[i][u][b]Fatehaven[/b][/u][/i] is an interactive novel (completely text-based) by [i][b]Devon Connell[/b][/i] and published by [i][b]Hosted Games[/b][/i].
[i][b]The writing style[/b][/i] is a very curious one for [b]Fatehaven[/b]. The narrative is in second person ("you" did this), as seems to be standard for most interactive novels, but the description also switches as if the narrator were part of things too; "our" and "we" are used occasionally within the first few chapters, making for a strange read. This, however, faded pretty quickly leaving the narrative solely second person. [spoiler]Toward the end of the game, it is more or less explained why the narrative is the way it is in earlier chapters. What feels like a mistake on a first playthrough is part of an underlining plot.[/spoiler] The author includes their own brand of humour which grew on me over time. Having rather unique humour myself, I'm unable to fairly judge how others would respond.
[b]Fatehaven[/b] is a fair few years old now; having been released in 2014. I felt the need to add this tidbit of information before I moved on to my next point. Most interactive novels these days allow the reader to pick from basic appearance options. Gender (or gender-neutral), hair and eye colour, and sometimes even things like height. These decisions are then occasionally reflected in the text to describe the main character. This title only offers you a choice of your gender; male or female only. I understand that in today's society, this may upset some people who prefer to identify as non-binary, etc. This is why I'd like to stress that coding these 'chose your own adventure' games weren't always as advanced as they are nowadays.
[i][b]The plot[/b][/i] is a fairly straightforward one. You play as an everyday nobody until one fateful day, a mysterious person finds their way into your hometown, and your life completely changes. It's not an original idea but it works. Magic in this world is something of a myth. A few rare people possess it and of course, that's frowned on; a commodity and a death sentence. So, as with any good story with strife and adventure, of course, your character is one of those people who come to possess the unique gift.
Somewhat, unsurprisingly, the main character finds themselves alone. Tired, hungry and without coin. Joining a mercenary band seems reasonable, right? Sure it does! Kidnappings, evil cults and a fancy political party (because of course, there always has to be a political scheme or two flying around) are some of the jobs the MC is offered. [i]Coincidently[/i], they all somehow perfectly revolve around what happened to their hometown, and the people involved there. Good thing the MC found this seemingly random job when they did. We wouldn't want some other poor sap dishing out our revenge now, would we? It's almost as if it were all preordained; fate!
I'd like to say this story was 'fast-paced', but it could also border on 'rushed' depending on a person's perspective. Although a little pushed here and there, the flow is fairly decent. There are no long-winded, overdone build-ups for certain scenes, nor at there any situations where you jump from point a to point b without reason. Scenes are wrapped up neatly with no over-done dramatics. Perhaps even a little anti-climatic.
The ending was a strange choice. It wasn't exactly what I had expected. Honestly, I'm not sure anyone will guess that is where the story is leading to. Instead of it feeling like a twist, my thoughts were "uuuh... what?" Not really the reaction I imagine an author would desire but I rolled with it. Rolling with it didn't exactly help the situation. The story has a closed ending but I was still left with questions. Of course, I can't exactly put those thoughts here without delving into spoilers. Alas.
[i][b]The MC[/b][/i] isn't given very many dialogue lines. Instead of them directly speaking; "Hey, how's it going?", it's implied they say something through descriptions; "You greet your friend and ask how he is". It's a very strange and jarring experience. I understand the author may have picked this style of writing so that the reader could, mentally, input their own thoughts into the dialogue but, it only managed to make me feel disconnected from the overall thing. The extremely rare times the MC does speak directly, the text is highlighted in a bold format. It stands out of place against the rest of the standard text and leads my brain to believe they are shouting. The first time the MC did speak directly was at the end of chapter three/early chapter four and I was so confused. It took me far longer than necessary to work out who decided to start shouting. This could have easily been avoided by simply adding something along the lines of "you said" after the sentence, especially considering the current situation implied that it was someone else speaking, until a few lines later where the MC is the one doing what was just said.
Chapter nine is the first noticeable time that the MC speaks with both direct dialogue and without being coded in bold format. That's pretty far into the game for someone, that is the centre of attention, to decide to find his/her voice.
There are a total of three [i][b]romance options[/b][/i] in [b]Fatehaven[/b]. It's a decent number, however, the majority of the time, you spend large chunks of the game only interacting with one of them. Thankfully, the ROs have a strong enough personality to stand out; somewhat, but the overall lack of time with them doesn't help the reader form a strong bond of any kind. Another downside is that all three appear to share the same strong personality trait. You have the childhood friend who likes to call you an idiot a lot and make out that he/she doesn't really like you. Then there is the catfolk who also likes to call you stupid and pretend he/she doesn't care about you. Finally, the dark mage; although, strangely enough, is the nicer person, they are too "mysterious" and end up feeling like they are keeping the MC at arm's length. None of these scream "amazing romance options" to me, which leads me swiftly on to my next point.
The short description for [b]Fatehaven[/b] on the store page says this: Combat, romance, adventure, and of course—magic! Romance is the one I'm referring to. Yes, there is a tiiiiny bit of romance hidden within the text, if you so wish to take that route, but I'd hardly dare to call this title a romance with what little is truly available. I'd wouldn't say that snogging someone because you suddenly realise you love them (and that's basically it) is romance. Some people may feel differently, in which case, I feel sorry for you. You have clearly not experienced true heart-pounding, butterfly inducing, sickly sweet romance. Ah, I'm only joking...[strike] kind of.[/strike]
While on the subject of the store's description: "Master four elements and take on fate itself": I find this to be rather misleading. You may only specialise in one element of magic per playthrough. The one you receive is based on your stats. The claim isn't wrong overall. In four playthroughs, you as the player, not the character, would be able to have mastered all of them. It's just not as exciting as the store page makes it out to sound.
Overall, it wasn't a great experience, but it wasn't bad either. The quirky writing style and mildly interesting story are where this title shines. It's a decent price, even when not on sale and it did its job of entertaining me for a few hours. [b]Fatehaven[/b] surely wouldn't be at the top of my recommendation list, however, if someone asked me for a title with humour and magic, which wasn't a long read, this would be it.
[h1][quote]𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33853800/]𝐎𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐤𝐚𝐢'𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐑𝐏𝐆 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬[/quote][/h1]
