Part I
tl;dr Play it. Play it as a Sleuth Visual Novel, though, not an RPG, as there is not much in the way of the latter. It is a fun, thought-provoking game, but it focuses very heavily on the Sleuth VN aspects while the RPG bits are sparse and seem more of an after-thought, though not slapped together by any means.
The first part of this review will be a spoiler free overview with special attention on Story, Gameplay and Presentation. The second part consists of the notes that I took while playing the game, each of which is liable to spoil you beyond repair. As such, the second part is intended mainly for the developers.
Fleuret Blanc can be described as a game made by hipsters, for hipsters. But in a mostly good way. It may be a little hard to relate to for many, but others will feel more at home than they ever have. There are a sprinkling of moments that felt too exposed as message bits (things involved to make an incidental point rather than anything related to the game) but nothing too jarring. Just know that, like in most forms of communication, this game tends to represent a single viewpoint much more strongly than others. Whether it feels strange or not depends on how much you know and agree with. Either way, it comes out as a cohesive and believable game world.
STORY: I wasn't expecting a ton of this coming in, but, I was very wrong. The story is clearly the focus of the game. It took a little while to really grab my attention, but once it did, I thought it completely worthwhile.
As I stated previously, it centers around a handful of mysteries. The player is given various ways to figure these mysteries out and ultimately plays a key role in unraveling the biggest of them all. This part is marvelously done, with all manner of foreshadowing and no crazy leaps of logic. Everything that happens does so without seeming to come out of the blue or fly in the face of other things.
Just about all of the information is relayed through character conversations, which is one reason why it feels so much like a Visual Novel. Most of the gameplay centers around talking to various characters about things and then, sometimes, choosing what character to interact with further. Relationships are built with the characters by collecting information about them and then various bits of the game open up or change depending on how much information is known.
The characters themselves are wildly varied and finely detailed, though there is a distinct lack of normal. Each of them can be boiled down to a few traits, though, they remain realistic enough. It is only when one takes a step back and surveys the whole cast that it is revealed that each character has a handful of dominating traits. This is not necessarily bad during gameplay as it makes it very easy to differentiate them, but it does ultimately call into question how fresh they really are. Original or not, though, they are used here in the fullest to improve the game, so I cannot complain.
(40/40)
GAMEPLAY: This is where I was expecting the game's focus to be, so I was lost for a while until I picked up on my error. That said, the gameplay revolving around the Sleuth VN elements is very well done. The fencing parts, however, leave much to be desired.
I already covered most of the VN bits in the Story section, but to complete what I started there I need to mention that Sleuth Segments. Basically, the player would be reminded of some information that they knew and would have to draw a conclusion from it. For the most part these worked well, though a few veered too close to Remember Arcane Info Segments instead.
In addition, there was a Gossip system that allowed for more information to be gleaned from some characters with a little legwork. That is, the player can gossip about the last thing they interacted with, be it a person or an object. It was mostly ok, but if the player wants to ask different people about the same thing, they end up running back and forth quite a bit. Being able to have more control over the Gossip topic would have been lovely.
As for the fencing, it probably looked much better on paper.
It starts off with two offensive options and two defensive options. The player and their opponent take turns attacking and defending. Basically, the gameplay revolves around guessing which attack your opponent is using and defending accordingly. You can also, if you play the mini-game that grants favor from the judges well enough, use a skill that gives percentages as to the success of your other options. This effectively removes most of the already thin gameplay. Worse, your first opponent has a different moveset and is rather hard to comprehend when you fight him. Fortunately, losing a bout isn't really a huge deal as you can fight other bouts whenever you please.
Later on, the player gets a list of all of the different skills available, making opponents much easier to understand. They also get the chance to learn a few more skills themselves. There won't be many more learned unless they really get into the fencing parts, but it's probably enough.
The biggest flaw, though, is that even once one has mastered the system to its utmost, victory is too heavily tied to luck of the draw.
This is remedied somewhat by being able to choose from several different skills if you bout for enough money to pick them up, but, even then the gameplay lies mostly in the preparation instead of in the actual bout that takes far more time. There is little flexibility to respond to what's happening in the fight itself.
The fatigue system gets its own section because it does not feel like it belongs anywhere else. It has the look and feel of something that was included because it makes a bit of sense in real life but that does not make much sense to have in the game. At best, it does nothing. At worst, it eats up the limited event count that the player is given.
And what could be considered a spoiler...
Though, as none of the fencing winds up being important until maybe the end, perhaps it would be better to disregard it? No, the bouts take too long to be written off.
The end result is that the fencing (RPG?) elements drag the Sleuth VN elements down without adding anything to compensate.
(20/40)
PRESENTATION: The game is full of custom art, custom battles with custom animated battlers, custom sound, etc. It is all put together very nicely and used to excellent effect. The only thing that pops out is the rather long walk from the bout room to the kitchen; a door in the wall that separates the two would be very appreciated.
There are a few grammatical errors throughout, but nothing beyond the scope of a typo, and rare at that. Near the end of the game, there are also a few oversights like characters being in two places at once, but even that isn't totally noticeable.
(15/20)
Total: 80/100
Part II
-The second the game finished installing, my laptop fell prey to a BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. I'm not certain the two were related, but, I've got my eye on this game.
-I attempt to uninstall it because the game gives a 'note found' error, but the uninstaller doesn't seem to work...so I just re-install over the old one. I notice that the last part of installation says 'check this option if I want the game to open after exiting installation' but has no option to check. Anyway, the game runs fine now and I did not get another blue screen.
-Soon enough, I'm on an opening screen with good art and a decent composition. The sword held by the titular character looks really short, though. The shadows in the background are great. There's also music which doesn't really seem to strike the right mood? But I don't know...we'll see.
-The game starts with an APPLICATION. I'm not sure what the questions mean, but the section is odd enough to grab my attention. I'm betting it's setting difficulty...
-And we're on to some dialogue. The characters grunt and say tidbits like 'hello' every now and then. The effect is similar to Zelda: Twilight Princess.
-I arrive and am subject to a POP QUIZ from GRAM GRAM CREEPER. I have to guess what FOIL means given some hints, as in I pick something out from a list for each letter.
-Or just for F...which makes it really, really easy. It takes longer to celebrate my victory than it took to achieve it.
-Next, she asks to see my PRIZED POSSESSION. Or she's asking to and suddenly I'm looking at a WHEEL OF COLORS. Not sure why...?
-I guess I had to play a mini-game to get something out of my suitcase.
-Well, soon thereafter, I discover the most well-spoken NPC to date is a DOG. This is apparently normal as FLORENTINE does not balk whatsoever.
-Mmk, I'm now free to move about...and I'm a LUNCHBOX. Ok.
-It seems I also play a mini-game to unpack? A mini-mini-game, really.
-I meet an NPC named KANT. My stomach ties itself into knots in dread.
-The first convo with him is short and ends abruptly. I talk to him again half out of shock and get a sort of INTERACTION MENU.
-I learn that the GOSSIP system basically has people say bits of info about stuff. They have up to twenty lines about themselves, I'm told. ROLAND, the GOSSIP KING, seems to spend those lines saying totally irrelevant things. There's some character building value, sure, but I would rather see his character built in a way that has something to do with the game. I don't really care about his dog or his girlfriend. I go through all of this GOSSIP lines and find nothing of value. I certainly know the character better, but that is of little consequence as I still don't know what sort of game I'm even playing.
-I get to the BOUT TUTORIAL. The first image is rather hard to understand...the different colored arrows alone would have been better than crossing them out with the color from the other arrows. Also, the relationships could have been more easily communicated with seperate diagrams. At any rate, with the help of the text, I know what's going on.
-Combat seems...really simple? I choose between two attacks and then the enemy chooses between two defenses. If he guesses right, I don't hit him. If he guesses wrong, I do hit. Then we switch to having me on the defensive and so on. There's a bit more attempted with the addition of the ANALYSIS system, but in the end it simply tells me percentages as to what will work better and what won't. It doesn't make the choice more interesting, it tells me flat out what choice to make? We'll see...
-It helps that the goal of combat is not simply to lower your opponent's health. The winner is based on STYLE, not HP. However, the one that loses their hp loses half of their STYLE before determining the winner.
-It does not help that ROLAND, my opponent, is using moves totally different from mine. I'm not really sure what he's doing and thus unsure of how to respond. Even with ANALYSIS in effect, I'm rather lost. It turns out that it is not a simple percentage of what will work, but...this makes it rather unhelpful. The first round I use it, it shows both of my options at 66%. Both of them. Next, the difference between the percentages is very slim.
-Eventually, I LOSE. He takes my LUNCHBOX.
-At least, the seemingly random mini-games from earlier make sense now. They were used in combat. That takes it from being inane and annoying to actually sort of cool. As long as it stops. Now.
-And I'm in another FIGURE STUFF OUT segment. This one isn't as easy, though is based on my remembering seemingly unimportant details from earlier in the game.
-I move things along with one of the EVENTS that moves things along. I'm treated to a QUOTE-ON-BLACKSCREEN that is reminiscent of FLORENTINE but otherwise seems totally out of place?
-Seems I have to play a mini-game to unlock doors too. I have to unscramble a word, which I do...but I don't know what to do after that. Hitting OK on the POKEDEX thing does nothing either.
-Apparently, I chose the wrong word. I saw STONE when it should have been NOTES. This is fine, though, if I had known that no confirmation was necessary, I would have known to keep looking right away.
-I go GOSSIP with KANT. When he tells me about his watch, he says that there are only 400 'worlwide.' I imagine there should be another 'd' in there, unless I just passed it over too quick.
-I'm not sure why saving is restricted to being in my room.
-I don't think 'collectible' is a word?
-I learn a new TECHNIQUE, so I now have three options instead of two. I look over all of the possible techniques and find that combat might actually be interesting at some point in the future. In addition, I'll know what enemies are doing.
-Like other games where exploration is limited by some sort of stamina effect, I feel like I'm missing out on chunks of the game no matter what I do. It may be a cruel way of adding replay value, but it really lowers game satisfaction for me.
-It seems that the game is hinting at being a SLEUTH playground. It is certainly doing a good job of it with the gossip system and well fleshed-out characters, but that's not what I was expecting at all and also isn't what it seems to ultimately want to be.
-In the end, combat doesn't seem to hold much strategy? It is also very time-consuming. At the end, the TALLY segment only serves to say what the player already knows.
-I realize that, despite the strong SLEUTHING gameplay, there isn't really any mystery that I'm all that interested in solving. Certainly, there are things I don't know, but they're all side things...nothing of much concern.
-I soon end up in another FIGURE IT OUT segment.
-I understand that varying gameplay within a game is generally considered a good thing, but this just feels really unfocused. I'm not doing anything often enough that I could call it the core gameplay mechanic. The things that are done well, in addition, are in areas that the game doesn't seem to be shooting for, like the SLUETH business.
-The overall gameplay has a distinct VISUAL NOVEL feel.
-SQUEAKS talks to me about a safe, though he spells 'disposal' as 'disposel.'
-I try to open the SAFE. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Three colored circles appear and I decide to GIVE UP. Unfortunately, I cannot find the button to do that. There seems to be a few options to the right of the keypad, but I can't seem to move off of it?
-Ah...I can move off, just...it is AMAZINGLY UNCLEAR that I have done so. Anyway, screw that.
-I go beat ROLAND up and take my LUNCH BOX back, along with his PRIZED POSSESSION. I see a bit of possible STRATEGY, though it seems to run against actually having fun. I simply spam FAST to get STYLE while also spamming GUARD. If he wants to ever damage me, he has to use an attack that nets him no STYLE and does higher damage. The end result is that the fight ends due to my falling to 0 hp, but I win anyway because my STYLE is so much higher. It works 2/3 times, though it's all up to what he ends up doing. It doesn't feel fun because I seem to be abusing mechanics rather than making clever use of them.
-The GOSSIP is a bit annoying when I have to run back and forth between things and people t oget the right GOSSIP marker for them.
-When talking to LE MASQUE, he spells 'hospital' as 'hostpital.'
-It occurs to me that this game was probably made by Hipsters, for Hipsters. Not that I disapprove...
-Seems there are sometimes multiple events that move time along, meaning I can only do one or the other. I both love and hate this...love that I can choose whichever is more relevant to me, hate that I can't choose more than one if I like more than one.
-I choose to bother LE MASQUE. I am once again reminded of the wacky but well-written characters. I maintain that this is a VISUAL NOVEL in disguise.
-Seems that waiting on the VENDING MACHINE event for ROLAND screws things up a bit. He seems to think that it's still SUNDAY. It seems to mean that events, some of them, carry over if not done, which is nice.
-Anyway, I fight LE MASQUE. I LOSE. I imagine I could probably do better if I was really into it, but I can't really get into the whole Guess and Get Lucky combat set-up.
-I just woke up and I'm still exhausted? What was I doing all night if not sleeping? Did it really take that long to answer SQUEAK's question?
-I go fight LE MASQUE again and win 2/3 bouts.
-Not surprisingly, there is a mini-game for cooking.
-I realize that LE MASQUE is not actually the MAGICIAN. Whoops.
-I fight MASQUE and WIN. Easily.
-NICKLE spells 'bulimic' as 'bolemic.'
-MASQUE is, thus far, the STRONG SILENT BLACK GUY. I wonder why I noticed this but didn't blink an eye at the THIN HIPPIE WHITE GUY or MAGIC FRENCHMAN.
-Not sure why the STOLEN LUNCHBOX isn't mentioned at all.
-I fight MASQUE and win 1/3. Thus far, I have fought everyone 4 times and won exactly half of them...which is what one might expect when luck is such a huge factor.
-So, the LUNCHBOX becomes a big deal, but it feels off because FLO never mentioned it earlier, even when not having it got in the way of stuff like making lunch with GRAMS or using the VENDING MACHINE.
-On Wednesday, AUNTY spells 'more' as 'mor' when talking about Amara.
-In SCAVENGER HUNT clue 5, 'four' is spelled 'fours.'
-I CONFRONT AUNTY about the judges being the real members. I may now have enough clues to CONFRONT the DEV about FLEURET BLANC really being a SLUETH VISUAL NOVEL.
-Not sure how to figure out SCAVENGER HUNT clue 7, even with ROLAND's help.
-I wonder if the COLOR WHEEL is a nightmare for colorblind folks.
-The LUNCHEON fits right in with the SLEUTH VISUAL NOVEL bit.
-MAGICIAN's third GOSSIP about ODON says 'turning' where it should say 'turn.'
-I face AMARA. And LOSE.
-The next morning, I fight AMARA three times and go 1/1/1.
-I get my picture taken and get more CLUES as to what's going on.
-While gossiping about MASQUE, ROLAND spells privilege as 'privelage.'
-I've kind of warmed up to the FIGURE STUFF OUT segments, but it's rather annoying when they replace what could have been a simple list.
-I fight JUNIOR 4 times and go 2/2
-The whole JUNIOR confrontation is alright, but, doesn't answer too many of questions. Over that arc, information was revealed, but nothing new was learned in the confrontation itself.
-I fight ODON and LOSE.
-Google+? Hipsters confirmed.
-Confronted NICKEL about the GAMBLING. Seemed like a bit of a leap to me, but it worked out.
-Surprisingly, there is no mini-game for meditating.
-Gotta catch 'em all...? Well, it fits.
-MASQUE is doing what now? Is that really a logical conclusion? Guess not.
-The character bios have some grammatical errors. At least, MASQUE and MAGICIAN do. And KANT (their's should be there's).
-On FRIDAY NIGHT, chatting with JUNIOR has no effect. Not even a blank textbox.
-I fight JUNIOR and WIN.
-The next day, we set about finding the LOUNGE. When talking to ODON, FLORE asks what problems he has that 'make him get DRINK so much.'
-In a FIGURE IT OUT segment, I have to discern the location of the lounge. I'm actually wrong, for once, and thus confirm that not any answer is correct. I wish I could walk around and see the areas before choosing another, but not a huge deal.
-ROLAND is with me due to the EVENTS, but is also shown to be in his room behind a locked door.
-ROLAND also spells 'peeking' as 'peaking.'
-After reading SQUEAK's notes, it seems that the code for the KING may be in a form similar to the BRIGGS-MEYERS personality test. It's likely based on the answers that I gave at the start of the game or to SQUEAK's questions...suddenly, I don't trust him nearly so much.
-In the LOUNGE, I think there's supposed to be some ironic parallels between KANT's moon ravings and the JUDGE's prized possession ravings, but, the KANT bit is way overdone. It flies way beyond what my suspension of disbelief can handle.
-I fight KANT and WIN.
-KANT says he began PROGRAMMING. For fun. I don't think that's how it works...finding a room full of COMPUTERS and then just hopping on and PROGRAMMING. For fun. But next he HACKED into the KING for some reason. Because you can just HACK into things like that. Ah well...I guess this level of CS understanding is standard for the general public, so why not...
-Soon thereafter, FLORE says 'question' where the past tense 'questioned' should have been used.
-After talking with KANT in the event, talking to him normally still yields the same paranoid results. Granted, most players will probably just go straight to the next event, it does create an unfinished feel when discovered.
-One does not simply PROGRAM robots.
-Is that an implication that SQUEAK can't speak after all?
-More STUFF happens and that's it, game over.
-The credits show that very many people were a part of this game and perhaps a dozen were involved in testing it. It certainly had the feel and polish of a group production.
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