Fading Hearts

Played this game before it came to Steam and love it through and through! There are visual novels with longer and deeper storylines, but Fading Heart managed to be more enjoyable than most of them; its characters are downright endearing, and the story is interesting with its share of twists and mysteries. Among things that makes Fading Hearts favorably stand out among other VNs is that it gives you a lot of actual choice, rather then deciding the route for you based on often- unobvious dialogue choice. For instance, most VNs require the player to focus on pursuing specific girl, often at expense of being cold or downright rude to other girls to avoid getting unwanted “points” with them. Fading Hearts recognizes that being nice to a girl doesn’t mean you are romantically interested in her, and ultimately places decision of who to pursue into your hands. It encourages supporting all your friends regardless of your romantic interest, which I find a refreshing change from many othe...

Before Fading Hearts i've played TONS of Visual Novels and Dating Sims. I knew nothing about Fading Hearts before I decided to pick it up not knowing what to expect. From the main store page it seemed interesting enough for the $10 I paid for it. I have to say, I was quite dissapointed to be frank. First I'm going to go over what I liked about the game. The gameplay was really interesting and fun, definitely felt more closer towards a Dating sim. You get stats you can raise by doing various activities throughout the day and the stats (usually) have some effect on the game, such as how much money you get and beating certain monsters in the forest. There is a combat system, though not very in-depth, was entertaining for the first few times. And the game strongly encourages and is ment to be played with multiple playthroughs for all the endings, even including some cute dialouge at the end of each playthrough that provide hints on what to do on your next one. One thing that interested m...

The fact that you can be on multiple tracks at once, and the endings contradict each other is pretty upsetting. So if you're on a track for a good ending with one of the girls, it is entirely possible at the last minute for your girlfriend to not speak to you for 3 weeks while another ending plays out, and for her to totally forget you guys were even going out, and for the game to tell you that you are in love with someone you haven't spoken to since the intro. There are endings where you start a relationship with a girl.....who you have already been in a relationship with since March. There are endings that contradict you discovering someone's "secret identity" and tell you that you have no idea who they are. I swear, the game is great up until the endings but a VN that doesn't give you closure is like a horror game with bloom effects. Completely playable but you constantly ask yourself "why?"

It starts out OK, but it seems to me like it's very incomplete, like the story just skips a few chapters, picks up again, and leaves whoever's playing the game floundering. Characters don't develop so much as they suddenly jump from spot to spot on their arc, with no progression, they're just suddenly there, and some parts(specifically anything involving receiving a text message) are just broken, and don't display at all. For all that there's supposed to be conversation trees, there is almost no choice when it comes to actual conversations. Also, while the RPG mechanics are interesting, they're also very incomplete, as you are lacking anything to indicate level progression. RE: Developer response The storyline goes on with or without the player? I would have visited the characters in question every day if I had the option, but I wasn't given the option. Story arcs just plain vanish literally the next time I see the character in question. Also If you're going to have the story co...

Alright. I played the game, beat it and even enjoyed it, honestly. However: The art style is pretty dated for what it is and felt pretty simple. It was pretty, but I've played a number of VN's that were much prettier. 6/10 The story had moments that were touching and was overall very relatable for the most part. It was also rather simplistic and carried almost no twists or surprises. There was *one* thing that I guessed incorrectly about at the very end. Don't mistake this as being impressive, since the game only has 5 [spoiler]4[/spoiler] characters that you, the main character ever interacts with. So it being easily predictable is pretty much a given. 4/10 Music is alright at first, it's gets rather monotonous since there is very little change or variety. I never reached the point where I hated it, but it didn't exactly add much to the game at all, either. 5/10 The gameplay elements are also pretty simple. Money quickly ceases being a concern with just a little fore-t...

Actually quite good. I have played quite a few VN's and they all follow a similar pattern. This one does something different with your personal strength stat and randomization with key plot points. Which means you can play it the same way twice and end up with different endings. The Characters are better than your stereotypical "ignorant of others feelings" protagonist and the decisions you need to make are pretty tough. The only bad I noticed was that mid/late game there were hardly any events happening and it felt like one of those repetitive dating sims. It could be that I had just unlocked a lot of events early in the game through sheer luck and ran out of them but it's worth mentioning. It can be short... but so are the other VN's available on Steam. Replayability is high and that should make up for it a little.

Difficult to recommend for anyone other than big fans of the visual novel genre, and I deliberated on whether or not this was worth recommending. Leaning for no. If you're a fan of VNs (like me), this game will be worth your time; otherwise, I would look elsewhere. The game promises you the ability to change the genre of the story, but the consequence of that is that too many different plot elements all seem to merge together into some kind of overwhelming mass, making the first playthrough very daunting. For all the directions the game can take, they don't see particularly refined. The result is a rather schizophrenic experience that can leave various threads unresolved, even with subsequent playthroughs. This game DOES improve with replays, and there are definitely elements of the story I really like (especially concerning Alex and Rina), but it requires significant investment to dig that up. The stat-raising element of the game also disrupts the pacing of the game significantly. I...

This game does a good job of making the player develop feelings towards the characters, and giving you the freedom to choose how you want to build your friendship/relationships with them. Though to get the full experience, you might have to play it multiple times. The choices you make in this game do affect the vast number of events that happen in the game. Though I feel like the writing and directing could've used a bit more work, because towards the end everything happened way too quickly and was very anticlimactic, which left me disappointed and a bit depressed. If you have patience for lots of reading, drama, and romance, this game is well worth your time.

This game instantly captured my heart! Its cute, interesting and fun, I enjoyed it so much I had to call in sick the next day since I was captured with getting to see all the beautiful endings! It gets a 9/10 from me, it got alittle repetative (especially work part aka read book, work some, read book, work more, work more, work more etc several days in a row) also the music was nice making the game far more enjoyable especially with the lack of VA. I'm looking forward to more games from "Sakura River Interactive" //Duiof

I can't recommend this game because it doesn't live up to what is promised. The game bases itself on two premises: 1. Don't trust anything any character says, everyone lies at some point. 2. You can change the genre of the game by your own choices. It fails on the first one because the game's central plot-driving story element is something you, the Main Character, are told about but never directly see. You're supposed to accept it unreflectively as the main premise of the entire story. This contradicts the emphasis on not believing everything the other characters say. It fails on the second in that the non-dating sim elements of stat management and RPG battles feel tacked on and ultimately unnecessary. They're pointless at best, and repetitive at worst. Fading Hearts is just too ambitious. It tries to do too much, and what is there is not well executed. It just comes off as lacking in focus. It's not completely without merit, but I can't recommend buying it. Nor do I think people...