Bad Faith

i've read this for a couple hours and the story is interesting in some parts, but overall I really think calling this visual novel a "game" is a huge stretch. you can't make any choices, magda just goes and does her own thing and all you can do is watch. i just set the text speed to high and put it on auto scroll so i could read it while crocheting, but i wish i had more influence over her actions, or could choose various areas to explore.

Complicated thoughts but I really enjoyed the first two acts.
Spoilers below

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I just finished this, and playing through the ending, I was certainly unsettled, but I didn't get any satisfaction or catharsis, unlike other reviewers. Even with Circe and Eve, it was very quickly more sadistic than cathartic. And while Magda does grow horrified with it, it still just felt like the story was indulging revenge for the sake of it and just ended up bleak without a real purpose.

After reading a postmortem and talking to a friend about it, about how the author was tempted to lash out at bullies but had a bitter taste from it. And it confused me, because my initial impressions of the end was that the narrative was just indulging in the depiction of a gory revenge fantasy without really grappling with any of the consequences of it, just cutting off. But thinking on it further, perhaps leaving that same bitter taste in the audience's mouth is the point - the characters don't need to grapple with the consequences when the audience already is. I'm certainly still unsettled as I write this.

Overall I really enjoyed the setup and the depictions of the cult, was believable and tense. I can't say I enjoyed the ending but I can appreciate it to some extent now. Thank you for making.

this game has haunted me for several days. i never played something that captured my suffocating experiences in such a cathartic way. and the horror was spot on, the build up to the ending felt so relieving and yet tragic. beautiful work!

An awesome VN with a story that kept me itching to know more! 

This was an excellent VN. I felt really bad for Magda and her predicament. The ending had a good balance of catharsis and tragedy to it, too. Absolutely great work.

I absolutely love this game. I played it awhile back but never wrote a review - but man did this leave an impact on me. I thought about the characters and story days afterwards, amazing work. I'd love to see more of these characters.

(Btw I loved MagNil so much. their dynamic was peak.)

I really liked this! the CGs are gorgeous and the writing is really good. I also liked the parallax effect on the title screen. It looks polished and made me wonder what kind of people the characters would be before even starting.

spoilers below

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The characterization is really good. At every interaction, it felt like each character had their own motives.

It was fun to see the first Apologia assembly, expecting only stern, stiff talk about Jael's bad actions (like Eve and Lady Amaris), only for Cerise to come in, crack a joke and call the forbidden material "real gross, freak shit" to rile everyone else against Jael. How did she, a writing section member, uncover a research section member's illegal book stash? Who knows or cares to find out. In the beginning of act 3, it's obvious why she would do this, not just out of meanness: bullying Magda out of the writing section let Cerise take her place, and kicking her out of Haven makes her a section head.

Meanwhile, while it isn't Grace's intention, she gets the same result if not even better: she also becomes a section head, she gets to make other friends and to make life better for the architectural section members by reducing how much time they have to work. Does she considers sacrificing Magda worth all of that?

Until act 3, I thought members that were kicked out of Haven actually got to leave, so it re-contextualizes some things. When Maria complains that Magda complains to her when she's going through worse by losing Jael... Jael is quite literally still right there, and Maria's just giving up.

Just like the others, Maria profits from Magda's disappearance by plagiarizing her planned painting, but it also feels like Maria thinks of it as recognizing and fulfilling unrealized potential.

Magda's first feelings about Nils feel like they reflect the way other Haven members see her: as someone who will corrupt them. And both Magda and Nils are to Haven a resource its members can take advantage of; Magda by serving as a stepping stone to reaching sect head status and providing sketches to be plagiarized, Nils by physically providing blood and energy to Haven. After Nils died, I wonder how long Haven could've continued.

I hope Lilia gets to sleep on the top of a bunk bed somewhere and to eat something they like!

this was such a fun game!! got a bit bored at some points (adhd brain) but the beautiful art and writing carried me through it. magda my beloved you could do nothing wrong (she is wanted in 7 countries)

I played through this because I recognized you from the Violence series! You have a really distinct writing style that's so immersive. I have a lot of feelings about this game, Nils especially, though I'm not sure if I'm phrasing any of this very well so I apologize in advance.

[ABANDON ALL HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER THE SPOILER ZONE]

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I wish we saw more of Nils, but I also think that keeping them somewhat shrouded in mystery helped them feel more inhuman. Much like Magda, we don't get much of a feel for their personality until the very end, and even then we're unsure. They're angry, rightfully so, but is this solving anything? Are we safe with them? Is this any better than the life we left burning? Whatever the answer is, it's not for the reader to know anymore. I found that really powerful, the ending was, like, satisfyingly unsatisfying if that makes any sense.

I took Magda's relationship with Nils as a kind of parallel to people who leave abusive families later getting into toxic relationships, but I might be misinterpreting.  I don't think Nils is a bad person, I don't think human morality can apply to them given that they're not human, but I also don't think that Lilia is a healthy relationship. Both Nils and Magda have every reason to be angry, to hate and honestly it was cathartic to see them hurt the people who hurt them--but that's not where the story ends. Showing the aftermath, the second thoughts after a violent revenge was a such a cool narrative choice. I wish there was a bit more of it.

Sorry for rambling, I hope all that made sense and I didn't misinterpret too badly. I really love your games!

Spoilers ahead, i wanted to give my honest opinion about this because i have my own fair share of religious trauma which drew me to this game
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I want to make it clear that i'm not particularly squeamish when it comes to blood or gore, and i don't want to give the impression that i want to police the depiction of such things in media, especially media as clearly vulnerable as this is. I also don't think that an ambiguous or unsatisfying ending is necessarily a bad thing. With all that being said, i really couldn't get on board with this game's 3rd act. I was absolutely sold on the first 2 acts based on the religious horror and character drama. I related to Magda quite a bit and was quite invested in her story. Unfortunately, it lost me when the game started giving graphic descriptions of violence and gore. I was sold on the premise of the horror being how the had manipulated and ultimately failed Magda, turning her into the thing they despised, and her heel turn in the 3rd act didn't really feel consistent with the rest of the game's thematic setup.

Still, that isn't to say that i didn't like the first 2 acts. They were very well crafted and tense. I especially like the scene where Eve confronts Magda in the woods and she starts having a panic attack. I thought it showed excellent use of the medium and it deeply affected me. I just think it's a shame that the landing didn't do it for me.

I played for 40 minutes and I must say I’m totally hooked ! I really like what has been done so far and I’m so curious to launch again, thanks !

i've just started recently and have been really enjoying it so far! i've had a strange error, when text appears i can see the top few pixels of the next line before they appear, does anyone know a way this can be fixed?

My crops are scorched and my plants are withered. I feel utterly miserable in the best possible way, thank you so very much...

You have a wonderful talent for emotional horror I hope you know (I don't know if that's a proper term or not but that's how I felt seeing everything progress through this game) (Also some very excellent more visceral horror yupyup-) This whole experience was beautifully written and produced, and utterly tragic overall.

I'm going to be thinking about this for quite some time...

how much romance does this have?

I love this game so far. 

For some reason payment through paypal fails for me (tried twice with a different card). Frustraaaation. (edit : YES I DID IT. After 3 tries, seem like you need to register a cellphone to unblock my account somehow)

But the demo was very nice. Cool writing, got engrossed by it pretty fast.

An absolute gut punch of a story.  The visuals, writing, and audio combined with all of your additional touches served to hook me from start to finish, pulling me through every chill of dread and twist of the stomach. I'm eager to see what you create next, whether it remains in this universe or not! 

That ending was something--wow. I'm going to have to think about this--thank you for making this.

youve improved so much, holy crap! (im remiruplushie from i suddenly became a magical girl..) i don't have it yet but new money saving adventure, just this games art style is AGHAHGHA <33

Well, that was a kick in the feels.

I've been there. Trying to keep to myself, not provoke more bullying, watching others being punished and being happy it's not me this time. And revenge fantasies. I've read Enders Game back then. Ender-killing-his-bullies really spoke to me. Had Eldritch Power given me the opportunity to do that, would I? I like sumirufus take in the comments on all this.

Anyhow. I really like how you use the medium. Soundtrack, fonts, how the text is presented, how soundtrack is used to set the mood (and it's a good soundtrack). I was not sold on how the backgrounds looked at first, but I got used to it rather fast. And I love the character art. And those panning shots.

The tension bulid up is great. And the "catharsis" did not feel cathartic at all. In the end it made me feel empty. And sad. Which I think was the point.

It's short, it's mean and it will stay with me. Congratulations. Well done.

Finally got the full game after a few months! Almost forgot about it but thankfully didn't! Spoilers below!

HOLY SHIT. THAT WAS A REAL MOOD CHANGE. I just want to start off by saying that this game is a 9/10. There were only a few minor issues, but it wasn't the story, just some bugs and stuff, although I do wish we got to know a little bit more about Lady Amaris. The 1st act of the story was solid. Nothing going on but still pretty good. I was wondering what happened to Jael but I'm guessing she died. The 2nd act made this a lot more hyped up. Nil is basically a tortured angel who was used as a tool by Lady Amaris. And then the assembly happened. HOLY SHIT. That was pretty brutal for Madga. Nil and Magda technically combines and wow that was pretty neat. And some interesting stuff happens. But when Cerise's eyeball was shown, THAT TOOK A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TURN TO WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. Eve gets mutilated by a god damn woodchipper and Maria's heart is taken off and Nil forcefully makes Madga taste a bit of it. And then the fire happened. It is understandable why Nil would want to be blood thirsty after Lady Amaris kept her there for so long, but I didn't expect it to go that far! And the story doesn't end there, as Grace is the only survivor and basically has to go to a different island. And the sad part is that she doesn't know what truly happened with Cerise, Eve, and Maria. Even though the chances are very slim, I really hope Bad Faith gets some sort of continuation. Very good job. Sayonara and have a good day.

Good story but BRUTAL in a lot of ways so heed the warnings carefully!

i played the demo on a plane and now that i've landed i'm very excited to play the full thing <3

AHHH i remember when i played the demo for this!! I'm so excited now that its finally out! I can't wait to play the full version!!

*Spoiler Warning Ahead*

I just played this game recently with a friend on a whim and absolutely loved it. Starting from the beginning, the visual and audio elements of the game are wonderful. The art itself is very nice (both the character sprites and the backgrounds) and when combined with sound effects and music it gives this nice, undercurrent of dread that permeates the game even before shit truly hits the fan.

Now, as for characters, I like how there is a large range of behaviors in Haven. You have Eve, the overachiever who seems to revel in petty victories and paperwork. Grace, the fully indoctrinated follower who truly believes what she's doing is best. Cerise, the traditional bully archetype (although not so traditional in terms of art depiction. Gotta say, this is the first buff mean girl I've seen in fiction. The fact that she could both ostracize and also beat the shit out of you made her oddly memorable in terms of bully characters. Truly the worst of both worlds to deal with). Maria, the one who never lifts a finger but is fully aware and complicit in the system (and very fitting that her character death starts by her refusing to look at Magda - ignoring the problem until it goes away until her dying breath). 

And of course, there's Nils and Magda.

 Magda is very much your sweet girl-next-door trying hard to be good and probably would succeed had she been in any other setting. Alas, being in a cult, "good" is more of an obscure, ever-shifting goalpost designed to keep people in line than it actually relates to any actual sense of true morality, so of course she fails. She is a very easy character to like, and you do truly get attached to her and sympathize with what she goes through, which makes her breakdown and descent all the more compelling to witness. 

As for Nils, I enjoyed them throughly. Even from the beginning, you immediately want to know more about them.  If this were a play, they would have an amazing stage presence. I like the parallel between them both winding up in their current situations by feeling compelled to go beyond what they're "allowed" to (Nils by choosing to help out humanity despite multiple warnings against it, and Magda by her choosing to sneak out to satiate her own personal curiosity.) I also like the contrast of their personalities, the sugary-sweet (well, mostly) Magda with the bitter and caustic Nils. Watching them interact together is a little like if Carrie White had met Venom, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

My only real complaint is that I wish we got to see more of them together. From what Nils said about this being their "last resort", I imagine they had a different plan in mind originally. It would have been nice to see more visits/more interactions together before their final merging. 

But all together, it's a great game. You did a good job, especially for your first game! I would love to see what you make in the future. 

***BEWARE SPOILERS***

just finished reading through the full version of bad faith right after having tried the demo and boy howdy do i not regret it. it was such an intense story! from the isolation, to the manipulation, the torture and finally the catharsis/revenge i really loved it! even if the revenge was a bit too much for my liking, i would have preferred something less gory that doesnt kill them in the most gruesome manner possible ya know. 

as some other comments have said, im sad magda/lilia had to become an even more violent abuser, i love human+non-human so much and was overjoyed when i saw lilia for the first time! its such a pretty name too. then there's nils which i still like a bit but well, they kinda did all that so i dont exactly love em either also i found kinda weird they referred to lilia as magda again once she renamed herself to lilia, not sure what that was about, is lilia supposed to encompass both nils and magda? as for the epilogue, im glad at least grace survived, although not without a whole lot of trauma! i wonder if she's gonna be ok...

thats about it for my thoughts on bad faith! maybe a bit messy but it gets my feelings across properly enough, thank you so much for such a wonderful visual novel! already looking forward to the next one, whenever it may be ^^

Though I haven't finished the entire game of the time of me posting this the 3 hours I have played was Fantastic. I love the characters & the dynamic as well as the just premise I guess. Regardless this fun & I can't wait to finish it. 

I just finished the game on steam, I just wanted to know that will it have more expansion about this game. Because I like this game very much and I want more, but it has come to an end. So, Will, you make more visual novels in the future? And will there be more stories about bad faith? I love this game very much!!! And I still want this story to resume! 

Just finished the demo, despite not what I expected I'm very invested into the story and I look forward to getting the full version.

The story and buildup is exceptional! the art is so beautiful and as it is intended you are in a constant state of paranoia unless you are in a dream, such a fantastic work! the ending it leaves you a sour taste but is actually the best way to end the game...

I still would love like a novel, or maybe comics or spin off of how the characters are doing in the future, good or bad

I-I've just finished the demo and... what a frightening but attractive story. The words and phrases you picked are beautiful and metaphysical and the artworks are vivid but also feel dark.

I can't stop buying a full version today, to see how Magda's life goes on.

I just finished the demo and I wanted to thank you for including the audio titles! It meant a lot to me and it makes Bad Faith much more immersive than most VNs out there.  Off to play the rest of the VN!

The design and composition of the scenes was amazing. Even though the story felt a little 'two note' at times, the game is easily worth the price for such amazing writing and interface. Using dialogue bubbles and motion during the cutscenes gives it such an immersive first person feel unlike any other visual novel I've played. You really get into Magda's head. Loved the ending a lot, it was exactly what I wanted. 

do you know when the steam release is coming? because im afraid to buy it here and lose the game if i delete it only from my pc..

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!!!

I'm having trouble starting the game on Linux; it just hangs with a black screen until it's force quit. Same issue with the demo (I should have checked before I bought it but I haven't had problems running Ren'Py games before...) Tried the Windows version on my Win7 laptop and it seems to be running with no problems. Not sure what the issue is.

Here's my system specs in case it's helpful:

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.6
LTS KERNEL: 5.4.0-92-generic
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
GPU DRIVER: NVIDIA 460.91.03
RAM: 16 GB

I can also mess around in the script files and test some things out if you let me know what to look for.

I don't know how to begin, organize my ideas or express myself, but I really loved this, the whole way. 

Most importantly, I FELT everything, the public shame, the different perspectives, the nervousness, the intrusive thoughts, the fear, the ignorance, the unrequited love, the loneliness, that feeling in your stomach when you know eveything will go wrong but you fool yourself to believe otherwise, only to be right, and so much more.

Can't not mention how good the art direction was, and the soundtrack was just perfect. I could keep rambling but overall thanks for making this.

I just finished up my own playthrough an hour or so ago, and I had a lot to ruminate on I think. I think as you've said, the feelings and situations Magda goes through resonate really deeply with a lot of people, particularly the already marginalised. Ironically despite being agnostic, the place I escaped from that isolation and judgement was a Catholic school, haha. I really lucked out with mine. Before I get real personal I just want to take a moment to say that the layout of Bad Faith being reminiscent of Fate/Stay Night and other older VNs in terms of its narration (intentionally?) really drew me into the sort of massive VN phase I had during my high school years, and it was welcomely nostalgic. The amount of effort that went into producing this story is incredible; I enjoyed every aspect of the prose, the art, and the atmosphere you created in the Haven. I don't get genuinely unsettled by VNs much, but the world you wove was frighteningly real. Thank you for all your hard work!

Potential spoilers ahead

I have to be honest, playing Bad Faith is not something I could call an 'enjoyable' experience, but I absolutely do not mean that in a bad way. The story was gripping and delivered in a manner that was just like... The slow march to the unavoidable finale. I feel like I knew what was going to happen to Magda from the very moment I met her, and all I could do was watch her slow descent, because it's a path I've been down on. I think many of us have been down on. Everyone was a product of the community here, even the characters I feel absolutely no sympathy for whatsoever, but naturally Magda feels like the pinnacle of that community. "I must be good" felt like being stabbed every time she tried to remind herself. There was no happy outcome from the beginning, because the community was designed to isolate everyone. Even the Heads who thought they were special and immune were isolated from one another, no matter what they might have thought. There was no hope for anyone on that island no matter how deserving or not, because there was no support. Though Magda was the most isolated (and really, what easier way to drum up a false sense of community than picking the easiest target to hate, only to turn on whoever comes after them?) not a single true friend existed on that island. Even Grace, for all she thought she was doing good, knew she had done wrong. And seeing her on the end in that boat, alone, almost bargaining with Haven itself for the hope of just one person left to be part of anything she ever knew broke my heart. No matter if they're alive or not, Grace has no one anyway. 

The third act was a difficult thing to go through, and not just because of my very delicate stomach! But the hardest thing was watching Lilia, because it was like watching what I could have been. Not with the, you know, cannibalism and torture, but I dealt with anger in my isolation with violence. I was hurt physically, I did do a lot of hurt back, but it had never felt like enough at the time. There were many times that I wished I could have done what Lilia did, to mirror every bit of pain and hatred and despair they put me through. Watching Lilia to what she did to Cerise and Eve was cathartic and sobering at the same time. Watching her gradually grapple with her waning anger, to watch the consequences slowly dawn on her, and then to watch her be forced to be complicit in revenge she never asked for hurt. But this is a story about consequences for everyone, and Magda is not exempt from that. None of them, or us, are.

On a side note, I loved Nils. They were perfectly monstrous from start to finish, and even their kindness was tinged with their sinister intent. Reaching out to Magda in the cell was gut-wrenching, because I just knew it couldn't end well. As Magda said, Nils could never understand humans - perhaps they never even wanted to. And though they were deeply wronged, didn't they just plan to impose their will and ideas on humans the same way Lady Amaris cultivated the Haven? I'm not sure if that's what you were going for with them, but I loved that there was no brushing over the creature they had become. Fantastic character, would love to date and be killed by them/10.

This has been really rambling and disjointed but I really did love my experience with Bad Faith. Was it enjoyable? It was like watching someone get ready pull out my teeth individually. But like, I liked watching them get ready to do it! Let's not unpack that. Sorry for dropping this absolute novel of a comment here. Thank you for creating and sharing Bad Faith with us all, I'm really looking forward to whatever work you put out next!