With Lightkravte being released, I was in the mood to give this a re-read. It made me realize that I'm way overdue on writing a review for this.
(I should also disclose that I got this for donating to Alice in Dissonance's Patreon page back in 2018)

Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell is a children's tale written by well-known author Alissyn Rievegh, but the story was completely unknown to the rest of the world. That is, of course, until Alice in Dissonance took it upon themselves to localize it for the rest of us, so that we could enjoy classic children's stories.

... Or at least, that's the front of it. In reality, Alissyn Rievegh is an author from the fictional Fault universe, and Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell is a children's story well known in Rughzenhaide, also from that same universe. To make it abundantly clear, this is a spin-off of the Fault series developed by Alice in Dissonance, which doesn't really have much to do with the story of the main series it's based off of, with the obvious Rughzenhaide parallels being the exception, so you should be able to enjoy this without having read a single Fault visual novel. The reason I point this out is because that was kinda how I remember this visual novel being presented when I first saw it, and it did kinda give it a meta element to it. It's kinda neat. But what of the story itself?

Mhakna and Sebia live in a rather rundown orphanage run by the rather nasty Tigrah Anne, who shows no respect to the children by constantly abusing them, enforcing child labor, and turning the kids into animals and selling them off to other people if they don't get adopted before turning 10 years old. Needless to say, Mhakna and Sebia hate this current state of life that they have, and they pray to Fairy Bell to save them and bring them to eternal happiness. Fairy Bell hears their requests and take them to Enles Land, a land created by Fairy Bell to bring suffering and sad children to, so that they never have too feel so again. Fairy Bell allows Mhakna and Sebia to live in Enles Land forever, exploring new things to make them happy and meeting new friends along the way, so long as they promise one thing: to never grow up.

This is a kinetic novel, which means there aren't any choices to be made. It's also a short read, you'll probably read it through in less than two hours or so. But for those two hours, I gotta say: I felt a lot of different emotions. I felt sadness, joy, fear, relief, all sorts of emotions. If a visual novel can bring tears to my eyes or choke me up a bit, then I know it's doing something right, and this one did do that on a few occasions. I also do love how Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell sort of poses the question of what true happiness is, and what happiness means to different people. Considering that this is written in a children's book style, I think it fits pretty well in there. Although, as is on par with a lot of Alice in Dissonance visual novels, it does have it's dark moments here and there. I'm not gonna spoil much here, but all I will say is that Rughzenhaide children are probably a bit more emotionally hardened than the children of our world.

Beyond the main story, there's also an encyclopedia. This has entries from explanations of certain terms to character profiles. For those not familiar with the Fault universe, or just otherwise doesn't have a strong grasp of a lot of the concepts from Fault, it has some helpful terms to get you started on a couple things. However, regardless of whether you have knowledge from Fault or not, I still highly recommend checking it out for the character profiles, most of which you unlock after you've finished reading. These profiles add so much more depth to the characters, and it shows sides to them that you wouldn't otherwise see in the story as it unfolds. So once you've finished reading the story, go give the encyclopedia a read. You won't regret it one bit.

The art style is fantastic. This is one of the few visual novels I've read where pretty much every single piece of art is something akin to a full CG, rather than having character art on a background that talks to each other. Combined with the more stylized visuals and small motions that have been added to them, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell just looks beautiful. And the soundtrack is just amazing. The main theme still brings a tear to my eye every once in a while, the orphanage theme is so melancholic and beautiful at the same time, the character themes for each character go perfectly with their personalities, and the creepy themes still give me chills. There aren't that many different tracks in the game, but with what it has, it knocks it out of the park. If you're considering getting the soundtrack as well, I cannot recommend it enough.

In conclusion, I feel like this is a must-buy for anyone who's into visual novels. For the asking price, I think the story itself is already enough to be worth it. And while I love the soundtrack to this, you could make the argument that the price for that is a little too high, considering it's twice the price of the actual visual novel. Still, if you get the chance, I recommend getting that soundtrack as well. If you don't think it's worth it for that price, wait for a sale. The music is too beautiful to go unnoticed.

Anyway, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell gets huge recommendations from me. I don't think you'll regret reading it.

With Lightkravte being released, I was in the mood to give this a re-read. It made me realize that I'm way overdue on writing a review for this. (I should also disclose that I got this for donating to Alice in Dissonance's Patreon page back in 2018) Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell is a children's tale written by well-known author Alissyn Rievegh, but the story was completely unknown to the rest of the world. That is, of course, until Alice in Dissonance took it upon themselves to localize it for the rest of us, so that we could enjoy classic children's stories. ... Or at least, that's the front of it. In reality, Alissyn Rievegh is an author from the fictional Fault universe, and Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell is a children's story well known in Rughzenhaide, also from that same universe. To make it abundantly clear, this is a spin-off of the Fault series developed by Alice in Dissonance, which doesn't really have much to do with the story of the main series it's based off of, with the obvious Rughzenhaide parallels being the exception, so you should be able to enjoy this without having read a single Fault visual novel. The reason I point this out is because that was kinda how I remember this visual novel being presented when I first saw it, and it did kinda give it a meta element to it. It's kinda neat. But what of the story itself? Mhakna and Sebia live in a rather rundown orphanage run by the rather nasty Tigrah Anne, who shows no respect to the children by constantly abusing them, enforcing child labor, and turning the kids into animals and selling them off to other people if they don't get adopted before turning 10 years old. Needless to say, Mhakna and Sebia hate this current state of life that they have, and they pray to Fairy Bell to save them and bring them to eternal happiness. Fairy Bell hears their requests and take them to Enles Land, a land created by Fairy Bell to bring suffering and sad children to, so that they never have too feel so again. Fairy Bell allows Mhakna and Sebia to live in Enles Land forever, exploring new things to make them happy and meeting new friends along the way, so long as they promise one thing: to never grow up. This is a kinetic novel, which means there aren't any choices to be made. It's also a short read, you'll probably read it through in less than two hours or so. But for those two hours, I gotta say: I felt a lot of different emotions. I felt sadness, joy, fear, relief, all sorts of emotions. If a visual novel can bring tears to my eyes or choke me up a bit, then I know it's doing something right, and this one did do that on a few occasions. I also do love how Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell sort of poses the question of what true happiness is, and what happiness means to different people. Considering that this is written in a children's book style, I think it fits pretty well in there. Although, as is on par with a lot of Alice in Dissonance visual novels, it does have it's dark moments here and there. I'm not gonna spoil much here, but all I will say is that Rughzenhaide children are probably a bit more emotionally hardened than the children of our world. Beyond the main story, there's also an encyclopedia. This has entries from explanations of certain terms to character profiles. For those not familiar with the Fault universe, or just otherwise doesn't have a strong grasp of a lot of the concepts from Fault, it has some helpful terms to get you started on a couple things. However, regardless of whether you have knowledge from Fault or not, I still highly recommend checking it out for the character profiles, most of which you unlock after you've finished reading. These profiles add so much more depth to the characters, and it shows sides to them that you wouldn't otherwise see in the story as it unfolds. So once you've finished reading the story, go give the encyclopedia a read. You won't regret it one bit. The art style is fantastic. This is one of the few visual novels I've read where pretty much every single piece of art is something akin to a full CG, rather than having character art on a background that talks to each other. Combined with the more stylized visuals and small motions that have been added to them, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell just looks beautiful. And the soundtrack is just amazing. The main theme still brings a tear to my eye every once in a while, the orphanage theme is so melancholic and beautiful at the same time, the character themes for each character go perfectly with their personalities, and the creepy themes still give me chills. There aren't that many different tracks in the game, but with what it has, it knocks it out of the park. If you're considering getting the soundtrack as well, I cannot recommend it enough. In conclusion, I feel like this is a must-buy for anyone who's into visual novels. For the asking price, I think the story itself is already enough to be worth it. And while I love the soundtrack to this, you could make the argument that the price for that is a little too high, considering it's twice the price of the actual visual novel. Still, if you get the chance, I recommend getting that soundtrack as well. If you don't think it's worth it for that price, wait for a sale. The music is too beautiful to go unnoticed. Anyway, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell gets huge recommendations from me. I don't think you'll regret reading it.