This VN isn't groundbreaking or anything but I was weirdly hooked by it??? Also I'm a sucker for royal bodyguard/their royal charge pairings so maybe it isn't a surprise that I was feasting.
Honestly the magic system is pretty cool and given that Gara is my favourite Warframe conceptually speaking, it's no surprise that Ritona's glass weaponry makes me hoot and holler. I don't care if it's impractical, it's COOL AS HELL
Honestly the magic system is pretty cool and given that Gara is my favourite Warframe conceptually speaking, it's no surprise that Ritona's glass weaponry makes me hoot and holler. I don't care if it's impractical, it's COOL AS HELL
A very odd game to me. The beginning caught my immediate interest with how bombastic it was and how indulgent it handed out CGs. I was hooked! Then came a great lull as the game got lost in its own world building, where every conversation felt like its sole purpose was to explain the magic system in stilted explanations. It was a trudge for a good while, but eventually the crux of the story got introduced with a slow and meandering build up. I wasn't sure at first about the themes it presented because they felt heavy handed and clumsy, but somehow, out of nowhere, the conclusion was able to tie it all together in a very satisfying and emotional way. Every worry I had about the writing was made good on. The ending was not quite as bombastic as the beginning, but hooked me just as much, and made me immediately wishlist the sequel.
I am a bit conflicted on this novel, here and now. I didn't go in expecting all that much and actually was a bit surprised by some of the depth and quality of the writing and art, but the structure and length of the novel left me feeling quite dissatisfied by the end.
In terms of what's good, I love the clean, colorful style with expressive characters and frequent, gorgeous CGs. I can imagine that some might find the fantasy designs a bit on the tropey anime style, but I'm kind of a sucker for this stuff. And ignoring that suspicion, I do think a lot of effort and fun shine through in it all.
From the story side, I was surprised by the fact that this was really more of a science-fantasy tale — at least for this part of the series. I imagine that might have actually been in the description of the game, but I read that a while before actually playing it, and most of my decision making on what VNs to play is based on the art. So... 😅
In any case, I thought there were a lot of interesting elements at play here, and it went into in moderated detail on them: complex but conscious it was also a fantasy tale — so not too much concentrated Science speak. The world presented is fairly novel in design, as far as what I've read, with a lot of promising interplay between the fantastical, technological, and socio-political elements. Then it uses those elements fairly effectively to create depth to the character dramas that are the core of the story.
At its best moments, I found it to be a very touching and heartfelt episode. The character writing was often engaging and even entertaining in the lighter scenes, and the personalities expressing themselves were layered and likable individuals. So there really is quite a lot good in the game. In fact, I'm definitely intending on continuing with the series...
However, in the context of this title on its own, the structural issues are a bit of a pain point. To put it simply, what's here feels like the opening of a central narrative plus a side story. Without reading more, it's hard to say exactly how relevant the later 2/3rds of the novel will be to be the central thread. Those 2/3rds are a good story in their own right and definitely help build the world as a whole, but the way it transitions to that thread feels like it stopped and intentionally hit "pause" on the main objective.
And that really doesn't have as much to do with the plot setup of the story so much as how the expectations are communicated to the reader. To avoid spoilers I'll be vague but essentially it was a problem of showing the reader a more direct route to continue the narrative, then electing to take a detour. One that made sense for the characters to take given their values and personalities, but a detour nonetheless. If that more direct route had never been presented as a possibility — or presented at a later time — then I probably would be thinking of this as just an interesting first episode in an adventure instead.
(I could imagine other ways to solve my issue as well, that's just the method I first thought of)
Fault Milestone One's narrative structure is just a little bit too off for me to ignore, and that's what kinda frustrates me. When I get to the next chapters, I'll know whether or not I really recommend the series, but if nothing else, there is a neat little science-fantasy story here. I just wouldn't prioritize it if you have more interesting titles on your backlog.
In terms of what's good, I love the clean, colorful style with expressive characters and frequent, gorgeous CGs. I can imagine that some might find the fantasy designs a bit on the tropey anime style, but I'm kind of a sucker for this stuff. And ignoring that suspicion, I do think a lot of effort and fun shine through in it all.
From the story side, I was surprised by the fact that this was really more of a science-fantasy tale — at least for this part of the series. I imagine that might have actually been in the description of the game, but I read that a while before actually playing it, and most of my decision making on what VNs to play is based on the art. So... 😅
In any case, I thought there were a lot of interesting elements at play here, and it went into in moderated detail on them: complex but conscious it was also a fantasy tale — so not too much concentrated Science speak. The world presented is fairly novel in design, as far as what I've read, with a lot of promising interplay between the fantastical, technological, and socio-political elements. Then it uses those elements fairly effectively to create depth to the character dramas that are the core of the story.
At its best moments, I found it to be a very touching and heartfelt episode. The character writing was often engaging and even entertaining in the lighter scenes, and the personalities expressing themselves were layered and likable individuals. So there really is quite a lot good in the game. In fact, I'm definitely intending on continuing with the series...
However, in the context of this title on its own, the structural issues are a bit of a pain point. To put it simply, what's here feels like the opening of a central narrative plus a side story. Without reading more, it's hard to say exactly how relevant the later 2/3rds of the novel will be to be the central thread. Those 2/3rds are a good story in their own right and definitely help build the world as a whole, but the way it transitions to that thread feels like it stopped and intentionally hit "pause" on the main objective.
And that really doesn't have as much to do with the plot setup of the story so much as how the expectations are communicated to the reader. To avoid spoilers I'll be vague but essentially it was a problem of showing the reader a more direct route to continue the narrative, then electing to take a detour. One that made sense for the characters to take given their values and personalities, but a detour nonetheless. If that more direct route had never been presented as a possibility — or presented at a later time — then I probably would be thinking of this as just an interesting first episode in an adventure instead.
(I could imagine other ways to solve my issue as well, that's just the method I first thought of)
Fault Milestone One's narrative structure is just a little bit too off for me to ignore, and that's what kinda frustrates me. When I get to the next chapters, I'll know whether or not I really recommend the series, but if nothing else, there is a neat little science-fantasy story here. I just wouldn't prioritize it if you have more interesting titles on your backlog.
Never heard of this VN series prior to a week ago and I found the presentation interesting.
I can't say Fault is all that fantastic. In terms of writing, it's decent at its best and lifeless at others. What I failed to grasp initially was that the main Fault series of games are episodic in nature. Milestone One is more like just a fragment of the entire narrative, and the episodes that follow feel more like just a pure continuation than less of a grandiose sequel. Think the episodic format of things like the Telltale games.
I can't really tell what Fault wants to be here. It opens up with this ambiguous intro (that is better written than the entire rest of the game), then it's suddenly a magic fantasy story with a princess and a kingdom. Political scheming and war seems to be occurring as you're supposed to feel this immediate threat ever following the two lead characters, but then it is suddenly ACTUALLY a story about this destroyed family that the two main characters are just along for the ride with.
Don't get me wrong, the actual ACTUAL story of Milestone One is decent at times. It's a fairly okay story about humanity, family, emotions, sentience, etc. and it combines the world-building elements of magic and science together into said narrative fine enough.
I don't mind this sort of fantasy journey where the main characters are on an adventure where they meet various characters, and each episode focuses on the main characters assisting them, but I can't get with it when they feel so out of place, and not in a good way. When it comes to story of Milestone One, both lead characters could easily have been removed or replaced and nothing would change. They are uninteresting, boring, plastic archetypes of characters you've read a hundred times over in other stories and do little to be interesting. Never did I feel engaged and want to learn more about them and see how they interact with the plot.
Maybe things improve in the Milestone Two. I can only hope. It's a rough, but not unsalvageable, start to a narrative. It has nice aspects, such as pleasant and dynamic visuals and a pretty lively OST (even if it's sometimes out of place, annoyingly loops and goes on for too long in a scene, and so on and so forth).
I can't say Fault is all that fantastic. In terms of writing, it's decent at its best and lifeless at others. What I failed to grasp initially was that the main Fault series of games are episodic in nature. Milestone One is more like just a fragment of the entire narrative, and the episodes that follow feel more like just a pure continuation than less of a grandiose sequel. Think the episodic format of things like the Telltale games.
I can't really tell what Fault wants to be here. It opens up with this ambiguous intro (that is better written than the entire rest of the game), then it's suddenly a magic fantasy story with a princess and a kingdom. Political scheming and war seems to be occurring as you're supposed to feel this immediate threat ever following the two lead characters, but then it is suddenly ACTUALLY a story about this destroyed family that the two main characters are just along for the ride with.
Don't get me wrong, the actual ACTUAL story of Milestone One is decent at times. It's a fairly okay story about humanity, family, emotions, sentience, etc. and it combines the world-building elements of magic and science together into said narrative fine enough.
I don't mind this sort of fantasy journey where the main characters are on an adventure where they meet various characters, and each episode focuses on the main characters assisting them, but I can't get with it when they feel so out of place, and not in a good way. When it comes to story of Milestone One, both lead characters could easily have been removed or replaced and nothing would change. They are uninteresting, boring, plastic archetypes of characters you've read a hundred times over in other stories and do little to be interesting. Never did I feel engaged and want to learn more about them and see how they interact with the plot.
Maybe things improve in the Milestone Two. I can only hope. It's a rough, but not unsalvageable, start to a narrative. It has nice aspects, such as pleasant and dynamic visuals and a pretty lively OST (even if it's sometimes out of place, annoyingly loops and goes on for too long in a scene, and so on and so forth).
Great characters, art, and music, but it's a bit heavy on the exposition.
Seems to be setting the scene for a long running series, but since we haven't got milestone two side:below yet we can't know for certain lol
Seems to be setting the scene for a long running series, but since we haven't got milestone two side:below yet we can't know for certain lol
An enjoyable and emotional piece of fiction, albeit a bit too short (even if it split up into parts)
A graphic novel promising the need to make decisions, but I think there were two times you actually got to do that? It was very clearly a set up for a long and in-depth story and it did that fairly well. My main complaint about the world establishment was it relied a lot on overexplaining terms and phrases integral to the universe. I started skipping through conversations once I got the gist. Overall, the world was interesting and I imagine was a good set up for what's to follow. Don't think I'll be going into the next game.
The worldbuilding is good but god if they have a VERY LONG glossary, you need to know every single invented word to follow the story, too much for me.
Vote: 5
Time used to learn new words: 3 H 2 M
Vote: 5
Time used to learn new words: 3 H 2 M
Wasn't quite what I expected, but still really really good! Excited to read more after that enormous cliffhanger.
This is part one of a serialized story about adventurers on a journey helping the people they meet along the way. But I didn't figure that out until it was almost over, so I spent most of the middle chunk wondering when we're gonna ditch this family drama we stumbled into and get back to the interesting characters. I don't think I can judge the story very much until I play part two. I will say, though: Usually lore dumps about the intricacies of a magic system are a huge turn-off for me, but I was all in on this one. Not sure why.
I really admire the dynamism they're trying to bring to the visual novel format on the technical side. In motion it feels like a kinetic comic book. Thumbs up. More of that please.
That's all I can say about the game for now. The rest of this review will focus on the totally absurd tavern music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hznCt-0YQw
First off this thing plays NON STOP in the tavern scenes, which happens to be where the characters like to meet and ruminate on the past. That means at least once we're pulled out of an actually kinda disturbing flashback with somber music into WHOMP WHOMP DUNDUNDUNDUN WHOMP WHOMP. I made the choice to assume the music is diegetic and there's actually a DJ having an intense argument with an acoustic ACDC cover band somewhere else in the room. It was a good choice.
Those tavern scenes are also pretty lengthy which gives you plenty of time to notice the music loop, and once you do you'll quickly realize that the song is only about a minute long. They try to disguise that by putting a fake-out ending in the middle...?! Every loop it feels shorter and starts to give me a headache. It's ridiculous.
I love it.
I really admire the dynamism they're trying to bring to the visual novel format on the technical side. In motion it feels like a kinetic comic book. Thumbs up. More of that please.
That's all I can say about the game for now. The rest of this review will focus on the totally absurd tavern music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hznCt-0YQw
First off this thing plays NON STOP in the tavern scenes, which happens to be where the characters like to meet and ruminate on the past. That means at least once we're pulled out of an actually kinda disturbing flashback with somber music into WHOMP WHOMP DUNDUNDUNDUN WHOMP WHOMP. I made the choice to assume the music is diegetic and there's actually a DJ having an intense argument with an acoustic ACDC cover band somewhere else in the room. It was a good choice.
Those tavern scenes are also pretty lengthy which gives you plenty of time to notice the music loop, and once you do you'll quickly realize that the song is only about a minute long. They try to disguise that by putting a fake-out ending in the middle...?! Every loop it feels shorter and starts to give me a headache. It's ridiculous.
I love it.