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Think this will just be a cute romantic VN? Think again!

April was a Fool is a game full of surprises.If you want to experience this game without knowing anything about it, maybe don't read this review. But if you want to know just how deep the rabbit hole goes and why I think it's pretty great, read on.

Once upon a time there were six great heroes. There was Erwin, a conman and rogue; Kent Kentson, son of Kent, the barbarian, Gabby the acerbic magician and her brother Blake, the aspiring knight; Gunn, a priest with a rather morbid sense of humor; and April, a heroine who has just come down with an unfortunate case of 'torn apart by a goddamn dragon.'

Fortunately for them, they soon come across the protagonist, May, a girl who happens to look just like April, and happens to aspire to one day be a hero herself! The heroes, nostalgic for the old times, allow May to join their party.

The party has been given a vague quest to seek out an entity called 'Evil.' The problem is, nobody knows where Evil is, and each hero has a different idea for how to deal with it, ranging from 'try to make friends with Evil' to 'burn down anything that may tenuously be related to Evil." Since the party can't decide which to pursue, the decision is given to May. You'll choose one of the heroes to side with, which will form the framing of the story you playthrough and define which characters you'll interact with. Each story has its own circumstances and problems for May to solve, as the heroes are quite lost without April, and May must attempt to win the hearts and minds of the heroes, and maybe even find someone to make out with.

With such a kind and noble hero at our side, I'm sure everything will work out!



So that's the game, right? A fun little charming romance game set in a fantasy world where if you make the right choices, you'll fall in love and win the game! How cute!

Wrong.

This game is fucking twisted.

It is easily one of the darkest games I've ever played.

This game doesn't just have Bad Endings, it has Bad Endings and Worse Endings.

Each of the heroes has a checkered past. They aren't a charmingly dysfunctional roleplaying group, they are by turns abusive, manipulative, deceptive and callously indifferent to each other. They are not good heroes. Some would make better villains. There are quite a few genuinely uncomfortable and even creepy moments.

I have made a terrible mistake.



May is their only hope for salvation, and only she can overcome the web of treachery and/or pain cast over the heroes and maybe, just maybe save the day. At the end of each story, you will be tempted by Evil. Only by having fostered a strong enough relationship with your chosen hero can you prevail. If you fail, bad things will happen. And I mean shockingly bad. Some of these endings get dark.

And this, I feel, is what really makes this game work. While it might be facile to say you win the game through the 'power of love,' it comes off as much more than a boring platitude here. Love is a real, powerful, visceral force in these stories. It's absence can cause unimaginable tragedy, but when it's present, marvelous things can happen. You really do feel like these heroes would never have figured things out without May supporting them.

The writing is deceptively good. I found it perhaps a bit too verbose at times, but the addition of a skip feature for replays keeps this from being a major problem. At first the party may come across as a bland group of stereotypes, but this belies the depth each of them has when you really sit down to explore them. You can feel their pain and despair when things go wrong, and you'll really feel like you let them down. The romantic dialogue also accomplishes the extremely rare feat of seeming genuine and moving rather than sappy and overwrought. May is a very subtle but very powerful and effective character.

From beginning to end, this game can be completed in under an hour; however, each story arc has multiple endings and the game is definitely intended to be played multiple times. In a way, I feel it's a game you need to lose and fail at at least once and see just how bad things get to fully appreciate the good endings.

There's definitely more to this game than meets the eye. There's definitely appeal here for fans of both romance and adventure. If you're on the fence, give this one a spin.

Posts

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Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
I totally agree with this article! Poor Kent :<
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
I still need to play this. Why haven't I played this? I'll play this after my assignment. I need to learn how visual novels work.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
Craze I read your review and totally agree with your position on
Gunn. He was the only party member who ever actually tried to get anyone to confront their issues, and generally did it in very subtle ways. One thing I noticed before I even read your review is that in a lot of the stories the really bad things only start to happen once Gunn is incapacitated. (I haven't played every story path.)

He's definitely the party's 'heart' and I loved the gruff bastard. Probably the only one of the five who could honestly be considered a hero.
Indra
YOU ARE BEING TOO AGGRO
11514
I'm curious on what you thought of each character route (but then again I'm nosy and a rabid fan of this game). Still, approve Kent as example of "OH SHIT" XD
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
I've played three of the five paths (Gabby, Kent, Gunn) and I think I liked Gunn's the best because it's structure was a little different, and because of how maudlin it all was.
First off, I will say thanks for posting this today. My day was stressful, and being able to go on break to this cheered me up a lot!

Moving along, I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed the writing and the depth of the characters. Especially that you found the romantic dialogue good. One can never be too sure when writing that content whether it's good or corny, so whenever someone mentions that it was handled well it's a bit relief!

author=Solitayre
At first the party may come across as a bland group of stereotypes, but this belies the depth each of them has when you really sit down to explore them.


I think this is my favourite line, because it defines what I wanted the entire game to capture. Playing on the stereotypes of both genres (Fantasy RPG and Dating Sim) and character types and then slowly allowing the player to realize that this is NOT that, this is something far worse. :>

Thanks again for taking the time to play and write this review! I'm happy you enjoyed it and found so much to praise~!
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
My god, wish I knew this was a twisted game earlier, I so would have recorded it.
Gotta get playing right now. I love twisted dark stuff.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
My plan is working.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
Also, Maki, I don't know if you've considered this or not but I absolutely think this game could do well on Steam.
We have considered this and are in the process of fixing up the backgrounds, making the PJ busts, writing some new exclusive content, questioning composers, and a bunch of other things to push for some sort of commercial release. :D

Fingers crossed that that means a steam release! Thanks for the encouragement!
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