Spoiler warning for events and plot points in The House in Fata Morgana that are best left for you to discover in your own playthrough first, as my comments here may undermine the experience for your own. You have been warned.
"𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥
...𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥."
Indisputably one of the strongest pieces of the visual novel medium, the haunting yet human narratives of Fata Morgana establish it as one of gothic fiction’s triumphs. There’s a decisive first impression during the course of FM’s “Act 1” that represents it’s tone and theme, and what the player is going to experience throughout. In it, we are presented with the revelation that during the mid-end of one of the Maid’s tales that a painting laid hanging in the adolescent Nellie Rhodes’ bedroom, depicting what used to be the two siblings side by side of each other, to be a prophecy, depicting the future in which Mell and the White Haired Girl are more related than we think. Following further events this reveal is somewhat insignificant and one of the title’s less shocking twists than to what the story later goes on to portray. Nonetheless this is the first example in which we see one of Fata Morgana’s key devices; the ambiguity and non-linear storytelling.
The game revels in its building of tension and mystery throughout its chapters. Things often need second glances and you’re often encouraged to witness events and characters and view them more as double entendres. You’re often flung twists and reveals, but to credit the writing none of them feel poor taste, and fortunately in the wider picture they fit in well. The ambiguity of the writing itself is also a double entendre of the character of Michel. The third person perspective of Doors 1-4 at first dictate how you believe the rest of the game is going to be, and unbeknownst to you perspective switches between “You” and the Maid in order to intentionally throw you off. We entrust conventional visual novel’s unspoken rules and conventions, only to our astonishment that our perception was false. Door 2 is purposefully skewed towards The Maid’s recount of the story (notice when she isn’t there during Pauline’s sequences) and the chronology of accounts is swapped and mismatched to accommodate reveals. However the perspective swapping also provides insights into characters and the overall synopsis that you wouldn’t see if the story was linearly one identity. Door 5 is the largest and grandest example most likely, as by benefitting from two perspectives we are able to understand Michel and Giselle’s blossoming relationship. Fata Morgana sometimes does the reverse, and provides only a singular perspective. Door 7 leads us only through Michel’s eyes so we can grasp only his emotions and intentions.
There’s undeniable immense credit that has to be given to the game’s atmosphere and tone. JoshTheFourth describes it as “neoclassical darkwave”, and even the comment was jokey in a sense, (if not, then I’m deeply sorry) there’s an ironic sense that the blend of newer and older genres only fit into a game about different point in a millennium. The game advises that you immerse yourself in its sound, only to provide often grimy, eerie and distilling moods upon the player. Most doors have different sounds and ways of expressing themselves to the reader - but all without a sense of.. Uncomfortableness. There’s also the blend of the newer and older art of Fata Morgana - backgrounds are often minimalistic and don’t insight much, but darkening colours and palette swaps to more sinister shades during pivotal moments create a deeper and foreboding tension. Character portraits seem almost too detailed in comparison - beautiful and frailish, lighter tones juxtaposed to the background. Some characters do not even have portraits - referred to only in the text screen below. A lot of what Fata Morgana does well is that, like most visual novels; actions and objects are mostly left to your imagination. This is why moments feel more anxious than they should, and more satisfying if you take more time to invest and put yourself into the game.
There were minor mentions and nods to themes earlier in this text, and I would like to apologise if my haphazard and sometimes lazy forms of writing don’t give the quite mature themes this game envisions the evaluation it deserves. In spite of that I would like to say the game handles these messages extremely effectively. There’s the overall arching theme of morality and humanity during the whole 30ish hours, but towards the end of the game we are shown this in a new light. Morgana’s core sentiment is that the three men are all morally black - unworthy of forgiveness and in that belief she casts them to eternal suffering. Michel argues there is no such thing, good people aren’t good, they do bad things. However he always puts Morgana, generally speaking the victim in this situation, first above all else. Fata Morgana asks that you don’t necessarily need to seek forgiveness in others, but content in yourself. Morgana in the end, has to accept the men and the others around her - and herself - as human, and Michel puts faith in others that although they are indeed flawed; they possess the abilities in themselves to take accountability for their bad characteristics. Unfortunately not everyone in the world is likeable (Michel describes himself as “grey” sometimes - and despite the red herring of the White Haired Girl of being morally… white, she is the subconscious of Morgana’s ideals of human), but by coming into terms and accepting people for who they are we are more likely to make peace with the inhumanly parts of ourselves we reject. There is indeed the rejection of your belonging in this world and striving towards the human in which you want to be. The three men’s plan was never to always to do wrong (their constant belief was that they were in the right) but by accepting these truths they transform into more humane characteristics of their previous selves. We see these in the stories too - Mell wanted to stay loved, the Swordsman truly wished for inner peace, Jacopo wished to be with the girl he cared for deeply. But these actions were inherently selfish, and had to be changed.
I struggle to comment on themes of gender identity, for I am not intersex myself and do not have the internal understanding that intersex people may have themselves to the story, but I would like to briefly comment on the game’s sensitive and supporting handling of such topics. But it is the unfortunate disparity that people recognise that Fata Morgana is often an exception when it comes to the views of gender and queer aspects in visual novel media. Though it may not be my place to comment, I hope intersex and people who may also identify themselves as transgender resonate with the nonconformity and exploration of gender that Fata Morgana empathetically provides.
A final theme that I would like to present here; love is a vital theme that exists through nearly all of Fata Morgana’s lapping plots and intricate storylines, and is somewhat hard to ignore its general significance. The multitudes of love present throughout also have different extents. Nellie’s love is more harmful than positive affection, to the point of seeping through and damaging the lives of those around her. Nell leans too much onto the love, despite him knowing that it’s unhealthy in their circumstance. Pauline’s love is almost blindsided - she’s unable to see the inhumane parts of the Swordsman within him, and vice versa where the Swordsman is using love selfishly to keep those parts hidden. Jacopo never acts in time and when he does, not truly what he wants to do, meaning he loses the White Haired Girl/Morgana. Although it is until the eight chapter when things are presumably resolved between the three, the Fifth Door allows all the events of time to flow into one. It is a breakaway of a gothic tradition. Despite losing each other for hundreds of years, Giselle and Michel will always love each other, and their love is enough for the lives around them to flourish and expand exponentially.
I would like to close this text by directly speaking to whoever is reading this to take a more rigorous look at Fata Morgana than I have here - there are many rich themes that are present as well that I haven’t described here without these paragraphs feeling bloated and without effort put in. If you’ve read up to here and have not played for yourself at least once, I strongly suggest that you still pick up and explore the mansion for yourself. A lot of what is written here is not effective if you haven’t experienced the emotions and mysteries of what lies in it, and despite some colossal spoilers for events some especially impressive moments have been left out. The House in Fata Morgana is simply ground-breaking; an interlinking of rich themes, atmospheric tones and narratives and subversions that create something that can only be made once in a generation.
… I don’t have a sufficient enough or impactful sentence to end things here, so I’d make the final statement that Michel and Giselle are quite adorable.
“𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥…
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘴
𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘺
𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥.”
"𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥
...𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥."
Indisputably one of the strongest pieces of the visual novel medium, the haunting yet human narratives of Fata Morgana establish it as one of gothic fiction’s triumphs. There’s a decisive first impression during the course of FM’s “Act 1” that represents it’s tone and theme, and what the player is going to experience throughout. In it, we are presented with the revelation that during the mid-end of one of the Maid’s tales that a painting laid hanging in the adolescent Nellie Rhodes’ bedroom, depicting what used to be the two siblings side by side of each other, to be a prophecy, depicting the future in which Mell and the White Haired Girl are more related than we think. Following further events this reveal is somewhat insignificant and one of the title’s less shocking twists than to what the story later goes on to portray. Nonetheless this is the first example in which we see one of Fata Morgana’s key devices; the ambiguity and non-linear storytelling.
The game revels in its building of tension and mystery throughout its chapters. Things often need second glances and you’re often encouraged to witness events and characters and view them more as double entendres. You’re often flung twists and reveals, but to credit the writing none of them feel poor taste, and fortunately in the wider picture they fit in well. The ambiguity of the writing itself is also a double entendre of the character of Michel. The third person perspective of Doors 1-4 at first dictate how you believe the rest of the game is going to be, and unbeknownst to you perspective switches between “You” and the Maid in order to intentionally throw you off. We entrust conventional visual novel’s unspoken rules and conventions, only to our astonishment that our perception was false. Door 2 is purposefully skewed towards The Maid’s recount of the story (notice when she isn’t there during Pauline’s sequences) and the chronology of accounts is swapped and mismatched to accommodate reveals. However the perspective swapping also provides insights into characters and the overall synopsis that you wouldn’t see if the story was linearly one identity. Door 5 is the largest and grandest example most likely, as by benefitting from two perspectives we are able to understand Michel and Giselle’s blossoming relationship. Fata Morgana sometimes does the reverse, and provides only a singular perspective. Door 7 leads us only through Michel’s eyes so we can grasp only his emotions and intentions.
There’s undeniable immense credit that has to be given to the game’s atmosphere and tone. JoshTheFourth describes it as “neoclassical darkwave”, and even the comment was jokey in a sense, (if not, then I’m deeply sorry) there’s an ironic sense that the blend of newer and older genres only fit into a game about different point in a millennium. The game advises that you immerse yourself in its sound, only to provide often grimy, eerie and distilling moods upon the player. Most doors have different sounds and ways of expressing themselves to the reader - but all without a sense of.. Uncomfortableness. There’s also the blend of the newer and older art of Fata Morgana - backgrounds are often minimalistic and don’t insight much, but darkening colours and palette swaps to more sinister shades during pivotal moments create a deeper and foreboding tension. Character portraits seem almost too detailed in comparison - beautiful and frailish, lighter tones juxtaposed to the background. Some characters do not even have portraits - referred to only in the text screen below. A lot of what Fata Morgana does well is that, like most visual novels; actions and objects are mostly left to your imagination. This is why moments feel more anxious than they should, and more satisfying if you take more time to invest and put yourself into the game.
There were minor mentions and nods to themes earlier in this text, and I would like to apologise if my haphazard and sometimes lazy forms of writing don’t give the quite mature themes this game envisions the evaluation it deserves. In spite of that I would like to say the game handles these messages extremely effectively. There’s the overall arching theme of morality and humanity during the whole 30ish hours, but towards the end of the game we are shown this in a new light. Morgana’s core sentiment is that the three men are all morally black - unworthy of forgiveness and in that belief she casts them to eternal suffering. Michel argues there is no such thing, good people aren’t good, they do bad things. However he always puts Morgana, generally speaking the victim in this situation, first above all else. Fata Morgana asks that you don’t necessarily need to seek forgiveness in others, but content in yourself. Morgana in the end, has to accept the men and the others around her - and herself - as human, and Michel puts faith in others that although they are indeed flawed; they possess the abilities in themselves to take accountability for their bad characteristics. Unfortunately not everyone in the world is likeable (Michel describes himself as “grey” sometimes - and despite the red herring of the White Haired Girl of being morally… white, she is the subconscious of Morgana’s ideals of human), but by coming into terms and accepting people for who they are we are more likely to make peace with the inhumanly parts of ourselves we reject. There is indeed the rejection of your belonging in this world and striving towards the human in which you want to be. The three men’s plan was never to always to do wrong (their constant belief was that they were in the right) but by accepting these truths they transform into more humane characteristics of their previous selves. We see these in the stories too - Mell wanted to stay loved, the Swordsman truly wished for inner peace, Jacopo wished to be with the girl he cared for deeply. But these actions were inherently selfish, and had to be changed.
I struggle to comment on themes of gender identity, for I am not intersex myself and do not have the internal understanding that intersex people may have themselves to the story, but I would like to briefly comment on the game’s sensitive and supporting handling of such topics. But it is the unfortunate disparity that people recognise that Fata Morgana is often an exception when it comes to the views of gender and queer aspects in visual novel media. Though it may not be my place to comment, I hope intersex and people who may also identify themselves as transgender resonate with the nonconformity and exploration of gender that Fata Morgana empathetically provides.
A final theme that I would like to present here; love is a vital theme that exists through nearly all of Fata Morgana’s lapping plots and intricate storylines, and is somewhat hard to ignore its general significance. The multitudes of love present throughout also have different extents. Nellie’s love is more harmful than positive affection, to the point of seeping through and damaging the lives of those around her. Nell leans too much onto the love, despite him knowing that it’s unhealthy in their circumstance. Pauline’s love is almost blindsided - she’s unable to see the inhumane parts of the Swordsman within him, and vice versa where the Swordsman is using love selfishly to keep those parts hidden. Jacopo never acts in time and when he does, not truly what he wants to do, meaning he loses the White Haired Girl/Morgana. Although it is until the eight chapter when things are presumably resolved between the three, the Fifth Door allows all the events of time to flow into one. It is a breakaway of a gothic tradition. Despite losing each other for hundreds of years, Giselle and Michel will always love each other, and their love is enough for the lives around them to flourish and expand exponentially.
I would like to close this text by directly speaking to whoever is reading this to take a more rigorous look at Fata Morgana than I have here - there are many rich themes that are present as well that I haven’t described here without these paragraphs feeling bloated and without effort put in. If you’ve read up to here and have not played for yourself at least once, I strongly suggest that you still pick up and explore the mansion for yourself. A lot of what is written here is not effective if you haven’t experienced the emotions and mysteries of what lies in it, and despite some colossal spoilers for events some especially impressive moments have been left out. The House in Fata Morgana is simply ground-breaking; an interlinking of rich themes, atmospheric tones and narratives and subversions that create something that can only be made once in a generation.
… I don’t have a sufficient enough or impactful sentence to end things here, so I’d make the final statement that Michel and Giselle are quite adorable.
“𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥…
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘴
𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘺
𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥.”