Avaliações

• gamedeal user

  Apr 1, 2022

  Went into this expecting a neat, fun little story with some decent writing and comedy and was subsequently blown out of the water. Although it's not connected with The House in Fata Morgana in terms of plot, it definitely benefits from you having played that game (as well as spoils some sprites which could potentially spoil some bigger details in Fata Morgana), so I definitely recommend it to fans Fata Morgana. Took me about 3-4 hours to fully complete, but honestly I think the price is reasonable given how good it was. Also, if it's not too late, avoid reading any info on the game page. It won't totally ruin it but there's definitely a lot of things that are better experienced blind that the summary spoils.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2022

  had me ugly crying at 4 in the morning, 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Apr 1, 2022

  An emotional dive into the feelings behind game creators. Equal parts moving and funny, it resonated strongly with me as well as made me laugh out loud multiple times. Make sure to look at the Royaume Heven website after finishing the game! EDIT: Some things I belatedly thought to mention: -The content warnings are there for a reason so please take care of yourself reading this. It may look like a fun April Fool's game, but in true Fata Morgana fashion it gets very dark. This is why I suggest reading the website after the game, so you have something light to look at after such a harrowing journey! -The translation has quite a lot of issues. While overall it's well done, it doesn't look like it's been QC'd at all, and some translations read close to Google Translate. It's pretty disappointing, but still readable in my opinion. I guess, just don't go into this expecting a translation as good as the original game.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 1, 2023

  This game is not a joke

  It starts off silly, but it is anything but. Quite possibly the best Visual Novel I've ever experienced. Enjoyed it even better than The House in Fata Morgana. It re-uses sprites from that game, but think of it like what Majora's Mask is to Ocarina of Time. It subverts expectations really well. It explores raw emotions and despair, in the context of our interactions on the web. Extremely powerful stuff. Can't remember the last time I ugly-cried this much. The writing is so good, it can make an aromantic person understand, experience and appreciate the emotion "love". A lot of it was very relatable, too. I will never forget this experience as long as I live. Please do yourself a favor and read this novel, your future self will thank you for it.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 6, 2022

  Okay. Wow. Oh my god. What even. What the hell was this. This review will contain unmarked spoilers. I am going on a rant and I do not feel like putting the coding in for every single spoiler. Read at your own risk if you're considering getting this game--to which I say now, DON'T! This game has a great story. Super good. And I WOULD give it a thumbs up...IF IT HAD USED DIFFERENT CHARACTERS! For the love of god, Novect, WHY would you ruin your own characters like this?! Why would you take away their happy endings, the ones they suffered centuries for?! Yes, I am fully aware this is an April Fool's Day release, and it takes place in an alternate universe, but playing this game made me ANGRY! Why, why did you take these phenomenal characters and render them to pieces?! I could go a long time on everything that bothers me about this release, but it would be jumbled and I'm already struggling to form the words I'm writing now. But let's start with the positives for this game: It has great music. It has two different types of music, 8bit style songs and then the classic House in Fata Morgana songs. I thought the 8bit songs were loud, but the typical HIFM songs were great. My one issue with the music, though, is that one of the songs featured a creepy baby giggling the WHOLE time. I had to mute it after a few minutes. It was making my skin crawl. The other thing I liked was the character interactions in the earlier chapters of the game. Seeing Michel, Mel, and Nellie freak out in a graveyard about a big "GAME START" in the sky? Hilarious! Too bad it couldn't have lasted. Now the negatives: the story. As stated in the game description and in my review, this game is an alternate universe. However, I've never seen an AU stretch this far. The character changes HURT me, as such an ardent fan of the original game. To start with, Mell is not real. Nellie imagined him, and he appeared in the game as her "personal NPC." Two, Maria was changed completely, and I think mixed with a character I sort of remember from the "Requiem for Innocence" prequel game but would have to replay to know for sure. Could the gamemakers have not just...put the actual Imeon there? Imeon and Michel had a pretty neat sorta-friendship in the RFI side story. Why not give Maria a separate role? Three, Ukulele and Pauline really got shafted in this one. I've always considered their relationship to be the most toxic thing in this series, but it was really painful here. They were mostly unchanged from their originals, but they deserved better. (Also Pauline, you need to RUN from Ukulele!) Four, you get a few chapters called "The Life of a Creator", where you learn about AU Michel the game developer. I at the same time liked and hated these. With every sentence progressing, I was swinging between "Michel is so awkward and unlucky, I want him to be happy" to "MIchel is an incel." Yes. Incel. This is not my Michel. Fifth, Giselle. Why you do my girl dirty? When we get to the part about how Michel's life fell apart, I waited on tenterhooks for Giselle to drop the bomb--and she did. She said it: "They said I have cancer." I just knew she'd say that. And for the whole scene following, I could not stop thinking about that part in the movie "The Room" where that lady says "I definitely have breast cancer" and it's never brought up again (and I haven't even seen "The Room"). Seventh Lair just pulled that card on us. That's low. Sixth, Michel goes to hell while Giselle goes to heaven. Why? Why would you break my heart like this? Michel did wrong, but that is not Michel! It is an imposter! It is Dark Knight! Moving on from what was wrong with the characters, there's the story itself. I liked it well enough for the first few chapters, but when the "main" story ended and the gang woke back up in the cemetery with Mell the NPC, things just went downhill. This game played me for a long con. Everything, mainly the characters, unraveled from there. Why did it have to go in that direction? Why did it have to hit on the sensitive content? Why couldn't it just...not? I feel like talking about what actually goes on in the climax/falling action of this game would somehow get me banned, so I'll say this: read the game's content warning. "Michel" takes things WAY too far. I understand his beautifully-written pain, but...IT'S NOT MY MICHEL. But the story was still good. The writing packs a punch. If this game had not tried to AU-size The House in Fata Morgana, it would have been good. This is an April Fools release game, so it's probably not meant to be taken this seriously. Hell, that "side story" button could just lead to a note that says "April Fools! Gotcha! Your favorite characters are safe!" but I haven't looked at that yet. I took the April Fools game personally. DO NOT waste your time, energy, or thoughts on this game if you have an shred of love for the true House in Fata Morgana. It may very well RUIN your enjoyment of the original. I am only the FIFTH negative review, and it pains me to leave something negative for a THIFM game, but this isn't even THIFM. It's a sham. PLEASE DO NOT BUY IT. Anyway, I've been sitting here writing this review for half an hour and my head hurts. I'll probably play Seventh Lair's side story tomorrow, just because, but after that I'm either deleting this game or hiding it from my library. I never want to play this again.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2022

  I come to laugh, and I left with depression. As a game developer myself, i felt a resonate with Michel and this inspires me to keep creating the games I'd love to make.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2022

  It actually hurts to not recommend a piece of Fata content. I love the series to absolute death, and while I wasn't initially too excited, the tweets by the creator, Keika Hanada managed to do it. They were saying how this story deals with sensitive topics even more so than the original Fata, and this piqued my interest. The problem is, the second I first started this game in English, I knew immediately that I would have to read it in Japanese. This is [i]the[/i] worst translation I've ever had the displeasure of reading. Characters sound unbelievably robotic, both narration and dialogue are incredibly stilted, there are grammar and spelling mistakes ALL over the place... It genuinely feels like this was not edited at all. Here's a quick example since Steam doesn't allow images: Michel: "You've been going a little too far with those jabs...! ...My girlfriend... I have someone special!" Nellie: "Ayuh." And I have countless more where that came from, all of which I can post if people need them. I am both astounded and incredibly disappointed that a game from my favorite series of all time received such utter mistreatment. The original Fata Morgana has [i]the[/i] best translation I've ever read, and Requiem isn't far behind. Reincarnation had a few more issues, but it was still quite good and definitely above average. But now, with Seventh Lair, we've dove aaaaaall the way down into the seventh circle of Hell. As for the story itself, the contents range from "not my thing" to quite powerful, actually. I was impressed at how some of the reveals and beats were handled, and while it's still the weakest piece of "Fata" content, it still is worth a read. ...If you can read Japanese, that is. I [i]cannot[/i] recommend reading this in English until some kind of fix is put forth, but knowing how this industry typically operates, that's not going to happen. Fata Morgana deserves better, and so do you.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 7, 2022

  An ABSOLUTE BRILLIANT MASTERPIECE. And a HEAVENLY SOUNDTRACK to boot.
• gamedeal user

  May 10, 2022

  It was okay for a spinoff. Don't expect too much. Do not play this if you haven't played Fata Morgana at all. Please play that one first. But if you want more Fata Morgana content, this is skippable. It was fun seeing the original cast back in action, especially Michel and Jacopo! But the story was clunky at times, with many important plot points introduced way too late. The writing of this game made it feel more like a personal project, all the characters less like real individuals and more like caricatures the author used as their mouthpiece to get their thoughts across. Wasn't really feeling the twist at the end... Maybe the high quality of Fata Morgana and Requiem of Innocence just spoiled me, though. It didn't help that the English localization was unpolished. It was riddled with typos, unnatural phrasing, and sentences that were plain difficult to understand. There are many times you can tell what the original Japanese sentences were and didn't bother to get creative with how to write it. The text also keeps switching between Pauline and Pauleen. Did the localization team not have a style guide? Were they working with a tight deadline? Whatever the case may be, seeing this game's lackluster localization quality after Fata Morgana didn't do it any favors. I'll play it again in Japanese and see if my opinion on the story changes. Music is great as usual, but it feels like a bit of a waste to hear it on this game... If anything, the author put a lot of heart into this story. If you're interested in reading more about the feelings of a content creator, or some mild takes on [spoiler]suicide, depression, mental illness[/spoiler], go ahead and play on. I love Novect! This just wasn't their best work. Eagerly waiting for their next game.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 2, 2022

  Loved this. I love the music as usual and characters and writing that makes me laugh out loud and the stories that make me feel something instead of feeling meh. If you haven't played this franchise yet, then do it. Do yourself a favor and read it all.