Fate Itself does a good job of setting up, but has a hard time delivering. The biggest example of this project has an interest in animal motifs (having 3 of them), but none of those end up with real pay off. Other issues include a minor plothole (as I see it), a somewhat rushed relationship and some flawed attempts at poeticism within the prose. Fate Itself does nail a couple of things: the pacing is excellent with no time wasted, which is what you want of a short story, and some pretty interesting UI (some of which, do fall on the aforementioned animal motifs issue). If you can dive into this project’s world and characters, you may not see its flaws so clearly and have a good time.
I must admit I was not in love with the writing style, it felt like a pretty uneven package. We go from sessions where the narration is entirely short sentences to sections where the narration is so dense and abstract that it makes me start to zone out. We can from very literary language to characters being described as "cute". I feel like this would benefit from an editorial pass.
The presentation was otherwise immaculate though. The backgrounds perfectly communicate a sense of loneliness and isolation and the simple understated sound design perfectly highlights the key moments and functions as a narrative tool as well. For example, every choice being accompanied by a sound bite serves to hint at the significance of "choosing" even before the story addresses that point.
Above all though, I loved the story, and it is one that will stay with me long after I finished reading it. **Slight spoilers** I guess, but I couldn't really help but frame the whole story as the struggle of homosexuality vs Abrahamic religions.
Lovely use of white as an aesthetic, pleasant altered UI! The prose is consistently evocative and delivers imagery in ways that the actual assets could not (likely due to the deadline). Aside from minor bugs, the stubborn repetition and the main character's motivation to reach for the one thing in front of him was very impactful, especially with the ending. 🕷️In my mind, I was definitely going "I understand they have fur, but still, wearing only underwear outside in the very cold no-warm snowy regions? Preposterous!". To know more of the world in the future would be grand, since this could only paint a picture within the small timeframe. Also, the character art is kyuuut!
The pleasantly minimalist presentation is immaculate right from the title screen. Using a non-standard aspect ratio is a fun choice by itself, but I'm also struck by how well the accompanying images complement it – a single sprite is enough to fill the screen, and the backgrounds heavy in negative space and often obscured by weather are allowed to feel intimate, if not slightly claustrophobic. I think the photographic assets are also just tastefully curated and edited, a real treat for VN background aficionados, and the simple, unpretentious style the sprites are rendered in fits what the project is going for.
Though the nonlinear structure of the narrative is relatively complex, the framing of charting your way through the twists of fate is an interesting way to make navigating through the text feel diegetically justified. Even when I was holding the skip button and mechanically checking if making different choices would reveal something new, it still felt like I was engaging with the story and its themes. It's certainly one of the smoothest implementations of this kind of thing I've come across.
I'm a big fan of the slick prose, too; there's a killer line or two in there, and it's all wonderfully grounded and physical, the premise notwithstanding. As for some small caveats, action comes off as a slight weak point – though detached is not an inappropriate tone to hit in context, the descriptions of violence maybe lean a little bit too far towards perfunctory. Also, it's kind of a shame that the NVL mode segments don't play with paragraph length more, with the game largely sticking to longer blocks of text, since being able to set the pacing and the rhythm that way is one of the big advantages of using it. On the editing side, there's lots of missing punctuation, especially in the dialogue. Other formatting errors like strangely used quotation marks show up from time to time, too – might be worth going through it after the jam.
Fate Itself: precisely the kind of hidden gem you want to discover while digging through game jam entries. The premise feels fresh, and I can always appreciate a fantasy thing that maintains a tight scope and avoids drowning the reader in lore. A worthwhile read, and if it's a test run for something, I'm very excited to see it.
Comments
Fate Itself does a good job of setting up, but has a hard time delivering. The biggest example of this project has an interest in animal motifs (having 3 of them), but none of those end up with real pay off. Other issues include a minor plothole (as I see it), a somewhat rushed relationship and some flawed attempts at poeticism within the prose. Fate Itself does nail a couple of things: the pacing is excellent with no time wasted, which is what you want of a short story, and some pretty interesting UI (some of which, do fall on the aforementioned animal motifs issue). If you can dive into this project’s world and characters, you may not see its flaws so clearly and have a good time.
I must admit I was not in love with the writing style, it felt like a pretty uneven package. We go from sessions where the narration is entirely short sentences to sections where the narration is so dense and abstract that it makes me start to zone out. We can from very literary language to characters being described as "cute". I feel like this would benefit from an editorial pass.
The presentation was otherwise immaculate though. The backgrounds perfectly communicate a sense of loneliness and isolation and the simple understated sound design perfectly highlights the key moments and functions as a narrative tool as well. For example, every choice being accompanied by a sound bite serves to hint at the significance of "choosing" even before the story addresses that point.
Above all though, I loved the story, and it is one that will stay with me long after I finished reading it. **Slight spoilers** I guess, but I couldn't really help but frame the whole story as the struggle of homosexuality vs Abrahamic religions.
The end sequence was incredible.
Lovely use of white as an aesthetic, pleasant altered UI! The prose is consistently evocative and delivers imagery in ways that the actual assets could not (likely due to the deadline). Aside from minor bugs, the stubborn repetition and the main character's motivation to reach for the one thing in front of him was very impactful, especially with the ending. 🕷️In my mind, I was definitely going "I understand they have fur, but still, wearing only underwear outside in the very cold no-warm snowy regions? Preposterous!". To know more of the world in the future would be grand, since this could only paint a picture within the small timeframe. Also, the character art is kyuuut!
I did not expect this VN to be so complicated. This was not a good VN to watch a stream of at the gym. 😵💫
Will have to replay on my own in the future.
The pleasantly minimalist presentation is immaculate right from the title screen. Using a non-standard aspect ratio is a fun choice by itself, but I'm also struck by how well the accompanying images complement it – a single sprite is enough to fill the screen, and the backgrounds heavy in negative space and often obscured by weather are allowed to feel intimate, if not slightly claustrophobic. I think the photographic assets are also just tastefully curated and edited, a real treat for VN background aficionados, and the simple, unpretentious style the sprites are rendered in fits what the project is going for.
Though the nonlinear structure of the narrative is relatively complex, the framing of charting your way through the twists of fate is an interesting way to make navigating through the text feel diegetically justified. Even when I was holding the skip button and mechanically checking if making different choices would reveal something new, it still felt like I was engaging with the story and its themes. It's certainly one of the smoothest implementations of this kind of thing I've come across.
I'm a big fan of the slick prose, too; there's a killer line or two in there, and it's all wonderfully grounded and physical, the premise notwithstanding. As for some small caveats, action comes off as a slight weak point – though detached is not an inappropriate tone to hit in context, the descriptions of violence maybe lean a little bit too far towards perfunctory. Also, it's kind of a shame that the NVL mode segments don't play with paragraph length more, with the game largely sticking to longer blocks of text, since being able to set the pacing and the rhythm that way is one of the big advantages of using it. On the editing side, there's lots of missing punctuation, especially in the dialogue. Other formatting errors like strangely used quotation marks show up from time to time, too – might be worth going through it after the jam.
Fate Itself: precisely the kind of hidden gem you want to discover while digging through game jam entries. The premise feels fresh, and I can always appreciate a fantasy thing that maintains a tight scope and avoids drowning the reader in lore. A worthwhile read, and if it's a test run for something, I'm very excited to see it.