So my main problem with Fata Morgana, in retrospect, is that the banal plot undermines the central conceit. At the core of it all you have a pretty solid basic idea: the protagonist is an intersexed individual who was raised as a girl, but identifies as a male. But the writer was either too lazy, too incompetent, or some mixture of both to use this idea as a springboard for an actually interesting plot; the only conflict they managed to come up with was "everyone in the world hates him because he's a witch lol!!!!" And thus we end up with this pseudo-historical setting, so that it's easy for the author to force whatever suffering they want upon the protagonist since they don't have to worry about how actual modern society (or any society) would react. Unfortunately, this ends up marginalizing the subject matter, because now there can be no discussion of the medical side of the protagonist's condition or any discourse on gender roles etc. in our society. Instead Michel is reduced to a token Sexual Minority, with no role in the story other than suffering for the sake of the audience's catharsis later. Honestly, he might as well have been persecuted for being left-handed for how much intersexuality actually has to do with the plot. Anyway, since all of the conflict is premeditated and arbitrary, there can be no meaningful/satisfying conclusion, so the author just resorts to reincarnating everyone in Modern Times (apparently the only time period where people are allowed to be happy) where Michel lives happily ever after with his Mary Sue waifu because he's a Real Man now. Back when I finished the game initially in 2014, I was willing to give the author a free pass because the writing felt sincere at the time, but looking back on it I'm honestly pretty bothered by a lot of the implications of the setting and plot.

The plot in Fata Morgana is juvenile, and moreover it is boring. It might be dressed up with fancy presentation and distractions like the mansion setting, but in the end it's the sort of story anyone can come up with and offers no meaningful insight on any of the ideas it flirts with; if the ultimate message of your story can be summed up as "be nice lol" and you cannot muster any sort of philosophy beyond "love conquers all" (certainly a nice sentiment, but also not true in the real world), then perhaps it's time to rethink whether or not you should be writing anything in the first place.

But honestly, I still think it could have been redeemed if it were just fun to read. I don't mind shallow stuff with a happy ending every now and then as long as it keeps me entertained... but Fata Morgana is utterly tedious to read, too. The prose is dull, limited by its meager vocabulary and devoid of any fascinating perspectives or expressive language, and the pacing is glacial, with every scene dragging on far past the point where it's established the information it needs to establish and the reader knows what to expect. Throw in some gratuitous tragedy porn, and you have a script that lacks elegance, wit, and restraint. You could cut the amount of text in the game by half and it would still probably be too long for the actual amount of information it contains and manages to convey. If Fata Morgana were published as an LN, I'd give the writing a D grade; I'd probably drop it pretty early in, too.

I feel like I need to point out the dialogue in particular. All of the characters speak like Japanese teenagers despite the "historical" setting and it honestly becomes rather obnoxious to read; during the last portion of the game there were lines of dialogue from Giselle that bothered me so much that I would sit there debating whether I really wanted to continue reading. The author has claimed that they wrote the dialogue like this to make it more accessible or whatever, but honestly I really doubt that's actually the case. They were lazy with the plotting and setting, so I'm inclined to believe they were lazy here too. The dialogue not only feels anachronistic, it feels too casual for the subject material and only ends up making the already unbelievable setting even harder to take seriously. It's like it's a bunch of kids putting on a middle school play, honestly.

(As a general disclaimer, I'm only familiar with the Japanese script. The dialogue may have been improved in the English version... or rather I can't really imagine it not being improved, tbh)

So yeah, is that enough of an "argument" for you? I think Fata Morgana has a few nice scenes here and there and fantastic art and music, but that's not enough to make up for how tedious I find basically everything else in the game. But you know what, the fact that the game is boring is exactly why it's so popular. It's easy to understand and won't challenge anyone's worldview, while still being superficially "different" enough that it makes people feel like they've found something off the beaten path that speaks to them personally (even though it's actually quite well-known and everyone has more or less the same reaction to it). People don't care that the "historical" setting is actually detrimental to the plot (perhaps the greatest irony of Fata Morgana is that the premise would be better served by being set in modern Japan), because it's different from all those shitty waifu games right? Of course, nobody actually cares that the story itself is the sort of tragedy porn wish-fulfillment shit you'd see in a third-rate LN with a different coat of a paint, because Fata Morgana has an attractive "brand image" and broaches somewhat uncommon topics. It doesn't matter that it doesn't really do anything meaningful with these topics, because it has them period, and that's as far as the average person will look. If it were actually some complex story replete with deep truths about the human condition, it wouldn't be popular, because that's not the sort of thing people are interested in reading. What they actually want to read is something that makes them *feel* like they read that!

Also, no offense, but I find the notion that I need to provide a comprehensive essay every time I voice an opinion to be ludicrous. It's not like I'm going around to people who have enjoyed Fata Morgana and telling them "actually it sucks" or anything, and I've always been quick to acknowledge its considerable amount of mainstream appeal. Hell, I don't think I've ever really even said anything negative about it on Twitter. So like, what, you hang around the IRC and Discord channels I'm in waiting for me to say something you disagree with and then stew in your own juices about it without actually confronting me? Give me a break. Also, if you're going to dismiss everyone who dislikes even a single work that you enjoy as having "shit taste," you're gonna have a bad time on the internet, my friend. Friendly advice.