Game of Fate is an adequate time-bending FMV mystery game with light romance elements. The premise is that you have a communicator and can talk to yourself five years in the past. So you use it to save a loyal female classmate who died in a car crash, but this somehow creates a serial killer. And the killer murders the woman who helped you cope with the initial loss, so you call your past self again to save her and so on.

Ultimately the goal is to catch the killer by finding clues and placing items in the past to help you escape deadly situations. There are many endings where you die and some where you just accept the current status quo. Getting all the best endings unlocks a fun group ending, which hints at more (a sequel is coming apparently). Conceptually all of this is interesting. But jumping back and forth between 2019 and 2024 adds some confusion. Characters forget you, and yet they come back into your life because of the story. It is also easy to forget what has happened and who knows what.

This game is about a 70:30 mix of mystery thriller to dating game, so don’t expect many romantic encounters. Mostly you are just investigating the murders with one admirer, with the option to swap them for another. Although there are five admirers only four have a proper ending. Cheng Linwei (played by Fang Jin, also in My Destiny Girls) is a primary character and she is probably the standout, but the others are good too. Sometimes the story gets in the way of romance and sometimes the romance gets in the way of the story. A longer narrative might have allowed more natural romance, and a more lighthearted mystery could have blended better with the cheery disposition of admirers.

Video quality is very good, even without the 4K DLC that is coming soon. Audio is sadly ADR heavy to the point where over 50% of the dialogue has been recorded in a studio. Translation is mediocre with basic typos, and text often has no English version. It will take 2.5 hours to get the first final chapter ending, and another 5 or so for all achievements, so there is decent value. While worth playing, the dual-time mystery has both strengths and weaknesses.

Mystery FMV game that manages to include romance without making it the focal point.

You are a scientist who lost a colleague and friend in a car accident five years ago. It happened on your birthday, so you began drinking and feeling sorry for yourself. But when you go though your colleague’s belonging and turn on on her phone, you hear her voice from the past.

It turns out that the experiment you were conducting was successful, and you can talk throughout time. After informing your friend of the accident, you change everything that has happened to you in the last five years. But, while your friend lived, someone else died. Now you jump between your past and future self to save everyone.

The story spans seven chapters. Although it deals with some sci-fi elements and even a serial killer, it progresses rapidly and avoids overdramatic moments. It even has time for romance. There are three main girls, which and you can increase their affection for you by choosing the appropriate response. This path is marked on the storyline with the girl’s name and a heart icon. Except for watching videos, there is only one additional gaming feature. Sometimes you will need to click on several clues. But this is required, and you will be unable to continue without it.

As always, you get to make choices that lead you down multiple paths on the storyline. Scenes on the storyline unlock as you view them, and you may simply return to any watched scene and make a different choice. This is important since some decisions may not be in your best interests and result in a bad or neutral ending. Another important feature is the ability to skip previously seen videos and progress faster through the story.

Subtitles could use some additional work. First of all, they are white with almost no outline, making them difficult to read on bright background. Second, grammar mistakes are rather common. There are missing letters, typos, and some timing issues. This results from literal translation, in which a long sentence is visible for only a second due to the short voice in the source language. Sometimes you do not have enough time to read the entire sentence. Last issue is that some text is not translated, but this is very rare - such as text messages and notebook.

Exploring different paths will reveal further information about the eight main characters. These can be found under the manuscript section. However, the biggest extra feature are tarot cards. This unlocks after three hours of gameplay and lets you collect cards with character’s images on them.

Although this “loot box” feature is entirely optional, it allows you to sell and buy individual cards on the Steam marketplace for real money. Cards are found in boxes and can be obtained in a variety of ways. The first is to finish a chapter, however this will only give you seven boxes. The second option is to open the game every day for a free box, the third is to just purchase it, and the fourth is to enter a gift code.

Gifts are tied to another unique feature. It is called "hyperscape communication" and it is a space where all of the game's players can exchange messages. You can write whatever you wish, although it is typically used to drop gift codes. Unfortunately, these options will only provide you the most common box containing common cards. If you want something better, you’ll have to use real money. But because they vary in rarity, some boxes and cards can be quite expensive.

方瑾+陳漫
和這次發現的周紫煜,
想不到不買的理由,這一年太多純愛類
寧願看故事情節較重的,像[名利遊戲]這種,
況且這有不少擦邊福利,
可是對焦總一般導演就收貨okay,4K版更加不敢想像.