Recently, I gave a few Chinese visual novels a try and I managed to absolutely enjoy one or another title, and thus, I decided to give Fateful End: True Case Files a try as well. Obviously, I was already biased after playing through Detective Kobayashi that was from the same developer: Genuine. Admittedly, I never heard of them before, however, what could go wrong after I already made some experience with one of their games, right? Anyway, what stood out immediately to me was the stunning artwork, and the plot that seemed very mysterious. Unfortunately, despite me enjoying Fateful End: True Case Files, I feel like I simply expected too much of the plot.
[h2]The Culprit Might Be Closer Than Anticipated…[/h2]
Fateful End: True Case Files starts with the actual end of the game where the protagonist gets abducted and killed. However, after the unfortunate events, the game loops back and starts at the very beginning to properly introduce the cast first. It seems like someone is secretly following the main character, however, he has no clue who it could be. Evidently, he cannot trust anyone, and even his girlfriend started to get cold towards him which made him suspect her of seeing someone else.
[h2]The Execution of the Plot[/h2]
The main objective is simple in this game: To find out who wants to murder the protagonist. As aforementioned, this part of the game was my least favorite. I just happened to set my hopes too high for the mysteries and got utterly disappointed at the reveal. The reason why the protagonist got threatened was so shallow that I had a hard time believing anyone would go that far. The problem is that the view of the culprits doesn't get explained in-depth enough so I found the whole premise just off. Evidently, as the player doesn't know who is behind the happenings until the end, the objective of the culprit was not convincing at all.
This aspect had a great effect on the pace of the plot as well. I was surprised when the game ended and even felt confused. That's it? That's everything? I was thinking that could not be the explanation for everything that took place. While there were no hints at all throughout the game that would have made sense for me for the writer to choose that outcome, all the information just got dumped to the player near the end of the game and then the credits rolled. Something I have to mention here is that I suspect there will be a second season coming up for the story so I still hope that the culprit's view will get explained more in-depth.
As much as I disliked the route Fateful End: True Case Files went, I still found out one or another aspect that I didn't expect at all. Regardless, this visual novel still managed to surprise me, and along with that, I might have regretted a few decisions that I made because I felt like I trusted the wrong people. This made me feel bummed and I found this was a positive aspect as eager players can go back and fix their mistakes.
[h2]Investigating Through The Chapters[/h2]
Every chapter mixes visual novel with point and click elements. There are multiple rooms where the player can freely move around to investigate objects or pick up items to merge them into a new one or simply use them on an item to advance with the story. I personally loved those parts as it required me to think outside the box, although most puzzles are fairly easy to solve. Regardless, I got stuck from time to time and it took a while until I understood what I was supposed to do, but luckily, those situations didn't happen often so I never got frustrated when not being able to think of the solution. Sometimes, taking a break is necessary, after all.
[*][h3]Light-Bulb-Hints[/h3]
So, in case the player is stuck, they can click on a light bulb in the corner of the screen. To be honest, I felt quite mixed about this feature as, on the one hand, it greatly managed to help me when I got stuck but, on the other hand, it was useless at times. By that, I mean that sometimes a text shows up that tells the player exactly what they have to do or where to find a needed item whilst, at other times, the hints didn't reveal anything at all. It was tough for me when I got stuck and the hints only told me to find some pictures so I was left all alone having to solve the puzzle. It slightly confused me as well that there was some mixture of the hints that some were very straight forward and others were expressed more complicated.
[*][h3]Moving To Other Rooms[/h3]
Well, this is a minor nitpick from my side, but I sometimes found it tough to find the spot when I wanted to move to the next room. Some areas are very straight forward and mark the next room with a white line, although sometimes clicking on the doors is enough as well. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case with most areas and I sometimes had to guess where to click when I wanted to investigate another area. I got the hang of that later in the game, however, it slightly interrupted my immersion in the beginning.
[*][h3]Story Fragments[/h3]
While investigating an area, the player can find story fragments throughout the game that seem to be hidden randomly in a room. With that, side-stories can be unlocked that gave me more insight into the cast as the main game is told solely from the protagonists' view and, evidently, he doesn't know what happened behind his back. Anyway, I really liked those side-stories as I, myself, had an entirely wrong impression and was able to sympathize with the side characters more. I felt like I even wronged them and may have judged them too fast, which is why I am grateful that there was still some content available besides the main story.
[*][h3]Dead Ends[/h3]
Fateful End: True Case Files implements multiple ends, as well as dead ends. The latter gets triggered when the player doesn't fulfill specific requirements, which will pop up when dying, by the way. Something that slightly annoyed me here was that I was so immersed in the game that I often didn't think about saving the game. However, when I happened to die because of a mistake that means that I had to replay a certain part of the game. This wouldn't be a huge issue, but this visual novel doesn't support the option of skipping the text. So, I would advise ocassionally saving the progress. In case there is a specific requirement, the player can still load the autosave file to correct the mistakes as it saves each time the player enters a new chapter.[/list]
[h2]Graphics and the Immersion[/h2]
As aforementioned, I absolutely love the graphics. I feel like it's so refreshing from the usual anime-styled artwork and that was something that immediately managed to catch my interest. Whilst the backgrounds and investigating areas are rather simple, the CGs make it up more than enough as they're simply stunning. At times, it was hard for me to distinguish what object I could interact with so I ended up clicking on nearly all of them, which works out I suppose as I managed to unlock all side-stories by the end of the game.
[h2]So, what do we have in the end?[/h2]
Fateful End: True Case Files does have its shortcomings. However, I still had a lot of fun playing through this game and finished it in one sitting so, in my opinion, it's definitely not a bad game at all. Sure, I had my problems with the execution of the plot but there were still a lot of aspects that managed to catch me off guard and not everything is as it seems here. That being said, Fateful End: True Case Files is definitely worth checking out for anyone who is into detective games, and puzzles, and I am personally looking forward to playing the second season if it will get added into the game.
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