DescriptionWARNING: There is yuri subtext in this game and the "sub" gets dropped pretty violently in some paths. If you cannot stand LGBTQ+ content, please stay away from this game.
Fatal Twelve is a visual novel with choices and a branching storyline that takes multiple playthroughs to experience fully. You play as Shishimai Rinka, your typical manga protagonist, an orphan (raised by her grandmother who is out of town
) high schooler who is simultaneously socially inept and somewhat popular (
). Thankfully, unlike many typical shoujo heroines, she is no klutz and you will not likely spend the entire game wondering why people like her.
Right from the start, a truly terrible thing happens
and Rinka is forced to play a truly weird (in an interesting way) Battle Royale game with eleven other players, most of them strangers. Not knowing most of the players is not a simple detail, since one must uncover three things about another player to eliminate them:
Pros+ Very good story full of mysteries, twists and turns. It stayed with me to this day, long after I stopped playing.
+ Great Japanese voice acting
+ Interesting mechanics make for an original and fascinating variation on Battle Royale situations
+ A lot of variety in characters, so there should be something to your taste
+ Rinka's relationship with Miharu is pretty complex and can turn either really tragic or extremely sweet depending on your choices
+ Competent art everywhere from charas to CGs to backgrounds to menus
Cons- Often really hard to guess what impact a choice will have
- Given the amount of playthroughs required to finish the game 100%, the game would have benefited from an overview of storylines and the ability to jump to a specific junction (as in Zero Escape games or The Letter, for instance)
- Some tropey characters might annoy you
VerdictFull disclosure: I am a backer of
Fatal Twelve's KickStarter.
I've played plenty of visual novels and their story rarely leaves as big an impression on me as this one did. It does start slow and I would understand if some people give up quickly, thinking it's yet another anime visual novel full of nothing but cliches, but you really should stick with it until the story takes off. Every character has some depth to them and there are mysteries behind mysteries. There is very little melodrama in this game, but plenty of actual tragedies. This game left me feeling like I wanted to spend more time in its universe and with its characters. That is rarely true of games I play all the way to 100%.
If you love visual novels, anime, yuri, tragic stories or interesting thrillers, I definitely recommend this game to you.
5.0