Recent reviews by JCOdyssey

I don’t think that anyone should go into this VN expecting it to be just like Fata Morgana, but it is a story for Fata Morgana fans.

From the outside, Seventh Lair looks like a fun Fata AU that reuses some of the same assets as the original VN to tell a smaller story—at least that was my impression of it going in. That’s not entirely wrong, though the content warning screen will tell you that it’s not “fun” in the sense that it’s lighthearted. But if you’re like me and like to see characters struggling, suffering, and getting to the end of a story damaged but hopeful, then it’s absolutely just as fun as NOVECT’s other work. And I really do recommend going into Seventh Lair as an existing fan of the company’s work.
Seventh Lair is not a literal Fata Morgana AU. The same characters are there, but they’re more like archetypes of the original Fata cast who have been molded into a different form. These new molds of the characters touch on some of the same character beats and emotions as their original counterparts, but get taken in different directions that align with the settings and themes of Seventh Lair. As a massive Fata fan, I think that this works because you go into the story with the expectation that the characters will fill similar roles as before—Nellie is a brocon, Mell acts good-natured but meek, Jacopo lashes out at everyone around him, and Michel is the world’s most intense NEET. That existing knowledge and love for the characters makes it all the more compelling when your expectations are subverted and the characters act in different ways than the role that has been laid out for them. Much like the original Fata morphed these characters across time and space to have them play different parts in a grander story, Seventh Lair gives the reader a new perspective on their lives that still feels fitting when you know who they are as people.

I won’t say that this subversion and use of the characters always works well—it can sometimes create some pretty intense tonal whiplash to go from a fun RPG parody to relatable portrayals of depression to suddenly intense situations or backstories.(Yukimasa, for example, is not a character who works in a VN this short—you really need time to get to know him to make him not come off as a comically evil dude for having a lifelong impulse to kill people). But when it works, it produces some stellar writing and dynamics between the characters, even when it hiccups with some of its themes at the same time. There’s one central character in Seventh Lair that’s especially interesting when compared to Fata Morgana because this VN had their first official appearance. If you’ve read A Requiem for Innocence, you’ll pick up on who that is pretty quickly (keep in mind that Seventh Lair was released in 2013 in Japan and Requiem in 2015). I don’t love how dour this character’s story can get at times, but they’re a very powerful presence in Seventh Lair —and I appreciate the sense of melancholic familiarity they bear to their Requiem incarnation even though the two characters are taken in different directions. That melancholic mood permeates most of the VN, as it does for me in Fata Morgana, and it’s what makes it a comfy experience for me despite my criticisms and the decidedly uncomfy subject matter of the story.

Even without the Fata Morgana comparison, I think that Seventh Lair is a strong story—one that very powerfully portrays a group of people dealing with deeply troubling situations and emotions. There is not a happy ending for everyone in here, but there is, by the end of the story, a sense of hope for the group that bonds with each other over the course of the VN. I would still recommend it to existing Fata fans over newcomers, and I hope that anyone who eventually picks it up finds it as compelling as I do.