Fading Hearts

I originally bought and played this game in April 2015. At that time, I remember liking it fine. I hadn't played many Visual Novels (VNs), and I still haven't played all that many. Today I decided to return to the game after almost seven years, and I don't know how I feel about it. First off, I just wanted to finish off the achievements that I had left (only 4 more), and it doesn't appear that those are working at all as time of this review. Not sure if people just coming to Fading Hearts will have the Steam achievements work properly, but they weren't for me (although the achievements listed in Fading Hearts itself were listed properly). Next, the story is okay. Some parts are written well, if not totally cliched, and by just skimming this time around, I could see that there were contradictions between the choices I made during the game and the endings, as other reviews mentioned. So, if that bothers you, then be aware that there isn't much else to do in a VN. Finally, there is some variety, such as combat and some subplots, but they're nothing noteworthy. In fact, I feel like I wasted a lot of time trying to level Ryou, the protagonist, for no reason as it didn't seem to affect anything when it came to endings or otherwise. My advice: learn some of the more useful magic (Healing, Dispel, and Final Strike), and you'll have all you'll need for any of the endings and story beats. Overall, my impression of the game at this point is lukewarm. It's not terrible, but there are probably better VNs out there for those interested. For the price of $15 USD (usually around $9 USD on sale), I couldn't recommend this game. If it's much cheaper (a few dollars USD), then it might be worth it.

Tags: Adventure - VN - Visual Novel Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Pixelated. Confusing progression. Ambitious but not well crafted slice of life VN with fantasy elements. Grind oriented. Alternate dimension fantasy slice of life RPG VN in which you manage multiple health, mind, and spirit bars by doing activities and socialize with friends to discover their secrets. The game is pixelated, offers some insights into japanese culture but from a foreigner's perspective whom learned about it from cartoons and the internet. The setting is fairly harmless, the characters are all pretty good hearted and gentle people. The dream sequences and the magical aspects can be a tad intriguing. Game is set in an alernate universe where Y2K killed a buncha people and created a ton of orphans. There are issues with User Interface esepcially when using Xbox360 remote. You can unlock special rewards by ordering and reading books which is how you level your character. There is some variation in the rewards and you dont always know in advance what you are going to get which keeps things interesting. There are not very many locations but each serve a purpose and on occasion special scripts will unlock by visiting certain places at certain times. The game has had some care in its writing, it is on occasion self aware, on occasion a bit amateur and sometimes even has the odd typo. But I am willing to give it a pass. Because of all the various statcheck scripts a lot of things can vary from play to play and there are multiple endings. This game is decent enough to be kept around. Wish it was touched up and rebalanced a bit. The pacing is also a bit slow, which is neither good or bad but you have to be in the right mindset to go through this without skipping through everything which would severely cheapen the experience.

Here's the thing, right? This was one of my first visual novels. It was also for sure my first dating sim. The experience that I felt while playing this game was extraordinary for me at the time. A narrative focused game with time management, RPG style combat AND I get to date cute girls? Also, the game focuses on social intrigue and the true meaning of relationships? Sign me up! Frankly, I loved it, and the experience will always stick with me. This game was subverting tropes I didn't even know existed at the time! Hell, it even had meta aspects too! As an anime VN in 2009, this game was unparalleled to me, even though it was never really that popular. Even now, if you are new to the medium and have an open mind, this game could become special to you as well. In a vacuum, I think this game is good, even great, as both parody and satire of the genre while still taking itself serious enough to try and tell a serious story. However, as much as I sing this games praises, I must concede that it's simply doesn't hold up in today's standards. The writing isn't very well though out, especially towards some of the endings, which sometimes even contradict each other. The game is also short. Like, abnormally short if you're used to both modern gaming and dating sim length. You can see everything in this game in about 4 or 5 hours. Cut that in half if you use a guide. Many of the interesting quirks like the RPG mechanics are just tacked on and have very little depth just to add variety to this game. I find the dialogue more cheesy than cringey, which is good, but some of the meta commentary and subversions it tries to pull makes me feel that the game thinks it's smarter than it actually is. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of similar games like this that I could recommend over this game, but even so I also don't want to just toss it to the side. This game is definitely a product of it's time, and I don't think it should be faulted for that. It's weird for me to actually say it out loud, but this is probably one the most influential games in my life, as it shaped my opinion of VNs, dating sims, games as stories, rpg integration, and meta and satirical aspects in media. So yeah...I'm a bit biased here, but hey. I genuinely did like this game. Maybe you will too.

Fun story, interesting characters, and meaningful choices -- what's not to love? I enjoyed the cute anime style and the meld between visual novel, simulation, and RPG elements. The random bits of story taken from the manga Ryu's reading in the story are, well, random, but they can be interesting. Only major drawback in my mind was that the music could get repetitive and/or start and stop randomly in the middle of gameplay. Overall though, I'd rate this a 4/5.

Click click click. Click click click. Three minutes of clicking text before I got my first choice. How did I ever get 7 hours out of this boring dating sim/time management game? Another dating sim with Anime girls set in a school. Another visual novel with endless minutes of boring reading before you get to make a choice. The time management involves far too much effort, though I found it fun. Skip this unless you like reading school girl dating romances for middle school morons. Will be buried at the bottom of my virtual bookshelf.

Fading Hearts is not one of those games which will really win an award for spelling, nor will its story win an Oscar by any means. Fading Hearts as a VN game is confident, but that comes with some spelling errors. So if you’re a grammar N…Z or an English teacher, it’s not advisable to pickup and play this game. It could possibly drive you insane by the spelling mistakes in this game. Also if by chance you’re picky on fictional settings and places not fitting in the logic of the real world then don’t pick this game up. But if you’re old enough to remember the ridiculous plots and plot holes of older Japanese VN games from the 80’s. Then you might have an idea what to expect as a back story plays out. In Fading Hearts Y2K led to a disaster which only affected one small nation in the whole world. That small nation is where our main catalog of characters in this game live. This leaves our main protagonist and his friends without parents because of the disaster which had befallen the small country of Sorayama. Personally, I had to stop playing for a bit because I was laughing for a while after reading it. But after getting my composure back I found out that I enjoyed Fading Hearts as a whole game. With all that said, technically the game does everything VN games have done in the past and doesn’t really break that mold. That is not really a bad thing as VN games were always about how you discovered the world around you, but also the people you interacted with. That in itself, is what Fading Hearts does right, it gives you the ability to choose how you want to pursue your relationship with those characters’. As well as how your choices will affect the final ending of the game itself. So if you’re a relaxed person whom happens not to get too stuck up on a few spelling errors and an off the wall notion of the world Ryou lives in, give this game at least a shot.

Best game ever! Didnt read the story though, wasnt interesting enough. But the gameplay was really unique...I geuss? Nah. Not really. Monsters and a magicalgirl using the "autobutton" is key to play this game since everything sucked really hard. Nice Mousecursor though. 10710/10 would play GTA V again.

Personally I like the game but do not love it, it depends VERY much on the decisions you make, there are many different roots i got and you meet different character beside the 2 main girls

Don't mind the time, I played it a while ago offline so Steam never tracked my time spent. Its a decent game, I think it was the studios first title and I hope in the future to see more and to see them improve, As its been 11 years though, I doubt we will get any more games from the company.

I really enjoyed it. It's a mix of dating sim, and visual novel. CONS: - Story throws you for a loop, sometimes (almost as if what you chose didn't matter) - Long periods of "do what you want; the story is on it's lunch break". Unlike Persona 4, for example, which keeps you in the loop during those periods of "down-time". I found parts where I was like "Okay.. can't call someone. Okay... can't go meet anyone. Okay... magical girl isn't there. Okay... I'll... uh... work.. I guess..? Read a book to up stats..? Sure..!" *2 WEEKS LATER IN-GAME* "...Okay, where is everyone??!!" PROS: - Nice characters :) - Lots of choice - Interesting story, depending on your focus - A good deal of things to do (depending) - Surprises, at times (e.g.: thrown for a loop) can be positive! Do I recommend? Absolutely. Although i wish it was longer than it was for me. *Pause* *Presses 'New game' button* Let's get them alternate endings! :D Oh... and don't trust anyone :l