fault - milestone one Reviews

Beatiful

Revisited this title many times, and although there are twists, the writing, soundtrack, and art create such an atmosphere that the climax brings me to tears every time. The writing is well-executed at the emotional climax, but considering this is the first title of the developers, it does have its drawbacks. [b][h3]Writing[/h3][/b] It is about a 7 hour read if you like to immerse yourself in the atmosphere and music and take it slow. The writing in the beginning is well-executed and sets the world and characters smoothly. You are thrown into a scenario and you gradually figure things out with no hand-holding. The writing in the latter half, however, is a bit dated because of certain topics the story touches on, but considering the time this was released and the way the topic was used as a storytelling device, it's passable. Also, the amount of jargon and genres the story attempts to combine in order to set up the latter half was too ambitious and convoluted. It also felt like filler because it wasn't required reading for the climax to hit. Fortunately, the climax was well-executed and had many layers to it that built multiple characters and creates a satisfying conclusion. The ending, however, has a huge cliffhanger, so that may affect your purchase. If you want a taste of their style of storytelling, you can buy one of their cheaper titles--[u]Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell[/u], which is a quick 1-2 hour read with a full story arc and equivalent highs on the climax. If you don't mind the cliffhanger (we have been waiting for the 3rd installment of the fault series for years now), then feel free to buy it if you're the type to enjoy feeling the emotions of the story. Compared to majority of English novels around the same price (or more!) that have questionable execution, AiD, so far, have not dropped their quality in terms of writing a good emotional climax in all of their existing titles as of this review. There's a certain life, vitality, and effervescence to the stories they create, so as long as I feel this, I know I can trust their execution in the stories they write. [b][h3]Worldbuilding[/h3][/b] The worldbuilding was the first thing that drew me in the first time I read this about a decade ago. The soft magic system shows itself only when it's important, which creates a sense of awe and mystery as to what it entails and how it may be applied in a civilization that uses it in their daily lives. Fortunately, the sequel and side story expands on this and shows just how big and complex of a world this story takes place in. For the first installment, however, you'll just be following the two girls--Ritona and Selphine--on a journey back to their homeland--which you vicariously learn about through the other characters they meet. [b][h3]Characters[/h3][/b] The character interactions are silly, cute, goofy, and sometimes cliche (if you're familiar with anime). You get to see how they solve problems and face challenges based on their personality, which is quite enjoyable. There are some dialogue and thoughts that strangely break the 4th wall or uses slang (2 instances within a short span of each other), but it's not too serious. For the side characters, they are not set up well and use very cliche language, such as saying things just to say it or just to cause drama, which ties in to the terrible execution in the latter half. But it significantly improves and some some characters [b][h3]Art[/h3][/b] Not an artist, but the character proportions are a bit off. Otherwise, the art gets the point across and that's all that matters to me. Later titles do have much better art, though. [b][h3]Music[/h3][/b] Not a musician nor an avid music listener, but the Start Menu music and certain soundtracks were memorable. Most other soundtracks were more for creating a mood, which was dependent on specific moments in the story.

Fault follows the story of Princess Selphine and her royal guardian, Ritona, starting from the night their kingdom is attacked by a cast of interesting characters. While we don't get too much information about Melano and her friends who caused this ambush in milestone one, we instead learn more of the lore of Selphine and Ritona, uses of sediment and mana, how the polar geographic regions differ from one another, and about a mysterious young girl named Sara/Rune and her family's dark secrets. I haven't played many virtual novels and have only played through this game (part one of the overall story) so far, but this is by far the best VN I've played as far as storytelling keeping me engaged. 7/10