fault milestone one

Developer: ALICE IN DISSONANCE | Publisher: Sekai Project | Release Date: 2013 | Genre: Indie / Visual Novel | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

With their homeland of Rughzenhaide under a vicious attack, Princess Selphine along with her royal guard Ritone has no choice but to flee. They use magic to perform their daring escape, but something goes wrong and the duo ends up somewhere that they did not anticipate. As strangers in a strange land Selphine and Ritone must figure out where they are and how to get back to their homeland. The journey is anything but straightforward though and they get embroiled in the dramas surrounding a mysterious girl they meet during their quest.

Since fault milestone one is a kinetic novel I can’t say much more about the plot without ruining any surprises. The game is the first in what promises to be a series and the English version is published by Sekai Project thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign. The Steam version is actually the director’s cut version of the game and in addition to the added content also comes with a Steam exclusive digital shikishi of one of the characters.

Good visuals and audio can enhance a kinetic novel, but without a decent story it means nothing and thankfully fault milestone one has a great story. As the first title in the series that is set in a very unique universe where science and magic co-exists it dedicates a lot of time to explaining the difference concepts, but everything is interesting enough to prevent it from becoming boring. The game also has a built-in encyclopedia of all the locales and terminology, so if you ever get confused you can quickly check up on what the terms mean.

After an action packed opening I thought that the focus of the story would be on Selphine and Ritone, but there is actually a third character that plays a much larger role than both of them. Most of the story is told in first person from the perspective of Ritone, but occasionally the viewpoint switches to that of other characters as well. Overall I found the story to be in-depth and quite compelling with a lot of attention to detail. The characters are all very memorable and in between some violent and shocking moments there are also plenty of thought provoking topics that are covered. Despite some rather dark elements the game also features plenty of humor, but don’t expect any fan service.

The artwork in fault milestone one is very good and I really liked the character designs. Character sprites are really good and the game also features some great event CGs. The backgrounds are rather limited though as the story is mostly set in and around a single location. The game doesn’t contain any nudity or skimpy outfits, but as I’ve mentioned earlier there are a couple of violent scenes including one that depicts a rather grisly case of animal cruelty.

The game interface is very streamlined and you even have the ability to switch between English and Japanese text at the touch of a button. Unfortunately, there isn’t any speech which means lots and lots of reading. The game features a huge amount of text, but it is quite well written and interesting despite a penchant for being rather verbose.

The soundtrack of fault milestone one is very good and features a great selection of tunes that range from upbeat to downright eerie. There are a couple of very memorable tracks, such as the catchy “Eivils Tavern” track and haunting “The Divide” but overall all the tunes are of a high standard. There are about twenty tracks in total and the game also features some nice sound effects. About the only complaint I have about the music is that some of the tracks feel a little too short and end up looping which can be a little jarring when reading the text.

The fact that fault milestone one serves as an introduction to a series can make it feel like there is too much explaining going on at times, but it is necessary considering all the new topics introduced in the game. Hopefully with everything established the second milestone can focus more on fleshing out the characters as Selphine and Ritona don’t’ get as much time to shine as the character they encounter in this game. The game also only features a single choice, which does not appear to impact the outcome of the story too much, but this is to be expected of a kinetic novel.

Depending on how fast you can read, fault milestone one features about five to eight hours of gameplay which isn’t too bad for a kinetic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can’t wait for the second milestone, but players who want choices or multiple outcomes might not appreciate the linear storyline as much. The game does include a rather sizeable demo though, which is well worth checking out if you want to see if the story will appeal to you.