I love a good mystery. The mystery genre will always be a favorite, and nothing feels better than unraveling a narrative. I also love a good whodunit; adding a murder to the mystery brings another level of enjoyment as you try to find out who did it. When it comes to games, it’s not hard to find them in the visual novel genre. A prime example would be Ace Attorney, a series I love. But what happens when you take a murder mystery and combine it with a setting where a key suspect is already a hidden figure?
The Real Face of a VTuber is a visual novel. In it, you play a detective named Justin Truth trying to find out who murdered the founder of Lilien Entertainment. It can only be one of the company’s employees, but there is also something interesting about one of them. The company manages a VTuber, so now one suspects identity is unknown as well. Get thrown into a world of mystery, murder, and VTubing in The Real Face of a VTuber. A visual novel I wanted to like, but one that fell apart the more I played.
Everyone’s a Suspect
The Real Face of a VTuber is a murder mystery in the world of VTubing. You play as Justin Truth, a prosecutor who does everything he can to serve justice. He is also completely oblivious to the world of VTubing. With you is Emily Close. Your assistant is great at talking with others and helping with the case. There is also Zelda Hoss, a detective who will investigate different leads for you. One day, you are called to investigate the murder of Mr. C, the founder and CEO of Lilien Entertainment.
Lilien Entertainment manages the VTuber Kuripa and has six employees. Amanda Childs is the main illustrator who acts quite young. Prudence Weeks is the product developer, but she is very shy. Sophie Allure is the talent manager; she is a very direct woman who knows how to get what she wants. Misty Rioux is on the administrative staff. She can be very helpful, but she has herself and the company above all. Honor Chen is the 3D modeler; she is very headstrong and protective of Kirupa. Last, there is Faye Ward, the project manager; she is quite aloof and interesting, to say the least.
These characters are fine. A couple of them are interesting, and I enjoyed seeing how they changed throughout the game. Misty and Prudence are the strongest ones here, and while I think they have full arcs, I can’t say the same for the rest. Some of the characters don’t have much change and just feel left out. While some just feel forgotten until the very end and then suffer from last-minute character changes, Faye Ward suffers the worst here. The game isn’t long, so I wasn’t too annoyed, but I still found most of the cast lacking, especially after the killer is revealed.
Something I can praise is Kuripa. Everything around her feels like a real VTuber. She has lore, sign-offs, welcomes, and names for her community. Design-wise, she is also the most impressive here, and even has a full model. The scenes with her felt like real live streams, and she genuinely feels like someone I would see pop up on my YouTube algorithm. They really went the extra mile with her and even made videos of her streams you can watch in-game. I have nothing but praise for Kuripa, something I can’t say for other aspects of the game.
Who is Kuripa
The Real Face of a VTuber is a standard murder mystery. One day, Mr. C, the founder and CEO of Lilien Entertainment, a VTuber talent agency. It can only be one of the current employees, leaving six suspects. The only other potential suspect is the company’s VTuber Kuripa. The only problem is that no one knows who Kuripa is except Misty Rioux, and she won’t say. Now you have two mysteries to deal with: who murdered Mr. C, and who is the real face of Kuripa, and how do these tie together?
This is quite the premise. Having to not only solve a murder but also another person’s identity is a compelling idea. It took a while, but by the second act, I was into the mystery and couldn’t wait to solve it. That sadly stopped when I got my first ending. While I don’t play a lot of visual novels, I’ve played enough to expect a few things, multiple endings being one. There are three endings, one of which is the true ending. My main issue is that none of the endings feel satisfying. The first two endings feel very abrupt and are only there to make you get the true one. While the true one has good moments, it’s sullied by all the busywork it took to get it.
When you get the first ending, the game gives you a new hint system that tells you how to achieve all possible routes. This isn’t a bad addition, but it seems to only be here because getting the true ending is extremely obtuse. You have to get both endings, and one is much more interesting than the other. The other ending didn’t feel compelling, and I had to speed through the last act to stay interested. After that, you have to follow specific steps to even unlock the true ending, and by the time I did, I stopped caring.
A big issue I have with the true ending is that character motivations stop making sense. The big reveal of the killer doesn’t feel satisfying or even natural. It feels like it’s only them because it doesn’t make sense to be the other ones, but their character change doesn’t make sense either. It doesn’t stop at the killer; a couple of characters have sudden shifts, too. One makes some sense, but another doesn’t make any sense at all. It all makes a disappointing narrative, one that I just wanted to end.
Trials and Tribulations
I have a few more criticisms of The Real Face of a VTuber. While minor, I was not impressed by the art or music. While I complimented Kuripa earlier, she is the only one I can compliment. Most of the backgrounds feel like placeholders, and none of the characters themselves impressed me. This goes for the music, too; there aren’t many tracks, but none are memorable, except for one near the end. The game also has some translation issues, but they don’t happen often and never hurt the game.
The earlier criticisms are fairly minor and don’t deter the game. There is one issue I have with it that did annoy me the more I played. Since you play a prosecutor, there are moments you have to be a part of a trial and present evidence. I normally love it when a game does this, but this one doesn’t use it at all. If you present the wrong evidence, don’t object at the right time, or just say something bad, it doesn’t hurt you at all. The trial parts of the game are just there for aesthetic reasons, and it made me wonder why even make a murder mystery at all if the game won’t let you fail solving it. This might not be an issue for all, but for me, it hurt the game.
Court’s Verdict
I have mixed thoughts on The Real Face of a VTuber. While I didn’t regret playing, I still got annoyed with parts of it. The narrative is one I found enjoyable for about two-thirds of its length, but I wanted it to end by the last one. I enjoy about half the characters but find the rest forgettable or annoying. The VTuber aspect is very well done, and I can’t help but applaud the devs for it. I also can’t help but feel that the actual murder-mystery part isn’t fully utilized. Still, The Real Face of VTuber isn’t a bad time, and one I can see others enjoying more than I did.
Disclaimer: WhisperGames provided a PC (Steam) copy of The Real Face of a VTuber for review purposes.
