May 032024
It’s time for our first review of Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024, and the first game we’ll be looking at is Fatal Twelve.
Fatal Twelve is a visual novel available for Switch, PS4, and PC.
It follows a teenage girl named Rinka who is transported in her dreams to a place called the Court of Fate. There, she learns that she and eleven others died on the same day. Now the twelve of them have a chance to change their fate – by eliminating the others until only one remains.
To eliminate another participant, you must know their name, cause of death, and regret. This, along with other rules of the Court of Fate, brings them into conflict with each other.
While Fatal Twelve is described as a mystery game, and there are certainly elements of mystery in it, I’d say it’s more of a character-driven thriller. It’s often less about investigations and more about reacting to the lengths participants will go to in order to get information about another. It’s filled with plenty of tense, suspenseful moments, and by the time I was on the path to my first ending, I was thoroughly invested.
There are several endings based on your choices throughout the game, although it doesn’t branch as much as you might expect for a game with this premise. That’s probably because the main focus here is really the characters.
Fatal Twelve’s greatest strength is how it shows the stories of the characters in this twisted game of fate. While Rinka is the main character, a few other characters get viewpoint sections as well, and others develop as they interact with them. It does a great job of showing that even characters who might seem deadly and ruthless are as human as anyone.
While there are some romantic elements, especially due to one of the other girls being in love with Rinka, and that’s an important part of the story, it’s not so prevalent that I’d call this a romance game. It’s just one more aspect of the characters’ humanity.
Overall, Fatal Twelve was an enjoyable game with an intriguing premise. I’m still not sure if I should call it a mystery, but it’s unusual take on a death game premise makes it a good choice to kick off this year’s event nevertheless.
Oooh I actually played this one! Yeah, this felt like an interesting concept for a visual novel/thriller but it was much heavier on the visual novel so not as much “mystery” going on, often felt more like I was along the ride for the story. Still I enjoyed it!
Definitely. Much more focused on the characters than on figuring things out. It was interesting, though!
Uh oh where have I heard this type of plot before? Killing people until only one or two remain?
*incoming black and white bear*
Hah, yes, it does have some of that vibe, although they aren’t trapped and no one is directly killing the other.