REVIEW : Noel the Mortal Fate (PC)
It’s always intriguing to see how Western players support Japanese indie developers. Typically, the developers will opt to change up their distribution style: they migrate to border stores, invest in some PR folks and localizers, and the game is now available worldwide, not just in Japan. Some, though, adopt an entirely different approach. PLAYISM, the publisher behind La-Mulana and the latest Bright Memory Infinite, has a history of taking free Japanese games, translating them, and then releasing them for a fee. Li-Eat is perhaps the best example, as well as one of the oddest because fan patches of the game existed long before the independent trilogy was released on Steam. Nonetheless, it was a success, which may have led to the decision to launch Noel: The Mortal Fate to consoles and PCs worldwide. Granted, Kawano’s Angels of Death was a huge success, so it could just be a coincidence.
Noel: The Mortal Fate is a collection of episodic stories about Noel Cerquetti, an upper-class woman who is mildly rejected by a pianist title, which puts in motion a chain of events. Encouraged by someone who claims to have her best interests at heart, Noel thinks that a bargain with the devil is the only way to make things right, and if you think it was a good option, you should take a closer look at your life. Noel is now allied with the crow-like demon Charon, a rule-following devil who dislikes individuals who abuse the system, because, you guessed it, Noel was duped into this infernal pact.
Noel will learn more about her city, the demon realm below, and what it truly means to decide “right” and “wrong” through a sequence of incredible experiences.
Because of the way Noel: The Mortal Fate is designed, players may be perplexed by many aspects of both the gameplay and the game’s future. It’s a top-down RPG in some ways, though some of the components that make the game more intriguing don’t appear until later chapters. It’s mostly a sequence of room-to-room puzzles with interactions that propel the plot ahead. Noel has no arms and only a set of prosthetic legs at first (due to her devil pact), therefore she is rather limited in her abilities. You will control Charon in numerous sequences, whose job it is to keep Noel alive so that he may fulfil his end of the demonic bargain. The game will allow you to save frequently, which I suppose is a tribute to the regular crashing of indie PC games as well as the fact that the game is supposed to be played in bite-sized chunks as you see fit.
To be honest, Noel: The Mortal Fate has the potential to be a dull title. It’s more akin to a visual novel than anything else, simply because the majority of the action revolves around reading and seeing the characters react to lies being exposed, facts being learned, and exchanges that can range from chilling to hilariously spicy. This is one of those rare occasions when we recall that RPG Maker produced a series of games in the 1990s that are remembered with varying degrees of pleasure, but the overall quality/tone remains consistent.
Thankfully, Vaka Game Studio has some major character design and development chops, as evidenced by Angels of Death. For those who are familiar, I prefer Angels of Death simply because it is a beautifully wrapped product, whereas Noel: The Mortal Fate is a SPRAWL.
Having said that, this game is a lot of fun. Everything is paced in such a way that it is evident that Kawano enjoys creating characters and circumstances that lend themselves to the game style as a storytelling mechanic. From watching Noel grow into a person of real depth and understanding to seeing Charon gradually accept the gravity of humanity’s burden, the game is incredible to behold, and I kept wanting to play more, to learn more about the world of LaPlace, and also what is the true understanding of the demonic world that appears to exist symbiotically with our own. Even if the language can be a little flat at times, it helps that the sprites and portraits are detailed and crafted in a way that evokes varied thoughts and reactions. This is one of those cases when voice acting might be fantastic or bad, but it’s difficult to say which.
The problems themselves vary greatly in terms of enjoyment and comprehension. There are instances when Noel: The Mortal Fate gets it right, allowing the player to figure out how to best life through a combination of movement and battle, with the latter being reflexive rather than aggressive. On the other hand, the 2D aspect of things can make 3D-like puzzles clumsy and obtuse. In a very early game, Charon moves both a box and Noel to precise locations to trigger progression, and I had to redo the task about seven times before I eventually grasped where the box needed to go.
Because Charon is advertised as being able to leap specific lengths and spaces but the actual restrictions are never revealed, this type of dissatisfaction occurred several times during the game’s chapters.
Furthermore, the episodic nature of the game can leave players feeling high and dry, especially if you visit Kawano’s website. As of this writing, the Switch version only has the first seven chapters. The Steam edition has seven chapters, with additional DLC covering up to nine. Kawano has completed chapter 12 on their website, and the best part is that every chapter is free to play if you own a PC and can read Japanese.
I understand that the release dates for each medium will differ, but players who can consume this game quickly may be unsatisfied while waiting for more. Fortunately, Noel: The Mortal Fate does an excellent job at concluding each chapter with a satisfying cliffhanger. You want more, but you’re not always furious about it (though I’m glad we had up to seven because the delay between 3 and 4 would have been excruciating).
