Board 8 > House in Fata Morgana time.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Alright, time to go all out. BACK TO THE PAST.

I am reaching the point where I'm terrified of the game ending soon. That said, I just read the blurb, and apparently the studio says they consider this release to be a triple pack of 3 full games? What??

Dedue posted...

Alright, time to go all out. BACK TO THE PAST.

I am reaching the point where I'm terrified of the game ending soon. That said, I just read the blurb, and apparently the studio says they consider this release to be a triple pack of 3 full games? What??

There's two 'side story' games that are essentially additional content meant to be played after Fata Morgana is finished. Both of those are much shorter then the base game. Fata Morgana has a fully complete story, the other stuff is just extra.
---

In my research I've also found out this dev and writer haven't done any other games yet.

The thirst is going to be ROUGH after this.

I already have the AO3 page bookmarked out of desperation.

Lord...it's over...

I'm just...I don't know what to think. I still have all this bonus content as well, but I still feel so satisfied as is. I'm still processing how impactful a game that was for me...it might be my favorite....

I've spent the last year really contemplating exactly what I'm looking for in games nowadays, exactly what genres impact me most and I find myself finding the highest amount of appreciation in, and this may just take the cake.

You stayed until the credits were over, right?

The ending of Fata Morgana made me cry like a bitch.
---

Yes, of course. Same here.

I am hoping the bonus content does not...taint the experience in any way. I don't know what it actually is yet, but I'm always wary in situations like this.

I still haven't read the bonus content - not because I've heard bad things (quite the opposite) but because I felt so satisfied with the main game that I didn't feel the urge for more. Its been more than a year and I still haven't exited the honeymoon phase. I suppose I should read it, though, considering I...you know...paid money for the new edition and currently its sitting on my shelf. Looking very nice, but still just sitting.
---

I've already come to accept that "gameplay" is far and away the least important factor of a video game for me nowadays, which to some may cause confusion because...why even still play games? I reject that, as stuff like, looking strictly at games I played this year, Edith Finch, Somnium Files, and of course Fata Morgana, are absolutely the experienced they are BECAUSE they're games, even if "gameplay" is barely even a factor. Hell, I just put over 200 hours into 3 Houses, and the part where two dudes hit eachother on a map never really meant anything to me.

At the same, games I recently played that were huge AAA release, like Control and Spiderman, are clearly quite excellent games...but they made absolutely no impact on me whatsoever. It's been less than a month since I've played either, and they're both totally out of my mind, and I could forget I ever played them and it would change nothing.

This game....is never going to leave my mind.

Fata Morgana is my favorite VN, and probably one of the best stories Ive ever experienced. Ill say that the bonus content does not disappoint, at worst it just fills in some gaps with the other characters. You have things that are impactful but also fun. Theres a story that shows Michel and Giselle post-ending going on a date. I was wary of this at first because I thought the ending was perfect, but it was still fun to see. Also my least favorite character in the story finally gets some comeuppance....
---

This first bonus story OST is GOOD

Gonna need rankings of the Doors now that you're done with the base game!
---

That's a super tough thing to answer, other than door 4 in last obviously. These doors serve very different purposes, and toward the end they're pretty reliant on eachother. I'll try, though.

8> 5 > 7 > 3 > 1 > 2 > 6> 4

But....I hardly feel like it matters, they're all superb.

Well yeah, but it's B8. Gotta rank stuff on B8.

The company in charge of the game held a character popularity poll a while back. They released the results in the form of a lighthearted little 'minigame' that got summarized here:

https://aseriaa.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/the-house-in-fata-morgana-mini-games-popularity-poll-1/

Pure results were:
https://aseriaa.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/chara-poll-1-p1.png
https://aseriaa.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/chara-poll-1-p2.png
https://aseriaa.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/chara-poll-1-p3.png

Giselle got way too few votes.
---

Those votals are depressing.

Those are great vote totals for a probably-not-widely-publicized poll of a niche game. It's as many votes as I got on the census I held on the Fire Emblem subreddits and those have 7000+ people visiting daily.
---

Who are these eleven literal, actual monster people who voted for Aimee?
---

I'm so desperate for Aimee to be the character you mentioned earlier.

I do think the Aimee section is the one part where the VN dropped the ball. The story can be sad and depressing, sure, but what whole thing was sadistic in a way that just felt cheap. It was torture just for torture's sake, and the way that part reveled in it has never sat right with me.
---

I was on board with everything in Door 7, that part included. The one part of the VN I wasn't big on was that Door 3's tragic conflict could have been solved by a single spoken sentence. I guess that was the point, but it didn't work for me (and Maria showing Jacopo a doctored letter literally every day was kind of absurd).

Oh yeah, Door ranking:

5>8>7>4=1>2>6>3

4 is one I appreciate more as time goes on. It's extremely eerie and the Text Log side of it is absolute genius.
---

I meaaaaan the text thing is super cool, but the POINT of 4 is that it's not great, at least the way I see it.

It's great as a psychological horror piece, where things feel wrong but you don't know how, why, or what's actually going on. Then the Text Log becomes more and more prominent. The scene in the tower with the White-Haired Girl and 'Michel' having this cheesy, uplifting heart-to-heart as the backdrop for Morgana directly speaking to you in the Text Log is one of the defining moments in the game for me.

Music helps sell this a lot. I mean, the entire OST is amazing so that goes without saying, but the Door 4 tracks are distinctly more creepy and ethereal-sounding than most of the rest of the OST.
---

Also, can I mention how crazy it is that the story keeps you almost entirely in the dark about its three main characters until half the game is over? Going into Door 5, the only Michel you know is Morgana's fanfic version, Morgana herself is a vague legend that may or may not exist, and Giselle is an unknown outside of one line in a missable ending. I've never experienced a story that had the audacity to both do something like this and make it work.
---

The real shocker for me was that up until the chapter 4 texlog, I didn't even think this game was going to HAVE an overarching narrative.

I figured partway through Door Four that there would be a fifth Door to tie everything together because Door Four was too weird to be the last one. I didn't at all suspect that I was reaching the tail end of an extended prologue.
---

Random Fata Morgana Detail #47: The characters' "sprite" art in Door 1-3 has them facing sideways, as you're experiencing their stories as an outsider. Afterwards, all the art is directly facing the player, as everything is directly experienced (or was personally experienced) by Michel and Giselle. The exception is the Maid, who is directly speaking to you from the start.

Random Fata Morgana Detail #48: Many of the song lyrics are in Portuguese. The translated lyrics for even the happy-sounding songs can be hilariously dark. Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaWuLJ8S0BE" data-time="

Close your eyes and take my ears away.
You scream through sealed lips - an ear-splitting howl -
While I scour beneath your flesh,
For infection or unyielding hunger.

Little by little, the apple decays.
Go on, bury it right there.

I've buried so much in my dreams:
The feathers of birds and glimmering stones,
Grand white lilies and dirty stray cats,
Spider legs and so much more...

Cicio, cicio, cicio, cicio.

Oh, just let me stay here, in my own little world.
I've had enough of people's false promises.
I'm tired of all the lies and deception.
I'd rather stare at the ground and watch the grass grow.

Little by little, the stream flows on.
Come now, here is the place...

Cicio, cicio, cicio, cicio.
---

....WHERE is that Michel art from??

Soundtrack cover art. Also there's this bit from the mini-story thing I posted:

Since Michel and Morgana won the popularity poll with 1st and 2nd place, they get to be on the cover of the soundtrack jackets. When Morgana goes to Michel, shes confused as to why Michel doesnt have a happier face on considering he won the entire poll.

Turns out, Jacopo is in an uproar because he was third place, but was only like 6 votes behind. Since their scores were really close, he says he should have been on the jacket as well. At the very least, he wants to tag along with the others.

---

If I have ONE complaint, it's that the game doesn't even attempt to keep the dialogue sounding period appropriate in the the older time periods. I mean, it's probably for the best. But things like Giselle's sarcastic dialogue, naming a cat "MKII", the word "psychologically" being used multiple times....there's really dozens of examples, it didn't really appear to be an issue in the first half, but it's a little strange how common it is in the second. That said, I still prefer it as is.

I read an interview from the translators where they mentioned that they originally tried to make each time period sound authentic and it ended up reading terribly, so they just gave up on it. Though they went a bit too far in the other direction at some points, yeah.
---

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/community/MichelBollinger

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/community/MorganaTheWitch

You're not getting all of them!

(sadly, Giselle was taken)
---

I don't intend to be cruel.

Fata Morgana itself is still available, but that seems a bit dull.

That feel when the Giselle account is definitely named after some late Bleach character.

I actually ran a Tag Team Character contests a while back that had Michel in it. The teams each round were randomized and he won like 3 matches because he kept getting paired with guys like Phoenix Wright and Kirby. I like to think it encouraged at least one person to learn the game existed.
---

Huh...didnt realize the version of the game I'm playing apparently has redone CGs?

Some were redone to fit the new aspect ratio.

That's a bad picture of the original version, though. It definitely didn't look that blurry in-game.
---

Have you done the backstage stuff yet?
---

Doesn't appear to unlock until I've beaten the expansion.

Really? There should a backstage for both the main game and the expansion, unless the PS4/rerelease changed how that works.
---

I mean I'll double check. The expansion is the only thing that stopped being grayed out when I beat it I beleive, but maybe I just didn't notice.

Maaaaan, I really didn't think I was gonna end up caring to much about expanding out on events we already knew about, especially with new, reviously unmentioned characters being slotted in, but this is pretty wild.

Yeah the first half of Requiem of Innocence is a weird one. Half basic retelling of events we've already seen, half bringing up important people that we somehow never saw before.
---

I did the backdoor unlock thing, but extras is indeed still locked, which I am told is where backstage is.

Cried again ;_;

That post credits basement closure, I had almost forgotten that loose end.

Literally cannon that Michel and Giselle watched the South Park movie on their first date.

Bruh....if there's not a continuation of that Happily Ever After ending in gonna bust some heads.

Oh God they're gonna kill me with the Fragment thing.

I skipped over mentioning it, but the Imeon thing was...meh...felt super fanfictiony, in the bad way, not super interesting and didn't really feel like it mattered.

Ahhh fuck I cried again...

... Decided to randomly go into config just now...



UHHHHHH...

Oh my God this is so WEIRD...

This shit gets up the exact point I care about most and then flashes back a year SUCK MY DICK I'M GOING TO BED.