In Falsus | lowiro | Preview (No Score) | Image: Steam Header
I'm not gonna lie, I was a little worried about In Falsus at first. The way it was positioned, it felt like the kind of game that publishes an unrealistic roadmap, gets maybe three or four steps in, if that, then is quietly swept into the bin when the developers realize it isn't sustainable. Furthermore, many elements of the game as it was positioned seemed like it could be challenging to their established audience. Make no mistake, I knew that if they could pull it off, it would be an all-timer. I know very well the caliber of talent who works at Lowiro (hi, Dex!!) but I had a feeling it would be a hard sell.
Actually sitting in front of the game though, it's not nearly as daunting as I expected it would be. Don't get me wrong, I suck ass at it; but I also spent many months sucking ass at Arcaea, and I eventually decided it was one of the best-designed rhythm games of all time. Once the control scheme starts to click, it starts to feel very compelling, almost like piloting a mech of some sort. The need to shift will be the biggest hurdle by far, the rest is pretty intuitive. But when you treat Shift and Space as anchor points, and resist the urge to put your pinky on A, the chart design does a decent job of telegraphing shifts. Like with many rhythm games, it's about learning the dance the game expects you to do with it. They're not dissimilar from shmups or action RPGs in this way (aside from the metaphor being a bit more concrete!)
Which is to say nothing of the music... but no shit, right? If you don't have good music, why even bother leaving the house? I don't have access to anywhere close to the 70 songs available right now, but even what's available at my point in progression is solid and quite varied, from anime-flavored hard rock to angular odd-meter brostep to a moody synthpop tune that reminds me vaguely of Royksopp if not for the hard dance breakdown. Lowiro are well-connected and have superb taste, so I trust the setlist will maintain roughly this caliber. The Scenario BGM is also fantastic; I love Feryquitous' music, and her jazz influence really shines in this context.
Which brings me to the rest of the game, because In Falsus isn't a rhythm game.
I mean it is, but it's actually a visual novel.
The bulk of In Falsus' content is in its Scenario. Progressing the scenario is how you unlock songs, with the main purpose of the card crafting mechanic being to make the rhythm game sections within the Scenario easier, by decreasing the demand of technical performance. This focus is so extensive that you can even make the card progression system completely optional with Assist Mode.
Because this game, even moreso than Arcaea, is a vehicle for its story. If you go in expecting something like Arcaea, where you're mostly playing the rhythm game with bits of reading interspersed, you're probably going to find yourself frustrated by the fact that it is, in fact, a visual novel. (I've already seen people on Twitter make this same mistake and complain of grind; though I suppose there's a fair argument that they could communicate this better.) That's not what this game is. This is a visual novel wherein occasionally you play a rhythm game.
Taking that into consideration, In Falsus is going to live or die on the quality of its writing. Which makes it a damn good thing that Terrence Smith is That Guy.
The paranoid intrigue of In Falsus is easily its strongest aspect, anointing the whole game with a gravity that took Arcaea years to nurture within the first hour. It's genuinely exciting to see Smith stretch his legs with a long-form narrative; I've been gushing about his writing for years, and his love of philosophical and abstract fiction bleeds through every scene. His ability to do a lot of work with little time is amplified by the visual novel format, with dozens of lines of exposition told in single sprites. This comes at the cost of the dazzling ekphrasis that made Arcaea's story so memorable, but the painstaking background renders pick up that slack with aplomb, in mundane and surreal scenes alike.
I'm still early on in the Scenario, so the larger-scale parts of the narrative will have to wait for later, but I'm certainly invested.
In Falsus is a strong sophomore title from a studio with a reputation for putting their money where their mouth is. It's a strange, heady title in a sea of lookalikes vying for viral marketing. Despite this ambition, it has zero waste. Every element is well-positioned in its context, creating an experience that, like its older sibling, ascends past comparison to its influences. I'm excited to see what its story has to say, and I'm likely to write a full review once I've rolled credits.