Launching for the Nintendo Switch on September 15th 'fault - StP - Lightkravte'

https://chalgyr.com/2022/08/news-faultstplightkravte-release/

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 18:00:00 +0000

TOKYO — August 22, 2022 — fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE, the latest entry in the cinematic sci-fi-meets-fantasy visual novel series with more than 500,000 copies sold from developer ALICE IN DISSONANCE and publisher Phoenixx, brings its thrilling prologue to Nintendo Switch on Thursday, Sept. 15.

Born on a fairly successful fruit farm, Khaji refuses to follow in his family's footsteps and dreams of becoming an accomplished artist against his father's wishes. But the Kingdom of Rughzenheide asks each young adult to choose their future professional paths for life, and it turns out Khaji struggles with his chosen career: his heart is there, but his artistic talents are lacking.

Khaji’s trials and tribulations lead him to meet interesting characters, and he becomes embroiled in a world of magic. Shocking revelations lead him to question everything he knew about the world around him. His story intersects with characters introduced in fault - milestone one and fault - milestone two side: above, such as a young Ritona before she became Royal Guardian.

Those unfamiliar with the fault series can dive right in with fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE, as the game features a standalone story that newcomers can enjoy. Use the dictionary to learn the ins and outs of referenced events and terminologies of magical science introduced throughout the plot. Meanwhile, the story features plenty of easter eggs for long-time fans, and a new perspective on beloved characters, all setting up for the highly anticipated fault - milestone two side: below, currently in development.

“We were heartened by the response to fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE after its PC release earlier this year from both our longtime fans and newcomers,” said Munisix, Director, ALICE IN DISSONANCE. “I know Switch fans are still catching up on the series, and Sept. 18 is the perfect time to get started if you haven’t already!”

fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE will be available on Nintendo Switch for $17.99, with support for English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese language text. Previously released games fault - milestone one and fault - milestone two side: above are also available on the Nintendo eShop.

About ALICE IN DISSONANCE

Established by creative director Munisix, ALICE IN DISSONANCE created the acclaimed cinematic visual novel series fault, selling more than 500,000 copies worldwide to date across four titles. Under the visual art direction of illustrator Hare Konatsu, ALICE IN DISSONANCE focuses on highly immersive visual novels inspired by the shōnen manga genre of Japanese storytelling, utilizing a distinctive cinematic camera work style to bring a movie-like experience to their games.

For more information on ALICE IN DISSONANCE, visit the official fault website, follow ALICE IN DISSONANCE on Twitter, join the official ALICE IN DISSONANCE Discord server, and visit the official ALICE IN DISSONANCE Patreon.

About Phoenixx

Established in 2019 by industry veterans, Phoenixx aims to support innovative and creative developers from Japan and around the world. Its mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one creator, one game, and one community at a time.

To learn more, visit the Phoenixx official website, Phoenixx Facebook page, and follow @Phoenixx_inc on Twitter.

 

Article by: Susan N.

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fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE Review

fault-StP-LIGHTKRAVTE by developer ALICE IN DISSONANCE and publisher Phoenixx Inc.—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time:  5 minutes.

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fault-stp-Lightkravte is a tale of a young boy struggling to make his way in the world. A part of the "fault" series, but working as a stand-alone title, Lightkravte will delve into a story of what it means to chase after your dreams.

Lightkravte gives a look at the boy Khaji Oberg, the son of a fruit farmer in a kingdom where peace along the border is tentative, and refugees are being taken in. During this time, Khaji is more concerned about his future. Instead of looking to take over his father's fruit farm, he wants to be something different: a painter. The quality of his work, however, may leave a bit to be desired. In this Visual Novel, we get to see Khaji's story, and how he hopes to overcome the gap in talent in order to become a painter.

Lightkravte is, 100%, the definition of Visual Novel. What I mean is that there are no choices, no gimmicks, it's 100% text with pictures. No voiceover, either. Needless to say, that makes this more of a "book review" than a game review, really, but hey, it is what it is. Lightkravte takes about, maybe 5 hours or so to get through, reading speed pending, and has some dynamic 2D character models, a few sort of action like scenes, but will largely be characters talking to each other, or Khaji monologuing. On an interesting side note, I have not actually played any of the other fault titles, but Lightkravte has made me want to, although maybe not in the sense you're expecting.

So all in all, without giving away spoilers, the story is…fairly entertaining, for the most part. Most of the characters are pretty interesting, and have a decently fleshed out character personality and backstory, some being more enlightening than others, but they're all there. Unfortunately for me, Khaji himself is one of the two types of characters I distinctly loathe. It isn't until probably the last 5 minutes or so of Lightkravte until his character actually evolved to a point I was content with, although perhaps you may enjoy it a little more. Incidentally, my favourite character was Ritona, who doesn't really get a whole lot of screen time until the end. I didn't know this until after finishing Lightkravte, but apparently she is a main character for the rest of the fault series, and this is more of a spin-off prequel type deal. Go figure.

In terms of presentation, I have to say it is rather well done. The backgrounds are pretty and have a lot of depth, the character designs are all pretty neat, and the environments on display are nice to view. The soundtrack does a very good job of being unobtrusive yet matching and emphasizing the tone at the right time, and the character expressions, while a little corny or over emotive at times, do a good job at expressing how the character is feeling. The only real issue I had with Lightkravte is the second time I booted it up, it switched to Japanese language and I had to mess around trying to find the language settings. Annoying, but nothing happened mid…read? Playthrough? that caused any sort of issue.

You know, I do need to hand it to the developer, ALICE IN DISSONANCE, because they've managed to very artistically, and successfully, set up a story that's more or less about "just some guy". No, seriously, despite there being a huge political drama, conflict, and magical background, a lot of it is almost irrelevant to Khaji, as he just wants to focus on his goal of being a painter, often neglecting those around him to do so. There's a wonderful world full of plenty of backstory and tidbits, most of which may be found in an Encyclopedia that is available both from the menu, and when a new world pops up you can click on it to explore the meaning and context. But that conflict and political drama? Pretty much entirely unused with Khaji, that's for the other characters that appear in the other titles in the series. Khaji is, by and large, just some random guy trying to get his life together. It's both endearing and frustrating at the same time.

The fantasy elements are integrated really well too, where people will practice different forms of manakravte, the act of using what is essentially magic to impose their will on the world. This isn't full fantasy either, as the world still has to follow the laws of physics, there is just an extra element added that can interact with the world. It's really neat, and I always enjoy seeing magic and technology integrated well. One of the only complaints I have is that it seems like 90% of the cast is some sort of genius savant in some way or another, which is a little weird, but hard to tell really, because Khaji himself could just be a bit more of a dolt than I thought.

Oddly enough, despite my extreme dislike for the main character, I kept coming back for more, which is a great point towards ALICE IN DISSONANCE for their wonderful storytelling. The visuals are really impressive, character personalities are unique and actually realistic, and despite being a surprisingly fantasy reflection of real world issues, still manages to draw you in, despite how close to home some of the concepts may hit.

fault-StP-Lightkravte has done a really good job of making me want to pick up the entire rest of the series, and maybe you should too.

Score: 8.5 / 10

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