Board 8 > The House in Fata Morgana *spoilers after the first post*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just finished. Ending 8.

I'll have more to say tomorrow when I'm coherent (where do I even begin?), but for now I just have to say that that was one of the best stories I've ever experienced, bar-none. What a rollercoaster of emotion.
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Oh jeez, there's a sort-of-sequel? Don't think I'll be jumping on that right away - I need an emotional break. Is it any good?
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I agree, Fata Morgana is hands-down the best VN I've seen and one of my favorite stories in general. Michel is one of the favorite protagonists, too.

The follow-up is great. The main story has two parts, the first part is a bit slow but the second part delivers. There's also extra side stories, and those are really good (and there's one that takes place after the ending of Fata Morgana as well).
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Noted. I'll definitely pick it up sometime then.

First thing I have to mention is that the presentation is incredible. Really good music and really good art.

Michel is a really good character. I like how he I'd both a very good orator and very bad at social interactions. Giselle and Morgana would be my favorites after him.

White-Haired Girl deserved better, damnit.
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Aw yes more Fata Morgana love.

Definitely one of if not my favorite VN's. Haven't gotten around to A Requiem for Innocence yet but I should probably do that at some point.

Out of curiosity what chapters were your favorite?
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5th Door was probably my favorite overall. Everything from the 5th Door onward was super good though. 3rd Door was probably my least-favorite simply because the conflict felt more forced than the others, although after seeing it in context of the rest of the story I appreciate it a lot more than I did initially. Fourth Door gets a special mention for being extremely chilling by including entirely-possible-to-miss dialogue changes in the 'view previously read text' window.

One thing that the game kept doing was surprise me on the extent of the scope of the story. Like, going in, I actually thought the Fourth Door was going to be the finale! There were multiple times when I wondered if the game was ending soon, and it just...kept going. Not in a bad way like it overstayed its welcome, but in that the story kept evolving and expanding in ways I didn't anticipate.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaWuLJ8S0BE" data-time="

Probably my favorite song. So good.
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Oh yes that one's my my favorite to actually. I love the chorus so much. I like most of the soundtrack but some other of my favorites are Giselle, Bianco o Nero, and This Mutilated Body. I also like the "main theme" I guess, which is just called "The House in Fata Morgana", except that the full version of the song actually has some really boring parts in it. The shortened version that plays in the Steam trailer is great though.

Also take that all you VGMC nay-sayers if you're somehow reading this topic.
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pyresword posted...

Oh yes that one's my my favorite to actually

Actually that applies to both of your last comments now that I think about it. Door 5 also my favorite, though the final door is pretty spectacular also.
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If VGMC rejected House in Fata Morgana then I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the last few contests. Going through the OST now and there's so much good shit.

Random thought (there will be a lot of these): I like how in the midst of all these (quite literally) tortured souls with sympathetic perspectives even as they do terrible things, there's one who is just a straight-up psychopathic serial killer...who somehow becomes sympathetic by the end anyway. Not an easy feat.
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KamikazePotato posted...

If VGMC rejected House in Fata Morgana then I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the last few contests. Going through the OST now and there's so much good shit.

Two songs (Cicio and Giselle) both made it into the contest. So I wouldn't say they were rejected even if they did lose in round 1. There were a few individuals who were outspoken about not liking the soundtrack though. (Due also in part to someone nominating in a Rate the OST type thread a few months prior to the main contest)

KamikazePotato posted...

Random thought (there will be a lot of these): I like how in the midst of all these (quite literally) tortured souls with sympathetic perspectives even as they do terrible things, there's one who is just a straight-up psychopathic serial killer...who somehow becomes sympathetic by the end anyway. Not an easy feat.

He's probably my least favorite major character but yeah I still liked him a decent amount also.
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Speaking of least-favorite characters, the Bollinger Family is a piece of work. Georges and Didier not as much (I like Georges a lot and Didier...well he was conflicted, I suppose), but the mom, dad, and Aimee are dumpster fires. It would go against the theme of the game to focus on revenge, so I'll just say that I hope they aren't such pieces of shit in their next lives!
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Ordered the physical game copy + soundtrack with no other justification except that I wanted it. No regrets.
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I thought Aimee's torture of Michel to be one of the few parts of the story that was just bad. I think it went too far, a good amount of the game is depressing but this section was too fetishistic-ally sadistic.
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I'm happy that another person has played Fata Morgana! When I went through it, it pulled me in so hard that I would up finishing it in 21 hours in a single weekend, solely because I needed to know what happened.

I really need to try the sequel too now that this topic has reminded me of it.
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GANON1025 posted...

I thought Aimee's torture of Michel to be one of the few parts of the story that was just bad. I think it went too far, a good amount of the game is depressing but this section was too fetishistic-ally sadistic.

Can see why you would think that, but it was pretty effective to me. In the context of Michel's story (and what the previous Doors had set up his character as) it made a lot of sense, and the CG of Aimee standing over him is easily the single most haunting image in the game.
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Also the presentation of Michel's story with the portrait cards(?) instead of portrait sprites was really cool. Now sure why they randomly went for that style in one part of the story but I liked it a lot.
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Random thought #23: man I am so glad this game nailed the ending. There's so many ways it could have gone wrong and it avoided all of them. If the game had ended before I got to see Michel and Giselle meet in their next lives I would have rioted.

Also I found this picture and it's adorable.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QEUK2uzajfU/maxresdefault.jpg
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up
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The ending was great, even if it fake me out a couple of times.
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Didier out of nowhere was something else. Probably the most beautiful CG in the game, and that's saying something.
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OH, you did play the backstage right?
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Not yet. Like I said, needed an emotional break after the last few hours of the game! I'm guessing it's something I should take a look at?
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Absolutely. It's more like a behind-the-scenes thing, and it is a lot more lighthearted than the rest of the game.
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Sounds good. I'll take a look at it soon.
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Up
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Apparently there's an additional side story that was added to the Vita version. Hope that gets translated eventually.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Apparently there's an additional side story that was added to the Vita version. Hope that gets translated eventually.

It's coming early next year. Not sure how much new stuff is in there, but fuck it, any excuse to buy Fata Morgana again is good enough for me.
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I don't have a Vita, so I'll probably have to youtube it. Feel kind of bad about doing so but I've currently bought the game twice and will probably get the art book, so I won't feel too bad.
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It's getting a PS4 release too, if that helps.
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Aw shit. Guess I'm triple dipping.
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Found a popularity poll held in between some versions of the games being released. Results were:

Michel - 306
Morgana - 304
Jacopo - 300
White-Haired Girl - 140
Giselle / The Maid - 130
Yukimasa - 110
Pauline - 73
Mell - 71
Georges - 43
Nellie - 42

Surprised that Jacopo is so high and that Giselle is (relatively) low. Otherwise, that seems solid to me.
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Giselle > Michel > Morgana > the rest for me, but I guess that poll is okay. Jacopo is way too high though.
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I'm really surprised Jacopo is that high but I like him so whatever. Also, I will point out I believe he's featured heavily in A Requiem for Innocence, so that may contribute depending on when this poll was held.

Morgana > Michel > Giselle > the rest. (Jacopo would be #4 but really these 3 are the standouts here)
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In a poll I saw, Jacopo was first somehow.
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Michel>Giselle>Morgana, hard to imagine anyone other than those 3 at the top considering the whole game is about them
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Hah, looked at the game information page on MangaGamer and it's kind of funny how good of a job they did at hiding spoilers. Michel isn't even listed on the cast page! Trying to think of another game or story of this length where the main character takes a good 1/3 of the story to properly appear (I mean he's there from the start but doesn't have a portrait or name or dialogue, so yeah) but I'm not sure I can. MGS2 comes the closest, I suppose.
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https://imgur.com/mqr8TJS

Sweet, now I can illegally download the entire soundtrack with a clear conscience

If Michel ever gets into a GameFAQs Contest, I recommend that we give him his soundtrack CD artwork and hope people think he's Alucard
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Feel like talking about my favorite part of each game.

Door 1: Definitely the ending parts from the Nellie nighttime scene and onward. Out of everything in the game, I don't think any situation collapsed so suddenly and completely as what happened to Mell. Every facet of his life was ruined in the span of like, 20 minutes. It's also when you're first made aware of how far the game is willing to go - the image of Mellie wearing Michelle's hair is one of the creepiest in the game.

Door 2: Pauline's reunion with Yukimasa is the big scene of this part, but my favorite scene has to be the Michelle's death. Yukimasa's total collapse of humanity followed by that terrifying image of him fully as The Beast really stuck with me. What really completes the scene for me is actually Javi; his scenes with Pauline were really charming, and seeing him having devolve into an emotionally broken little boy who is willing to take revenge at any cost was really sad.

Door 3: Definitely the part where Jacopo visits Michelle just a little too late. Her final letter to Jacopo that clearly exhibits her deteriorating mental state was super memorable. And even moreso, the use of the old-timey-movie-machine that I forget the name of as a motif for Michelle and Jacopo's failed relationship was haunting. She used it as much as possible so she could remember the good times, but the longer time past, the more the image started to fade.

Door 4: Really like this door for the unique atmosphere it presents. It plays out like a pretty sappy dramatic story (that Michel even later states doesn't have any humanity in it), and that tone is completely undercut by the red text and censored phrases that are cluttering up the 'previously read text' log. It's completely missable! This is most effective in the scene where Michel takes the White-Haired Girl up to the top of the observatory in what is a pretty romantic scene, except that the text log completely blocks it out and just has the witch talking to you the whole time. This is the first point in the game where you really get the sense that the mysterious witch not only exists, but has a very malicious personality.

Door 5: Michel and Giselle working past their respective traumas and managing to muster the bravery to confess their love for each other. It's an amazing triumph for both of them, and a very well-written one that directly confronts their issues. Man, I really like Michel and Giselle together. It's one of my favorite relationships in media.
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Door 6: This door is probably the most miserable out of all of them. Watching Giselle tortured by the witch for centuries on end, but the worst bit is when she meets Michelle for the 3rd time and, despite having held onto her memories of Michel for like 700 years, has her expectations betrayed again. The mental strain is so much to bear that Morgana manages to convince Giselle that she's the witch and Morgana is just another aspect of her personality. Messed up stuff.

Door 7: A really good story that makes excellent use of the foreshadowing of Michel's condition that's been sprinkled in from Door 4 onwards. The best bit has to be where Giselle musters the strength to keep her soul 'alive' long enough for her to come and rescue Michel from his own insecurities. Have I said how much I love those two together?

Door 8: Tough to choose. The bit right before you enter the door - meeting Morgana for the first time - is super memorable as it tears away the last bit of mystique Morgana has, showing that underneath all her endless rage and dramatic posturing, she's still a broken human just like all the others in Fata Morgana. Michel speaking to her in the past and giving Morgana her last rites in the Observatory are both extremely bittersweet scenes that make you wish that things could have been different.

Epilogue: Throwing this part here because Michel and Giselle permanently reuniting is the conclusion of what the game has been building up to since the beginning and man did it get me emotional. The ending credits had me on the edge of my seat - I was desperately hoping that there would be one final bit after the credits had ended, and my wish was granted. By Morgana's prayer, no less.
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I'll give this one more bump.
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Definitely make a topic when you play the follow-up, I'd like to hear your thoughts on that as well.
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I definitely will - I mean for one thing I have no idea where else I'd go to talk about this game
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Screw it, gonna keep post more random thoughts as they come. Was relistening to the OST, and one of the songs stuck out to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJQ9j8XRu0g" data-time="

It's one of the first songs that plays in The First Door, when Mell and Nellie are playing as kids. I think it perfectly encapsulates the underlying conflict of the First Door. The music sounds whimsical and happy...but also creepy. The instruments crackle and skip beats, the vocals are super muffled, and it might be me but the clapping just seems...forced? Overall, the song portrays happiness that is flawed, fragile, and has issues that are being covered up. The moment I heard this song I knew there was something wrong with Mell and Nellie, and that was when they'd barely spoken at all yet. With just this one song, the tone for the entire First Door was set.

Might post more song analysis later because the OST is brilliant and each song adds so much context to each scene.
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This is like the one song on the OST I don't like :/

I agree with your comments on how it relates to the story of the first door, but just...musically I don't like it enough such that it doesn't make a difference.
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Always glad to see another person on gamefaqs discover the greatness of fata morgana.

Have you read the secret prologue yet? You get it by unlocking all the endings.

I avoided most of the bad endings. I watched the "refuse the Maid's offer" ending on youtube the other day though and it was really interesting. Would have been fun to experience that one and then immediately keep heading down the true path.

Stuff I've still got to experience are:

The apparent secret prologue
Back Room
Requiem for Innocence
The new epilogue in the PS4/Vita version

Still a lot left for me! It's the game that keeps on giving.
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Oh shit new contest

Time to rally for Michel because fuck it
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On the one hand, Michel would get absolutely murdered.

On the other hand, it might lead to, like, four people looking into playing House in Fata Morgana, and that sounds like it's worth it.
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Yeah, Michel would be close to Chester if not worse, but getting immortalized in a contest is still a cool thing and get the word out.
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