I want to like this game. Hell, I want to like all visual novels. I was raised on the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the ability to take an active role in determining the narrative was part of what drew me to gaming to begin with. That being said, like the vast majority of the genre itself, it's as a 'novel' where Fading Hearts most comes up short. Even aside from the typos (whichI want to like this game. Hell, I want to like all visual novels. I was raised on the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the ability to take an active role in determining the narrative was part of what drew me to gaming to begin with. That being said, like the vast majority of the genre itself, it's as a 'novel' where Fading Hearts most comes up short. Even aside from the typos (which have supposedly been patched) the dialogue and anime-inspired vignettes that comprise the bulk of the game are often clunkily written and cancerous with cliches. I'm willing to forgive a fair bit if this is a translation, but the developer's webpage says they're based in Toronto, which ain't no city in Japan I ever heard of. Moreover, while the life management elements and light turn-based RPGing aren't bad, they're a long damn way from justifying the purchase. Against all odds, though, this is a game that is significantly more than the sum of its parts. It succeeds as an exercise in, for lack of a better term, weirdness. All its awkwardness and mediocrity can't quite manage to obscure the sense it conveys that there's something seriously strange, even fey, going on here, just under the surface of the painfully normal lives of its characters. Don't ask me how, but despite (or maybe because of?) its ineptness, Fading Hearts manages to sneakily touch that part of the imagination that not only can conceive, but desperately wants to believe in the existence of (to misquote e.e. cummings) a hell of a good universe next door. For that reason alone, I'd say it's worth a shot (but maybe wait for it to go on sale).… Expand