Well I promised I would do a review of this visual novel quite a while ago and believe it or not I only just got around to finishing it. If the fellow who requested it is still here then here you go, I kept my word. Anyway it has been a while since my last game review and I have been itching to cover more visual novels on this site. What better way to jump back into the fray than with The house in Fata Morgana made by Novectacle in 2012(2010 if you consider the trail version) but recently localised by Mangagamer and published on Steam on May of this year. Now this game is a strange beast for a Visual novel. Usually a VN has a main protagonist who lives in Japan and has a number of female friends who act as alternate routes and stories depending on who you choose to partner up with. Fata Morgana doesn’t have that and just in case you were thinking it, it’s not an Otome novel either. (AKA, what i just described but with male friends) Instead what we have here is a visual novel set in the west forgoing the usual anime style for a more comic book/gothic portrait style with a story that is akin to anthology of tragedy tales. For those concerned about censorship, there is none here as this game was all ages, meaning it holds no pornographic content. Don’t take that to mean that it isn’t dark or gory because I can assure you that is most certainly not the case. In a world where in the vast majority of cases you primary concern is choosing your first waifu, this game sticks out and very much in a good way. Don’t take it that I consider visual novels to be generally trash, this is more like the anime industry were for very interesting title you have a truckload of terrible fanservice fantasy harem battle anime. Only difference here is that unlike the anime industry, the dozens of visual titles coming out are not all translated, leaving potential greats sitting in the visual novel database unread due to no English translation. As a prime example, Baldr Sky which has held a spot in the top 5 visual novels of all time in VNDB since 2009 is only just now getting an English translation. It honestly pains me when i think of the numerous potential great titles which escape my grasp due to a lack of a translation. But alas let us move on.
This story starts with someone making there way to a Maison and then being greeted by a woman known only as “The maid”. You seem to have lost your memory and the maid wishes to help you get it back by showing you four tales of tragedy. Walking around a ghostly ethereal mansion which seems to exist outside the boundaries of time and space you watch four stories of tragedy unfold behind four doors. All stories use the mansion as it’s setting but where the Maison is depends on the story. Sometimes it’s near a seaside town and sometimes it’s in America during the industrial revolution. The first tale is about a boy and his close sister whom find trouble when the boy takes an interest in a maid hired at the Mansion. The second tale involves a beast that makes it way to the mansion and struggles to deal with it’s feral urges to kill. The third is a tale of a businessman and his wife who are struggling with a difficult relationship. The fourth about a girl and a cursed man living at an abandoned mansion. All the stories deal with love in some form or another but equally they all hold the same weakness. Namely that the tragedy is too predictable. Each story does attempt to throw in an unexpected twist to spice things up but ultimately each of these stories lacks a real defining impact. Not to say they are bad as they the stories themselves are decent and at parts great. However some factors bring them down. One is the music which the game is quite proud of to a level when it is recommended at the beginning to wear headphones. I agree that the music is quite great but the songs are divided between each story due to they all taking place in different time periods. As a result instead of making use of the full soundtrack, a select few songs are played over and over. No matter how good the songs, repetition can kill their impact. Another factor is the backgrounds which look to be a compromise between the highly detailed character sprites or just a poor artistic decision. The backgrounds are given an abstract painted effect which while I understand the intent, makes it like they took some photos and ran them through a photoshop filter. In contrast to the highly detailed sprites they just don’t look all that interesting. On the matter of sprites as well, only a select few in the story are given character sprites which often hints at the major players of the tale and leaves side characters without sprites feeling one dimensional and unimportant. Another factor is the maid at times stops telling the story to give her opinion on the events like commentary which I always found took me out of the tale.
From best to worst the tales rank like this. The second tale, the third tale, the fourth tale and the first tale is undeniable the worst. The first tale suffers from giving away its intended path far too early and the rest of the story is a slow paced awkward love story with fairly uninteresting characters. It’s final climax is also a lot more disappointing considering the build up it’s given. The second tale has a good twist and acts as a grim story of man vs nature. Though it does contain some of the most graphic violence of the stories, though none of it is shown. Those descriptions do sound rather nasty though. The third tale can get a bit irritating due to the nature of it’s story but makes up for it with a fairly good finale and the catchiest music. The fourth tale is the most straightforward of the rest but is a decent story. However what makes it quite interesting is the nature of the story itself. While playing through the fourth tale I read too quickly and decided to check the backlog to see what dialogue I missed. To my surprise while i was reading a conversation between two people, in the backlog two other people were having an entirely different conversation that I was completely unaware of. Take my advice on this and keep an eye on the backlog while reading the fourth tale as it brings certain light on it. Now each story takes three hours to complete and at the end you are given two choices and reach the end of the game. At this point my verdict on Fata Morgana would be between a 6/10 and 7/10. It’s fairly unique as a visual novel and boast a distinct art style with some fairly interesting stories. But it’s too predictable and the interchanging cast doesn’t give much time to grow attached before moving on. The only constant is the character of the white haired girl whose personality wildly changes with each story.
However despite each story taking me three hours to complete, why is it that it took me thirty hours to complete the game? Well the reason for that is that while there is an ending after the four tales, it is not the true ending. In fact if you were to stop there you would be missing over half the content of the game and the real meat of the story this game has to offer. You may be surprised as I have been speaking very negatively of this game so far but there is a reason why that rating at the top is in the 80 range and I would be willing to push that higher. For I was truly surprised when this story changed from serviceable to very good. Nay, great. For a simple guide to unlock the third choice after the fourth door here is a piece of advice. Whenever the game gives you a chance to do something, do it. Though there really aren’t many choices in the first half of the game, for choices can only be made by the main character who gains presence in the second half of the game. With that a lot of the problems of the first half are removed as the soundtrack gets more diverse, the cast is more constant thus allowing for them to get more developed and the anthology format is done away with for a ongoing plot which deals with the very nature of the house. I must say that plot is quite something, I never seen anything like it. It gave a connection to the previously unconnected four stories and when I thought I had figured it all out, the story turns everything on it’s head. Then when I thought I had figured that out the story once again changes everything with a new revelation, bringing an entirely different meaning to previous events. Having been underwhelmed by the game’s first half, this came as a pleasant surprise that made up for the lackluster aspects.
It’s a pity I can’t go into detail as that would be spoiling it but to vaguely allude to why this second half works so well. It deals with adult complex issues like identity and masterfully sways between hope and tragedy as our protagonist struggles to the real ending. Of course it isn’t all perfect as there are still issues with the second half as well. Parts of it go over the same events and side characters remain rather one dimensional and sometimes outright demonized for the sake of tragedy. The final chapter can get overly preachy and drag at points. There was a plot point involving the white haired girl that felt overly convoluted, contrived and when placed under scrutiny doesn’t quite make sense. And while this isn’t really the fault of the writing but I happened to lose my save files randomly just right before the end of the game. An isolated incident likely and in the end I managed to recover my save files by creating saves in game and overwriting them with my saves on the steam cloud. Also at times characters can use modern slang which could be a translation issue and not a problem with the original writing. It’s not a deal breaker but it’s strange to hear someone from the 1100s saying they will get their game face on. However despite that I will say that this story is not like any other and can really be powerfully moving when it wants to.
So in conclusion, Fata Morgana is a visual novel that requires patience and getting through 12 hours of decent tragedy tales to reach a truly compelling story of hate, love, guilt, consequence, acceptance and hardship. If you give it time, Fata Morgana will not disappoint but of course not all of us have thirty hours to spare on a visual novel. The length of time it took to get this review out is evidence to that though I certainly can say I don’t regret reading Fata Morgana. In fact I am going to have to put aside time to read it’s fandisc material which Mangagamer is currently translating. The music is atmospheric and haunting though it does overuse choirs. The artstyle, particularly on the event CGs, is fantastic and while the interface does lack a skip to choice option and could be more intuitive, it does the job. If you are a fan of visual novels and have the time to spare I do highly recommend this title as it certainly has climbed into my favorites list
