The House in Fata Morgana

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The House in Fata Morgana
Cover art
Developer(s)	Novectacle
Publisher(s)	JP: Novectacle JP: FuRyu (3DS) JP: Dramatic Create (PS Vita) WW: MangaGamer (PC) NA: Mighty Rabbit Studios (digital PS4/PS Vita) NA: Limited Run Games (physical PS4/PS Vita)
Artist(s)	Moyataro
Writer(s)	Keika Hanada
Composer(s)	Mellok'n Gao Yusuke Tsutsumi Takaki Moriya Aikawa Razuna
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release	Microsoft Windows JP: December 31, 2012 WW: May 13, 2016 iOS JP: May 16, 2014 Nintendo 3DS JP: July 27, 2016 PlayStation Vita JP: March 16, 2017 NA: May 28, 2019 PlayStation 4 NA: June 11, 2019 Nintendo Switch JP: March 25, 2021 NA: April 9, 2021
Genre(s)	Visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

The House in Fata Morgana^[a] is a visual novel video game developed by Novectacle. It was released for Microsoft Windows and iOS by Novectacle in 2012 and 2014 in Japan, and for Microsoft Windows by MangaGamer in 2016 internationally. Additionally, a Nintendo 3DS version was released by FuRyu in 2016, and a PlayStation Vita version was released by Dramatic Create in 2017, both exclusive to Japan. Another PlayStation Vita version, as well as a PlayStation 4 version, were released in North America by Limited Run Games in 2019, who also released a Nintendo Switch version of the game in 2021.

The House in Fata Morgana is a visual novel set in a mansion, where a spirit appears with amnesia. It meets a Maid in the mansion, and the two view the mansion's past in different time periods – 1603, 1707, 1869 and 1099 – to learn what has happened to its residents and to try to get the spirit to regain its lost memories.^[1]

Plot[]

An amnesiac spirit awakens to find itself in a mansion. It is greeted by a Maid, who in an attempt to recover its memories suggests exploring the mansion's past in the hope that the spirit may recognize itself in a past life.

She first takes them to 1603, where the mansion is inhabited by young aristocrat siblings Mell and Nellie Rhodes. One night a mysterious White-Haired Girl with pale skin and red eyes arrives at the mansion Mell catches her speaking to the Maid (who also lives in this time and appears no different) and is instantly smitten. The White-Haired Girl reveals to Mell that her father was a painter for the household but was kicked out and died in the streets. Mell apologizes for his family's actions, and the two begin a relationship. Nellie is driven mad with jealousy and discovers that the painter had slept with her and Mell's mother, resulting in the White-Haired Girl's birth and his expulsion. Nellie reveal this to Mell, as well as her own romantic feelings for him, leaving him distraught.

The Maid next takes the spirit to 1707, where the mansion has become abandoned and destitute, though it has somehow moved to a different geographic location. The Maid, the mansion's only inhabitant, one day discovers Yukimasa, an amnesiac man, in the cellar. However, due to his amnesia as well as abuse he received due to his race and inability to communicate, he came to visualize himself as a savage beast, calling himself "Bestia". While the Maid initially tries to civilize him, he murders villagers that come to the mansion in retaliation for his abuse. Some time later, a reincarnation of the White-Haired Girl appears at his doorstep, who retains hazy memories of her past life. Yukimasa attempts to kill her, but her lack of fear stupefies him, and the two become friends. Meanwhile, Yukimasa's lover searches for Yukimasa. She gradually befriends Javi, a standoffish boy whose parents were killed by Yukimasa. The two travel to the mansion, but Yukimasa flees from Pauline, whom he sees as another Bestia. Pauline chases him into the manor, and in his confusion he kills her. Later, Javi rallies the villagers to attack the mansion, resulting in the White-Haired Girl's death. Yukimasa succumbs to his bestial nature and slaughters all of the villagers.

The spirit is then lead by the Maid to 1869. In this time the mansion is owned by young, greedy businessman Jacopo, and it has moved to America. He lives with his new wife, the White-Haired Girl, as well as a multitude of servants, including the Maid and his childhood friend Maria. Jacopo, believing his wife to be wooing other men, locks her in a small exterior cottage. The White-Haired Girl frequently writes love letters to him, but Maria secretly wishes to destroy the two's relationship, so she alters the letters to address them to other men. Jacopo eventually decides to release his wife, but he finds that she had given up hope and fled. Finally realizing the truth, Jacopo confronts Maria, who reveals her hatred towards him. The two shoot one another, and Maria dies. Jacopo spends the rest of his life unsuccessfully searching for the White-Haired Girl.

Briefly separated from the Maid, the spirit encounters a talking painting which shows him a memory of an unknown black-haired woman. Shortly after, the spirit takes it to 1099. In this era the White-Haired Girl flees to the mansion from a village that persecuted her for her appearance. She meets Michel, a mysterious hermit living in the mansion who has the power to drain the life from anything he touches. The two fall in love, with the White-Haired Girl revealing her name as Giselle. A bandit attacks the mansion, forcing Michel to drain some of his life. Having been cut, some of Michel's blood spills onto Giselle, which appears to cause her health to deteriorate. The bandit tells the village of Michel and Giselle before he dies. The villagers attack the manor, forcing the two to flee into the observation tower. Believing they have no chance of escape, the two embrace, causing Giselle to fall limp. Michel confronts the villagers and they skewer him, but his blood kills all of the villagers. Giselle awakens, perfectly healthy. As she grieves for Michel, she is approached by the Maid, who says she's a witch named Morgana. Morgana offers her to be reincarnated so she may one day reunite with Michel's reincarnation, which Giselle accepts.

The spirit finally recalls its past identity as Michel, and the Maid explains that the White-Haired Girl had been Giselle's reincarnations. Michel, however, remembers the black-haired woman and believes what he witnessed in 1099 to have been falsified and that the Maid is in fact Giselle. In reality, Giselle was not the White-Haired Girl, but instead a young black-haired woman in need of money for her family. She accepted work at a wealthy estate but was repeatedly raped by the patriarch, Antonin. When Antonin's wife discovered this, Giselle was to be executed, but instead Antonin had her banished to the mansion where Michel, their son, lived. Though Giselle attempts to be cheerful and cordial, Michel is cold and curt to her. When Giselle enters Michel's room one night, he discovers her and accuses her of thievery; Giselle flees in terror and passes out in the woods. She is brought to a nearby village where the villagers torture her until she reveals money they claim she stole. Out of desperation, Giselle leads them to the mansion so they may loot it. Michel steps outside, revealing his pale skin, white hair and red eyes. He scares the villagers away and accuses Giselle once more of being a thief. Giselle, fed up, begs Michel to kill her, baffling him. She reveals that Michel's father had raped her, causing Michel to feel guilty, and the two begin their relationship anew. Over the course of a year, the two fall in love. After Michel sends a letter to his mother upon hearing of his father's death, knights arrive and attack the manor. The two flee to the observation tower, but Michel leaves Giselle safely locked away while he confronts and is killed by the knights, his corpse being dragged away.

Giselle is spoken to by a disembodied voice which calls herself the Witch, Morgana. Morgana explains that she can have Michel be reincarnated, which Giselle agrees to. Morgana curses Giselle's body so that she no longer ages. Giselle waits in solitude for Michel's reincarnation to arrive for hundreds of years, eventually donning the garb of the Maid per Morgana's recommendation. Eventually Mell and his family move into the house, and later the White-Haired Girl arrives. With her memories hazy, Giselle believes the White-Haired Girl, her actual name being Michelle, to be Michel's reincarnation, but Michelle has no memories of Giselle. Giselle becomes emotionally numb, watching the tragedies of the mansion unfold with little reaction. Michelle's continual reincarnations only serve to torture Giselle further, until Morgana convinces her that she's always been the Maid and that her past memories with Michel aren't real.

The Maid, having regained her memories and original personality as Giselle, is suddenly dragged away by Morgana into the observation tower. As Michel climbs the tower, Morgana reveals her past. As a child her blood was believed to have healing qualities, so her mother sold her to a local lord who mutilated her body to extract blood. She was freed in a slave uprising and brought to a brothel where she was cared for, but bandits invaded and abducted Morgana. One of her fellow captives, a swordsman, managed to break free and kill their captors, but in his frenzy he slaughtered his fellow captives except for Morgana. Morgana found a cottage and lived there for three years, until a boy came to her requesting she heal his sick sister. After willingly giving his sister blood multiple times, he came to the cottage with the swordsman who severed her arm. She was captured and brought back to the lord, who kept her imprisoned in an observation tower to sell her blood through the church below. Though Morgana eventually died, her spirit lingered on, cursing the three men who had caused her to suffer.

At the top of the tower, Michel finds an illusion of Giselle, who, disgusted, claims that he is actually a woman. Michel, known as a child as "Michelle", was born intersex and was assumed female. Growing up he preferred the masculine activities of his brothers Didier, a knight, and Georges, an artist. In 1086 his voice deepened and his body became masculine. Feeling at peace with himself for the first time, Michelle renamed himself "Michel" and claimed himself to have always been male. However, his mother, adoring him as her only daughter, considered him cursed and had him locked in his room until he could be "cured". He languished for two years until he was freed by Didier and Georges, who told him that their father intended to have him killed. With a fond farewell, they sent him to live in the mansion where he could be safe until they could welcome him back. Upon his father's death, Michel had written to his mother requesting her acceptance of him as a man. In her hysteria, she had sent the knights to claim his life, with Didier leading the procession.

Morgana taunts Michel by claiming that the White-Haired Girl was his reincarnation that Giselle had asked for, thus proving him to be female, while also mocking him for being unable to remember Giselle in his other lives. The real Giselle accepts Michel for everything he is and remains confident that the White-Haired Girl was not Michel. Michel, encouraged by Giselle to save Morgana's soul, travels to the distant past when Morgana was alive. Believing changing the past may be able to save Morgana from her fate, Michel convinces the past versions of Mell and Yukimasa to set her free. He then travels into the memories of the past Jacopo, learning that while he is currently the lord, he was not the same man who had mutilated Morgana for blood. Instead, he was the slave who had saved and cared for Morgana, having eventually fallen in love with her. Overwhelmed with guilt and self-loathing, Jacopo agrees to free Morgana. When they climb the observation tower, they find her on the verge of death and speaking to herself, her mind having been split in two. Michel stays by her side and comforts her as she dies; when he attempts to leave the mansion with her body, though, he instead sees the events that had originally taken place following Morgana's death, revealing that he was not changing the past but merely reliving it.

Back in the mansion, Michel meets the White-Haired Girl, who is revealed to be the half of Morgana's soul embodying her self-sacrificing nature. Being formless until meeting Michel, The White-Haired Girl had modeled her appearance and name after him out of admiration. At her insistent request, Michel permanently destroys her soul, allowing Morgana's soul to heal and become whole again. Finally relinquishing her hatred after having learned the truth behind the three men's actions, Morgana goes with Michel to find their spirits, who are also trapped in the mansion. While Morgana doesn't forgive any of them, she sets their souls free. Before they leave, Michel retrieves the talking painting, which contains the trapped soul of Georges. The three go to leave the mansion, but Didier's soul blocks their path. Georges blocks a fatal blow for Michel before Michel brings Didier to his senses and help his soul pass on. Michel, Morgana and Giselle leave the mansion, causing it to dissipate. In 2009 France, the reincarnations of Mell, Nellie, Yukimasa, Pauline, Jacopo, Maria and Morgana are living ordinary lives. The reincarnated Giselle, having retained all of the memories of her past life, goes to where the mansion once stood, and is greeted by the reincarnated Michel, who has retained his memories as well.

Development[]

The game was developed by Novectacle and written by Keika Hanada,^[2] with art by Moyataro.^[3] The developers did not specifically target men or women with the game, and instead just intended to make a game for players who enjoy stories.^[2] Hanada spent more than a year planning the story,^[4] which was influenced by Tanith Lee's books, and the films Millennium Actress (2001) and The Best of Youth (2003).^[5] To keep the text from distracting the player, it was mostly written in modern Japanese, with only little use of archaic speech.^[6] To make the game feel unique, Moyataro made use of heavy coloring and shading, to portray a "more realistic kind of beauty" compared to the "cutesy" anime-like artstyle common in Japanese visual novels. Another important aspect in making the game feel unique was its music: more than half of the songs are vocal tracks, intended to make the game feel like visiting a theatre with someone singing in the background. Five composers worked on the music, and wrote 65 different tracks.^[7]

In June 2013, the game distribution platform Playism announced that they were interested in localizing the game for English-speaking audiences, as they wanted to bring visual novels to their platform and felt The House in Fata Morgana might be a good place for them to start. They encouraged people to tell them if they were interested in the game, to gauge demand for it.^[8] Two days later, they clarified that monetary issues were what caused them to not start localization work right away: Novectacle, being an indie developer, were unable to pay upfront for the localization work. Instead, Novectacle proposed that all revenue from Japanese The House in Fata Morgana sales would go to paying for the localization. As the Japanese sales on the Playism platform were much too low to finance the localization, Playism considered either waiting and seeing if Japanese sales would pick up pace, or launching a crowdfunding campaign.^[9] Playism was still working towards a localization in late March 2014, when they released a localized demo.^[10] During the Otakon convention in August 2014, the visual novel publisher MangaGamer announced that they had acquired the license to publish the game.^[11]

Due to the large range of cultures and time periods appearing in the game, it was important to MangaGamer to decide on a localization strategy early on to avoid an inconsistent script; translator BlackDragonHunt said that making language in historical settings appear authentic was a difficult balancing act, with too modern dialogue breaking immersion, and older English being difficult for modern readers to understand. They decided to follow the same style as the Japanese original, mainly using modern language, with some use of words based on the various time periods and regions in the game to give it a "historical flavor": for instance, the word "bedroom" was replaced with "bedchamber", and "maid" with "abigail".^[6]

Release and reception[]

The game was originally released for Microsoft Windows on December 31, 2012 in Japan;^[13] this version was also released through Playism on May 31, 2013 in Japan.^[14] A Japanese iOS version followed on May 16, 2014.^[15] MangaGamer released the Microsoft Windows version in English on May 13, 2016, both separately and in a bundle with the game's soundtrack.^[1][16] A Nintendo 3DS version was released digitally in Japan on July 27, 2016 by FuRyu, as one of the first three games of their Catalyst line,^[17] and a PlayStation Vita version was released both physically and digitally in Japan on March 16, 2017 by Dramatic Create.^[18] This version includes new content; due to sickness, Moyataro was unable to create the new artwork needed for it, so another illustrator was given the task.^[3]

Limited Run Games released the game in North America for PlayStation Vita on May 28, 2019, and released it for PlayStation 4 on June 11, under the title The House in Fata Morgana: Dream of the Revenants Edition; their PlayStation 4 version uses newer artwork as it was the first time the game was available in 4K resolution. They have also released physical versions for both platforms.^[19] This version of the game was also released on the Nintendo Switch on April 9, 2021,^[20] with a version for Japanese audiences released on March 25, 2021.^[21]

The game was a runner-up for Hardcore Gamer's Best Story of 2016 award.^[22]

The Steam release had an estimated total of 8,500 players by July 2018.^[23]

Soundtrack[]

The House in Fata Morgana Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album which contains the original soundtrack from The House in Fata Morgana. It was released on May 3, 2013. The album is a compilation by five different artists: Mellok'n, Takaki Moriya, Gao, Yusuke Tsutsumi and Aikawa Razuna.

Track listing[]

Other media[]

A manga adaptation of the game, The House in Fata Morgana: Anata no Hitomi o Tozasu Monogatari,^[b] was written by Hanada and drawn by Kanemune. It was published by Akita Shoten in four volumes from 2015 to 2017, of which the last three were released digitally. The manga has been licensed for release by Sekai Project, who released it digitally: the first volume was released November 2017, and the second February 2018.^[24]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The House in Fata Morgana

• Official website
• The House in Fata Morgana at The Visual Novel Database