Sekai Project has been making quite some headway this year, with more and more visual novels cropping up on Valve’s Steam, whether they need the help to do Kickstarters or not. Fault – Milestone One is such a project; and the fruits of that labor are promising, if the first episode is anything to go by. There are some minor issues that hopefully will get ironed out in the next two installments.

The story is about a world where the majority of the planet’s people have progressed through the use of a craft called manakravte. Manakravte is basically the game’s version of magic, which could actually be seen as a form of science for the fictional world. Nearly every facet of life revolves around its use and principles. The story actually begins with a kingdom getting invaded by an unknown force, and the Princess Selphine and her royal guard Ritona using a kravte to escape. However, there is interference which tampers with their warp, and shoots them across to the other end of the world. Now they are stuck in a foreign country with no way to quickly get back to their kingdom to save it from complete takeover. This is because they soon discover that the mana-lines that let them use kravte’s are all but non-existent. This presents them with the dilemma of a time-limit which will render them permanent residents of this land, as their bodies would undergo a permanent adaptation to the sparse mana that’s present in the atmosphere. We also learn that because of this, the land’s people have developed actual science-based technology to survive in this harsh environment.

While trying to find a means to leave the continent, they meet up with a young girl, who you found out is more than she seems. We also learn of a young man and his dark past. This is where the real interesting story comes in for the first episode. While it’s told well and has good pacing, the lack of voice acting hurts it a bit. The visceral scenes lack a bit of the impact that they could have had, instead leaving the imagination to fill in the gaps. While this in itself isn’t a bad thing, the lack of key visuals in early scenes hurts a bit more. The concept of manakravte sounds interesting, and in the beginning, a lot of action is described through text. It feels like a missed opportunity to not give illustrations to these techniques to get a better idea of what’s actually going on. Also the story dumps a lot of the series’ lore on you in the beginning, only none of the hard-to-remember (and spell) terms are highlighted or clickable. This leaves the player be more active in manually bringing up the game’s encyclopedia to learn these terms and get a better understanding on what’s going on. The first episode is shorter than something like World End Economica episode 1; due mainly to having better pacing that doesn’t linger on meaningless dialog that adds nothing to the story. The visual novel can be completed in about 5-8 hours. Music is of a good quality and fits the scenes well, although the more ‘epic tracks’ sound a bit overbearing at times. It’s best to turn the volume level down. I wholly look forward to the next chapter of this ongoing three-part tale. It’s also adequately priced, so visual novel fans should check it out.
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