Fault - milestone one

This article includes information or is about a *REAL PERSON*. Please refrain from adding anything offensive, your own speculation, or personal information that should not be shared.

## About the Game

**fault - milestone one** was released on August 12, 2013. The Directors Cut Version was released on August 17, 2014. On March 26, 2018, the game received visual update that changes the UI elements completely, sound track 100% re-scored, 1080p native resolution, 90% of sprites updated, multiple new artworks, and all new camera work. Brand new versions were released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2020.

The first release in the fault series. The story starts in Rughzenhaide, a kingdom that had been in peace for ages now. All until one night, when a group of mysterious attackers attacked the kingdom's castle and its people. The crown princess Selphine and her Royal Guardian Ritona are forced to escape the castle after confrontation and go into hiding.

Except, the girls end up in Kadia, a city halfway to the other side of the world. Completely lost and stranded, the two come across a kind girl named Rune, who seems to be carrying secrets of her own.

## Official Description

### Steam

fault is a Science Fantasy Kinetic Novel about Selphine, a bubbly, happy-go-lucky Princess and her sharp-witted but slightly misanthropic Royal Guard Ritona. Follow them on their journey of a lifetime as they try to make it back home to the Kingdom of Rughzenhaide.

#### Official Website

Launched as a throwback to the Science Fiction genre in the 80’s, fault - milestone one is a Science Fantasy Kinetic Novel which depicts the story of a princess named Selphine and her Royal Guard Ritona. While attempting to make an escape from a brutal assault that’s devastated their homeland of Rughzenahide, the two mysteriously teleport to an unknown forest surrounded by vegetation not native to the surroundings of Rughzenhaide. The atmosphere is thick and heavy and no sign of life can be found, which is particularly unusual for such a lush forest. Sign of life isn't the only thing missing though. Something is odd about this land - something is amiss - but Selphine and Ritona are too startled to notice the obvious.

Who were the assaulters and what was their goal?
Where did Selphine and Ritona end up traversing to?
Will the two make it home safely?
And more importantly, what will they come home to once they do?

Follow Selphine, a bubbly, happy-go-lucky Princess and her sharp-witted but slightly misanthropic Royal Guard Ritona, in their journey of a lifetime as they head back to their homeland of Rughzenhaide.

fault is a series parsed into episodes called "milestones" and is scheduled to be released periodically, created by ALICE IN DISSONANCE, brought to you by Sekai Project.

## Development

fault - milestone one was developed by ALICE IN DISSONANCE, and it was the first work under Project Written, the name they use for their operations. The story was directed and written by Munisix, and the character designs plus other art created by Hare Konatsu. To Munisix, writing is what takes the most time while producing games, as most of time spent is for coming up with ideas, and making them “consistent”. He goes to call himself a “disorganized person”, and mentioned that he has had to delete entire segments because he overlooked certain parts of the game’s world. Albeit it is true that Munisix is a native speaker of English, he still decided to write the Visual Novel in Japanese, he later said that he did this because he felt that the their is more exposure to visual novels in Japanese, rather than English. But he also said that if he were to write a movie script, it would be in English. They used “Milestone” in this work (and a majority of their others) to distinguish themselves from other VNs who commonly use “episodes”. They found “Milestone” quite fitting, since the story revolves around a journey.

Munisix said that he wrote the main three as strong women who can "more than adequately do" what male characters from shōnen manga often can— intending for both male and female players to be able to look up to them. He did not consider the characters' sexual or affectionate attractiveness to be a primary goal, and intended for them to be "gritty and cool" rather than "cute and lovely". He based Rune's condition on psychopathy. He aimed to give each part of the game world its own feeling: Rughzenhaide and the Alliance were made similar to the Age of Enlightenment, but with an information technology (IT) revolution that did not require computers. According to Munisix, the names of characters and locations came about naturally, with no time spent on any naming scheme. He attempted to write slice-of-life scenes for the game, but felt that they were not compelling or convincing, stating that the tense situations the main characters are in throughout the story leave little room for levity, as they need to get home alive and constantly have to consider potential dangers.

For the game's character design, Munisix initially gave Konatsu specifications of what each character would look like; as they kept working on the fault series, they "found a rhythm", with Konatsu designing the characters according to their personality and function. They go through multiple prototypes, with some designs turning into other characters, and some clothes being reused on other characters. Due to misunderstandings, Konatsu initially designed Rune as a male character. Munisix had imagined Rune as looking "girly", wearing a skirt and having long, black hair. However, when Konatsu redid the design, elements of the original male design remained, with Rune being given pigtails and pants, which Munisix later said that he preferred over his original concept.Some locations that did not exist in the original draft, such as the Zhevitz family manor, were added to the story late during the game's production when Alice in Dissonance was low on money. Because of this, they had to resort to using stock background images

Originally, the game was pitched as a role-playing game, which Munisix received sometime in the 2000s. The idea was that a princess was trying to defeat an enemy, because they had destroyed her homeland, and also had character names and personalities, and asked Munisix to write a story. Munisix found the pitch underwhelming, but he still tried to work with it, attempting to make it more interesting; while he was working on it, the person who had delivered the pitch stopped contacting him. Not wanting to abandon the work he had put into the project, Munisix continued with the project, making several changes to the point where it no longer resembled the original pitch. Among these were additions to the game world and cast, including the creation of Ritona and the Outer and Inner-Poles, the concept of the "path down", and a motivation for the game's antagonist. He also changed the structure of the story so that it could work as a manga or as "a better game than it was intended to be".

## Platforms

Steam

GOG

PlayStation4

Nintendo Switch

## Reception

According to Munisix, the game was a commercial success, with the series selling over 480,000 copies by September 2019. The Steam release had an estimated total of 108,000 players by July 2018. It was met by a wide range of reviews, with some critical and some positive. Jenni Lada at *PC Gamer* included the game on a list of "the best visual novels for beginners".

It has many positive reviews on Steam, “Hololive fan” on Steam said they expected a “coming-of-age” story, but was instead met with a wonderful story about family and what it means to be apart of that family, cultural differences, some science, and then some religion/fantasy. They go on to say that they rate it a 9/10 and recommend it to people who’d like a story about family but also how humans can be so different in where they grew up yet so similar to eachother. They then list pros such as great art, amazing soundtrack, “neat” transitions, great story and storytelling, and more. They also list cons, which include some grammatical errors, no voice acting, a bit too much technical terminology, and that its only the first part.

“James Gilbar” on Steam says that 8 years ago they started reading VNs, most of which put them on a Rollercoaster of emotions, such as popular ones like CLANNAD. Until they got severe depression, meaning that they rarely feel or show emotions. They say fault - milestone one had them crying, smiling, and feeling the hair on their back stand tall, which were all feelings that’d been gone for so long due to their condition. They then thank the creators and say they’re starting the second part.

Steam user ”Silver fox” says that the game is a short yet enjoyable VN about culture, science, and family. They give a short, spoiler-free summary and then give their opinion. Silver says that the intro and ending of the game were probably the weakest parts, saying it felt like they were just setting up for the sequel— they say this isn’t bad, but they felt it took away from the main plot, and further expresses their dislike for the ending by calling the cliffhanger “lame”. The user says that they see negative reviews with a short playtime, which made them think that they only played past the intro which “is a shame”, since they feel it gets much better. They say outside of the intro, they think the characters work really well together and love seeing their stories develop. They then move on to the presentation, which they say is very good with stuff such as some of the art on the store page, short and repetitive music yet powerful in the scenes they're played in, and then the camera zooming in on characters, which they assume is the 3D camera system mentioned. They also edited it to say that some of the achievements are dumb, but that doesn’t really matter to them. They say it took them about 4 hours to finish so they tried to keep the review vague to avoid spoiling, and that they think people should experience the story for themselves. They add that it’s a bit pricey if you don’t buy the bundle like them, so they recommend waiting for a sale due to the games lack of replay-ability, since there is only a single choice with no impact on the story. They finish saying that they really liked it and they are excited to play the sequel.

## Gallery

Fault Milestone One HeaderFault Milestone One MenuGallery Screen

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://store.steampowered.com/app/286260/
2. ↑ https://www.projectwritten.com/en/ms1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Why "projectwritten" for your twitter? Wouldn't AliceInDissonance be better? Is there a reason for calling yourselves both AiD and projectwritten?".
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150925080720/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/fault-milestone-one-directors-cut/description
5. ↑ https://ask.fm/aliceindissonance/answers/136482509440
6. ↑  "From what I heard, you are actually a native English speaker (born in the States and all that). My question is what makes you feel more comfortable writing in Japanese rather than English? Are there particular nuances that you understand better or feel more comfortable with in Japanese? Thanks :D"
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/projectwritten/status/668721278367338496
8. ↑ https://ask.fm/aliceindissonance/answers/135724425344
9. ↑ ”Have you done charity stuff? (or planning to?) Like, that stuff about young Rune was super cool, and I wonder, is it some real mental illness (kinda like what To The Moon did)? Or was it based off of (sic) or inspired from something?"
10. ↑ ”What time period would the world of fault be closest to in our terms?”
11. ↑ “How do you come up with your names? As a german I'm tempted to think for ex. Rughenhaide is old german but I have no idea”
12. ↑ https://ask.fm/aliceindissonance/answers/134631595904
13. ↑ “What is the process for character design and background/CG creation like? Do you go through many prototypes, use thumbnails to plot it out, etc? Does Munisix write descriptions of characters' looks to base the design on, or does Hare make up the designs on her own?”
14. ↑ “Was Rune originally a boy? (Looking at the image in the concept art)”
15. ↑ “<> Just wondering if this VN group at https://goo.gl/obVaoe has taken your image. Under the heading "What is a visual novel?", you'll find a staircase house image awfully similar to the one in fault ms1. Just wondering if it's stealing or just coincidence. Have a good day.”
16. ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/2912030
17. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `:13`
18. ↑ https://jp.ign.com/fault-milestone-one/38631/news/nintendo-switchfault-milestone-one48
19. ↑ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/07/steam-data-leak-reveals-precise-player-count-for-thousands-of-games/
20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150912004151/http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/806943-fault-milestone-one/index.html
21. ↑ https://forest.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/serial/shumatsu/609136.html
22. ↑ https://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-visual-novels-for-beginners/