Star Crossed Myth -Department of Wishes- (Original Season One Cast) -- No Spoiler Review
Star Crossed Myth -Department of Wishes- (Original Season One [Leon, Huedhaut, & Teorus])
System: Switch, Phone
Price: $30, Pay per Route (unknown price)
Voice Acting: No
ESRB Rating: M (17+)
Overall Rating: Stole 7/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: Date some zodiac gods that have sinned and while you’re steering them back to being god-like, you get the chance to maybe have some sins of your own.
Morning-After Reflection: Some really touching and heavy stories. This game delivers on making wishes come true.
Story: “Your days are dreamless and mundane until, one night, you notice a star sparkling in the heavens. Suddenly, the beautiful gods of the stars appear before you. Their goal? To erase their sins. This exquisite, heartrending true love…all began with a sin.”
Interest Rating: 10/10. I bought the other title (Department of Punishments) first and loved it so much I wanted to play the rest of the guys before I had even finished the game. Basically, this game was speaking to me. “Heartrending” and “sin” and I was like, “Yes, go on.” It sounded like it’d be tragic. And it’s about attractive men of the Western zodiac, some of whom I was introduced to already. I needed answers for questions, and more good stories.
MC: Prepare yourself, this is another mobage Voltage title that was ported to the Switch. Yes, you know what that means, MC is as eyeless as they come. The cover art, however, has her with eyes, which was a little surprising since she most certainly doesn’t have any in the game. MC comes with no name, no sprite, she’s in ⅓ of the CGs, maybe ½, but not all. She isn’t voiced, as no one in this game is. But, much to my amazement, she actually has a backstory, personality, and a family. MC is not the typical blankslate that comes packaged with a self-insertable otome character.
If we’re going to talk about strength of character, MC has quite a bit. She has a lot of thoughts, but I wasn’t as impressed in this title with the MC’s choices as I was in Department of Punishments. You get a little bit of a feel for MC in the prologue, when you get a few choices that don't really matter, but are still nice to have. Then you pick your route. I had a bonding experience with the MC when I played her in Department of Punishments, and I’m sure that’s one reason why I enjoyed her; though looking at both games, she is different enough in Department of Wishes that I don’t know if I would have been so enamored with her if I had started with this title. She is still pretty solid, and I back this girl 100%, I’m just not ready to beat some mother f*ckers for her since she falls closer to the typical otome heroine than I felt she was in Punishments.
MC has a job outside the normal, which is nice. She does cook, and apparently is rather good at it, and unfortunately this comes up more in Wishes than Punishments, but I can let that slide as something women might find ideal in a self-insert character. Her age is ambiguous, which is nice. I’m not entirely familiar with the culture and how early/late societal pressure starts for making sure you find a husband, or when it’s acceptable to marry. With that left out of consideration, I would put the MC at mid-twenties. She doesn’t act too young, but also doesn’t have a mature air about her either. She is your typical otome MC in looks, (probably) 5’-5’2”, thin, light-skinned, brown hair and bangs that are too long and cover where her eyes should be. She is (mostly) consistent between routes, with a few changes here or there based on having a suitable accompanying personality that compliments the LI.
Likability Rating: Yu. Backstory? Yep. Personality? You bet’cha. Eyes? Sadly, no. Strongest self-insert I’ve come across. They should have just given her a name that was able to be changed.
Plot: Star Crossed Myth is a multi-story game, so there are several different stories per LI spanning over two seasons. It has probably one of the more complex timelines I’ve played in this model with a clear Season One Main Story, then a not so clear Season One secondary Main Story which has to happen before Season Two Main Story, where everyone is on the same storyline again. Because of that, coupled with a cast of 12 between two games, I’ve decided to break the reviews by title and into original Season One cast, and secondary Season One cast. Why is this all important? Well, because there is no real way to play all routes at the same time like you’re running the same story with just a different man on your arm. Also, the way the stories are written, it kind of both includes that you’ve experienced Season One Main Story before experiencing secondary Season One Main Story, but I guess you just didn’t fall in love? So the events took place, but they didn’t; but they did, just not fully… The only thing that is certain is that both Season One’s Main Stories should be done before moving onto Season Two Main Story, otherwise they cover events that took place while MC was with the other guys that never happened with the originals. I learned this the first time through in Department of Punishments when the prologue for Season Two told me of things that MC experienced and I was like, “Wait… when did that happen?”
All my initial confusion aside - and hopefully I was clear in my explanation above - the plot is both the same and different for each LI. It has the same start, and the same end goal, but getting there is completely different per character. Our story starts with MC hanging out in her apartment. She really loves the celestial bodies and works at a planetarium, and probably did some college classes on astronomy things because she just really knows a lot about what’s in the sky. Don’t ask me, I know very little about stars. One night, something strange happens with those twinkling stars above and some random and equally strange men show up in her apartment. Yes, in her apartment. Oh yeah, and they’re hot, but at that point I think it only really crosses MC’s mind once because she’s more concerned that there are six strange men somehow in her apartment on the fourth floor. The story unfolds and eventually you find out that these dudes are gods over certain star clusters that represent the Western zodiac and they claim MC can remove some sort of mark of sin that they all have. And then you’re off! From that point on, the story is different per each route since the route focuses on the conflicts associated with that specific LI.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★☆ Each story is unique to the LI, and I find they don’t feel same-y at all. For this section of the game, you don’t need to do every route in order to understand the story, but playing one guy from each portion of Season One helps put events into order for Season Two.
Love Interests: I played the Switch version of the game, which has two games under the Star Crossed Myth title, separated into Department of Wishes and Department of Punishments. Each title has six dreamy dudes that I have further broken up by where they fall into the Season One story. That gives us three sexy men to whet our appetite with as we journey through the original Season One Main Story. Today’s moans will be coming from the gods of Leo, Taurus, and Aquarius. In order to get on their route, you simply pick it from the story menu. Play the prologue in one route and these three are unlocked as playmates for our fantasy of men who are extraordinarily out of our reach. They’re gods, guys. There’s no way this is even reasonable in a setting where we’re everyday people trying to live in Tokyo.
There are two endings per LI, labeled Blessed and Forbidden, but don’t let the names fool you, they are both good endings. Voltage tends to give us good endings no matter what choices we make, just one is considered gooder. In this case, I think either are good and it is completely a personal preference on which is best. In fact, Voltage doesn’t even seem to know which is the “correct” ending to get since in ‘his PoV’ stories sometimes it ends with the Blessed End and sometimes it ends with the Forbidden End. Sometimes it doesn’t even cover an ending, so that isn’t even the foolproof way to determine what the writers thought was the best. In order to achieve either ending, there is a meter that tells you what way you’re heading based on the choices you’ve made for that chapter of the episode. As a note, both endings have the potential to have a CG specific to their respective end, so if you want those pictures, I suggest doing both.
You can pick your gentleman however you choose to pick them, as there is no recommended order since each story progresses differently based on the LI and encapsulates its own series of events and conflicts. Having said that, I went with Huedhaut first, and kind of wished I hadn’t because his plot reveals something that nagged at the back of my mind in every story I read thereafter. That’s not to dissuade you from picking whomever you want first, because there really isn’t an order, and even now I’m having a hard time deciding whom I’d do when, based on what I know about them all. These three are a troublesome bunch, indeed.
Why not start this troublesome bunch off with the least likely to make trouble for you, Teorus, God of Taurus. What a pretty, princely fellow. At least that’s what the MC thinks. He’s charming, and flirty in an almost pure way, and just wants to give everyone some love. Yes, in that way, and also every other way you can think of. I think his motto is: “There’s enough of me to go around.” Or something equally promiscuous. But, you know what? That’s okay. We’re all here to get laid, or at least get the MC laid, so there’s no harm in some casual fling, right? Oh, wait, we were actually trying to absolve their mark of sin… Right. Right. Back on track here. Teorus is certainly cute. He isn’t as cringy as I thought he’d be. Wanting to love everyone and all of that, I thought he was going to be dropping lines left and right to bed the MC, with some good old fashion coercion mixed in with it, leading to dub-con… yeah, I thought that’s where things were going. But it’s wholesome. Not what I expected from Mr. Lover-lover and the side-kick to… well, everyone. He’s a troublemaker for everyone else while wearing that sweet smile of his.
And then there was Leon. Leon the golden-haired God of Leo. With his smug attitude and his death glare and can I get a side of low-key cinnamon roll to go with that tsun attitude? BIG TRIGGER WARNING HERE: Leon’s route starts out very non-consensual; though there is no raping happening, it is clear the MC does not consent to what happens in the very begining of his route. I’d like to say, “Hey, give the guy a shot. This doesn’t happen ever again.” But, really, there is no excuse for the behavior, and it is never addressed with any sort of consequences. If you are adamant about no non-con behavior, skip this dude. If you don’t have an issue with it in fiction, Leon is probably the best written route of every guy in this whole goddamn set of 12 LIs from both games. I was actually angry about how much care was put into his stories, since he was like, number five of my merry-go-round of men. I’m glad he wasn’t my first, I’m not sure I would have finished the games. Leon is easily in the top three, if not leading my parade of husbandos from this series. But he is Trouble, with a capital T.
I did claim that Teorus was the least likely to make trouble for you, but on second thought, that might actually be Huedhaut, God of Aquarius. Where Teorus meddles as a side-kick in everyone’s route, Huedhaut just kind of floats around in the background. Aware of all goings on. He’s quiet, and has a wisdom about him that comes from his extensive knowledge of… well, basically everything. Whenever someone has a question that can be referenced in any sort of text, it’s Huedhaut that they end up asking. Perhaps it’s because he’s such a reserved character that when he does speak it makes such an impact on me, but he piqued my interest in the prologue the first time I played Department of Punishments, so I bought this entire game just for him. As soon as I came over to the Wishes portion of the game, I jumped on this smartboi. I was not disappointed. Hue’s story isn’t as good as Leon’s, but it’s still good and worth the read, even if the quiet cuties aren’t really your thing.
Boy Crazy Rating: 93% I want to protect these precious men as much as they want to protect the MC. I’m keeping them all as husbandos.
Romance: Solid romance material, right here. This is a story about the love between a god and a human, and every story after the Main Story just continues down their relationship. It is incredibly sweet, sometimes sad, and full of affection. There is a good amount of plot, but Star Crossed Myth is probably one of the most romantic titles I’ve read so far. I might be a little more inclined to these three than others because they encompass the type of romance I enjoy most. There was one route that felt a bit forced to start with, but once that first step was taken, I was good with what came about because of their relationship.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A. It turns out I do have a heart, and these stories were the ones that revealed it to me.
Spice: We’ve got some polar opposites here. One route out of these three was the most adult content I’ve read from Star Crossed Myth. Typically, sex scenes are overly obtuse with metaphors and less direct about actions, but there were certainly some steamy references without being outright smut in this portion of the game. Yet, another route was very mild with only a passing reference to teh secks, bringing about a rather frost-nippy story overall. I suppose that does leave the overall rating as passing, since we are punched in the face with the spice level of this group of guys. One just happens to be the milk to cool down that burn we’re feeling. On that note, there are shirtless sprites, references to sex, more detail than I had previously seen for an otome but never graphic P in V descriptions, and a few sexytime CGs.
Cold Shower Rating: Pass. Things get heated. Have a quickie. Shower, that is. A quick shower.
Angst: I think this group is probably the more angsty stories of the Season One main cast, but I’m not sure if that’s the case. Punishments seems to have more angsty characters, and Wishes feels like they have to make up for that by having more angsty stories. I’m okay with this. As long as I get to feed on those sweet, sweet tears, I don’t really care how they accomplish it. The angst must flow! Melodrama aside, it isn’t as angsty as I’m making it seem, but it definitely has a healthy helping. I don’t think I cried, but there were certainly feelings had, and one particular story has stuck with me all this time. Mmm. Is good.
Drama Llama Rating: 7/10. The drama llama is attempting to entice you down the path of despair, but we only watch where it could lead, we don’t follow.
Voice Acting: I’m almost happy this title doesn’t have voice acting. I like the voices in my head for each of these guys.
Expression Rating: N/A Nothing to see hear here.
Art: The art is art. Each character is designed in a manner that I didn’t find any of them to be easily confused with any other character. Even though everyone is wearing a uniform, there are bits of personalization to each uniform that makes those also not feel exactly the same. Each LI sprite comes with a few wardrobe changes, which are also different enough per character that it didn’t feel like it was all the same style or personality in clothing. There are a few facial changes and a few pose changes, but the sprites don’t move much besides that. The same backgrounds get used a lot, though I’m not complaining, really. They’re not super detailed, but they are more detailed than some of Voltage’s other backgrounds in other titles they’ve ported to the Switch. Overall, the art is pretty okay. I get what I’d expect to get from a phone ported title at this price range.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★☆☆ Many personalized. Such expected. Very decent.
CGs: Another batch of middle-rung CGs. The backgrounds are all rather plain in the CGs, and that’s okay since too much detail would likely bring the price of the game up, so I can accept that. The primary focus of the CGs are all rather well done, except we have a bad case of yaoi hands in these guys photos. If you don’t know what that is, urban dictionary that shit, it’s totally safe for work. Other than that, all the proportions seem within reasonable standards. The choices for what to be immortalized as a CG are also middle-rung. Yes, they were from impactful moments, but looking through them this much later, I couldn’t tell you what some of them were about. I can remember the story, sure, but I don’t really know the sequence of events that led to that moment, which tells me that they’re only okay. I want CGs that tell me a story without me having to really know the story. If I see a portrait, I want to understand the feelings behind it. Maybe that’s asking too much of art at this price-point, but it’s the way I judge if something is good or not in this category. So, it’s okay. As an added bonus, when you finish a certain portion of each LI’s story, you get an additional, high-quality CG that is simply divine.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 82%. Decent art minus the yaoi hands, but the choices were lacking. I did browse these boys from time to time, but nothing I had to keep coming back to.
UI/Mechanics: I played the Switch version, so I can’t speak to the UI for the phone. I think it’s a fine UI. It’s easy to navigate. It has touch features (as most Switch ports do). It’s clean and simple and doesn’t really need anything to walk you through how to use it. There are no special mechanics for this game.
What’s this button do? Rating: B. I had no issues figuring out how to play, save, or load.
Errors: :stretches those typing fingers: You ready for this? The quality control and quality assurance wasn’t very high for this game. I’ve come to realize there are a certain amount of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors to expect in most translated titles. Often, I overlook the most common of them, especially if they don’t interfere with gameplay or understanding the story. But when it comes to errors that make me stop and tilt my head in confusion, like somehow seeing it sideways is going to make it make more sense, then I just can’t ignore them and pass them by. Star Crossed Myth, unfortunately, is one of those games that I took pictures of the errors because I laughed so hard at how god awful they were.
That isn’t to say that the majority of the game isn’t pretty standard. In fact, most of it is what I would consider normal. It starts off rather strong, but the more you read, the more errors crop up. I don’t think there was a single Season Two story that escaped some large error, either coding or grammatical. And I’m talking BIG errors. These aren’t the small nit-picky ones like missing a punctuation, or the wrong homonym. These are the ones where the wrong sprite was used in place of another character. A sprite, in fact, of a character that wasn’t even in that scene to begin with. These are the wrong names being used to designate who is speaking, since that character isn’t even there when the sentence gets spoken, and it wouldn’t make sense even if they were. These are coding errors where text was meant to be broken between two different pages, and instead was blocked into one with the coding visible between where they intended to break it up.
The game still plays. The story is still readable. Just prepare for moments when things get bad.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Fail. It was a slow build-up, but eventually the colony was exposed later in the story. There be bugs here, yo.
Background Music: It’s a’ight. I played with the music on, though I’m not entirely sure why. It wasn’t particularly good, but it wasn’t grating at all. I thought it fit with the game, even if there are only like three tracks that play through this very long game. Yeah, that’s all I have to say about that. It’s a’ight.
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