last remnants of humanity send a prisoner, namely you as the player to the depth of this strange moon covered in a sea of ​​blood to explore what secrets may lie beneath its surface in a submarine. And you never know what is inside of the moon. The only thing you see is the inside of the small submarine you have welded together, and the low resolution images you can take of the inside.

The gameplay might be simple but it is what makes the game more intense and scarier which makes me more appreciate it. You navigate the ocean by adjusting your bearing, and forward velocity via a simple interface. You press the right button on your console to turn right, and the left button to turn left. You press the forward button to go forward, and the backward facing button to go backwards. It is simple, and slow. Your camera is controlled by a button at the back of your ship. To see where you are going you have to turn around and walk away from your controls. This means that, when you hear a thud outside your ship, there is a significant delay between the sound and your ability to take a photo of what made that noise. The photographs take a moment to develop and the delay makes me crazy, sick, feelings that i have not feel before with horror games because you are not alone in the craters of this impossibly alive, alien moon.

That aspect of Iron Lung is what keeps me still thinking and put me in state that i have never experience before in my life. A simple tension that comes from blindly navigating your sub, constantly looking at the map to try to figure out what you are to make sure you don’t crash your sub. It’s a finicky process, but focusing on the little things does a great job of lulling you into a rhythm and keeping you from bracing yourself for surprises. It keeps you busy with all the numbers and navigation controls that sometimes can messes you up. There are moments where you’re looking at the map and you feel like you shouldn’t be close to a wall, but for some reason, your motion sensor starts beeping at you. Do you have your calculations wrong, or could it be something else?

Even more so than most horror games, Iron Lung builds tension through exceptional sound design. Your ship is thick with the noise of the ocean, the thud of cave walls and the sound of blood (thick) moving around your ship. The sounds of the ocean around you range from mundane to worrying as you begin to suspect there are creatures out there that you have no way of seeing.

After i read the intro text states that there’s no time to train the prisoner on the operation of the sub before launch, i was certain that I was going to die. Whether it be from a lack of oxygen, or the crushing pressure, or some impossible thing in the blood water, didn’t actually matter. I knew I would die. Which meant the assumption of death, and horror, lurks around every corner. Every thud against the ship’s hull became colored by death. Every ruptured pneumatic pipe, a signal that my time was up. And of course the screen that showed you everything that you don't want to know about the moon.

Iron Lung is a game that evokes the end of a broken world, one defined by cruel systems which we built foolishly. Your investigation, and your focus, are cruel pantomimes of an attempt at a better future. It is an inevitable failure, and an execution. In most horror games, there's at least a hope that'll make it out alive and return to normalcy, but in Iron Lung there is no normalcy to return to.

Well well well we are back yet again with the path of depression and if you think in my last review The House in Fata Morgana is a painful, heartbreaking journey then the prequel, A Requiem for Innocence doubles all of those emotions that you experienced when playing the base game and it's very very worth it to play after you finish the base game.

A Requiem for Innocence primarily focuses on the backstory and relationship between Jacopo and Morgana, delved into much deeper detail of their relationship that the original game briefly explained in their earlier days before the tragedy we know too well befalls them. Basically retelling of what happened during the last door in the main game not including Michel’s meddling with Morgana’s memories, but things as they happened before Morgana turned into the witch that tormented those around her for around a thousand years.

The character growth and ultimate destruction of Jacopo is another highlight of A Requiem for Innocence. It’s also amazing to see how so many characters could have changed things massively for the better if only they’d taken the opportunity to do so. In many ways, this is an incredibly heartbreaking tale, and absolutely should not be missed. It’s so painful and heartbreaking to see Jacopo come so, so close to being a great man and to have that just thrown away, bit by bit, by a combination of short-sightedness, misunderstandings, and a sense of desperate self-preservation. However it does help the reader to understand his character a bit more although sympathy is less felt than disappointment in his actions. It really is like a snowball effect where all these little mistakes accumulate little by little and before he knows it, he’s on the path of no return.

When I see Jacopo and Morgana's story, I can't help but feel like this is the most interesting interpretation of the "Beauty and Beast" story. Jacopo stared off as a good person, but power corrupted him. However, his feelings for Morgana are genuine and sweet. Enough to make him lament his actions to the point of near self-destruction. After living through three lives, he earns the chance to fulfil the promise he made to Morgana all those years ago. Morgana, despite having been hurt so badly by Jacopo's actions, learned compassion from Michel which lead her to save Jacopo from his self-inflicted curse. Even though she never forgave him, she remembered who he was and could still be. In the last life, she still couldn't bring herself to forgive him, but she saw that he was no longer the man seeking fame and fortune anymore. He was the man she saw before. the man who was kind to her in his own way. Who cared for her despite her childish antics, who would followed her through hail and rain to stay by her side. Together, they overcame their own flaws and personal herdles, and came out as better people thanks to the efforts and effects of the other. And the best part, we as the reader see it as it happens slowly, no snapshot redemptions, no instant forgiveness. Just two people working their way through life.

On top all of that you get a bonus chapter called 'Fragment' which just breaks your soul ten times more and what i like from Fragment is that Jacopo is a lot more forward in his feelings for her and fucking hell it’s just so heartwrenching because it makes me think of what “could have been” had they sat down and expressed their feelings openly towards one another. And just like the base game, once you have completed the game the main title screen changed, it is just perfect down to the last minute detail.

To Jacopo and Morgana i'm wishing nothing but happiness in your next life.

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.