The House in Fata Morgana

I’ve heard absolute wonders about this visual novel so you could say I was super excited to finally start playing Fata Morgana. Not only that, but I even remember LOTS of 100 scores in videogames review websites being my first contact with this visual novel, will it live up to that reputation?

Story

Of course, spoilers alert!
Images contain spoilers out of context as well!

Before getting into the game, I wasn’t expecting the game to be fragmented in different doors/chapters that are separated between them while sharing many common elements. It’s quite an interesting approach, so I’m excited to see what they can deliver with this concept

First door! Since it’s the story that has to set up the basics for the entire novel, it’s expected that it will suffer from it a little bit but it was a very interesting plot. I really liked the protagonist and I kind of predicted the final twist, but I liked the execution of it

Second door! I really liked the entire concept of the beast and the plot twists caught me off guard for sure, I appreciated this chapter a lot. The whole Pauline and the white-haired girl thing was heartbreaking and I like how they handle the tragedies during each story. It was one of the most entertaining stories for me and I really liked learning about the beast and who he really was

Third door! Wow I really do NOT like Jacopo, he can burn in hell for all that I know. It’s a very raw story regarding domestic abuse and how women were treated during the era, and the treatment that the white-haired girl receives is heartbreaking. Maria was kind of an interesting plot twist and I liked the hints preceding it (I caught onto them since the beginning hehe)

Fourth door! Tragically beautiful until you learn the truth. This is the first time we get to know more about Michel and I really liked his design and character. The hidden dialogue in the backlog was a very interesting concept which I liked a lot and the fact that it turned out to be a fabrication made it even better

Fifth door! Oh boy, things are getting serious now, we know the maid is hiding a huge secret and we have to find out. The whole story regarding Giselle is just heartbreaking and it makes your heart cry in pain seeing how she could never find happiness, and every time she found a new hope, everything went wrong again. I really liked how Giselle and Michel’s relationship developed in the end when they finally got to understand each other

I didn’t expect the next scenes to be such a happy setting, with Giselle and Michel’s bonding with each other even more as if I were reading a romantic comedy. But knowing FataMoru, it wouldn’t end in a happy note, and once I realised the parallelisms with the fourth door, I knew something tragic was coming no matter what: and of course, the tragedy came

I wasn’t prepared for the whole Giselle’s backstory, it connected all of the past stories and her appearances. AND THEN, I was hit with Morgana’s backstory, which connected the three stories and their protagonists even further, leaving me in complete shock

But oh man, that was not even the biggest plot twist I could have been shown, when they revealed that Michel had been a trans person all along and that all the white-haired girls were his reincarnations across the era, my mouth was hanging. The best part is, the first moment I saw Michel, I jokingly predicted the plot twist while talking with a friend

Later on, it’s revealed that he was actually intersex, but seeing as he had been educated as a girl since his birth and everyone thought of him as a young lady, the trans metaphor is still VERY strong, and being intersex makes for a good comparison to a transition in this era. Plus, all his thoughts during his childhood… yeah

I know what was coming in his backstory, but everything hit me so hard. When the climax was reached and it was revealed that it was his own brother who killed him in the end… Man. It hurts. The scene where Michel and Giselle come together once again almost had me tears, it was all so beautiful and tear-jerking.

Now we move onto hearing Morgana’s story and saving Morgana ourselves. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this part at first, but I really liked how we could see into the protagonists of the past stories in much greater detail and notice aspects of them that explain certain parts of their stories, just like how the Swordman dated Pauline in order to suppress his murderous urges. Plus, I must admit, they made me like Mell a lot during this part and I was really glad that he had such an active role in aiding Michel throughout everything

After hearing everyone’s perspective of the story, I realise just how extremely clever the first three doors were, giving us an insight on the characters while maintaining very smart parallelisms with their story in Morgana’s era, specially their relationship with the white-haired girl

But it didn’t end there, because the fact that Morgana’s and the white-haired girl’s wishes turned into one made everything make even more sense, and added a layer of even more tragedy and sadness to the stories

The fact that the white-haired girl took after Michel purely because his story moved her, and was so similar to Morgana’s but with the difference that he didn’t want to curse anyone who inflicted him suffering was also a fantastic parallelism. And a great red herring while we are at that, seeing as they made us believe the white-haired girl was the same person as Michel at first

What I wasn’t expecting is Georges being the painting that helped Michel AND Didier’s soul needing salvation as well, but I was actually wondering that, after seeing Morgana’s story in the perspective of the others, if they would do the same with Michel’s story. And finally being able to see the three brothers reunite and clear everything up had me almost in tears, specially after seeing that neither of them bore any hatred or ill-will against Michel

Everyone is “reincarnated” and act very similar to how they did, even if the bonds with the people important to them haven’t been forged yet. It’s a bit vague and ambiguous on purpose, but I think this was a fine way of closing their stories, but I would have liked to know a bit more about how everything’s going for all of them

The credits roll… and Michel and Giselle are finally reunited in life. It’s such a beautiful way to end Fata Morgana, plus I absolutely love how they transition into the title screen, with a new image and with Giselle’s theme. I’m completely in awe with this story, it’s such an unforgettable and once-in-a-lifetime experience

I’ve yet to read the backstage and prologue, plus some of the DLCs, but I feel like I’ll have to tackle those much later on, because I’m still healing from finishing the main story </3

Characters

Spoilers during this segment too!

Well… Taking on account how FataMoru is built, this is one difficult part to tackle since I can’t really talk individually about some of the characters present across the story. However, through all of these stories you end up knowing most of these characters super well, throughout multiple perspectives even, and even if some of them committed questionable actions, I love how human and deep all of them are and how you can appreciate them for their qualities

My favourite character is Michel, no doubt. I love his design, his backstory, his relationship with Giselle and what a good protagonist he was during the later half of the game. His backstory is specially good, seeing as it’s basically a trans metaphor as I explained during the story section. And, seeing how his way of interacting with people developed through Giselle and later on through Mell and such characters was really heartwarming

Of course, one of my other favourite characters is Giselle as well. Just like with Michel, I absolutely love her design and her relationship with Michel and how it helps build and develop both characters so well. All of her backstory as the maid caught me off guard and I really liked it

Morgana… This one is gonna be hard and interesting to talk about. While she is the main villain of the story, she’s also one of its biggest victims. Everything regarding her story was brilliantly set up and she’s the core reason why Fata Morgana happens. As a character, I really sympathised with her just how I did with Michel and Giselle’s backstories, and I really liked how, in the end, even if she doesn’t forgive those who ruined her life, she is finally able to let go thanks to Michel’s help and seeing the perspective of each character

The white-haired girl, aka Michelle, it’s quite possibly the hardest character to talk about, since we both know so much but so little about her. She’s Morgana’s saint side, and while we know a lot of how Morgana is and how she felt throughout the stories, Michelle is a weird case. Her wish was to live, but Morgana’s wish brought her nothing but misery and tragedy across her lives, which is extremely sad to think about taking on account that she ends up begging Michel to release her soul. I wish she could have been saved, but at the end of the day she’s also Morgana, so I don’t know how to feel about this one

Mell grew on me a lot thanks to his interactions during Morgana’s story, and I appreciated a lot how he befriended and aided Michel throughout it. He’s mostly a victim, but he still is able to accept his part of the blame while trying to make up for his actions, and I like that a lot. And similarly, Nellie grew on me a lot during Morgana’s story and being able to see the two siblings communicate with each other and solve their problems was very nice

Yukimasa was one of the reasons the second door is my favourite out of the first three, and that’s because he brings a really interesting plot and debate during it. I really liked his character, and the fact that he is the most irredeemable one out of the three but still tries to feel human. Overall, his character and depth just felt very interesting to me

I really wanted to like Jacopo but oh my god he turned to be worse and worse every time. Between how he treated his wife during the third door, being in love with Morgana even though she was a child, treating her how he did during her story, how he doesn’t care about ruining anyone’s life, etc… It’s sad because he is a compelling character with redeeming qualities but I just find myself being unable to like this scumbag. The fact that they were able to make me care for him this much even with all of that is a big statement though, even though he would probably invest in crypto and NFTs. If anything, I can forgive the Jacopo from Morgana’s story, but the Jacopo from the third door can burn in hell

Maria and Pauline are also important characters, but they don’t appear as much for me to be able to write a lengthy text. I really liked them both though, and while Pauline doesn’t have much going on for her character, I really liked how Maria behaved during Morgana’s story and the fact that she was a “good” friend to her.

I really liked the touch that we get to see Michel’s brothers, Georges and Didier, one last time before the ending of the story and that they got the redemption and explanations that they deserved. Plus, I really like how they both cursed themselves because of how Michel’s life went and how it ended, and that they could never get to tell Michel how much he meant for them

Music

The soundtrack was definitely a surprise. It wasn’t the kind of music I was expecting but it slowly grows on you the more you play and it’s super charismatic and fitting for this novel. Most of its tracks are REALLY beautiful and I absolutely fell in love with them

“Giselle” is probably my most favourite track of them all, because of what it means to the story, the parts where it plays and just how many tears it almost took out of me every time it played

Conclusion

I had my expectations set very high for this VN as I had seen it receives nothing but praise. At the start, the pace is a bit slow and I didn’t really see its charm, so I wasn’t particularly engaged. I was reading the first chapters little by little, but once the whole Michel and Giselle story started, I slowly began feeling more and more charmed

Overall, Fata Morgana is a fantastic experience and I absolutely adored it. It’s one of those unforgettable visual novels that will live on my mind for long and I’m glad I took the time to read it

I would say one of the flaws I’ve found within this game are the fact that Giselle, a sexual abuse survivor character, has a few CGs involving a bit of fan-service, which is a really gross thing

All in all, I loved Fata Morgana and hopefully I can get to play the DLCs and extra content soon, but for now, I wanna let the story live on me for a little longer before experiencing a new one

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