Fading Hearts
I must admit, I’ve never played a visual novel, commonly known as dating sims or ren’ai games. While there are mainstream titles that have had similar gameplay elements, particularly Harvest Moon and Persona 3 and 4, visual novel games are far closer in proximity to story-driven interactive fiction such as "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.
Visual novels are distinguished from other genres by their minimalist gameplay. Typically, the majority of player interaction is limited to reading, decision-making and graphics. Even so, the term interactive fiction is not coined in vain, in fact, these titles manage to absorb players similar to how literature may absorb readers.
What’s particularly interesting about Sakura River’s visual novel, Fading Hearts, is the way in which the title manages to satirize the genre. Through particular pieces of dialogue and actions, the protagonist, Ryou, gives his commentary on the nature of visual novels and the character stereotypes present in these games. It would be too much to say that Fading Hearts is “breaking the fourth wall” as the title never completely breaks the boundaries between the fiction and the player, but the game does manage to add a satiric effect to its otherwise traditional story.
Speaking of which, the story in Fading Hearts consists of various intertwining plotlines that will, indeed, hook players – regardless of whether they have played a visual novel or not. The recurring theme in Fading Hearts is that not everything is what it seems: this includes the people Ryou interacts with and the side stories Ryou finds himself a part of. The main plot directly correlates with the sub and micro plot, as they are all parallel to one another. Whether involving the main plot, sub plots or micro plots, Fading Hearts successfully grabs players whilst questioning what they truly know about their environment.
It’s best to keep in mind that, because this is interactive fiction, it’s completely up to the player how much he/she learns about these plotlines. While players can spend their days sleeping, Ryou will have little to no personal strength and will be left fantasizing over sandwiches. It’s fun to see how Ryou’s personality changes depending upon the player’s actions, but be aware that by doing so, there will be no gratifying moments in the game.
As with all visual novels, multiple endings are a given. I beat the game four times all with incredibly varied endings. Some were better than others, many of the “worse” endings involved – what seemed to be – random occurrences and choppy storytelling while others greatly expanded on plot and left me with some insight. By achieving more endings, the player will be more likely to connect the worse endings with the better. It’s all a matter of how much the player learns through their actions.
Fading Hearts also manages to expand upon the idea of interactive fiction by embedding a life simulation within the story. Not only will players get to optimize websites in order to make more money, and read manga and other books for social gain and balance stress levels, but players also get the opportunity to fight monsters, commonly known as Shadows. By incorporating a life simulation, players will likely find themselves immersed within this title.
By returning to the game’s driving theme, it also becomes apparent that, despite the traditional anime style, visuals do not have to classify a game. While these visuals, done by artist Kaze Hime, are aesthetically stimulating, Fading Hearts is not the typical visual novel game. The concept of identity is prevalent in both the storyline and the way Fading Hearts was constructed. This title is surprisingly self-aware for its genre, and because of this, gameplay is surreal or dream-like. The game’s self-aware nature is clearly one of its most defining attributes, but never goes so far as to directly address the player – at least not from anything I have yet experienced. Fading Hearts certainly sets itself apart from other games in this genre. Perhaps that’s why the experience is so fulfilling.
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Likes:
- Intertwining storylines
- Clever approach to the visual novel genre
- Immersive gameplay
Dislikes:
- Dialogue can be clunky
- Grammatical errors in the text
Review Score
/ 
The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.
