Mystic Messenger

Mystic Messenger is one of the newer otome games that hit the market, and I tried it out based on a friend's recommendation + personal curiosity.

An otome game is like a dating sim, but for girls. Every other character is a handsome male of a different "type". Mystic Messenger has several characters you can "conquer", one of whom is female, so I thought it was interesting (does that mean MC becomes non-hetero-exclusive, or can I play as a guy???)

So yeah the first thing I tried to do in this game was see if I could set up my character as male. Well, I couldn't. I guess this game isn't prepared for its queer audience, after all. Hahah. So I named my character "Alice" and I kept playing, because Alice sounds like a nice name, right?

The gameplay of Mystic Messenger is actually immensely annoying and time consuming. Your phone notifications will trigger on the clock, because an in-game character has messaged you. If you don't reply back in time, you can't progress your relationship with that character, so I became a bit of a phone slave towards the end. Except some of these conversations literally trigger at 1am and 3am, and I'm like "wow I'm awake cos I'm playing Pokemon Sun, but wtf is up with this game design? I'd be asleep if I wasn't on holiday".

So the way you reply in this game is via programmed responses, you choose A or B. It was frustrating at times, because I felt the dialogue options I got given were a little brain-dead. Like, as if I'd have reason to say that! The choices were very polarizing, too, it's like, "I hope your cat gets run over" to "I want to suck your dick". Well, those aren't actual choices, but you get the gist.

The characters were also massively unrealistic, but since it's catered towards a "typical" girls' fantasy, I guess that's the appeal. There's Han Jumin, the best looking guy there (imho), who is like a corporate CEO. Rich af, but incapable of human emotion. Then there's a hacker character nicknamed 707, who is a little eccentric (not in a way I found appealing, however). Kim Yoosung is a kid in uni who entered with a good score but is now addicted to a game called LOLOL. That one hit too close to home, I was like "wow I don't like the parallel". But does that mean people find kids addicted to games attractive? Because whew I'm still single and damn if you're into that shit, you don't have to go for a fictional kid, Vane's right here for you baby.

Oh, back to the characters. There's a movie star called "Zen" who is good looking but that's about it. No other attribute. Then the female character, I actually thought was a guy when I started playing, and I was like "oh the capable assistant, hard working kind, me likey". She's the secretary for Han Jumin, and she's overworked but doesn't know how to say no.

One cycle of the game goes for 11 days total, so it could take close to forever to finish this game. Probably actually "forever" for me, since I couldn't even run through one cycle. I reached "bad end" on day 7, which meant I didn't even finish the story. Apparently I didn't garner enough affection from the characters, so I obv fucked up my dialogue choices somewhere. God I suck at picking up guys IRL and I can't even get guys on a dating sim. How socially retarded am I???

The thing I'm mad about though, was that I was trying to get on Zen's route (I couldn't get Han Jumin because his route requires premium currency to unlock), but then I somehow ended up in Yoosung's route. That felt terrible, because like I said, Yoosung's just a shittier version of myself, and fuck I'm already the irresponsible game-addicted one, there doesn't need to be two of us like this. Anyway to avoid reaching a "bad end", I essentially changed all my responses to "yeeee I luv muh boi Yoosung", and apparently that still wasn't enough and he dumps my character on day 7.

Like what the actual fuck I got dumped by a fictional character I didn't even like. Goddamn. Like Yoosung you little bitch, I didn't say "I believe in you" or "It's fun talking to you" because I liked you, I was just saying it so the game can go on. How dare you dump me when I'm trying so hard to progress in this stupid fucking game. I'm sick of your shit, Yoosung. You'll never get a girl to like you when you're addicted to shitty video games and you act like you're 13.

Okay that's enough ranting for one night. Maybe I need a walkthrough for this game so that I don't bad-end again.

Still, fuck you Yoosung.