fault – StP – LIGHTKRAVTE Review (PC)

Visual novel is a rather strange games genre because most of the games in this category don’t involve any gameplay. There are exceptions to this unwritten rule, but they are few and far between. I can’t really say that I’m a fan of the genre, but I absolutely love some of the visual novels I played in the last couple of years, including 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Vampire: The Masquerade series.

There’s one thing these games have in common: they mix visual novel with strategy/RPG elements and let players make meaningful decisions. fault – StP – Lightkravte doesn’t involve any of that, but I heard good things about the fault series, and since Lightkravte debuted this year, I thought it would be a great place to start.

fault – StP – Lightkravte is a prequel to the previous fault – milestone one and two games, but I think it’s more of a side story set in the years previous to the main titles. More importantly (and the reason I decided to start with this one), you’re not required to have played fault – milestone one and fault – milestone two side:above to enjoy Lightkravte.

Lightkravte is set in the Kingdom of Rughzenhaide, the hometown of Ritona and Selphine, two of the characters that appear in fault – milestone one and two games. It follows the unremarkable life of a young painter-wannabe, Khaji, and his struggles to turn his hobby into a lifelong profession.

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Watching Khaji’s metamorphosis from a completely unlikeable character to an … innovator is quite amazing, and I think that’s the main topic of the visual novel. The first few hours I thought Khaji is an ungrateful prick, but then I “promoted” him to creep. The last hour(s) of the game are also the most interesting because you get to see the final result and truly understand Khaji’s motives for acting the way he did.

Newcomers to the series like me will find the setting a bit overwhelming because the prequel doesn’t do a good job at explaining many of the fantasy/sci-fi terms in the game. Although Lightkravte does feature a pretty sizeable glossary where many of the specific terms are explained, people, factions, locations and other more “mundane” words related to the setting aren’t touched upon because you presumably played the first two games.

Thankfully, these don’t really impact the overall experience, and frankly, you’re probably better off not knowing some of the stuff that you’re reading about in Lightkravte. It will have a greater impact when everything is unveiled in fault – milestone one and two.

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Moving on to the actual writing, I find Lightkravte an enjoyable read, although I do question design. The first few hours of the game are excruciatingly boring to the point that I was very close to give up. Nothing really interesting happens in the first 2-3 hours of the game, so unless you’ve played the first two games, you’ll probably be very tempted to stop playing.

I was halfway through until the “plot” started to make sense, but even in the last part of the game the action seems to be dragging a lot. Not to mention that the “ending” is not as satisfying as I would have expected. The tension starts building towards the last few hours, but it doesn’t offer you a straight answer, it just sets up the plot for the other two games. It’s a valid design choice that I’m not particularly fond of.

What I did love about Lightkravte is the art style, but the animations are very well done too. This is pretty-looking visual novel, there’s no doubt about it. The soundtrack could do with a few more tunes, but if you’re a fast reader, you probably won’t get enough of the songs.

Lightkravte shouldn’t take you more than 7-8 hours to finish but considering that the first few hours are quite boring, it will certainly seem a little more than that. I’m pretty sure that this doesn’t apply to those who played the first two games though.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion