The following was found during one of this critic’s bargain bin searches, with this handsome fellow having no knowledge of what kind of game this would be. A quick glance at the back cover suggested a mix of visual novel and match-3 gameplay, and judging from the title it would also offer a bit of mystery as well. 10 or so minutes into it, he realised he could also undress characters. All this for the low price of a couple of coins. Sadly, after some time with Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa, the one writing this was left deeply disappointed.
The main character (aka…you) arrives at Fujisawa Academy as a transfer student hoping for a quiet life – but instead, he or she (the gender can be chosen) gets dragged into investigating the school’s titular seven mysteries alongside a quirky occult club. The story begins as an extremely light (almost painfully so) slice-of-life school mystery, but every now and then it makes some darker turns. Many rumours tend to hide a personal tragedy, and the deeper one digs, the more unsettling the truth becomes. The plot is a bit predictable, though, as is the cast forgettable, but the various twists and turns tend to keep the interest high at least for a couple of hours.
Having the structure of a typical visual novel, the storytelling involves branching paths, as well as multiple endings. Each run reveals new details, gradually assembling the full picture… but sadly the story isn’t really that good. Most players wouldn’t likely want to revisit the classrooms, hallways and courtyards of Fujisama more than once. Even worse – it can be quite strict in the path needed to follow in order to reach a specific outcome, which, without a guide can be quite the pain. A very strange thing is how very frequently the player is given just one option to choose from in what feels like the video game equivalent of Netflix’s “are you still watching?”
While doing the whole investigating thingy, the protagonist will try to get inside people’s minds and inner feelings to reach the truth. Lucky for them, a contract has been made with a demon/fox spirit that grants a unique type of magic power. Said power manifests in the form of a match-3 mini-game, where line of same-coloured orbs must be destroyed. This then sends mystical sparks towards the body of the character being “researched;” sparks that basically trigger an… undressing sequence. Err…what? Oh, yeah, it’s that kind of visual novel.
There’s nothing too risqué at hand, but this is not exactly something that can be enjoyed while grandma is nearby, knitting in her armchair – unless she is a cool grandma that doesn’t mind moaning girls. Okay, so this has an ecchi aspect to it, nothing that VN fans haven’t seen before, but does it improve the game in any way? Frankly, no. The feel of Kotodama generally suffers from being all over the place. It’s a simple slice-of-life story, which then becomes a dark mystery detective game, then makes silly, out-of-place jokes, then proceeds to deal with suicide, and then has you undress teenage girls. Maybe this reviewer is grumpy because he didn’t get to undress the teachers.
Here’s the deal. A mix of visual novel with match-3 gameplay would be fine if this was the cosy, casual-friendly kind of experience, but it isn’t. As mentioned before, it’s very strict when it comes to reaching alternative conclusions, something that, apart from forcing one to read (or fast-forward) the same dialogue sequences again and again, it also forces the mini-game on them. A mini-game that can’t be skipped and quickly becomes a boring chore. At later levels it’s also annoyingly hard, as it’s partly luck-based. Oh, and if you forgot saving beforehand, say goodbye to whatever progress you’ve made so far.
In the end, apart from the issue of the story not being that good, or the fact that not anyone will appreciate the sexualised nature of the puzzle mini-game, the main problem with Kotodama is probably that it’s a product that’s hard to recommend to just anyone simply because playing match-3 games won’t appeal to everyone in the VN crowd. Not every puzzle aficionado would want to read a story in between their orb-blasting fun. There’s also a severe lack of personality here. While it shines visually, the whole thing is extremely generic. You’ll shut it off, and forget how this or that character looked or how they behaved after a couple of minutes.
