Kotodama - The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa: Fun but dispensable

 

 

The title says it all, really. Kotodama is a cute and fun little game that offered me a couple of lovely playing hours; and yet, I forgot it as soon as the cartridge was out of my Switch, and I could totally have lived without ever touching it. Heck, it left so little imprint on my gamer's soul that I actually have trouble finding something to write about it!

If I had to find one word to sum up that game, it would be 'half-baked'. There's some potential in all areas, but that potential is mostly squandered through lazy and/or uninspired design decisions. Like, why is the perfectly decent story ultimately full of loose ends? Maybe there's a sequel in the pipelines; but that's no excuse to butcher Kotodama's main story. Why doesn't Satsuki Kujo have a secret of his own despite being one of the seven main teenage characters? Seven mysteries for seven characters would be perfect, wouldn't it? Well, the developers obviously thought otherwise. Why do nameless characters have faces for a change, yet look so much creepier and freakier than your usual faceless VN grunts? Jeez, I think I prefer blank face models after all. Last but not least, why is the resident puzzle game so shockingly simplistic? I'm no expert in that field; but even I can see that any free puzzle game is ten times deeper and more complex than Kotodama's barebones take on Candy Crush. 

 

 

And that's not all, folks: the production values are crappy as heck (coming from Piofiore, this was really a shock for my retinas), the soundtrack is quite forgettable and the art style is utterly vanilla. But there is worse: to hide the fact that Kotodama is really a very short game, the developers injected it with a copious amount of fake longevity. Once you've gone through the story once and landed a totally unskippable bad end, you're faced with a crap ton of minute key dialogue choices. And let me tell you: while there is little to no leeway regarding the right, good-end-delivering choices, most of those choices are so prosaic and pedestrian that there are no clues whatsoever to guide you. Here's an example: as you meet one of the seven main characters for the first time, you're given the choice between "Hi, I'm MC" and "You like animals?". Only one answer will lead to the good end; but good luck figuring it out. Let's face it: most of the 'right' choices are completely random, and exist solely to make you play longer than you should. 

 

 

Reading all this, you'd think that I totally hated Kotodama's guts; and yet, as I mentioned earlier, I had a really good time playing it. Despite its many flaws, Kotodama ultimately oozes a pleasant and heartwarming atmosphere; it's a zesty little game that doesn't take itself too seriously and cheerfully pokes fun at VN and fan-service tropes. Since I mention this, I was genuinely surprised to see the indignation generated by Kotodama's fan-servicey bits: while I saw these as innocuous and more humorous than lewd, many reviewers saw them as utterly filthy. To each their own, I guess; suffice to say that I was not bothered in the least by the stripping sequences — all the less so as my eyes were usually glued to the grid. 

 

 

Well; looks like I finally managed to write something about Kotodama, now didn't I? I'm honestly not sure I'll ever touch that game again; but it will go down in my gaming history as a pleasurable experience. Now, do I recommend it? Not quite. Unless you're a hardcore VN aficionado, want to own every VN ever released or harbour an extreme Japanese school life fetish, there's really no reason to own that particular game. On the other hand, I liked it despite being none of these things, so... Well, it's up to you and your own gaming instinct, I guess. With that said, I'll see you soon with my gaming instinct's freshest catch, dear fellow gamers!