This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
[Digital code won/redeemed from LRG]
[contains light spoilers]
~Shakespeare called, sobbing relentlessly. He said to turn the tragedy dial down from 11!~
While anyone can write a story, painting a world with just words is an art form of its own. Mastery of that skill can pull someone into any world you want to. If by chance you had never played a visual novel before and your first happens to be "The House in Fata Morgana", you will never. ever. forget it.
Storywise, you awaken as an amnesiac-like spirit inside a mysterious mansion, guided by the seemingly kind-hearted but enigmatic being that refers to itself as "The Maid". In an attempt to recover your memories, she presents several incidents that have occurred in or the mansion grounds over the course of nearly a thousand years.
This story may already sound a tad cliche, however the real meat of the story is the writing and how it utilizes the 'visual' aspect of the genre. Portions of the story are light references to various well known works: Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Beauty & the Beast...Seemingly very intentionally however. Never has a story communicated the feelings and emotions of its characters quite as much as this to me. Further adding to this is just how much I felt for these characters. The struggles and conflicts at their core are extremely relatable. Problems and situations I am no stranger to.
I felt for them.
I mourned with them.
I cried with them.
And it does not let go of its grip on you, until the very end.
This. This is true storytelling.
The music is surprisingly varied, pieces starting off fairly soft with pianos, moving over to more string and plucked instruments with a sense of period instruments such as the harpsichord. As the story progresses, instruments radically change. I felt some of the vocals in a couple pieces were fairly corny (one piece sounded like a wailing cat honestly) but these are the few exceptions. Regardless, the vocals are specifically there to emphasize the scenes and are highly appreciated. The composers cleverly made the music feel real and personal. One of my personal favorites illustrating this is "Hex", along with the powerful title theme "Reencarnação".
Graphics I first was troubled by. Most of the background scenes have a grain filter over them to give them more of a sense of timelessness and a couple characters smiling at the start gave me the creeps. This concern quickly died off as the story progressed of course.
Alas, this title does something I wish more stories did, expand upon certain holes in the plot. Upon finishing all the 'game modes', extras are unlocked including a menu called "Short Stories". These do just that and expand upon certain points along the timeline presented in the game and I very much appreciated them. Along with these, the writers did a great job keeping continuity with all the various side stories and having them connect to the main story in some way. It shows how much care the writers/devs put into this work.
My largest critique however is a part of the writing. The character too often use apologetics or so many ellipses that it makes me look like an English major (I realize this is more of a cultural aspect then the writing itself). If most of this was trimmed down, it would also feel like there was less 'filler', note there isn't much 'filler' to begin with. It feels weird hearing a character saying some form of "I'm Sorry" seemingly every minute.
There's too much to admire or point out here. Unfortunately with this being my first VN and with how amazing my experience was with it, I fear no other VN could replicate or top my feelings for this one.
I agree wholeheartedly with most others, this has to be one of the best VNs out there (even though this is literally the only one I've played). Absolutely effing recommended in whatever form. There is no 'one lesson' the game leaves us. It tackles many things that affect our society today. What it means to be ourselves, when society tries to dictate what ourselves can be, and opening up and understanding the pains of our fellow humans. Lessons that we and the world could benefit to learn from...… Expand
