Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa

Kotodama could have been a perfectly fine mystery school adventure if it didn't leave you blindly groping in the dark through repeats of repeats for a tiny morsel of fresh content.

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa is marketed as a slice-of-life/mystery visual novel with match-3 puzzle gameplay (where people slowly lose their clothes). While it offers all that, it suffers from a plot that’s predictable, characters who are forgettable, and puzzle segments that soon become a tedious chore. Who knew that undressing characters could be so boring…

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa is a visual novel that doesn't go as far as it could. While it does feature an appealing visual outlook and some interesting characters, its puzzles turn out to be too simple and some of its plot gaps end up harming the overall experience. Nonetheless none of this is enough to prevent fans of visual novels from finding some good elements in Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa.

Kotodama tries to tell a decent story, it really does. However, a series of bad design choices, quality of life issues, and visual problems combined with the awful tacked-on gameplay just make this one not worth the time.

With a solid albeit repetitive mini-game and a story that is easy to get hooked on once the twists start flying in, Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa may have some flaws but delivers an unexpectedly solid mystery story that hopefully gets touched on again in the future.

I found the characters mostly interesting, the storyline was engaging, and for a first production project, PQube did really well. Does that justify the faults? Well, maybe not all of them, but like I said, Kotodama is an "experience", both for the players and developer. I really do want that prequel though, so hopefully PQube will release that as a polished version of the gameplay or something similar. If nothing else, I'd definitely suggest checking the game out.

KOTODAMA is a pretty descent visual novel, with average puzzle sections.

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa was both a fun and intriguing Visual Novel which had me hooked right until the end. The spin on the ‘Match-three’ formula worked really well and delivered an ‘interesting’ method of breaking down the characters lies and unveiling the truth hidden underneath (as well as their naked bodies). The way the game links the various mysterious events together was really well done, prompting you to relive the same week in order to use your prior knowledge to progress in a different direction. How to unlock the True Ending was a little confusing, but with a little nudge, I was able to achieve it with no issues.

Kotodama The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa Review - Expose the TruthWATCH GALLERY

[T]he absence of a specific achievement and some telling dialogue about how my character isn’t strong enough to confront a key character despite having obtained every collectible phrase in every chapter of the game suggests that Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa simply failed to register my progress. As a result, I had to restart the game from the beginning in the hope that it’d work, and my second attempt to reach the end resulted in a bug that gated off a crucial dialogue choice.