Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Fatal Twelve

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
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.

Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 Begins (With a Twist!)

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, My Games, My Stories, Video games, Writing  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 012024
 

May is here, and that means a return of Celebrating All Things Mysterious, our new annual event where we celebrate mysteries.

However, this year it’s going to be a little different.

Much like with the shortened Celebrating All Things Romantic event earlier this year, this event comes at a time when I’m drowning in games to play. Not only that, but February’s contest resulted in a tie for first place in which both winners picked a game for me to review.

As a result, I’m still finishing up those games on top of everything else, and solid mystery games tend to run on the longer side. So! Instead of a new mystery game review with each post like in the past, this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious event will feature one mystery game review each week.

This more relaxed pace should make it easier to balance this year’s event while letting me take the time to savor these games as they deserve.

With that important change out of the way, let’s get into the event details!

Promotions

Drops of Death, the murder mystery romance game where any of the love interests can be the killer (it’s randomized at the start of each playthrough) is currently planned for an October 2025 release date! A new trailer will premiere tomorrow, so be sure to check that out!

Meanwhile, don’t forget that two of my pulp fiction stories star The Domino Lady, the masked vigilante from classic pulp fiction. In “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” part of Domino Lady Volume 3, the Domino Lady embarks on a murder investigation after suspecting the truth of the case is being covered up. Then in “The Domino Lady Deceived,” found in Domino Lady Volume 4, a thwarted heist brings her into conflict with a thief wily and determined enough to be her match.

Contest

And yes, even though new posts will only be weekly, you can still comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious post to participate in this month’s contest!

Contest Rules

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between May 1, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST and May 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST will be counted.
  • Each non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious blog post, including replies to other comments, earns you 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The top 3 point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.
  • The winner will be contacted by June 3, 2024.

Prizes

  • Domino Lady Volume 3 (ebook)
  • Domino Lady Volume 4 (ebook)
  • Phoenix Wright Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (gift sent through Steam)
  • Apollo Justice Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • $35 Nintendo eShop gift card to use for either Famicom Detective Club game
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!
  • …and possibly more prizes to be added throughout May!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in June.

An event like this is an easy way for me to encourage myself to play some of the mystery games I’ve gathered over the years. So let’s find some great new mystery games and discuss them in Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024!

It’s the Anniversary of Xenoblade Chronicles X… and I’m Still Hoping for a Port

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Apr 292024
 

Xenoblade Chronicles has become incredibly popular since the days of that first niche release we almost didn’t get in North America . These three games are now beloved by JRPG fans…

What, you say there’s four games? Ah yes, because Torna ~ the Golden Country was sold as a standalone release, right?

That’s sadly how it feels sometimes; while the main Xenoblade trilogy has soared in popularity, Xenoblade Chronicles X remains the odd game out, overshadowed by the other three and sometimes even forgotten entirely.

Today is the 9th anniversary of Xenoblade Chronicles X’s release. It came out on April 29, 2015 in Japan and would follow in other regions in December.

Although I had my doubts about it ahead of launch, I ended up loving it despite it being a fully open world game with a lessened emphasis on story. The worldbuilding, humor, characters, and exploration were that good.

Look how optimistic I was back when I wrote that review, ending with the hope that we would see Xenoblade Chronicles X 2 at E3 2016. Here we are 9 years later, and not only do we not have a sequel, but we got two other Xenoblade games and a remaster in the meantime.

Since Xenoblade Chronicles X is still stranded on the Wii U, far fewer people have played it than the others. That’s why it’s overlooked so often. Because of that, the farther we’ve gotten from it, the more I’ve hoped for a port or remaster to be announced. I want a Xenoblade Chronicles X sequel, and I think our best chance of getting that is if X is ported first and reaches a bigger audience.

With how many Wii U games made the jump to the Switch and how popular Xenoblade has become, it’s kind of shocking that Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the few that’s still a Wii U exclusive.

Back in 2018, director Tetsuya Takahashi said in an interview that bringing X to the Switch would be “really difficult.” He said it was a money issue, because of how massive X is.

In the time since that 2018 interview, the Xenoblade series has become more popular than ever. Now we’re getting near the end of the Switch’s life, and rumors of its successor are on the horizon. Few things would make me happier than if Xenoblade Chronicles X was one of the first titles announced (hopefully to pave the way for a Xenoblade Chronicles X 2). Here’s hoping the series’ success on the switch is enough to make it worth the effort to port Xenoblade Chronicles X and give it a second chance to shine!

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