The House in Fata Morgana
Nov. 16th, 2022 07:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingThe House in Fata Morgana describes itself as "a gothic suspense tale set in a cursed mansion," but I would describe it as 600k+ words of torture porn. It's so bad. It is so so bad.
The idea is that you wake up in an abandoned mansion with no memories, and a creepy maid guides you through the house while telling you the tragic stories of the people who once lived there. It turns out that the maid was present in all eras of history, and that you were too - albeit not in the form you expect. Along the way there are a lot of stupid anime tropes, as well as an embarrassingly hamfisted mistreatment of transgender issues. And did I mention torture? There's a lot of torture.
One of the many reasons I dislike amateur writing communities is because they tend to be filled with people who go through manic phases and then won't shut up about how they wrote 5k words in one night, and how they think these words are the most brilliant thing that's ever been written, and how all of these words are perfect and should never be edited, and how this is now your problem because you need to read and appreciate every single one of those words.
The House in Fata Morgana wrote 5k words in one night, and it shows. The ideas behind the story aren't bad, but the writing is godawful. There was clearly no editing, and the pacing is a miserable mess. Characters repeat themselves endlessly in a way that goes far beyond "demonstrating the theme of a cycle of abuse," and each of the sub-stories drags on forever before ending in a bloodbath of screams that just go "AaAAAAggHHH" and "NnnGGggGG uuuUrrhhh" for literally twenty minutes of clicking through text.
The art is pretty but extremely limited, and the character art is more for the player to masturbate to than to convey any sort of mood. There's no good horror art, or even any interesting visual imagery. The story's giant gothic mansion has like five rooms maybe, and they're all just boring stock photos run through different filters.
About two-thirds of the way through, I finally got to the point where I was just holding down the skip button to speed-read through the text as quickly as possible, and I still gave up at some point during the next-to-last chapter. Towards the end, the story's pace slows down instead of quickens, making this game feel even more tedious as it offers revelations that would be surprising if the writing weren't so mind-numbingly boring.
The House in Fata Morgana would have had the potential to be unique and interesting if its writing had been properly edited. At perhaps 200k words, the player would still have been able to spend a significant amount of time in this creepy mansion with these unfortunate characters, and the writer still would have been able to convey a sense of feeling trapped in a web of words.
I think most players will run up against the question of "why don't the characters just get up and leave," and the same frustration applies to the game in a meta sense. Namely, you don't need to be trapped by this poorly-written and poorly-edited and poorly-paced game. You can just quit! So that's what I did.
The idea is that you wake up in an abandoned mansion with no memories, and a creepy maid guides you through the house while telling you the tragic stories of the people who once lived there. It turns out that the maid was present in all eras of history, and that you were too - albeit not in the form you expect. Along the way there are a lot of stupid anime tropes, as well as an embarrassingly hamfisted mistreatment of transgender issues. And did I mention torture? There's a lot of torture.
One of the many reasons I dislike amateur writing communities is because they tend to be filled with people who go through manic phases and then won't shut up about how they wrote 5k words in one night, and how they think these words are the most brilliant thing that's ever been written, and how all of these words are perfect and should never be edited, and how this is now your problem because you need to read and appreciate every single one of those words.
The House in Fata Morgana wrote 5k words in one night, and it shows. The ideas behind the story aren't bad, but the writing is godawful. There was clearly no editing, and the pacing is a miserable mess. Characters repeat themselves endlessly in a way that goes far beyond "demonstrating the theme of a cycle of abuse," and each of the sub-stories drags on forever before ending in a bloodbath of screams that just go "AaAAAAggHHH" and "NnnGGggGG uuuUrrhhh" for literally twenty minutes of clicking through text.
The art is pretty but extremely limited, and the character art is more for the player to masturbate to than to convey any sort of mood. There's no good horror art, or even any interesting visual imagery. The story's giant gothic mansion has like five rooms maybe, and they're all just boring stock photos run through different filters.
About two-thirds of the way through, I finally got to the point where I was just holding down the skip button to speed-read through the text as quickly as possible, and I still gave up at some point during the next-to-last chapter. Towards the end, the story's pace slows down instead of quickens, making this game feel even more tedious as it offers revelations that would be surprising if the writing weren't so mind-numbingly boring.
The House in Fata Morgana would have had the potential to be unique and interesting if its writing had been properly edited. At perhaps 200k words, the player would still have been able to spend a significant amount of time in this creepy mansion with these unfortunate characters, and the writer still would have been able to convey a sense of feeling trapped in a web of words.
I think most players will run up against the question of "why don't the characters just get up and leave," and the same frustration applies to the game in a meta sense. Namely, you don't need to be trapped by this poorly-written and poorly-edited and poorly-paced game. You can just quit! So that's what I did.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-16 03:08 pm (UTC)I think this game came out at a time when there wasn't a good variety of translated JVN available on mainstream platforms and VN in general was still relatively niche. I wonder if some of the adulation/nostalgia is a holdover from that.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-16 03:16 pm (UTC)This is a fair point. I think it's also the case that (apparently?) it's possible to skip through a lot of the text in the Steam version.
But based on the fan art I think everyone mainly wants to romance the maid.
Which is also fair.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-16 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-16 07:04 pm (UTC)I would say the game worth a shot just to see how balls-out insane it is, but I'm not sure it's worth $40. I mean, the poor translator deserves a every penny and also a Nobel Prize, but still.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 02:05 pm (UTC)Just turns out I'm totally fine and it's actually in fact the game ksajklfdsjklfja
Thank you for this compelling post that made me delete this game from my "maybe I'll play it one day" list. Also I hope the next game you play is better written bc holy fuck
no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 02:59 pm (UTC)There's one particular chapter toward the end of Fata Morgana that hit me really hard, and I think you might have a similar reaction.
This chapter is about a transgender (and possibly intersex) character quietly coming out as gay and then being tortured by their family. And I mean tortured. It's really intense, and it lasts for hours of gameplay time. I don't use the word "problematic" lightly, but the way this resonates through the rest story is deeply upsetting.
Maybe this is all resolved and everyone gets a happy ending, who knows. For me, I'm not sure any ending is worth having to sit through hours of a transgender character being imprisoned and starved and beaten and tortured and being told, in line after line after line of text, that they would be happy if only they weren't gay.
I feel like this goes beyond "horror" and enters the realm of something else entirely. Either the writer has an intense fetish, or it's sincere homophobia. And I don't think every work of media needs to be perfect or written for me specifically, but the way this element of the story casts a different light on the plot of the entire game (for spoiler reasons) is weird and fucked up.
So just to emphasize: Please feel justified in deleting this one from your list.
For what it's worth, I remember seeing the game Later Daters on one of the photos you took of your Nintendo Switch awhile ago, and that's next on my own list! I am here for silver foxes. I'm also looking forward to Kaichu: The Kaiju Dating Sim, which was written specifically for me, apparently. And in any case, it's always good when niche visual novels cost $10 instead of $40.
Anyway... Sorry for writing a novel in the comments lmao.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-28 01:25 pm (UTC)FUCK THAT GAME, THEN.
Honestly, thanks for sharing this context, bc I legit had no idea and but also what the fuck?????
omg I still need to play Later Daters but its page on the eShop sold me. Way more my speed these days. Ahhh and I've seen trailers for Kaichu!! It looks so cute and also aimed at me. Hope people keep making silly, obscure dating games marketed at queer working 30+ somethings. There's clearly an audience here (it's us - we're the audience).
no subject
Date: 2022-11-29 08:39 pm (UTC)I just started playing a few days ago, and it's actually really good.
Later Daters manages to be wholesome and gentle but also honest and no-nonsense at the same time. It reminds me a lot of Spiritfarer tbh. I also appreciate that you can be aro-ace without the game locking you out of content, which is an option I'd really like to see in more dating sims. Sometimes I really am just here to make friends!
Anyway, sorry to be the creep who's like, "I looked at the games on your Switch when you posted a vacation photo on Twitter last summer," but this was a really good... recommendation, I guess? But thank you!
no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-19 01:12 pm (UTC)AT LEAST YOU GOT A LIFETIME DOSE OF INCEST.
😬😨😬😨😬
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:01 pm (UTC)Me: surely they're not....?
Me: oh dear I kind of think they are
Me: ......um. You know, I think I'll just. not.