Mystic Messenger -- No Spoiler Review
Mystic Messenger
System: Phone
Price: Free (Free to play with in-app purchases available, but not required)
Voice Acting: Yes (Korean)
ESRB Rating: T (13+)
Overall Rating: Stole 8.5/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: A dated dating game about a secret group of people that call and text you throughout the day.
Morning-After Reflection: The most choice-heavy game I’ve ever seen with a completely unique take on a dating game and a deep story that gave me the feels.
Story: “You stumbled upon an app called "Mystic Messenger" and downloaded it. Once you opened it up the app is connected to a mystic group chat with attractive guys. You are asked to join their secret party planning association called RFA and the story begins…”
Interest Rating: 7/10. After reading reviews on several other phone games, this title kept coming up as the phone game to compare all others to. I was curious, but not instantly drawn-in by the idea. I didn’t really understand how it would work. But if it was the game, why not?
MC: The MC in this game is the biggest self-insert I’ve ever seen, but not in a bad way. I actually really like how they approached it. MC has no name, you choose a username for the chatroom, and from screenshots I’ve seen, people can get really creative. I just picked a random first name (not knowing it was Korean, whoops!), and I figured it doesn’t really matter what my name is, right? Well, that’s pretty much the case. MC has no background, and very rarely are there questions directed at you about your background, so you could be anyone from anywhere. Tonya, Gisele, Melva, Jinwoo (I think that’s a man’s name), whoever you want to be! However… MC is in some CGs, and as such she has a basic otome heroine model, long brown-hair, bangs covering her missing eyes (such a problem with phone games), on the short side (probably 5’2”), thin, and fair-skinned.
You get a choice of avatars to use, as well. Either use one of the default ones provided, or you can upload your own picture to use as an avatar. I picked one of the ones provided, and no, it was not the unicorn. And then you’re off! The personality for the MC is rather mutable. Depending on the route, and the choices you pick, you can be anyone from kind and caring, to spoiled and selfish. Every once in a while you will get the option to give a tiny bit of background on the MC, but the options are very generic and easy to fit practically anyone into. Examples would be if you’re legally allowed to drink, or if you work, are a student, or stay home. You are considered a female player despite being able to pick any gender name and any avatar you want. There is one option to claim that you are not a girl, to which a fourth-wall breaking joke is made, and from there on out they refer to you with a female pronoun when not calling you by your username.
Likability Rating: Uh… Yu? Basically, do I like whoever I put in as MC? Yes, I guess I do. MC doesn’t really exist outside of what I give her, and most all answers are relatable making me feel completely in control most of the time. She is almost completely a self-insert, save for her naivety in order to start the game.
Plot: Mystic Messenger throws you in the deep-end and expects you to swim. It is fairly forgiving on the first day, and grows less forgiving on subsequent days as you progress through the story, but the point is that you are given some leeway as you get used to this game that has no tutorial.
Right. Now that I’ve been as vague as possible on gameplay (because I save that for a later section) let me tell you the basics of the actual story. You download an app, and some guy going by the username of Unknown asks you to help him find the owner of a phone you’ve connected to through the app. After some conversing, you can choose to go to the address he says is listed in the phone, to hopefully notify the owner. By this point, there are already several choices, and even if you don’t know what’s going on, don’t worry, it’ll continue to keep you in the dark until the actual prologue is completed. Yadda, yadda, things happen and you’re connected to a new chatroom where Unknown isn’t a part of, and instead there are five other peeps just talking about their day.
The prologue is one of the longest chatrooms of the game, so don’t think all are going to be this long. Eventually you are roped into being the party coordinator for a group called RFA, and your adventure begins! There are certainly some weird things with the premise, but if you beat down all those unreasonable and unanswered questions, you can proceed with the romance and mystery of this game. I can’t really describe what you’ll experience story-wise since each route is different, nor can I really give you the overall plot, since everything seems to be disconnected until you get a few routes under your belt.
There are seven routes, and each route is different from the rest as they focus on the LI you’ve chosen. The overall plot is the same for the whole of the game, you just take different routes to get there, and get to experience character-specific conflicts along the way. Every ending is different from every other ending, so even if you head to the same location through different partners, you’re not necessarily given the same outcome. As a note, there are seven endings per character once on their route, with a few others thrown in the prologues and common routes, so there’s a lot to go through if you want to.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★★ You don’t have to play all the routes to get the overall story, however, there’s little reason not to enjoy every route. I did them all, and then some, and then some more. Basically, I ran the full completion gauntlet because I enjoyed the game that much.
Love Interests: Mystic Messenger gives us six sexy men… and one woman - but we don’t talk about her - to canoodle with on our whirlwind romance while unwrapping the mystery surrounding RFA. That was a mouthful, though I’d rather have a mouthful of-- Shall we proceed?! We have the tropeyest of tropey characters, all complete with their own side of mental health issues, and surprisingly deep backstories for a free phone game. At the beginning of the game, only three characters are available; you have to purchase the routes unlocking two additional characters each with the premium currency. You can accomplish this without spending any actual money, but some grinding will be needed in order to afford everything the game has to offer.
There is a recommended route order, though I don’t see what the point of the initial three being played in order is; you can easily mix them up, even skip a few without missing out on any important plot information, just some character background and development. In the Casual Story (free story offered) you get access to Zen, Yoosung, and Jaehee. After those three you can move onto Deep Story (after you purchase it, of course). There you will ensnare Jumin, leaving 707 for last as he was the original “true” route of the game. If that’s not enough for you, you can move on to Another Story (once purchased) which contains V and Unknown, playable in whatever order you want. For simplicities’ sake, let’s cover all these incredibly abnormal men (and Jaehee) in the order I’ve already listed.
What can I say about Zen that he doesn’t already say about himself? Probably nothing. And if he isn’t saying it, then Jaehee is, because she fangirls so hard for this musical actor. She’s all up on his D. But it’s cool, he either doesn’t see her in that light, or doesn’t realize it. I suppose her constantly denying that she has any interest is all the good natured Zen needs to believe it. Why would she lie to him? Anyways, Zen is a narcissist to put it nicely. Though while he is clearly in love with himself, he isn’t all bad. Considered the most good looking in the group, he’s got that going for him. Plus, he really does have a big heart, he’s probably the second most worried about your wellbeing out of everyone in the group. He thinks of himself as a romantic, so you get sweet words from him even while on other people’s routes. He’s fiercely loyal, and though he just met you a matter of days ago, he will beat up anyone for you if you asked. It’s a very natural relationship, despite the short time of the route. Especially since he pounces as soon as you appear in RFA’s chatroom. Unfortunately, he was my second least liked route because I just don’t go for the guys that love themselves that much, at least not in that way. Self-care is important in other ways, fellas. It’s cool with me.
For as seasoned as Zen claims to be in romance, Yoosung is the opposite. He complains that he has never even been on a date with a girl, so it’s no surprise when this young man falls head over heels for your womanly wiles. He is the most normal of all the characters, offered tied and gagged on a platter for us to devour, and his normalcy is not saying a whole lot once you get into his route and learn just how broken this boy can be. College student by day, LOLOL player by night, most of his conversations revolve around three things, at least until you become part of his future. By the way, blushing Yoosung is best Yoosung. What a cutie. He is often used as comedic relief in the game, though he becomes rather serious in his own route. Sweet and innocent, this relationship blooms a little out of the blue, but who can say no to someone like Yoosung? Jaehee. Jaehee can, ‘cause she’s just mean to him.
What a way to segue into her route, amirite? Before I even talk about what type of person Jaehee is, let me warn you that her route is gaybait. It is a friendship route. I wanted to see if the ending was clearly friends, or if it was, ya’ know, a “good friends” sort of deal. It is friendship without a doubt. Not only does she constantly cockblock you throughout most other routes, but she clamdams you on her own. You are friend-zoned at the end of the route so hard that it’ll knock you back to the beginning of the game as if it never happened. Time to go after someone else. But! If attempting to romance a woman who wrestles with her own constipated feelings for you with constant suggestive undertones sounds good to you, by all means, jump on that pony. She’s a workaholic as Jumin Han’s Chief Assistant, though it seems that the long work hours are not entirely by choice. Her route is one of desperation, both the theme of her life and the theme of the character plot. This one touches least on the main story plot, and I believe skipping it wouldn’t harm the overall story at all. It might endear you to Zen more, but you’ve likely already done his route by now. It also seems to dissuade others from doing Jumin next, though I want to lick his polished shoes, so I’m down with whatever flaws he has.
And what a fine, flawed man we have here. Jumin is the CEO of one portion of a multi-billion dollar company that his father runs, and he will inherit some day. He is tied as the oldest of all the LIs, and is completely Gap Moe. I can’t get over how f*cking cute he is in everyone else’s route, and often find myself pining for him even though my eyes are set on a different prize. I have a thing for men in suits, with all that power and presence, and though he could have practically anyone, he sets his eyes on you. I’m constantly a puddle in his route. I warn you, though, he is often seen as quite controversial among players due to his deeper issues. There is no content warning I think you need to be aware of, just that his character doesn’t make the best of choices at all times. Which I think makes him incredibly relatable and human, and only makes me fall harder for this man. FYI, Jumin is my second favorite LI in the game.
Coming in as number three LI for me is Seven! Zero! Seven! By the time you’ve reached 707 in the game, you’ve learned some things about him; none of which I’m going to actually tell you, except that his name is Luciel, or Seven, or you can still call him 707, or one of the dozen other names he gives you throughout the game. Seven is a character. He is well received, and well liked. He is often happy-go-lucky, and joking, and thinking up schemes that sound like they should belong in a fictional drama (like the one you’re playing). He’s a special agent, a computer hacker, and the creator of the RFA chatroom. If you’ve played through everyone else’s route, and want to know what the f*ck is going on with the game, Seven’s route wraps everything up, which is why he is suggested last. He is considered the true route, and although I have a problem being told who I’m supposed to end up with, I was okay leaving God Seven for last. Especially since my favorite LI’s route hadn’t even been released at the time. I enjoyed the story for what it was, and think the writers did a good enough job that I don’t mind Seven being the true route. I’d take him and all his quirks and faults.
So how do we get to V? I’m not sure if Cheritz (the company that made Mystic Messenger) listened to fan pleas, or was aiming to continue the story, or what, but V and Unknown were released some time after the original story wrapped up. V is part of the section called “Another Story” which doesn’t follow the same path as the original five. You get a different prologue, it’s at a different time period, and it’s told with the understanding that you’ve played through all of the previous game including purchasing the Secret Endings after Seven’s Good End. I was cool with this. I had gotten Another Story during one of Cheritz content sales, so it was half-off, which makes it super easy to purchase without grinding. I used the extra hourglasses I had on the Secret Endings, so I was all set. On top of that, I really enjoyed the writing and full story so far, so I was up for hearing how things could have gone if they had gone differently.
That’s how we get to V. Largely absent from the rest of the game, we finally get to know about the mysterious leader of the RFA. He’s a photographer and the same age as Jumin. That’s about all we really know about the man. He’s also rather rich, apparently coming from a wealthy family. And I’m surprised his name isn’t Atlas with all the worries and burdens of the world that he shoulders by his choice. His character art changes a little in this section of the game, giving him longer hair, and for some reason I really appreciated that. It really gave a feel for what was going on at the time. This is a rather dark route. It certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. It also had some of the most shocking endings for me, outside of the Good and Normal End. To be honest, V is not my cup of tea as a LI, but I don’t dislike him as a character and his route was rather powerful.
And then there was one. Unknown has a name, but seeing as how he isn’t introduced for a long time throughout the game, it’s best if we just keep it as Unknown. If you have complicated feelings about anyone, get ready to be bombarded by a sea of conflict in this route. I said V’s route was dark, but this one is like a basement with no windows and no lights, and you begin to question reality and if you’re anywhere or nowhere at all because it’s so dark. I really can’t express how much I love Unknown and his route, and I think it’s best if the reasons are kept in the dark (haha, I made a joke). Objectively, some of the conflicts in his route were not handled with the care they deserved due to time constraints, but I don’t think that’s a reflection of bad writing. It may leave some unsatisfied, but I was willing to go with it and have no complaints.
Boy Crazy Rating: 92%. I’ll fight people for some most all of these boys. I’d be willing to have a harem of men just for this game. Picking one is simply not happening.
Romance: I’m about to say something completely out of character… I’m cool with falling in love in a week. There, I said it. It’s out there. That’s what this game does to me. If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you’d know that I’m not a fan of quick romances. I really dislike the thought that people rush into a relationship and are unconditionally devoted to each other without even knowing the other person. I think anything under a month is unreasonable. I think two weeks is idiotic. I think one week is a recipe for disaster where neither party has put any thought into the future, and really they just want to be in a relationship and it doesn’t matter who it is with. I have strong feelings about this. But… not here. Here I am more than just okay with finding true love in a week, I’m rooting for it.
Most of the game is held in a chatroom, meaning you don’t actually get to meet these people face to face as you fall in love with them, and them with you. There’s something to be said about how quickly these guys fall in love with you without ever seeing what you look like. When you take out physical attraction, it kind of makes it more romantic, imo. They develop feelings for your personality and the core of your being, not what your meatsuit looks like. I like that. Really like that.
So, how do you get romance if you don’t get to have physically intimate moments? Through phone calls and chatroom interactions. I don’t know, it felt so natural that trying to pinpoint where the romance is is kind of difficult. As the MC, you do come off a little thirsty in some cases, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting a drink of these handsome men, especially since one of the reasons offered for you having downloaded the game was for chatting with “pretty boys.”
Heart Palpitation Rating: B+. They toy with my heart! I felt the love. I felt the pain. I was moved by the stories and lost myself in the world Mystic Messenger created.
Spice: Now this is also controversial, isn’t it? The easy answer is no, this is not a spicy dish. The more complicated answer is, there certainly are sexually charged moments in certain routes. Mystic Messenger is a T rated game, and they attempt to adhere to that T rating while still being an adult game. There are no sex scenes, hinted at or otherwise, however the topic of sex does get touched on a few times in a round-about way so no one ever actually says “sex”. Implications are thrown around about men and their desires, and the innocence of certain characters, and one character’s sexuality is directly questioned, though not discussed. In the visual novel portions, there are a handful of heated scenes that I felt my heart race when they happened. And some of the VN conversations made me weak in the knees as well. I guess what it comes down to is that this is not a lusty game. You’re already falling in love in one week, there’s no time to actually get to the f*cking and continue with the main plot of the game. That’s just asking too much.
Cold Shower Rating: Fail. It isn’t frigid, but there clearly is no in-game sexing happening. Heat yourself up with a shower, no need to cool yourself down.
Angst: Hey, kids! Do you like violence? Do you want to see me rate this game in a manner that dates how old I am? … I was giving you time to laugh at the joke. Ahem. Right. Here there be angst. The game only holds a T rating, meaning there is no depicted blood or violence, but there are a lot of threats of violence and acts that are described in text or alluded to without explicit description. This is a dramatic game for its low ESRB rating. Things get tense. Every character has something murky lurking beneath the surface. Some characters are clearly disturbed. It’s so good. I eat this amount of tragedy up. I’d say it is suitable for 13-year olds, but I’d also say it would primarily appeal to an older audience; it is far from teenage romance and the typical high schooler angst that T rated games primarily focus on.
Drama Llama Rating: 8/10. The drama llama will take us to new places, get on and hold on tight enjoy the ride!
Voice Acting: Although this game is advertised with voice acting, I think it’s only fair to label it partial. Not the partial that other phone games claim where there are 5 lines per voice actor, but the whole game is not fully voiced. You get phone calls from the characters in the game, and those are all voiced. Some visual novels have full voicing, and some have like, partial voicing for some reason, where only the first couple of lines are voiced, or right in the middle of the VN it’s voiced, or just one person is voiced but not the other. I don’t fully understand why, maybe they were permitted so much time with each voice actor and those were the lines they thought would have the most impact? I’m not sure. Whatever the case is, it’s a toss up on whether you’ll get to hear these exceptional voice actors talking during a VN. I think Another Story section is fully voiced in every VN.
So, how is it? That’s what you want to know, right? Hold onto your hats because it is so, so, so good. I wish the whole game had voice acting because I can’t get enough of some of these guys. I think Shim Gyuhyuk does an excellent job giving Yoosung the awkward, early 20-year old vocal pattern that makes talking with him feel so natural. I always enjoyed his phone calls. Yeong Seon Kim voices 707, and I can’t help but smile every time I hear him, whatever emotion he is attempting to portray. His voice acting is likely the reason he hacked into my heart.
Can I take a moment to express how impressed I am with Sujin Kang and his work on Unknown? Jesus Christ, he hit every emotion perfectly. I don’t even have to understand Korean to understand what is being expressed through the conversation. It really brought the character to life and me into the game. Exceptional. Really. :dreamy sigh: Right, right, back on track. I’d like to mention the rest of the cast as well; Jeong Hwa Yang voices Jaehee Kang, Jang Kim plays Zen, Ho San Lee was casted for V, and I really dug the dulcet tones of Yongwoo Shin as he crafted the perfect Jumin Han. I feel Hyunjin Lee also deserves an honorable mention for her portrayal of Rika, she was a great casting choice, imo.
Expression Rating: Shu. I looked forward to hearing some of these characters talk to me in phone calls, and always turned the sound on for at least half of them whenever doing their routes for the chance I’d get to hear them again.
Art: I think the art is pretty good. Since the whole of the game isn’t a visual novel, but instead a chatroom interspersed with visual novels to tell parts of the story that don’t happen when in the chatrooms, the art is not the biggest aspect of the game. For static sprites, when in the visual novel mode, they’re decent. Very much what I’d expect for a phone game. Each character has a few different poses, a few facial expressions, and at least one outfit change. One character has several outfit changes, but no additional poses; which has become a running joke in the community since it seems like he was allowed one or the other, and we see which one he chose. Anyways, it’s pretty good. I’m cool with most art styles as long as proportions aren’t too wonky and things are consistent. Both of those are met in Mystic Messenger. I like how individual everyone’s outfit is to their character, and though there aren't a lot of little details in the clothing, I think they’re well done.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★☆☆ Many uncommon. Such chatrooms. Very identifiable.
CGs: There are a lot of CGs for this game. A LOT. More than any other game I’ve played, even the long PC games I’ve played. Each character has roughly 45 CGs for their own album, with another 80 in a common album. That’s a ridiculous amount of pictures if you ask me, especially for a free phone game. And they’re good CGs too! They’re not the most detailed, or the most high quality when it comes to CGs in games I’ve played, even phone games, but they’re still good. I am not disappointed in what I’m given. I’ve sent CGs to friends to enjoy or explain a character without having to describe anything about them. It’s all in the CG. The pictures used are all good choices for telling a story through art. And the title screen art (that you can purchase with hourglasses) is pretty up there too. I’ve definitely snapped a few screenshots to keep for myself.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 92%. I’ve gone through these pictures more than a few times when not in the game. The quantity alone is enough to give this a high score. The quality is the only reason it isn’t higher rated.
UI/Mechanics: Mystic Messenger quickly introduces you to the way the game works without explaining anything. There is no in-game tutorial. On top of that, it is a game unlike any other otome I’ve played, on the phone or off. Needless to say, I kind of just went along with the ride until I could figure it out on my own (mainly in order to prevent spoilers from looking up what the heck I was supposed to be doing). There are a lot of blogs and websites out there that offer tips and non-spoiler guides that I found after I’d already done half of the routes. Not all of them are accurate, and most are incomplete, unfortunately, but you make do with what you have when you’re trying to prevent spoilers.
It is mainly a chatroom-style game, where you literally go into chatrooms and chat with the characters. You’re given a large amount of chances to respond compared to other games, with the typical two options in most cases, sometimes three, sometimes seven. Chatrooms are in real time, meaning one opens at a specified time for your time zone, and stays open until the next one opens at the designated time for you. You can’t pick this game up and play it whenever you want, you are on Mystic Messenger’s schedule. If you miss enough chatrooms, in most cases you’ll Bad End. I suggest looking up a chat time guide so you can be aware of when the chatrooms populate and how long your window is to participate. Game tip: You do not have to participate in every chatroom, not even most. It appears you can get away with roughly a 60% participation rating (considering you meet other required parameters) in order to pass checkpoints.
You will receive phone calls after participating in certain chatrooms, or reading certain visual novels. You have to answer the phone call in order to accept it, otherwise the 10-second timer will run out and you will be unable to listen to the call you missed. If you poke around at the menu, you’ll find everything is organized in an easy to find manner. It is a simple game to navigate, with a neat UI. There are other features to the game, but these are the most important to start with. It really isn’t hard to learn, and there aren’t that many requirements to meet in order to continue a route.
What’s this button do? Rating: B+. No tutorial is no bueno, but taking a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the UI sorts things out pretty quickly. Mechanics are easy to figure out, despite being different from other phone games. There are enough guides on the web that you can easily find help and answers you need to most questions you may have.
Errors: It seems I make exceptions for Mystic Messenger that I wouldn’t normally make for other games. Errors is another one of those exceptions. Because the game mimics a chatroom and conversations with people through text, it is rather simple for me to ignore the majority of textual errors. How many people have typed out something and realized only too late they misspelled a word, or used the wrong word because they were thinking of something else? I’m sure we’ve all been there. And because of that, I look the other way when there are errors in the chat rooms. If someone says ‘that’ instead of ‘than’, I’m like, “Yeah, no, I get it.” There are even times that they intentionally have the characters make ‘typos’ to express their emotional state at that moment. Most of those times someone calls them out for it.
So, there are grammar errors throughout this game; sometimes missing words due to translation errors, sometimes using the wrong homonym or tense of a word. There are definitely times when a wrong word replaces what they meant to say, I saw this most often in phone calls than anywhere else. The one that stands out the most to me was when someone meant ‘tough’ and somehow it got translated to ‘thought’. It was a little awkward. I think there may have been a handful of spelling errors in the visual novels, but considering how many there were to the size of the game, it was negligible. I didn’t notice any punctuation errors, so if they exist, they’re even more rare than spelling. Overall, if I’m only considering the visual novel and phone call portions, there aren’t that many problems. Even when there were, I could easily figure out what was supposed to be translated.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Maybe more than the typical translation issues, but I give it a solid passing grade. You’ve got your basic creepy crawlies here.
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