#otoge

off the clock by SakiCCS btw

Official Summary:

It is an era shrouded in darkness — the world sealed off, and a deadly plague ravaging the land. A peaceful village is ruthlessly attacked by a knightly order, leaving your home in ruins and your family slain.

Saved by a mysterious figure, you are led to a magical city floating upon the sea. There, the stranger proclaims you to be the Moon Witch, destined to guide the people toward prosperity. But amidst your newfound safety and status, turmoil begins to brew. Friends turn on one another, alliances falter, and blades begin to clash.

You wish to end this tragedy. To take root in this land and live on. Who will you trust...? Who will you choose to face the end with?

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Luna's Rating:

Plot: 6/10

Gameplay: 6/10

Characters: 7/10

Art: 8/10

Overall: 6.5/10

Luna's Fave Character: Melodie

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Luna's Thoughts (Spoilers)

On a surface level, this game seems like it would be straightforward but decent. Protagonist Fiena was worked to the bone by her adoptive mother, who never managed to treat her like real family. At the start of the game, 18-year-old Fiena returns home from the market to find her adoptive family slain by knights. Just before she dies, her adoptive mother asks Fiena to take care of her younger brother, who is studying to be a priest. This sideplot is promptly forgotten as Fiena flees for her life.

Fiena is picked up by mysterious sorcerer Olivier, who grants her entry into a city that is otherwise closed to protect its people from the Shadowblight plague. Olivier introduces her to the kingdom as the Moon Witch, who appears in a time of turmoil to give prophecies to guide the people to salvation. Of course, Fiena figures out that there are no prophecies, and she's just meant to be a mouthpiece for Olivier to keep people calm.

After the king dies suspiciously, Olivier is stripped from his position as Grand Sorcier, and Fiena's journey continues with whichever character you've cozied up to the most. There's about a year time skip here, during which it seems Fiena has not learned a single thing about any of her suitors lol.

"Volontes" is, unfortunately, a palace intrigue story that doesn't quite seem to know what it is, or what it wants to be. The clothing and characters are a mishmash of cultures, making the setting unclear. There are somehow two separate plagues that would make one think this is supposed to be Europe during the dark ages, but the heavy reliance on non-Christian religious themes and magic gives it a Celtic vibe. There are also characters who wear Arabic or African-style clothing.

Magic is present here but not treated as anything cool or special. The protagonist didn't know magic existed but starts learning it right away, almost unenthusiastically. Even when she learns the forbidden art of necromancy in a few of the routes, it's not given any sort of weight. She's literally allowed to "major" in necromancy at her school. What is necromancy in this universe? It doesn't seem to be related to raising the dead, and she only uses it a few times when it comes in clutch to control evil ghosts.

This is also one of those games where the protagonist just doesn't ask enough questions. Fiena is shown to be very intelligent, often puzzling through things on her own, so why does she not think more about who killed her adoptive family? Where did the promise to pick up her brother go? It'd be one thing if she was written to be the sort of character who prioritizes her own survival, but she really isn't. She also has no sprite on screen, and the CGs are rare, making it hard for me to sympathize with her emotions.

Both the common route and the individual character routes are pretty short, further making it difficult for relationships to develop smoothly. I didn't buy into most of the romances in this game, nor did I feel like I got to know any of the characters. Characters rarely talk about their past or share memories with Fiena, and she mostly doesn't share anything about herself either. Honestly, this game plays more like a mystery than a romance, which I would be okay with if that was done successfully, but it's not.

I wanted to like this game, but it was just kind of there. I didn't find it to be engaging or particularly fun or interesting. Even after playing it I find it difficult to describe any of the characters or their motivations.

As per usual, please find my thoughts on each route below in the order I played them.

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Ismail Route (Spoilers)

Ish, the palace doctor, is the flirty guy character of the game, although we don't see a lot of that after the common route. In his route, Fiena becomes his secret assistant while they investigate Fantomes, cursed ghosts that create more of their kind by killing people with a disease called Purple Death. He cozies up to her really fast, but this is explained later so I'll give it a pass.

He ends up getting framed for the death of the king, and even Fiena suspects him for a while. She eventually realizes that Ish probably kept her close because he suspected HER of killing the king, and that's enough for her to decide he's innocent. He's eventually released off screen for unknown reasons, and together he and Fiena find the true culprit.

Magic is already nebulous in this game, with spells not given shape or description, so you can probably guess my thoughts when Fiena is casually given permission to try necromancy as sort of a college thesis kind of thing. We never really find out what necromancy is in this world, but somehow it involves absorbing the evil spirits into her body, which is how Fiena takes care of the Fantomes. We're then told, very abruptly, that she is dying because of this. She apparently knew the whole time but did not convey that to the audience, which is very weird because we're supposed to hear her thoughts???? Wouldn't it have made more sense for Ish to have that plot?

I didn't dislike Ish as a character, but I didn't like him either. I felt like I didn't get to know him, or his motivations, at all. Why did he like the king enough to try and solve his murder? How did he end up at the castle at all? None of this is evident and I just couldn't muster enough thought toward this dude at all. We get zero backstory aside from knowing he was childhood friends with Emmanuel and Olivier.

Ish's route is a good example of this game in general. It's got the framework in place, but it's too short and not fleshed out enough to have any impact.

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Emmanuel Route (Spoilers)

Emmy is the proud knight who becomes king after the old king is killed in the common route. His first act as king is to dismiss Olivier for failing to protect the old king. In his own route, he takes Fiena as his personal Moon Witch and feeds her prophecies through his new Grand Sorcier, his cousin Ciara.

Emmy is the sort of guy who is charmed by honesty, so I found him to be quite cute. Unfortunately his route suffers from the same issues as Ismail's — it's too short and we don't ever really learn who Emmanuel is. We do at least get a few flashbacks to his younger years with Ish and Olivier this time, but it still wasn't enough.

In Emmanuel's route, he attempts a military gambit that fails and ends up harming Ciara, and she's out for the entire rest of the route. Fiena must step up as the new Grand Sorcier in her absence, and together she and Emmy fight against Nouvelle Ere, a terrorist group aligned with Olivier, whose plan is to steal the Grand Cloche, a big crystal that protects the city, and use it to end civilization or something. Oh, and Emmanuel is a werewolf, which ends up having almost zero impact on the storyline other than that he can spy on people with spectral wolves. Fiena can see the wolves but almost never questions their presence, which I found irritating.

The best part of the route is when Fiena's magic teacher shows up randomly to deliver the final blow, only to tell her she's going to have to repeat the year because of all the classes she missed. This is the only time we see the teacher without his mask, and it turns out he has glowy blue Gojo Satoru eyes and is insanely powerful. This will never come up in the game again.

Emmy's route definitely had more of a plot than Ish's route, but again, I didn't feel anything toward the characters at all. We just didn't get to know anyone and nobody is allowed to feel things or talk about them enough. I wasn't impressed.

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Melodie Route (Spoilers)

In Ish's route, Mel is outed as the killer of the original king, and then promptly goads Fiena into killing him before we get any information out of him. He also implies that he knew her in the past, so I had hope for this route. Fortunately, it panned out. Mel's route is the best in the game.

At the start of his route, Fiena joins a group of knights to help the people, but mostly to hang out with Mel because she thinks he's cool. She brings along with her Marie, her maid who looks exactly like her, which is never addressed lol.

This is the only route in the game I actually liked, and the only that felt decently written. Fiena and Mel actually share about their pasts, and it makes sense that Fiena starts liking Mel because he reminds her of her childhood friend. Of course, it turns out later that he IS her childhood friend, so it's no surprise that I liked this route hehe.

Eventually Mel is outed as a spy for the church and the killer of the king, and is imprisoned. Fiena strikes a deal to spare him the death penalty in exchange for killing Olivier, who is also the big bad in this route. I'm glad I played Emmanuel's route earlier because he is an absolute monster in this route.

Honestly, I liked Mel's route a lot. For the first time, I felt like I got to know a character in this game. Not to mention he's more or less a tsundere AND a childhood friend. Mel was a big win for me.

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Olivier Route (Spoilers)

This route started out pretty strong, with a similar vibe to Mel's. Fiena gets to hang out with her knight friends while Olivier schemes in the background. This time, he's forced to hand over the key to the Grand Cloche in exchange for Fiena's life, so he doesn't get to do his rebellion stuff. It felt weird for him to give up on such a grand scheme in his own route, but weirdly that's not even my main issue with this route lol.

We finally get answers to a lot of major questions here. Why was Fiena's village attacked? Who killed her biological family? What happened to her little brother, who is mentioned in the beginning of the game and then promptly ignored forever?

Olivier's route is more or less the true end of the game, so I knew we'd get these answers. Unfortunately, his route also introduces several plot twists that seem to be there just for shock value.

For example, we learn that time within the Grand Cloche is different than time outside of it, so while it's only been a year since her village was attacked for Fiena, it's been 18 years for everyone else. What was the point of this? Just so we can be randomly reintroduced to her little brother, who is now older than her? It didn't really affect the plot in any way. You could argue that people outside the Grand Cloche see her as a witch because of her youthful appearance, but wouldn't they see her as a witch anyway because she has magic? We've already established magic isn't common outside of the Grand Cloche so the time stuff seemed unnecessary.

We also find out, literally at the very end of the route, that Fiena caused her own parents' deaths because of a "magic burst" she performed to protect herself as an infant, which is why she has the scar on her back. Olivier confesses that he had a similar experience, and also has a similar scar, and that's why he picked Fiena up in the first place.

While all of that is just fine, why did we wait until the entire story was wrapped up to explain it? The battle is over and everyone is happy, so why slap us in the face with this horrendously sad piece of lore? It should have been revealed mid-route. It would have at least allowed Fiena to become more attached to Olivier.

I have other issues with this route. The big bad church guy who ordered Fiena's village's destruction is given no sprite, meaning we're just staring at an empty desk during the entire revelatory conversation. We find out Fiena was targeted for her appearance, at which point I thought surely we'd learn why Marie, who also has red hair and green eyes, looks exactly like Fiena ... but no, we do not. There is zero explanation given as to why this similarity exists.

Also, my favorite character Mel DIES on this route, even in the good ending :(

Lastly, the mysterious man Nils, who we find out is a ghost Fiena accidentally raised when practicing necromancy, is not fleshed out enough. You only meet him a couple of times, and you only learn who he is if you fuck up the Olivier route enough to kill him. Nils should have been included in the route more instead of just dropping a bunch of lore at the end of a bad ending.

Interest check / looking for people who wanna join in on helping me make this idea a reality. The idea being that there is a discord server that helps you find fellow otome friends globally and, if you'd like, locally.

More info below ⤵️

In celebration of Mystic Messenger’s 10th year anniversary

I made this blog to reintroduce Mystic Messenger to everyone who wasn’t on Tumblr during its initial wave of popularity in 2016 or who just didn’t get around to playing it.

What is Mystic Messenger?

Under the cut, you’ll find a compilation of useful information and resources for new players.

To avoid spoilers, block the tag #secrets. I will stop tagging this after the first year of making this blog (because, I mean, this game has been out for ten years).

Through a stranger on a mysterious app, you're suddenly connected to the group chat of an exclusive fundraising association full of attractive guys. They ask you to join their association and you agree, but slowly, you begin to realize that this association has some secrets....

What is Mystic Messenger?

Mystic Messenger (MM or MysMe) is a "female oriented" aka "otome" mobile game created by @cheritzteam. It is a chat fiction type dating simulator in which you can text, call, and have group chats with the characters.

You do have to pick from a list of predetermined responses, but I promise you, the conversations are more entertaining (and have way more soul) than what any AI chat bot can give you.

What's so special about Mystic Messenger?

Unlike the traditional otome games that are largely based on visual novels, MysMe is formatted as a series of chatrooms that happen in real time, which adds an additional layer of realism. The characters are there to greet you good morning and good night. They might ask if you've had lunch, or remind you not to sleep too late. It really makes me feel like I'm talking to my friends instead of characters in a game, especially because my friends tend to use anime characters as their avatars too.

Eg. Yoosung's Omelete Rice, playable 7:00am-8:05am

It's Free! So why not give it a try?

You can download it for free on android or IOS, and play the first three characters of the suggested play order: Zen (silver hair white jacket) -> Yoosung (the blonde boy) -> Jaehee (the girl, tho it's only a friendship route T-T). Zen and his route is my favourite of the original story, so definitely don't discredit it just because it's free.

If do you get into it, the remaining routes can be unlocked with in-game currency. Personally, I was able to unlock all the routes without having to pay. More on that here.

At the time, I didn't play dating sims and was kind of reluctant to start, but the format just intrigued me too much, so I downloaded it "ironically." And here we are ten years later...

How does this game work?