The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Review
Release Date: April 9th, 2021
Developer: Novectacle
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Price: $39.99
There's something about the Gothic format that has always intrigued me, from the aesthetic of the furniture to the architecture of the buildings, the way the clothes were weaved, and more. It has almost a medieval vibe to it, but one that has more emphasis on dark religious undertones with a craftsmanship and class that is immensely unique and beautiful akin to the likes of works from Michelangelo and Donatello in terms of prowess and historical significance. It's a feast for the eyes as you go through a visual novel masterclass playing as You and seeing a world through their (your?) eyes, set in a narrative where gothic suspense takes place in a cursed mansion. With three full-length visual novels to enjoy here, you're looking at well over 50+ hours of content, and can easily span closer to 100+ if you're aiming for all endings and gallery art across this definitive edition of House in Fata Morgana, packing in three visual novels all in one title for the best way to experience one of the genre's best and most memorable titles.
Right off the gate, however, it should be addressed that while The House in Fata Morgana is a visually stunning feature, it doesn't leave the best first impression as the menus are fairly bland, but the opening cinematic quickly sets the tone and mood of what's to be expected moving forward from the moment the first words are uttered. Every background, character portrait, and icon is beautifully crafted, and House of Fata Morgana lets it be known very quickly for those that may have never heard of it or don't even know what to expect that its art will not only help captivate the player by drawing them in with stunning art to look at, but uses that art to help accentuate the time period, architecture, as well as the entire flow and tone of the story to provide an experience that's consistently memorable, with each frame, piece of dialogue, and sequence something to take in and consume as if one were to be in an art gallery.
The story of House in Fata Morgana is an interesting one, but also keeps it mysterious enough to once again fit the nature of the narrative and how the player is meant to feel going through it. Being in what is undoubtedly a mysterious and cursed mansion, the story will bounce between the modern day and what feels like a fairytale being told by a maid in the present day, though most of the story that's told in this storybook fashion as it slowly progresses into the current timeline is one that takes place in the past, so it becomes a linear experience with little else to interact or influence upon. Any reference to the current timeline while you're experiencing these seemingly old memories are usually done through narration, though unfortunately because of the overly simplistic text box The House of Fata Morgana opts for in its debut title, leaving a semi-opaque bar with basic font on top for legibility, and sometimes it isn't made clear who or what is delivering the line with no real indication to the speaker. Outside of little quirks like this, however, House of Fata Morgana feels like a haunted mansion that you experience with its palpable storybook presentation in delivering its atmosphere and setting, eventually getting under your skin.
In addition to the main storyline of House in Fata Morgana players have experienced since 2016 in Japan and 2019 on Vita, two more stories come included in the form of A Requiem for Innocence, a prequel that goes into the beginnings of how the mansion got its initial curse, and Reincarnation, a sequel with the main cast set in the present day. As a bonus, a series of short stories beef up the already meaty package further to give The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition even more value once you've finished the rest of the titles, though through a Back Door section of the main menu, you can enter answers to a few simple questions (this is the same for every game and isn't unique to a playthrough) to immediately unlock all content in the game in case you may have already experienced the base game prior to the Dreams of the Revenants Edition and want to gain immediate access to its sequels and additional content. All of this compiles arguably one of the most well-rounded visual novel offerings on Switch, and because of its format innate within the genre, it feels right at home on the hybrid system, showing off a literal work of art on the big screen in 1080p docked, and becoming storytelling feast once back in handheld mode taking full advantage of the real estate given in its screen size.
Despite its stellar way of storytelling with copious amounts of mystery, wonder, suggestive themes, and overall dark tones, The House in Fata Morgana isn't really doing anything groundbreaking within the visual novels other titles that add more gameplay elements like Zero Escape, Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters, or Root Letter would do to keep a more casual player interested, and certainly would be a heavy consumption of information and text for a newer reader to experience through its dense duration, but every moment is worth it as it cleverly stays away from tropes and most cliché beats to stay intriguing and encapsulating with great character development and sequences that stand out and are more elaborate than a standard run-of-the-mill VN you'd see on Steam or MangaGamer. It'll contain your standard auto-play, skip, fast-forward, pause, and hide features alongside the typical galleries and collected pieces of music and the sort, so outside of that you're basically just looking into getting a purely narrative experience, albeit a captivating one, and the addition of touch-controls is always a welcome one when you simply want to take the Joy-Con off and hold the tablet like you would an e-book.
Even with years having passed since its initial release, The Dream of the Revenants Edition of The House in Fata Morgana beautifully compiles all three stories (and then some) of the critically acclaimed visual novel into a stunning package that provides not only some of the best art but some of the most unique and captivating storytelling the genre has seen, and this is also a big bump to the Switch's already vast visual novel portfolio that lends itself to classics that were previously only seen on PC and/or never translated. Joining the likes of Clannad and If My Heart Had Wings, The House in Fata Morgana is a reminder of why the visual novel genre can be so powerful at times, and that it's not only just about great gameplay, but that a good story can triumph the rest even if the game is meant to be kinetic.
PROS:
Stunning artwork
An in-depth story that's gripping and unique
A great soundtrack the complements both the atmosphere and its narrative
Tons of incredible narrative content to enjoy across three games and additional short stories
CONS:
As is the case with a lot of visual novels, multiple routes and endings in something that is already an extraordinary length means it's a big time investment for those looking to unlock just about everything, even with a skip feature, and House in Fata Morgana isn’t exactly the easiest to backtrack in.
The linear nature of the game with a lack of choices may be problematic to some
A massive thank you to Novectacle and Limited Run Games for providing us a copy of The House of Fata Morgana: Dreams of Revenant Edition for the purposes of this review!