Mystic Messenger – Yoosung’s route

I recently came across an interesting otome mobile app by Cheritz. I have to say that amongst the various otome I’ve played, this one stands out in many ways not only for its game play but also excellent story telling.

First the game play. The app functions like one of the many messenger apps available on the store. The difference is that you are transported into the world of five quirky characters in this one who will start chatting with you at prefixed (unknown to you) of the day. They can also private message or call you as well which gives this game a certain eerie sense of realism. As the game is also adjusted to your time zone, the kind of conversations also revolve around mundane day to day things like eating, sleeping and work. Each character story flows through 11 actual days unless you decide to spend hourglass to quicken time at real dollar expense. However doing so actually takes away the uniqueness of the game.

Now for the storyline. Well this is an otome which means requiring you to say the right things to increase your likeableness towards the character you like, however what I felt was more intriguing is learning about the personalities, backstory and motivations of these characters. And while most times you want to always say the ‘right’ things to please them, you wonder if it is really the right thing to do as evidenced by the multiple bad endings one can find themselves in. By following through all the stories, a larger mystery surrounding this association is revealed so it isn’t so boring as a sweet romance game. Lastly some of the conversations between the characters are downright hilarious when you read about how they tease each other, like how we also tease our own real life friends at times. Nuff said.

Anyway this is not so much a walk-through but rather more of a psycho analysis of each of the character which I thought held some important lessons about life and love. I begin with Yoosung’s route simply because seriously his is the easiest to attain. Oh yah, you don’t actually get to choose which character to play with from start, it is determined by the things you say from Day 1 – 4.

Why I say YS route is easiest to get on is because you just need to choose between either a decent friendly response to him or a super cold one. Since it takes a lot to be cold to someone who is young, cute and friendly, I just entertained him and got on his path. To be honest, on first impressions, he was my least fave character because I felt he lacked depth and was too immature being the youngest of the group and was still in university. Lol maybe I’m too old already so I really felt more like a big sister or mummy to him at times. Funnily some of the options provided gave you the opportunity to do just that e.g. let me protect you little boy. Haha who speaks like this?
First life lesson – don’t be overly friendly with everyone. I guess YS route reminded me of my days in secondary school when I was just trying to be sweet, caring and nice to every darn person and I ended up having a handful of uncalled for admirers that took alot of energy to keep up with. It was not as if I liked them. I told them I didn’t but yet at the same time, I was too nice to be brutal so ended up entertaining them all.

The next lesson that hit home was how YS kept mistaking you for his cousin who passed away under mysterious circumstances. He had greatly admired her and probably even liked her so when she died, he kind of threw his life away to gaming. YS started out as a gaming addict for about 2/3 of the story. So when you entered his life and took on the party organiser role that his cousin used to fill, it wasn’t long before he started fantasising about her again. It is important though to make a distinction between people. As much as it is to hurt someone by bursting their bubble, don’t ever delude the other party or derogate yourself to be a replacement. All of us deserve to be loved individually for who we are. This is probably a common mistake for people falling in love after a break up.

Third lesson is one about doing unto others what you want to be done unto you. I think one thing this game taught me is the importance of words one can have on another being, hence the importance of choosing them wisely. Even though we don’t really see a person over a messenger, it is a good reminder that there is a real person on the other side. So anyway at some point in the story after YS confesses his love for you, you can choose to be a total bitch and become self centred or you can choose to care for the other person. I know in a game situation, it is easy to choose the latter but I wonder how often we do that consciously in real life when the options are not so stark before our eyes. It is not always ‘what about me?!’

Last lesson about the power of love. I think one of the greatest thing a person wants to do for the person they love is to protect them at all costs. Think about what parents would do for their children to keep them safe. So YS made a life endangering decision to take things into his own hands to keep you safe. Although this is just a game, the developers made the suspense of the outcome so realistic, I actually found myself liking YS after all this. My hero! I think the greatest proof of love is not about the sweet nothings that one promises but the real actions that people take because of this love. That is probably what matters most.

So anyway that is what I have to say about learnings from YS route. I’m currently on Zen’s route which I will only complete in another 6 days. At this point in time, my fave character is actually Jumin but some reviews seems to suggest disappointment. We shall see.

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