Hello people of the interweb long time no blog... again๐
So as you can tell from the title this is literally the question that has been toss at me by a handful of cousins of mine.... yes my cousins read my blog as they are the only people I'm related to that I feel comfortable to talk about this geeky hobby of mine and that they keep telling me to get back into blogging.
So with that I've set up a little challenge where I'll have to post up something this blog every day or else every other day for the month of October starting today 11th October 2017 till 11 November 2017 and it could be about anything that I want to write in the moment whether it be games, reading, anime and so on. Either ways there will be at least 15 blogpost coming at you so stay tune!
This is just gonna help me get back into the mood of writing and hopefully you guys will enjoy what I have plan for the next month. I've been in a slump for blogging but every
time I try to write about something I either loose interest or have no
idea what to write. So much has changed in the last two years of me on
and off writing, I'm not exactly the same RowReads you guys came to this blog
for as I've sorta lost interest in reading YA, I've gotten into other
hobbies like gaming, anime and etc.
Either ways I hope you guys will enjoy and will continue to support what's to come on this blog mine and wish me luck as i have to start drafting and preparing a hella lotta content to post here.
Till the next blog post aka what I'm uploading along with this life update (which you can read HERE)
I realize this is the first time I'm talking about Anime on this blog... there is a first for everything xD
Hello
people of the interweb! I've been spending my precious free time doing
this past few months whenever school is not killing me binge
watching anime and now that I'm done with exams and have done nothing but spend my first few days of freedom eating pho and binge watching a bunch of spring anime i thought it will be fun to talk about my impressions
of the Anime I've been watching this season.
1) Kenka Bancho Otome: Girl Beat Boys
Kenka Banchou Otome - Girl Beats Boys,
Hinako Nakayama has spent all of her life being raised in state-run
orphanages, without ever knowing her family. As she's about to enter
high school, Hinako is approached by Hikaru, a boy who claims to be her
twin brother.
According to Hikaru, Hikaru and Hinako are the children of the head of
the powerful Onigashima yakuza family, and Hikaru wants Hinako to
switches places with him at Shishiku Academy, an all-boys school overrun
with the nation's toughest delinquents. Can Hinako save her brother,
find romance, and become the new boss of the school?
This is one of my anticipated shows for the season as it looks like if Ouran High School Host Club and Fight Club had a kid!
I
like all the characters we were introduced so far even if its only half
of the cast list (Totomaru and Konparu). Hinako is my new favorite
reverse harem MC since Haruka in Ouran High School as this girl is
strong and though as a nail, manages to survive this delinquent run school and the weird situation she's suddenly thrown into.
Speaking of delinquents, I like the guys we have meet so far (as for the
fifth episode were only two of the characters are given proper introduction)! Most of them are tough delinquents with
some sorta sweet sensitive side.
Totomaru is that adorkable buddy bro who loyal to
Hinako (after she defeated him in a challenge) and surprisingly is
really good in his studies.
Konparu is this kuudere dude who usually does not pick a fights unless needed and is a caring big brother with four little siblings.
Also I can't talk about this anime without talking about Hinako's evil spoiled bratty king of bitchieness twin brother Hikaru who GOSH
is sly as heck and I'm wracking my head on the tabled as he's my
favorite character in the show so far and I don't understand why. Like
the dude staged an accident, introduces himself as Hinako's twin brother
and blackmails her to go to the school in his place so that she does
not have to pay his expensive medical bills! Like xD what?!?! Also the
most recent episode his presents is gold as he went from being a
protective twin (this was so weird but so good) over Hinako's to disturbing the bro's study session by singing and blasting at the top of his lungs XD I need more ransom Hikaru moments in this anime!
Anyways it took like a couple of episode to get me hook on this anime (in fact its the second episode where we were introduced to the evil twin
that got me excited for the anime) and the show just keeps getting
better. I'm looking forward to them exploring the other characters in
the harem especially Rintaru (the blue head senpai). This anime is based
of an otome game that I'm begging otome Gods localize it as I want to play this game after reading a
bit from some of the Japanese otome blogs.
Also if
you're someone like me who is interested or does martial art as a sport you'll love
how accurate they are when animating the action scene! The one that
stood out to me was from the first episode when Hinako defeats Totomaru
with that four punches as that's exactly how I was though back when I
studied martial arts!
Only complain about this anime
is its like five to eight minutes long give or take including the OP and
the ED (which by the way are both really good songs making me pump for the episode by the unit Love
Desires and they make a cameo in the series)!!!!! LIKE WHY?!?! The story had so much
potential to be expended though from what I watched so far the five
minutes fix jumps straight to the action of the story so I
guess in a way its good as not a lot of fillers though the last episode I
watch was kinda a filler episode of the guys studying for midterm (which I don't mind) so
... sigh you just can't win.
Overall its a good
quick fix anime for like a 5 minute action pack coffee break.
Recommended if you want to start watching a reverse harem anime without
cringing at how meek/spineless the MC-Chan and also one that is less on the romance and more on the action, bromance and comedy.
2) Room Mate: Another One Room Side M
Spin Off to the short series OneRoom, you are the new manager for the apartment building where 3 guys live as roommates!
This Anime is a really weird as YOU yes YOU the viewers are the MC CHAN of this already weird camera angle first person reverse harem simulator anime.
If
any of you guys growing up had the privilege of watching shows like Mr Rogers
Neighborhood, Bear In the Big Blue House or heck even Blues Clues (btw best show from my childhood. I miss shows like this.), THIS IS LIKE THAT but for the new adult/ Josie/ reverse harem audience audience! Like those shows the characters interacts with YOU by breaking the forth wall, acknowledging your presents and talking/interacting with you!
I was a bit skeptical of this show at first but I actually like the idea of it from episode 1! I like the animation style especially how the apartment looks (though to be honest its a little too pretty for an apartment) and the characters all look interesting and so far has a descent introduction. Only thing I am not a fan of is how they place the camera angle in a certain way for some of the more fan service scene >.<*. I meant I get it the show is full of fan service (and I actually like most of the fan service apart from the weird endings) but can you just put the camera in a less weird position?!?!
Once again this is another short anime and its a spin-off to a girl's version released last season. Give this show a go if you already like reverse harem filled good character building and fan service and don't mind having the 2D bishonens talking through the screen to you. Also just note don't try and watch this with a google cardboard like the idiot writing this review as I almost eff up my eyeballs.
3) Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine (The Royal Tutor)
The "Royal Tutor" is a special tutor
carefully selected for the task of teaching the prince, and a title
given only to the best teacher in the nation. Heine Wittgenstein has
been called to the kingdom of Grannzreich to take on the role of the
Royal Tutor. He's been ordered to raise a worthy candidate for the
throne, but he's greeted with four princes of completely different,
unique personalities... all brothers, no less! How will Heine handle
these four brothers who were too much for all the previous Royal Tutors,
prompting them all to run away from the job?
This show is very reminiscing of Mary Poppins but instead of chasing nannies they are chasing Royal Tutors away from the palace.
This was my most anticipated anime of the season and it exceeded my expectations! I love everything from the characters and their character development, the beautiful animations, the writing and comedic humor, good use of the characters in chibi form to even the settings! I'm not fan of historical fiction (for those of you who have stuck around this blog for a looooooong time might already know this from my book review on Masquerade by Kylie Fornasier) but I enjoy this and am actually interested with the country the story is set in as from what I gathered from google and the interwebs/forum/tumblr the show is set in a country loosely based off Austria.
Most of the characters were introduced to so far are lovable especially Heine!
Gosh I love this kuudere character to bits as while he's the mature adult figure and a dedicated tutor he does take his height to its advantage.
I meant LOOK AT THE CHIBI SENSEI!!!
All the Princes and their distinctive personalities might give off a reverse harem vibe but its nothing like it! In fact they use tropes you'll find in reverse harem animes and build upon them. Also don't ask me which is my favorite because I like all the guys in the show for different reasons.
Also the best part of this anime for me is the strong family love element which as I always mention is something I usually don't come across in most media apart from YA books. I really like how the anime shows not only a strong bond among the siblings but also with their often absent due to his King duties father Victor and Heine as they warm up to not only their royal tutor/mentor but also their guardian in their father's absences.
The OP and the ED songs both great! The OP 'Shoppai Namida' by Shougo Sakamoto (which omgasdfjkl; I love this guy's voice!!! ๐๐๐ and have gone on a listening binge watching on his YT channel for more of this songs especially this song call Fly) is really good and especially if you like guitar plucking heavy songs on a cheery side and the ED is sang by the cast and as for me writing this the MV for the song just dropped and will be the ED video for the 7th episode!
Overall if there is one show you should watch THIS IS THE SHOW you need to watch this season! I can't wait to learn more about the characters in this series and I'm hoping they'll touch a bit on Heine's mysterious back story, his relationship with Victor and maybe even an episode on the first prince since we have yet to see him in the series. Also were introduced to a 'big bad' character who is trying to sabotage the princes chance of becoming a contender to the throne and I'm curious to see WHY THE HELL is he doing so?!?!
Also the manga has recently been publish in English! Highly recommend pick it up!
Also side note but this anime also make me VERY HUNGRY whenever they show pretty food moments so definitely grab a snack ... I'm so hungry for cake!!!
4) Kabukibu
The series revolves around kabuki, a
classic style of Japanese dance-drama that combines music, drama, and
dance. Kurogo Kurusu, a 15-year-old high school student has a passion
for kabuki and hopes to establish a kabuki club at school. Things are
not easy as they seem when he realizes that he needs to find students to
join him.
I was gonna give this show a pass as I'm not that interested in traditional performing art but then I saw the ED MV 'O Edo' circulating on Tumblr of the Voice Actors dressed as kabuki performers and singing the ending song and that's what convince me to give this show a go! Also the OP Flying High is also really good and gets me pump for the series.
I can't say much since I only watch like three episodes and its kinda a slow start but I like it. Its your typical high school after school club anime following Kurogo who's fascinated with Kabuki and his best friend Tonbo as they try and start a Kabuki Club in school but runs into the trouble of round up enough members to start the club.
While i do enjoy the main characters, Kurogo and Tonbo, I'm actually the two Senpai characters Karou, the 'handsome' girl from the drama club and Hanamichi (or Hana for short) the intimidating delinquent who used to be a dancer and likes more feminine hobbies but quit in favor of masculine activities.
I'm definitely continuing this series as I like the themes of the show. The characters gets better as the show develops and while I don't have much interest for Asian performing art, I'm intrigued to see the characters succeed with their Kabuki club.
Fukumenkei Noise aka The Anonymous Noise
'Nino, a girl who loves singing, made a childhood promise with her
first crush Momo and song-composing Yuzu to someday find her voice. The
three went their separate ways, but Nino kept her promise and continued
to sing. Years later, the three are now high school students, and Nino
is drawn into the world of keionbu or band club.'
This is the other anime I was anticipating this season! I read the manga just as the anime came out. While I only watch like three episode I'll say this is gonna be an anime I'll keep till the end of the season to binge watch as I much prefer the manga over the anime.
Even so the episode i've watched so far are good. We follow Nino who serendipity reunites with two of her childhood friends as she enters high school. One of them was her next door neighbor Momo who's now a composer and the other is Yuzu, a boy she meet at the beach briefly after Momo and his family suddenly moved away who created a masked alternative rock band.
The animations is very bold and energetic for a shoujo which pulls me in and reminded me why I was drawn to the manga in the first place. The music is awesome and hopefully it gets better as the show proceeds. This is one of the few shows that has a decent love triangle. Nino has love Momo since she could remember and Yuzu while he loves Nino, he's willing to put his feelings aside to support her.
There is this one particular scene that stood out to me and if you like music theory and composing you need to watch this scene where Yuzu is on the ground and he's writing/composing and the notes just fly onto the paper cause he's inspired by Nino's voice. This scene was a real throw back for me in secondary
school me when I studied music theory and can't afford to buy piano notes from pop songs from online so I re create them by ear and wrote them onto blank music sheets.
Anyways check out both the anime and manga as its worth the hype for a really good reason.
Overall
Normally I'll follow one or two shows per season for anime and binge watch the rest when i read the review but this spring there are so many anime shows line up that are I really enjoy. There are a couple of other shows that i want to watch but can't say anything about it as I have yet to watch them so I'll make a follow up review once the season is over and I had a chance to finish watching some of the shows above.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments and recommendations in the down bar.
Hello people of the interwebs!!!! Its a good day to wake up to as there was announcements at E3 that square enix is making not one but TWO NEW LIFE IS STRANGE GAMES! TIME TO RETURN TO ARCHADIA GAY i meant ARCHADIA BAY
We already know that the guys at DONTNOT announced in conjunction with the game hitting 3 million unique sales back in May that they are in the works of a new LIS game that we will not get any news till sometime next year BUT a couple of weeks ago there were leaks of Square-Enix making another LIS game, this time a prequel (yessss! this totally makes sense) to the ever so popular game which is being developed by a Deck Nine Games which, interesting... its not DONTNOD making the game but either ways if Square-Enix is willing to trust them with this beloved game franchise I don't mind it.
The most important thing (for me) about this game is that Ashly Burch aka Chloe's VA is back and while she's not reprising her voice (a little bit sad about this but I their judgements and hey new younger Chloe sounds similar) for this game, she does have a role in the writing process where she's the dialog writer for Chloe. This is kinda epic as Ashly is pretty much the perfect person to write the dialogs for Chloe given her performance in the original game.
So from the looks of it were playing from Chloe's POV for this three episode prequel which this is gonna be refreshing as Square-Enix blog clearly gives a heads up :
"Chloe has no rewind power, so we highly recommend you think before you
speak..! Chloe’s sharp tongue will require her to live with whatever she
says and as before, every single action and choice will have a direct
consequence in the short, mid and long term."
So ... no rewind memory remix powers here. No butterfly effect. Good luck handling super angst 16-year-old Chloe peeps looool xD But in all seriousness I'm excited to see how the game will go without the rewind mechanics as the choices in this game are so unpredictable!
From the looks of the trailer, I'm assuming this event takes place sometime after Chloe's dad passed away and her mum remarries cause from the looks of the trailer the girl is in deep shit. There was a scene of her in a truck with her dad and her dad got hit, I'm gonna assume its a nightmare scene. Also since she's still 16 she's still in school, pre-blue hair tattoo days I supposed. Its weird seeing her without blue hair xD. I'm gonna say this game is gonna follow how she meet Rachel and how that helped her coped with all the shit she's going through in life as Chloe mentioned in the original game that Rachel was 'her angle' and the one who saved her. Really interested to see her interactions and their friendship.
Speaking which we finally get a chance to see and interact with Rachel! OMGASDFJKL; FINALFREAKINGLY WE GET TO like 'meet' her as I don't know about you but while we never see her in the original game I feel like we already know her well! Anyways looking forward to seeing if all those fan theories about Rachel are true.
And lastly I didn't think they'll talk about this but we will actually have a chance to meet Max!
"We know that many of you would love to see more from Max. Due to the way
in which the first game ended, we didn’t want to canonize one group of
players’ choices over the other – a sentiment echoed strongly by our
community. That being said, we will still be giving you one final chance
to play as Max through the self-contained bonus “Farewell” episode,
which takes place long before the events of Before the Storm. This stand-alone bonus episode, will release after episode 3, and is only available as part of the Deluxe Edition of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Rest assured, anyone purchasing the complete season of Before the Storm will
get the full story. Max’s ‘Farewell’ episode really is just a bonus
episode for those who would like to play as her one final time."
GOSH! This i seriously didn't expect as I thought its gonna only focus on Chloe and Rachel as given how the original game ended, the cannon of the story of how Max is at that time in Seattle and the fact that for some players this might actually be their first time picking up LIS. Either ways, I'm excited for this! I'm excited to play as Max one more time even. Its gonna be bittersweet since I know where the story goes but I'm excited.
OVERALL
If you guys stuck around this blog since 2015 you'll know this game is hands down one of THE BEST GAME I've played and that Chloe is one of my favorite characters in fiction and gaming.
From the looks of the trailer we're gonna follow Chloe as she be friends with Rachel and also cope with all the things happening in her life from the fact that she's having a hard time moving on from her dad's passing, her mum remarrying and so on. While we already know about this from the original game we only learn about this from Max's POV so its interesting to see this from Chloe's perspective.
As I mentioned this is gonna be bittersweet given how the original game ended and from what we learned.
If you have not played Life is Strange I highly recommend picking it up as its a beautiful game with an intriguing story. Its one of those chill games that you can an episode at a time though by the time you reach episode three I promise you you'll be hooked. You can check out my review on the first episode (here) and I have covered every single episode and even did a rundown on my walkthrough on every episode I've played (here).
Also from the looks of it while it is possible to play Before the Storm before the original game since its not gonna affect the original cannon, I do recommend if you're a newbee to the LIS franchise at least playing at least the first episode (its free off steam) to understand Chloe, her situation and personality first before jumping to the prequel.
Disclaimer: I'm gonna get a little personal about how much the game help me so if you don't want to hear my personal rambles you can X out. Thanks for reading ~ ROW xD
Not only that but this game has a special place in my heart as its not only beautiful and unique for its time but it really helped me when I needed an outlet to escape the hell of reality
Do you guys remember the time where I opened up on ROWLIFE about being bullied at uni. Well its around that time when I was in deep shit in my life, harassed and bullied in my own dorm room, bullied online, struggling with my studies and not feeling safe in my own dorm room.
Youtube lets plays was what turn to when I need a breather, an escape in from reality at the time as I also was in a read slump and the last thing I wanted to do was read a freaking book after reading a telephone book of law legislation.
Anyways I stumbled upon Life is Strange on my favorite lets player GhostRobo and I marathon both episodes. Its watching episode 2 that gave me the push to open up first to my best friend who happen to live in the same dorm as me, second to my parents for advice, third to my dorm mate in another college who is also an RA who helped me so much to find the right people to talk to at uni and of cause the warden and resident office for help to stop this.
Watching the game lets play (of cause later on playing the game) gave me the courage to open up when something is bothering me. This really helps as talking to someone I trust lift that burden.
But not only that, one of the themes of this game is knowing how to let go and move on. Not gonna lie, moving on from what happen back at uni was though hence why I blogged about that in order to move on.
Its been two years since that incident which also means two years since I discovered Life is Strange. This game really help me at the time I had no idea what to do with myself. It helped me with cope with the situation i was in but it also help me move on. It also bring a new sense of joy to my life, as I count the days till a new episode drops and spend a whole night binge playing an episode, discuss with my friends on the theories of the game at dinner, scroll through tumblr for all the awesome fan arts, head cannons, fan fiction, crackships etc. Heck I RAN (or took a bus) to EB GAMES on the day they released the special edition box set of the physical copy as i was THAT EXCITED!
To the developers making this games, thank you so much for the world of Arcadia Bay! As I say this game brings me so much joy and helped me when needed an outlet to escape!
You were looking for an app, just to kill some time, and stumbled upon
an app called "Mystic Messenger". It sounded interesting so you
downloaded it.
Once you opened it, you found yourself chatting with someone
nicknamed "Unknown". They persuaded you to go to some studio apartment.
As soon as you walked into to the apartment, your app is suddenly
connected to a mystic group chat with attractive guys!? After a long
chat, they ask you to join their secret party planning association
called RFA...
Disclaimer: CGs/SS/IMAGES belongs to Cheritz Co. Ltd.
Hello people of the interweb! I'm back with a brand spanking new otome review after a LONG time blog! So recently I upgraded from the iphone 5s to the iphone 7 plus and one of the things I was excited about was the fact that this new phone have a heck load of storage space ( its exciting upgrading from a 16GB phone to a 128GB! no more storage shortages and constantly have to transfer my photo album to the computer!!!). So one of the games I first download was Mystic Messenger as its the game that blew up everywhere! Tumblr, twitter, Instagram heck even Kotaku was talking about it so I finally let myself play Mystic Messenger since my new phone can handle the game and the memory space. Yes do note that if you are planing to play this game it requires a hella lotta memory on your phone.
Game Plot
The game starts out with the MC ( AKA. you, the player ) downloading a mysterious yet interesting app from the app store of your choice (it can be Apple or Google Play your pick^^).
Upon downloading the app the MC finds a chatroom and is lead by 'Unknown' (yes the person you are communication IS named 'Unknown' till its known) to a apartment owned by Rika (who unfortunately passed away prior to the events of the game) the founder of 'Rika's Fundraising Association' aka R.F.A. which is a charity organization run by her and her 6 friends.
The MC interacts and befriends with the the existing members through the R.F.A. portal and chatroom, text messages and calls and is tasked to invite guests to the party through emails. As the game progresses the MC gets to know her 6 new acquaintances, learning more of the R.F.A. and maybe developing a relationship in the process.
Characters
Like your typical otome game this game has a diverse cast of characters in terms of personality and background though what surprised me was that there was a female option in the game. I like the cast. You can tell they are close and that they care for each other like family and even if they have conflict, they will find a way to resolve it.
Now the characters are split into two types:
1) Casual Route (Zen, Yoosung and Jaehee): Where advice to start here as the characters are introduction characters to the story.
2) Deep Mode (Jumin and 707): where its advice to wait till after you complete the casual route as their stories not only reveal more of the mystery of the game but also it's gonna cost you 80 hour glasses to unlock each route.
And the advice is to unlock/play the character in the order of:
Zen >>> Yoosung >>> Jaehee >>> Jumin >>> 707
As for writing this I'm giving my thoughts and first impressions on the
characters based of what I've played so far which are the casual routes (Yoosung,
Jaehee and Zen's route).
Jumin Han
The heir of C&R International, he is the son of a wealthy business man and is usually away on business trips through the routes. He's usually very cool headed and mature however due to his very pampered upbringing, he views the world differently which makes him butt-heads with Zen. I don't really know what to think of this guy as on one hand he is amusing to read about especially when it have to do with 'commoner labeled' things or regarding his cat Elizabeth 3rd (like the dude spams mostly uploads cat pics in the chat) but on the other hand I find him kinda meh and mysterious so I guess I'm gonna have to eventually read his route (and hunt for 80 hourglass) to figure out this guy.
Zen
Up and coming musical actor and an A-class lovable narcissist. HOLY MOLY he is basically the Mystic Messenger's version of Tomaki from Ouran High School Host Club!
There are moments that I'm sure the developers threw in for fan service (not that I don't mind ^^) where he spams the chat with selfies and there was this one moment in Yoosung's route where he reminded us of his raunchy jalapeno stage play! Even so I like his character. I especially like his interaction with Seven, Yoosung and Jaehee (especially in Jaehee's route! its where their friendship shines).
His route to be honest is kinda meh. Its something you should not take too seriously as the choices he favors are all to boost his ego and make me gag as they sound too lovely dovely fangirling. But he does have a decent back story of how and why he becomes an actor as well as we learn about the relationship with his estranged family. One thing to note is that his route is very different from the others as its the only one where he meets and interact with the MC before the Party (as the MC is not allowed to leave the apartment due to multiple issues) but also he has A LOT of visual novels and its the only one so far I've played where you get to make choices while playing the visual novel moments.
In a way I can see why they recommend to start with his route as it's probably one of the lighter stories with a lot of drama, fan service and excitement.
Jaehee Kang
Personal Assistant to Jumin. She's serious and professional most of the time but the best part of her is when she let her emotions slip and fangirl about Zen. I like her more than I expected especially since its nice to have someone in game to fangirl and die of nosebleed with over Zen sometimes ridiculously sexy fan service pics. Also in Yoosung's route we learn a bit of her past which is covered in detailed in her own route.
Also she's kinda overwork cause of the nature of her job and her super demanding boss so poor Jaehee is stressed out through the routes i've played especially her own. Jaehee has a really sad back story and its lightly touch upon in other routes but of cause goes in deep in her own route where we learned that she lost her parents at a young age and while taken in by some relatives she learned to be strong an independent so that she does not have to rely on them.
I enjoyed her route more than I expected and though do note its not a yuri route (girlxgirl) but more of a BFF route. Otome is weird I know. I also like how even though Jaehee is strong and independent she learns as the route progresses that its okay to be vulnerable and relax and to let others help her when needed.
Yoosung Kim
A college student studying medicine and addicted to playing a game called LOLOL. Shy and sweet he's a happy go lucky guy on the outside but in the inside he is lost with what he wants to do in his life as he is not doing well with his studies and have joined and given up on multiple clubs at his school. Also since the loss of his cousin Rika he has been playing more of LOLOL in order to cope with the pain and grieve of losing someone he love and admire.
THIS IS MY FAVORITE GUY IN THE GAME!! I adore this guy to bits partly because he's the character type i tend to gravitate towards more when playing otome games. Through playing his route he's that junior that you can't help but want to look after and save from his demons! Its hard to talk about his route without spoiling the entire wtf moment of the route so I'll get more into depth on his character if i get around to playing all parts of this routes and reviewing it but do note its very heavy and I'm kinda wondering why didn't they classify his route as the deep route...
707 aka Seven
Or also could be called Seven is a hacker THE GAMES OFFICIAL POSTER BOY and is the one in charged of the the security and the RFA portal that we are playing this messenger game on.
He's playful and jockster personality makes him instantly likable which explains why he's the poster boy for the Mystic Messengers. Nothing much is known about him apart from the fact he has a very unhealthy lives off Honey Buddha chips (i want to try this!!!) and PH D. Pepper Coke. All i know is that its advice to play his route last as that's where all the mysteries of Mystic Messenger unfolds from.
So far from all the routes I've played I can see why people are tempted to jump straight to his character. He's a cool and easily likable from his sarcastic sense of humor yet he's very caring towards his friends especially Yoosung (though he tends to also mess with him and his innocence lolll A LOT) and Zen (who he tends to tease him through the game).
Game Play
Your aim is to established a relationship with one of the five romancable characters by raising heart levels with interacting of choosing choices in the chatroom and visual
novels.
As the game is formatted like a messenger app its called mystic messenger duhhhhhh the game play/ character interactions comes in the form of chat rooms, phone calls, emails and text messages along with the typical visual novels and CG cut scenes you would expect in an otome game.
What's really unique about Mystic Messenger is that it follows the
internal clock of your phone/devices so the characters will come to the
chatroom ever couple of hours more or less to interact with you. Also if you miss a chat you can use hourglass to 'buy back time' to interact with the characters in the chatroom since they are programed to not sleep and be up at like 3/4am when a normal human will be sleeping unless you are up at that time then power to you! I like my sleep so i spend a lotta hourglass for that.
Each round routes last for 11 days. It starts with a 'Common Route' for 4 days before branching out into the character route that get the most heart affection. So let's say you're aiming for Yoosung's route try and choose choices in the Common route that are more favorable to him over the others.
As for playing the game I've encountered both the good ending and the normal ending but not any of the bad endings (there are at least 8 bad endings in the game). The endings are affected by the amount of heart affection you build through the game when interacting with the characters in the chat rooms.
Once you're done with a route there is an 'After ending' where its basically and epilogue of you and the character's life after the good ending of the game. I've only played Yoosung's and Zen's After ending! Need to get the other routes but its gonna cost me another 20 Hourglass which I'm saving for the deep route.
Also there are a few DLC events in the game to commemorate celebrations like there is one for Christmas, Valentines day (as seen above) and April Fools day. Its not a priority to unlock them unless you have the hourglass but it is advice not to play them till you unlock all the routes so that you won't spoil the story. Similar to why you should not unlock the DEEP ROUTE cause SPOILERS!!
Don't worry if you miss a call or mess up a text as those are just extras thrown into the game to make the interactions more lifelike experience and won't affect the heart affection level or the ending.
A big part why I don't want to miss a chatroom is because of THIS!!! Party guests! One important elements of this game is to invite guest to the party at the end of the route. Its your responsibility to answer emails from the guest to convince them to come to the party as it effects the ending of the game. You'll get the normal ending if you invite less than 10 guests and the good ending when you invite more than 10 guests.
Recommend using the email guide on OtomeObsess and I rely on this heavily when playing the game cause I'm shitty with making decisions and perusing guest to come to the party lolll.
You can play this game without spending a dime and its also easy to earn those in-game currency which are:
Hourglasses: The premium currency and can be purchased with real life $$$ via your device store account or exchanged with the hearts you earn in-game. 100 hearts = 1 hourglass.
Hearts: you earn them from not only participating in chats/text messages/visual novels when you answer a favorable answer towards a character/characters but you can also as well as looking out for Seven's spaceship and hoping that it gives you some hearts. You get hearts and occasionally hourglass in chat so all you gotta do is just keep earning those hearts to exchange for the hourglass.
Look/Sound
I really like the interface of the game and that it's set up to look like a chat portal. Its easy to play around and get used to the features of the game. The closest IRL counterpart of this app I can think of is LINE.
The game is partially voiced so you'll hear the character here an there in the chat but you'll also hear them talk on the phone call and sometimes the visual novels.
The voice acting done in this game is all in Korean but with subtitles and I actually like it. I don't know or understand Korean, not immersed in it in any ways since I don't listen to K-POP or K-Drama but I enjoy the voice acting especially for Yoosung Zen and 707.
The opening theme song 'Mystic Messengers' is really catchy and sucks you in excited for the game! If you go to the Cheritz youtube channel you can listen to the English version of the of the song as well as some behind the scenes of them recording.
Also the end credits theme is 'Like the Sun in the Sky' is a beautiful but bittersweet ballet that gives me a lotta feels whenever the credits roll.
Narration/Writing
I like the writing in this game! Its hilarious the interaction among the characters as they banter about or tease Yoosung. Its also very character emotionally driven as we learn more about the characters and their troubles. Its fun uncovering more and more chat rooms, getting to know the characters and the mystery of the story. Also what's great with this game it its very self aware and makes fun of itself and the whole otome/reverse harem genre but also reference a lot of pop culture and in real life companies/people.
The choices were well done especially when given a choice to be sassy/snarky. My only complain is for Zen's route where I really was not a fan of being all lovely dovely heart eyes at Zen during the choices. I felt really stupid making some of the ego boosting decisions in his route made me CRINGED!*sigh the things I do just to raise heart levels and not end up with the bad ending But his swoon worthiness during the talky bits made up for it. No correction actually the dude who made me swoon more during the talky bits is Yoosung's! Seriously the guy is so sweet especially with the way he ask the MC out its just heartwarming!!!!! Also I will have post Screenshots of how he ask the MC out but I don't want to spoil you guys or get in trouble with copyrighted
Of the routes I've played, Yoosung's the best written but also the most emotional while Jaehee is the most exciting and unexpected route that I grew to love.
Overall
Its a good game... but I don't recommend this to everyone. *I'm gonna hide*
While
this is a a great refresher from the traditional Japanese and Voltage
Otome I've been play non stop for the last couple of years since
discovering the genre I was not a fan of how I have to babysit my phone just so I don't miss a chat or phone call (and if any of you guys don't already know from the style of me playing games, I'm kinda a perfectionist and MUST achieve 100% everyday for the chats) every couple of hours for 11 days straight.
This is not a game I'll recommend especially if you are new to otome (maybe play this game after playing a voltage style romantic novel otome games), a student who is not allowed to bring their phones to school (this still exist in my home country so its why I'm mentioning this) or someone with a demanding job that you can't use your phone through the day since you'll miss out a good chunk of the chat rooms as the game is just as tedious and demanding as those 90's tamagochi.
I'll recommend if you love otome games to give this a go if you have like a long vacation or if your life is flexible trough the as its a unique take to the otome genre, have a likable cast of characters with really good voice acting and CGs. Also if you like K-Drama/entertainment and want to hear a beloved Oppa whispering sweet nothings into your ears during the phone calls this is the game for you.
Rating:
Let me know your thoughts on the app I mentioned. Also follow me on tumblr (rotantrm) and the hashtag #row plays otome for more of my otome rambling/ game play commentary.
Also Check out the Otome Games section of this site for more otome games recommendations and just to see how trash I am for the genre.
Now if you'll excuse me...I need to earn more hourglasses for the deep route and romance with 707 and his Honey Buddha Chips xD
