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The House in Fata Morgana

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A cursed mansion, a Maid with jade eyes, and a thousand years of tragedy behind its doors.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Switch, iPhone, Android
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive among English Steam reviews (95% of 2,165); 4.89 of 5 on the PlayStation Store (340 ratings); 4.4 of 5 on GOG (22); Metacritic 96 on Switch
Length: about 30 to 40 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Click or press a key to advance the text and pick choices; partial controller support on Steam
Made by: NOVECT (Novectacle)
Released: 2016

No. 7 of the witch horror games · No. 29 of the monster horror games · No. 14 of the mansion horror games · No. 8 of the horror games about memory loss · No. 7 of the curse horror games

Get it on Steam GOG PlayStation Store (Dreams of the Revenants Edition, PS4 and PS Vita)Nintendo eShop (Dreams of the Revenants Edition, Switch)App Store (Crunchyroll Game Vault, needs a higher-tier Crunchyroll membership)Google Play (Crunchyroll Game Vault, needs a higher-tier Crunchyroll membership)MangaGamer's page

What frightens You wake as a spirit with no memory in a decaying mansion, and a jade-eyed Maid takes you through its doors to watch the tragedies of its residents across nearly a thousand years: a beast that yields to savagery and a massacre, a wife neglected and mistreated, a girl branded a witch and marked for death.
Content: blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language, abuse, torture.

The House in Fata Morgana is a gothic visual novel by NOVECT in which you wake as an amnesiac spirit in a decrepit mansion. A Maid leads you through its doors into different centuries to witness the tragedies of the people who lived there, in a story of cruelty, love and insanity that is more slow dread and grief than jump scares.

About The House in Fata Morgana

The House in Fata Morgana was made by the Japanese studio NOVECT (Novectacle), first released in Japan in 2012 and brought to Steam in English by MangaGamer in 2016. On PlayStation 4, PS Vita and Switch it is sold as the Dreams of the Revenants Edition, which adds the prequel A Requiem for Innocence, the sequel Reincarnation and further short stories, and it is on phones through Crunchyroll's Game Vault. The Switch edition holds a Metacritic score of 96.

You awaken in a decrepit old mansion. A woman with eyes of jade tells you that you are the Master of the house and she is your Maid, though you have no memories and no certainty that you are even alive. She invites you to walk the mansion's lifeless halls and see the tragedies that befell its residents, hoping you will find some trace of yourself among them.

Behind each door is another era: 1603, where siblings play in a rose garden and not everyone wants them happy; 1707, where a beast living in the ruins gives in to his savagery; 1869, where an ambitious master mistreats his wife; and 1099, where a girl with white hair has been branded a witch. These four tales take roughly the first eight hours and are only the prelude to the main story.

It is a visual novel in the strictest sense. You read for hours between choices, which are few and mostly near the end, and some of them are timed. There are eight endings, one of them the true one. Reviewers put one playthrough at 30 to more than 40 hours, and note that the opening is slow before the story takes hold.

This is gothic tragedy first. The fear is in what people do to one another: abuse, bigotry, torture and madness shown in painted art, and a curse that seems to bind the house together. At times the game also plays with its own interface to unsettle you. It suits readers who want a long, serious story and can take heavy themes; anyone looking for constant scares should know that much of its power is sorrow.

How to play The House in Fata Morgana

Start a new game and read as the Maid introduces you to the mansion.
Click or press a key to advance the text; the story is told in text over painted scenes and music.
Follow each door's tale in turn; the four tales are the prelude, and the main story continues past the fourth.
Pick an option when a choice appears; choices are rare, some are timed, and they decide which of the eight endings you reach.

Screenshots

The House in Fata Morgana screenshot: Nellie hugs her brother Mell in a flowering meadow, saying "Dearest, dearest Mell!"

The House in Fata Morgana screenshot: the White-Haired Girl looks down, above a text box saying the house feels as if she has been there before

The House in Fata Morgana artwork: the long-braided Maid reaches toward an empty rocking chair beside a glowing fireplace

The House in Fata Morgana artwork: a silver-haired, red-eyed girl holds a white rose in a moonlit garden, the dark-braided Maid behind her

The House in Fata Morgana artwork: a shadowy beast with glowing eyes and fangs looms over a screaming, bloodied man

The House in Fata Morgana artwork: a man in a top hat stands behind a silver-haired girl in a grey frilled dress holding a picture disc

The House in Fata Morgana artwork: a silver-haired girl with magenta roses in her hair reads a handwritten letter in a dim purple glow

Tips

Save before each choice so you can go back and see where another path leads.
Stay at the screen when a choice comes up: a few of them are timed.
Give it time. Reviewers call the first hours slow, and say the story grips once the tales start to connect.
Read the content warnings first: it deals with abuse, violence, torture and cruelty in detail.
Do not look up the story; its later revelations are the point of it.

Questions

Is The House in Fata Morgana a horror game?

It is a gothic visual novel with horror in it: violence, a beast, a witch hunt and madness in a cursed mansion. Its makers call it a gothic suspense tale, and it leans more on tragedy and dread than on scares.

How long is The House in Fata Morgana?

Reviewers put the main game at about 30 to more than 40 hours of reading. In the Dreams of the Revenants Edition, Nintendo Life counted about 15 more hours for the prequel and 8 for the sequel.

What is the Dreams of the Revenants Edition?

The console edition on PS4, PS Vita and Switch. It includes the main game, the prequel A Requiem for Innocence, the sequel Reincarnation and extra short stories.

Can I play it on my phone?

Yes, on iPhone and Android through Crunchyroll's Game Vault, which needs a higher-tier paid Crunchyroll membership.

Does it have multiple endings?

Yes, eight, reached through a few choices that mostly come late in the story. One of them is the true ending.

Is it voiced?

Not on Steam, where its eight languages are text only. The PlayStation Store says the Reincarnation sequel in the console edition is the part with voices.