Warning: vulgar language, blood, violence, nudity, death and suicide.
Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia was a rather big disappointment for me. While I’m sure it does have an interesting story, I genuinely do not know what it was.
What I do know, however, is that it’s poorly executed. The VN tries to be dark but the scenes last so long it was hard to hold any shock value, or any interest in the story besides “getting it over with.” The text is also incredibly slow, as you can read the same sentences five times before a new one appears on screen. I mean this literally. (Alternatively, spend the entire 7 – 10 hours clicking.)
Another thing that absolutely does not help, is how much of this story is dragged out. I can easily see this being three hours long, but too much extra text was added in to make it much longer than it should have been. “We kissed; I was embarrassed.” “The sensation of that woman’s lips.” “I can still feel the heat of her lips.” “The enchanting heat of that kiss.” “My body is getting all hot thinking about that kiss.” These are snippets of text that are one after another, after the opening scene. This is how the entire VN plays out.

A warning to achievement hunters, while it’s easy to 100%, it’s very tedious. You must replay the game from a certain point a guide explains this. and watch the ending a total of three times for three achievements. It’s also unskippable and 7 minutes long. That I timed. Total, 21 extra minutes.

TL;DR - If this review was too long you are going to hate this VN.

I always loved mystery stories, especially when it's mixed with fantasy elements as well. You see, there can never be enough secrets to reveal for me, and thus, I was looking forward to Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia as soon as it got announced by Fruitbat Factory. Additionally, my interest got greatly piqued when I read that this visual novel contains sensitive topics as it just fits perfectly with mystery novels. That being said, I felt quite conflicted when playing Forgotten Trace and my mood was constantly changed between "Can this scene finally end?" and "Wow, maybe there is more to the story than it seems at first". Therefore, this visual novel definitely has its flaws, however, I found one or another aspect promising, nonetheless.

As a piece of side information, Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia is currently incomplete and only contains the first chapter plus a short introduction into the second chapter. Overall, this visual novel feels like an introduction to the main story and in total, there will be three chapters available.


Forgotten Trace opens with Nanami Kazuya suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar place although he assumes it's only a dream. You see, he is just a normal student who is fed up by his everyday life as he views himself as nothing special at all. Anyway, this place is quite unique as it's a forest covered in snow, which makes it even more creepy given Nanami is all alone. During exploring this place, he happens to notice a beautiful voice singing a lullaby, and thus, he decides to check it out. Evidently, he finds himself at a lake with the source of the lullaby: A gorgeous but mysterious girl. It turns out that she knew Nanami beforehand, although he cannot remember her at all.


Whilst I went into Forgotten Trace expecting a story-heavy game, it started off rather light-hearted. There are a lot of slice-of-life scenes throughout the game that just follows Nanami and his friends through their school life and along with that, the reader gets to know more about the cast's past as well. I personally don't mind slow-paced stories, in general, and was grateful that I got more insight into the characters. However, that aspect wasn't exactly well-executed as the game itself is concise but tries to introduce a bunch of characters at the same time. Thus, each story didn't feel gripping to me, and I found myself not really caring for the cast, even when the visual novel tried to implement touching and emotional events, it sadly didn't faze me.

Given that there are a lot of slice-of-life scenes available here, comedy aspects aren't missing either. In my opinion, comedy just fits well with any other genre, even when the game is supposed to be more serious there is nothing wrong with implementing a few events that will make the reader laugh out loud. The issue with Forgotten Trace, however, is that the comedic scenes are a little bit overdone. Sadly, I didn't find the way the characters are acting during the light-hearted scenes were realistic, although that only applies to one specific character. They just seem like they lack any kind of common sense and knowledge, which was so exaggerated that I was constantly questioning whether someone can really be that dense. Sure, some scenes were quite funny despite it playing out like a typical Japanese harem anime, but these jokes get repeated, which nullified the effect again.


Well, as aforementioned, this game feels like an introduction, so far. Most of the playing hours only revolved around introducing the cast, and their relation with each other. Something I liked here was that the game hints at the mysteries right in the prologue, so the reader knows there is more into the story than it might seem at first. However, there was not any story progression after that until the very end where a part of the mystery gets revealed. Thanks to that, the slice-of-life scenes felt rather dull to me as I expected to get bits of pieces of the actual plot between the subchapters, which sadly didn't happen throughout the story. Nonetheless, I was interested enough in the happenings in the prologue that I managed to read through the whole novel, hoping to find out what it's all about.


While Nanami Kazuya is the protagonist of Forgotten Trace, the game switches between the point of view of different characters with the help of a flow chart, and thus, the reader gets to experience the story from a different side as well. I absolutely love when games implement this feature as I found it greatly helps with the immersion. This way, the reader gets to know the whole picture instead of just seeing the story from one person's view. Overall, this feature was well-done, however, there was one scene available that slightly annoyed me. I didn't find this feature very fitting for this specific part as it shows three views for an event. The dialogue is exactly the same and the thoughts were just altered. Thus, it felt quite repetitive, as the reader is experiencing the same event three times in a row. Luckily, the other subchapters were fine and this issue only affected a single scene.


Overall, the art style is quite lovely. There are a lot of different facial expressions available that made the game feel more lively. I have to admit that I found most CGs gorgeous as well, although some of them slightly bothered me. You see, the art style is quite inconsistent and thus, the characters are looking a little bit off in some CGs. However, this wasn't a big issue for me and I could still admire them, although some characters' sprites noticeably looked better than others. Additionally, whilst voice-acting is present in Forgotten Trace, only the more emotional and important scenes are voiced. Of course, I prefer full voice-over, as it sometimes confused me when the voiced scenes were over, however, the voice-acting for the more serious scenes greatly improved my immersion.


While it seems like I didn't enjoy Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia based on my critique, I, in fact, enjoyed the plot reveals so far and I have high hopes for the rest of the story. As this game is more like an introduction to the cast, it's understandable that the storyline isn't fast-paced right at the beginning, although I would have loved more story progression throughout the first chapter. However, the mystery kept me entertained enough to keep playing this visual novel. Sure, there were a few aspects here and there that I didn't find well-executed in Forgotten Trace, however, it has a great premise and I hope it will get more interesting with further entries.

You can find hundreds of other reviews through our Curator page


Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia bounces all over the place in almost every aspect of its design. At its best, it’s a captivating supernatural mystery revolving around unlikely teenage suicides who shake off life-altering disabilities just long enough to kill themselves. At its worst, it’s a painful slice of life comedy that will often present what could be an amusing premise or idea, then works spectacularly hard to drive it into the ground. The wackier aspects of Trace noticeably exist for grander reasons than to provide a cheap chuckle, but as a way to explore the main characters from different angles - which is good. Only they make that point, and then they keep going. Dragging out and repeating it over and over, like a [s]reviewer[/s] school child who has to write a 2,000-word essay but finds themselves tapped out at half that. There are passages in Trace that feel like they may never end and you slowly come to accept that this is your life now, reading about high school girls with boob envy verbally jousting with hyperactive teenage playboys until the sun gives out. You have to be brave; there’s a very good story buried in there somewhere.

Or, at least, there’s the start of one. This game’s full title is Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia – Chapter 1 Complete. This is because its native Japanese release schedule is episodic, and, here, the four episodes of the first chapter are collected and included as one base game. To that end, it’s the first of a planned trilogy, which probably explains the weird hyper-focus on the cast. It’s the foundation title employed to set up the rest of the series, used primarily to introduce the main characters. It occasionally does a very good job of this. For example, the protagonist, Nanami Kazuya, is a floundering shell of his former self. Once a rising high school soccer star with aspirations of going pro, he’s been wallowing in his own depression after suffering a debilitating knee injury in what was the most important match he’d yet to play. But you don’t learn this immediately; when you first meet him, he’s laid out in an unfamiliar forest. He has no idea where he is, how he got there, or what to do next. It’s the dead of night and the middle of a snowstorm, and he can’t shake the feeling he’s being watched. There’s footprints embedded in the snow, and, with no other course of action, he follows them until they come to an unexplainable dead end.

Then he hears singing. Then he finds the source; a woman standing in the midst of an icy lake, barely clothed in fluttering tatters. She recognises him, and he feels he should know her, but doesn’t. When he eventually awakens, he dismisses the experience as a particularly vivid dream. Only, little pinpricks of it keep bleeding through into his everyday life.

Moments like the dream represent Forgotten Trace at its best. However, seconds after waking from this, Kazuya hears weird noises in his house and goes to investigate. Then he discovers a weird girl he’s never met before in his life. Then he discovers that his best friend has been smuggling girls into his house for secret trysts. Then he discovers that his friend is, openly, the most cringeworthily person in the world and has no right to obtain any kind of female attention. Then he has to reevaluate this, because another childhood friend arrives, and the game begins a very, very long passage over which of the two can be the most annoying.

// Full Review[www.honestgamers.com]

Warning- Don’t read this if you can’t handle sensitive topics such as suicide and death. The review is based on current gameplay (It will be updated later).

A young teenager named Kazuya Nanami lies on a snowy ground, reminiscing about his dull life and his closest friends while he tries to escape the forest. The boy’s leg is in perfect condition, but how is that possible? Kazuya knows the place is fictional because he’s supposed to be somewhere else. AT HOME. A trail of footprints leads him to a lake where he sees a beautiful girl singing with a single cloth. The unnamed person recognizes Kazuya, kisses him, and disappears. Is she human?

Kazuya’s world Episode 1- Waking up in his bed, Kazuya can’t remember whether it was a dream. He checks his computer and discovers people are committing suicide in his town. What’s causing them to die? You are introduced to Kazuya’s friends: Playboy Rei and Childish Miu. Childhood crush Ibuki hasn’t been in school due to medical reasons. There isn’t much information about those deaths either. In this episode, you’ll learn what happened to Kazuya’s leg and how he has changed since the incident. Some comedic scenes were uninteresting because it dragged. There are several scenes without any sound. It seems to be intentional according to the developer.

I completed the first episode. In my opinion, I thought this wasn’t a good start. The visual novel has a great prologue, but it tends to fall flat with unnecessary boring scenes. I kept reading to give it a chance. I still want to know who the mystery girl is. Features include Japanese voice acting, decent artwork, and background music. You can’t make choices. Would I recommend it? No. My review might change once I finish it.

Edit Review: After reading a bit further into the visual novel, I decided to keep the negative review. There are different perspectives of the characters' stories. You will encounter references from famous works, but it's rather awkward. I felt like it wasn't needed, and I was losing interest. You don't want to bore your audience with dull scenes. I can’t give it a positive rating. Definitely not recommended.

Linear Visual Novel. No choices, just click and read. On the plus side the intro is very poetic. Visuals are ok-ish, typical for what you would expect, nothing that really stands out though. For me the parts Ive read have been way to drawn out though, taking the melodramatic scenes to the point where they bore you and the funny scenes to the point where they become annoying.
Negative, purposely bringing up other famous works and using it as part of the commentary totally uncool. Your story and its history and back lore should be its own. If your having to borrow the shine from other peoples work, you've already given up on you own.

Sadly, this might've been the worst first impression I've ever had starting any VN, ever. After a dragged out prologue, the opening sequence played and I found out that if I played the game with full screen on, all cutscenes flicker like they're trying to send epilectics to the hospital. The window mode was too big for my screen and the bottom of the screen got cut off, and I couldn't change the window size to fix that. The scene following the opening sequence was a "comedy" scene where MC's friend had apparently broken into MC's house with some random woman to have an ONS and then had me read through 10 minutes of absurd lies as to why that wasn't MC's house without MC defending himself. Then an annoying typical imouto-character barged in and acted like a 7 year old girl for another 10 minutes. After that I just gave up on the VN and put it on skip mode to get the rest of the achievements.

So it's a completely normal story about the life of a group of high school students and then suddenly
[serious spoilers ahead]
turns out everyone is actually from a different family of space aliens and must fight each other to death for reasons????? None of this makes any sense whatsoever.
Guess we'll never find out because this is an incomplete novel and the sequel does not exist yet. Will it ever? Who knows.

(Ignore game hours, I was afk a lot)

Art style seems unpolished, and varies slightly throughout. Also, the story is very convoluted and hard to follow. I ended up holding down Enter after the rooftop scene (which also made zero sense, since her motivation does a complete 180 for no reason). There's no saving her, so the other two scenes are pointless to read unless you're unlocking achievements.

ACTUAL Content Warning: Extreme nudity (few scenes), vulgar speech/off-color remarks, suicide, moderate blood (one scene). (Thanks to others for also pointing this out as well. Hopefully the game creators will take a hint and update the store page!)

Attention:
- this review may contain spoilers, if you don´t mind go ahead.
- first impressions
- neutral review

Summary: A short length kinetic vn with Mystery/ Drama elements and sensitive topics. Features nice artwork, great BGM, multiple protagonists.

About:
- Game: Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia is a short length kinetic vn with Mystery/ Drama elements and sensitive topics. Developed by Almaz and published by Fruitbat Factory.
- Gameplay: a kinetic novel with a built-in flowchart with multiple POV and subchapters, this one covers all subchapters from chapter 1.
- VA: yes.
- Artwork: good, there are some nudity CG, some says is all age.
- Text/translation: no problems so far
- Soundtrack: bgm is excellent. The sound with vocals is great.
- Performance/ cons: playing in fullscreen may trigger a lot of flashes of light in the game, this might be dangerous for users with PHOTOSENSITIVITY/EPILEPSY SEIZURES. It can be solved by playing widescreen. There are some scenes without bgm, is intentional but quite strange. Using red devil vega 56 and 3700x.

Conclusion: Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia is a short length kinetic vn with Mystery/ Drama elements and sensitive topics, features nice artwork, great BGM. Personally, Is not a type (theme) of game I would play, and I had problems to play in fullscreen and is the only chapter 1, so I only recommend if you are into in sensitive topics and only buy once the game is fully complete.

The text is excruciatingly slow for absolutely no reason. This game would be so short if you could move through dialogue at a normal pace.