A Foretold Affair is a Steampunk Visual Novel game created by GB Patch, in it you play as an Abnormal, Buffalo Seer who lived in a closed off area called the Sanctuary where only Abnormal's live. Buffalo Seer is a Seer, meaning, they have the ability to look into the future. In order for the Seer to actually see the vision though, they require another abnormal called a Reader, so it's more like Seers show other people their future without being able to see it themselves. I guess Buffalo Seer is really a Buffalo Show-er! Buffalo Seer gets permission to do a reading on themselves one day, as long as other members of the Sanctuary Counsel get to see the vision as well with a Reader, and Seer looks three years into the future.
Skip to Final Thoughts to avoid spoilers
Overview (spoiler warning)
There are three choices to choose from and it doesn't really tell you what it'll get you, and you're automatically locked into one of three characters routes. It kinda reminded me of Amnesia in that regard but that's as far as the comparisons go with this game. In this game your love interests are of various races and gender identities. There's a female, male, and nonbinary love interest in fact. And Seer themselves you have the option to choose from He/She/or They pronouns, and apparently Abnormal's default to they pronouns. You get the choice to name Seer, and there is a default name Cirrus. So it's a bit customizable. My favorite love interest was Kea, the nonbinary love interest, who I played their route for first.
When Buffaloo Seer sees their future of living happily with whoever their partner is, they leave the Sanctuary to search for their future betrothed. In my first playthrough with Kea's route, you encounter Piper and January, Piper is kinda mischeiveous and adventurous, and January is as well but is held back from doing many things he wants due to being an important Duke. As a result on their trip he winds up charging out into things and making things worse because he didn't feel like sitting in a carriage all day. January is the last Duke of his family, meaning that if he dies, the duchy dies with him. Because of this, Bounty Hunters are after him. Seer shows January his future, and it made January so happy that he asks for Seer to tag along on the trip to his home on the surface, telling others a lie that Seer is his bodyguard. This works out regardless of routes as the other two characters are January's protectors on the ride there.
So. I've played every route, but I don't think I really need to go too in depth on the character routes as they all follow the same plot, you just learn a bit more about whoever you're foreseen to marry. The other characters as a result of Seers, er, overabundance of joy about their vision, typically find Seer's advances and admiration's annoying. So basically the plot is you take January back to his home on the surface but get set back by a group run by a bounty hunter Trinette, who has glowing eyes and an optional little side story you can get. As the plot moves Trinette gets the help of some bounty hunters that ruined the crews Gadabout that Kea was riding (what even is a Gadabout) and made the crew tame a wild horse to pull their carriage.
The thing is, I've gotten a bit tired of Copy and Paste otome games. It's easy to develop a game like that, but as a player, it's boring to 100% with unless you really love the story. A Foretold Affairs story isn't interesting. It's just a really long trip where Seer fawns about their route character until they get so annoyed they think about how annoying they are, and then once again reevaluates themselves when something happens to one of Seers arms. The bits about Abnormal and Normal society was interesting, but didn't have much substance. You hear about Abnormal Society, but you don't get to experience it cause you're on the road the whole time. Same for Normal Society. They talked about how the game takes place on floating land fractions but never really talked about the world at large. Characters can get mechanical body parts according to Trinette, but other than giving Trinette X-ray vision, we don't see much about that. The thing is the game sets up all these things about the world but hardly explores or shows us it. And that's frustrating.
Similarly, the plot being the same minus some differences in character dialog is frustrating. I've played enough OELVNS with copy pasta, Seduce Me threw me overboard with Copy Pasta plots. Do something different for the characters routes, don't just change some dialog! Maybe one route could have explored all this stuff GB Patch set up about this world, or another could've gotten to the destination earlier (like perhaps Kea's?) And the rest of the route involves returning to Mierre and observing Kea's job on the force more. It's boring and a skip fest as it is. This game is essentially a small dinner platter, you got me interested for the main course with the bits about the world and society. But they never bring out the main dish, so you're left hungry for more.
Final Thoughts
I'd be lying if I said AFA didn't disappoint me. I really wish more OELVN's would stop using the same plot for every route or at the very least mix things up when you get on a characters route. You chose the route at the start of the game, so other than the world building why couldn't they have different plots for each one if they are essentially Alternate Universes of each other I'm assuming. If anything, this game made me want to replay Amnesia for the 5th time.
Another thing I'll add is if you're an achievement whore like me, you have to play each route 3 times meaning you have to play through the same plot 9 times to 100% it! What's different? Some little changes in dialog that's all. Wow I sure feel like I spent my time wisely for that 100%! Who am I kidding? I put it in skip mode while watching youtube on another monitor, otherwise I'd have stopped playing around my second run through. If you can't tell, I don't really recommend this game. There isn't much substance to it, and heck, there aren't much CG's to it either. A good half of each characters CG's aren't even for their route :/ It feels a bit devoid of life, or like, they were planning to do more but just threw that aside.
Hopefully GB Patches future games don't follow the same pattern as this one, because I'm genuinely looking forward to XOXO Droplets and Floret Bond.
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