Oh my god so I just got this visual novel out of sheer curiosity and this was SOOOOO good. Also I never had a visual novel make me so mad in my life before this one, not even in a "I hate it" way but in a "Magda i need to get you the hell out of there" kind of way. Honestly the first two arcs were unbearable but seeing as this is a psychological horror story, you did such a good job!!! The pain and the fear that Magda felt for having to repress herself, her own thoughts which hold their own merit, and then having her trust constantly violated over and over to the breaking point, made me want to hop in that game and fight everyone on her behalf. However I really can't talk about how i feel without putting the spoiler warning.
SPOILER ZONE
The fact that Magda was so so strong for simply just being able to handle living in what is easily can be compared to hell after her first assembly only to be ratted out by her best friend and put on blast for doing nothing more than simply trying to use a positive coping mechanism that no one was Supposed to know about was such a raw scene, I had to click really fast to get through that scene because it was so painful to watch. Then the hell that Magda had to endure in that prison was torture but it was also so good. So the catharsis I felt when Cerise and Eve died made everything more satisfying and I'm not gonna lie, I'm completely on Nils's side here when they said that Grace and Maria deserved hell for what they did. Maria, knowing the truth about her, made me not even the slightest bit mad or sad about her death. While she didn't deserve to die like That or die in general, she did deserve punishment for what she did.
Now, in Grace's predicament? I felt more satisfied with her end than anyone else. Grace finally being able to understand how it felt to have everything ripped out from under you and no one will ever be able to feel the same way as you do and having to live with the deaths of everyone; all while not knowing that it was her hand that caused the death of Everyone she cared about (save Magda)? It didn't even help that she kept referring to her "best friend" as "that girl" and didn't even bother to even check up on her. Now she's going to have to deal with an isolation that Magda had to deal with, but on a worse scale and I would even say that was the best revenge served out of everyone.
Nils was by far such a powerhouse, the way you could tell they was up to no good the minute they noticed Magda in the lab. Honestly the whole time, I could feel their presence no matter what and I felt a little disappointed Magda never came to visit them, I wanted to save them no matter what pain he was going to cause. Honestly, I'm surprised they still ultimately wants to save humanity despite Everything, even despite the fact they're so mentally unstable now. Tbh, I can't even judge them for their actions, the angel was being harvested for Years; being unable to save anyone or do anything by the people they wanted to protect. I would have the done the same thing if it meant not dying. If anything I bet Magda's own memories gave them the push they needed to really just go ham on everyone.
And finally, Magda/ Lilia; I would die for you. I felt for her so hard; I wanted to tell her so much when their invasive thoughts and anxiety got so intense that it's ok to feel that! That it's ok to be so angry and hurt and be in love, as a society we need to abolish the belief that your thoughts make you when really it's your actions that speak for you. So seeing Lilia break down upon realizing she killed people and kill Maria was heart wrenching, because she's not a rage fueled monster, she was a sweet girl in so much pain and basically being forced to either die or become more violent than everyone who harmed her hurt. Homegirl needs some real friends and perhaps a new outfit. Also I just noticed how Magda is short for magdalene and BOY is that reference accurate to the biblical character.
TDLR; This was such a good visual novel I cannot recommend it enough! You had me going through the five stages of grief through out and the art is lovely!!!
Thank you so much for playing through Bad Faith! I'm very glad you enjoyed the story as much as you did.
I'm very glad Magda's arc resonated with you, especially with regards to her conflict about dying vs becoming more violent than her abusers by force. I also appreciate your commentary on how the arcs of other characters (namely Grace and Maria) finished too.
As a little extra note - Nils uses they/them pronouns! They aren't a man or a woman - they have their own gender. ^^
Omg, I'm so sorry I didn't eve notice I used he pronouns sometimes in the post for Nils, thank you for letting me know! I'll edit it as soon as possible! And so much of this story resonated with me, are you considering making an artbook pdf of the work you did for this game? I would love to buy it if you do, your artwork is amazing!