Noel the Mortal Fate

Again, an older game on my wishlist, added back in 2018. I was surprised to find that it had just 50 reviews back when I added it, and that it had since grown to over 2000 reviews, with the percentage of positive reviews somehow even increasing. I was so hopeful I had something good on my hands. Maybe, to some people, I did, but I couldn't appreciate it.

Noel the Mortal Fate is a story-focused RPGMaker adventure game. As these types of games go, there are some puzzles, some action segments, but the meat of the game is in the story told. The game is presented in a total of 14 chapters, of which I only got through the first one, lasting a tad over 2 hours. It's a story about a stupid girl making a deal with a devil, losing all her limbs in the process, and then embarking on a quest to take revenge on the person who decieved her.

Where do I even begin with my personal impressions... I suppose I never took a good look at the game on a large screen. The full body art of the characters, as well as full-screen stills, while not masterful, are entirely decent, but the small sprites you see in game are really bad. I do not exaggerate when I say that I think I could have done a better job. I wouldn't generally complain about art, but this is very much jarring and hurting my experience.
There also seems to be a bit too much gameplay here. I really couldn't care about the RPG elements, fighting enemies, solving puzzles, etc. There isn't so much it would make me quit, but it is a bit more than I've found in the average story-focused adventure game, and even the average is a bit too much for my liking.
Finally, the story. I could excuse almost anything for a sublime story, but I don't have faith that such a thing can be found here. The main character immediately irked me for how dumb and naive she is. Even after suffering the would-be traumatic loss of her limbs, she does not act like it. Of course, with such a main character, it sets a sort of tone for the rest of the story, even if the other characters are more likable. There are hints of a transition in the attitude of the main character at the end of the first chapter, but as the rest of the story was not without some flaws, and then the art and gameplay problems listed, it had simply managed to lose me.

While I feel bad for not being able to ascertain whether the story gets good enough to justify everything else, I still think it's fair to tell you I don't recommend it. 2 hours is not a short time for something to convince me it has potential, and I wouldn't be one to tell others "trust me, it gets good", and expect them to ignore their initial dislike. Perhaps this story is not just about revenge, but also of personal growth, and as such it was important to start out at such an unlikable state. I suppose I will never find out, and I'm fine with that - there are plenty more stories to read.