VOS: First Faiths is most likely to slip onto the radar of a select few, and even then, it has the potential to discriminate further with some design choices. For me, I forgot that this was a review title and thought it was a game I’d gone out of my way to purchase, as this is exactly the kind of thing I would seek out. When it reached my shores, I immediately reached out to cover it.
Having recently received my AYN Thor and now a full convert to handheld gaming, I’d attempted to get this running in place of playing it on my Steam Deck. Unrelated to the review or a reflection of the developer, it did not initially work, so I tinkered with GameNative and got it working, though it was a little clunky. Eager to play it, I jumped on my laptop to discover that it works the same way on the Thor. This little paragraph is relevant for later. I’m already planning out this review before the next sentence…
The intro for VOS: First Faiths went over my head like some overcomplicated anime doing a modern-day Dan Brown explanation of things. I drifted in and out of a brief introduction, then was transported to a murky-looking motel room presented in a portrait ratio with protocol bezels on either side. A mouse prompt indicated I needed to drag the screen across either for options or to start my journey. Duh… I’m here to play; let’s crack on.
What followed was a series of visual novel aspects, initially with Katsuo and Jacob – the former an agent of Veil Obscura Services (VOS!), located on the outskirts of a Japanese shrine. Like an old dungeon crawler, you drag the screen about looking for prompts. This is the point and click aspect, and to some degree, a hidden object. While visibility is good, you must click on a torch and drag it about for points of interest, which will light up against the black and white aesthetic a tad similiar to Sin City, only if Junji Ito was the artist.
VOS: First Faiths reminded me of World of Horror in its design and also the rogue-like aspect, albeit the former errs more on those mechanics as it is primarily a psychological horror rogue-like with visual novel/point and click elements. As an agent exploring these anomalies, you will encounter hostiles that attack you with a fair number of jump scares. In these combat moments, kanji will appear on the screen, which you have to emulate. Using my laptop’s trackpad was dreadful, though switching to the mouse wasn’t that much better.
I’m familiar with stroke order, and though I’m know caligrapher, reasonably good at writing lower-level kanji. Here, I was dreadful. It’s like colouring over the lines, and as soon as you do this, you receive damage to your psyche. Still, these encounters won’t initially kill you, but these kanji battles are frequent enough for it to be key to the experience. However, there are some encounters which incur insta-death, and that I actually love, and it was in no way frustrating, but exciting.
From a gameplay perspective, once you enter the shrine, there are multiple paths and far more ‘rooms’ that are initially evident, thus formulating multiple outcomes. Choices matter here as they will influence how you will progress/survive, and quite frankly, I want to stay alive for as long as possible, not just because that’s the fundamentals of playing a game, but for relishing in the ambience. For the record, Junji Ito is one of my favourite artists. I’m not big on anime or manga but have a select few I adore/am fascinated by, and coincidentally, it’s always that black and white aesthetic as seen in something like Vagabond or Berserk, or even one of my favourite animes, Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai.
Putting the art style up there with some of the greats is an accolade in itself, though we have to come to a disclaimer, for once not made by me. At the start of the game, there’s a note that AI is used to make the game, and the same on the Steam page. Aside from the awkward kanji mechanic being somewhat divisive for some players, there’s a lot of anti-AI folk out there. I’m one of them, though neither a flag bearer nor a keyboard warrior. In fear of not having my own disclaimer, for me, AI is a tool in as much as a saw is used to cut wood. The saw isn’t automated; you still require skill and technique to cut, and the same is for AI-generated whatever. I loathe AI-generated text, and there’s an in-joke with colleagues never to mention Co-Pilot in front of me. Though I understand that not everyone can write, nor draw, and AI can be used to get an idea across. That I’m for, and in fear of this going off the rails. VOS: First Faiths has a consistent signature throughout, which I absolutely loved.
From the art style to the ambience, even the kanji mechanics all appealed to me so much that I can’t help but recommend this for like-minded people. I know that VOS: First Faiths is a Marmite title and those who hate it will be vocal, but those who love it will really enjoy every aspect. And, in fear of any contradiction about enjoying every aspect and going full circle, I have this installed on my Thor and with a few tweaks of the touchscreen and flipping the Thor to a portrait mode à la Guitar Hero or Dr Kawashima of DS days, this is the perfect companion piece for me on my trip next week to Japan. How ironic, maybe I’ll play it outside a temple. I don’t have the Guts…
