Star Crossed Myth -Department of Punishments- (Secondary Season One Cast) -- No Spoiler Review
Star Crossed Myth -Department of Punishments- (Secondary Season One Cast [Zyglavis, Partheno, & Krioff])
System: Switch, Phone
Price: $29.99, Pay per Route (unknown price)
Voice Acting: No
ESRB Rating: M (17+)
Overall Rating: Stole 7/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: A human that falls in love with zodiac gods. Give me my Western zodiac Fruits Basket with actual gods and not a cursed bloodline.
Morning-After Reflection: A weird take on adding more characters to a game by negating the first season, but also not. The boys are pretty, though, and I can get behind the stories.
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: 9/10. 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. Too many good things for me to pass up.
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 blank slate 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, and I was completely blown away by her reaction choices. 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. Trust me, there’s a reason I’m telling you this. So, I pick my dude, and he then does some stuff; and I, myself, as the person writing this, and the person who played the game, had a reaction where I actually said something out loud based on what just took place. Like if you’ve ever watched something and talked to the t.v., typically a “What? But why?” That was me. I exclaimed a flabbergasted question, and then clicked the next button, and the MC asked the exact same question. I knew, at that moment, that this woman was written in a way I would get behind everything she did. I had never understood a character so well as I did MC in Star Crossed Myth.
My personal bonding experience aside, MC has a job outside the normal, which is nice. She has parents that show up in a later story, which is nice. She does cook, and apparently is rather good at it, 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 betcha. 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 character 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. 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. It was super confusing my first time through 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. Since this is covering the secondary Season One, we already know what happened in the prologue of the original. Well, you get another prologue for these more different gods, some of whom you likely learned a little about through the previous stories. In this Season One Main Story, MC is attacked on her way home from work, and poof, some god dudes (whom you are acquainted with) show up to save her. She then finds out that some big bad is after her, and is introduced to the gods that she (canonically) hasn’t met yet. A new set of six men are paraded before her hungry eyes, one of which will help keep her safe until this whole ordeal is over. You pick!
This is the point it gets weird. Because you obviously know the original six, and two of the new six, but you’re not in love with any of the originals? So… however you ended your original Season One story doesn’t actually matter? Sure, we’ll go with that. Basically, the original six just f*ck right off and now you’ve got a new man in your life. Every story from there on is different, because it’s based off the LI you’re hanging with. Though less individualized because this plot revolves around MC with the new LIs just being supporting cast. Thankfully, once Season Two rolls around, they bring everyone’s story together to a singular timeline.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★☆ I find each route doesn’t feel too same-y because once you’ve passed the Main Story, the stories are specially tailored to the LI MC is with. You don’t need to read every route in this part of the story, however, you should do one so Season Two makes more sense.
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 leaves us with three tantalizing men to journey through the story with. Today’s titillating fellas are the gods of Libra, Aries, and Virgo. What a lovely line-up. In order to get on their route, you simply pick it from the story menu.
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 god-dian (get it? Guardian + god = god-dian!) however you like, as there is no real recommended order, but I would like to give a suggestion on who to save for last of these entirely capable men. Save Partheno for the very last of this group, if you’re able. I picked him first in this set, and felt there was something revealed that made the rest of the stories a bit harder to swallow. Luckily, I’m good at compartmentalizing, so I could just put it in a box and forget I knew anything of the sort.
With that said, let’s give the God of Libra a go. Zyglavis is a constant in everyone’s route, so at least you have some feel for him before you pick the Minister of Punishments. What a title, right? And what better character to have in that place, as the Libra is the scales of justice. To be honest, I was not looking forward to this guy. Zyglavis is pretty severe in some of the other routes, and if you play Department of Wishes, he’s downright… well... they paint a very different picture of the character than you see on the Department of Punishments side. But, hey, I like to do all the men available so I gave him a go and it was a pretty good story. Zyglavis was surprising on more than one front, and expected all the other times based on what I’d seen already from playing both games’ Season One portion. I found him overall to be very middling, but that’s still saying a lot since I can’t rate him on the bottom, but he didn’t end up one of my tops. And I really do love almost all the guys Star Crossed Myth gives us.
Krioff is the God of Aries, and if you want an outcast, this is your man. He’s not the basic emo/grunge outcast, he just doesn’t make friends, apparently. It seems Dui is really the only one that could be considered a friend, and even that is stretching. Krioff shows up way late in Season One in Dui’s story, and I think that’s really all we ever see of him outside of his own route and the prologue for this group of guys. Which is unfortunate, because it seems that the ones I like the most rarely make an appearance in other stories. Or maybe that’s a good thing, then I’m not making eyes at another man while trying to romance someone else. Anyways, he comes off rather intense, and he is fiery in more ways than one, but you’ll find out what he’s really like as you go through the Main Story. The only reason he isn’t rated higher on my love list of husbandos is because there are just better men in this game, and better stories. But if I could have Krioff in ways I can’t mention here, I would in a heartbeat.
Well now, Partheno is the God of Virgo, and there is much I want to say about this pretty, pretty man. He knows he’s beautiful. I would do him. Hands down, no doubt, I’d do him. I’d also do his story, because this is one of my high ranking ones out of the 12 men that get to try to win my heart, he’s certainly in the top five. Where in the top five? I’m not sure, it’s very difficult to rate them because they’re all so unique; so I love a little of this guy, or want to nibble on that one over there, maybe add in this other one for something sweeter. Basically, all these boys are a buffet for me to gorge on. Back to Mr. Beautiful. He’s quite charismatic and charming. He charmed the pants off of me. It’s a good ride, especially since he’s not even close to the typical narcissist that comes with knowing how handsome he is.
Boy Crazy Rating: 90%. These are my men. Sorry, not sorry, you can’t have my husbandos. …..Okay, if you buy your own game you can have them too….
Romance: Very yes. Though this section of Season One is less focused on the love that develops between a human and a god, and more on the plot, it is still heavily influenced by love and romance. The story lends a hand by forcing MC into close quarters with her chosen beau in order for him to guard her correctly. And who doesn’t want to both fall in love with a god while also falling in love with the manliest of men that is clearly putting his wellbeing on the line to protect you and make sure you are safe? These stories are one of the tropes I live for. These three guys are all rather similar to me irl, cold exteriors, and lava cake insides. It’s all so very natural that I can’t help but both relate and enjoy it. In a sense, I guess I’m both dating me and dating me (since I relate to both the MC and the LIs). Aaaaawkwaaaard. Moving along! Past the Main Story, it becomes all about the couple in question, and so it’s a super love filled game. Slice of life with fantasy elements.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A-. It was too cute. I died. Several times. I just couldn’t handle a very specific, squee-worthy, adorable LI in this group. Another was heartwarmingly sweet. And another super feel good romantic. I felt like a normal person with this group of guys. Emotions were had.
Spice: If you’re following my other reviews, I mentioned there wasn’t much of the hawt stuff in the original Season One cast for this title in the Main Story. That’s not true in this case. It’s likely because the LI and MC are practically attached at the hip in the Main Story here, but there is certainly a lot of tension early on. Only to get more... strenuous as the stories go on past the Main Story. It isn’t vividly-describing-sexual-acts spicy, but there is certainly a level of spice that I can be happy with. There are male sprites naked from the chest up, a few CGs with partial nudity, and descriptions that imply, or directly state intercourse - never graphic, of course, but better than the flowery “become one, body and soul” stuff I’ve come to expect from console titles.
Cold Shower Rating: Pass. Voltage tends to be a little more racy than other M-rated games, but only to tastefully toe the line. I give it a pass, but only a cool shower is needed.
Angst: There is a moderate amount of angst in Star Crossed Myth, overall. This part of Season One Main Story is angstier than the original, it is both more violent and more drama-filled. These three are decently angsty as well, though they all carry the angst in a different way. There are no scenes of blood that I can recall, however, there are descriptions of violence, blood, and death. I’m happy with the amount of angst Star Crossed Myth gives me, but I know it wouldn’t sate me for long if this was the only angst I could get from a game. What can I say? I like me some heartache, death, and drama with my love.
Drama Llama Rating: 7/10. The drama llama is pleased with our offering, but does not bestow us with his blessing. He expects more angst next time.
Voice Acting: Zilch. Nada. None.
Expression Rating: N/A. Would give a rating if I could.
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, especially these three. Even though everyone is wearing a uniform, there are bits of personalization to each uniform that even those weren’t 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, it’s pretty okay. I wouldn’t expect any more or less for what I get from a phone ported title at this price range.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★☆☆ Many re-use. Such middling. Very expected.
CGs: It’s not the most beautiful, detailed, or saturated art I’ve seen, but it’s still pretty good. There’s really only one or two pictures with slightly odd anatomy, if you don’t count the lack of men's nipples. Maybe gods don’t have nipples… Never considered that before. Anyways, it’s alright that borders on pretty good, honestly. The backgrounds are all very plain, but costs need to be cut somewhere, I’m sure. I’ll tell you what, there are some god damned good choices for CGs in this batch. I can remember most of what was going on with the scene just by the picture, and only a few blur together with my memories. So, good choices. Plus, I think these three are some handsome men that I don’t tire of looking at when I browse my albums. There is also a nice little surprise, a high quality picture of your LI once you finish a certain number of stories per character.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 89% It’s good enough that I’ve spent time looking at the CGs outside of the game.
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 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. These are sentences that make absolutely no sense and I had to try to decipher what was supposed to be said. The one that shall live in infamy in my household: “They’re got <MC name> by the arms, and they’re and their dragging her along the ground.” I laughed so hard I cried. I then showed everyone I knew and laughed even harder that I cried some more, if only because compounded with their face made it all the funnier.
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.
Comments
Post a Comment