「ファタモル、メタスコア100になったってよ」…で、なにが起きたの？｜縹けいか
前置き 私のチームが開発した「ファタモルガーナの館」というノベルゲームのSwitch版が、欧米で4/9にリリースされました。その作品が大変な評価をいただき、一時期メタスコアが100という異常値を叩き出しました。今（記事執筆時点）は98です。 メタスコアとはMetacriticという、各メディアのレビュー点数の集合値を出してくれるサイトで、海外ではこの点数が「そのゲームの面白さ」として参考にされやすいです。日本でもゲーマーの方々なら目にしたことがあると思います。このスコアの信憑性やMetacriticの詳しいことについてはここでは書きませんので、他のところをご参照いただければと思い
note.com
Hanada Keika, the writer/director of The House in Fata Morgana, has written a blog post about the experience of a niche game receiving a rare score of 100 on metacritic, as well as about the game's performance on switch. the post is in japanese so i used DeepL to read it, thought it was pretty interesting. highlights:
The Switch version of a novel game developed by my team called "Fata Morgana no Yakata" was released in the West on April 9th. The game was very well-received, and at one point, the Metascore hit an extraordinary 100. Now (at the time of writing), the score is 98.
The Metascore has a media score and a user score, and it is the media score that gave Fata Morgana a temporary score of 100. And this score can only be recorded if there are at least seven media reviews. This means that seven media outlets gave us 100 in a row.
First of all, of course, the user scores were all over the place. Apparently, the first game to receive a Metascore of 100 was "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time". [OoT actually is at 99] Ocarina of Time, it's a goddamn game. And now that the visual novel is in the same league, gamers overseas are furious and there seems to be a bit of controversy. In addition, it was ranked above Breath of the Wild, one of the recent super god games (Brewai is 97). Brewai, seriously, it's a god game, right? Well, that makes me angry...
I don't have a deep knowledge of foreign game culture, and I don't speak English fluently (I read and write a little more than normal), so I can't explain in detail what all the fuss is about, but I can understand why people are upset.
Naturally, the games with the highest Metascores, including Brewai, have the support of many gamers, and the number of reviews, both media and users, is huge. I don't think it's fair to put them in the same category as a doujin game that received seven (now eight) media reviews, but the way the Metacritic site looks, it's right up there with those big games. You're telling me that a paperback game is better than Brewie! You've got to be kidding me! You can't help but be angry about that.
When a game that everyone appreciates and everyone recognizes as a god game and a visual novel that is popular among a certain segment of the population are placed side by side (or even on top of each other), you would think that this is not normal.
I don't want to argue about whether visual novels are games or not, but I think there may be a point to be made. I think visual novels are a wonderful medium of expression, and I don't think we should look down on them just because they are visual novels, but it is true that there are fewer places to judge them as criticism than other games.
With the eighth media giving it an 80, Fata Morgana now has a score of 98. I think 80 is a high enough score, However, even though the Metacritic score is outrageous, the game is for a niche audience, the market is different, the scale of development is very different, and everyone knows it's not something to talk about on the same level.
But still, it can't be helped when the way Metacritic looks is like this. Even the developers think it's crazy.
Did anything change when you got a Metascore of 100 (now 98)? This is going to be felt differently by different people, but for me it has changed enough. Since the Metascore came out, Steam sales have increased and Switch sales have exceeded expectations. Still, both of these are overseas stories. Japan is still tough. Thank you to everyone who found this game and played it...
To give you a concrete figure, I think we sold about 20,000 copies in two months (Steam and Switch combined). I don't know if you're thinking, "That's it, we got a Metascore of 100? or "20,000 copies in two months is amazing for a visual novel! or "20,000 for two months is amazing for a visual novel!" I'll leave it to you to decide. Originally, I was thinking that if I could make enough money to pay for the development costs and run the project for a few months. To put it bluntly, I thought it would be 2,000 to 3,000 copies at best.
We didn't get this far on PS4, so I think Metacritic and the Switch have a lot to do with it. think we got lucky, and we're grateful, or rather, we were saved.
Fata Morgana has been highly praised as a doujin game in Japan, but it's not a successful market, and it's a game that only people in the know know know about. The subject matter is very heavy, and it's not an erotic game, otome game, or gal game, it's a strange visual novel. When the Switch version came out in Japan, someone muttered to me, "What kind of audience is this game aiming at?
I think that's how it is with doujin games, but when it's on the Switch, it's treated as a commercial game. It's difficult to have a strategy for the market.
Fata Morgana is a game that doesn't appeal to either the gal game or otome game crowd, so I felt that it didn't capture the masses. When I think back on the famous visual novels, it seems like they have one or the other as a foundation. There are also non-visual novel ADV games such as Ace Attorney, Danron, AI Somnium, and other mystery games that aim for the middle ground, but I don't think they have the mystery game feel to attract the masses.
However, overseas, both Ace Attorney and Danron mystery adventures and so-called regular visual novels are somehow all lumped together under the visual novel tag, so maybe the demographic isn't as divided as it is in Japan. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why they are so highly rated overseas, but I don't know the right answer. Please tell me.
Up until now, it's been difficult to make ends meet in Japan, let alone earn money for the next development, so I've been relying on Steam sales to make ends meet, subcontracting work to earn money for new games, and more recently, receiving support from everyone at Fanbox. However, if things continued as they were, it would be difficult to find the time to develop new games, and we could see that we were dying a slow death. We changed our plan so that we could obtain a large amount of money. (When we developed the game for Vita in Japan, the port was done by the client, so the royalty was a few percent. (When we released the game on Vita in Japan, the porting was done by the client, so the royalty was a few percent, but this was because the client paid for the voice acting and illustrations for the additional episodes.
Since it was a niche game and the sales ceiling was predictable, we had to create a framework that would allow us to get the maximum amount of funding within that framework. If we are going to continue developing games.
The above is an obvious point, but it was difficult to put it into practice. Completely in-house production also has its own risks.
I'm getting off track here, and this is a long story, so if I get a chance, I'd like to write about consumer development and overseas expansion with complete in-house production. It's been super...tough....
The launch of the Switch in Europe and the U.S. was delayed due to Corona, and we were in a very difficult situation, but in the end, the sales volume exceeded our expectations, and thanks to the in-house production, we were able to agree on good terms for royalties, so it was like we were "saved" or "saved our lives.
Thanks to this, I can now concentrate on my new work. I'm working hard on it now. Due to various reasons, I'm actually working on something other than the previously announced RPG (it's not that I'm canceling the production. I'll send out another announcement...! ), and I'm working on something that's not a visual novel.
I'll give you more information about the new work soon. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but I won't just write a note and be done with it, so please give me some more time.
Conclusion on the Metascore of 100
As a developer, I can honestly say that I was saved, even though I felt intimidated by the excessive rating.
That's my conclusion.
Thank you Switch, thank you Metacritic, thank you LimitedRunGames, thank you reviewers and players, and thank you angry sisters and brothers .......
thanks to Taruranto for posting the article in another thread.
