Finished Three Fold Recital, I'll replay it in English and eventually do a spoiler heavy post.

It's nothing ground breaking, just a solid, well thought out, witty and fun narrative game. While the mood and the theme is nothing like Fata Morgana, I kept on thinking about how they are both satisfying in a similar way. Phenomenal word economy too, no fillers at any point. Tight and well edited.

Essentially it's a mystery written by people who knew why people enjoy mysteries. There isn't a single plot twist that lacked enough information for the audience to pick it up; all the information you need to piece together the story are right there in the beginning. None of the plot twists for the sake of it, or introducing major unexpected element in the last second approach that seems to be plaguing mystery genres.

I love how wholesome the three lead characters are. I love how they are all capable of functioning independently alone. I love how a lot of it is just, two brothers and a sister kicking shit together. I love how the cast have the best possible siblingship, where they don't need to hang out with each other all the time, but they knew each other enough to predict how the others would behave in a situation, and have complete trust and respect to leave the other two to do their stuff, despite that they've been apart for long enough to not know what each other look like anymore.

The furry thing. I'm initially uneasy about recommending this as a furry game, as I'm not in the culture and I feel that Chinese folklore Yao-Guai is too different to the subculture to really be comparable. Turned out all three devs are furries in the English sense, so I guess it's at least not misappropriation? The whole thing felt just generally good faithed, wholesome, and respectful.

The puzzles mostly acted as a narrative piece as well, which is something I love. IDK how it will work in English though, because the wolf monk is one of the best/worst pun monsters in recent memories.

Anyway, highly recommend, but I don't know if I would recommend it to non Chinese audience. I will get back to you re: the English quality.

#ThreeFoldRecital

I love the feeling of being mopey about have to get on with my life because I'm so engrossed in a game.

While I enjoyed Rebirth a lot, because of the sheer size of it, I felt dread when I think about playing it, like it's a second job.

Meanwhile, Three Fold Recital has no fillers whatsoever. The lacking of padding for the sake of bragging playing hours really shows.

#ThreeFoldRecital

I think this is it. This is the game I'm waiting for. I resent having life responsibilities now because I have to stop. It's good. I'm careful on what I say because I suspect every tiny detail is a spoiler but it's good.

Despite of being a fairly light hearted (so far) urban fantasy, I'm getting strong Fata Morgana vibes in terms of how the entire thing is like a collection of Chekhov's Armoury. Again, I can't say much because unintentional spoilers.

I promise I'll let you know what it's like once I completed the English edition as well. The translation will be so challenging but, it might just work.

#ThreeFoldRecital

I'm at Chapter 3, loving it so far. I knew nothing about it except it's furry, turned out it has a snake character as well. (Not a spoiler, literally in the cover art), and it's cosy enough to be close to a GOTY material already.

It's an urban cosy YaoGuai fantasy, something I'm particularly fond of. It's also the first real mystery game of the year, not a true conventional/Honkaku per se, but when it wanted to be it's the closest to one.

I adore all three characters so far, the Fox Taoist dude is such a lovable little shit. Delighted that as an amateur detective this game is really addressing that for hyperspecialised people they are probably shit at doing things that are outside of their niche expertise.

I reckon I'll play it in English afterwards as well. At this point I'm not sure how it can be translated into English, but I'm willing to be surprised.

#VisualNovel #Furry #ThreeFoldRecital