Type of Media: iPhone/Android App
Release Date: August 18, 2016 (iOS version)
Source Material: None specifically although if you know how dating sims/visual novels work, that's a plus.
Basic Summary: Have you ever wanted to have 4 eligible bachelors fight over you? What about exchanging emails with the rich and famous? Hosting parties? Listening to sweet nothings in Korean after a chatroom exchange? YOU REALLY CAN HAVE IT ALL.
Characters: (from left to right)
Yoosung Kim - The youngest male bachelor, Yoosung is a 21-year-old college student who's a champion LOLOL (this game's replacement for League of Legends) player. He'll win you over with his adorable innocence and passion for young love despite some tragic emotional baggage.
Zen - An up-and-coming singer, actor, and model. Zen is suave as they come: sending pictures and flirting with the best of them. He can be a little arrogant, but he's mostly harmless.
707 - The mysterious and awkward hacker. 707 is definitely not the easiest guy to win over, but his zany sense of humor is sure to get at least a chuckle out of you.
Jumin Han - The cool and confident business man. Jumin acts as the most paternal and mature character, but his obsession with his cat Elizabeth III is sure to make you smile.
Jaehee Kang - Jumin's loyal, if overworked, assistant. Jaehee is the only female route in the game, but instead of romancing her you become her trusted friend and confidant. She may seem cold and uncaring on the surface, but it's easy to see that she deeply cares about the other characters and deals out her form of motherly advice to help them realize what's best for them.
There are also 3 secondary characters: V, one of the founding members of the chatroom you stumble into who will probably give you mixed feelings; Rika, the driving spirit of the group whose absence affects everyone in more ways than one; and Unknown (yes, that is really how he is referred to throughout the game).
Plot: You, a hapless helpful girl, stumble into an empty apartment at the behest of a stranger. What begins as an attempt to return a lost phone quickly evolves into taking over an organization that hosts lavish parties for charitable causes. The 5 main characters will do their best to assist you in finding guests and making you feel (relatively) welcome, but it's up to you to assemble the attendees. In the process, you'll end up choosing one of the main characters as a boyfriend (or a best friend in Jaehee's case).
Accessibility: This game is not the easiest to learn how to play. The controls aren't really explained and the story is implied more than straight out told. In order to access the full story, you'll need to play 707's route. The game's pacing also makes it difficult to fully participate in the conversation as the chat windows open and close on a very erratic schedule. The game also does not make the affection-leveling system immediately obvious.
Controls/UI: The main game play screen allows for easy access to the main elements of the game. Three large buttons are used for texting (the game's term for PMs), phone calls, and chat rooms. Tapping the chat room button takes you to the day select screen and from there you can either replay conversations that have passed their active state or participate in the currently open chat. This is where the bulk of the game play takes place. In chats you can play the conversation, auto-pausing at different points to allow for several potential dialogue choices. Choosing the "correct" choice will net you hearts in different colors - green for Yoosung, silver for Zen, yellow for Jaehee, purple for Jumin, and red for 707. Occasionally a bright white heart might appear which I personally suspect may represent Rika (there's no confirmed explanation for what these white hearts symbolize as far as I know right now). If an animation of a broken heart plays after you respond, this means you have lost an affection point with the character who responded when the animation plays. The total number of hearts for each character up to Day 5 will determine which you will be put on. The other main goal is to collect party guests through emails. Responding to an email requires a choice between two options: one will result in a positive response and one will anger the potential guest. Enough correct responses will ensure the guest arrives at the party on the final day. If you miss a chat room, you can pay hourglasses to participate in it.
Thoughts: Mystic Messenger is, in my experience, the best free-to-play dating sim app available. I've attempted to play other games of this type that were available on the app store and most of them were nigh-impossible to play without spending money. I still struggled through without paying anything, but the process was frustrating. While Mystic Messenger isn't the easiest game to figure out on a first play through, it is definitely worth the time spent on it. Cheritz obviously put a lot of detail, love, and hard work into this game. The story is intriguing and the characters are well-written. It's easy to suspend your disbelief and talk to the characters. The dialogue options can be, at times, extremely clunky and not always pan out the way you expect, but this is a flaw of many games that are localized into English. Ultimately it's a small flaw that doesn't impact the game play too much. I often don't spend money on apps, but this game is one of the few that makes me consider dropping a few bucks on hourglasses (the paid currency) to experience all of the content.
Final Review: For fans of dating sims, Mystic Messenger is a diamond in the rough. It's an extremely well-crafted game that never feels like you're being robbed of content. I cannot recommend this game to people enough. Even if you've never played a dating sim, the game is straightforward enough to make for a nice introduction to the nuances of the genre. I would also recommend this game to people interested in writing visual novels, crafting great UI for apps, and experiencing niche interactive fiction.
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