#mystic messenger playthrough

[mystmesstolemysoul]

Lol talking to Yoosung in this route feels like a two-person Zen fanclub lmao

[awbublie]

ONE OF US

ONE OF US!!!

yoosung enjoys reading shoujo!!!

im junping to conclusions as he was talk ab novels BUT CLOSE ENOUGH

[vieapuff]

First 4 days of another story got me fucked up I hope nothing else happens !

[plce221]

[sunbloomdew]

i've been watching a 2h long video essay about mystic messenger as a,,,, "break" from writing (i am so distracted rn) and that got me thinking about my first experiences with games that have romance in them

i find it pretty funny that i picked sam and yoosung when i was playing stardew and mysme for the first time, and then NEVER played their routes again

[asideofkimchi]

Hey... Do you know the song sung by the voice actor from the pilot Hazbin Hotel? Called Thank you and goodnight. Weirdly this song reminds me of Mystic Messenger, despite being a new fan and having been into this game until this year 2024 I already felt a connection, seeing old posts about this game from an old fan somehow makes me tear up. Despite I'm a fan of 2024, I somehow feel nostalgic about this game despite never actually experience it before

i haven’t seen hazbin hotel, except for when I watched the pilot some years ago, so I had to go look up the lyrics:

“Well, it's been a wild ride And we've enjoyed every insane minute of it We don't know what the future holds But we're grateful for every moment we got to spend with you […]

It's been a blast, been a slice Been a hell of a ride We've had some laughs, had some fights Even some of us cried But all good things must come to an end And I guess this is our time So, so long, farewell, and we'll see you on the other side”

I like the beginning of this song. Mystic Messenger was a roller coaster of a game for me. I did not think it would make such a mark, I was actually reluctant to play it at first! And I certainly didn’t expect the first playthrough to fundamentally change my life! (Love you Yoosung 💚) and I think the sentiment of these first two verses feels like it could be said from the MM crew- rfa and mint eye combined (and Vanderwood too. Still waiting on my crack Vanderwood route.)

the game is turning 8 this year. Fans have come and gone. I can only hope most of the fans can look back fondly at this silly absurd game, at least enjoyed it while they played. It’s wild to think there are newer fans too, like you! Wow! The game is somewhat a product of its time, and it can be frustrating, but I hope you enjoy it. I hope this is an experience you can look back on fondly.

[seonkun]

I'll always be here my boi YooSung😭

Why I didn't figured this gem earlier?

[fourth-wall-rebuilder]

....................

[michiigii-writes-mysme]

Love and Deepspace x Mystic Messenger

I am full of unpopular, problematic opinions, with this crossover! Because the similarities and differences I see are unlike what everyone else seems to see!

The easy one: Zayne and Jumin are the same.

Hot, cool, stoic.

Elite Sir.

Does Zayne wear gloves to fancy hospital charity events? Because I think he should.

If you like Jumin, you will like Zayne. Not an opinion, just the facts.

Less easy one, but not unexpected: Yoosung and Xavier are very similar.

Blond

Videogames

huge "step on me, mommy!" vibes, until their switch is flipped, and then it's "I'm The Alpha."

if I had been playing from the beginning, Xavier would have been my favourite. He's not, but more on that later.

They're very Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. Fandom Flanderization sort of devolves them into slacker gamer and sleepy boi. But then you get to know them more and you see how responsible and hardworking they can be. Love it, 10/10, very husband material

And then there's Rafayel. A lot of people have paired him with Zen, because he's an artist, he's famous, he's talented, he's a diva. But he also hates sweating/working out, he expects to be pampered, he expects not just praise but worship. (Which is fair, considering where he's from!) These aren't Zen things. Zen doesn't expect anything from his MC; she could treat him like dirt and he'd still stay in a relationship with her (Bad Relationship Ending 2? 3?) No, I see Rafayel as being similar to Seven.

flighty and odd on the day to day

Very Memeable. Very good.

running off and doing Art Things feels like running off and doing Hacker Things

goofy and breezy when things are light, when times are good.

when times are bad, they get surprisingly intense and dark.

the old "remembering past lives/remembering past playthroughs" conspiracy

If they need to be serious, they will be The Most serious.

Hacker v. Assassin?

Dodging their managers.

It's the hidden depths, for me.

So. My favourite is Sylus. I started playing when they introduced him because white hair, red eyes, broad shoulders. I am a simple woman with simple tastes, sue me.

The easy thing would be to say that he and Zen are similar. And they have their similarities: aside from confidence in their unearthly beauty, they also handle their MC like gold, they have rough, violent pasts, and basically raised themselves up.

But I would say Sylus' MysMe parallel is Vanderwood.

We don't have the VanderRoute (although it would be nice, it doesn't make sense to the Rika/V of it all!), but:

elite, special operative of some kind

shady deals

guns

fashion

being frustrated with their underlings

the banter. The amazing, chemistry-steeped banter.

a dangerous man who needs a love interest who can keep up with his lifestyle.

[mystmesstolemysoul]

Okay babes, I've decided to throw caution to the wind and do another mystmess playthrough. I have finals this week. Idk if my sleep schedule can handle it, but fuck it, we ball

[awbublie]

me coming out of my room after crying and being a hermit all day

[desire-mona]

i think a lot of ppl who use character ai could really do with a mystic messenger playthrough

[eleiyaumei]

Romance VS Plot in Mystic Messenger

After playing both Zen's and Seven's route, I feel confident enough to say:

Cheritz should never have tried plotting.

Not because the plot in both routes is bad but rather that both plot and romance suffer from Cheritz' inability to balance the two within a route's time frame.

Like, the plot is happening in the background for most of the route while romance and character development are in the foreground but then on ca. Day 8-10 or when love interest and MC accept their feelings for each other the plot is the main focus while the romance is in the background. In the end, both romance and plot end up feeling rushed and lacking substance IMO.

What bothered me the most about the romance getting left behind is:

The build-up of romantic feelings between love interest and MC felt so well-made and natural but after they accept their feelings for each other, they automatically get together and their relationship stays static until the ending and is supposed to be "the one true love".

I incredibly missed the transition into a relationship, the beginning phase of a relationship, just any interpersonal development between the two after they accept each other's feelings.

And scenes of them being in love. (Or are these in the outgoing calls which I didn't do since I did a playthrough without ever using HGs?)

Ultimately, the romance worked better than the plot so I think Cheritz should have made the routes consist of just character interactions&development and romance.

Unrelated but:

Cheritz are cowards* for not dealing with Seven's queerness in his route!

(But at least we have hints that he actually enjoys crossdressing and might have a crush on Zen [since Zen mentioned the Twitter "bot" making comments so accurate that they sound like someone with a crush on him]...)

(*hyperbolic phrase I intend to mean: "I'm upset at Cheritz")

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Amnesia Memories

Official Summary:

In this otome visual novel, you awaken on the first of August with no memory of your relationships or your past. A friendly spirit named Orion appears, somehow trapped within your consciousness.

With his help, you must unravel the mystery of who you are while hiding your amnesia from those seemingly closest to you - or risk oblivion.

Can you regain your memories and find your true love before it's too late?

.

Luna's Rating

Plot: 7/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Characters: 8/10

Art: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Luna's Fave Characters: Kent, Shin

.

Luna's Thoughts (Spoiler Free)

A quick play with a theme of parallel universes, Amnesia Memories is a unique blend of magic, comedy and dark relationship drama.

There's basically no common route. Your first major choice is which "world" or route to play. Various details change in each route, including your relationship to, circumstances involving and — in some cases — even the personalities of other characters. For example, a character who is your ex-stepbrother in one route is your childhood friend in the next, and unrelated to you in a third route.

Each route is extremely different, which made for a fun, refreshing experience each time. You have a full on mystery investigation, a dark school drama, a romantic comedy and more.

Because the MC is a blank slate, there's no default name, and she lacks an internal monologue except when she occasionally regains a memory. She also has no portrait on screen. This means the game is about 95% people talking at you. It reminded me of Mystic Messenger for that reason.

There are extremely LONG loading screens between scenes, making consecutive playthroughs a slog even if using the skip function. At least they have cute sketches of the characters.

The art is somewhat inconsistent. Idk if they got multiple artists or one artist who just put more effort into some drawings than others, but some of the cgs are hideous and you can absolutely tell which characters the artist enjoyed working on.

While some of the drama in this game is a little convoluted, it does an excellent job of creating a dark atmosphere, and I was genuinely afraid for the heroine in many scenes.

Some of the routes have repetitive themes/villains, but overall this was a fun game. I think if it had been longer I would have gotten bored/annoyed, but it's fortunately a quick play. I finished it in about half the time it normally takes me to play an otoge.

Please find below my discussion of character routes in the order I played them.

.

Ikki Route (Spoilers)

Ikki is the flirty guy of the game. Because he's always surrounded by women, there's a reoccurring CG of him with a bunch of girls — pictured above. But one of the girls is drawn terribly (on the right) and has a head that's way bigger than it's supposed to be lol. I found it super distracting. It's not the only cg with proportion issues, but you'd think they'd want to get it right for an image that comes up like six times in the route.

While I loved him in other routes, Ikki...kinda sucks in his own route. He's the kind of guy who creates his own problems. Basically because he's got "magic eyes," women flock to him. He wants to be nice to everyone but he noticed that any girl he dated would get bullied, so he decided he would date anyone who asked him out, but only for three months. That way it's fair to everyone, right? If you're thinking "that's incredibly stupid" then we are in agreement.

Anyway, apparently he fell in love (for real) with the MC after she, out of sheer spite and willpower, broke free from his eye curse and chewed him out for his idiotic dating system. He spends the entire route trying to get MC to reciprocate his feelings, or at least move in with him to escape her father. MC is still being bullied, however, because he asked MC out instead of the other way around and his fan club does not like this.

He spends the entire route asking MC on dates and then making her wait hours because he's been surrounded by girls again and he refuses to just tell them to screw off. He hangs out with them without MC being there, and then has the audacity to get upset with her when her literal stepbrother comes over to take care of her while she's sick lol.

There's a little bit more to the "fan club" stuff, but despite the tone appearing dark and sinister, it comes across as middle school level bullying rather than something befitting of college students, which MC and Ikki are supposed to be. I'm aware that bullying can be super awful, but the whole three week system was just convoluted.

I guess you're just supposed to accept that Ikki acts cold to MC in public because he doesn't want her to get bullied, but there are so many better ways to handle this shit. I was so angry for her the entire route.

When he does finally stand up for her, surprise surprise, everything works out. This has the effect of both falling flat as the ending of the route and also proving that Ikki could have just done that in the first place. In an even more annoying move, he tells the fan club girls that he'll still hang out with them. He does all this in front of the MC btw. A frustrating route!!

.

Kent Route (Spoilers)

I think you're not supposed to like Kent at the start, as he's abrasive, blunt and not at all emotionally intelligent. But honestly he texts like my brother-in-law and behaves like my father, so I felt oddly comfortable with him as a character lol. He's extremely autism-coded.

Kent has a deadpan persona and doesn't understand relationships, so you can't be too openly affectionate with him. Instead, he likes when you quietly rely on him while also reassuring him that he's okay as he is. Making him blush is the best part of his route.

I really loved this boy! He genuinely tries his best even though he doesn't know what to do in a relationship. Sure, he's a little unromantic about it, but he's such a dork that it's endearing. He buys MC a cake for their 15 day anniversary...what a loser lol. If you've seen my review for Variable Barricade, you know I love me a failboy.

Did NOT expect a literal math quiz in this route, but they were mostly logic puzzles so it was kinda fun??

Ikki was a fantastic foil for Kent in this route. He actually has experience dating, even if it is superficial, and the advice he gives to Kent is legitimately helpful. Mine, MC's coworker who was pretty awful in Ikki's route as well, is friendly once she realizes MC doesn't like the same person as her.

Despite being the lightest one in the game, this route was a big win for me. The only thing I didn't like about Kent is his outfit. What is with that big stupid overcoat with all the belts?? He literally continues to wear his gloves in a cg where he and MC are *checks notes* eating dinner with his parents????

But yeah, Kent is such a good boy. I loved him a lot.

.

Toma Route (Spoilers)

Toma had big childhood friend energy in the other routes I played, so I was hoping that's what he would be. I was right, but man was I disappointed.

This is one of those "guy likes a girl so much he kidnaps her" routes that otoge fans heavily meme. Because she's trapped for most of the route, there's not a ton of action. You don't get to see any of the other characters outside of flashbacks except Shin. I guess that's actually a pretty good move narratively, as it makes MC's world feel small.

The gist of this route is that MC is being bullied and Toma has to protect her, but he goes off the rails, drugging her to make her sleep and literally locking her in a cage when she won't commit to staying in his apartment.

The culprits of the bullying are the same as in Ikki's route, which was kind of boring, and it resolves identically, with Ikki just telling them to stop.

I also didn't get why MC didn't just ask what was going on with the bullying. In Ikki's and Kent's routes, it made sense not to ask what was going on because MC was trying to hide her amnesia. But Toma figured out right away that MC didn't have her memories, so why not just ask him everything outright?

I thought the pacing was fine, but I don't see how MC would want to date a boy who drugs her and locks her up. I know the cage thing is a trope in otome games, and it's not even the first one I've played with that theme lol. So maybe other people find crazy obsession attractive? I don't, though, so this route gave me the ick.

Like Ikki, Toma is a better character on other people's routes.

.

Shin Route (Spoilers)

As is my tradition, I went with the character on the box last. I'm glad I did, because this is actually the only route that went the way I thought it would based on the box illustration lol. It's a proper mystery.

Shin doesn't give off a big impression in any of the other routes, but he's most similar to Kent, with little expression and a somewhat caustic attitude. Like in Kent's route, MC is dating Shin at the beginning of the story.

Where he differs from Kent, however, is that Shin is not at all innocent. He's not pervy per se, but he's definitely ready to move faster than MC is. She's only just decided to try him out as a lover rather than a childhood friend (yes, another childhood friend route!) and her hesitance results in some pretty major plot stuff. Her innocence makes Shin squirm as he tries not to overwhelm her with affection. Their dynamic was so cute!

It gets decidedly less cute after we find out someone tried to kill MC, and the rest of the route is one large investigation as you attempt to remember what happened and clear Shin's name. The culprit was so obvious that I didn't even think of it, and I feel like they got off too easy. But that's kind of a common theme in this game.

A lot of guides say to play this route first but honestly, I'm glad I didn't, because you get almost no introduction to any of the characters before you're thrown into the investigation. I think it would have been disorienting if I didn't know who anyone was.

Shin is a cutie and I love a mystery, so yeah, no notes!

.

Ukyo Route (Spoilers)

Ukyo is the mysterious boy who seems to know you in all the routes. He seemed sweet in Ikki's route, which was the first route I played, but it also happens to be one of the routes where he doesn't briefly switch into horror mode, so I got jumpscared when his expression suddenly changed in Kent's route lolol.

As a true ending, Ukyo's route was fine, if not a touch boring. About 75% of it was just kind of walking around, occasionally running into Ukyo and avoiding what he tells you to avoid. You get very little backstory into who Ukyo is, and it turns out he actually doesn't have a strong connection with MC at all, other than briefly dating her. I wish they had a little more history together.

I did like how it resolved and explained the connections between the routes. I guess I just wasn't that interested in Ukyo as a character. Compared to the other boys he lacks personality other than "is nice" and "obsessed with MC." His split personality might as well be considered a separate character and ultimately goes away at the end.

The most emotional part of this route for me was saying goodbye to Orion lol. He really grew on me over the course of the game. I'm happy he and his master get to live on but it breaks my heart that MC can't remember him T_T

All in all, the true end wrapped up the game nicely and I feel mostly positively about it. But as with a lot of games, I feel like they picked a rather safe character to use as the true end. I'd have liked someone with more personality or at least a more interesting backstory.

[skeptical-saniwa]

NO BC WHY DID MYSTIC MESSENGER TERRIFY ME if i even missed one phone call its like the end of a playthrough 💔

HAHA LITERALLY I couldn’t stand missing a single call & my sleep schedule was aligned with it (I used to wake up at 6:30am), which was why I managed to complete at least one playthrough 😂

It was an experience that changed my life fr

[mandiemegatron]

My coworker’s wife is trying to get me into Love & Deepspace and then I’ve been seeing you have some stuff and I’m like….. so tempted…..

Idk if I have time for a time suck right now tho 😂😭

Oommmggggg my kazie I am telling you, it is *so* worth it 😭😭😭😭 you can fuckin play PLUSHIE ARCADE GAMES WITH THEM 😭😭😭😭😭😭 AND KITTY CARDS LIKE WHAT ??

Stop no I'm so serious this is such a precious game dude, like as a Mystic Messenger fan I was a lil skeptical but I've been playing like... a month and a bit ??? And it's absolutely awesome, I really do enjoy it, I definitely recommend it 💖💖💖💖.

And it's really not much of a time suck I find !! You just log in at the end of the day, collect all your shot, play a few games, fight a few monsters, and then you can exit it !! There is a few storylines, two of them are shorter and waiting for new chapters but the main one is longer, I'm only on chapter 7 of the main and it only takes abt 30 mins max, plus fights n shit ! It's not like Mystic Messenger where you had fuckin 3 am chats n shit 😂😂😂 like the amount of sleep I lost playing that game for so long 😭😭😭

So yeah thats just my 7 cents (inflation, sorry) but it's up to you, you can always watch playthroughs and still enjoy the experience too if that's something that's a bit easier for you !! It's all about enjoying the time spent, right ? 💖💖🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 LOVE YOU thank you for this 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰