Bedmar
3 reviews liked by Bedmar
Live A Live
2022
This review contains spoilers
The quality of the chapters can really fluctuate. On one hand, the near-future chapter might be one of my favorite short game stories ever. On the other hand, I found the distant future chapter so miserable that it took me a year to get back into playing the game. I would say that it is more likely for a chapter to be poor over being good.
I honestly started the game really loving it, but as time went on, I grew more and more disappointed. I found myself especially frustrated with the Middle Ages chapter. Maybe it's my fault for going in with expectations, as I heard it talked up as "a great subversion of classic SNES RPG tropes", but I find it to be either the second worst (behind the distant future) or the worst chapter. The overall routing and things you need to do can be a bit strange, but that's the least of my complaints. It feels extremely like it's contemporary (now and in the SNES era), and I'm not easily wowed by "the hero turned into a villain" stories. It felt like it thought it was something much more than it was.
Not only that, but it's hard to take anything that is trying to be subversive seriously when it still relies on age-old, misogynist tropes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's not fully in line with the tropes, but does Alethea exist outside of the men that surround her? I think the treatment of women in Live A Live is something to comment on as a whole. There is one decently written girl character (Lei), which is incredibly pathetic for a game about multiple places and time periods with multiple different batches of ensemble casts.
To be honest, I actually did not 100% finish the game. I got to one of the final bosses, found it aggravating, saw that all that was left was a boss rush and a final final boss, and called it there. The final chapter felt incredibly weak with no good payoff or reason for everything to be connected. It also felt very designed around the fact that the person playing it would be in love with the game, which is a fair assumption as the person playing had gotten to the very end, but still. I like hard video games, I like hard RPGs, the first Odio boss fight felt like a boring slog and grinding around the dungeon got absolutely meager results. It was not anything i wanted to put more time into.
I wanted to like it, and the game is interesting in concept, but it weakens as it goes on, and its charm does not last. It's an incredibly disappointing game.
I honestly started the game really loving it, but as time went on, I grew more and more disappointed. I found myself especially frustrated with the Middle Ages chapter. Maybe it's my fault for going in with expectations, as I heard it talked up as "a great subversion of classic SNES RPG tropes", but I find it to be either the second worst (behind the distant future) or the worst chapter. The overall routing and things you need to do can be a bit strange, but that's the least of my complaints. It feels extremely like it's contemporary (now and in the SNES era), and I'm not easily wowed by "the hero turned into a villain" stories. It felt like it thought it was something much more than it was.
Not only that, but it's hard to take anything that is trying to be subversive seriously when it still relies on age-old, misogynist tropes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's not fully in line with the tropes, but does Alethea exist outside of the men that surround her? I think the treatment of women in Live A Live is something to comment on as a whole. There is one decently written girl character (Lei), which is incredibly pathetic for a game about multiple places and time periods with multiple different batches of ensemble casts.
To be honest, I actually did not 100% finish the game. I got to one of the final bosses, found it aggravating, saw that all that was left was a boss rush and a final final boss, and called it there. The final chapter felt incredibly weak with no good payoff or reason for everything to be connected. It also felt very designed around the fact that the person playing it would be in love with the game, which is a fair assumption as the person playing had gotten to the very end, but still. I like hard video games, I like hard RPGs, the first Odio boss fight felt like a boring slog and grinding around the dungeon got absolutely meager results. It was not anything i wanted to put more time into.
I wanted to like it, and the game is interesting in concept, but it weakens as it goes on, and its charm does not last. It's an incredibly disappointing game.
EN: The House in Fata Morgana was my introduction to the medium of visual novels and I immediately feel like I've already read the best of the genre without experiencing the rest.
"No one knows who first said
...that the mansion was cursed."
It is a Visual Novel in which there is a mansion which is cursed, in which a servant girl guides you so that you, the master, can remember who you are, she presents you with stories of former members of the mansion in the form of memories and each one presents different themes, between tragedy, human nature and madness. These give way to a great mystery and the search for the answer to the curse that affects the mansion.
A masterpiece that highlights in every section the talent behind the game, showing an incredibly well written story, with the presence of extremely human characters, with a soundtrack that subtly tells its own story, as a set of things that create the atmosphere of the cursed mansion, it is a terribly depressing work, so much so that it tears the soul but at the same time through all the tragedy continues to light a hopeful fire and that immerses you in this love story.
It seeks to explore in depth the search for identity, the importance of communication and mutual understanding, how our surroundings shape us and build our being and how even small moments of human connection and warmth create a lasting effect on the people around us. it teaches us to accept reality and facing it can be as painful as reality itself. no matter how dark it gets, there is always some light at the end of the tunnel.
There are no words that can describe everything I felt through the characters, they are so human you can feel their own pain. everything maintains a level of believable realism that of what makes the narrative so heartbreaking. everything you are presented with has a purpose, putting the big puzzle together, seeing how it all came together as I went along was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever experienced in a game.
It's not a perfect VN by any means, it's pretty unevenly paced, but I forged a greater emotional connection to this story than almost any other I've ever experienced in my life.
It is beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreakingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the best love stories ever told. It will take you on a journey of strong emotions in every way. Nothing so much passion and heart was put into could leave anyone without having gained something valuable from reading it. I am so glad I read it, because it is an experience I will never forget and it will stay in my heart.
ES: The House in Fata Morgana fue mi introducción al medio de las novelas visuales e inmediatamente siento que ya he leído lo mejor del género sin experimentar el resto.
"Nadie sabe quién dijo por primera vez
...que la mansión estaba maldita".
Es una Visual Novel en la que existe una mansión la cual está maldita, en la que una sirvienta te guía para tú, el amo, puedas recordar quien eres, te presenta historias de antiguos miembros de la mansión en forma de recuerdos y cada una presenta distintos temas, entre la tragedia, naturaleza humana y la locura. Que dan paso a un gran misterio y a la búsqueda de la respuesta a la maldición que afecta a la mansión.
Una obra maestra que destaca en todo apartado el talento detrás del juego, mostrando una historia increíblemente bien escrita, con presencia de personajes sumamente humanos, con una banda sonora que cuenta sutilmente su propia historia, en conjunto de cosas que crean la atmósfera de la mansión maldita, es una obra terriblemente deprimente, tanto que desgarra el alma, pero al mismo tiempo a través de toda la tragedia sigue encendiendo un fuego esperanzador y que te sumerge en esta historia de amor.
Busca explorar en profundidad la búsqueda de identidad, la importancia de la comunicación y del entendimiento mutuo, como el alrededor nos da forma y construye nuestro ser y cómo incluso los pequeños momentos de conexión y calidez humana crean un efecto duradero en las personas que nos rodean. Nos enseña aceptar la realidad y enfrentarse a ella puede ser tan doloroso como la propia realidad. No importa lo oscura que se ponga, siempre hay algo de luz al final del túnel.
No hay palabras que puedan describir todo lo sentí a través de los personajes, son tan humanos que puedes sentir su propio dolor. Todo mantiene un nivel de realismo creíble que de lo que hace que la narración sea tan desgarradora. Todo lo que te presentan tiene un propósito, armar el gran rompecabezas, ver cómo todo iba encajando a medida que avanzaba fue una experiencia de las experiencias más gratificantes que he experimentado en un juego.
No es una VN perfecta ni mucho menos, tiene un ritmo bastante irregular, pero he forjado una mayor conexión emocional con esta historia que con casi cualquier otra que haya experimentado en mi vida.
Es hermosa, sobrecogedora, desgarradoramente trágica, inquebrantable y brutal, y una de las mejores historias de amor contadas. Te llevará a un viaje de fuertes emociones en todos sentidos. Nada en lo que se haya puesto tanta pasión y corazón podría dejar a alguien sin haber ganado algo valioso al leerlo. Me alegro mucho de haberlo leído, porque es una experiencia que nunca olvidaré y se quedará en mi corazón.
"No one knows who first said
...that the mansion was cursed."
It is a Visual Novel in which there is a mansion which is cursed, in which a servant girl guides you so that you, the master, can remember who you are, she presents you with stories of former members of the mansion in the form of memories and each one presents different themes, between tragedy, human nature and madness. These give way to a great mystery and the search for the answer to the curse that affects the mansion.
A masterpiece that highlights in every section the talent behind the game, showing an incredibly well written story, with the presence of extremely human characters, with a soundtrack that subtly tells its own story, as a set of things that create the atmosphere of the cursed mansion, it is a terribly depressing work, so much so that it tears the soul but at the same time through all the tragedy continues to light a hopeful fire and that immerses you in this love story.
It seeks to explore in depth the search for identity, the importance of communication and mutual understanding, how our surroundings shape us and build our being and how even small moments of human connection and warmth create a lasting effect on the people around us. it teaches us to accept reality and facing it can be as painful as reality itself. no matter how dark it gets, there is always some light at the end of the tunnel.
There are no words that can describe everything I felt through the characters, they are so human you can feel their own pain. everything maintains a level of believable realism that of what makes the narrative so heartbreaking. everything you are presented with has a purpose, putting the big puzzle together, seeing how it all came together as I went along was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever experienced in a game.
It's not a perfect VN by any means, it's pretty unevenly paced, but I forged a greater emotional connection to this story than almost any other I've ever experienced in my life.
It is beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreakingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the best love stories ever told. It will take you on a journey of strong emotions in every way. Nothing so much passion and heart was put into could leave anyone without having gained something valuable from reading it. I am so glad I read it, because it is an experience I will never forget and it will stay in my heart.
ES: The House in Fata Morgana fue mi introducción al medio de las novelas visuales e inmediatamente siento que ya he leído lo mejor del género sin experimentar el resto.
"Nadie sabe quién dijo por primera vez
...que la mansión estaba maldita".
Es una Visual Novel en la que existe una mansión la cual está maldita, en la que una sirvienta te guía para tú, el amo, puedas recordar quien eres, te presenta historias de antiguos miembros de la mansión en forma de recuerdos y cada una presenta distintos temas, entre la tragedia, naturaleza humana y la locura. Que dan paso a un gran misterio y a la búsqueda de la respuesta a la maldición que afecta a la mansión.
Una obra maestra que destaca en todo apartado el talento detrás del juego, mostrando una historia increíblemente bien escrita, con presencia de personajes sumamente humanos, con una banda sonora que cuenta sutilmente su propia historia, en conjunto de cosas que crean la atmósfera de la mansión maldita, es una obra terriblemente deprimente, tanto que desgarra el alma, pero al mismo tiempo a través de toda la tragedia sigue encendiendo un fuego esperanzador y que te sumerge en esta historia de amor.
Busca explorar en profundidad la búsqueda de identidad, la importancia de la comunicación y del entendimiento mutuo, como el alrededor nos da forma y construye nuestro ser y cómo incluso los pequeños momentos de conexión y calidez humana crean un efecto duradero en las personas que nos rodean. Nos enseña aceptar la realidad y enfrentarse a ella puede ser tan doloroso como la propia realidad. No importa lo oscura que se ponga, siempre hay algo de luz al final del túnel.
No hay palabras que puedan describir todo lo sentí a través de los personajes, son tan humanos que puedes sentir su propio dolor. Todo mantiene un nivel de realismo creíble que de lo que hace que la narración sea tan desgarradora. Todo lo que te presentan tiene un propósito, armar el gran rompecabezas, ver cómo todo iba encajando a medida que avanzaba fue una experiencia de las experiencias más gratificantes que he experimentado en un juego.
No es una VN perfecta ni mucho menos, tiene un ritmo bastante irregular, pero he forjado una mayor conexión emocional con esta historia que con casi cualquier otra que haya experimentado en mi vida.
Es hermosa, sobrecogedora, desgarradoramente trágica, inquebrantable y brutal, y una de las mejores historias de amor contadas. Te llevará a un viaje de fuertes emociones en todos sentidos. Nada en lo que se haya puesto tanta pasión y corazón podría dejar a alguien sin haber ganado algo valioso al leerlo. Me alegro mucho de haberlo leído, porque es una experiencia que nunca olvidaré y se quedará en mi corazón.
Dramatical Murder
2012
Aoba :3
