UNDER THE FALSE SKY | Kein:[Über]Leben

(Thank you for giving me the honor of editing this game!)

UTFS is always consistently good, and I have to say that Kein:UberLeben hits PARTICULARLY hard in the emotional department. 

It goes without saying, but the game is INCREDIBLY polished, as always. The UTFS games are always consistently high quality, with stunning animations, stellar voice acting, beautiful artwork, and a sleek and satisfying GUI. Details like the movements of the mechs, or the characters getting out of the mechs, or Micah running around - all add so much life and dynamicism to the format. The sprites are particularly well rendered this time around, with the gradient in the characters' hair adding a nice bright pop of color that makes them stand out in the dystopian landscape. I especially loved Yiska and Cain's designs, whose colors were especially well executed. I won't comment much on the writing since I did edit it 😂 but I found it beautifully written, and the emotions were particularly compelling in the last scene. The VAs also did an utterly fantastic job - each of their voices perfectly matched their characters, and the performances really enhanced the script in a way that I didn't expect (for instance, the wooden recitation of Mari's dramatic introduction to the recruits really sold how inexperienced she is at this and how much she rehearsed). I particularly enjoyed Hoshea, Ilias, and Kenan's first scene, which had a lot of fun dialogue and good interplay between the VAs (even though it was Hoshea's first appearance, you could garner so much about him from the way his VA delivered his lines!) 

While all of the UTFS entries have been consistently interesting (and very different) with fascinating worldbuilding and a "grand scope," I particularly enjoyed Kein:UberLeben because of the strength of its character writing. It focuses on a smaller cast than usual, building on characters that we're familiar with from other titles (BCS and Re-Idealize) with a tight web of relationships between the main 4: Aaron, Cain, Mari, and Yiska. This really allows for strong characterization of its leads, even in a short timeframe.

====SPOILERS====

All 4 of the main leads have a fairly strong connection to each other - Aaron/Yiska and Mari/Cain are married, of course, but Mari and Aaron also lead the colony together, and Cain and Yiska are very good friends. This complicates things, as Aaron holds a grudge against Cain for the crimes of their father - associating his half-brother with his father's misdeeds. It's a bitter irony considering how kindhearted Cain actually is - and while Mari tries to keep out of it, Yiska attempts to mend the bond between the brothers. It's well-written interpersonal conflict that adds a lot of depth to the characters and instantly makes you invested in their story. When the chance to mend this relationship is ripped away, it feels truly devastating. Throughout the story the parallels between Aaron/Yiska and Mari/Cain are quite apparent - with Yiska and Cain being the "rock" for their respective spouses - which also makes the climax all the more tragic, as Cain/Yiska, these figures of comfort and reliable support, are brutally murdered. Aaron's sense of hopelessness and guilt at having contributed to his wife's death is palpable, and it's heartwrenching to see Mari confronting Aaron, both having endured the same loss.

It was good to see the return of a few familiar faces - Aaron, Ester, Micah, Mari and Kenan - and it was interesting seeing how the events of this game affected them in the future - Aaron, Micah, and Mari, in particular. Here, Micah is bright and full of joy, with loving parents, frolicking around the warrior colony, seemingly unaware of its dangers. However, after his experiences, he becomes the jaded, bitter kid in BCS, even though he still has a good heart. Mari didn't change as dramatically, but here she is much more stern, and you can tell how young and inexperienced she is. In BCS, she has mellowed out quite a bit (and I like to think that she took on a few of her late husband's better qualities). You see a lot of different sides of Aaron, in particular - he treats his wife with surprising tenderness, and his bitterness towards his half-brother is both frustrating but also understandable. I especially liked the "good cop bad cop" dynamic between Mari and Aaron, as Aaron softens some of her harder edges. Kenan's appearance here helps to dispel a lot of his mystique from BCS, as we learn why his reaction towards Micah was so conflicted - and why he seems more softhearted than his compatriots. Overall, the game does a fantastic job of giving you more insight into these familiar faces and adds depth to their characters that also explains why they act the way they do in BCS.

Among the relationships, I thought that Cain's relationship with his son, Micah, was a standout. The story starts with Cain chasing Micah through a factory playing hide and seek, unable to bring himself to stop his son from playing in an environment with a lot of dangerous equipment. It's really fitting symbolism and a good parallel for what happens later - as Cain wants to preserve Micah's smile, to shelter him from the world's harsh realities - even if it means exposing his son to danger. Ironically, it is Cain's softness towards Micah that turns out to be the worst for him. By indulging in Micah's play and agreeing to bring him on patrol, Cain unintentionally exposes Micah to the worst pain imaginable, and a trauma that he will never forget. Throughout you can't help but feel for Cain - as he wants the world to be safe and perfect for his child, but the reality is that it isn't, and he can't protect his son from the world's dangers. Even at the end, he's helpless to do anything but to tell Micah to close his eyes - to shield himself from reality, praying that the soldiers won't find him - as he stays strong for his son, even as he's dying. This resilience in the face of utter hopelessness and despair really made Cain one of my favorite characters in the franchise, despite only appearing here. 

I'll touch briefly on the "villains" of the story - Hoshea, Ilias, and Kenan. Ilias is a familiar face from Re-Idealize, but while he appeared to be a reliable father there, here it seems like he's a bit clumsy, and definitely the "unreliable" one of the group. Hoshea puts on a "composed" air but it's clear how lowly he thinks of everyone - the rebels, and even his fellow soldiers - and his warped worldview, seeing humans essentially as animals, is clear. Kenan puts on a cold appearance, but he has the softest heart of them all. They're painfully humanized - even moreso than the "villains" of BCS. During the introduction, they interact, not as colleagues, but as a group of friends that has clearly known each other for a long time (although it's clear that, despite their closeness, their relationship is a bit strained). After everything is said and done, Ilias is so horrified that he vomits, and Kenan also shows some remorse - yet they methodically continue to do their jobs. You hate them for what they've done, but they're so human that it's also HARD to hate them. It really plays into the grayness of the UTFS universe, as both sides have characters that you can empathize with and root for.

Overall, this was FANTASTIC. Narratively, it is incredibly tight and complex, with nuanced and compelling characterization combined with an utterly devastating emotional climax. It is personally one of my favorites from the UTFS franchise, and I'm honored to be part of it. Fantastic work! 

I had the honour of proofreading this game, and what can I say but that another banger was added to The Under The False Sky universe...

For the story per se, per usual, it is a striking tragedy, highlighting the fragility and the vanity of human existence, and how so many deaths meaningless in conflicts are actually meaningful to someone. An inner fight in the concept of humanity itself: what will triumph? Our empathy ("humanity") or what we deem the great good is (for "humanity")?

This game in particular, more than any other previous written for the series, is rather slice-of-life, focusing on the rebels' daily life, especially when facing the ruthlessness of winter... This games serves both as an amazing introduction to some of the characters we get to see in other games (Micah, Mariam, Ester...) for new players, and as an excellent exploration of some well-known characters for players already familiar with the UTFS universe. The characters we get to discover are also very touching (Cain my baby)!

For the art, it is absolutely lovely! The sprites look gorgeous, and I love the addition of colours in hair, to either mirror the eyes of the characters... or mirror other things! It felt like an amazing addition, making the characters pop! And also, I ADORED their character designs, they were so good! The outifts were detailed, the haircut so good, and for the characters we've already seen, it was so great to compare them with how they look now and how they look in the future!

The backgrounds too, as usual in these games, are very well edited, and completely immersive. But here, in particular, I really appreciated how desaturated they were, how grey the sky was... It felt cold, just like winter. The GUI too is absoluely gorgeous, perfectly implemented, absolutely immersive - long story short, perfect!

Finally, the sounds in these games were so good: the music slapped, and how many indie VNs have custom SFX????? This is absolutely insane, and the audio engineer/composer did such an amazing job!! The voice actors, per usual in this series of games, knocked it out of the park, the performances were amazing, and the more dramatic lines were truly heartbreaking!

Long story short: this game, and this series in general, is a gem, and I encourage everyone to play it!! Thanks for involving me in this!