Review
Fading Hearts
By Jorge Figueiredo - October 1st, 2011
Dating sims are not my thing; I find them tedious and repetitive. Sakura River Interactive’s Fading Hearts struck me as a PC dating sim at first, but quickly followed up with a palm strike to my jaw, revealing a more interactive-novel-type side to the game that made it much more appealing to me. It’s a title that I’m glad I got to play; shockingly, I might go back to play through it a few more times!
At first blush, it is hard to categorize Fading Hearts; there are certainly dating sim aspects to it – what with the balancing of one’s love-life and so-forth. Elements of an interactive novel are present in the telling of a story that is far more involved and detailed than the typical dating game. The whipped cream on top of all of this is the RPG element that has you managing your levels of knowledge, wealth, strength and magic* in various fields; it also has your application of all of these aspects to situations that you come across.
As is usual for these types of games (which tend to avoid animated cut-scenes and the like), there is a lot of very descriptive dialogue. Folks who are not used to engaging in these types of games may find the over-explaining of everything somewhat tedious. To those of us who are used to text-based adventure games, this type of presentation is somewhat charming. I noticed a few spelling errors, but these don’t really take away from the game; far from it: again, this adds to the charm of a game that has a very “indie feel” to it.
I was a little scared when I saw this. My fears were soon dispelled though.
The visuals are great. The style is reminiscent of manga (everyone has fabulous hair and gigantically expressive eyes). As with the writing, the scenery might seem to be repetitive – initially, at least. Once you play the game for a fair amount of time the familiarity of the settings becomes something comforting, allowing the player to focus on the story. Even though text is the primary method of information delivery, there is a snazzy intro and some great transitional animations that really have an impact on the game-play experience.
The soundtrack is also very awesome; there are some sound effects, but the soundtrack takes center stage in the audio department. While repetitive, it really sets a mood and practically trains you to expect certain types of events depending on the music (thanks, Pavlov).
The plot is winding and puzzling; I found myself wanting to keep playing to find out more – what the heck is going on with this character and what is with that mysterious forest? The story is parsed into bite-sized chunks: a conversation here, a visit to the tea shop there – everything forwards the plot (and your character) somehow; every segment involves making a decision. There are branches that will lead to failure if you are not ready to tackle them – this is a great thing for a game in an era where failure is not really an option anymore (luckily there are saved games you can rely on, but saving is totally up to you).
Does a bear crap in the woods? Not in this forest.
There are a few inconsistencies with the storytelling (unless I am mistaken); in some instances, events that had already occurred didn’t fit with all of the dialogue, which made it confusing at times (in terms of keeping up with the story). There are a lot of spinning plates ,to keep track of, so anything that is amiss can really distract the player from what’s going on. It is worth noting that you will miss something
It is obvious that a lot of love and hard work went into Fading Hearts. With multiple endings, great storytelling, an interesting RPG-style stats system and great presentation, Sakura River Interactive has done a great job with this title. As I have stated before, these games aren’t normally my cup of tea; yet, I found this one engaging – if that’s not a testament to the entertainment value, I don’t know what is.
